Hack job

June 24, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

New claims of NSA spying on anti-virus software firms shouldn’t come as a shock.

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President Obama's longpursued trade agenda took a giant step toward becoming law on Tuesday, and opponents grudgingly conceded they now must fight on less-favorable terrain. A key Senate vote greatly brightened Obama's hopes for a 12-nation Pacificrim trade agreement, a keystone of his effort to expand US influence in Asia. The Senate voted 60-37 to advance his bid for "fast track" negotiating authority. That was the minimum number of votes needed on the procedural question. But final passage, expected no later than Wednesday, needs only a simple majority, which would let Obama sign fast track into law.

Traffic was halted through the Channel Tunnel linking Britain and France on Tuesday after striking French ferry workers set fire to tires, while Britain's Foreign Office warned of migrants trying to get into vehicles queuing to enter the tunnel. Television images showed large crowds of migrants trying to board waiting lorries. Others were held back by riot police. Around 400 workers blockaded the port of Calais to protest restructuring at its MyFerryLink division, the Syndicat Maritime Nord trade union said.

The US will spread about 250 tanks, armored vehicles, and other military equipment across six former Soviet bloc nations to help reassure NATO allies facing threats from Russia and terrorist groups, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday. Carter's announcement, made as he stood with defense chiefs from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, comes a day after he announced that the US would have other weapons, aircraft, and forces, including commandos, ready as needed for NATO's new rapid reaction force, to help Europe defend against potential Russian aggression from the east and the Islamic State and other violent extremists from the south.

Jailed Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez has ended a 30-day hunger strike after authorities set a date for legislative elections, a key demand of opponents of President Nicolas Maduro's socialist administration. "We're ending the strike, but our struggle continues," Lopez wrote in a letter written from jail and read Tuesday by his wife, Lilian Tintori, to journalists in Caracas.

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will get a chance to break his long silence when a judge formally imposes the death sentence recommended by a jury. Tsarnaev's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Wednesday in a Boston court. More than 20 bombing victims are expected to give statements on how the attack has affected them.

Dick Van Patten, who grew from a busy child actor on Broadway to be a mainstay on US television as the amiable patriarch on the family show "Eight Is Enough," died on Tuesday, his spokesman said. Van Patten, whose career spanned about eight decades, was known for a big smile framed by prominent cheeks and an effusive personality. He came from a family filled with entertainers and as a boy worked on Broadway in the 1930s and 1940s. As an adult, he became a familiar face on television shows and in films in the 1960s and 1970s.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“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.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

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