The coming days

The week ahead

The aftermath of riots in western China, and other stories

• VICIOUS riots in Urumqi, the capital of the autonomous province of Xinjiang, caused the deaths of over 150 people. It was the bloodiest known incident of unrest in China since the massacre that ended the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. The violence embarrassed China’s president, Hu Jintao, into skipping the G8 summit in Italy. The authorities responded by imposing a curfew on Urumqi, closing mosques, sending soldiers on to the streets and detaining hundreds of people. China’s leaders may fear that several smaller incidents that have occurred since the main rioting are the prelude to bigger confrontations caused by tension between Han migrants and (mostly) Muslim Uighurs.

For background, see article

• EUROPE'S efforts to reduce dependence on Russia for gas supplies will get a boost on Monday July 13th. Five countries-Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria-will sign an accord for Nabucco, a gas pipeline from the Caspian region and central Asia that will bypass Russia in the south. But Russian leverage over European energy supplies will persist for some time-the pipeline will become operational by 2014 at the earliest.

For background, see article

• UNCERTAINTY persists in Iran after the latest round of street demonstrations, this time marking the tenth anniversary of student protests in 1999. Security forces swiftly clamped down on those in the street, although the protests this time were much smaller than those over the disputed presidential election in June. The authorities remain alert to challenges to the government's authority, both from the streets and from clerics.

For background, see article

THE Senate Judiciary Committee holds a confirmation hearing for Barack Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, on Monday July 13th. Conservative critics of Ms Sotomayor are doubly enraged by her feminist leanings and the perception that her Hispanic roots could lead her to make decisions based on ethnicity rather than the law. But Republicans are unlikely to kick up much of a fuss as they would risk alienating female and Hispanic voters in a battle they would not win.

For background, see article