Globe Trot: Obama strong-arms Congress over Iran deal

IRAN: Inside the clandestine White House campaign to thwart a debate on the Iran deal, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., got drafted to deliver. So there will be no vote on a major treaty the majority of Congress opposes. “Obama did not submit it as a treaty because he knew he could never get the constitutionally required votes for ratification,” notes Charles Krauthammer. So the White House resorted to “breaking arms and legs,” according to Democrats in Congress, to prevent a vote.

Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini is one of the casualties of the U.S.-Iran deal, as the Obama administration failed to negotiate the release of two Americans held on spurious charges by the Iranian regime. Abedini’s wife, Naghmeh, is on day five of a 21-day fast on his behalf and for the persecuted church. Her Facebook page is the best way to follow her progress and prayers.

MACEDONIA: About 1,500 refugees crossed at one border checkpoint in Macedonia this morning, and authorities are debating a fence to stem the flood of Middle Eastern migrants. One woman among the sea of moving humanity is trying to make a difference.

LEBANON: An aid chief working with Syrian and Iraqi refugees there writes, “It is really a flood of refugees coming here, and yet the door for share Jesus Christ is wide open.” More to come.

9/11: Tonight in Baghdad the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra will perform Brahms’ 4th Symphony and Academic Overture. The orchestra “has Christians, Muslims, Yazidis, one Bahai, and even non-believers who do not announce it,” director Karim Wasfi told me, and has continued to perform throughout looming ISIS threats to the capital.

Important remembrances of 9/11 still resonate 14 years later. And then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani reminds Americans the war that came to America that day has a long past, present, and likely future rooted in Islamic extremism.