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Uprising’s guest expert Maya Rockeymoore, President of the Center for Global Policy Solutions, a social change non-profit dedicated to making policy work for people and their environment, analyzes today’s news headlines:

Armed US drones are reportedly flying over Iraq in the latest episode of the unfolding Iraqi crisis. The New York Times and other news outlets reported this week that American unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, loaded with bombs are now patrolling the skies of Iraq even as Sunni militants capture more Iraqi cities in their rapidly unfolding conquest. There are also reports that the US is sending a 1000 American private security guards to protect its 500 military advisors who are already on the ground in Baghdad. Meanwhile the Huffington Post is reporting that while Iraq coverage in the media has increased in recent days, those who were critical of the 2003 war are almost nowhere to be seen. In fact, the watchdog group Media Matters found that war-hawks “[Dick] Cheney, [Paul] Wolfowitz, former presidential envoy to Iraq Paul Bremer and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol have made 16 TV appearances in less than two weeks.” Click here for a Commondreams article about the story, and here for a Huffington Post report about media coverage.

In other international news, Ukraine’s newly elected President Petro Poroshenko, signed a major trade deal with the European Union, calling it “maybe the most important day for my country” since gaining independence from the Soviet Union. The deal was the same one that the previous, embattled President Viktor Yanukovich refused to sign, leading to major mass protests in Kiev, and a regional political crisis that ended with the annexation by Russia of the Crimean Peninsula. Russia responded to the agreement by slapping new sanctions onto Ukraine. The new deal brings the central Ukrainian government far closer to Europe and draws a sharp line in the sand with Russia, Ukraine’s historical ally. Click here for a Huffington Post article about the story.

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that President Obama’s recess appointment of officials to the National Labor Relations Board in 2012 was unconstitutional. The court unanimously voted that the break was too short to justify the executive appointment without Congressional oversight. The Court did however, reinstate the President’s ability to make such appointments during breaks of 10 days or more. The New York Times reported that “Republicans hailed the ruling as a repudiation of what they called Mr. Obama’s abuse of his constitutional power.” Democrats contend that the President had no choice given the constant roadblocks thrown up by the GOP at every instance. Click here for a New York Times article about this story.