Iraqis offer prayers for Houstonians

IRAQ: In Sinjar, a city that was the site of some of the most horrific ISIS atrocities in 2014, returning Yazidi residents are praying for Houston.

NORTH KOREA is “begging for war,” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley told the UN Security Council meeting in New York Monday—a day after the North’s most powerful nuclear test. Seismologists picked up Pyongyang’s sixth nuclear test, believed to be its largest and its first hydrogen bomb, as earthquakes registering magnitude 5.6 and 4.6 on Sunday.

“The nuclear explosion was seen around the world,” said geophysicist Steven Gibbons in Norway. “I was surprised by the sheer size of the event. … It towers above all the others.”

Within hours, China began monitoring for radiation along its border with North Korea, and officials in South Korea said they had indications the North planned additional ballistic missile testing this week.

OPLAN 5027 is the keyword you want to learn about U.S. military plans in the event of nuclear confrontation or armed conflict with North Korea. The Pentagon has war-gamed such a conflict for decades—given the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice never formalized into a peace treaty. Bottom line (at least as of Saturday): “Pyongyang has the ability to start a new Korean War, but not to survive one.”

SOUTH KOREA: It doesn’t seem the United States needs a trade war with South Korea right now, but that’s what President Donald Trump on Saturday confirmed might be around the bend.

NIGERIA: A Christian father and son were killed, and three women and a baby abducted, in an attack in northern Kano state that recalls the start of a violent pogrom a decade ago.

AUSTRALIA: The country starts this month with a non-binding postal survey (like a referendum but without constitutional change) aimed at gauging support for changing marriage laws to include same-sex couples. Debate is, not surprisingly, heated.

BURMA: Satellite imagery shows 700 buildings burned in Rakhine state—an entire Rohingya Muslim village. The Myanmar (or Burmese) regime has blocked UN aid to the area, where approximately 30,000 Rohingyas are reported trapped and perhaps 2,000 or more have been killed.

CORRECTION: In Friday’s Globe Trot item on Eid al-Adha, I incorrectly stated Islamic teaching on Abraham sacrificing his son. The Quran does not specify which son the patriarch is led toward killing, but scholars and Islamic tradition maintain it was Ishmael, not Isaac.

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