Morning Brief, Friday, July 13
Middle East JIM WATSON/AFP Yesterday’s White House progress report on Iraq went over like a lead balloon in Congress, but it may just give U.S. President George W. Bush a two-month reprieve. In Iraq, legislators say that the U.S. government holds unrealistic expectations about what can be accomplished. A year after its war with Israel, ...
Middle East
Middle East
Yesterday’s White House progress report on Iraq went over like a lead balloon in Congress, but it may just give U.S. President George W. Bush a two-month reprieve. In Iraq, legislators say that the U.S. government holds unrealistic expectations about what can be accomplished.
A year after its war with Israel, Hezbollah is having a hard time checking off items on its to-do list.
Hamas may be losing ground to more radical Palestinian factions in Gaza.
Asia
Touting his government’s victory over the Red Mosque holdouts, President Pervez Musharraf promised to battle militants “in every corner” of Pakistan. But Howard French reports from Shanghai that Chinese pressure may have been what finally prompted Musharraf to act.
North Korea’s armed forces want to have a little chat with their U.S. counterparts.
Japanese interest rates are probably going to stay low for a while.
Europe
Could French President Nicolas Sarkozy be the key to Kosovo’s independence?
The euro is becoming the new Alsace-Lorraine as France and Germany wage battle over European central banking policies.
Welcome to Siberia, where heavy metals fall from the sky.
Elsewhere
The price of a barrel of oil has gone up by $6 in the last two weeks.
Meet Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, the poor man’s Hugo Chávez.
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has developed a unique cure for HIV/AIDS: utterly destroy your economy.
Today’s Agenda
- It’s Friday the 13th, so all sorts of nefarious things will be happening.
- Starship Beckham has landed in Los Angeles. His new soccer team, the LA Galaxy, will hold a press conference today.
- The Pan Am games get underway in Rio.
- Japanese Buddhists pay tribute to their ancestors as Obon, an important Buddhist festival, begins.
Yesterday on Passport
More from Foreign Policy
A New Multilateralism
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America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn’t Want
Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.
The Endless Frustration of Chinese Diplomacy
Beijing’s representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.
The End of America’s Middle East
The region’s four major countries have all forfeited Washington’s trust.
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