The shooting yesterday at a gay night-club in Orlando was the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history. The alleged shooter, an American born son of immigrants from Afghanistan, claimed allegiance to ISIS before carrying out the attack. Many details are still being uncovered, but it’s clear that this attack could have national and international implications. We will find out in the coming days. In the meantime:
1) ISIS losing ground…”The Iraqi army has secured the first safe exit route for civilians to escape the Islamic State group’s stronghold of Fallujah in Iraq, and a Norwegian aid group says thousands of people have already used it to flee…While it pressed on with its offensive in Fallujah, the army also launched a fresh advance in the direction of the northern city of Mosul, the IS group’s de facto Iraqi capital, under cover of airstrikes from a US-led coalition. The assaults by the Iraqi army are taking place at the same time as advances against the militant group by US-backed fighters and Russian-backed Syrian government forces in Syria, at the opposite end of the militants’ self-proclaimed caliphate.” (ABC-Australia http://ab.co/24Km8wP)
2) Trump hardens his anti-Muslim stance…In a demonstration of his willingness to flout convention and engage in a style of demagogic politics rarely displayed by a presidential nominee, Mr. Trump claimed he had warned of the sort of terrorism that marked the shooting, which killed 50 and was the worst in the country’s history. “I said this was going to happen — and it is only going to get worse,” Mr. Trump said in a statement, arguing that Mrs. Clinton’s presidency would mean “hundreds of thousands” more Middle East migrants. “And we will have no way to screen them, pay for them, or prevent the second generation from radicalizing,” said Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican standard-bearer. (NYT http://nyti.ms/24KluQ0)
Latest updates from Orlando…(WaPo http://wapo.st/24Kng3D)
Niger Delta militant group urges end to militancy…”A militant group notorious for devastating attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry in the 2000s has called for dialogue to end renewed violence that has cut oil output. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) yesterday said its previous attempts to cripple Nigeria’s oil industry did not work and appealed to another armed group, Niger Delta Avengers, to give peace a chance. ‘Our message to the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) is simple: The Niger Delta struggle is beyond attacks on oil installations,’ MEND said in a statement.” (Business Standard http://bit.ly/24KmqUl)
Stat of the day: 1,600 schools in Yemen have been damaged or destroyed, occupied by IDPs or closed due to insecurity. (Save the Children http://bit.ly/233diLe)
Africa
Benin stepped up security patrols and roadblocks and increased border security on Saturday in the face of a threat from Islamist militants, the army chief of staff and a senior security official said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1XhAPrS)
Dozens of military officers, including some senior ones, have been arrested over an alleged plot to overthrow long-time President Yoweri Museveni, a Ugandan military official said Sunday. (AP http://yhoo.it/1UuugMC)
The head of the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, Filippo Grandi, has visited Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp. The visit came amid threat by the Kenyan authorities to close down the world’s largest refugee camp which is home to some 350,000 refugees, majority of whom are from Somalia. (TVC http://bit.ly/24KlG1y)
MENA
Hundreds of civilians escaped a besieged jihadist bastion in north Syria on Sunday helped by a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance surrounding the town, a monitor said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Ok7ytV)
The Iraqi army has established a safe corridor that has allowed 4,000 Fallujah residents to flee the jihadist-held city in 24 hours, the Norwegian Refugee Council said on Sunday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1tkYScQ)
The Islamic State group carried out three suicide car bombings Sunday against forces allied with Libya’s unity government battling to retake the city of Sirte, an official said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1XhAkxU)
The Islamic Action Front, the political arm of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, said on Sunday it will take part in September parliamentary elections which it had boycotted in 2010 and 2013. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1tkZ1gz)
Asia
Authorities in Bangladesh have arrested at least 85 militants as part of a broad crackdown on Islamists after a wave of brutal attacks on minorities and liberal activists, police said on Sunday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1XhzjWO)
Germany and China have agreed to set up an “early warning system” to avoid problems for German non-governmental organizations from a new Chinese law that restricts such groups, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1tkY8EN)
The Americas
Two former Guatemalan ministers have been arrested as part of a major investigation led by a United Nations-backed commission. (BBC http://bbc.in/1XhASE4)
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Saturday that a potential recall referendum against him would be in 2017 at the earliest, pushing back against growing opposition pressure to have the vote this year. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1UuuDGP)
Brazil’s new health minister stepped up the offensive to convince tourists and athletes that the risk of catching the Zika virus during the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is “almost zero.” (CNN http://cnn.it/1YlUN4f)
In the nationwide sweepstakes among federal jurisdictions to put Mexican drug kingpin and escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on trial, the place currently leading the pack is far from the border: Brooklyn. (AP http://yhoo.it/1UuvpUn)
Food riots and violent looting have become a daily occurrence across scarcity-struck Venezuela and a major problem for the struggling leftist government of President Nicolas Maduro. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1tkYhrK)
Students and rights groups plan to demonstrate at Stanford University’s commencement on Sunday to express outrage over the 6-month jail sentence handed to a former student convicted of sexual assault on the California campus, organizers said on Saturday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1XhApSm)
Bolivia has arrested five people for allegedly coaching a boy to pretend he was President Evo Morales’ son, and paying his family, in a soap opera-style scandal that has riveted the country, officials said. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1WKExdy)
…and the rest
Thousands of migrants have filed complaints against German authorities over the lengthy asylum-seeking process, according to official data. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1UuvEP6)
More than 2,500 migrants seeking to reach Europe were rescued off the coast of Sicily over the weekend in 20 separate operations, the Italian coastguard said Sunday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1PngABh)
Pope Francis on Sunday appealed to the international community to redouble efforts to end the “modern slavery” of child labor. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1tkYjjk)
Britain must stick to its international aid spending target despite criticism about transparency and efficiency to ensure it can lift millions of people out of poverty, a group of 20 British aid agencies and advocacy groups said on Sunday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/233cnum)
Prime Minister David Cameron warned Sunday that Britain faces a “lost decade” if it leaves the EU, as he races to persuade undecided voters less than two weeks before a close referendum. (AFP http://yhoo.it/1Ok76Ms)
Addressing antibiotic resistance will require a global political response similar to the way the world has reacted to climate change or HIV / AIDS, Sweden’s Minister of Public Health Gabriel Wikstrom said. (IPS http://bit.ly/1WKEPkK)
Opinion/Blogs
What can the fight against Malaria teach us about Zika? (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/28vsi8O)
A nice cup of tea … and other products that may be linked to child labour – in pictures (Guardian http://bit.ly/1WKwrlg)
Rwanda: Africa’s success story or authoritarian state? (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/1XhhZRH)
Remembering Eritrea’s Disappeared Journalists (VOA http://bit.ly/1XhAlly)
Whisked to Rome from Khartoum: people-smuggling kingpin or wrong man? (Reuters http://yhoo.it/1YlWA9H)
Gun Deaths Today Surpass Those In Our Bloodiest War (On the Ground http://nyti.ms/1XhBoC5)
Do Middle-income Countries Get More Aid than Low-income Countries? (Center for Global Development http://bit.ly/233e3nE)
See What The ‘Cool People’ Are Wearing In Four Cities In Africa (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/233dA4U)
South Sudan Needs Truth, Not Trials (NY Times http://nyti.ms/1XhBKsp)
NY Times Op-ed on South Sudan Bylined by Kiir, Machar Skirts Accountability for Atrocities (Enough Project http://bit.ly/1UuvpDP)
Chill Out: Fine-Tuning Anticorruption Initiatives to Decrease Their Chilling Effect (Global Anticorruption Blog http://bit.ly/1Uuw7kl)
Is now the moment the humanitarian data revolution begins? (Devex http://bit.ly/1U8c5lG)