A Chaotic and Bloody Day in Afghanistan

The security situation, particularly in the south, continues to deteriorate. “A double bombing by the Taliban near the Afghan Parliament office compound in Kabul on Tuesday killed dozens of people during the early evening rush hour, officials said. The assault in the Afghan capital was the deadliest of several high-profile attacks on Tuesday, including an explosion at a government guesthouse in the southern province of Kandahar that wounded the provincial governor and the visiting ambassador of the United Arab Emirates. Wahidullah Majrooh, a spokesman for the Afghan Health Ministry, said 80 injured people and 30 bodies were taken to Kabul hospitals. Many officials feared that the number of casualties would rise. The Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for the Parliament bombings.” (NYT http://nyti.ms/2j56gbn)

Antonio Guterres Debuts at Security Council…New UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for a “whole new approach” to prevent war, in his first address to the Security Council since taking office. Making his first address to the Security Council since taking office, Guterres said too much time and too many resources were being spent on responding to crises rather than preventing them. “People are paying too high a price,” he said. “We need a whole new approach.” (AFP https://yhoo.it/2icQmaj)

Elections Have Consequences, vaccine preventable illness edition…Donald Trump met Tuesday with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent skeptic of vaccines for children, and asked him to chair a new commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity, suggesting that the president-elect continues to believe a widely discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. (WaPo http://wapo.st/2j4ZTVt)

This will be the most deadly disease in 2017 (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2j4Wq9s)

Authoritarians are on the rise around the world. She knows how to stop them. (Global DIspatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2jfiATs)