PUTIN VERSUS PUTIN: From Radio Free Europe: “The emperor is at war with his inner godfather. The autocrat is battling his inner kleptocrat. The commissar is struggling with his inner crime kingpin.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: My latest New York Observer column, Trump’s Mexican Trade Show (bumped). President Pena invited Hillary but she didn’t show. The essay mulls her no-show. Given her performance in the FBI interview she may have feared she’d short-circuit at the press conference.

TURKEY AND THE EU TALK: Post-coup rapprochement? Diplo-speak riddles this Reuters’ report, but getting back to getting along is the general idea. Just remember Erdogan used the coup to solidify his own power and he’s also buddying up with Putin and making nice nice with China. Here’s Turkish EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik speaking diplo-speak: “As a result of the meeting, there is very strong consensus about focusing on a positive agenda and further enhancing cooperation between Turkey and the EU.”

That’s exemplary diplo-speak.

More:

The European Union, which depends on Ankara to keep a lid on the movement of migrants to the bloc, had hoped the meeting would ease tensions with Turkey. Celik said Ankara would stick to the migration accord but that the security situation meant it was not realistic to expect the Turkish government to relax its counter-terrorism laws now, as is required by the EU to grant visa-free travel to Turkey. He did not rule out, however, that that could be done in the future and said Ankara was ready for talks on that with the Council of Europe, a European human rights body of which Turkey is a member.

DRILLING INTO A SUPER VOLCANO: The concept isn’t particularly controversial. If you know more about the geologic structure you can predict the time and intensity of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes more accurately. However, this drilling project near Naples, Italy is controversial. Millions of people live near the drilling site. What if the drilling causes an eruption? “In Naples, the media-fanned controversy over the drilling project momentarily sharpened the ambient danger of living between two volcanoes.” Yup, Neapolitans already live between two volcanoes.

THE NUMBER OF US TROOPS IN IRAQ CONTINUES TO INCREASE: This Reuters report says US troop strength is “approaching” 5,000. There are reasons to believe the real figure is slightly higher, perhaps 6,000. See, some troops are temporarily assigned, or they are replacing other troops, or rotating with other troops, etc. US commanders recommended keeping 10,000 to 20,000 US troops in Iraq as a “night light” but Obama rejected the recommendation.

THE STARS AND STRIPES: Rise in F/A-18 crashes due to budget cuts. Over-used aircraft and under-trained pilots.

SOMETHING FROM NOTHING: Physics and “the question of being.” The article includes a discussion of quantum maggots. Good read.

THE MEXICO MEET-UP AS RABBIT-OUT-OF-THE-HAT ELECTIONEERING MAGIC: My latest Observer column (bumped). Ed just compared Trump to a scrambling quarterback. He is that. In Mexico City he picked up a big first down.

FBI RELEASES HILLARY EMAIL REPORT: The report summarizes her interview. PDFs with the documents are here.

YAHOO NEWS: “For truly undecided voters, the stagecraft was probably persuasive…” Yes.

PALEONTOLOGY: Unusual pterosaur fossil has been discovered in Patagonia. The skull is intact. “It’s rare to find an intact pterosaur braincase, according to the researchers, and little has been known about the way pterosaur skulls (and thus brains) evolved over time.”

ANDERSON COOPER HAS NO BUSINESS MODERATING A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: If someone has to ask why, here’s why.

WHAT TRUMP DID FOR PENA: My latest Observer column. (bumped)

BYE BYE REPRESENTATIVE CORRINE BROWN (D-FLORIDA): Crooked Corrine faced 24 counts of fraud. She lost in the Florida primary election held earlier this week.

COMBATING THE ZIKA VIRUS WITH A LIMITED MOSQUITO CONTROL ARSENAL: Reuters reports parts of Miami have been sprayed with “naled, a tightly controlled pesticide often used as a last resort.” Naled kills mosquitoes but it has environmental risks. “Few companies make pesticides for use in public health outbreaks, a niche market that is expensive to get into, has a limited upside and varies season to season.” EPA restrictions and regulations are one reason developing new pesticides is slow. “Even if the EPA speeds up its evaluation, required safety data can take years to collect.” What does safety testing a new pesticide cost? “…up to $250 million and (it can) take 10 years…”

MY LATEST NEW YORK OBSERVER COLUMN: Trump’s Mexican Trade Show, live from Mexico City.

OF COURSE HE DID. Jonathan Tobin in Commentary says Iran cheated on the nuclear deal and Obama let Tehran get away with it. “…we now know that the assurances about compliance were rooted in fiction. The exemptions granted to Iran mean that almost everything President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have said about the Iran deal since January was a lie.”

THE TRUMP-PENA INTERNATIONAL TRADE SHOW: Hey, it was a win-win deal.

TRUMP MAY MEET WITH MEXICAN PRESIDENT PENA: Donald Trump and President Enrique Pena Nieto may be able to do one another a favor. We’ll have to see if this actually pans out and then mull the photo ops and soundbites. However, this could be an example of the kind of rabbit-out-of-the-hat electioneering magic Democrats fear Donald Trump can pull. So, here’s the background to this wild scenario. Pena is currently under a heckuva lot of political pressure. The Iguala Massacre (September 2014) marked a political sea change in Mexico. StrategyPage.com has been covering Pena’s political slide ever since. (This update summarizes the cumulative effects. But other updates in the Mexico section back it up with sad details.) The Iguala Massacre became “a national example of ‘impunity’ — which means the government and political elites ability to escape responsibility and punishment for crimes, corruption, criminal neglect of duty and gross mismanagement.” If this sounds like Hillary Clinton escaping punishment for her criminal mishandling of classified information, well, I report, you decide. Pena’s own ethical failures haunt him. Oh, he doesn’t think he has ethical failures, but a lot of Mexican citizens certainly do. The Bottom Political Line For This Still Hypothetical Political Encounter That May Or May Not Come Off: Meeting Donald Trump gives President Pena the opportunity to look like he’s standing up for Mexico and going man to man with a mouthy Yankee tough guy. As for Mr. Trump — he gets to make the case he isn’t anti-anyone. He’s for legal immigration. He’ll talk and deal with anyone, straight up. Art of the Deal, y’know. As for HIllary? Hillary can stuff the KKK and all the standard issue Democrat racism accusations up her Benghazi.

SHUT UP JOHN KERRY SAID: Here’s Sec State John Kerry’s quote from Bangladesh: “…perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn’t cover it (terrorism) quite as much.” Will lib media do his bidding? This career Democrat mediocrity really thinks Media Privilege is his due.

ATHLETES AND CONCUSSIONS: Keep playing or come out? This article discusses a comparative study of the recovery times of high school football players who suffered concussions in contact sports.

High school athletes who kept playing in the minutes after a concussion took nearly twice as long to recover as those who left the game immediately after the head trauma, a new study shows…The sample included 35 athletes who were removed from games right after getting a concussion and compared their symptoms and recovery to 34 athletes who kept playing in the game or match after taking a hit. The study found that players who stayed in the game after head trauma took an average of 44 days to recover. By comparison, athletes who left a game immediately after signs of concussion took only an average of 22 days to recover. While there were no meaningful differences in recovery time among girls or boys, and no differences by sport, that may be because of the size of the study. Researchers say that while the sample size was small and involved just one clinic, the results clearly highlight the importance of physical and cognitive rest promptly following concussion.

Additional point: “The study authors acknowledged that their data did not show whether the athletes who kept playing following concussion suffered additional head impacts or simply continued physical exertion.”

YEMEN REBELS FIRE BALLISTIC MISSILES AT SAUDI ARABIA: The missiles are battlefield missiles the rebels captured from Yemen government stocks.

Excerpt:

The Saudis know they are vulnerable to one of those rebel ballistic missiles hitting a major oil facility. That would be a major blow to Arab resolve because this is the threat Iran has long posed. The American and Israeli firms that supply anti-missile systems have told senior Arab leaders that there is always a small chance a missile will get through. During the current campaign Saudi Patriot anti-missile systems have intercepted all rebel ballistic missiles aimed at important (lots of people or oil facilities) targets.

Also:

Two years of fighting between Shia rebels and the elected Yemeni government is believed to have cost Yemen over $14 billion in economic losses, over 6,500 dead and driven nearly three million people from their homes.

Read the whole thing.

FOUR STATES WITH MASSIVE OBAMACARE COST INCREASES: The article discusses four states (Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky and Georgia) where approximately one in four people “covered with Obamacare plans or other individual market plans will see sizable price increases.” Get this: “More Obamacare rate increases will trickle out over the next few weeks, with the healthcare law’s fourth enrollment season set to begin Nov. 1.” This is an election issue — or it should be. A loud election issue. “If you like your doctor you can keep your…well, never mind.”

AIRCRAFT RESTORATION: The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum restores a World War 2 German “flying wing.” The US Army captured the Horten Ho 229 V3 jet prototype in April 1945. The restoration process included an analysis of the airplane’s potential stealth capabilities.

MY LATEST NY OBSERVER ESSAY: The Clinton State-Foundation’s Global Bribery and Crony Access Scam. No wonder she started calling Trump a racist. Hillary had to get the media to change the subject. (Bumped from yesterday).