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Uprising’s guest expert Courtney Morris, an assistant professor of African American and women’s Studies at Penn State University, analyzes today’s news headlines:

US bombs began dropping around Iraq’s Haditha Dam in another front in the war against ISIS. The Haditha Dam, dangerously close to being taken over by Islamic State fighters, is a key component of Iraq’s infrastructure, giving the Sunni militants a potential opportunity to flood Baghdad and wreak mass destruction. So far the US has conducted 138 air strikes in Northern Iraq and President Obama is expected to announce his plans on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the FBI has identified a man named Ahmad Abousamra, a dual US-Syrian citizen, as an alleged member of ISIS, controlling the group’s social media posts and propaganda efforts. Abusamra was raised in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Click here for an Al Jazeera America article and here for an RT.com article about the story.

The Obama administration has backtracked on a promise to announce important changes to immigration policy this summer. In what appears to be a cynical political move, the White House has decided instead to wait until after this November’s midterm elections to announce executive action to ease the immigration crisis. The delay has angered immigrant rights groups, who want Obama to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to others undocumented immigrants who are ineligible due to their age. In an interview on NBC on Sunday, President Obama claimed the delay was to ensure that any policy changes would be “sustainable.” Click here for a Newsweek article about the story.

The city of New York wants to settle with two plaintiffs in a case over the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslim communities. Initially the city was aggressively fighting the lawsuit. Now, less than a month remains before the city can settle with plaintiffs ahead of an October 1st deadline and the decision to settle may be related to the city’s attempt to keep secret documents from the surveillance program. Meanwhile, another lawsuit was filed over racial profiling of a Muslim woman named Chaumtoli Huq who was arrested by NYPD in July while waiting on the sidewalk for her family to finish using a restroom. Huq, who is a human rights lawyer, told press, “I think that I was being targeted based on my religion and my race.” Click here for a Huffington Post article and here for an RT.com article about the story.