Patrick deHahn
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From reuters:
Obama gives major foreign policy speech: President Barack Obama plans to limit the use of U.S. drone strikes and close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Obama also asked the Attorney General to report on how the Department of Justice investigates the media. The report is due by July 12, 2013.
Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing
AFRICA
M23 rebels announce ceasefire near Goma as UN’s Ban Ki-moon visits DR Congo (Reuters)
Suicide bombings in Niger kill at least 17 soldiers (BBC News)
AMERICAS
Secretary of State Kerry may make bid to restart Middle East peace talks (NYTimes)
ASIA
Car bomb in Pakistan kills eleven police officers and one civilian (AP)
Malaysia police arrest opposition figures in crackdown (Reuters)
Iran says a new report by the IAEA shows its nuclear drive is “peaceful” (AFP)
North Korea says they are willing to take China’s advice to start talks (Reuters)
EUROPE
European banks stop sending money to North Korea, aid groups say (Reuters)
Sweden’s Stockholm continues to experience riots through city (NYTimes)
France backs call to put Hezbollah armed wing on EU terror list (Reuters)
MIDDLE EAST
In clashes, five killed and 50 wounded in Lebanon’s Tripoli (Reuters)
Former head of Syria’s opposition puts forward a new proposal on governing Syria (Al Jazeera)
A solid primer to catch up on what evolved last night:
Josh Rogin reports on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s approval of a bill to arm the rebels.
While not the defining legislation at this point, the proposal was approved last night by a Senate panel 15-3 and will be brought to the full Senate for a vote.
Even after it has the chance of passing through the Senate, it is not clear what opposition group fighting against the Syrian government will receive American arms. That will be a tough one to tackle.
Something to watch. Definitely give Rogin’s writing a read through.
Writers with TomDispatch writes on “how America became a third world country.” They cite the unsettling political sphere in America with the poor economy and the new society America has. Give it a read here.
A Guardian editorial takes angle that “having rejected the option of talking to Assad, neither the US nor Britain can lead from behind.” The conflict has gone on for two years now and there hasn’t been a solid attempt to talk to Assad, as this editorial points out, and what actions can superpowers take when rejecting such talks?
Things to watch today: Egypt with a possible million man march against its president Morsi, Syria with its conflict unraveling and international relations regarding the war occurring there. Follow @patrickdehahn for updates all day.
MIDDLE EAST
Turkey detains a new prime suspect in car bombings near their country’s Syrian border (Reuters)
United Nations’ UNCHR say that more than 1.5 million people have fled Syria since January of this year (Reuters)
Bahrain’s opposition say security forces raided top cleric’s house (Reuters)
AFRICA
A new revolutionary group in Egypt says they have collected millions of signatures against their president Morsi (Al Jazeera)
Nigerian forces bomb Islamist rebel camps using jets and attack helicopters in the northeastern part of their country (Reuters)
ASIA
Two bombings hit mosques in Pakistan killed twelve people after Friday prayers (Al Jazeera)
Myanmar frees 23 political prisoners before President Thein Sein leaves to visit the United States (Reuters)
Philippine “massacre clan” enjoys election wins, even with their historic political crimes (AFP)
AMERICAS
Obama pins hopes on more peace talks regarding Syria, while maintaining a cautious approach (The Guardian)
Guantanamo hunger strike reaches 100th day (CNN)
The Alaskan village, Newtok, is losing to the ferocious sea at a dangerous rate. The state has presented an option to move its its population to a new area while “an entire community will cease to exist and the villagers will become America’s first climate refugees.”
‘But as U.S. president for the last 4-1/2 years,Barack Obama has faced accusation after accusation of impinging on civil liberties, disappointing his liberal Democratic base and providing fodder for rival Republicans as he deals with the realities of office.
News in the past week of the federal seizure of phone records from the Associated Press news agency and the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative Tea Party groups, has intensified criticism already simmering over the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and aerial drone strikes abroad.
Asked at a news conference on Tuesday why the administration had not done more for civil liberties, Attorney General Eric Holder said: “I’m proud of what we have done” and emphasized the administration’s shift from Bush era harsh interrogation practices of terrorism suspects that had drawn international criticism.
When he took office in 2009, Obama promised to close the Guantanamo camp for foreign terrorism suspects, but it remains open with 166 detainees, many on hunger strikes in protest at indefinite detentions. Obama said last month he would revisit that pledge and blamed Congress for blocking his plan to close the camp, partly through restrictions on transfers of detainees.
The administration has defended its aerial drone strikes abroad, which have included targeting a U.S.-born terrorism suspect, as essential to the fight against al Qaeda and other militants in places such as Pakistan and Yemen.’
(Reuters)
![From Reuters: Americans want the U.S. to keep out of Syria conflict
Most Americans do not want the United States to intervene in Syria’s civil war even if the government there uses chemical weapons, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday, in a clear message to the White House as it considers how to respond to the worsening crisis.
Only 10 percent of those surveyed in the online poll said the United States should become involved in the fighting. Sixty-one percent opposed getting involved.
The figure favoring intervention rose to 27 percent when respondents were asked what the United States should do if President Bashar al-Assad’s forces used chemical weapons. Forty-four percent would be opposed.
“Particularly given Afghanistan and the 10th anniversary of Iraq, there is just not an appetite for intervention,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.
The rebellion against Assad’s government has resulted in 70,000 dead and created more than 1.2 million refugees since it erupted in 2011.
Read on.
[Photo: A Syrian boy plays with an AK-47 rifle owned by his father from REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/e46e7049a0045c0dc4a04b2bb1bc68b4/tumblr_mm6drxC0Do1qmaoalo1_500.jpg)
From Reuters: Americans want the U.S. to keep out of Syria conflict
Most Americans do not want the United States to intervene in Syria’s civil war even if the government there uses chemical weapons, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday, in a clear message to the White House as it considers how to respond to the worsening crisis.
Only 10 percent of those surveyed in the online poll said the United States should become involved in the fighting. Sixty-one percent opposed getting involved.
The figure favoring intervention rose to 27 percent when respondents were asked what the United States should do if President Bashar al-Assad’s forces used chemical weapons. Forty-four percent would be opposed.
“Particularly given Afghanistan and the 10th anniversary of Iraq, there is just not an appetite for intervention,” said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark.
The rebellion against Assad’s government has resulted in 70,000 dead and created more than 1.2 million refugees since it erupted in 2011.
[Photo: A Syrian boy plays with an AK-47 rifle owned by his father from REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic]
AMERICAS
United States sends extra medics to prison Guantanamo Bay as two-thirds (100) detainees go on hunger strike
Secretary of State John Kerry seeks to build Arab support for some form of Israeli-Palestinian peace, as Arab League softens peace plan
Mexico ends open relationship with United States security agencies in fight against drugs and organized crime
EUROPE
Cyprus parliament decides on a bailout plan with a thin majority that voted yes
Italy minister says they want to renegotiate their stability pact; new premier to push growth agenda in Europe
Spain sinks even deeper into national recession in first quarter
MIDDLE EAST
Huge explosion in Damascus kills 13, wounds another 70, Syrian state TV reports
Syrian opposition frustrated with level of outside support
Israel carries out first deadly airstrike in Gaza since November truce, killing one Palestinian
Turkey taking special precautions when treating Syrians after chemical weapons allegations
AFRICA
Database tracks China’s secretive aid to Africa
Egypt walks out of round of global nuclear talks in protest
Gunmen surround Libyan justice ministry again for the third day, demand expulsion of officials from ousted regime
ASIA
Siri Lankan government now intensifying crackdown on journalists, judiciary, activists, Amnesty reports
China says they detained 19 and seized weapons after Xinjiang unrest
United States and South Korea finish up joint military drills in hopes to ease North Korea tensions
Malaysia braces for tight election
Thai security chief dismisses southern rebels’ demands
An op-ed from a hunger striker Guantánamo Bay, sharing details on his case and his force feedings, citing that “the situation is desperate now.”
From reuters:
Warren Andrews had just finished putting up balloons for his stepdaughter’s 18th birthday party at their suburban home in Mayflower, Arkansas, when his wife came inside and said something was wrong. After stepping out of his house, and taking one glance, he immediately dialed 911.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got a river of oil coming down the street at me,” Andrews told the operator. Five minutes later, the slick of noxious black crude spewing from a ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline was eight feet wide, six inches deep and growing fast.
In this photo, spilled oil from Exxon pipeline runs through a neighborhood in Mayflower, Arkansas on March 29, 2013. Reuters was recently given access to the photo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“These are concepts belonging to an era that came to an end more than two decades ago, yet continue to serve as the foundations of U.S.-Egypt relations. They were outdated even before the uprising that toppled Mubarak. Washington could always tell itself that the aging autocrat was an asset because he kept the Suez Canal open, maintained the peace with Israel, and kept the Islamists down. But following the political turmoil of the past two years and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, that faulty logic is even clearer — President Mohamed Morsy, after all, hasn’t moved to overturn the regional political order or challenge the peace treaty with Israel. As the Cold War has receded from memory, American policymakers have had a hard time articulating the rationale for an increasingly outmoded relationship. They have been left sputtering about ‘wanting what Egyptians want,’ or leaving well enough alone because the relationship ‘worked.’” Whew.
Wealth inequality in the United States
