SYRIA: The White Helmets who won an Oscar last night are referenced locally as “the Al-Nusra White Helmets” because they are long-aligned with the Islamic rebel-terrorist group and earned their reputation for daring rescues primarily in rebel- and terrorist-controlled Eastern Aleppo.

RUSSIA: The U.S. intelligence community “is confident that the Russian government directed the recent compromises of emails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organizations.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavros today denied the claim.

YEMEN: The Obama administration approved $1.3 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year, despite warnings from legal advisers the sale could implicate the United States—and U.S. military personnel—in war crimes over the Saudi-led air assault on Yemen. Typically, secretaries of defense and state and the director of intelligence sign off on such arms sales, and at that scale and with this tightly controlled White House, with presidential assent.

SYRIA: Islamic State militants marked Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday known as the “festival of the sacrifice,” by hanging prisoners upside down from meat hooks and “butchering them like sheep” in a gruesome new execution video.

9/11: President Obama will mark the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, while Hillary Clinton plans to visit Ground Zero in New York. Obama faces a dilemma over 9/11 legislation the House passed this morning. Both parties support the legislation, which would allow 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S.

The Mafia, in its heyday, ran lucrative protection rackets. Pay them and your business would be kept safe from “unforeseen” threats. Don’t pay them and your business might go up in smoke with you inside.

Today, things are more sophisticated.

IRAQ: Iraqi forces retook Ramadi from ISIS last week and now face the monumental task of rebuilding both the city and its devastated population.