Globe Trot: Five U.S. service members dead in C-130 crash

AFGHANISTAN: A U.S. military plane has crashed near the Jalalabad airfield, killing 11. Five of the dead were U.S. service members. Despite Taliban claims to have downed the C-130, Army officials describe the incident as an accident and say no enemy fire was reported in the area at the time.

EUROPE: In a special working session on individual freedom this week in Warsaw, the U.S. mission to the Helsinki Commission, under new State Department director of international religious freedom Dan Nadel, has issued a strong statement recognizing religious freedom as a fundamental right and highlighting “the under-reporting of hate crimes and incidents against Christians in the OSCE region.”

OREGON: Some reasonable analysis on U.S. versus European gun laws and why there’s no utopian solution to violence. And good thoughts on how Christians should respond to shootings like yesterday’s in Oregon from WORLD friend and analyst Ed Stetzer writing in USAToday.

SYRIA: The UN has created an “immersive wormhole” to connect diplomats with Syrian refugees in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp, which with 80,000 refugees has become the fourth largest city in Jordan. That’s cool, but wouldn’t it be better if four years into Syria’s civil war the UN actually took action on their behalf, something other than warehousing war victims?

Here’s a roundup of thought and analysis on Russia’s new foray into Syria and the implications for the United States.

LEBANON: In Beirut and Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, where residents have been caring for more than 1 million Syrian refugees for more than two years now, it’s the first day of preschool. For some war victims, with the help of faith-based charities like LSESD, life goes on.