Globe Trot: Will Iranians elect the moderates Washington wants?

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IRAN: With high turnout, voting has been extended in Iran’s parliamentary elections. But Iranian dissidents remind us the government can announce any number of voters—there’s no way to verify in the absence of independent monitoring. And photos being posted on Twitter show scant turnout at many polling places.

What’s significant to watch this time is whether the “appeasement-plus policy” of the Obama administration (in the words of former Iranian newspaper editor Amir Taheri) means Washington will tout official results, and whether moderates can be elected in the numbers Washington hopes.

SYRIA: With a(nother) cessation of hostilities agreement set to begin in a matter of hours, not even President Barack Obama seems to believe it will happen.

Neither does Ukraine’s foreign minister—as Russia continues to pound rebel-held (not ISIS) areas—and he should know. In Syria, 200 nonprofit organizations have written Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to take his brutal forces out of Syria, now.

ARGENTINA: Yesterday special prosecutor Ricardo Saenz declared murder as the likely cause of death for Alberto Nisman, the well-known prosecutor found dead in his home a year ago. Saenz also requested the investigation be transferred to federal court—which observers say could lead to charges brought against the former president, Cristina Kirchner.

VENEZUELA: Bread and bottled water are in short supply, even as Venezuela appears to be making good on meeting a deadline today to pay $1.5 billion in bond debt.

WEEKEND LONG READ: His work declassified 40 years after the fall of Saigon, a signals intelligence officer details what surveillance and war-fighting was like in another era.

Mindy Belz

Mindy, a former senior editor for WORLD Magazine, wrote the publication’s first cover story in 1986. She has covered wars in Syria, Afghanistan, Africa, and the Balkans and is author of They Say We Are Infidels: On the Run From ISIS With Persecuted Christians in the Middle East. Mindy resides in Asheville, N.C.

@MindyBelz