Wildfires in Northern California have left at least 23 dead and have destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses. The fire was indiscriminate, burning anything flammable in its path and has destroyed 115,000 acres so far.

The Spanish region of Catalonia edges ever closer to declaring independence, and the Spanish government’s opposition has grown even stauncher. The independence leaders have been given until October 16th to back down, but that appears unlikely at the moment. The Spanish Prime Minister has suggested invoking Article 155 of the Spanish constitution. Article 155 would allow the Prime Minister to fire the entire Catalan regional government and call new elections; this is highly controversial in Spain and it has never been invoked before.

Hurricane Ophelia became the tenth consecutively named Tropical Storm to develop into a Hurricane this hurricane season, which ties a record which has lasted for more than a century. And we still have roughly a month and a half of hurricane season ahead of us.

Austria is holding elections for their Nationalrat, in English National Council, this Sunday. Despite their left wing party winning the presidential election in December of 2016, many are projecting this election to swing in favor of Austria’s right wing parties of the FPO and the OVP.

President of Russia, Vladimir Putin turned 65 over the weekend. As a birthday gift from the president of the ex-Soviet nation of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Putin was given a puppy: a Central Asian Shepard. World leaders gifting each other is fairly common, and Putin himself has received many pets as gifts before, usually dogs but occasionally more exotic specimen such as a tiger.