• Listen to this segment with Arun Gupta

Uprising’s guest expert Arun Gupta, a 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:

The Islamic State’s grip on Kobani, the border town between Turkey and Syria, is apparently loosening. Reports have emerged that ISIS fighters now control only about 20% of the Kurdish dominated area, down from 40% a few days ago. US war planes are reported to have stepped up airstrikes after concerns emerged that they had been largely ineffective. Meanwhile, a US official has confirmed that it is attempting to create a new formation inside Syria to work with in opposing ISIS. The move is a rejection of the Free Syria Army, the main rebel group which has opposed President Bashar Al Assad, but which has, according to McClatchy, suffered from “a lack of cohesion, uneven fighting skills and frequent battlefield coordination with the al Qaida loyalists of the Nusra Front.” Click here for a Time.com article, and here for a McClatchy article about the story.

The global economy is stumbling dangerously as stocks in Europe and Asia sharply fell this week. The volatility could spread to the US where indices plummeted yesterday after recovering hours later. Some analysts say the failure of long-term policies to address issues such as unemployment and infrastructure is to blame for the lack of strong economic growth – a term used to describe corporate portfolios, rather than collective well being. Meanwhile British actor Russell Brand released his new book entitled Revolution, at a gathering of a few hundred people in Zucotti Park, New York, yesterday. Brand said, that a revolution was “inevitable,” and that, “When universal change is required, people will formulate and organize, and bring about that change.” Click here for a New York Times article, and here for a Time.com article about the story.

And finally, here in the US, the Obama Administration plans to nominate the ACLU’s deputy legal director, Vanita Gupta, to head the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Under the leadership of Attorney General Eric Holder, that division has flourished, taking on far more cases concerning civil rights than under President Bush. Writing in the Guardian, reporter Ed Pilkington described Gupta as having, “proven herself to be a rare, if not unique, animal: a lawyer who is full-throated in her advocacy of progressive values yet has gained the respect and trust of conservatives, who would normally be considered her political enemies.” Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.