Pyongyang has declined an offer (Yonhap) from Washington to hold denuclearization talks in December, saying it will not agree to meet until it sees evidence of a change in the U.S. negotiating stance, North Korean state media reported.
 
After U.S.-North Korea talks broke down in Stockholm last month, Pyongyang set a year-end deadline (NYT) for Washington to put forth a new proposal. North Korea has sought sanctions relief in exchange for scaling back its nuclear program. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in Seoul this week, said he is open to modifying (Reuters) U.S. military actions in South Korea if it helps restart talks with North Korea. Esper is visiting the U.S. ally for joint military talks on the heels of a demand by President Donald J. Trump that Seoul pay several times more (CNN) than it currently does to keep U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula.

The International Criminal Court has authorized an inquiry (Guardian) into possible crimes against hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar for Bangladesh, in a newly expanded interpretation of the court’s jurisdiction. Myanmar is not a party to the court’s founding treaty, but Bangladesh is.
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at the role of the International Criminal Court.

Sri Lankans will vote tomorrow (Guardian) in a presidential contest pitting the ruling United National Party’s Sajith Premadasa, who currently leads in polls, against former Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
 
Pakistan: Anti-government protesters from a right-wing religious party concluded a thirteen-day sit-in in Islamabad and have shifted their strategy to blocking roads (Dawn) across the country.

The joint initiative is part of Egypt’s efforts to boost its economy through private-sector growth (Bloomberg). Cairo is in talks with the International Monetary Fund as it nears the end of a three-year loan agreement.
 
Iran: At least twenty-eight Afghan nationals died in a van crash (BBC) in a part of southeastern Iran known for human smuggling, according to Iranian state media.

The neighboring countries agreed to normalize bilateral relations (Reuters) after a monthslong rift over oil rights in the Indian Ocean during which they stopped issuing visas for each other’s citizens.
 
Nigeria: Benin, Niger, and Nigeria will form a joint border security initiative (Reuters) to combat smuggling, the countries’ foreign ministers said after meeting in Abuja. The measure could lead Nigeria to resume trade at its land borders, which has been suspended since last month.

A new law will require children and staff at schools and medical and community centers to get the vaccine (DW) beginning in March 2020.
 
CFR looks at the rise in measles outbreaks and the threat of the anti-vaccination movement.
 
EU: The European Union’s main public lending institution announced it will stop funding fossil fuel projects (BBC) after 2021. Any projects that the bloc invests in after that must emit less than 250 grams of carbon dioxide for every kilowatt hour of energy produced.

Lawmakers agreed to an April 2020 plebiscite (AFP) on whether the constitution should be replaced and, if so, how it should be drafted, the head of the Senate said. Voter participation in a new constitution has been a main demand of protesters.
 
Bolivia: New Senate President Monica Eva Copa Murga, a member of former President Evo Morales’s party, said lawmakers agreed to hold new elections (Reuters). Jeanine Anez, an opposition senator who declared herself the country’s interim president this week, said that Morales cannot be a candidate.
 
CFR lays out what to know about Bolivia’s power vacuum.

A sixteen-year-old student at a high school north of Los Angeles killed two other students (WaPo) and wounded three before shooting himself, authorities said. It is at least the seventh shooting at a U.S. school so far this academic year.