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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:

Egyptian army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has resigned from his military post in order to run for President. Overseeing the controversial trials of hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters this week, including death penalty convictions for more than 500, al-Sisi appears to be leading Egypt back to the days of dictator Hosni Mubarak who was ousted three years ago after a popular revolt. According to the Guardian newspaper, while “support for Sisi is by no means universal,” he is “widely expected to win any presidential election by a landslide.” Click here for a Guardian newspaper article for the story.

Years after criticizing Bush’s war in Iraq in 2008, President Obama seems now to have changed his tune to justify his criticism of Russia. In a speech in Brussels yesterday, Obama rejected comparisons between the US war in Iraq and Russia’s role in Crimea, saying “We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory. We did not grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people in a fully sovereign Iraqi state that can make decisions about its own future.” Click here for a Commondreams article about the story.

The state of Connecticut is poised today to be the first in the nation with an hourly minimum wage of $10.10. A bill raising the wage passed the state’s General Assembly late last night and is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Dannel Malloy today, giving workers in Connecticut the nation’s highest minimum wage of any state. Ten dollars and ten cents is where President Obama wants to raise the federal minimum wage. California workers will get at least $10 an hour by 2016, while Maryland, Hawaii, and other states are on track to do the same. Click here for a Think Progress article about the report.