The Middle East continues as a major focus of concern, although the emphasis has shifted to Iraq and Syria as a result of the temporary ceasefire in Gaza. The New York Times has published a very useful guide to Iraq and ISIS, including several maps. You can also listen free of charge to a discussion between Scott Stewart and Paul Floyd, military analysts at Stratfor, on the differences between al Qaeda and the Islamic state. Another article worth reading is by David Gardner in the Financial Times, in which he argues the Saudis have lost the right to be the de facto leader of the Sunnis. It seems the United States is now considering air strikes on ISIS. It has already carried out humanitarian air drops to rescue Iraqis trapped in the mountains.

The on the ground situation at the crash site of MH 17 in eastern Ukraine goes from bad to worse, on Thursday investigators and those seeking to recover the remains of those killed in the attack were forced to pull out because of heavy shelling. ABC TV’s 7.30 that night carried an interview by Sarah Ferguson with Michael Bociurkiw from the European Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, who said it was the “worst possible scenario”.

Meanwhile the Kremlin has been busy retaliating against further Western sanctions against Russia described in last week’s Issues Brief. It has banned all food imports from the United States, and suppliers of fresh fruit and vegetables from the European Union. According to a so far unverified report in The Diplomat magazine, it is close to imposing restrictions on all Western flights over Russia between Europe and Asia. If this takes place, it will impose substantial extra costs on a number of major airlines, particularly Cathay Pacific, Japan airlines, British Airways and most European and Asian carriers. Qantas is unlikely to be affected as its flights to Europe are via Dubai. Australian food exports have also been banned by Russia at a substantial cost to our agricultural economy.

Is there another whistleblower active in the US National Security agency? Bloomberg seems to think so.

Finally Washington has hosted a livelier than usual US-Africa summit last week. China threw a spanner in the works – or offered a golden global opportunity for cooperation by suggesting that Beijing and Washington team up on a multi-billion dollar plan to build Africa’s infrastructure. A more immediate program discussed was the ebola epidemic. Liberia, reports The Independent has become a country convulsed by fear.