Morning Brief, Friday, June 8

Americas

Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images News

With just 45 senators voting to shut off debate, the U.S. Senate immigration bill is dead—for now. Proponents of the compromise legislation, including the White House, vow they’ll give it another try. But it’s increasingly doubtful that a weak U.S. President George W. Bush can muster the Republican votes necessary for passage. In a Washington Post analysis, Dan Balz points out the obvious, noting that “The defeat of the legislation can be laid at the doorstep of opponents on the right and left …”

Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed a U.S. commitment to join U.N.-led talks on a new international framework to address climate change. The compromise is not quite what Merkel wanted, but it averted a complete impasse. G8 leaders also agreed to give $60 billion to help African countries deal with the HIV/AIDS crisis. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin threw a curveball during a private meeting with President Bush when he proposed collaboration on a missile defense facility in Azerbaijan. NATO’s secretary general is not enthused, calling Azerbaijan “a bit close” to Iran for comfort, but the U.S. says it plans to study Putin’s proposal.

The Council of Europe says it has confirmed that, from 2003-2005, Romania and Poland operated secret detention facilities on behalf of the United States. 

Asia 

India is becoming a huge market for alcohol. But does it have an HIV/AIDS crisis or not?

The protests continue in Pakistan. 

Indonesia is putting itself forward as a Middle East negotiator. 

It’s the Year of the Pig in China, and coincidentally pork prices are going through the roof. And it’s not just pork: prices of Chinese exports are set to rise across the board as domestic wages go up.

Middle East

The White House’s new “war czar” offered a downbeat assessment of conditions in Iraq during his Senate confirmation hearing, as the number of U.S. deaths there passed the 3,500 mark and the chaos continued.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sharply criticized the latest remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regarding Israel. 

Elsewhere 

Higher U.S. interest rates are likely to cool the recent merger boom, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Sanjaya Bahel, ex-head of commodity procurement at the U.N., for procuring just a little too much on the side.

The chief of the International Energy Agency says that “Opec has nothing to fear” from biofuels.

Wireless electricity? 

Today’s Agenda

• Despite having an upset tummy, President Bush is heading to Poland following the G8 summit to talk about missile defense, followed by stops in Italy, Albania and Bulgaria.
• Chinese President Hu Jintao is going to Sweden for the first time.
• Twenty-six American defendants are due to be tried in absentia in Italy for alleged involvement in snatching an Egyptian terrorism suspect from the streets of Milan and whisking him away to Cairo.
• Burger King is back in Japan. 

Yesterday on Passport

• Say goodbye to your little friend
• Where have all the anti-globalization activists gone?
• Quotable: Political leader OKs ethnic cleansing by Tamil Tigers