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"Venezuelan special forces have carried out thousands of extrajudicial killings in the past 18 months and then manipulated crime scenes to make it look as if the victims had been resisting arrest, the United Nations said on Thursday in a report detailing wide-ranging government abuses targeting political opponents."

"Pakistan's prime minister is expected to become the first head of state to meet the Taliban leadership since the militant group's ouster from power in 2001. An Afghan official confirmed, on the condition of anonymity, that the move has the Afghan government's consent."

"Tighter new U.S. sanctions have proved more punishing than Iran’s leaders expected, driving Tehran to hit back militarily and breach limits it had agreed to put on its nuclear program."

"A spokesman for one of Libya's two rival armies has denied targeting civilians after an airstrike blamed on the armed group killed as many as 55 people in Tripoli on Tuesday night."

"The Iraqi government’s move this week to place Iranian-backed militias under the command of the armed forces is a political gamble by a prime minister increasingly caught in the middle of a dangerous rivalry between Iran and the U.S, the two main power brokers in Iraq."

"President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner called on the Palestinians to reengage with the administration’s peace efforts in the Middle East, stressing they would benefit from the plan’s economic assistance only after agreeing to its yet undisclosed political demands."

"Great power competition dramatically expands the challenges of confronting irregular naval warfare such as defending against maritime pirates or preserving the security of data sent through undersea cables, a panel of experts said at the Hudson Institute last week."

"Iran will 'take the next step' on Sunday and begin to enrich uranium beyond the levels specified under its 2015 accord with the United States and other global powers, President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday, state news outlets reported."

"As it has contemplated military action against Iran, the Trump administration has opened the door to virtually every legal authority it might use to justify an attack, from tying Iran to al-Qaeda, to President Trump’s assertion that it would not involve American ground troops and 'wouldn’t last very long.'”

"As the Army prepares for the future battlefield, it is investing time, money, and effort into fixing a critical readiness gap—soldiers' ability to fight underground."

"A surprise announcement by President Donald Trump seemed to accelerate the expected time frame for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an all-Afghan peace summit planned for July 7-8 in Qatar. The gathering apparently will be held on Taliban terms as there will be no official Afghan government representation."

"A surprise announcement by President Donald Trump seemed to accelerate the expected time frame for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan ahead of an all-Afghan peace summit planned for July 7-8 in Qatar. The gathering apparently will be held on Taliban terms as there will be no official Afghan government representation."

"The United Arab Emirates is aiming to pull most of its forces out of the Saudi-led campaign against Houthi rebels in Yemen, extricating itself from a four-year war that has provoked congressional opposition and has become a flashpoint with Iran in the region."

"More than nine months after he was charged with murder, attempted murder and a string of other alleged war crimes tied to a 2017 deployment in Iraq, Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward 'Eddie' Gallagher strolled out of a Naval Base San Diego courtroom a free man, guilty only of appearing in an inappropriate photograph."

"An airstrike late on Tuesday hit a detention center for mainly African migrants in a suburb of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, killing at least 40 people and wounding 80, a health official said."

"Iraq’s government moved Monday night to control powerful Iran-backed militias in the country, placing them under the full command of the Iraqi armed forces."

"President Donald Trump said he wants to get U.S. troops completely out of Afghanistan but said Pentagon leaders have convinced him not to, saying the American military presence there is preventing terrorist attacks."

The United States says it will “never allow” Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, after Tehran announced that it had exceeded the limit on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium it agreed to in the 2015 international accord restraining its nuclear weapons development.

"Israel has praised the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a 'game-changer'."

"Dozens of Afghans were killed Monday morning and more than 105 injured in a brazen strike by Taliban militants on a security compound in the heart of Kabul, officials said, dimming hopes for a new round of U.S.-Taliban peace talks in Qatar that began Saturday."

Pakistan could still be placed on the blacklist of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog monitoring terror financing and money laundering around the world, its president said last week.

"With the release of the 2017 National Security Strategy, the United States is executing a policy pivot towards preparing for peer competition and away from nearly two decades of counterinsurgency. Yet, the most likely future military conflicts will continue to be small wars and MOOTW—such as security force assistance, counter terrorism missions, evacuating U.S. nationals from conflict zones, and robust peacekeeping."

"Maj. Gen. Marcus Hicks, who led U.S. special operations troops in Africa during a tumultuous two-year tenure, warned during a change of command Friday that security conditions are deteriorating in Western Africa, a region where four U.S. troops were killed at the start of his time in command."

"European Union ministers will take part in joint war games over coming months to better prepare the bloc for a range of attacks, from cyberattacks to disinformation campaigns."

A powerful car bomb-and-gun attack in the Afghan capital of Kabul Monday morning is said to have killed and wounded dozens of people.