Global Beat is your weekly stop for news from around the world. Join us every Friday morning for important stories you should know about. 

This week, the International Olympic Committee votes to name Los Angeles and Paris as hosts for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics; Iraq declares victory against ISIL in Mosul; China sets up its first overseas military base; and more.

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Americas

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has voted to name Los Angeles and Paris as successive hosts for the 2024 and 2028 Olympics. The mayors of the two cities are now working to come to an agreement as to which city will host the Games first, with the final decision to be made by the IOC in September. Paris is the presumed frontrunner, as 2024 marks the centenary of the last time the city hosted the Games. There have been a declining number of cities vying to host the Olympics in recent years. Hamburg, Rome, and Budapest pulled out of the current campaign, and just two candidates competed to host the 2022 Winter Games. Los Angeles has plans to use existing stadiums as venues and to board athletes in UCLA's dorms, erasing some of the largest costs associated with hosting the Games. 

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• Peru recalls ambassador from Ecuador in row over border wall – Mitra Taj and Alexandra Valencia, Reuters

Central & South Asia

Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Israel marks the first time a sitting Indian prime minister has visited the Jewish state, as well as a shift in India’s foreign policy orientation. During the three-day visit, seven major agreements were signed, dealing with water, agriculture, and space technology. The two countries have also created a $40 million research and development fund for joint innovation. Although economic and trade relations between India and Israel have steadily grown over the past two decades, India has been unwavering in its support of Palestine in international forums. Under the Modi administration, the Indian government has begun forging a more public alliance with Israel. 

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• Lack of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan draws criticism – Cindy Saine, Voice of America

China & East Asia

China is set to establish its first overseas military base, dispatching an undisclosed number of military personnel aboard two Chinese navy warships this week to Djibouti. A state-run media website described the base as "conducive to China’s performance of international obligations." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said that means supporting anti-piracy efforts in the region, performing "humanitarian rescue," and helping to "drive Djibouti’s economic and social development." The United States, Japan, and France also have military bases in Djibouti. 

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• Chinese Nobel Peace laureate and human rights advocate Liu Xiaobo dies – Anthony Kuhn, NPR

Europe & Russia

This week, France’s Environmental Minister Nicolas Hulot announced plans to ban all gas and diesel vehicles by 2040. The move is one measure in newly elected President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to make the country carbon neutral by 2050. Hulot also announced that France would stop using coal to produce electricity by 2022 as part of the effort to fulfill the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement. Other countries aiming to ban combustion powered cars are the Netherlands and Norway, who want to get rid of gas and diesel vehicles by 2025, and Germany and India who aim to do the same by 2030.

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• Trump arrives in Paris on second Europe trip in a week – Kevin Liptak, CNN

Middle East & North Africa

After three years of occupation, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced that Iraqi forces have driven ISIL out of Mosul, the city where the terror group first announced its self-styled caliphate. Some small pockets of resistance remain, however. The battle to retake Mosul took nearly nine months and left over 900,000 of the city’s residents displaced. Mosul’s landmarks and most populous districts are shattered beyond recognition. Much of the city is in ruins. The number of those who died during the fighting is unknown. Amnesty International proclaimed the battle for Mosul to be a "civilian catastrophe," with more than 5,800 noncombatants killed in ISIL’s final holdout in the western part of the city.

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• Trump plans to certify that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal, which he once promised to "tear up" – Stephen F. Hayes and Michael Warren, The Weekly Standard

Southeast Asia & Oceania

The government of Myanmar has refused to grant visas to a UN envoy investigating the plight of Rohingya Muslims. The civilian government, led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, said that the three investigators designated by the UN’s Human Rights Council were not welcome, and insisted it was conducting its own probe into alleged atrocities against the minority group. The north of Myanmar’s Rakhine state has been under lockdown since October, when the military launched a campaign to hunt down Rohingya militants who staged deadly attacks on police posts. The majority in Rakhine are ethnic Rakhine Buddhists who, like many in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The UN estimates that more than 90,000 Rohingya have been forced to flee their homes since the crackdown.

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• The Philippines is aiming for an energy boom with Duterte’s latest reform – Yvonne Lim, CNBC

Sub-Saharan Africa

After the United States postponed a decision on whether or not to permanently lift sanctions imposed on Sudan, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has halted the work of a committee formed with the United States to negotiate relief from those sanctions. The sanctions had been temporarily lifted in January by former President Barack Obama, who suspended a trade embargo, unfroze assets, and removed financial sanctions that have hampered the country’s economy. In order to earn permanent relief, Sudan was required to resolve internal military conflicts in areas such as Darfur, cooperate on counter-terrorism, and improve access to humanitarian aid. The temporary relief of sanctions was set to become permanent on Wednesday unless the new administration acted to stop it. Current U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order the night before the sanctions were to be permanently lifted, giving himself three additional months to make a decision. The decision was postponed amid loud opposition in the administration and a lack of key personnel and Africa appointments to assess the decision.

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• Zambia parliament approves 90-day state of emergency – Al Jazeera

Stay informed. We’ll see you here again next week.