Apr 01 2014
Daily News Flash with Robert Jensen on Migrant Camps in Greece, Israeli-Palestinian Talks, and Obamacare Deadline
Uprising’s guest expert Robert Jensen, an author, and a Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzes today’s news headlines:
A new report on migrants in Greece hailing from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East are surviving in a “living hell.” The group Doctors Without Borders released the report today, exposing the terrible conditions that poor migrants face in Greek camps where they are being detained. Thousands of people from countries like Afghanistan attempt to enter Europe through Greece without documentation, and when caught, are held in camps where diseases like scabies and tuberculosis run rampant. A spokeswoman from Doctors Without Borders told the Guardian, “I did not think that such conditions were possible on European soil.” < a href=”http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/01/migrants-living-hell-greek-detention-medecins-sans-frontieres-scabies-tb”>Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.
In a bid to salvage peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, US Secretary of State John Kerry is reportedly considering freeing an Israeli spy named Jonathan Pollard in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a “partial freeze” on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Pollard is serving a life sentence in the US after being convicted of passing US state secrets on to Israel. Israeli authorities have long lobbied for his release. Click here for a USA Today article about the story.
The deadline for uninsured Americans to buy health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act technically was yesterday. At least a million people tried to access the federal government’s online exchange, healthcare.gov, causing temporary problems and delays. The White House celebrated the last minute push as vindication for the controversial law. The New York Times reported, “Officials in Washington said they were delighted to see pictures of long lines of people snaking around clinics and social service offices, trying to obtain insurance.” Click here for a New York Times article about the story.
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