Hope for Syria

December 11, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

With the world increasingly concerned about the consequences of the Syrian civil war, a new push for a settlement is building.

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Advocacy groups are voicing concern that events like the terrorist attacks in Paris, and the more recent mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., are contributing to a rise in harassment and violence towards Muslims. They also say that Donald Trump’s recent remarks, where he has implied support for a national database of Muslims, and indicated that he would be interested in a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, have given rise to a culture of fear that could lead to more incidents of intimidation and violence towards the American Muslim community. Ibrahim Hooper, lead spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that he had "never seen such fear and apprehension in the Muslim community, even after 9/11."

A week after the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., the gun-control debate has reopened, this time with renewed focus placed on the availability of guns to people currently being monitored by the United States government for possible terrorist connections. In a national address following the tragedy, President Obama said, “Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security.” One concern is the potential to introduce wrongful surveillances practices into a functioning democracy. Another is the fact that there is no way to prevent someone who is not a terrorist from inadvertently ending up on the list.

A new spike in unaccompanied Central American minors crossing illegally into the United States is pushing federal officials to open shelters in Texas and California. A total of 10,588 unaccompanied children crossed the US-Mexico border in October and November, more than double the 5,129 who crossed during the same two months last year, according to the US Border Patrol. The number of family members crossing together has nearly tripled, to 12,505.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri was sworn in Thursday, inheriting myriad economic problems from the often-divisive outgoing President Cristina Fernandez, who skipped the inauguration in a final sign of confrontation that underscored deep polarization in the South American nation. Macri, the former mayor of Buenos Aires who hails from one of Argentina's richest families, took the oath of office in Congress in front of legislators, several Latin American heads of state and other dignitaries, including former Spanish King Juan Carlos I. The new president then launched into a speech that was both a long list of promises and a frank, if not brutal, assessment of how he saw Argentina, a country rich in natural resources that has also suffered several major economic meltdowns.

During a tour of the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, a memorial to North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and its most recent leader, Kim Jong-il, current president Kim Jong-un said that thanks to the “tireless efforts” of his grandfather, the country has now developed the capacity for a hydrogen bomb. North Korea is now "a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate [an] A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation,” the state-run KCNA news agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying. But outside experts remain skeptical that North Korea has the capacity for these kinds of nuclear weapons.

Thanks to NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, scientists now say they understand the mysterious bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres. Experts have long identified more than 130 bright spots on Ceres and two new studies published in the journal Nature this week provide an explanation. In one study, scientists attribute the glowing craters to a kind of salt, and the other study challenges previous assumptions about Ceres’ creation based on the presence of ammonia-rich clays.

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