Coming Up This WeekBenin, Chad, and Peru hold presidential elections today.Ramadan starts tomorrow (assuming moon spotters see the first sliver of a crescent appear) and will probably end May 12.The n …

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Iran* The U.S. and Iran started indirect talks yesterday about the U.S.rejoining the JCPOA nuclear deal. European diplomats will act asintermediaries, shuttling between the U.S. and Iranian side …

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EgyptThe Ever Given is free, and Suez traffic has resumed. Ironically, the first ship to pass through the Suez after it was reopened was the YM Wish, which itself ran aground in the Elbe River in Germ …

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Afghanistan I’ve seen several recent articles about rising Taliban cockiness in Afghanistan. A particularly good one from the NYT is pasted below and succinctly titled: “The Taliban Think They Have A …

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U.S. A gunman killed 10—including a cop—at a supermarket in Boulder, CO. That’s the second mass shooting in the U.S. in a week, after the spa killings in Atlanta, and will probably reignite gun debat …

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Coming Up This Week Today is Congo-Brazzaville’s presidential election, but the leading opposition candidate—Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas—is “fighting with death” (COVID) in the hospital. He urged suppo …

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