• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

Uprising’s guest expert Arun Gupta, Independent Journalist and regular contributor to the Guardian, In These Times, The Progressive, and Truthout, and co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and the Indypendent, analyzes today’s news headlines:

On day 3 of a federal government shut down, there is still no end in sight. Congress continues to play a game of political football, shuttling bills back and forth as House Republicans refuse to give up their position on Obamacare – a law that has been vetted by the Supreme Court. President Obama met last night with a handful of Congressional representatives even as Republicans in the House kept passing bills that attempted to fund parts of the government. The Democrat-dominated Senate has so far remained steadfast, saying it will not negotiate unless the House unconditionally funds the government. Meanwhile, as fears over an economic setback from the shutdown arise, a new report on jobless claims in the US shows a slight increase in the number of Americans requiring assistance. Click here for a New York Times article about the shutdown.

A boat carrying 500 Eritrean migrants to Italy has sunk, killing nearly a 100 people, including some children. Two hundred and fifty are still missing. Italy’s transport minister called the accident a “huge tragedy” that was “not humanly tolerable.” Like the US, European nations are an attractive destination for immigrants from poor countries looking for a better life. But they don’t often find it. And, many like the ones in the tragic Italian accident, never even make it. Click here for a Guardian Newspaper article about the story.

A new report by an international team of marine scientists has sounded a severe alarm on the state of the world’s oceans, identifying the main stresses as climate change, overfishing, and industrial pollution. Today, the oceans are becoming more acidic at a rate not seen in 300 million years – this impacts the ability of oceans to sustain marine plant and animal life. The director of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), Alex Rogers, underscored the urgency, saying “The situation should be of the gravest concern to everyone since everyone will be affected by changes in the ability of the ocean to support life on Earth.” Click here for a Commondreams article about the story.