Senate Democrats poised to start energy bill
Legislation could include a carbon cap on utility companies. Many Democrats hope a summer discussion on energy will establish a strong contrast with Republicans before this fall’s election.
By Lisa Mascaro and Richard Simon
Tribune Washington Bureau
June 27, 2010
Reporting from Washington – With the gulf oil spill creating political opportunity, Senate Democrats will begin crafting a sweeping energy bill this week that could include a first-ever, though more modest, cap on global-warming pollution, believing they must act now despite differences within their ranks and political jitters in an election year.Instead of regulating all sources of greenhouse gas emissions as originally proposed, lawmakers are considering placing a carbon cap initially only on utility companies. That idea was once dismissed by environmentalists as too incremental, but now is seen by some as better than no cap at all.
US celebrities use reality cinema to fight power of gossip bloggers
Celebrities see Hollywood’s newest genre as a way to reassert control over their image
Vanessa Thorpe, Arts and Media Correspondent
The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010
A long queue of biographical films is set to be screened at American cinemas this summer. The documentaries, almost a dozen, include one on Joan Rivers, one on Billy Joel and another on Carrie Fisher, and have been prompted by the surprise success of recent screen studies of Anna Wintour, Vidal Sassoon and Mike Tyson.Although these films are not big money-making propositions, they appeal to their collaborating subjects as an effective method of repairing a dented public image or a way to fight gossip on fan sites and Hollywood blogs. Sometimes they can even rehabilitate a fallen hero.
When You’re Strange, a film about The Doors by Tom DiCillo and narrated by Johnny Depp, has been criticised by some as offering a hagiographical approach to Morrison, hailing him as a “shaman” of the concert platform.
USA
Both Sides in California’s Gay Marriage Fight See a Long Court Battle Ahead
By JESSE McKINLEY
Published: June 26, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO – Just hours after Judge Vaughn R. Walker banged the final gavel in the trial of Proposition 8 – California’s same-sex marriage ban – the two top lawyers challenging the law, David Boies and Theodore Olson, were holding court again: this time at a small private dinner with donors in San Francisco.
The meal, with a handful of people who have given money to the group challenging the ban, could well be seen as the opening maneuver in the second act of the saga of Proposition 8, which both sides expect to wind its way up the federal judicial food chain, most likely all the way to the Supreme Court.
In ‘Restrepo,’ the Afghan war’s brutality as viewed through the soldier’s scope
By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 27, 2010
In “Restrepo,” a documentary by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington, an officer addresses his troops after a demoralizing enemy attack in Afghanistan takes a heavy toll on American soldiers.
“We make them pay; we make them feel how we feel now,” says Capt. Dan Kearney, urging his troops not to despair and to take the fight to the enemy.The film, which screens Sunday night at the Silverdocs Festival, might be the apotheosis of the “grunt documentary,” the soldier’s-eye view of the war.
Europe
Berlusconi braced for verdict over ally’s ‘Mafia links’
Italian PM’s reputation set to suffer if his right-hand man is jailed for alleged connection to gangsters
By Peter Popham in Milan Sunday, 27 June 2010
Italy was yesterday tensely awaiting the outcome of a trial which could send Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s right-hand man to jail for 11 years.Marcello Dell’Utri, a 68-year-old politician from Palermo in Sicily, has been a close friend of Mr Berlusconi since university days, and was the co-founder with him of the media magnate’s first political party, Forza Italia. But in a case that was launched by prosecutors 16 years ago, soon after the end of Mr Berlusconi’s brief first spell in government, he is accused of having for many years been the media magnate’s go-between with the Sicilian Mafia, ensuring his boss’s new party received vital support from the mob on the island.
EU to ban selling eggs by dozen
Shoppers will be banned from buying bread rolls or eggs by the dozen under new food labelling regulations proposed by the European parliament.
By Alastair Jamieson
Published: 8:36AM BST 27 Jun 2010
Under the draft legislation, to come into force as early as next year, the sale of groceries using the simple measurement of numbers will be replaced by an EU-wide system based on weight.
It would mean an end to packaging descriptions such as eggs by the dozen, four-packs of apples, six bread rolls or boxes of 12 fish fingers.The legislation could even see special unit-based promotional packs offering ‘eight chocolate bars for the price of six’ banned, according to a report in trade magazine, The Grocer.
It comes after MEPs last week voted against an amendment to the regulations that would allow individual states to nominate products that could be sold by number.
Middle East
Gaza factories remain paralysed despite Israel pledge to ease blockade
After three years of deadlock, Palestinian businesses are hoping for a better future. But some fear that the new Israeli trade rules could actually mean a fresh squeeze. Donald Macintyre reports from Gaza City
The chilled Tropika that Salama al-Kishawi proudly serves guests in his office tastes, unusually for a processed juice, of real oranges – especially refreshing on a 35C midsummer day in Gaza. But the flagship product of the Gaza Juice Factory has a significance that goes way beyond its taste.The factory employs 65 workers and is one of very few industries to function despite the siege of Gaza imposed by Israel after Hamas seized full control of the territory three years ago this month.
How long it continues to function may well depend on just how the deal easing the Israeli blockade announced last Sunday works in practice. The future of Tropika has become a litmus test for Gaza’s real economy.
Palestinian says women’s rights forgotten in Gaza
Activist Naila Ayesh says political and economic upheaval in the territory has forced women to give priority to more immediate needs, such as finding work and providing for their families.
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times
June 27, 2010
Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank –
Naila Ayesh’s path to becoming a Muslim activist for women’s rights began when she miscarried in an Israeli detention center in 1987 after being arrested for belonging to a Palestinian student union.Today Ayesh, 49, founder of the Gaza Strip-based Women’s Affairs Center, has become one of the only feminist voices in the seaside territory that was seized three years ago by Hamas, an armed Palestinian group that aspires to impose Islamic law.
Asia
Hamid Karzai given timetable by G8 to tackle corruption in Afghanistan
Cameron, who would like British troops out by 2015, joins G8 leaders in putting pressure on Afghan government to take over security
by Anushka Asthana, Mark Townsend and Peter Beaumont
The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010
World leaders issued a stark warning yesterday to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, demanding detailed plans of how he will take over responsibility for the country’s security and drive out corruption within five years.The message from the G8 leaders, who are gathered in Canada, will be seen as setting a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops. It will also be seen as a vindication for David Cameron, who said yesterday that he hoped British soldiers would be out of the country in the same time period.
Meet Zhang Xin, China’s self-made billionairess
From a poor childhood under Chairman Mao to the list of the world’s top 10 self-made women, Chinese tycoon Zhang Xin talks money, success and family to Peter Foster.
By Peter Foster in Beijing
Published: 8:00AM BST 27 Jun 2010
Zhang Xin spent her childhood in a grim five-storey block on the outskirts of Beijing, eating canteen-produced rice from an iron bowl alongside other offspring of toiling Chinese workers.
As a teenager she became a factory worker herself, turning 12-hour shifts in the fire-trap sweatshops of Hong Kong, desperate for every extra dollar she could save.
But by the age of 20, she had earned a Hong Kong passport and enough money to fly to Britain – where, helped by scholarships and grants, she won a university place first at Sussex, then at Cambridge to complete a masters degree.
Now, two hard-working decades later, Zhang gazes out from the top floor of one of Beijing’s most stylish modern buildings, with the confidence that comes from knowing that she is not just one of China’s richest self-made women, but one of the richest in the world.
Africa
Africa still a World Cup winner despite humiliation on the pitch for its teams
The World Cup has come at a moment when politicians and investors are arguing that the bad old days of wars, dictatorships and corruption are over
David Smith in Johannesburg
The Observer, Sunday 27 June 2010It was the best of times, it was the worst of teams. Two weeks into the World Cup, Africa is basking in the success of organising the biggest sports event on the planet – but already conducting a postmortem into why its finest talents froze on home ground.
Commentators have praised South Africa for defying the pessimists by staging a smoothly run tournament with a friendly atmosphere and few hiccups. They see it is a turning point for the continent, an “Africa Rising” dawn.
On the field, however, Africa has been sinking. For months politicians have cranked up unrealistic expectations that one of the continent’s six competing teams could possibly even win it. They are not saying that now.
Guinea set for first free vote
Aljazeera
Guinea is set to hold its first presidential election after decades of military rule, which included a brutal massacre of opposition supporters in a football stadium.Officials of the national electoral commission (CENI) have said they are ready for Sunday’s vote, which will see 24 canidadates vying for president.
“For the first time in Guinea’s history, the military has been called upon to act as guardians of democracy rather than suppressors of the people,” Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Conakry, the capital, said.
According to CENI, 3,965 local and foreign observers will be deployed for the election in a country with a population of 10 million.
Campaigning has been vigorous, with posters plastered on walls and candidates holding boisterous rallies in the streets.