• Listen to this segment with Robert Jensen

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

The US-led war against ISIS in Syria seems to have re-ignited a long-running battle between Turkey and the Kurdistan Workers Party, known by its acronym, PKK. Reports emerged this morning of Turkish air strikes against PKK positions in south eastern Turkey, despite on-going peace talks. Kurdish protesters over the past week had held major protests in Turkish cities demanding the government intervene in the Syrian border town of Kobani where Kurdish forces have been desperately attempting to hold their ground against Islamic State fighters. But Turkey has refused to be drawn in, despite the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Kobani’s residents, and reports of horrific brutality against civilians by ISIS soldiers. Click here for a Guardian newspaper article about the story.

Thousands of people marched against police brutality in St. Louis over the weekend, in the latest chapter of the response to Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson. The latest shooting death of another young Black man named Vonderrit Myers Jr. in Shaw, St. Louis, by an off-duty white police officer, has lent greater urgency to the demonstrations. Among those arrested this weekend was Dr. Cornel West, one of the nation’s pre-eminent intellectuals. As part of their “weekend of resistance,” activists organized under the banner, “Ferguson October,” carried out a sit-in in front of the Ferguson Police Department for 4 hours, signifying how long police left Brown’s body in the street after he was shot. Others occupied City Hall, shut down two Walmart stores, and targeted a football game. Click here for an Al Jazeera America article and here for a Commondreams.org article about the story.

And finally Bolivia elected, for a third time Evo Morales, as their President, with 60% of votes. The nation’s first indigenous leader called his victory a symbol against “anti-imperialists,” and a referendum between capitalism and socialism – in other words, between nationalization and privatization. His Movement Toward Socialism Party is likely to maintain majorities in both houses of Bolivia’s Congress. Under Morales’ leadership, poverty in Bolivia has dropped from more than 30% to about 20%. The country has also seen healthy economic growth even as he has nationalized several major industries. Click here for a Commondreams article about the story.