Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who championed veterans causes and made several unsuccessful bids for the presidency, has died from complications of brain cancer. He was 81.

At least 50 people died in an airstrike Thursday by the U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition in the rebel-controlled region of Yemen, according to local media. The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that the strike hit a civilian bus in the northern Saada governorate and at least 29 children were among the dead. Approximately 77 people were injured, reported Yemen’s rebel Al Masirah television. Coalition spokesman Col.

The Syrian government is bombarding the town of Nawa, determined to retake the largest opposition holdout in the country’s southwest. At least a dozen people died and more than 100 were wounded in the densely populated town. The government launched at least 350 missiles on Nawa and surrounding areas after talks to cede the town failed Tuesday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan on Tuesday rejected claims that the United States was open to negotiating with the Taliban to end the country’s 17-year war. The Taliban has repeatedly rejected direct talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, asking instead to talk with U.S. negotiators. “The United States is not a substitute for the Afghan people or the Afghan government,” mission commander Gen. John Nicholson said in a statement.

Syrian officials on Thursday raised the country’s flag over the southern city of Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that led to the country’s seven-year civil war began. Syrian state television said officials mounted the flag at the ruins of the city square. Anti-government protests began in the city during the 2011 Arab Spring, and Assad’s government responded with a military crackdown. Ahmad Masalmeh, an activist formerly in Daraa, said many rebels in the city accepted the government’s amnesty offer. Those who refused the deal will face exile, he said.

This is Congo: Mortar rounds fired from a military truck scream in flight, sending villagers on a dirt road diving into the brush for cover. A water tanker pulls into a tent-strewn displacement camp, where a throng carrying buckets and pans rushes to meet it. A woman takes a bag of semiprecious gemstones by motorcycle across the border for an illegal transaction.

We will celebrate this coming Wednesday the work of a brilliant writer, Declaration of Independence author Thomas Jefferson. Here’s what’s less known: Jefferson worked hard at writing because he was a lousy speaker. I’ll discuss that, then note his way of neutralizing Christian opponents, then look at his small government principles and his pacifism in regard to Britain—and how that worked out. He’s a fascinating figure.