Venezuela 

• Trump bans senior Venezuelan officials and their family members from entering the US. [Link]

Afghanistan

• The Afghan election commission had no contact with 900 of the 4900 polling stations. [Link]
• Indications are that Afghan voter turnout is meager. [Link] Women activist groups warned that mandatory facial imaging makes voting dangerous for women. [Link] 

Israel 

• An Israeli soldier killed a Palestinian during Friday protests in Gaza. The IDF shot 27 other Palestinians. [Link]

Iran

• The US denied allowing Iran’s Foreign Minister to attend the UN General Assembly meeting. The US claims it would have allowed the foreign minister in if Iran had released an American prisoner. [Link]
• Trump says he refused an offer from Iran to lift sanctions against Iran and meet with Iran’s president. [Link]
• Trump takes steps to keep senior Iranian officials from entering the US. [Link]
• A UK flagged oil tanker has been released by Iran after being held for ten weeks. [Link]

Syria

• Iraq will reopen a border crossing with Syria. [Link]
• Turkey is not happy that talks with the US about a safe zone in Syria are not progressing enough. [Link]
• Turkey plans to spend $27 billion to resettle one million Syrian refugees in the safe zone. [Link]

Africa

• The Islamic State claims responsibility for an attack in Egypt that killed seven soldiers and one civilian. [Link]
• The US claims to kill 36 militants in southern Libya in three airstrikes in the past week. [Link]
• The Islamic State claims to kill 14 Nigerian soldiers in an attack. [Link]