Comment on No decisive victory after Afghan surge

With an “Armenia wassup!” and rakish shimmy, Floridian pop sensation Jason Derulo opened the 2024 World Congress on Innovation & Technology (WCIT) in Yerevan on Oct. 4. “The biggest party in the world is right here in Armenia tonight!” Derulo told revelers in the capital’s Republic Square, before launching into his global hit “Dirty Talk” flanked by leather-clad, twerking dancers. It was perhaps a curious way to welcome some 3,000 delegates from 80 countries to bat around technology topics under the banner, “The Power of Mind: AI Beyond Limits, Within Ethics.” Panels included discussions on aerospace design, social media optimization, and cybersecurity.

President Vladimir Putin will play host to Russia’s biggest gathering of world leaders since the invasion of Ukraine and use the BRICS summit to show the U. S. and its allies that he’s no pariah. With Russian troops advancing in eastern Ukraine and evidence of growing war fatigue among some of Kyiv’s allies, the Kremlin is seizing its opportunity to cast Putin as standing up to the West in attempting to reshape the global order.

LIMA, Peru — Peru’s former President Alejandro Toledo on Monday was sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison in a case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which became synonymous with corruption across Latin America, where it paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials and others. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Authorities accused Toledo of accepting $35 million in bribes from Odebrecht in exchange for allowing the construction of a highway in the South American country.

SAYLORSBURG, Pa. — Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive U. S.-based Islamic cleric who inspired a global social movement while facing accusations he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkey, has died. Abdullah Bozkurt, the former editor of the Gulen-linked Today’s Zaman newspaper, who is now in exile in Sweden, said Monday that he spoke to Gulen’s nephew, Kemal Gulen, who confirmed the death.

An Indigenous senator has interrupted a reception for British monarch King Charles III during his first visit since taking the throne, calling for a treaty between the Australian government and First Nations peoples. At an event held to welcome the king to Australia at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, Senator Lidia Thorpe shouted to the British monarch that he was not her king and he should “give us our land back.” “Give us what you stole from us,” Thorpe said, before being quickly escorted out of the room by security.

Two and a half years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Western effort to wean Europe off of Russian oil and gas and isolate the Kremlin has stalled. The E. U.’s much lauded energy transition has kept apace, but it has also provided cover for continuing and in some cases increasing purchase of Russian energy that is funding its ongoing assault on Ukraine.