A Taliban spokesperson said Washington’s freeze of peace talks over the weekend will lead to more U.S. deaths (TOLO) in Afghanistan, while U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the White House has not decided whether to withdraw U.S. troops (NBC) from the country without a peace deal.
 
Pompeo said talks were paused for the foreseeable future and that Washington recalled its envoy Zalmay Khalilzad after U.S. President Donald J. Trump cancelled a planned meeting with the Taliban and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani set for yesterday at Camp David. Trump tweeted that he called off the meeting after a U.S. soldier died in a Taliban strike. Analysts warn that the cancellation could lead to elevated violence (NYT) ahead of Afghan elections set for September 28.

At least three people have been killed and forty wounded after Typhoon Faxai (Kyodo), one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded in the region, made landfall near Tokyo.
 
Hong Kong: Hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters demonstrating near the U.S. Consulate called for the U.S. Congress to pass a bill that would penalize officials who suppress freedoms in Hong Kong.
 
On this episode of the President’s Inbox podcast, CFR’s Jerome A. Cohen discusses the Hong Kong protest movement.

India’s space agency said it located lunar lander Vikram after more than twenty-four hours without contact. The lander appears to have made a hard landing on the moon early on Saturday, and the agency is now attempting to establish contact (Mint) with it.

Saudi Arabia replaced (FT) energy minister Khalid al-Falih with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the first royal to serve in the position. Prince Abdulaziz has worked in Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry since 1987.
 
Tunisia: The country held its first-ever televised presidential debate (Al Jazeera) ahead of elections on September 15. Twenty-six candidates are running for the presidency, including the current prime minister and a former president.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Allen James Fromherz looks at the future of Tunisia’s democracy.

Representatives from two clashing tribes in the country’s Red Sea state signed a peace deal (Reuters) after receiving pressure from a general in the country’s new sovereign council. Sudan recently announced a three-year transitional government.
 
Rwanda: The European Union is finalizing a deal with the country in which the EU would pay for Rwanda to house around five hundred asylum seekers from Libya, according to a New York Times report.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged thirty-five prisoners each (Moscow Times) in a deal that signaled a de-escalation in the conflict between the two countries. The prisoners included twenty-four Ukrainian sailors who had been held since November, as well as a prominent Ukrainian filmmaker.
 
Test your knowledge of Ukraine and its conflict with Russia with this CFR Quiz.
 
Russia: Candidates backed by opposition leader Alexei Navalny won twenty seats (AP) in Moscow’s forty-five seat legislature after months of protests over election authorities’ striking of some opposition candidates from the ballot.

Relief efforts for Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas include nine hundred security personnel (Guardian) from the Bahamas. Forces from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States are also helping with search and rescue.
 
Guatemala: The country’s legislature approved a thirty-day state of siege (Reuters) in six northeastern provinces after three soldiers were killed by suspected drug traffickers.

The U.S. Air Force ordered a review (Politico) of how it selects hotels during flight stopovers after crews reportedly stayed at a Trump Organization golf resort in Scotland.