Today’s Headlines and Commentary

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened the UN Climate Change Conference, known as COP26, with a warning that climate talks risk failing if urgent action isn’t taken, according to Bloomberg. The aim of the summit is to get an agreement to curb carbon emissions fast enough to keep global warming to 1.5 Celsius. Johnson emphasized the importance of reaching a breakthrough at the COP26 summit after the G20 summit in Rome only managed an agreement that fell short of what some countries were pushing for.

In a joint statement, President Biden, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Johnson signaled that they were ready to ease sanctions against Iran in exchange for the country to limit its nuclear program, reports NPR. The initial 2015 nuclear deal unraveled in 2018 after former President Trump pulled the United States out of the deal and reinstated harsh sanctions against Iran, prompting Iran to further develop its nuclear capabilities. Iran’s deputy foreign minister tweeted earlier this week that Iran has agreed to start negotiations “before the end of November.”

Three protesters were killed and more than 100 were injured during widespread, pro-democracy demonstrations across Sudan on Saturday in response to Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s dissolution of the joint civilian-military government, says the New York Times. In protests earlier last week, a doctor’s association said that at least seven people had been killed and more than 170 were injured. Sudan’s military has had a history of violent responses to protests, and analysts warned Burhan that they viewed the military’s treatment of the protesters as a test of its ability to change.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the U.S. government’s Afghanistan watchdog, on Friday accused the State and Defense Departments of suppressing information that lawmakers need to make a comprehensive assessment of the collapse of Afghanistan’s military and government following the U.S. troop pullout, says CNN. A State Department spokesperson said that some identifying information had to be redacted to “[p]rotect the identities of Afghans and Afghan partner organizations.”

This Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Buren, a case that centers on the Second Amendment’s protections of the right to carry loaded, concealed firearms in public, reports the Washington Post. The case centers on New York’s restrictive gun permit law, which New York asserts is consistent with the government’s interest in public safety and crime prevention.

ICYMI: This Weekend on Lawfare

Haroro J. Ingram, Andrew Mines and Omar Mohammed discussed how and why current and former U.S. administrators have attempted to whitewash the Taliban as a responsible diplomatic party.

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