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Article snippet: (Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.) Good morning. Here’s what you need to know: • Arab and Turkmen residents of Kirkuk fired weapons into the air in celebration, welcoming the Iraqi government troops that ousted Kurdish forces from the contested city and nearby oil fields. According to reports from hospitals, 22 Kurdish pesh merga fighters were killed in the assault, along with seven Iraqi soldiers. The big question now is whether the remaining Kurdish forces will fight on or back off. Analysts said the United States would probably sit out the dispute between its two allies. _____ • In Malta, an investigative journalist was killed in a car bombing that shocked the island nation and was widely condemned across Europe. The journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, exposed Malta’s links to offshore tax havens using the leaked Panama Papers. Her final blog post had been published about a half-hour before the explosion. _____ • Catalonia’s leader, Carles Puigdemont, declined to clarify whether independence had been declared and asked Madrid to negotiate. The central government gave him until Thursday to clarify his position. Meanwhile, a judge ordered the leaders of Catalonia’s two biggest independence movements, above, to be detained without bail pending possible sedition charges. The main separatist movements said that they planned to demonstrate today and called for a work stoppage at noon to protest the detention of the two leaders. Our corresponde... Link to the full article to read more