Globe Trot: Ukraine says Russian tanks rolling in

UKRAINE: The Ukrainian military said Russia today has sent a column of 32 tanks and truckloads of troops into the country’s east to support pro-Russian separatists fighting government forces. WORLD Magazine’s Jill Nelson reports from eastern Ukraine on the toll in Slovyansk, including on churches and a church-run orphanage, when Russian-backed separatists moved in.

NORWAY: On Saturday, a remarkable array of parliamentarians from around the world will gather in Oslo to discuss how to combat rising religious persecution. At 3 p.m. central European time (9 a.m. EST), they are expected to sign the Charter on Freedom of Religion or Belief, livestreamed here.

UN: Officials believe satellite imagery may save lives in global conflicts. That’s not certain in the absence of international intervention, but the before-and-after images are compelling. See the images from September and October (and be sure to drag the cursor across for full effect) of the flight from Kobani, the Syrian border town overtaken by ISIS.

KURDISTAN: The ongoing displacement of Christians forced into northern Iraq is “a disaster in the making,” warns one Kurdish expert. “Winterization of the tent cities is the most essential and urgent issue for the refugees. … But how’s that going to happen in a month’s time?”

ISIS: The high cost of fighting the Islamic State has President Barack Obama, who said the United States wasn’t going back to Iraq, asking Congress for $3.2 billion to do just that.

IRAN: Obama wrote a secret letter to Iran’s leader seeking cooperation in the battle against or ISIS. Obama stressed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that such cooperation was contingent on Iran reaching a comprehensive agreement with global powers on the future of Tehran’s nuclear program by Nov. 24. Seems there’s a middle ground somewhere between going hat-in-hand and House Speaker John Boehner’s dismissive, “I don’t think we need to bring them into this.” Quite obviously, the ayatollahs are in it.

I’M READING: The Great and Holy War by Philip Jenkins, a provocative look at how religion drove the horror of World War I.