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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:

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has canceled a visit to Turkey, declaring that Russian forces have invaded his country. President Poroshenko called a government meeting today to address the alarming news of a Russian invasion. He plans to call for an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council citing evidence of thousands of retired Russian soldiers fighting alongside separatists in Southern Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin has denied any Russian military presence in Ukraine. However, there have apparently been “humanitarian aid missions” to cities like Donestk which are on the frontlines of the battle. Click here for an LA Times article about the story.

Here in the US, a political stalemate over immigration policy is looming, so much so that it could lead to yet another government shutdown. As President Obama plans to announce executive action on immigration, Republican lawmakers are threatening to pull the purse strings over financing any policy changes. Florida Senator Marco Rubio has declared the move a top GOP priority when both parties return from recess. The timing of this latest battle is tricky as it comes just before the mid-term elections in November, which both parties are banking on to take control of Congressional houses. Click here for a New York Times article about the story.

Closing arguments were delivered in a tense trial over the massacre of Iraqi civilians by private security contractors yesterday. Four employees of the company that used to be called Blackwater, stand accused of killing 17 unarmed Iraqis and wounding 20 others. The Guardian described the case as, “one of the few in which US forces have been tried for civilian deaths in Iraq.” This is the second time it is being tried, after an earlier attempt was abandoned over a technical problem. Many Iraqi witnesses and survivors of the massacre have been flown in for the trial. There is scant evidence of any armed so-called “insurgents” having been at the scene to justify the shootings. The case goes to a jury next week. Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.