NEWS,10.2.2013

Obama to devote state address to jobs

President Barack Obama will build his annual state of the union address on Tuesday around a push for job creation as the fragile economy, which dogged his first term, threatens to hamper his second.Obama will lay out a governing program that he hopes to squeeze through a divided US Congress, so as to complement the soaring progressive vision he sketched for history in his inaugural address last month.Aides said Obama will seek to build support for new laws to curb gun violence, as the horror of December's massacre of 20 school kids begins to fade, at least outside the town of Newtown, Connecticut that it blighted.The president also told Democratic lawmakers last week he would focus on job creation, new forms of energy and education reform in his ceremonial annual address delivered from the House of Representatives.And he will make a pitch for immigration reform, the centerpiece of his second-term agenda, amid signs that Republicans keen to ease the distrust they suffer from among Hispanic voters may be ready for some rare cross-party compromise.With political capital renewed by his re-election triumph in November, Obama will retool some old suggestions for jobs programs that never made it past Republicans in Congress and add some new ideas, advisers said.After a sluggish economic recovery, there are new signs of alarm in the flat economy, after GDP contracted at an annual rate of 0.1% in the last quarter of 2012 and the unemployment rate has ticked up to 7.9%.Obama will not shun conflict with Republicans over taxes and spending, a spat currently being waged over huge budget cuts due to come into force on March 1, with potential to hammer the economy."We're going to talk about, yes, deficits and taxes and sequesters and potential government shutdowns and (the) debt ceiling," Obama told the Democrats."But all from the perspective of how are we making sure that somebody who works hard in this country a cop, or a teacher, or a construction worker, or a receptionist - that they can make it if they work hard?"Obama has fashioned his crusade for a more equitable economy for the middle class around higher taxes for the rich a stance which Republicans oppose, arguing unsustainable public spending should be issue number one.The president barely mentioned foreign policy in the inaugural address which enshrined his second White House term on January 21.But the watching world may get a window into his thinking on Tuesday night.Aides expect Obama to note the impending return home of the remaining 60 000 US troops in Afghanistan in 2014, but it is unclear if he will offer more details on the pace of their withdrawal.Vice President Joe Biden gave a few hints on the State of the Union address on a recent trip to Munich, Germany.He said Obama would mention his bid to reduce global nuclear stockpiles and halt the proliferation of the components of weapons of mass destruction.Biden also previewed initiatives on climate change, global poverty and a new effort to reduce trade barriers, including with Europe, plus a commitment to Middle East peace and the US pivot to Asia.Obama's speech will also be watched for any response to Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who just rejected a US offer for direct nuclear talks.The US president is required by the Constitution to report to the Congress on the State of the Union "from time to time."In the 20th century, the event evolved into today's ceremonial address, punctuated by multiple standing ovations.Obama sees this speech as part two of a dialogue with the American people."I think that Obama's second inaugural address will go down in history as the last speech of his election campaign," William Galston, a former advisor to president Bill Clinton, now with the Brookings Institution, told AFPTV."I think the 2013 State of the Union address will be regarded as the framing speech for his second term."Obama has a thorny challenge in getting an ambitious second term agenda through the gridlocked Congress."If President Obama wants to be a transformational president and be regarded in history in that way, he's going to have to build on this new vision of government that he's advancing," Galston said. Republicans have nominated rising star Senator Marco Rubio, a possible 2016 presidential candidate, for the tricky assignment of responding to the president's address.Response speeches, robbed of the euphoric power of the State of the Union, can come across as flat and are a risk for the person delivering them.The stakes for Rubio are particularly high, given his rising prospects, epitomized by a Time magazine cover dubbing him the "Republican Savior."

UK rejects Argentina bullying

Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain could never be bullied by Argentina into giving up the Falkland Islands, in an interview published on Sunday. Hague told The Sun newspaper that Argentina's "intimidatory" behaviour only fortified the 2 500-odd Falkland Islanders in their determination to remain a self-governing British overseas territory.He also branded his Argentine counterpart Hector Timerman's claims that the South Atlantic archipelago would be under the control of Buenos Aires within 20 years as "fantasy"."There should never be a reward for bullying or threatening behaviour in international affairs," Hague said."This is a community that is nearly 200 years old. They seem very determined to remain British."If there's any chance they would change their minds, the approach by Argentina is completely counter-productive."It only fortifies the islanders' determination to stay British. It is only going to add to the decades and centuries that the Falklands will remain British."Britain has held the barren, windswept islands since 1833, but Argentine forces invaded in 1982, prompting London to send a naval task force to reclaim control in a brief but bloody conflict. Buenos Aires claims the islands are occupied Argentinian territory. Timerman visited London last week but refused to meet Hague as the British minister insisted on Falklands government representatives being present.On his visit, Timerman shook hands with a strangerwho gave him a letter, only to learn it was one of the Falklands representatives."You would think the poor minister had suffered an electric shock judging by the way he recoiled," Hague said."These are people who have rights just like those in the UK and Argentina. "There are families in the Falklands who are in their ninth generation."The Falklands have been there longer than Argentina has had its current boundaries or existed in its current form."He hinted that Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner was using the Falklands as a way to divert from domestic problems.Buenos Aires has rejected the dialogue of the 1990s in favour of "a pattern of bullying and intimidatory behaviour", he said."It would be better to talk to the islanders rather than deny their existence or claim Argentina will have the islands within 20 years. These things are fantasy."It would be far better for their country to be realistic."Hague accused Kirchner and Timerman of "misreading the character" of British and Falklands people."Everything we have seen and heard in the last week is the last thing that would ever work."A referendum is to be held on the Falklands on 10 and 11 March, asking the islanders whether they wish to retain their current status.

Storm hammers US

A blizzard packing hurricane-force winds hammered the northeastern United States on Saturday, cutting power to 700 000 homes and businesses, shutting down travel and leaving at least nine people dead.The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic dumped more than 90cm of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said.Coastal blizzard and flood warnings were in effect, but Massachusetts and Connecticut lifted vehicle travel bans as the storm slowly moved eastward on Saturday evening.Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates reaching 15cm an hour."Even the ploughs are getting stuck," Harkins told local WTNH television.The storm centred its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the highest snowfall total, 102cm in Hamden, Connecticut.About 2 200 flights were cancelled on Saturday, for a total of more than 5 800 over the past two days, according to FlightAware, which tracks airline delays. A few hundred additional cancellations are possible for Sunday, it said.Boston's Logan International Airport and Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, were shut down. Logan, hit by nearly 56cm of snow, was expected to reopen at least partly later on Saturday.The storm dumped 74cm of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, the weather service said. Winds gusted to 134km/h at Cuttyhunk, New York, and brought down trees across the region.The storm contributed to at least five deaths in Connecticut, according to Governor Dannel Malloy and police.An 80-year-old woman was killed by a hit-and-run driver while clearing her driveway, and a 40-year-old man collapsed while shovelling snow. One man, 73, slipped outside his home and was found dead on Saturday, Malloy said.A 53-year-old Bridgeport man was found dead in the snow on Saturday morning outside his home, and a 49-year-old man died while shovelling snow in Shelton, police said.Two people died of carbon monoxide poisoning in separate incidents in Boston. One of the victims was an 11-year-old boy who was overcome by fumes as he sat in an idling car to keep warm, a fire official said. The other victim was a man in his early 20s who was found unresponsive in his car, police said. In Poughkeepsie, New York, a man in his 70s was struck and killed on a snowy roadway, local media reported. A 23-year-old man was killed in Germantown, New York, when the tractor he was using to plough his driveway rolled down an embankment, according to local media. A 30-year-old motorist in New Hampshire died when his car went off the road, but the man's health might have been a factor in the accident, state authorities said.Police in New York's Suffolk County, some using snowmobiles, rescued hundreds of motorists stuck overnight on the Long Island Expressway, said police spokesperson Rich Glanzer.Emergency medical services personnel in Worcester, Massachusetts, delivered a baby girl at her mother's home at about 03:00 on Saturday with the aid of National Guard soldiers.Even as the big storm's force was slackening, the National Weather Service warned of blizzard conditions developing in the Great Plains on Saturday and continuing into Monday.Utility companies reported about 700 000 customers without electricity across nine states as the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines.

700 000 without power in US

A record-breaking blizzard packing hurricane-force winds pummeled the northeastern United States on Saturday, causing at least two storm-related deaths, cutting power to 700 000 homes and businesses and shutting down travel.The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast dumped more than 90 cm of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. Blizzard and flood warnings were in effect for the coast.In Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates of 12.5 cm an hour at times overnight, he told local WTNH television."Even the plows are getting stuck," Harkins said.The storm concentrated its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the top snowfall 95 cm in Milford, Connecticut.Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee banned all travel on roads in order to aid snow plow crews. He told CNN that National Guard troops were rescuing stranded motorists, especially at uncleared on-ramps.The mammoth storm dumped 73.2 cm of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, and the weather service said there is more on the way.Police in New York's Suffolk County turned to snowmobiles in some cases to rescue hundreds of motorists stuck overnight on the Long Island Expressway, said police spokesperson Rich Glanzer. Some spent the night in their cars.In Poughkeepsie, New York, a man in his 70s was killed when a driver lost control of her car and hit him, media reported. An 80-year-old woman clearing her driveway in Prospect, Rhode Island, died on Friday when she was struck by a hit-and-run driver, a spokesperson for state emergency services said.A 30-year-old motorist in Auburn, New Hampshire, died when his car went off the road, but the man's health, and not the weather, might have been a factor in the accident, state authorities said.Utility companies reported about 700 000 customers without electricity across Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut as the wet, heavy snow brought down tree branches and power lines.The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, lost power and shut down automatically late on Friday, but there was no threat to the public, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Almost 2 000 flights were canceled on Saturday, according to FlightAware, which tracks airline delays. Boston's Logan International Airport and Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, were shut down.The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to taper off from West to East into the afternoon. Snowfall is forecast to total from 60 to 90 cm in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Chavez still absent after 2 months

Two months have passed since Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez climbed the stairs of the presidential jet, blew kisses to supporters and flew to Cuba to undergo cancer surgery.Chavez hasn't been seen or spoken publicly since that departure to Havana on 10 December, and the mystery surrounding his condition has deepened even as the government's updates have remained optimistic but have lately offered few specifics.Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said on Saturday that Chavez is recovering slowly but that he is convinced he "is also going to win this battle".Some analysts say they expect that sooner or later, Chavez's delicate health could make necessary a new presidential election. Chavez's allies, however, insist the 58-year-old president remains in charge and they express optimism he will be able to return home.

NEWS,08.02.2013

Northeast Blizzard Warnings Posted As Region Braces For Up To Several Feet Of Snow

Snow began falling across the Northeast on Friday, ushering in what was predicted to be a huge, possibly historic blizzard and sending residents scurrying to stock up on food and gas up their cars. The storm could dump 1 to 3 feet of snow from New York City to Boston and beyond.Even before the first snowflake had fallen, Boston, Providence, R.I., Hartford, Conn., and other towns and cities in New England and upstate New York towns canceled school Friday, and airlines scratched more than 3,700 flights through Saturday, with the disruptions certain to ripple across the U.S."This one doesn't come along every day. This is going to be a dangerous winter storm," said Alan Dunham, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass. "Wherever you need to get to, get there by Friday afternoon and don't plan on leaving."The heaviest snowfall was expected Friday night and into Saturday. Wind gusts could reach 75 mph. Widespread power failures were feared, along with flooding in coastal areas still recovering from Superstorm Sandy in October.Boston could get 2 to 3 feet of snow, while New York City was expecting 10 to 14 inches. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said plows and 250,000 tons of salt were being put on standby. To the south, Philadelphia was looking at a possible 2 to 5 inches.Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick banned all traffic from roads after 4 p.m., believed to be the state's first such ban since the blizzard of 1978.In the southeastern Massachusetts town of Whitman, where up to 2 1/2 feet of snow was forecast, public works crews were clearing crosswalk signs, trash barrels and anything else that might impede plows later in the day."We've had instances where they have predicted something big and it's petered out," said Dennis Smith, a public works employee. "I don't think this is going to be one of those times."Smith's partner, Bob Trumbull, sounded a note of optimism, saying the relative lack of snow earlier this winter would make this storm easier to clean up. "At least there is room for this snow. There are no snowbanks so we will have a place to put it," Trumbull said.Snow was being blamed for a 19-car pileup in Maine Friday morning in Cumberland, as 6 inches blanketed the area.A New Jersey town hit hard by Superstorm Sandy issued a voluntary evacuation order for areas that are still recovering from that storm. Residents in flood-prone sections of Brick Township were also urged to move their cars to higher ground by 5 p.m.Amtrak suspended train service between New York and Boston in the afternoon.The organizers of New York's Fashion Week a closely watched series of fashion shows held under a big tent said they will have extra crews to help with snow removal and will turn up the heat and add an extra layer to the venue.Airlines canceled at least 3,775 flights ahead of the storm, according to airline tracking website FlightAware. At New York City's three main airports, most U.S. airlines planned to suspend operations between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., resuming after noon on Saturday, FlightAware said. At Boston's Logan and other New England airports, most airlines were to cease operations between noon and 4 p.m.This is a storm of major proportions," Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said Friday. "Stay off the roads. Stay home."Blizzard warnings were posted for parts of New Jersey and New York's Long Island, as well as portions of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, including Hartford, New Haven, Conn., and Providence. The warnings extended into New Hampshire and Maine.In New England, it could prove to be among the top 10 snowstorms in history, and perhaps even break Boston's record of 27.6 inches, set in 2003, the National Weather Service said. The last major snowfall in southern New England was well over a year ago the Halloween storm of 2011.Dunham said southern New England has seen less than half its normal snowfall this season, but "we're going to catch up in a heck of a hurry." He added: "Everybody's going to get plastered with snow."Some gas stations in Connecticut ran out of fuel Thursday night during the rush to prepare for the storm. Long lines were reported at many stations.At Stop & Shop supermarket in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Friday morning, there was a line of shoppers outside when it opened at 7 a.m., and a steady stream followed. Checkout lines were long.Mary Anne DiBello was stocking up her cart as the snow began to fall. She said she hosted a sleepover Thursday night with four 9- and 10-year-olds, including her daughter."Now I think I'm going to be stuck with them until I bring them to school on Monday," she said.The governors of Connecticut and Massachusetts ordered nonessential state workers to stay home Friday and urged travelers to stay home.

Renewed tension between China, Japan

China and Japan engaged on Friday in a fresh round of invective over military movements near a disputed group of uninhabited islands, fuelling tensions that for months have bedevilled relations between the two major Asian powers. China's defence ministry rejected a Japanese allegation that a naval vessel had aimed a weapons-targeting radar at a Japanese military ship in the East China Sea, its first comment on the week-old incident. It said Japan's intrusive tracking of Chinese vessels was the "root cause" of the renewed tension.A Japanese official on Friday dismissed the Chinese explanation for the 30 January incident. He said Beijing's actions could precipitate a dangerous situation in waters around the islets, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan, believed to be rich in oil and gas.His comments came a day after Japan said two Russian fighter jets briefly entered its air space near other, long-disputed islands, prompting Japan to scramble combat fighters. Russia denied the charge.China's defence ministry, in a statement issued late on Thursday, said Japan's remarks "do not match the facts". The Chinese ship's radar, it said, had maintained regular alerting operations and "did not use fire control radar". The ministry said the Chinese ship was tracked by a Japanese destroyer during routine training exercises. Fire control radar pinpoints the location of a target for missiles or shells and its use can be considered a step short of actual firing.Japan, it said, had recently "made irresponsible remarks that hyped up the so-called 'China threat', recklessly created tension and misled international public opinion."... In recent years, Japanese warships and aeroplanes have often conducted long periods of close-range tracking and surveillance of China's naval ships and aeroplanes. This is the root cause of air and maritime security issues between China and Japan."In Tokyo, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Sugatold a news conference on Friday: "We cannot accept China's explanation."Japan's allegations, he said, had been "a result of our defence ministry's careful and detailed analysis. We urge China to take sincere measures to prevent dangerous actions which could cause a contingency situation."Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said this week that the incident could have become very dangerous very quickly, and that use of the radar could be seen as a threat of military force under UN rules.Hopes have been rising in recent weeks for a thaw in ties after months of tension, sparked, in part, by Japan's nationalisation of three of the privately owned islets last September.Fears that encounters between aircraft and ships could degenerate into an accidental clash have given impetus to efforts to improve links, including a possible summit between Abe and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who takes over as head of state in March.

The Role of Psychological Resistance

The most puzzling aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that after 65 years of mutual violence, enmity and suffering, it remains unresolved even when coexistence is inevitable and a two-state solution remains the only viable option. Although there are many contentious issues that must be specifically addressed, it is the psychological dimension of the conflict which directly impacts every conflicting issue and makes it increasingly intractable. To mitigate the conflict, we must first look into the elements that inform the psychological dimension and how to alleviate them as prerequisites to finding a solution. This is the first of six articles.On the surface, the deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process seems illogical and unsettling. After all, a majority of Israelis and Palestinians realize the inevitability of coexistence and presumably understand the general parameters of a negotiated peace agreement: a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders with some land swaps, Jerusalem would remain a united city (but a capital of two states), and the vast majority of Palestinian refugees would be compensated or resettled in the newly-created Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. These fundamental imperatives, coupled with appropriate security guarantees for Israel, represent what was on the negotiating table in 2000 at Camp David and in 2008/2009 in Jerusalem and Ramallah, with each round coming closer to finalizing an agreement yet ultimately failing to do so. The question is: why?The answer lies far beyond the political concessions on the ground and is deeply embedded in the psychological dimension of the conflict, which impacts every conflicting issue between the two parties. This dimension is at play here: biased and selective perceptions, reinforced by historical experience, religion and incompatible ideologies, have locked both sides into immobile positions. The factors that maintain and enhance these patterns include emotions such as fear, distrust and insecurity; the psychological outcome is mutual denial of the narrative of the other and mutual delegitimization. Put together, the operative result is stagnation and polarization. What is therefore needed is a consensus-oriented dialogue at the leadership level, by both officials and non-officials, to resolve the issues of perception a tall order given the current environment that buttresses rather than ameliorates perceptions.There are certain psychological concepts which are relevant to understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the concept of illusion is an essential one. In "The Future of an Illusion" (1927), Freud offers the following definition: "We call a belief an illusion when a wish-fulfillment is a prominent factor in its motivation and in doing so we disregard its relations to reality, just as the illusion itself sets no store by its verification." An illusion then is not necessarily an error, unlike a delusion - that is, illusions "need not necessarily be false... unrealizable or in contradiction to reality." What is characteristic of illusions is that: 1) they are derived from deep human wishes, and 2) the belief is held (or would be held) in the absence of any compelling evidence, or good rational grounds, in its behalf.It is impossible to deny that both Israelis and Palestinians are in the grip of very powerful illusions which only serve to prolong the conflict and prevent any mutual understanding. What are some of these illusions, or pipe-dreams, as the great American playwright Eugene O'Neill would call them? Following O'Neill, we can distinguish between pipe-dreams of yesterday and pipe-dreams of tomorrow. For example, the belief shared by many Israelis that they have a biblical right to the land (the ancient biblical lands of Judea and Samaria) and that God gave the Jews this land for all time is undoubtedly an illusion or a pipe-dream of yesterday. It is not affirmed because there is any real evidence for it, but because it satisfies a deep-seated psychological need for a God-given Jewish homeland. The belief that by expanding the settlements Israel will augment its national security is a pipe-dream of tomorrow. It is important to note how these illusions sustain and reinforce one another, and constitute a psychological barrier which is that much more impervious to critical reflection. Israel's illusions have served to create the logic for occupation, ultimately perpetuating the dehumanization of the Palestinians.The Palestinians, for their part, are not without their own illusions. They believe, for example, that God has reserved the land for them, and appeal to the fact that they had inhabited the land for centuries. The presence of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem attest to their unmitigated historical and religious affinity to the Holy City. They also cling to the idea that they will someday return to the land of their forebears, as they have and continue to insist on the right of return of the Palestinian refugees, even though this has become a virtual impossibility. The Palestinians cling to their pipe-dreams of yesterday and tomorrow just as blindly and desperately as the Israelis, which leads to resistance to and fear of change.This has contributed to making the Israeli-Palestinian conflict both chronic and intractable, as the various illusions are continuously and consciously nurtured by the daily encounters between the two sides. It would thus appear that the psychological concept of resistance to change is extremely relevant as well. First, a distinction is needed between resistance to persuasion, which is conscious and deliberate, and inner unconscious resistance to change. In his essay, "The Psychological Dimensions of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: the Role of Psychological Resistance," David Rabinowitz, one of Israel's leading psychiatrists, observes that an important function of unconscious resistance is that it is protective in nature. In seeking bridging concepts that could link between the domains of psychology and politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it could be proposed that a collective mutual resistance to change protects a vulnerable identity. Compared to the stable and mature political identities of the American, British and French nations, the political identities of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples are, in a way, in their adolescence. Identities in this setting are more vulnerable, and the protagonists are naturally more defensive and resistant to change. By its very nature, the players must find it difficult (if not impossible) to articulate this publically, as to do so is to admit to this vulnerability.The concept of psychological resistance to change may well affect the political setting in general and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular; it is closely connected to perceptions at many levels. Indeed, the psychological resistance provides protection for vulnerable identity formation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is this mindset, strengthened by historical experiences, which transcends the more than nine decades since the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began. The individuals and groups, Israelis and Palestinians alike, have and continue to interpret the nature of the discord between them as "you versus me" in a prejudiced and selective way. In turn, this has stifled any new information and enabled the continuing resistance to change, which could shed new light on the nature and the substance of the conflict and help advance the peace process.The concept of unconscious resistance to change in this setting links well to the view of perceptions driving the polarization in the conflict. Historical experience, which formulates perceptions, serves among other things to enhance the sense of identity of "who we really are," a formative collective assumption that sits at the bedrock of both key players and drives functional and dysfunctional behavior. As Rabinowitz puts it, "the central benefit of this powerful unconscious resistance to change provides is the protection of a relatively vulnerable core identity [primary gains]. Secondary gains, however, are essentially the side-effects of the chronic polarization of this conflict: powerful allies offering material and political support [the US' support of Israel and moderate Palestinians verses Iran's support for Palestinian militants such as Hamas], engaging in alluring narratives, public attention and useful alliances etc." In principle, such a mindset prevents either side from entertaining new ideas that might lead to compromises for a peaceful solution. The paradox here is that majorities on both sides do seek and want peace, knowing full well that this would require significant concessions, but are unable to reconcile the required concessions with imbedded perceptions that have precluded these compromises as a result of resistance to change.Thus, to mitigate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we must first carefully look into the various elements that inform the psychological dimension of the conflict, and discuss how they impact the relationship between the two sides and what it would take to alleviate these psychological impediments as prerequisites to finding a solution.