Today's edition of quick hits:
* CDC: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it's moved a team of experienced experts in to help a Dallas hospital where a nurse became infected with Ebola to improve 'every step in the process.' And they'll send in a special response team to help any hospital in the future that gets an Ebola patient."
* This just got more complicated: "Turkish fighter jets struck Kurdish insurgent positions in southeastern Turkey on Monday, shaking the country's fragile peace process with the Kurds and demonstrating the complexities surrounding the American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, which Turkey is under heavy pressure to join."
* W.H.O.: "The World Health Organization reported sobering new figures Tuesday about the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa, saying the mortality rate had risen to 70 percent and that the number of new cases could reach 10,000 per week by December."
* Germany: "A United Nations medical worker who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite 'intensive medical procedures,' a German hospital said Tuesday. The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection. It released no further details and did not answer telephone calls."
* Iran: "Iranian President Hassan Rouhani took to the nation's airwaves on Monday night to proclaim that a nuclear deal with the West will be signed ahead of a deadline in late November. 'We will find a solution to the nuclear subject and we believe that the two sides will certainly reach a win-win agreement,' said Rouhani, according to Iranian broadcaster Press TV."
* Hong Kong: "Police used chain saws and sledgehammers to clear away barricades around protest sites and reopen several major roads in Hong Kong on Tuesday, appearing to gain the upper hand for the first time since pro-democracy protests began late last month."
* North Korea: "After vanishing from the public eye for nearly six weeks, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is back, ending rumors that he was gravely ill, deposed or worse. Now, a new, albeit smaller, mystery has emerged: Why the cane?"
* Good: "Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife announced Tuesday they are donating $25 million to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control foundation to fight the Ebola crisis that has killed more than 4,440 people in west Africa."
* I was looking forward to the lame-duck fight. Oh well: "President Obama has decided to wait until after next month's midterm elections to nominate a replacement for Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., White House officials said on Tuesday, effectively ensuring that the choice does not get mired in campaign politics."
* Maybe someone should do something: "Last month was the warmest September globally since records began being kept in 1880, NASA reported Sunday. January through September data have 2014 already at the third warmest on record. Projections by NOAA make clear 2014 is taking aim at hottest year on record."
* Gary Hart tells the Denver Post's confused editorial board what it doesn't want to hear, though the editors should take the former senator's concerns seriously.
* What a story out of Iowa: "Kent Sorenson, the former Iowa state senator who pleaded guilty last summer to criminal charges connected to his role in two presidential campaigns, violated his probation last month by failing a drug test" (thanks to reader Z.D. for the tip).
* And we’re still working on our new Whip Count project. We’re keeping a running tally of members of Congress who want to return to session – cutting their vacation short – in order to vote on authorizing military intervention against ISIS. I hope you’ll take a look and keep us posted.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.