Afghanistan

About 1,000 prisoners who escaped during the attack were later found by Afghan security forces. The attack shattered a three-day ceasefire between Afghan forces and the Taliban.

The Taliban and Afghan government agreed to halt fighting for three days during the upcoming Eid al-Adha, a move that could renew momentum toward negotiations.

Russian military intelligence, the GRU, is linked to the invasion of Ukraine and interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Now it's suspected of a bounty program to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

A bounty program on U.S. soldiers would constitute a "massive escalation" in Moscow's testy relations with Washington, says one Russia expert. A Russian lawmaker asks: "What would we get out of this?"

They are working harder than ever to keep up with the death toll from the novel coronavirus. "People bring their dead during the day and during the night," says a gravedigger named Abbas.

Janis Shinwari, an Afghan interpreter for the U.S. military, grabbed a rifle in the heat of battle and saved U.S. troops in 2008. Twelve years later, he became a U.S. citizen.

The Taliban announced the cease-fire in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, and the Afghan government quickly reciprocated by initiating a process to release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners.

Automated ventilators are expensive. Hand-operated ventilators require a lot of labor. So these teens are on a quest to create a mechanized bag-valve-mask that'll do the job.

After a brutal attack in Kabul, activists in Afghanistan write: "Our people are targeted and killed on a daily basis. Afghan women are calling for an end to it."

The assault in Kabul targets a maternity ward and shocks a country grimly accustomed to violence. And it isn't the only attack Tuesday as a suicide blast tears through a funeral in another province.

The Taliban accuse the government of spreading COVID-19 in prisons and warn of revenge if their prisoners are harmed. With prisoners on both sides at risk, peace efforts have become more complicated.

The prisoner swaps, stipulated in last month's peace deal between the U.S. and Taliban, were in doubt for weeks amid Afghan government discord. They're expected to kickstart inter-Afghan peace talks.