In this photo provided by Britain's Royal Air Force and taken Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014, a Russian military long range bomber aircraft photographed by an intercepting RAF quick reaction Typhoon flies in international airspace. Royal Air Force

Why Russia Is Buzzing NATO -- Marc Champion, National Post Wire Services

In a single 24-hour period this week, Russia dispatched 19 combat aircraft — including “Bear” strategic bombers — to probe North Atlantic Treaty Organization air defences. It also test-launched a ballistic missile in the Barents Sea, north of Sweden, that hit a target in Kamchatka in Russia’s Far East.

The flurry of activity recalls the bad old days of the Cold War; NATO has had to scramble to intercept Russian jets more than 100 times this year, three times more often than in all of 2013. So what exactly are President Vladimir Putin and his generals trying to achieve? They aren’t saying, but they appear to have multiple goals, all related:

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- November 1, 2014

Turkish military angered by Ankara’s peshmerga move -- Semih Sadiz, Al-Monitor

Kobane is a gift to Assad -- James Denselow, Al Jazeera

Jerusalem lurches towards open conflict over Temple Mount -- Christa Case Bryant, CSM

Stop Funding Terror, Qatar -- Telegraph editorial

Iran poised to choose poverty over nuclear disarmament -- Ray Takeyh, Washington Post

Everything you need to know on Burkina Faso crisis: Timeline, basic facts -- RT

Why Burkina Faso matters to US counterterrorism efforts in Africa -- Ryan Lenora Brown, CSM

Is China Trying to Mend Fences With Japan? -- Bruce Einhorn, Bloomberg Businessweek

Conflict in South Sudan Escalates With Return of Dry Season -- Samuel Oakford, VICE News

Preparing for ‘APEC War’ in China -- Didi Kirsten Tatlow, NYT

Is China's grand ethnic experiment working? -- David McKenzie, CNN

Europe to pay for the whole mess in Ukraine -- RT

Europe is drifting and divided. This feels more like 1914 than 2014 -- Guardian editorial

Shake, rattle, and voter rolls: The new politics in Europe, US -- CSM editorial

The WHO’s Big Asterisk on Liberia’s Ebola Case Decrease -- Abby Haglage, Daily Beast

Virgin Galactic: What's known so far about SpaceShipTwo disaster -- Brad Knickerbocker, CSM