Afghanistan

Moments ago something even more disturbing than the Fed statement took place when a blimp used by NORAD in its surveillance of the east coast has become untethered from its mooring in Maryland and it's now flying somewhere over Pennsylvania, according to NORAD spokesman Lt. Joe Mavrocki.

First it was wildfires, then it was unprecedented flooding, and now it is earthquakes.  In the past two weeks alone, more than 400 earthquakes have shaken San Ramon – a small city that sits approximately 45 miles east of San Francisco.  Never before have so many earthquakes been recorded in that area in such a short span of time. 

• Global shares rise as Riksbank helps ease Fed wait (Reuters)
• Asian Stocks Retreat Before Fed as Material Shares Lead Losses (BBG)
• For Fed, a Rates Puzzle Looms (WSJ)
• What the Superforecasters Say About When the Fed Will Lift Rates (BBG)
• U.S. Looks at Proposals to Step Up Fight Against Islamic State (WSJ)
• China Steel Head Says Demand Slumping at Unprecedented Speed (BBG)
• VW slumps to first quarterly loss in at least 15 years (Reuters)

The head of the UN Human Rights Council is at it again, although this time it appears Saudi warplanes spared the Yemeni wedding parties in favor of a Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital that was completely destroyed along with all of the equipment and supplies inside around 11:30 PM local time. This is latest in a string of "mistakes" and the second tragedy to strike an MSF facility in the last 30 days.

With the US on its heels in the Mid-East in the face of an aggressive Russian air campaign and a resurgent Iran, regional governments are beginning to reassess their loyalties. First it was Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi proclaiming that his country would welcome Russian airstrikes against ISIS, then it was Jordan agreeing to coordinate militarily with Moscow, and now, in the latest embarrassement for the Pentagon, Afghanistan has reached out to Vladimir Putin for artillery, small arms and Mi-35 helicopter gunships. 

• European shares slip as easing expectations fade (Reuters)
• Valeant and Pharmacy More Intertwined Than Thought (WSJ)
• The Pawn Isolated: Valeant, Philidor and the Annals of Fraud (WSJ)
• Strongest Afghan Quake Since 1949 Triggers Search for Survivors (BBG)
• EU Agrees To Tighten Border Controls And Slow Migrant Arrival (AP)
• Volkswagen Suspends More Employees (WSJ)
• Volkswagen Loses Global Sales Lead to Toyota Amid Diesel Scandal (BBG)

"If European leaders fail to agree a plan to counter the sudden inflows of refugees, it could mean the end of the European Union. If we don't find a solution today, if we don't do everything we can today, then it is the end of the European Union as such," Prime Minister Miro Cerar said. "If we don't deliver concrete action, I believe Europe will start falling apart."

"Anyone caught in the vicinity is guilty by association. When a drone strike kills more than one person, there is no guarantee that those persons deserved their fate. … So it’s a phenomenal gamble.”

America is a nation divided, not only upon the means we should use to attain our ends in the world, but upon the ends themselves.

What if the U.S. had not invaded Iraq in 2003? How would things be different in the Middle East today? Was Iraq, in the words of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the "worst foreign policy blunder" in American history? Let's take a big-picture tour of the Middle East and try to answer those questions. But first, a request: after each paragraph that follows, could you make sure to add the question “What could possibly go wrong?”

Trump embodies the American zeitgeist, circa 2015 – its virtues, its vulgarity, its inchoate mixture of common sense and incoherence. You may not like Donald Trump, for any one of a number of reasons, but anti-interventionists have to give him some credit for opening up the presidential debate to a critique of US foreign policy that hasn’t been seen or heard since the Ron Paul campaign.

"The gratuitous labeling of Iran as part of a worldwide “axis of evil” by President Bush combined with strong U.S. criticisms of Iran’s nascent nuclear program and its meddling in Iraq led Tehran to the view that Washington had embarked on a course of confrontation in the region that would soon set a kinetic focus on Iran. Even Iran’s positive engagement in helping repair the post Taliban political environment in Afghanistan was met with indifference by Washington."

If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.

With the ink still damp on voter slips, newly crowned elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasted no time in fulfilling the first of his liberal "hope" and "change" promises. As AFP reports, hours after defeating Stephen Harper, Trudeau has told US President Obama that he will withdraw Canadian fighter jets from Syria and Iraq, though giving no timeline. So far, the US response is a mutedly diplomatic but tinged with guilt, "We have stood shoulder to shoulder with Canadian armed forces... in Iraq and Afghanistan," from the US State Department.