Comment on IEDs becoming less deadly in Afghanistan

Asif Merchant was arrested on July 12. He had just loaded his luggage into his ride to the airport, commencing a journey either to his wife and children in Iran or to a different wife and children in his native Pakistan. In weeks of secretly recorded conversations with a federal informant, Merchant had confided that he had families in both countries.

More than perhaps any other material, cement is the glue that holds the globalized world together—especially our cities. But producing it requires huge amounts of fossil fuels, and the industry is responsible for up to 8% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a 2023 study in Nature. Efforts to tackle the issue have historically centered on things like fuel and efficiency.

LONDON — Kate, the Princess of Wales, made her first public appearance Sunday since she announced she had completed chemotherapy and would return to some public duties. Kate and her husband, Prince William, were seen Sunday attending church with King Charles III and Queen Camilla near their royal Balmoral estate in Scotland. Kate, 42, announced on Sept.

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military on Monday called on residents of southern Lebanon to immediately evacuate homes and other buildings where it claimed Hezbollah stores weapons and said it was carrying out “extensive strikes” against the militant group. It was the first warning of its kind in nearly a year of steadily escalating conflict and came after a particularly heavy exchange of fire on Sunday.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake was sworn in as Sri Lanka’s president on Monday after an election that saw voters reject an old guard accused of leading the country into economic crisis. Dissanayake, 55, who ran as head of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition, defeated opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and 36 other candidates in Saturday’s election. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Dissanayake received 5,740,179 votes, followed by Premadasa with 4,530,902. In a brief speech, the new president pledged to work with others to take on the country’s challenges. “We have deeply understood that we are going to get a challenging country,” Dissanayake said.

(DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip) — An Israeli strike on a school in northern Gaza on Saturday killed at least 22 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, while the Israeli army said it targeted a Hamas command center in what used to be a school. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Another 30 were wounded in the strike on the school in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, the ministry said in a statement.