1. President Trump said peace talks with the Taliban were “dead as far as I’m concerned.”

The remarks may not be his last word, given his campaign promises to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

The death of an American soldier in a car bombing last week was the reason Mr. Trump cited for abruptly ending the talks, but some Afghans were skeptical that one U.S. fatality could have upended the process when the deaths of thousands of Afghans had not.

Our reconstruction shows that Mr. Trump’s cancellation of his plan to bring the Taliban to Camp David was more nuanced — and as off the cuff as the idea itself.