Morning Brief, Tuesday, August 7
Middle East KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images Five more ministers—this batch aligned with former PM Iyad Allawi—have quit the Iraqi cabinet, though they will remain ministers. Also, the United States and Iran held their first joint security meeting in Baghdad. But in Basra, Shiite militias are escalating their battle for dominance as British forces retreat. Both sides ...
Middle East
Middle East
Five more ministers—this batch aligned with former PM Iyad Allawi—have quit the Iraqi cabinet, though they will remain ministers. Also, the United States and Iran held their first joint security meeting in Baghdad. But in Basra, Shiite militias are escalating their battle for dominance as British forces retreat.
Both sides described Monday’s talks between Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as positive.
Israeli troops ousted dozens of illegal squatters from two houses in Hebron, the West Bank.
Europe
Georgia accuses Russia of violating its airspace.
Europe is blocking reform of the International Monetary Fund.
German rail workers are threatening to go on strike Wednesday.
Asia
China banned imports of Indonesian fish after the latter criticized the safety of Chinese exports.
For the fourth time, Indonesia won’t share bird flu samples with the WHO.
Shocking: Pakistan’s ambassador says his country is doing a great job in fighting terrorism.
Elsewhere
Fallout from the subprime mortgage mess is even hitting silverware manufacturers now, but Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson thinks it’s all just “a reassessment of risk.” Daniel Gross writes, “If the containment policy of the Cold War worked as well as this subprime-mess containment policy, we’d all be speaking Russian and living on collective farms.”
Nigeria’s new president: a paragon of virtue?
Three men accused of plotting to attack New York’s JFK airport will be extradited from Trinidad to the United States.
Today’s Agenda
- Talks are beginning in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on what North Korea needs to do to get 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil.
- Venezuela hosts the first International Congress of Indigenous Peoples.
- The Open Market Committee of the U.S. Federal Reserve discusses interest rates. A rate cut is unlikely, despite the subprime crisis, because the Fed fears inflation.
Yesterday on Passport
Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
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