Elections in Afghanistan are scheduled for Oct. 9. Interim President Hamid Karsai is the best known of 18 candidates for the presidency. Hear NPR's Scott Simon and NPR's Philip Reeves.
Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.
Philip Reeves is an award-winning international correspondent covering South America. Previously, he served as NPR's correspondent covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India.
In Damascus, people stood shoulder to shoulder at one of Syria's holiest sites, the Umayyad Mosque, in the first Friday prayers since Bashar al-Assad was overthrown less than a week ago.
With a ceasefire in place, Hezbollah wants to rebuild Lebanon. But its supply chains across Syria have been weakened by Israeli airstrikes, rebel fighting and the ouster of its ally Bashar al-Assad.
Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described it as one of the heaviest bombardments of the country's energy sector since Russia's full-scale invasion.