likely it will further escalate the situation in the region, starting with Iraq,” Trenin said on Twitter.

Russia and Iran have been key allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during the country's civil war. The two countries, together with China held joint naval drills at the end of last month in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Oman.

Reuters contributed reporting to this article.Linguistic diversity in the US continues to expand. The share of people who speak English at home fell from 78.4% in 2016 to 78.1% in 2018, according to recently released data from the US Census.

In terms of total speakers, the fastest-growing non-English language was Spanish, with almost one million more in 2018 than 2016, an increase of 2.4% over the period.

Yet in terms of speed of growth, most of the the US’s fastest-growing languages come from South Asia. Of the 10 fastest growing, six are South Asian and three are from Africa. The one outlier is “Pennsylvania Dutch/Yiddish,” whose growth is a result of the fast-growing Amish population.

The swift proliferation of South Asian and African languages is representative of immigration trends. New immigrants from Asia and Africa make