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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: • Iraqi troops attacked the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk and its oil fields. The fighting escalated a standoff between the government in Baghdad and Iraqi Kurds, who seized the city after state forces fled an Islamic State assault in 2014. American officials called for calm in the standoff between forces that are otherwise allies in the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State. _____ • Elections in Austria shifted the country’s politics further to the right. The 31-year-old foreign minister, Sebastian Kurz, of the traditionally conservative People’s Party emerged as the strongest political force after focusing his campaign on limiting immigration and strengthening the social welfare system. His most likely coalition partner appears to be the nationalist, populist Freedom Party, which finished second, according to preliminary results. _____ • Facing a deadline today to state Catalonia’s intentions in a territorial conflict with Spain, the region’s leader declined to clarify whether he had declared independence. Instead, the leader, Carles Puigdemont, wrote to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and suggested that the conflict could be resolved with the help of international mediators. Pictured above, Mr. Puigdemont on Sunday visited the grave of Lluís Companys, a Catalan leader who was imprisoned after proclaiming a Catalan state in 1934. Jean-Claude Junck... Link to the full article to read more