World update: November 8 2019

Stories from Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Bolivia, and more

MIDDLE EAST

SYRIA

The first meeting of Syria’s “constitutional committee” ended on Friday in Geneva with the United Nations saying that it exceeded expectations and everybody else suggesting it was kind of a dud. Both could be true. There’s no reason to expect these talks to go anywhere, particularly given that one of the combatants in the Syrian war has …