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| Sunday June 29th 2014 - Weekend |
Iraq crisis: Fresh clashes over Tikrit
Iraqi government forces are continuing an offensive to retake the northern city of Tikrit from Sunni rebels.Aircraft have struck at rebel positions and clashes have broken out in various parts of the city, witnesses and officials have said.Troops had reportedly pulled back to the nearby town of Dijla as Saturday's initial offensive met stiff resistance.
The city of Tikrit was captured by Sunni rebels on 11 June as they swept across large parts of northern Iraq. "The security forces are advancing from different areas", Lt-Gen Qassem Atta told journalists. "There are ongoing clashes."
There was fighting in the northern Qadissiyah district, near the university where troops established a foothold in the city a few days ago, witnesses told the Associated Press.
An unnamed official also told the agency of clashes around an air base formerly used by the US military, Camp Speicher. Improvised devices
Heavy fighting took place on Saturday between the Iraqi security forces and armed men from different factions controlling Tikrit, resulting in many casualties on both sides, eyewitnesses and journalists told the BBC.
Related:
- Iraqi forces reportedly pull back from Tikrit amid fierce fighting with ISIS militants
- Iraqi helicopters strike militant-held Tikrit
Isis crucifies nine people in Syrian villages
Crucifixions have been meted out by Isis across Syria as punishment to rebels
A man has survived being crucified by Isis in Syria,
after the jihadists raided his village and nailed him to a cross for eight
hours.
The unnamed man from Al-Bab, near the border with Turkey, was crucified as a
punishment, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
He managed to survive the ordeal.
But eight others who received the same punishment did not survive. The men,
from Deir Hafer in the east of Aleppo province, were subjected to the same
treatment and crucified "in the main square of the village, where their
bodies will remain for three days", the Britain-based monitor said.
The men were reportedly rebels fighting against both President Bashar al-Assad
and jihadist groups including Isis.
Isis first emerged in Syria's war in late spring last year – and was initially welcomed by some Syrian rebels, who believed its combat experience would help topple Mr Assad.
But subsequent acts of immense brutality quickly turned the Syrian opposition, including Islamists, against Isis.
Rebels launched a major anti-Isis offensive in January 2014, and have pushed them out of large swathes of Aleppo province and all of Idlib in the northwest.
However, Isis remains firmly rooted in Raqa, its northern Syrian headquarters, and wields significant power in Deir Ezzor in the east near the border with Iraq.
Activists say the group's Iraq offensive and capture of heavy weapons – some of them US-made – appears to have boosted its confidence in Syria.
The report comes amid fierce clashes on the outskirts of Damascus between Isis and anti-Assad forces.
The insurgents control large swathes of the north and west after a string of attacks over the past three weeks.
On Saturday, the government said it had retaken the northern city of Tikrit, but rebels dispute this.
State television said 60 militants had been killed and that preparations were now being made to move north towards rebel-held Mosul.
The rebels confirmed there had been heavy fighting in the city they took on 11 June, but implied the attack had failed, saying they were pursuing what was left of the army offensive.
US drones Iraq's ministry of defence said the deal with Russia "was aimed at increasing the firepower of the air force and the rest of the armed forces in order to fight terrorism".
Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, told the BBC last week that his government had signed a deal with Russia and Belarus to supply jet fighters. The deals are reportedly worth up to $500m (£293m).
Iraq is a case in point. ISIS – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – is a jihadist terrorist organization that has already taken large areas in Syria and made significant gains in Iraq. It is now in the process of setting up a hard-core Islamic state in the heart of the Middle East.
Half a million people in the war-torn country will lose access to desperately needed healthcare when Atareb hospital, operated by the British-based aid agency Hand in Hand for Syria (HIHS), closes within the next few days.
It would be a disaster for local people as well as for the medical staff, who included some of the last remaining doctors in Syria, and their families, said the charity's head of logistics, Fadi al-Dairi, speaking from the Syrian-Turkish border.
He said the charity has enough money from donors to keep the hospital running, but cannot get it into the country, because it needs a partner to channel the funding, and established charities are pulling out of Syria.
"It's because of bureaucracy, red tape," he added. "We have the expertise, but not the experience."
Al-Dairi said the charity was unable to apply for help from the UK's Department for International Development or a UN agency because it had not been running for three years. "We only set up to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, so of course we are not yet three years old. We have been begging for help, but have had no firm commitment from any of the bigger aid agencies, whom we need to get the money we have to where it needs to be.
"Already all the aid agencies are only meeting 20% of the need within Syria. The loss of this hospital is a tragedy, especially when hospitals inside Syria are being bombed every day."
The EU reported in May that since the crisis began, 200,000 people have died in Syria because of the lack of healthcare, far more than the 164,000 thought to have been killed in fighting.
Outside powers have often exploited ethnic and religious divisions in Muslim states and "they dream of a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis" that would not happen, he said in Tehran, according to an official statement.
He warned against what he called Western propaganda about "a cast of morons and Saddam Hussein leftovers," apparent references to the radical Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Sunni tribes who once sided with the country's deposed dictator and now fight with ISIL.
"The incident in Iraq is not a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis," Khamenei said at a meeting with families of victims of a 1981 bombing that destroyed the Tehran headquarters of the ruling Islamic Republic Party in 1981.
"It is a battle between supporters and opponents of terrorism, it's a war between fans of America and the West and those favoring independence for their nation," he said of the Iraq violence. "It's a showdown between humanity and barbarian savagery."
ISIL Sunni militants have seized a broad swath of territory in northern and western Iraq in recent weeks in their quest to topple the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, and set up a classic Islamic caliphate.
Deeming Shi'ites to be heretics, ISIL militants have posted videos showing executions of government troops upon capture. Iranian media are rife with reports of other atrocities allegedly committed by ISIL.
Isis first emerged in Syria's war in late spring last year – and was initially welcomed by some Syrian rebels, who believed its combat experience would help topple Mr Assad.
But subsequent acts of immense brutality quickly turned the Syrian opposition, including Islamists, against Isis.
Rebels launched a major anti-Isis offensive in January 2014, and have pushed them out of large swathes of Aleppo province and all of Idlib in the northwest.
However, Isis remains firmly rooted in Raqa, its northern Syrian headquarters, and wields significant power in Deir Ezzor in the east near the border with Iraq.
Activists say the group's Iraq offensive and capture of heavy weapons – some of them US-made – appears to have boosted its confidence in Syria.
The report comes amid fierce clashes on the outskirts of Damascus between Isis and anti-Assad forces.
Iraq receives Russian fighter jets to fight rebels
Iraq says it has received
the first batch of fighter jets it ordered from Russia to help it as it
fights an offensive by Sunni rebels.
The defence ministry said five Sukhoi attack aircraft would enter service in "three to four days".The insurgents control large swathes of the north and west after a string of attacks over the past three weeks.
On Saturday, the government said it had retaken the northern city of Tikrit, but rebels dispute this.
State television said 60 militants had been killed and that preparations were now being made to move north towards rebel-held Mosul.
The rebels confirmed there had been heavy fighting in the city they took on 11 June, but implied the attack had failed, saying they were pursuing what was left of the army offensive.
US drones Iraq's ministry of defence said the deal with Russia "was aimed at increasing the firepower of the air force and the rest of the armed forces in order to fight terrorism".
Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, told the BBC last week that his government had signed a deal with Russia and Belarus to supply jet fighters. The deals are reportedly worth up to $500m (£293m).
Without allies against ISIS, US finds itself in the same camp as Iran, its sworn enemy
From the start of the so called Arab spring, America has time and time again initiated moves which set it at odds with its traditional allies in the Middle East, to the extent that today it can only watch impotently developments in the region.
Iraq is a case in point. ISIS – the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria – is a jihadist terrorist organization that has already taken large areas in Syria and made significant gains in Iraq. It is now in the process of setting up a hard-core Islamic state in the heart of the Middle East.
Syria charity blames red tape for closure of Aleppo hospital
Staff at much-needed hospital given a month's notice because charity needs established funding partner to keep facility open
All staff at a hospital serving the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo have been given a month's notice after a British medical charity blamed red tape for its closure.Half a million people in the war-torn country will lose access to desperately needed healthcare when Atareb hospital, operated by the British-based aid agency Hand in Hand for Syria (HIHS), closes within the next few days.
It would be a disaster for local people as well as for the medical staff, who included some of the last remaining doctors in Syria, and their families, said the charity's head of logistics, Fadi al-Dairi, speaking from the Syrian-Turkish border.
He said the charity has enough money from donors to keep the hospital running, but cannot get it into the country, because it needs a partner to channel the funding, and established charities are pulling out of Syria.
"It's because of bureaucracy, red tape," he added. "We have the expertise, but not the experience."
Al-Dairi said the charity was unable to apply for help from the UK's Department for International Development or a UN agency because it had not been running for three years. "We only set up to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Syria, so of course we are not yet three years old. We have been begging for help, but have had no firm commitment from any of the bigger aid agencies, whom we need to get the money we have to where it needs to be.
"Already all the aid agencies are only meeting 20% of the need within Syria. The loss of this hospital is a tragedy, especially when hospitals inside Syria are being bombed every day."
The EU reported in May that since the crisis began, 200,000 people have died in Syria because of the lack of healthcare, far more than the 164,000 thought to have been killed in fighting.
Iran Supreme Leader Khamenei: Iraq Conflict Between Humanity And Barbaraity, Not Sunni-Shia
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called the Iraq conflict a "showdown between humanity and barbarian savagery" and criticized Western media for portraying it as a war between Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.Outside powers have often exploited ethnic and religious divisions in Muslim states and "they dream of a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis" that would not happen, he said in Tehran, according to an official statement.
He warned against what he called Western propaganda about "a cast of morons and Saddam Hussein leftovers," apparent references to the radical Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and Sunni tribes who once sided with the country's deposed dictator and now fight with ISIL.
"The incident in Iraq is not a war between Shi'ites and Sunnis," Khamenei said at a meeting with families of victims of a 1981 bombing that destroyed the Tehran headquarters of the ruling Islamic Republic Party in 1981.
"It is a battle between supporters and opponents of terrorism, it's a war between fans of America and the West and those favoring independence for their nation," he said of the Iraq violence. "It's a showdown between humanity and barbarian savagery."
ISIL Sunni militants have seized a broad swath of territory in northern and western Iraq in recent weeks in their quest to topple the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, and set up a classic Islamic caliphate.
Deeming Shi'ites to be heretics, ISIL militants have posted videos showing executions of government troops upon capture. Iranian media are rife with reports of other atrocities allegedly committed by ISIL.
Pro-Russia Ukraine rebels free four international observers
MOSCOW – Pro-Russian insurgents on Saturday released a second team of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who had been held captive since the end of May, the organization said.
OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said that the four observers were released and met by an OSCE official in the eastern city of Donetsk.
"They're in good health, they're in good spirits," he said.
OSCE lost contact with four monitors from its Donetsk team and four monitors from its Luhansk team in late May. The members of the Donetsk team were freed earlier this week.
The second release followed a European Union summit Friday, where leaders decided not to immediately impose new sanctions on Russia for destabilizing eastern Ukraine, but gave the Russian government and pro-Russian insurgents until Monday to take steps to improve the situation. The EU leaders said Russia and the rebels should work to release all captives, retreat from border checkpoints, agree on a way to verify the cease-fire and launch "substantial negotiations" on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan.
The apparent test comes just days after North Korea said it successfully fired new precision-guided missiles.
North Korea frequently test-fires missiles to refine its military capabilities.
Reports of a new test come days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due in South Korea to discuss the North's nuclear weapons programme.
China is North Korea's only major ally and provides an economic lifeline to the isolated nation.
The North is under UN sanctions over its weapons and nuclear programmes.
It has carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and is thought to have enough nuclear material for a small number of bombs.
However, analysts say the North does not appear to have successfully manufactured a nuclear warhead small enough to be carried by its missiles.
EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Friday in a Twitter message that leaders nominated Juncker as the next President of the European Commission, the bloc's powerful executive arm.
Juncker's nomination is breaking with a decades-old tradition of choosing the Commission president by consensus because Britain opposed him.
Juncker still needs to be confirmed by the European Parliament before starting his term later in the year, taking over from Jose Manuel Barroso.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier Friday he would vote against Juncker because he views the 59-year-old as the embodiment of a pro-integration, consensus-favoring, empire-building Brussels clique that won't return power to member nations.
A temporary cabinet would then govern until elections next year.
The military seized power on 22 May, saying it wanted to return stability to Thailand after months of political and social unrest.
Since then, the country has been run by a military junta called the National Council for Peace and Order. It insists it is a neutral player among the country's rival political factions.
Gen Prayuth, who led the coup, said any new election would have to take place under a new constitution, which would be drafted by an appointed body.
"We want to see an election that will take place under the new constitution... that will be free and fair, so that it can become a solid foundation for a complete Thai democracy," he said in a televised address.
"Today, if we go ahead and hold a general election, it will lead to a situation that creates conflict and the country will return to the old cycle of conflict, violence, corruption by influential groups in politics, terrorism and the use of war weapons" he added.
Nigeria Islamists attack village near Chibok, 10 dead: Report
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Suspected Islamists killed at least 10 people on Sunday in an attack on a village less than 5 kilometres (3 miles) from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls in April, survivors said.
And, in a separate assault on Friday evening, the insurgents killed seven soldiers in the village of Goniri, in Yobe state, a security source and witnesses said.
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This was worse than the previous estimate of a 1% contraction, and also worse than economists' expectations.
However, the economy is expected to have recorded a sharp recovery during the second quarter of the year.
The White House said the figures showed the economic recovery was still in progress, but added other indicators for April and May suggest a rebound in the second quarter.
The latest revision came as a result of a weaker pace of healthcare spending than previously assumed, which caused a downgrading of the consumer spending estimate.
Consumer spending - which is responsible for more than two-thirds of US economic growth - increased by 1% in the quarter, rather than the 3.1% rate as first estimated.
Trade was also a bigger drag on the economy than previously thought, with exports falling by 8.9% rather than a previously estimated 6%.
"This is all about the United States Constitution," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told "Fox News Sunday."
Goodlatte rejected Democratic criticism that the lawsuit announced by
Boehner amounts to an election-year political stunt. He cited a
presidential pattern of "not enforcing laws, or changing laws that have
been passed, taking power from the Legislative Branch."
This, he said, runs afoul of Article 1 of the Constitution which grants legislative powers to Congress.
"We ... have the power to bring causes of action when we believe that the president of the United States is exceeding his authority and is trampling upon Article 1 of the Constitution," Goodlatte said. "To me, it makes a whole lot of sense to do this."
Boehner triggered a firestorm on Capitol Hill earlier this week after announcing he planned to proceed with such a lawsuit, challenging the president's use of executive actions. Republicans complain that Obama has taken a host of questionable actions on his own, including unilaterally changing provisions of ObamaCare, hiking the minimum wage for federal contractors, and loosening immigration and deportation policies.
On "Fox News Sunday," however, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., staunchly defended the president and argued that he has not crossed any constitutional or legal lines.
"The president simply said I'm going to do what I can within the confines of the law to make this work," Becerra said. "Absolutely, he's implementing the law ... he's not rewriting it."
Obama, in light of the lawsuit threat, has vowed to continue to act on his own if congressional Republicans will not work with him. The president joked about the lawsuit during an address on Friday in Minneapolis.
With Obama looking to Congress for help with what he has called an "urgent humanitarian situation," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi visited a Border Patrol facility in Brownsville that held unaccompanied children. More than 52,000 unaccompanied children, most from Central America, have been apprehended entering the U.S. illegally since October.
"The fact is these are children — children and families," Pelosi said. "We have a moral responsibility to address this in a dignified way."
Obama plans to make the requests of Congress in a letter to be sent Monday, the White House official said. Details of the emergency appropriation, including the exact amount and how it will be spent, will come after lawmakers return from their holiday recess on July 7, said the official, who was not authorized to speak by name and discussed the requests on condition of anonymity.
Obama will also ask that the Homeland Security Department be granted the authority to apply "fast track" procedures to the screening and deportation of all immigrant children traveling without their parents and that stiffer penalties be applied to those who smuggle children across the border, the official said. Obama's requests were reported first by The New York Times.
In Brownsville, Pelosi said she holds little hope that Congress will pass comprehensive immigration reform this year but that politics should be set aside.
White House adviser Rob Nabors and acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said in briefing to Obama on Friday that the Veterans Health Administration “needs to be restructured and reformed,” according to a summary of the findings they presented.
Among their other conclusions, the officials determined that the VA’s goal of scheduling patients within 14 days is “arbitrary, ill-defined and misunderstood,” and that it may have “incentivized inappropriate actions.”
An inspector general’s report last month said VA medical centers nationwide falsified appointment records to hide extensive treatment delays. The problems led to a leadership shakeup that included the resignation of former VA secretary Eric Shinseki and demotion for two top officials.
VA officials have said that outdated scheduling software contributed to the record-keeping issues, but Nabors and Gibson said technology was “secondary” to the need for additional medical staff to help treat patients.
The two officials noted that shortages of health professionals are not unique to the VA, but they said slowness in federal hiring and difficulty competing with private-sector wages have exacerbated the problem for the department.
They also said VA headquarters needs to be more hands-on with field facilities, noting that clinics are generally “not accountable or transparent to veterans, the secretary or the department as a whole.” They added that many employees believe the issues raised by leadership and the public are “exaggerated, unimportant, or ‘will pass.’”
Last year a US court agreed the process was unfair but now the British company wants the money back with interest.
BP has fought a long legal battle in US courts to limit the compensation bill.
In a court filing on Friday, BP asked a US judge to order the businesses to repay the overpayments plus interest, and requested an injunction to prevent firms spending what it called their "windfall".
Earlier in June the US Supreme Court refused to allow BP to stop paying compensation claims while it awaited the outcome of its legal appeals.
Inflated claims The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, off the coast of Louisiana, killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
In the wake of that disaster, BP reached the terms of a settlement to compensate businesses. The firm initially estimated it would pay $7.8bn (£4.6bn) in business claims.
But the oil company has argued that the terms are being misinterpreted and that compensation claims were being inflated.
BP cited a number of examples to support its case, saying that under the new policy, a seller of animal skins would have been paid $14m less, while a building firm based hundreds of miles from the Gulf would have been paid $8.4m less.
MOSCOW – Pro-Russian insurgents on Saturday released a second team of observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, who had been held captive since the end of May, the organization said.
OSCE spokesman Michael Bociurkiw said that the four observers were released and met by an OSCE official in the eastern city of Donetsk.
OSCE lost contact with four monitors from its Donetsk team and four monitors from its Luhansk team in late May. The members of the Donetsk team were freed earlier this week.
The second release followed a European Union summit Friday, where leaders decided not to immediately impose new sanctions on Russia for destabilizing eastern Ukraine, but gave the Russian government and pro-Russian insurgents until Monday to take steps to improve the situation. The EU leaders said Russia and the rebels should work to release all captives, retreat from border checkpoints, agree on a way to verify the cease-fire and launch "substantial negotiations" on Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan.
North Korea 'test-fires short-range missiles'
North Korea has fired two missiles into the sea from its east coast, reports from South Korea say.
A defence ministry spokesman in Seoul declined to give
further details, but Yonhap news agency said they were Scuds with the
range of 500km (310 miles).The apparent test comes just days after North Korea said it successfully fired new precision-guided missiles.
North Korea frequently test-fires missiles to refine its military capabilities.
Reports of a new test come days before Chinese President Xi Jinping is due in South Korea to discuss the North's nuclear weapons programme.
China is North Korea's only major ally and provides an economic lifeline to the isolated nation.
The North is under UN sanctions over its weapons and nuclear programmes.
It has carried out nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, and is thought to have enough nuclear material for a small number of bombs.
However, analysts say the North does not appear to have successfully manufactured a nuclear warhead small enough to be carried by its missiles.
Jean-Claude Juncker Elected President Of European Commission
BRUSSELS (AP) — A top official says European Union leaders have chosen former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker to become the 28-nation bloc's new chief executive.EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Friday in a Twitter message that leaders nominated Juncker as the next President of the European Commission, the bloc's powerful executive arm.
Juncker's nomination is breaking with a decades-old tradition of choosing the Commission president by consensus because Britain opposed him.
Juncker still needs to be confirmed by the European Parliament before starting his term later in the year, taking over from Jose Manuel Barroso.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said earlier Friday he would vote against Juncker because he views the 59-year-old as the embodiment of a pro-integration, consensus-favoring, empire-building Brussels clique that won't return power to member nations.
Thai army promises elections in October 2015
Thailand's military leader has promised a return to democracy but says elections will only take place after October 2015.
Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha said in a speech that an interim constitution would be adopted next month.A temporary cabinet would then govern until elections next year.
The military seized power on 22 May, saying it wanted to return stability to Thailand after months of political and social unrest.
Since then, the country has been run by a military junta called the National Council for Peace and Order. It insists it is a neutral player among the country's rival political factions.
Gen Prayuth, who led the coup, said any new election would have to take place under a new constitution, which would be drafted by an appointed body.
"We want to see an election that will take place under the new constitution... that will be free and fair, so that it can become a solid foundation for a complete Thai democracy," he said in a televised address.
"Today, if we go ahead and hold a general election, it will lead to a situation that creates conflict and the country will return to the old cycle of conflict, violence, corruption by influential groups in politics, terrorism and the use of war weapons" he added.
Nigeria Islamists attack village near Chibok, 10 dead: Report
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria: Suspected Islamists killed at least 10 people on Sunday in an attack on a village less than 5 kilometres (3 miles) from Chibok, the scene of a mass abduction of more than 200 school girls in April, survivors said.
And, in a separate assault on Friday evening, the insurgents killed seven soldiers in the village of Goniri, in Yobe state, a security source and witnesses said.
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US GDP shrinks 2.9% in first quarter
The US economy suffered its worst performance for five years in the first quarter of 2014, latest figures show.
The economy shrank at an annualised rate of 2.9% in the first
three months of the year, the third estimate from the US Commerce
Department showed.This was worse than the previous estimate of a 1% contraction, and also worse than economists' expectations.
However, the economy is expected to have recorded a sharp recovery during the second quarter of the year.
The White House said the figures showed the economic recovery was still in progress, but added other indicators for April and May suggest a rebound in the second quarter.
The unusually cold weather in the first quarter of the year has been blamed for the poor performance of the economy.
However, the gap between the second and third estimates of US growth for the quarter was the largest on record.The latest revision came as a result of a weaker pace of healthcare spending than previously assumed, which caused a downgrading of the consumer spending estimate.
Consumer spending - which is responsible for more than two-thirds of US economic growth - increased by 1% in the quarter, rather than the 3.1% rate as first estimated.
Trade was also a bigger drag on the economy than previously thought, with exports falling by 8.9% rather than a previously estimated 6%.
Top Republican alleges Obama ‘trampling’ on authority of Congress, backs lawsuit
The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee charged Sunday that President Obama is "trampling upon" the constitutional authority granted to Congress, as he defended Speaker John Boehner's decision to file a lawsuit against the president for allegedly exceeding his authority."This is all about the United States Constitution," Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told "Fox News Sunday."
This, he said, runs afoul of Article 1 of the Constitution which grants legislative powers to Congress.
"We ... have the power to bring causes of action when we believe that the president of the United States is exceeding his authority and is trampling upon Article 1 of the Constitution," Goodlatte said. "To me, it makes a whole lot of sense to do this."
Boehner triggered a firestorm on Capitol Hill earlier this week after announcing he planned to proceed with such a lawsuit, challenging the president's use of executive actions. Republicans complain that Obama has taken a host of questionable actions on his own, including unilaterally changing provisions of ObamaCare, hiking the minimum wage for federal contractors, and loosening immigration and deportation policies.
On "Fox News Sunday," however, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., staunchly defended the president and argued that he has not crossed any constitutional or legal lines.
"The president simply said I'm going to do what I can within the confines of the law to make this work," Becerra said. "Absolutely, he's implementing the law ... he's not rewriting it."
Obama, in light of the lawsuit threat, has vowed to continue to act on his own if congressional Republicans will not work with him. The president joked about the lawsuit during an address on Friday in Minneapolis.
Obama To Seek Border Aid; Pelosi Visits Texas
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — President Barack Obama will seek more than $2 billion to respond to the flood of immigrants illegally entering the U.S. through the Rio Grande Valley area of Texas and ask for new powers to deal with returning immigrant children apprehended while traveling without their parents, a White House official said Saturday.With Obama looking to Congress for help with what he has called an "urgent humanitarian situation," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi visited a Border Patrol facility in Brownsville that held unaccompanied children. More than 52,000 unaccompanied children, most from Central America, have been apprehended entering the U.S. illegally since October.
"The fact is these are children — children and families," Pelosi said. "We have a moral responsibility to address this in a dignified way."
Obama plans to make the requests of Congress in a letter to be sent Monday, the White House official said. Details of the emergency appropriation, including the exact amount and how it will be spent, will come after lawmakers return from their holiday recess on July 7, said the official, who was not authorized to speak by name and discussed the requests on condition of anonymity.
Obama will also ask that the Homeland Security Department be granted the authority to apply "fast track" procedures to the screening and deportation of all immigrant children traveling without their parents and that stiffer penalties be applied to those who smuggle children across the border, the official said. Obama's requests were reported first by The New York Times.
In Brownsville, Pelosi said she holds little hope that Congress will pass comprehensive immigration reform this year but that politics should be set aside.
Officials to Obama: VA suffering from ‘corrosive culture’
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ health network lacks accountability and suffers from a host of other problems, including a “corrosive culture” of employee discontent and management retaliation, according to the two men President Obama appointed to fix the system.White House adviser Rob Nabors and acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson said in briefing to Obama on Friday that the Veterans Health Administration “needs to be restructured and reformed,” according to a summary of the findings they presented.
Among their other conclusions, the officials determined that the VA’s goal of scheduling patients within 14 days is “arbitrary, ill-defined and misunderstood,” and that it may have “incentivized inappropriate actions.”
An inspector general’s report last month said VA medical centers nationwide falsified appointment records to hide extensive treatment delays. The problems led to a leadership shakeup that included the resignation of former VA secretary Eric Shinseki and demotion for two top officials.
VA officials have said that outdated scheduling software contributed to the record-keeping issues, but Nabors and Gibson said technology was “secondary” to the need for additional medical staff to help treat patients.
The two officials noted that shortages of health professionals are not unique to the VA, but they said slowness in federal hiring and difficulty competing with private-sector wages have exacerbated the problem for the department.
They also said VA headquarters needs to be more hands-on with field facilities, noting that clinics are generally “not accountable or transparent to veterans, the secretary or the department as a whole.” They added that many employees believe the issues raised by leadership and the public are “exaggerated, unimportant, or ‘will pass.’”
BP seeks to wrest back Gulf of Mexico compensation
BP has asked a US court
to order a "vast number" of businesses to repay part of the compensation
awards they were paid in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The oil firm said the administrator in charge of processing the claims allowed businesses to inflate their losses.Last year a US court agreed the process was unfair but now the British company wants the money back with interest.
BP has fought a long legal battle in US courts to limit the compensation bill.
In a court filing on Friday, BP asked a US judge to order the businesses to repay the overpayments plus interest, and requested an injunction to prevent firms spending what it called their "windfall".
Earlier in June the US Supreme Court refused to allow BP to stop paying compensation claims while it awaited the outcome of its legal appeals.
Inflated claims The explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, off the coast of Louisiana, killed 11 workers and caused the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
In the wake of that disaster, BP reached the terms of a settlement to compensate businesses. The firm initially estimated it would pay $7.8bn (£4.6bn) in business claims.
But the oil company has argued that the terms are being misinterpreted and that compensation claims were being inflated.
BP cited a number of examples to support its case, saying that under the new policy, a seller of animal skins would have been paid $14m less, while a building firm based hundreds of miles from the Gulf would have been paid $8.4m less.
U.S. Postal Service losing tens of millions annually subsidizing shipments to Alaska
HOOPER BAY, Alaska — In the soggy,
unforgiving tundra on the shores of the Bering Sea, Royala Bell defrosts
a rack of beef ribs for dinner in a kitchen that doubles as a bedroom
for six of her seven children.
A dead owl lies on the floor, ready for her
husband, Carlton, to defeather it for a headdress. Fish dry on a line
out back, for the larder in winter. On a small counter are some of the
groceries the Bells consume from the Lower 48: Sailor Boy Pilot Bread,
potatoes, Kool-Aid, Aunt Jemima pancake mix and a can of Coca-Cola.
The U.S. Postal Service paid to ship the items
on a turboprop bush plane to this small settlement of Yupik Indians on
Alaska’s western edge. The Bells brought them home on the back of their
all-terrain vehicle from Hooper Bay’s only grocery store. The 12-pack of
Coke alone cost the Postal Service $21 to get here.
Under a federal program exclusive to Alaska,
the Postal Service is responsible for shipping more than 100 million
pounds a year of apples, frozen meat, dog food, diapers and countless
other consumer items to off-road villages in the sparsely populated
outposts known as the bush. Over three decades acting as freight
forwarder, the agency has lost $2.5 billion.
In many ways, the Alaska Bypass, as it’s
called, keeps Hooper Bay and 100 other isolated villages in rural Alaska
afloat. But groceries do not come cheap for Royala Bell, 43, and her
neighbors, most of whom, like her family, survive on food stamps and
federal subsidies.
“I think the food is too, too high,” the slight
Yupik woman said of the prices at the Alaska Commercial store here,
stretching her hands wide like an accordion. “It takes about $200 for a
little tiny amount of groceries.”
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