Guatemala received a shipment of weapons and military equipment from the United States on Sept. 21, the first in a series of commercial exchanges set to total $5 million. Weapons transfers to the country had been formally frozen since the administration of President Jimmy Carter restricted arms sales in 1977 due to the Guatemalan military's record of human rights abuses during the country's civil war. The ban was lifted in March, after months of deepening security ties between the two countries.

Students and their families in Kobani and other towns in Syrian Kurdistan held gatherings Sept. 10 to protest the recent decision of the national Education Ministry to allocate only three sessions a week to Kurdish language instruction. Protesters noted that students have been educated in Kurdish from elementary school to university for the past 14 years, since establishment of the recently-disbanded autonomous administration in the region. They emphasized that the right to mother-tongue education is enshrined in UNESCO's 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education. (KurdPress, ANHA)

Protests erupted across Syria on Sept. 13 after the government issued a decree sharply raising fuel prices. In the oil-producing provinces of Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, local residents blocked roads with burning tires to prevent tanker trucks from passing. Protests were also reported from Raqqa, Aleppo, Idlib and Daraa. Demonstrators are demanding the dismissal of Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, who has been summoned to appear before parliament to discuss the crisis.

The foreign ministers of eight Musilm countries—Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia—issued a joint condemnation Sept. 6 of remarks by Israeli cabinet ministers announcing plans for the mass displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. (ToI)

Libya's rival governments agreed Aug. 30 to hold national elections within the next two years, with a view to re-unifying the country. After months of UN-sponsored talks, representatives from the country's eastern and western administrations—known as the 4+4 Committee—signed a pact on terms to restructure the electoral commission and address disputes over the process. The elections are to be run by an interim unified authority and "national sovereign institutions."

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) formally dissolved on Aug. 25, as the commander announced completion of the regional Kurdish-led army's integration into the Syrian national army. The move ends the existence of the force that served as Washington's main partner against ISIS in Syria and once controlled a large autonomous zone in the country's northeast. "We announce today the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and declare, with full responsibility, their dissolution as an independent military force," Mazloum Abdi said in a televised speech at the presidential palace in Damascus, following meetings with President Ahmad al-Sharaa. (EuroNews)

Colombia formally joined the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition (A3C) on Aug. 12, a US-led regional initiative under the rubric of the so-called "Shield of the Americas." US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that new far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella had authorized joint "counter-terrorism" operations, a move that opens the door to US-led strikes on Colombian territory, which Hegseth said has already been discussed. De la Espriella's granting of permission to US troops to operate within Colombia is likely unconstitutional—the transit and operation of foreign troops on Colombian soil requires Congressional approval. The agreement was formalized in Panama, where Hegseth spent two days meeting with the A3C's 19 partner members, deepening ties, and rallying opposition to the International Criminal Court, which he accused of launching a "lawless power grab" by potentially investigating US strikes in the region, a step it has not yet taken. (NACLA Update)

Yemen is closer to all-out war than at any other point since 2022, UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg told the Security Council on Aug. 13 amid an upsurge of violence in and around the divided country. A Houthi attack on a cargo ship in the Bab el-Mandeb strait on Aug. 11 killed six people, while fresh clashes between Houthi and government forces erupted in the frontline city of Taiz the following day. The Houthis said a drone strike the day after that on Saudi Arabia's Jizan oil refinery, on the Red Sea just over the border from Yemen, was a response to Saudi violations of Yemeni airspace. (TNH)