U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify (Foreign Policy) before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations today regarding the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. He defended Washington’s execution of the chaotic exit before the House of Representatives yesterday.
 
In response to criticism yesterday from lawmakers such as Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX), who said the U.S. exit allowed the Afghan government to fall, Blinken said extending the U.S. troop presence would not have stabilized (NYT) the country. Democrats, too, criticized the Joe Biden administration for failing to evacuate all Afghans who helped U.S. forces. Many Afghans now fear political reprisal, and the country faces a dire humanitarian crisis (Al Jazeera).

In Tokyo, the diplomats affirmed their countries’ commitments to nuclear diplomacy (Kyodo) with North Korea a day after Pyongyang said it tested a new long-range cruise missile.
 
This Backgrounder looks at North Korea’s military capabilities.
 
Indonesia: Police said they arrested a man (AP) suspected of leading Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaeda linked terrorist group that was blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings.

The deal blocks leaders of the military government (Foreign Policy) that took power in February from addressing the UN General Assembly next week.
 
For the Asia Unbound blog, David Camroux and Alex Aung Khant write that Myanmar is orphaned by regional powers and the West.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi discussed bilateral ties (Al-Monitor) and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Both leaders praised the meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh as an important step in deepening ties.
 
Syria: Meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced his support for Assad’s efforts (Al Jazeera) to defeat U.S.- and Turkey-backed rebel forces in Syria’s north.
 
In Foreign Affairs, Andrew J. Tabler discusses the Biden administration’s search for a Syria strategy.

Anthony Stimler, a former employee of the Switzerland-based commodities giant Glencore who paid millions of dollars in bribes to African officials, is now cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice’s probe of his former colleagues, Bloomberg reports.
 
DRC: A watchdog’s investigation into the 2019 health spending of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) found that around $17 million disbursed for projects was mostly untraceable, with no evidence (AFP) of hospitals that should have been built.

The United Kingdom (UK) has pushed the implementation date (Politico) for new controls on imports from the European Union to January 1, 2022, amid concerns over pandemic-related supply-chain pressures.
 
UK: The government will offer COVID-19 vaccines to children (FT) aged 12–15 as early as next week as part of new measures to fight the coronavirus ahead of winter.

The watchdog Global Witness found 2020 was the deadliest year on record (AP) for land and environmental defenders, with the most killings occurring in Colombia.
 
Venezuela: The government is allowing private firms (Reuters) to run at least thirteen previously nationalized food companies as part of a wider privatization plan that is meant to ease the country’s economic crisis.

California voters decide today (NYT) whether to recall Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, over pandemic management. President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in support of Newsom.

This week, members of the body will elect a new president (Al Jazeera). The general debate, in which countries address the assembly, begins next week.