Ukraine tycoon pleads for city’s safety after rebels vow to make stand
Richard Balmforth / Reuters
Ukraine’s richest man pleaded with the government on Monday not to bomb Donetsk, a city of a million people where hundreds of heavily armed pro-Russian rebels have vowed to make a stand after losing control of their bastion in the town of Slaviansk.
Political Battle Over Export Bank Heats Up
Michael R. Crittenden / The Wall Street Journal
Lawmakers at a recent House hearing on the future of the Export-Import Bank were given an extra piece of reading material: a personalized index card laying out exactly which companies in their districts benefit from the financing agency and how many people they employ.
Ukraine army takes two more eastern cities
Euronews
A day after government forces captured the key rebel stronghold of Slovyansk, Kyiv says it has taken two more cities in eastern Ukraine from pro-Russian separatists.
Merkel says U.S. spying allegations are serious
Andreas Rinke / Reuters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday allegations that a German man worked as a double agent for U.S. intelligence were serious and, if true, were a clear contradiction of what cooperation between partners is supposed to be about.
63 abducted women, girls escape from Boko Haram
Aminu Abubakar and Holly Yan / CNN
Sixty-three women and girls kidnapped by Boko Haram last month in Nigeria escaped from their captors and have returned to their burnt village, a security source and a local vigilante fighting the militant group said.
Iraq fighting doesn’t raise oil prices, yet
Jennifer Collins, Gilgamesh Nabeel and Ammar Al Shamary/ USA Today
Iraq is one of the world’s top oil exporters, so you would think that a recent attack by militants on its largest oil refinery amid a deteriorating security situation in the country would prompt global fears of oil shortages and spark a spike in prices.
Tony Abbott confirms Australia and Japan will sign free trade agreement
Daniel Hurst / The Guardian
Tony Abbott has confirmed Australia and Japan will sign a free trade agreement this week, despite Labor sounding alarm over the government’s decision not to commission economic modelling of the costs and benefits.
Egypt’s Sisi says he wishes Al Jazeera journalists were not tried
Ali Abdelaty / Reuters
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he wished the imprisoned Al Jazeera journalists, convicted of aiding “a terrorist group”, had been deported and not put on trial, a newspaper reported on Monday.
Afghanistan’s Ghani wins presidential election: prelim results
Mirwais Harooni and Maria Golovnina / Reuters
Afghanistan declared former World Bank official Ashraf Ghani the winner of last month’s presidential election on Monday on the basis of preliminary results from a messy vote that has threatened to split the country along ethnic lines.
In Iraq, airstrikes slam into Mosul, city held by al-Qaeda-inspired militants
Abigail Hauslohner / The Washington Post
Warplanes carried out multiple bombing raids in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, a day after the leader of a powerful al-Qaeda-inspired militant group appeared online in a video from the city’s main mosque.
On Our Flashpoint Blog
The United States Must Sign and Ratify the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea
Jon Breed
By mid century, models predict that the region will be largely ice-free. In simple terms, the United States government must do something that it has never done: Plan for a new ocean.
Cause and Effect: U.S. Gasoline Prices
Dan Day
The threat of war is driving up oil prices, as is a tight oil market characterized by growing demand for oil in the developing world.
Could New Russian Nuclear Reactors Help Resolve the Iran Nuclear Problem?
Theresa Shaffer
On Tuesday, June 24, Iran stated its intention of signing a deal with Russia to build two new 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors next to the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant.
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The post What We Are Reading… July 7 2014 appeared first on American Security Project.
