Subject: Morning Brief: Kurdish-Led Forces Launch “Decisive Battle” Against Islamic State in Syria
From: "Foreign Policy" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2019 07:47:42 -0600 (CST)

Kurdish-Led Forces Launch “Decisive Battle” Against Islamic State in Syria

If you have problems viewing this email, view it in a browser. Please feel free to forward it to a friend.

MORNING BRIEF

Today's Global News from Foreign Policy

Presented by

SUBSCRIBE TO FP

Follow Us:

02/11/2019

02/11/2019

TOP NEWS

Kurdish-Led Forces Launch “Decisive Battle” Against Islamic State in Syria

Top News: U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), led by Kurdish fighters, said they have launched the “decisive battle” against the last stronghold of the Islamic State in eastern Syria.

The SDF said they have waited two weeks to allow civilians to leave, but some civilians may still be trapped in the area.

According to the U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, the terrorist group now controls less than 1 percent of the territory it held after  it began seizing swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

Environment: A new scientific study found that 40 percent of the world’s insect species are declining and one-third are endangered, which could have dangerous knock-on effects for the environment. Urbanization, climate change, and pesticides from industrial agriculture are to blame, according to the study in the journal Biological Conservation.

**Sponsored Message** Earn a Master's Degree at a Top-Ranked Policy School. Open new doors with a degree from Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy. Our programs offer outstanding preparation for careers as analysts, leaders and managers in U.S. and global organizations. Small classes; joint MBA, JD degree options. Learn more.

AFRICA

•  An office for the election commission in Nigeria was burned down ahead of the country’s upcoming national elections.

•  Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 81, who has made few public appearances since suffering a stroke in 2013, announced he will seek a fifth term for president.

•  Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi assumed the rotating chairmanship of the African Union.

AMERICAS

•  Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar announced she will run for president in 2020, adding to the growing roster of Democrats aiming to challenge President Donald Trump.

•  Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whom the United States and dozens of other countries recognize as the legitimate interim president, pledged to open humanitarian aid routes into the country. (Aid is currently being blocked at the borders by soldiers loyal to the government of Nicolás Maduro.)

•  Eight people have been killed in a series of mudslides across Chile and Peru following heavy rains.

ASIA

•  The king of Thailand condemned his sister’s bid to become prime minister.

•  Rights groups in Myanmar say the country’s military is shelling villages and blocking aid in a new crackdown on the country’s Rohingya minority.

•  Turkey condemned China’s treatment of Turkic-speaking Uighurs, one million of whom are reportedly being held in internment camps.

EUROPE

•  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to Central Europe this week. Governments in Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia are depicting the trip as a seal of approval from Washington. Pompeo is reportedly concerned about countering Russian and Chinese influence.

•  Right-wing parties in Italy are slated to win a regional election in Abruzzo.

•  British Prime Minister Theresa May rejected a Labour Party proposal for a compromise Brexit plan.

MIDDLE EAST

•  The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East, Gen. Joseph Votel, said the United States will likely begin withdrawing troops from Syria in a matter of weeks.

•  An Emirati woman who escaped her family, saying she fled abuse, is in detention in North Macedonia after requesting asylum.

•  Seven jihadist militants were sentenced to life in prison in Tunisia for a 2015 terrorist attack that killed 60 people.

- By Robbie Gramer

(DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Register at ForeignPolicy.com to receive Morning Brief and other FP newsletters.

TRENDING ON FOREIGNPOLICY.COM

Hezbollah Is in Venezuela to Stay

by Colin P. Clarke

U.S. Military Warns of Threat From Chinese-Run Space Station in Argentina

by Lara Seligman

You Only Wish You Had Ukraine’s Democracy

by Paul Hockenos

This email was sent to [email-masked] by [email-masked].

UPDATE PROFILE

UNSUBSCRIBE

PRIVACY POLICY

ADVERTISE

GROUP SALES AND LICENSING

Foreign Policy Magazine is published by the FP Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company. All contents ©2019 The Slate Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Foreign Policy, 1750 Pennsylvania Ave NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20006

color
000000
conversation-id
115105
date-last-viewed
0
date-received
1549892834
flags
8590195841
remote-id
315765