Globe Trot: Stranded Yazidis and Britain’s new Iron Lady

IRAQ: Thousands of Yazidis remain stranded on and near Mount Sinjar, even though their plight two years ago this August is what prompted President Barack Obama to restart U.S. military intervention in Iraq. See my cover story “Where the rubble speaks” in the current issue of WORLD Magazine.

The Defense Department today announced it would send hundreds more troops to Iraq, based south of Mosul in anticipation of a military offensive to retake Iraq’s second largest city from ISIS.

SOUTH SUDAN: South Sudan is on the brink of civil war, as vice-president-turned-opposition-leader Riek Machar “has completely lost control of his soldiers and they are killing randomly,” according to Kimberly Smith of Makeway Partners, an non-governmental organization with work, including an orphanage, in the area. She reports this morning:

“As our staff and children hunkered down, three bombs struck our orphanage, Hope for South Sudan. None are seriously wounded, but the fighting continues … all roads have been cut off. … Meanwhile, [Makeway official] Romano reports tens of thousands of people have been slaughtered in the last 24 hours.”

IRAN has referred four cases against dual nationals—including two U.S. citizens—to court for trial, with charges and a timetable for hearings unspecified.

BRITAIN: “The Tory Party may have found another iron lady in Theresa May,” read yesterday’s Telegraph headline after three other prominent candidates dropped out of the race to succeed David Cameron as prime minister. May, a vicar’s daughter, opposed the European Union exit that led to Cameron’s downfall, but has said, “Brexit means Brexit, and we’re going to make a success of it.” A fiscal conservative and regular churchgoer, May—like Cameron—came out in support of same-sex marriage in 2012.

This morning Cameron announced he would resign this week, with May taking over possibly on Wednesday.

AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was declared the winner after a week’s cliffhanger over election results that leave the Conservative-led coalition with a fragile grip on power.

Turnbull is under fire for inviting a leading imam to his official Iftar dinner, and then blasting him for his radical Islamic views: “Telling a sheikh to reject the sharia is like telling a pope to get over the virgin birth.”

NIGERIA: A female evangelist and mother of seven was hacked to death and beheaded, the latest in a long string of brutal attacks (here and here also) against Christians, this time in the capital city, Abuja.