McCarthy drops out of House speaker race, chaos ensues

House Majority leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race to be current speaker John Boehner’s successor last Thursday. The unexpected move by McCarthy has thrown the House into madness.

“I think I shocked some of you, huh?” McCarthy said to CNN reporters following the decision.

Bohner is set to step down from his position at the end of this month and McCarthy was the major frontrunner in the race. With Boehner and McCarthy’s actions and no clear successor, the obvious divide within the Republican party is only being furthered. In less than a month Congress must take action to raise the debt ceiling in order to keep the US from defaulting on its debt obligations. In the past conservatives tried to stall this critical vote in order to pull concessions from Democrats. With the uncertainty revolving around the House GOP, Congress’ future is unclear.

Explosions hit Turkish protests

Two powerful bombs exploded at a peace rally near the main train station in Ankara on Saturday morning, killing at least 95 people and wounding 246 others in the deadliest attack on the Turkish Capital in years. Most of the victims were attending a lunchtime demonstration calling for an end to the renewed conflict between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Turkish government. About 14,000 people were in the area. Two suicide bombers are believed to have caused the blasts, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a televised address to the nation.

“I lost two of my friends,” eyewitness Murat Tasdemir said to a BBC reporter. “They are now dead. Many of my friends are wounded. We had to carry the dead and the injured to the ambulances ourselves.”

Afghan President orders investigation into fall of Kunduz

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appointed investigators to look into the the Taliban’s brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz, as well as a US airstrike that destroyed a hospital and killed 22 people, according to the Associated Press. The US says last Saturday’s bombing was a mistake; it came amid efforts to reverse a Taliban takeover of Kunduz. Security forces say they have spent the past few days cleaning up Taliban remnants and fighting has been largely confined to the outskirts.