U.S. casualty in car bombing in Kabul

AFGHANISTAN: A Taliban car bomb on Thursday near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul has killed two NATO service members, an American and a Romanian. At least 10 civilians also died in the attack. It’s the second major attack this week, and the fourth U.S. service member killed in the past two weeks, as the Afghan government warned against a U.S.-Taliban deal: “Peace with a group that is still killing innocent people is meaningless,” said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. A CCTV camera caught the moment of the blast in the busy but restricted corridor.

IRAN: The United States moved to sanction the shipping network controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps following repeated efforts by the regime to divert oil to Syria.

SYRIA: Here’s why Turkey and Moscow are working to agree on a Syria strategy.

SOUTH AFRICA closed its embassy in Nigeria over reprisal attacks, following attacks on Nigerian-run stores in Johannesburg earlier this week that sparked inter-African tensions. “The attacks against fellow Africans in South Africa are appalling and heartbreaking,” wrote Zimbabwean opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, blaming them in part on his own country’s unrest. “Zimbabwe’s problems are also our neighbours’ domestic challenges. Illegal immigration is a product of nurturing dictatorship in our neighbourhoods.”

CAMEROON: A local Bible translator killed last week in Wum is just the latest in separatist attacks fueled by government agents.

MEXICO: Kidnapping to extort money from family members is a popular pastime in cartel-dominated Nuevo Laredo, and one Guatemalan man swallowed his phone’s SIM card to prevent kidnappers from tracking down relatives in the United States. Evangelical pastor Aaron Méndez Ruíz, who heads a shelter for migrants, was kidnapped last month while trying to halt cartel efforts to kidnap Cuban immigrants—part of a wave of attacks on Mexican clergy.

UNITED STATES: Because military leaders view the refugee program as important to U.S. national security, about 27 retired generals and admirals in a letter this week urged President Donald Trump to continue allowances for refugee applicants. The administration has radically curtailed admissions of former U.S. military translators, even though a law allowing special consideration for them remains intact. And the president is expected to announce by Oct. 1 whether he will again slash the refugee cap, which some in the administration have recommended be set at zero.

DENMARK is sending a war-tested career diplomat to its newest posting, as the world’s first ambassador to Silicon Valley.

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