In this episode of the The Trews, Russell Brand looks at the housing crisis in Australia and also looks at mass incarceration. Is the U.S. facing similar problems?
(Updated report)
What is the situation with NBC correspondent Richard Engel’s capture in 2012?
To summarize, Engel said just after his hostage ordeal that he was taken hostage by a Shi’ite militia affiliated with the president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, as well as Iran and Hezbollah.
However, it recently emerged that he was taken hostage by Syrian rebels who are possibly associated with the Sunni Free Syrian Army that the U.S. supports.
So he was apparently taken hostage by our allies, not our enemies. The story could have created a shift in foreign policy and public opinion against the Shi’ites of Assad, Iran, and Hezbollah and for the Sunni rebels.
His captivity showed the Sunnis of the Free Syrian Army in a good light and the Shi’ite militias in a bad light, whereas the truth was the opposite.
(Updated article)
According to Ring of Fire, one of the biggest problems facing college students and recent graduates in the U.S. is the staggering amount of student loan debt that they have to carry to be able to attend school.
The threat of these debts are keeping millions of high school graduates out of college, but a new proposal from President Obama is aimed at changing this cycle.
America’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio, and progressive radio and TV host David Pakman talk about this.
More:
http://college.usatoday.com/2014/10/09/viewpoint-6-real-fixes-for-the-student-loan-debt-crisis/
The fight against religious extremism is nuanced and complex. There don’t seem to be easy, cut-and-dried answers.
During his remarks at today’s White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, President Barack Obama answered critics directly by laying out exactly why he and members of his administration do not use the word “Islamic” to describe extremist terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Perhaps religion is sometimes to blame, though that does not give Americans the right to jump in and immediately start a war.
What is the “chancellor of the exchequer” in England?
Wikipedia: “The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the (wordy) title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters, equivalent to the role of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the Treasury in other nations.”
Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne has warned that the risks of a “very bad outcome” from the Greek debt crisis have risen.
Speaking in Istanbul, Obsborne said that there was a growing danger that the deadlock over Greece’s bailout program would spiral out of control.
Osborne raised the pressure on Athens, and its creditors, by declaring:
“It’s clear that the risks to the world economy, the risk to the British economy of this standoff between the eurozone and Greece, is growing each day.
Osborne:
“The risks of a miscalculation or a misstep leading to a very bad outcome are growing as well.”
Osborne said the UK had been arguing for both sides in the Greek debt crisis to find some common ground, during the G20 meeting of finance ministers in Turkey.
On the same day as the Sydney hostage crisis, there was a mass shooting at Philadelphia where 6 people were killed.
However, the media seemed to give less coverage to the shooting at Philadelphia – even though more people were killed at Philadelphia.
TYT video.
OK, Fine. 