This week Erin, Loren, and Radha read the G20 tea leaves, opine on continued chaos in Afghanistan, and remind you about all the White House mayhem from Saudi politics to a Moscow Trump Tower. Radha gets way too excited about USMCA (pronounced U-Smack-Ah) and all things trade before the ladies round some pop culture.

 

Keeping Up Foreign Relations

Afghanistan

• Rahim Faiez, "At Least 40 People Killed in Deadly 24 Hours Across Afghanistan," TIME
• John Bacon, "3 American service members killed in Afghanistan roadside bombing," USA Today
• Jessica Purkiss and Abigail Fielding-Smith, "Uptick in U.S. Air Strikes on Buildings in Afghanistan Raises Questions," Just Security 

Ukraine

• Andrew Higgins, "Ukraine, on a War Footing, Looks Westward for Help," New York Times
• Andrew Osborn, "Citing Russia threat, Ukraine boosts security at ports, power plants," Reuters
• Alex Ward, "Russia just openly attacked Ukraine. That could mean their war will get worse." Vox

It's Aghast G20

• "US-China trade war: Deal agreed to suspend new trade tariffs," BBC
• Krishanadev Calamur, "The G20 Communique Bookends the George H.W. Bush Era," Atlantic
• "Perceptible improvement in India-China relations, say Modi and Xi on G20 sidelines," India Today

USMCA

• Jen Kirby, "USMCA, the new trade deal between the US, Canada, and Mexico, explained," Vox

White House Mayhem Yemen 

• Jordan Tama, "Why is the Senate challenging Trump on Yemen? Here's what you need to know." Washington Post
• Scott R. Anderson, "Taking Stock of the Yemen Resolution," Lawfare

New START Joe Gould, "US lawmakers tangle over nuclear arsenal, Russia treaties," Defense News L'Affaire Russe

• John McLaughlin, Tweet
• Emma Loop, "The House Intelligence Committee Will Investigate Trump's Company's Plan To Give Putin A $50 Million Penthouse," BuzzFeed News
• Anthony Cormier and Jason Leopold, "The Definitive Story Of How Trump's Team Worked The Trump Moscow Deal During The Campaign," BuzzFeed News

Border

• Emily Kopp, "Immigration Experts: Tear Gas Has Been Used at the Border for Years, But Never on Children," Roll Call
• Government Shutdown
• Niv Elis, "Border wall bickering raises odds of shutdown," Hill
• Michael Collins, "Another government shutdown? Congress has a week to pass a spending bill to keep the lights on," USA Today

Pop Culture

• Orli Matlow, "Woman's fake viral pic with Michael B. Jordan turned into reality. Anything is possible!" Someecards
• Owen Gleiberman, "Film Review: 'The Favourite,'" Variety