Iraq ready for US troop exit

Iraq says it’s ready for American troops to leave. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Welcome to Balance of Power, bringing you the latest in global politics. If you haven’t yet, sign up [here](. Two decades after George W. Bush declared the “end of major combat operations” following the capture of Baghdad, Iraq says it’s ready for American troops to leave. Around 2,500 American soldiers are still based in the country, part of an international coalition formed in 2014 [to combat ISIS]( the puritanical Islamist group that [shocked the world]( by posting beheadings online and taking control of large parts of Iraq and Syria. For Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, ISIS is now largely defeated and his country doesn’t need Americans to take on the remaining fighters. “Iraq in 2024 is not the same as Iraq of 2014,” he [said in an interview]( with Bloomberg TV in Baghdad on Sunday, in which he also [spoke about the benefits]( of being in the OPEC+ oil cartel. “We have moved on from wars to stability.” WATCH: Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani talks with Bloomberg’s Joumanna Bercetche in Baghdad. Source: Bloomberg TV Yet the timetable for a drawdown remains unclear. Iraq wants a full withdrawal by 2026. The White House and some US politicians remain wary. Perhaps aware of the US’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan in 2021, they are concerned that ISIS could regroup if they leave. Moreover, they fear it may allow Iran to increase its influence in Iraq, a neighboring and fellow Shiite-majority country. Iran already has plenty of sway over several Iraqi political parties and supports militias that have attacked US bases in Jordan, Iraq and Syria since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza in October. One drone strike in Jordan in January — the US said it came from Iraq — killed three Americans. Al-Sudani seems intent on making the withdrawal happen and says he can do that without harming relations with Washington. He even says he wants to use Iraq’s deep ties to both the US and Iran to ease the worsening tensions between them. That’s important, Al-Sudani said, to get the Middle East through the dangerous phase it entered with the war in Gaza.— [Joumanna Bercetche]( and [Paul Wallace]( A US Army soldier in Iraq in July. Source: US Army Global Must Reads Kamala Harris’ sudden ascent to Democratic presidential nominee may have energized the party faithful, but it’s also stoked anxiety among Democrats about what she would do if elected president. While everyone agrees that she’s a much stronger candidate than Joe Biden, beyond beating Donald Trump, her priorities [are unusually opaque](. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Egypt on his 10th trip to the Middle East since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, as Washington again bids to break the [logjam in cease-fire talks.]( His visit comes after Israeli officials told a top US envoy that military action is the only way to return residents in northern Israel displaced by clashes with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. Floods in West Africa have killed about 1,000 people and forced at least 2.4 million from their homes in a region [already short of food]( and plagued by insecurity. In Europe, deadly [floods unleashed destruction]( as the summer heat waves in the Mediterranean area that raised sea temperatures to record levels turbocharge storms. WATCH: The death toll from flooding in central Europe is climbing after Storm Boris brought torrential rain to the region. Source: AP/Czech army handout A prime candidate for the post of chief minister in the volatile Indian region of Jammu and Kashmir called for the restoration of statehood, five years after Narendra Modi’s central government stripped the border state of its autonomy. Omar Abdullah, who leads an alliance between his regional party and the Indian National Congress, the country’s main opposition group, [spoke in an interview]( as he vies to win local elections that begin this week in India’s only Muslim-majority state. Ursula von der Leyen proposed a sweeping financial and industrial portfolio for France in [her next European Commission]( after a dramatic last-minute switch of nominees. 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As Norway’s oil capital, and the main source of its wealth, Stavanger has grown affluent. But lately it’s been [feeling the negative impact]( of a downward spiral in the Norwegian currency, the krone, which has lost substantial ground against the euro and the US dollar. Washington Dispatch Trump last night took part in an [unusual event]( for a presidential nominee weeks before the election — promoting a business venture, in this case a crypto platform involving him and his sons. The launch of the project, World Liberty Financial, came a day after the former president emerged unscathed from a second apparent assassination attempt, the [latest shock]( to roil the presidential contest. Trump, who once denounced Bitcoin as a “scam,” has [pivoted to courting]( the digital-asset industry, even vowing to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.” Over the summer, he was the featured speaker at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville where donors were asked to pay $844,600 for a seat at a round table with him. Crypto industry donors have [poured more money]( into the 2024 election than in all prior cycles combined, according to OpenSecrets, a research group that tracks money in US politics. One person to watch today: Trump will participate in a townhall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Flint, Michigan. [Sign up for the Washington Edition newsletter]( for more from the US capital and watch Balance of Power at 1 and 5 p.m. ET weekdays on Bloomberg Television. Chart of the Day The UK’s new Labour government is pinning its hopes for economic growth on private investment in everything from green energy to a promised housebuilding revolution. Yet the world’s biggest [infrastructure investors]( put the UK bottom of the list when asked in April where they would put their money. The reason? The crisis at Thames Water, the debt-ridden monopoly provider to 16 million people in London and South East England, whose investors have already written off billions of pounds. And Finally In a remote field in Texas, a plant that’s part of America’s bid to undercut China’s global [domination of rare earth minerals]( critical to everything from lithium-ion batteries to electric vehicles and missile guidance systems has yet to break ground. National security is a primary driver of programs backed by billions of dollars in subsidies and loans in the US and key allies to catch up with China, which controls about 70% of output and more than 90% of refining. But a slump in prices since 2022 is undermining the business case for those projects. The site of the Lynas rare earths processing facility in Texas in 2022. 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