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Uprising’s guest expert Robert Jensen, author and professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzes today’s news headlines:

Crisis in the Ukraine continues as President Obama announces sanctions on 11 key Russian and Ukrainian officials. Following a vote in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula to formally secede from Ukraine and join Russia, the US has announced targeted sanctions on what it called “key ideologists” of Russian’s intervention in Ukraine. Crimea, which is occupied by Russian troops, has formally declared independence from Ukraine and now awaits a vote in the Russian parliament to accept it as part of Russian territory. Meanwhile, former presidential candidate, Republican Mitt Romney slammed the Obama Administration in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today for its “failed leadership” on Ukraine, Syria, and other foreign policy events. Click here for a McClatchy article about the story, and click here for Romney’s Wall Street Journal Op-ed.

There is just over a month left before a deadline to reach an outline of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the latest round of US-sponsored talks overseen by Secretary of State Kerry. President Obama told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, during a visit to the White House yesterday, that “We’re going to have to take some tough political decisions and risks if we’re to move it forward.” But the lead Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, in a press conference yesterday told reporters that Israel had destroyed 200 Palestinian homes and built 10,000 new illegal Israeli settlement homes just since the talks began. Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.

Latinos this month reached 39 percent of California’s residents to become the largest population of the state. Latinos now narrowly outnumber so-called “non-hispanic whites” who number at 38.8%. The milestone is symbolic of what is expected to happen nationwide in coming years. This doesn’t necessarily mean Latinos will strongly impact government just yet, as the numbers of eligible Latino voters in this state, and also in key swing states for presidential elections remains relatively low, hovering between 8 and 10%. Click here for an RT.com article about the story.