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The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend and strengthen the mandate of its mission in Afghanistan, overcoming threats of a Chinese veto.

"The assault on the beating heart of Saudi Arabia's vast oil empire follows a new and dangerous pattern that's emerged across the Persian Gulf this summer of precise attacks that leave few obvious clues as to who launched them."

"The Taliban promised Washington during months of negotiations that the United States would never again be attacked from Afghan soil. Such a pledge would have included al-Qaida, which planned the 9/11 attacks from inside Afghanistan."

"At least 46 people have been killed and dozens wounded in two Taliban attacks in Afghanistan."

"A suicide bomb attack at an election rally in Afghanistan has killed at least 26 people."

"Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi calls on followers to intensify their efforts after losing control of territory."

"Officials say intelligence points to Iran as staging ground for strikes, as allies weigh retaliation."

"Following the Houthi attack on Saturday on Saudi Aramco’s crude-oil processing facility, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an obvious and necessary point: Blame Iran."

"Documents prepared by U.S. federal prosecutors outline for the first time the possible role of the former Venezuelan president in drug trafficking."

"The U.S.-led coalition said Sunday that 'good progress' was being made in implementing a buffer zone in northern Syria along the Turkish border."

U.S. President Donald Trump says American forces are 'locked and loaded' to respond to the fiery attacks on one of Saudi Arabia’s largest oil fields and the world’s biggest crude oil stabilization facility.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), told a small group of reporters that Afghan elections “probably won’t be perfect,” but the 29-member North Atlantic alliance will “plan and execute to the ends of the Earth” to try to make the September 28 vote as safe as possible.

"Saudis race to repair the damage from the strikes, which forced the suspension of more than half of the kingdom’s output."

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Saturday that drone attacks on two Aramco oil facilities by a Yemen Houthi militia group have cut the kingdom’s oil production in half.

"Preemptively targeting Iran and its proxies in Syria, or 'mowing the grass,' as the Israelis say, remains the centerpiece of the strategy to deny Iran a 'land bridge' to its proxies in Lebanon, via Iraq and Syria. Such a route would pose an abiding threat to Israel. Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/09/israel-anti-iran-strategy-worries-conflict.html#ixzz5zYzYfa7L

A spokesman for Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani says the Afghan government will only consider making a "legitimate" peace with the Taliban after a national election in September, despite political uncertainty following the recent collapse of U.S.-Taliban peace talks.

"Taliban negotiators have held talks with Russian officials in Moscow, in an apparent effort to restart discussions with the U.S. just days after President Trump killed a nearly completed deal to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan and declared negotiations with the insurgent group dead."

Saudi Arabia's interior ministry says that fires from an apparent early morning drone strike at Aramco oil facilities in the eastern town of Abqaiq have been extinguished and that no one was killed in the attacks.

"The White House says Hamza bin Laden, the son of the late al-Qaida leader who had become an increasingly prominent figure in the jihadi organization, has been killed in a U.S. counterterrorism operation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region."

"A coordinated drone strike hit at the heart of Saudi oil production on Saturday, sparking an enormous blaze and forcing the kingdom to shut down about half of its crude output, according to people familiar with matter."

"A Taliban negotiating team arrived in Russia on Friday, less than a week after President Trump announced that peace talks with the Islamic militant group in Afghanistan were essentially 'dead.'"

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told an election rally Friday that more than 2,000 Taliban fighters have been killed over the past week and insisted his elected office is where the insurgent group must come to seek a decisive political settlement to the conflict.

"As the U.S. contemplates the would-be terms of a troop drawdown in Afghanistan, the State Department is mulling its training and equipping relationship not only with Afghan security forces, but with surrounding countries that will play a role in the region’s stability long-term."

"Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders agreed they wanted a deal with the United States, but some were in more of a hurry than others. Taliban negotiators were at odds with their Council of Leaders, or shura, about whether to travel to Camp David even before President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the high-stakes meeting planned for last weekend."

"A series of alleged Israeli strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq have sent shockwaves across the region and beyond. The attacks on Iraq in particular are unprecedented, with long-term effects yet to be revealed."