Globe Trot: Mental illness spreads in Syria after trauma of long war

SYRIA: It’s no surprise Syrians are suffering an epidemic of mental illness following four years of civil war and terrorism. In Iraq, too, I met desperate sufferers—in particular one young mother placed on anti-anxiety medication after enduring years of bombings in the Iraq war, now displaced and suddenly cut off from medication. She told me she never sleeps.

Syria’s state news agency claims government forces have shot down a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft.

ISRAEL: Despite wishful tweets from the Western left that Bibi’s election was in trouble, voters yesterday soundly reelected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a fourth term. He quickly moved to form a new government—possibly the most conservative in Israel’s history.

VENEZUELA: No one will accuse the Obama administration of moving hastily last week to sanction Venezuela (anyone else new to the word “nugatory”?), but the United States should pay more attention to neighbor Bolivia, too.

VANUATU: Aid is slowly reaching this remote island nation, where the death toll following Cyclone Pam still stands at 11 but likely will rise.

THE NORTHERN LIGHTS are creating a fabulous show across the Northern Hemisphere.

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