Afghanistan Will Ask U.S. to Rethink $1 Billion Cut to Aid by Ehsanullah Amiri and Dion Nissenbaum - Wall Street Journal

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Tuesday that he will ask the Trump administration to reconsider its vow to immediately cut $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan because of a political standoff in Kabul.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the deep cut after he failed to broker a diplomatic deal during a trip to Kabul on Monday meant to inject new momentum into the U.S.’s efforts to extricate itself from the war in Afghanistan.

Mr. Pompeo was unable to bridge a divide between Mr. Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, the country’s former chief executive officer who ran for president last year and refused to accept defeat amid widespread allegations of fraud.

Instead, Mr. Abdullah declared himself president and is trying to set up a parallel government operating out of a palace right next to Mr. Ghani’s presidential compound.

The impasse has undercut the Trump administration’s three-week-old deal with the Taliban that lays out a timetable for the U.S. to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by the middle of next year…

Read on.

Putin Accelerates Ukraine Campaign Amid Converging Crises by Nataliya Bugayova, Mason Clark and George Barros - Institute for the Study of War

Key Takeaway: Russian President Vladimir Putin is using multiple ongoing crises, including the COVID-19 outbreak, to advance his strategic objectives in Ukraine without drawing attention from the West. Ukrainian officials agreed on March 11 to the Kremlin’s demands to consider direct discussions with the Kremlin-controlled proxies in Donbas. This agreement for further talks could launch an irreversible process of internationally legitimizing Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine – one of Putin’s core objectives. These negotiations would have major consequences for Ukraine’s sovereignty, U.S. national security, and the international order. However, the talks remain unsolidified and Ukraine and the West still have time to change course before conceding legitimacy to Kremlin proxies in Donbas.

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Combatting Terrorism Center Sentinel – March 2020

The Hanau Terrorist Attack: How Race Hate and Conspiracy Theories Are Fueling Global Far-Right Violence by Blyth Crawford and Florence Keen

A View from the CT Foxhole: Jonathan Evans, Former Director General, MI5 by Raffaello Pantucci

The Pensacola Terrorist Attack: The Enduring Influence of al-Qa`ida and its Affiliates by Colin Clarke

Dollars for Daesh: The Small Financial Footprint of the Islamic State’s American Supporters by Lorenzo Vidino, Jon Lewis, and Andrew Mines

Addressing the Enemy: Al-Shabaab’s PSYOPS Media Warfare by Christopher Anzalone