TDB Top 5 International Stories: Friday 23rd June 2017
5: Are Russia and the US About to Go to War Over Syria?
A expert breaks down the new tensions in the long-running, multifaceted conflict.
On Monday, the US shot down its third Syrian aircraft in a month—an Iranian-made drone that the US-led coalition says appeared to be armed and within shooting distance of coalition forces. This comes after the US shot down a Syrian warplane on Sunday night, prompting Russia, a close ally of both Iran and the Syrian regime, to announce that it will regard any US planes in proximity of its allies as potential hostile actors.
Russia claims the US failed to use the “deconfliction” hotline—a line of communication created in 2015 to help the two countries’ militaries know when there’s a problem and generally stay out of each others’ way. So Russia says it’s shutting the hotline down. (The US is working to reestablish the hotline.)
Vice News
4: Trump does not want a ‘poor person’ in cabinet role
Donald Trump has said he doesn’t want “a poor person” running the US economy and has defended his decision to appoint wealthy individuals to his cabinet.
Speaking to his supporters in Iowa on Wednesday, Trump said: “Somebody said why did you appoint a rich person to be in charge of the economy? … I said because that’s the kind of thinking we want.”
“I love all people, rich or poor, but in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense?”
Aljazeera
3: Jared Kushner’s Pursuit of Middle East Peace Looks a Lot Like Total Surrender to Israel
EVEN BEFORE BENJAMIN NETANYAHU locked him in a warm embrace, Jared Kushner began his effort to broker peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians by making it clear that he completely accepts Israel’s vision of itself as an innocent victim.
The Intercept
2: U.S. Tied to Torture in Network of Secret Yemen Prisons Run by UAE
Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press have just published explosive new reports on a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates and Yemeni forces. Dozens of people, including children, have been “arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, tortured, and abused” in these prisons, according to Human Rights Watch. American forces reportedly participated in interrogations of detainees who were abused, a potential violation of international law. For more, we speak to Kristine Beckerle of Human Rights Watch.Democracy Now
1: Brexit economy: UK faces slowdown amid living standards squeeze
Britain’s vote to leave the EU has squeezed living standards, hit consumer spending and dampened the country’s growth prospects, a Guardian analysis of economic news over the year since the referendum shows.
One year since voters narrowly opted for Brexit, the Guardian’s monthly tracker of economic news paints a gloomy picture, with households facing rising costs and firms fretting over falling demand and political uncertainty.
The economy has so far avoided the recession predicted by some doomsayers at the time of the referendum, and in the months immediately following the Brexit vote the UK outperformed most other advanced economies.
The Guardian
And to this list, I would add the recent UN General Assembly draft resolution over the Chagos Islands, taken from Mauritius by the UK for a US base, Diego Garcia.The Chagos islanders were removed and have been longing to return to their home for decades
And how did we vote, fellow New Zealanders?
We proved ourselves to be on the wrong side of history…again!!… by voting against it
Fortunately it was passed by a margin of 94 countries to 15
We were among the 15.
65 abstained
Plucky little NZ punching above its weight, with its “independent “foreign policy caved once more to the demands of its superior 5 eyes overlords
Proud?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jun/22/un-vote-backing-chagos-islands-a-blow-for-uk
https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/ga11924.doc.htm