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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:

A United Nations report this morning has found that 26,000 people have died in Iraq this year alone, from violence. Much of the killing took place since the Islamic State rebel group began its march across Northern Iraq in June. While ISIS has been singled out for mass killings, abductions, and rapes, the report also notably points to Iraqi security forces for similar crimes, including “indiscriminate air raids.” Meanwhile the US-led coalition against ISIS continued its bombing campaign with the British conducting air strikes. There has been some confusion over strikes against a hospital being held by a small group of ISIS fighters. Click here for a New York Times article about the UN report, and here for a USA Today article about airstrikes.

In a victory for racial justice in the US, a white man named Michael Dunn was convicted yesterday by a Jacksonville, Florida, jury of first degree murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black teen named Jordan Davis. Two years ago, Davis was in a car with his friends when Dunn opened fire, saying he thought they had a weapon. No weapon was ever found. Dunn, who had attempted to use the state’s “Stand your ground” law, had already been convicted by a jury of several lesser charges earlier this year. The first degree murder conviction was met with relief by Davis’ mother Lucia McBath who said, “we are very grateful that justice has been served, justice not only for Jordan, but justice for Trayvon [Martin] and justice for all the nameless, faceless children and people that will never have a voice.” Click here for a Salon.com article about the story.

And finally Julie Pierson, the first female head of the US Secret Service has offered her resignation in the wake of a number of security lapses at the White House and around President Obama. The resignation came just after she appeared before a House committee hearing yesterday. In the past two weeks, a man jumped the White House fence and entered the building with a knife, and just days later, Mr. Obama was allowed to enter an elevator in the presence of another armed man. Pierson will be replaced by Joseph Clancy, who was previously employed by the Secret Service but had left to work in the private sector in recent years. Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.