North Korea
Kim Jong Il displays more bravado as North Korea's Foreign Ministry claims more missiles may be launched. The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss a response, though China and Russia oppose sanctions. Dana Milbank thinks that the Bush administration has caught the multilateral diplomacy bug on this "crisis," and nothing is going to convince them otherwise once they've decided on a strategy.
Nothing, that is, but a 60-year-old president's legacy? Will Bush sing a different tune when he starts to think about what the history books will write if Kim Jong Il outlasts him? More here:
The choices have less to do with North Korea's newest missile — which, as Mr. Bush pointed out on Wednesday, "didn't stay up very long and tumbled into the sea" — than with the bigger question of whether the president is prepared to leave office in 2009 without constraining an unpredictable dictator who boasts about having a nuclear arsenal.
And here's something important to remember: North Koreans probably have no idea that missiles were even launched. State TV there made no mention of the tests, just the fact that the country is "prepared to cope with any provocation and challenge by US imperialists."
Gaza
New violence as Israeli troops push farther into northern Gaza. It is being reported that Hamas has revised its demands for a prisoner exchange, which Israel is said to be considering. Still, positions seem to be hardening. Ha'aretz's editorial reasons that, despite all the provocation of the last few weeks, it is never too late for negotiations.
Mexican elections
Calderon takes a slight lead over Lopez Obrador. Results should be announced today.
Iraq
Maliki criticizes US troop immunity, saying it encourages crimes. A car bomb in Najaf kills 12. A Cairo lawyer claims that the man the US has named as Zarqawi's heir to al Qaeda in Iraq is actually in an Egyptian jail.
Elsewhere
Britain considers sending more troops to Afghanistan. Just ahead of the G8 meeting in St. Petersburg, Bush sends Putin a message by receiving Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili at the White House yesterday. A historic trade route between India and China reopens after being closed for nearly 50 years. The US FDA approves a new AIDS drug for use in poor countries.
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