Subject: Morning Brief: U.S. and Taliban officials meet for talks in Doha
From: "Foreign Policy" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2018 07:20:03 -0500 (CDT)

U.S. and Taliban Officials Meet for Talks in Doha

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MORNING BRIEF

Today's Global News from Foreign Policy

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08/01/2018

08/01/2018

TOP NEWS

U.S. and Taliban Officials Meet for Talks in Doha

Top news: A senior U.S. diplomat and Taliban officials have reportedly met for talks in Doha, Qatar. The U.S. State Department has not acknowledged the meeting, but it did confirm that its senior official dealing with Afghanistan, Alice Wells, traveled to Doha last week.

Taliban officials were more forthcoming, telling journalists that the meeting had produced “very positive signals.” Reuters reported that the official said that the parties “agreed to meet again soon and resolve the Afghan conflict through dialogue.”

No representatives from the Afghan government—which has normally publically taken the lead in peace initiatives—were present, according to the Taliban. The group maintains a diplomatic presence in the Qatari capital.

The meetings come on the heels of a brief but successful ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The event was a watershed moment, as the first formal break in the 17-year conflict. The Islamic State, however, launched two suicide attacks, killing 30.

China: The Trump administration plans to raise tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, though the move has not yet been finalized. The United States has already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $35 billion worth of Chinese imports.

AFRICA

•  South Africa is planning to push ahead with a constitutional amendment that would allow land expropriation without compensation.

•  Egyptian security forces killed five suspected militants in a shootout in Qalyubiya province, north of Cairo.

•  Three Russian journalists were killed in an ambush in the Central African Republic.

AMERICAS

•  Dozens of people were injured when a passenger jet crashed just after takeoff in the Mexican state of Durango. All 103 people on the plane survived.

•  Nine people were killed in an attack on a billiard hall in the village of El Tarra, Colombia —near the country’s border with Venezuela.

•  The Canadian Border Service confirmed that it uses DNA testing to help determine the nationality of migrants whose origins are in question.

ASIA

•  A day after attackers in Tajikistan killed four foreign cyclists, the Islamic State released a video purporting to show the killers pledging allegiance to the group.

•  A former high-level Chinese political advisor has turned himself in to the country’s anti-corruption organization—only the second top official to do so since Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a massive crackdown.

•  The remains of dozens of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean war are due to be flown to the United States after they were released by North Korea.

EUROPE

•  The European Commission and the EU’s foreign policy arm plan to recall all British diplomats working in EU embassies around the world by September 2019.

•  Thieves in Sweden stole some of the country’s crown jewels from a cathedral west of Stockholm before fleeing in a motorboat.

•  Italian discus thrower Daisy Osakue was hospitalized after she was hit by an egg thrown by attackers in a moving car, in what she believes was a racially-motivated incident.

MIDDLE EAST

•  Senior Iranian officials rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer of bilateral talks without preconditions, calling it “a humiliation.”

•  Yemen’s Houthi group said it was unilaterally halting attacks in the Red Sea for two weeks to support peace efforts.

•  Amnesty International has claimed that one of its employees was targeted with Israeli-made surveillance software.

- By Rhys Dubin

Javed Tanveer/AFP/Getty Images

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