Globe Trot: Trump gets first classified briefing

UNITED STATES: Donald Trump is expected to receive his first classified briefing today—but hasn’t tweeted about it. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will join the candidate inside the FBI’s New York office.

On Monday, Trump gave the first of his several prepared speeches on foreign policy, signaling he plans to make it a key issue leading into the final two months of the campaign. Daniel Pipes summarizes Trump’s evolving position on immigrants and refugees. Trump now calls for “extreme vetting” and prohibitions on those from “refugee sending nations” and those “compromised by terrorism.” Pointing out the criteria could involve making unwelcome those from France, Germany, and Israel, Pipes said, “his change from banning Muslims to citizens from countries ‘compromised by terrorism’ took him from a coherent, if ugly, policy to one that is self-evidently infeasible.”

NIGERIA: The U.S. State Department sought to buy land tied up in Gilbert Chagoury’s Eko Atlantic Project soon after Hillary Clinton left office there. Buying real estate for a diplomatic facility in a development that’s locally controversial is highly unusual, and the deal would’ve put millions of American tax dollars in the hands of Chagoury, a controversial magnate who pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative. New emails released last week show a senior Clinton Foundation officer asked the State Department to help Chagoury.

ZIKA: Siddhartha Mukherjee tracks the rapid rise of the Zika virus, starting with a tourist in Australia, along with its lingering mysteries.

“A group of radiologists in Brazil have noted changes in the brain’s cortex and calcium deposits in the brains of Zika-exposed fetuses,” Stevens Rehen, a neurobiologist at the D’Or Institute for Research and Education and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, told Mukherjee. “It’s hard to know the extent of the consequences—it might take a few more years to determine the long-term effects in Zika-infected infants without microcephaly.”

BRITAIN: We’ve been tracking Anjem Chadoury and his London terror cell since 2005, and yesterday British authorities finally convicted him on charges of inviting support for Islamic State (ISIS), a crime that may put him in jail for up to 10 years. After the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, USA Today published an editorial by Chadoury, saying the satirical outlet had provoked Muslims.

IRAQ: Shiite militias are making it clear they will not be left out of the battle to liberate Mosul, even though their controversial presence is likely to exacerbate sectarian tensions.

TURKEY: Police raided the oldest Kurdish newspaper in the country and detained 21 journalists yesterday—part of the ongoing post-coup crackdown. Turkey is releasing thousands of convicted criminals “conditionally” to make room for the political prisoners detained since the coup attempt last month.

COLOMBIA: The military raided illegal gold mines in what the government says is a significant blow to finances for longstanding leftist ELN guerrillas.