ISIS ousted from the Old City

IRAQ: Emerging from nearly three years of living under ISIS control, girls in Mosul today donned pink and tiaras instead of black niqabs to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid.

Thousands poured into the streets of Iraq’s second largest city, as Iraqi forces raised flags above buildings in western Mosul following the ouster of ISIS from the Old City district. Iraqi forces have battled the militants in the city for months, liberating eastern Mosul in January and now completing a nearly four-month offensive to take back the western side of the Tigris River.

Vian Dakhil, the Yazidi member of the Iraqi parliament who won the Lantos Human Rights award earlier this year, recounts the horrific atrocities committed by ISIS she and others are learning about as families are liberated in Mosul and elsewhere.

The president of Iraq’s Kurdistan region makes the case for independence ahead of the September referendum. And the government in Baghdad unveils a 10-year, $100 billion reconstruction plan.

GERMANY: Chancellor Angela Merkel shocked Germans and her party by abruptly changing course, calling for a vote to legalize same-sex marriages.

RUSSIA: It appears the probe of Russia influencing former National Security adviser Michael Flynn may have been launched as payback over a messy FBI sex discrimination case. The investigative report is one more signal of law enforcement malfeasance under FBI Director James Comey, all of it best summarized in today’s Holman Jenkins column:

“In the Sunday Washington Post’s 7,000-word account of what President Obama knew about Russian election meddling and what he did about it, one absence is notable. Nowhere in the Post’s lengthy tick-tock is Mr. Obama presented with evidence of, or described as worried about, Trump collusion with Russia.

“Moscow intervened in the election eight ways from Sunday, but it’s clearer than ever that what’s occupied Americans for the past six months are baseless accusations about the Trump campaign.”

UKRAINE: The major cyberattack on Ukraine may amount to a full-blown cyberwar, one that most experts believe originates in Russia. Among other sectors, the attack has hit the country’s power grid and forced officials to manually perform radiation checks at Chernobyl.

As perhaps a prelude to the cyberattack, Ukraine’s chief military officer for intelligence was assassinated in a car bombing.

ITALY: A heat wave has forced the City of Fountains, Rome, to turn off more than 200 fountains to preserve the water supply.

BRITAIN: Paddington Bear creator Michael Bond has died at age 91.

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