President Barack Obama will today announce the lifting of restrictions on government funding for stem cell research. The restrictions were imposed eight years ago by George W. Bush, saying that such research would cross a ‘moral line’. Another poor Bush decision to be put right.
Several MPs have called for an inquiry into the claims of Binyam Mohamed, who is adamant the MI5 fed information to the CIA when he was in custody, making the MI5 implicit in the torture he endured while in captivity. Mohamed was held in Afghanistan and Morocco before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. The broken image of the MI5.
Gordon Brown met with President Obama today, to discuss the world economic crisis. Mr. Brown’s aides were quick to emphasise that this was a ‘low-key visit’ when it became clear that there would not be any formal press conference to the White House press after the talks. The omitting of this tradition might take away some the importance and significance of being the first European leader to hold talks with the newly elected President. Brown feels snubbed by low-key Obama.
Sir Fred Goodwin is currently one of the most unpopular men in the UK. The former head of RBS, the bank that this week announced a £24,1 billion loss – the largest in UK corporate history, has said he fully intends to keep his pension plan. A plan that gives him £693,000 a year from a bank he promptly left when the government had to bail it out last October. A very expensive lesson learned.
2634 Americans was asked who they admired enough to call a hero. President Obama came out on top, with Jesus in second place. This interactive Harris poll is heavy with politicians, and comes up with quite a spread. Obama in the top spot, Jesus in second and coming up in fifth place is none other than George W. Bush. God doesn’t even make the top ten, but having to make do with an 11th place. I guess action, and lots of it, speaks louder than words. Obama is bigger than Jesus.
In a private meeting of the Parliamentary Labour party at Westminster on Monday night, Gordon Brown accepted that his party has suffered badly in recent months as the recession has hit the UK. He warned MPs to ‘brace themselves for a fresh battering from voters in the coming weeks as the recession deepens’. Brown admits recession will be bad for Labour.
Binyamin Netanyahu was yesterday invited by the Israeli president to form a new government, making him the prime minister, once again. This is bad news for the ongoing peace process in the region, as Netanyahu is as set on creating peace between Israel and Palestine as Bush was on signing the Kyoto agreement. In his acceptance speech he did not once mention the stalled peace process or the idea of a two-state solution, but instead he used the opportunity to issue a stark warning to Iran over it’s nuclear advances. A blow for peace in the Middle East.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is currently in Japan on the first leg of an Asian tour. She took the opportunity there to speak out about, and to, North Korea. She issues a stark warning at the same time she extended a hand offering help. Clinton’s warning to North Korea.
World leaders and financial experts were not surprised when the UK and the US entered deep recessions, and some were even smug enough to suggest that it would not hit their own country as their economy is not based on ‘a property boom and massive consumer debts’. Recession hits Europe, not just the UK.
Barack Obama’s rescue package has finally been approved by both houses of congress, thereby securing the President his first major victory in office. The passing of the $787bn economic stimulus package has been described by it’s author as ‘historic’ and ‘a major milestone on our road to recovery’. Obama’s first major victory.