Analysts describe deals struck by Turkey and Russia, and by Turkey and Iran, that could be game changers in Syria, and more in our foreign policy roundup.

In the aftermath of the attacks in Paris, numerous American Muslims or U.S. citizens, who have brown skin, live in fear of what might happen if they go out in public. There have been several reported hate crimes. One mosque was vandalized by a ripped up Quran covered in feces.

In the aftermath of the Paris attacks and blasts in Beirut, it seems very likely that Western countries will overreact and play into the hands of the Islamic State. It is also clear there will be little reflection on how Western countries, including France, created a climate that fueled the

President Barack Obama’s administration has apparently expanded covert drone operations in Syria in order to strike leaders of the Islamic State. But the expansion is destined to fail as much as previous operations in other countries, which have only fueled the rise of violent extremism.

The population of the Palestinian refugee camp in Yarmouk, on the southern outskirts of Damascus, was once around 200,000 people. A brutal siege by the Syrian regime and an occupation by fighters from the al Qaida arm in Syria and the Islamic State dramatically reduced that number to 18,000 in March. Now, it is somewhere between 5,000 and 8,000 people, according to journalist Patrick Strickland.