Today's Headlines and Commentary

After more than two months of uncertainty and tension in Afghanistan over a presidential election gone awry, the two presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, have reportedly agreed to a power-sharing deal. The New York Times explains that the deal, brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry, will make Mr. Ghani the president of the country, while Mr. Adbdullah will serve as the chief executive of the government. On Saturday, the U.S. released 14 Pakistani detainees from Bagram prison in Afghanistan. Reuters reports that the detainees were repatriated to Pakistan, and the news came from Justice Project Pakistan, a legal organization representing several Bagram detainees. Over the weekend, ISIS freed 49 Turkish hostages from Syria.  The news was met with applause and good cheer, but the L.A. Times can’t help but ask: what did Turkey do or offer in order to get its citizens back home safely? The Turkish government is insisting that it did not pay a ransom in exchange for the prisoners, but is reluctant to give many more details. On Friday, President Obama signed a $1 trillion stopgap-spending bill. The bill included provisions authorizing U.S. support of Syrian rebels, which the president had specifically requested be included. The Hill has more. In the wake of the United States’ recent increase of support of the rebels in Syria, Greg Myer, over at NPR, considers past efforts that the United States has taken to support rebel movements, and explains that those have met with mixed results. NBC News reports that Army Gen. Marin Dempsey has called on more Arab nations to join in the U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS. While the U.S. waits for more Arab countries to join its coalition, France has launched its first airstrike on ISIS targets. The Independent tells us that French warplanes successfully destroyed an ISIS logistics depot in northeastern Iraq on Friday. The Washington Post discusses the inception of a new organization, the Counter Extremism Project. The organization’s mission is to expose companies and individuals who have helped to funnel money to extremist organizations, like ISIS. Reuters reports that the United States plans to deliver 10 Apache helicopters to Egypt to help support Cairo’s counter-terrorism efforts. Meanwhile, Egypt is to host talks between Fatah and Hamas in the coming week, according to the Guardian. The two rival factions hope to reconcile, so that they might put forwarded a united front when negotiating with Israeli delegates in Cairo later in the week. Yemen’s two warring sectarian factions have signed a peace agreement. Recent violence in the country has claimed the lives of nearly 150 people and caused political turmoil. The LA Times explains that the agreement calls for an immediate ceasefire, but spats of violence broke out again in Sanaa yesterday before the agreement was officially signed. A 60 Minutes interview with Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta aired last night. In the interview, Panetta criticizes President Obama’s prior military strategy of completely pulling out troops from Iraq. Time covers the interview. China and Iran will conduct joint naval exercises, according to the Times. In an unprecedented move, China has sent two warships to Iran, and the two countries will conduct four days of joint exercises. Negotiations with Iran over its nuclear capabilities may have hit a bump in the road. The LA Times explains that multiple political parties in Iran are unhappy about the proposed plan to disconnect, rather than dismantle, Iran’s centrifuges, in a move that could save face with Iranians: the government could say that it did not dismantle its nuclear program, which it has insisted it will never do. Conservatives in Iran are unhappy with the deal, however, calling it a “stunt,” while reformists who favor a deal aren’t pleased with it either, as they think it doesn’t go far enough. There was some courtroom confusion in federal court in New York on Friday. The Times reports that Adel Abdul Bary, an Egyptian terror defendant, was prevented from pleading guilty to charges that he had assisted Osama bin Laden in passing messages claiming responsibility for the deadly bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. Judge Lewis Kaplan, instead of accepting Barys’ guilty plea, asked for more information concerning the government’s decision to allow the defendant to make the plea: the plea would carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, while other charges that were on the table would have put Adel Bary in jail for life, had he been found guilty after a trial. The Post highlights the Department of Homeland Security’s pretty terrible employee retention rate: “employees have left DHS at a rate nearly twice as fast as in the federal government overall, and the trend is accelerating, according to a review of a federal database.” This issue is a worrying one, as it might mean that the agency isn’t fully able to stay on top of evolving threats. The Times takes a look at the Obama administration's nuclear track record. When a candidate running for office, President Obama was staunchly anti-nuclear, and yet, he has helped to spearhead a "nationwide wave of atomic revitalization that includes plans for a new generation of weapon carriers." CNN reports that three Afghan National Army soldiers have disappeared somewhere in Massachusetts. The soldiers were in Massachusetts for training, and were not heard from after they went for a trip to the local mall.

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