The top news stories to me were the Civil War in Syria, and Barack Obama contemplating sending over military support, the on-going investigation of the Boston Bombing, and the three news suspects.
The civil unrest in Syria has been a consistent top news story with the most recent one about the Israeli missile strike. The strike was allegedly to stop weapons being transported. The second major Syrian story involved Syria’s use of chemical weapons. Other major stories include the building collapse in Bangladesh and the hunger strike that caused a prison revolt in Guantanamo Bay. In Europe, the economic recession is slowly creeping to northern countries such as France and Germany. Germany has seen a decrease in exports of its Mercedes car which is a large part of its economy. In the U.S., the Boston bombing is a big news story with new information suggesting that the brothers planned to attack Times Square and an investigation is currently on going with the brother’s, who was shot by FBI officers, wife. Also in the U.S., the Supreme Court backs a restriction of who can access state records. This limits people from out of State ability to ask for state information. This will limit national publications ability to fully investigate events in other states than their home state. In New York, the Mayoral race rages on with Christine Quinn, Bill de Blasio, John Liu and William Thompson remaining the top candidates.
One of the first stories I can think of is President Obama’s vow to shut down the Guantanamo Bay Prison. However, the president has failed to do so with help of Congress and the detainees that remain in the prison have chosen to engage in a hunger strike. The military personnel in the prison have taken to force feeding the detainees stating they will not ‘watch prisoners kill themselves’. The hunger strike is a result of the several years detainees have sat in the off the grid prison without being charged of any crime or even receiving a trial. Some detainees still choose to eat with out the force of the U.S. Military while others are force fed through a tube inserted through their nostril.
The 2ND story I have found interesting is the military induced massacre in Nigeria. There appears to be a civil struggle in Nigeria between the Nigerian Military and the rebel group Boko Haram. According the times over 180 village residents where killed when Nigerian military forces engaged the rebel group in combat of the coast of Lake Chad. Residents that survived the massacre said the soldiers would set fire to homes and as the residents would run out they would gun them down, even throwing children back into the flames of the burning homes. Nigerian soldiers claim it was the Boko Haram rebel group that set the fires.
3rd story: John Lui’s mayoral campaign may be at stake after 2 former associates of his were convicted for tampering with campaign finances. Many believe the scandal could cost Lui the mayoral seat, however Lui has chose to continue his run for office although it is believed he was aware of the scheme.
The first story that I know has been gaining more ground in news outlets is the Guantanamo Detainees. The prisoners have been conducting a hunger strike since February, in protest of their indefinite detention and the raid of personal items in their cells that was committed by the U.S. Army. The pressure is on for Pres. Obama to release them and end this entire crisis.
The mayoral race is still making headlines with the latest televised debate, that centered around the discussion of public safety.
The latest with uprising and civil war in Syria is the majority of the American public not supporting the need of military support to Syrian rebels. 62% of Americans feel that American military does not have the responsibility to intervene between government and anti-government groups in Syria. Pres. Obama has also expressed his reluctance to militarily intervene in Syria
Pres. Obama has visited Mexico and of course the big topic of discussion was immigration. Though Mexico’s president, Pena Nieto, has been very quiet on the ongoing immigration reform debates in the U.S.
There was an article in the paper yesterday about Israel bombing Syria. The title is “Israel Bombs Syria as U.S. Considers Its Own Military Options.” I think this is important because it shows how hard Obama is trying to stay civil with everyone and in every aspect. Obama stated that he wanted to remain out of the situation, and when asked if things went further, what he would do, he went on to explain there needed to be several questions answered, even at that point, he probably wouldn’t resort to any sort of military action. It also shows how difficult bombings and wars can be; as well as how easily the US can be dragged in…
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/world/middleeast/syria.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
One story I’ve been watching carefully is the story about the building collapse in Bangladesh, which killed hundreds of textile workers. Why should we care? Think about the U.S. and European companies that manufacture clothing in Bangladesh. What are the implications…
As the hunger strike continues in Guantanamo Bay, different sources take different ways of portraying how president Obama is reacting to the issue of whether the prison should be shut down or not. Recent hunger strikes from the inmates have raised issues whether the US can force these prisoners to eat against their will. while the New York times looks at the president’s decision to back off his initial want of wanting to close down the prison, and relates it to how the issues within the country side tracked him, BBC news focuses more on the international feel and looks at the issues the president faces without going into detail as to what those in the US are saying themselves, sort of giving the BBC a feel that they are simply delivering the news without trying to give insights as to what they think should be done. The independent however, goes about by giving details as to how the prison became so infamous and the issues with closing it, neither criticizing the president nor presuming how the country should go about the issue, it’ll be interesting to see how these different media sources go about publishing the developments after the president comes to a decision
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/president-obama-to-make-new-effort-to-close-guantanamo-bay-after-mass-hunger-strike-8596709.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22358351
Cyprus, a small Island off the Mediterranean, has been going through some financial troubles. Victim to money laundering two of the largest banks in Cyprus have been close to shutting down. Because Cyprus had such low taxation rates and a welcoming relationship with Russian citizens, many Russians immigrated to the Island, held large amounts of money in the banks, and invested in real estate, only to have a “haircut.”
The “haircut” refers to the Cypriot governments attempt to raise 7 billion Euros to receive a bailout from Troika. So what they decided to do was tax anyone that had over 100,000 euros in the bank, in an effort to raise this money.
Cypriots are outraged, discouraged, and scared as unemployment rates increase, fearing that what happened to their neighbors in Greece will happen to them. The people that are not scared are the Russians that are in Cyprus. Many of them are “depressed” that the expensive boutiques that cater to the Russian and Cypriot elites have been a little slow, but all in all they are not as fearsome as the Cypriots that have everything on the line.
The Wall Street Journal Europe had a gripping story on how Russians have already moved their money to Switzerland, “a better place” according to one Russian Lawyer that is residing in Cyprus.
It is very interesting to me that Russians in Cyprus are still living a lavish life and aren’t as affected as Cypriots are although they are permanent residents in the country. Some have been affected but in very minimal ways.
Publications used:
www.dw.de
www.ekathimirini.com
The Wall Street Journal Europe
The Australian News
Cyprus-Mail.com
Last week, the most interesting stories I read were published in both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Both Published a story about 13 teams working on offensive attacks in the event the United States needs to retaliate to a foreign cyber attack. Currently, young students are actually being trained in cyber attack defense. Interestingly, I did not see this story mentioned anywhere else.
U.S. China Dailey, as always, gave the Chinese point of view of things. It mentioned John Kerry’s trip to China, and how the Chinese are calling for joint efforts to to create a safe and open cyber space. This source is more defensive of China than the others.
Finally, the Guardian News Blog wrote of China and the U.S. agreeing that North Korea should open peace talks.
Although American publications have mentioned the perspectives of the Chinese in their media outlets, the backlash of the Mandiant report and the opinions of the Chinese government is covered more in Chinese publications. The China Daily states that the Chinese government is the victims of cyber espionage; claiming the United States’ allegations show a lack of trust for the Chinese and shows America’s anxiety over national security. Their latest update on the cyber hacking scandal is that US and Chinese officials are trying to make a valid effort to gain trust in each other through open forums most recently held in Beijing. The forums is a combined effort for the U.S. and China to try to solve an international issue.
The Global Times also refutes claims that China is responsible for the cyber hacking, stating the Mandiant report used to make other nations weary of involvement with China. Global times went as far as to state that their systems were attacked 7 Million times.Furthermore, they quoted The People’s Daily, a publication funded by the chinese military, stating that the allegations ‘did not reflect the facts ‘ and were ‘unprofessional’.
The China Buzz is a blog site that stems from the Economic Observer and they too have taken the same view point as the Global Times and China Daily, stating that America is using these allegations to further advance their own cyber espionage. ZDNet.com is a technology based blog that seems to be slightly more neutral than the prior publications. ZDNet states China has teamed up with other nations as a means to better secure themselves from attacks. In addition to teaming up with other countries they would like the negative allegations to stop because they are the victims of cyber attacks and Chinese officials believe the allegations will cause tension between China and other countries. ZDNet states that the U.S. is not entirely innocent and is in 2nd place behind China for cyber espionage in the world, accounting for almost 41% of global cyber attacks.
Sources
Chinadaily.com (http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2013-04/10/content_16389412.htm)
GlobalTimes.cn (http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/774556.shtml#.UX_8enCmxUQ)
China Buzz (http://www.eeo.com.cn/ens/2013/0319/241394.shtml)
ZDNet (http://www.zdnet.com/china-accounts-for-41-percent-of-global-computer-attack-traffic-7000014392/)
