Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at who’s to blame for Pakistan’s suicide bombing, Saudi-hosted peace talks for Ukraine amid new drone strikes in Russia, and the Central African Republic’s constitutional referendum.

A suicide bomber killed at least 54 people and wounded nearly 200 others at a political rally on Sunday in Pakistan’s Bajaur district, which borders Afghanistan. The event was for Muslim cleric Fazlur Rehman of the hard-line Islamist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, which is both a member of the government’s ruling coalition and a longtime supporter of Afghanistan’s Taliban. Rehman was not in attendance, but local party leader Maulana Ziaullah was among those killed. The bombing’s death toll is expected to rise.

The Islamic State-Khorasan, a regional affiliate of the main Islamic State organization, has claimed responsibility for the assault. Although it may seem odd for an Islamist extremist group to target a hard-line Islamist party that shares similar religious and political ideologies, the reality is that the Islamic State-Khorasan is even more fanatical in its religious and political outlook than the Afghan Taliban and their allies. Indeed, the Islamic State-Khorasan has a history of ordering political assassinations of Afghan Taliban officials for not instilling what it considers to be a strict enough interpretation of Islamic ideals in Afghanistan. It has also targeted Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam for associating with the Afghan Taliban as well as the Pakistani government and for betraying the party’s Islamic principles.

This was not the first such attack in the region, either. In addition to the Islamic State-Khorasan, other militant groups, including the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP), are active in the area. Violence recently escalated after a cease-fire between the TTP and the Pakistani government broke down in November 2022. In January, 74 people were killed by a suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar. A similar incident occurred less than a month later, when 101 individuals were killed in another Peshawar mosque bombing inside a high-security compound.

The “recent surge in militancy is quite alarming, and especially attacks like these, where the Taliban are also condemning it and which are not coming from the Taliban but from other actors as well,” said Nizam Salarzai, executive director of the Khorasan Diary, a local media outlet. “It means that the Pakistani state might have to fight on multiple fronts to control this.”

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Tuesday, Aug. 1: The United States assumes the presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

Wednesday, Aug. 2: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Mongolian Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrain.

Wednesday, Aug. 2, to Sunday, Aug. 6: Pope Francis visits Portugal.

Thursday, Aug. 3: Israel’s Supreme Court hears petitions against the passage of a piece of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform legislation.

A six-month cease-fire between the Colombian government and the paramilitary National Liberation Army begins.

Friday, Aug. 4: Thailand’s parliament holds a vote to choose its next prime minister.

A verdict is delivered in the case against Russian dissident Alexey Navalny for extremism.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi appeals a two-year sentence in a defamation case.

Sunday, Aug. 6: A one-week deadline for the restoration of constitutional order in Niger by the Economic Community of West African States expires.

New strikes, new talks. Three Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow on Sunday, injuring one person and damaging two high-rise buildings in the capital’s business district, Russian officials said. The strike followed another Ukrainian assault on Russian forces occupying the country; Kyiv’s forces severely damaged a key bridge in Russian-controlled Chonhar in southern Ukraine on Friday, reducing access to a strategic supply route for the Kremlin that connects Ukraine’s Kherson oblast with Russian-occupied Crimea.

With the debris still settling, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Saudi Arabia will host two-day Russia-Ukraine peace talks starting next Saturday in Jeddah. Around 30 countries—including the United States, numerous European nations, Brazil, China, and India—were invited as well as developing states like Egypt, Mexico, Chile, and Zambia. Notably absent from that list: Russia. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has resisted Western pressure to isolate Moscow in the past, but his latest move may signal a shift in policy as well as indicate the crown prince’s hope to make the kingdom a global leader in mediation.

Referendum results. Citizens of the Central African Republic may be getting a new constitution. On Sunday, residents voted on a referendum that would extend a presidential term from five to seven years and remove the office’s two-year term limit—thereby allowing President Faustin-Archange Touadéra to run again in 2025. Results are expected by the end of the week, with a finalized decision to be implemented in late August.

Initial polling suggests the referendum is expected to pass—much to the chagrin of the opposition, which has accused Touadéra’s ruling party of influencing the vote in its favor. Opposition leaders have argued that Touadéra’s decision to make the new constitution’s draft available for public viewing only 20 days before the vote was set to occur did not give the electorate enough time to make an informed decision. Although almost 2 million people were eligible to vote, initial reports suggest the voter turnout rate was far lower.

Legacy of corruption. The head of Lebanon’s central bank stepped down on Monday amid rampant corruption allegations and one of the nation’s worst financial crises in history. Riad Salameh, age 73, served at the country’s economic helm for 30 years. He came to power only three years after the nation’s 15-year civil war ended, at a time when international aid was flooding the country. Under his leadership, though, Lebanon’s currency lost 98 percent of its value, unemployment skyrocketed, and food prices increased by more than 600 percent.

Salameh is currently under investigation for embezzlement in numerous countries, having borrowed money to pay existing creditors. He continues to deny the allegations, which many economic experts have compared to a Ponzi scheme. Deputy Gov. Wassim Mansouri will take over as interim head of the bank until the country’s caretaker government can choose a permanent successor.

Talk about multitasking. During an online mayoral debate for Bogotá on Sunday, three of the seven candidates appeared on video while participating in a marathon. Candidates Juan Daniel Oviedo (who struggled to spell his own name on the Zoom call), Diego Molano, and Carlos Galán truly gave a whole new meaning to “running for office.” Let’s hope they have a better chance of winning the capital’s electoral race than they did in Sunday’s race.