• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

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

A second round of peace talks on Syria are launched in Geneva today after the UN estimates nearly ten million Syrians are now refugees. American and Russian negotiators met with Arab League and UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Brahimi has been meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al Assad who remains adamant against Western interference in any peace process. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Syria is untenable as millions of civilians continue to remain on the edge of survival, being displaced from their homes and denied medical care. Click here for a New York Times report about the story.

A procedural vote of 61-30 in the US Senate on the Employment Non-Discrimination Act has greatly encouraged gay rights advocates. If passed, the ENDA would outlaw workplace discrimination against LGBT workers. The Senate now has enough votes to override any filibuster attempt and also force a vote in the House. ENDA made its first attempt in 1996 when it failed by a single vote in the Senate. Click here for a Christian Science Monitor report about the story.

Just months after racial justice advocates celebrated a judge’s ruling that the New York Police Department’s “Stop-and-Frisk” policies were unconstitutional; the Second Circuit Court overruled that decision. New York Mayor Bloomberg who had strongly backed the policies that allowed cops to routinely pull over black and brown residents, lauded the decision. As of now, the NYPD’s policies will go un-policed. Meanwhile, today New Yorkers are going to the polls to vote for a new Mayor and Democrat Bill DeBlasio, who has voiced strong opposition to Bloomberg’s support for “stop-and-frisk” is poised to win by a landslide. Click here for a Reuters article about the story.