The Russians Are Here: The war in Syria cranked up a big notch yesterday when Russia conducted and supported combined attacks from the air, land, and sea on anti-government forces. Moscow reported that it fired 26 cruise missiles from ships 900 miles away in the Caspian Sea .

The primary target was rebel forces … not the Islamic State … who pose the biggest threat to President Bashar al-Assad. Russian support allowed government troops to go on the offensive for the first time in years. But video shows rebel forces using American anti-tank missiles to knock out Russian-built Syrian tanks.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has called the Russian offensive “a mistake,” but if it destroys the rebellion and beats back ISIS, it’s a huge victory for Vladimir Putin that makes President Obama look weak.

Permawar: Obama issued a rare presidential apology to Doctors Without Borders for the US air attack on the organization’s hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed 22 people. Although the President said there will be an investigation, DWB is demanding an independent examination of the incident.

Et Tu Hillary?: Hillary Clinton took a major turn on President Obama, announcing that she’s not in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12 country trade deal that could be a landmark of the Obama presidency … if it survives. Clinton said on the “PBS Newshour,” “As of today, I am not in favor of what I have learned about it.”

Clinton said she had hoped for a deal that would bring jobs to American workers, increase pay, and guard against currency value manipulation that might harm American business. Clinton is not outright against the deal … she says she’s waiting to see the final language. But she’s not against undermining her former boss Barack while she waits.

GunBeat: The President is scheduled to meet in Roseburg, Oregon today with families of people killed in last week’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College. While some residents are grieving, there’s been a run at the local gun store by people snapping up weapons for fear that gun rights will be curtailed. It happens every time, even though no significant gun control has resulted after mass shootings.

Red Card: In the midst of criminal investigations, FIFA’s ethics committee has suspended world soccer president Sepp Blatter and other officials from office for 90 days. After working with FIFA since 1975, Blatter will not even be allowed to enter the headquarters in Zurich.

The Prize: Belarusian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature today “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” We had to look up “polyphonic.”

It’s rare for the Nobel committee to name a non-fiction writer. Alexievich has spent her career chronicling life in post-Soviet Russia. Among her books is “Voices from Chernobyl,” about the survivors of the nuclear meltdown in Ukraine in 1986.

Water Hog: In drought-brown California, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez went driving through Bel-Air, looking for the homeowner who’s using 11.8 million gallons of water a year. The LA Dept. of Water & Power confirms there is such a user, but won’t give the name and address.

Lopez writes that, “Nearly 12 million gallons a year breaks down to about 1 million gallons a month and 32,000 gallons a day. That’s enough for 90 average households.” He said, “I saw Tuscan villas, gated palaces and massive estates, many with lawns the size of football fields, lush gardens and forests of trees.

What I did not see was anything brown.”

And in the green opulence of Bel-Air, he was unable to pinpoint the homeowner he dubbed “King Geyser” using the equivalent of 135 one-hour showers every day.