Amid political impasse, progress is possible

January 30, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

Government is important. But even if it is not quite working, the rest of us are.

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US intelligence says North Korea has followed through on its threat to advance its nuclear weapons program. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said Wednesday that the North has expanded the size of its uranium enrichment facility at its Nyongbyon nuclear complex and restarted a plutonium reactor that was shut down in 2007.

Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday passed a measure offering amnesty to those arrested in two months of protests, but only if demonstrators vacate most of the buildings they occupy. The move was met with contempt by the opposition. The measure was put forth by a lawmaker from the party of President Viktor Yanukovych, who is casting about for a way to end the protests, which are calling for his resignation. The measure was a softer version of an earlier proposal to only offer amnesty if all protests dispersed.

Syrian negotiators discussed the establishment of a transitional government body for the first time Wednesday, an opposition delegate said, describing it as a “positive step forward,” a day after talks were cut short over a US decision to resume aid to the opposition. Despite the apparent small step in the peace talks, chances for a breakthrough before everyone goes home Friday appear almost nil as both sides continue to blame each other for an impasse.

After years of setbacks, a nearly $100 billion-a-year compromise farm bill cleared the House on Wednesday despite strong opposition from conservatives who sought a bigger cut in food stamps. The five-year bill, which preserves generous crop subsidies, heads to the Senate, where approval seems certain. The White House said President Obama would sign it.

Egypt said 20 journalists, including four foreigners, working for Al Jazeera will face trial on charges of joining or aiding a terrorist group and endangering national security – an escalation that raised fears of a crackdown on freedom of the press.

The top US intelligence official on Wednesday called on former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden and his “accomplices” to return the rest of the secret documents he took before making them public. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that Snowden’s disclosures of NSA spying have caused “profound damage” by revealing surveillance methods to terrorists, who he says are changing how they communicate.

The little-understood annual migration of millions of monarch butterflies to spend the winter in Mexico is in danger of disappearing, experts said Wednesday, after numbers dropped to their lowest level since record-keeping began in 1993. Their report blamed the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops, urban sprawl in the US, extreme weather trends, and the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging.

Compiled from wire service reports

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

Compiled from wire service reports

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

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