Egypt fires intelligence chief, militants hit
Yasmine Saleh / Reuters
President Mohamed Mursi sacked the intelligence chief on Wednesday and Egyptian aircraft hit targets on the border with Israel in the biggest assault in the area in nearly 40 years after a deadly attack by militants on Egyptian border police.
Analysis: Disastrous intervention puts Thai rice exporters in peril
Apornrath Phoonphongphiphat / Reuters
Millions of tonnes of rice that no one wants; huge losses for the state budget; farmers more interested in quantity than quality; exporters throwing in the towel. Thailand’s world-beating rice industry is in a sorry state.
THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE SEQUESTER
AP
Republicans and Democrats are sounding the alarm: The budget sequester is coming and we have to do everything to stop it.
UN: AFGHAN CIVILIAN DEATHS DOWN BUT TREND ERODING
HEIDI VOGT / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Afghan civilian deaths dropped 22 percent in the first six months of 2012 compared with a year ago, but the number of civilians killed in targeted assassinations surged, the United Nations said in a report released Wednesday.
Reuters
U.S. regulators on Tuesday suspended issuing final decisions on new licenses and on license renewals for nuclear power plants until the agency decides how to deal with the thorny issue of spent nuclear fuel.
ASP Report: FACT SHEET: North Korea’s Nuclear Program
On Our Flashpoint Blog
Senator Lugar on Securing Syria’s Chemical Weapons
Mary Kaszynski
As events unfold, the U.S. and allies are eying Syria’s chemical and biological weapons stockpile with concern. Syria insists that the weapons are secure and that they “will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.” Whether either of these statements will hold as the situation progresses is unclear. On top of questions about the regime’s intentions there’s also the question of securing the chemical and biological weapons stockpile in the event of the regime’s fall.
New Scientific Facts About Climate Change From NASA–The Organization That Put a Rover on Mars
Catherine Foley
In a recent Washington Post op-ed, James Hansen, the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, co-author of the Fourth IPCC Report and commonly cited “godfather of global warming”, reported that “climate change is here—and worse than we thought.” This op-ed marks the release of a new peer-reviewed study yesterday, led by Hansen and published by the National Academy of Sciences, which directly links climate change to much of the recent extreme weather
Plans to tap huge Russian Arctic oil and gas reserves still on hold
Nick Cunningham
While Shell is preparing to kick off a new era of oil exploration by drilling exploratory wells off the coast of Alaska in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, on the other side of the world Russia is eyeing its Arctic prize. On August 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin tapped Arkady Dvorkovich to devise an incentive and tax structure for oil and gas production in the Arctic.
The US, China, and Africa: Reframing Economics in the US Strategic Space
Ashley Boyle
In Africa, the US is playing a game of catch up with China and arguably missing out on an enormous economic opportunity along the way.
We don’t want a weapons of mass destruction summer
Mary Kaszynski
A WMD disaster would ruin more than just our summer plans. As partisan squabbling and election year rhetoric heat up, let’s remember that there are serious threats out there that require our undivided – and non-partisan – attention.
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