The Rundown - August 1

RFE/RL In The Media
# "Business Insider" cites RFE/RL reporting on Chinese ships in the Black Sea

International Press Review

Iran
# "A Crass and Consequential Error" - Roger Cohen, "NY Review of Books"
# Iran is building its outreach with the Taliban
# The resurgent Iran-Hezbollah nexus
# Iran is threatening to boycott the Venice film festival

Russia
# Alexei Navalny faces up to ten years in prison for embezzlement
# "Why Putin Wants to Punish Pussy Riot" - Georgy Bovt, "Moscow Times"

Afghanistan/Pakistan
# How the Haqqani Network is financed
# The new head of the ISI is in Washington
# "Why China Should Do More in Afghanistan" - Jeffrey Hornung, "The Diplomat"
# The "LA Times" reports on the tribal justice system in Pakistan
# "Crippled Pakistan" - Jaswant Singh, "Project Syndicate"
# The new (presumptive) U.S. envoys to Pakistan and Afghanistan were questioned by Congress

Of Interest
# Were the Minsk metro bombers framed?
# American oil firms are doing well in northern Iraq
# "Spiegel" on what may become of Syria's chemical weapons stocks
# Maybe the "media is dying" meme is a bit overdone
# Freedom House and the BBG research mobile communications security