Afghanistan
20bed7281330380386

Bedouin under siege

In its latest quarterly report to Congress, the US watchdog for Afghan reconstruction finds that the security situation is at an all-time low since monitoring began. Since the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) began tracking district control in 2015, Afghan government-controlled or "influenced" districts have declined 16% to 55.5%. In the same period, areas of insurgent control or influence rose 5.5% while "contested" districts increased 11%. As of late July, the US military assessed that the Kabul government controls or influences 226 of Afghanistan's 407 districts, while the Taliban controls/influences 49. The remaining 132 districts are identified as "contested." Since the prior quarterly report, Operation Resolute Support downgraded eight districts from "government influenced" to "contested." SIGAR said Afghan security forces "made minimal or no progress in pressuring the Taliban" in the period covered by the report. (Photo via Stars & Stripes)

bedoin1330380386

Bedouin under siege

Bedouin children wander away from their home in al-Hadidiya village in the West Bank, which is now within a closed military zone claimed by the Israeli army Photo: Phoebe Greenwood/IRIN

The Andes

Colombia: indigenous leaders murdered

Authorities in Colombia’s southern Nariño department found the bodies of Ramiro Inampues and his wife, Maria Lina Galindez, two Guachucal indigenous leaders who had been shot by unknown assassins.

Inner Asia

China: arrests in Xinjiang terror attack

Four people were detained for an attack on Chinese military police in the far western region of Xinjiang. Six police were killed and 15 injured in the first major terrorist attack in China since 2008.

Iran

Israel to attack Iran in December —again

Jeffrey Goldberg in a story in The Atlantic, “The Point of No Return,” claims that Israel will attack Iran by the end of the year. But readers may recall that there was a flurry of such predictions last year too.

South Asia

India: indigenous tribe in “stunning” victory over mining giant

Members of the indigenous Dongria Kondh tribe dance in India’s Orissa state. In an unprecedented move, India’s Environment Ministry blocked Vedanta Resources’ controversial plan to mine bauxite on the sacred hills of the Dongria Kond.

Photo: Survival International

New York City

Bloomberg blows it with New York state Indians

Mayor Bloomberg, winning praise over his position on the “Ground Zero Mosque,” weighs in against Native Americans’ right to tax-free tobacco sales on their reservations in blatantly racist terms.

Mexico

Mexico: Tamaulipas terror escalates

Two car bombs exploded in Ciudad Victoria, capital of Mexico’s conflicted Tamaulipas state, as authorities investigate the massacre of 72 migrant laborers at a ranch near the US border.