Dispatches

Dec. 3

The heaviest rainfall in a century caused flooding in southern India that has killed more than 280 persons. In Chennai, a city of 9.6 million, residents carried children on their shoulders through floodwaters experts blamed partly on poor urban design. The floods cut power and closed the airport in the city. Government camps are housing about 62,000 displaced by the flooding.

Women in war

Dec. 3

Over objections from the Marine Corps, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced the Pentagon would allow women to serve in all military combat roles, with “no exceptions.” The military had previously restricted about 10 percent of positions, such as the Navy SEALs, to men. Three women recently completed the Army’s difficult Ranger School for the first time. The Marines objected to the change, citing a yearlong study that showed mixed-gender units performed worse than male-only units. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, now head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was conspicuously absent from Carter’s announcement and stopped short of endorsing the decision in a statement afterward.

Terrorists in San Bernardino

Dec. 2

In what the FBI is treating as an act of terrorism, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, attacked a training session for county employees in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 and wounding 21. Police killed the couple in a gun battle afterward. Both Muslims, Farook was born in the United States and his wife was Pakistani. Last year Farook met and married Malik in Saudi Arabia, finding her through a marriage website. She arrived in the United States on a “fiancé(e) visa.” The couple left their 6-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother before beginning their shooting rampage. Police also found a cache of pipe bombs and ammunition in their home. Investigators, who said Malik pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State in a Facebook post, are trying to determine how the couple became radicalized and whether they had contact with terrorist groups. In the wake of the attack, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump stirred controversy by calling for “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States.

Refugee roundabout

Dec. 4

European Union members are debating their open-border policies in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. EU members have complained that Greece—the primary point of entry for hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern and African migrants—hasn’t policed its borders sufficiently: Two of the Paris attackers had Syrian passports and entered the EU through the Greek island of Leros. Twenty-six countries belong to the EU’s Schengen zone, which allows passport-free travel, but following the Paris attacks Germany, Austria, and Sweden reintroduced border checks. Under threat of losing its Schengen status, Greece agreed to accept more policing help from the EU’s border agency, Frontex. Meanwhile, in the United States, Texas dropped a legal motion to block 21 Syrian refugees from resettling there, but is moving forward with an underlying lawsuit challenging Syrian resettlement. The state has threatened local resettlement groups with funding cuts.

Wrecked relationship

Nov. 24

Tension between Turkey and Russia escalated after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane that entered Turkish airspace, killing one of the pilots. A member of a Russian rescue team also died. Turkey is a member of NATO, whose relationship with Russia was already strained. Russia had denied the plane entered Turkish airspace, but the U.S. State Department confirmed that it did. In retaliation, Russia issued travel restrictions and economic sanctions against Turkey, which has a trade relationship with Russia worth $30 billion a year. Russia also deployed missile systems near the Turkish border in Syria, vowing to shoot down any threats to its planes. Russia has been conducting bombing raids in Syria in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Other NATO countries, like France, have been trying to coordinate with Russia in air raids against the Islamic State.