The latest news on Unemployment Rises, State Budget Crises, President in Germany, Judge Sotomayor, Health Care Reform, Abortion, Tiananmen, U.K. Government, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi, and Select Op-eds. | Sojourners

The latest news on Unemployment Rises, State Budget Crises, President in Germany, Judge Sotomayor, Health Care Reform, Abortion, Tiananmen, U.K. Government, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi, and Select Op-eds.

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Quote of the day. "For the first time a woman member has been elected Speaker - and that too a woman from the Dalit community. In electing you ... we members of parliament pay tribute to the women of our country and the great contribution that they have made." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the election of Meira Kumar, 64, a former lawyer and diplomat, as Speaker of India’s Parliament. (BBC)

Unemployment rises. U.S. unemployment rate hits 9.4% in May “The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the nationwide unemployment rate now stands at 9.4%, the worst it has been in more than 25 years. If workers abandoned their job searches or settled for part-time employment were factored in, the rate would have been 16.4%.” Unemployment rate rises but pace of job losses slows “The nation's unemployment rate increased by half a percentage point to 9.4 percent in May, the Labor Department reported Friday, yet the agency reported in a separate survey that the pace of job losses appears to have slowed substantially.”

State budget crises. Budget plan could doom CalWORKS aid to families, children “Could California become the first state in the nation to do away with welfare? That doomsday scenario is on the table as lawmakers wrestle with a staggering $24.3 billion budget deficit.” Rally calls for lawmakers to raise taxes to help needy “Advocates for poor Ohioans are urging Gov. Ted Strickland and legislative leaders to raise taxes to meet the growing needs of low-income children, the disabled, elderly, unemployed and struggling families.”

President in Germany. U.S. president visits Nazi-era camp “U.S. President Barack Obama has paid a visit to the Nazi concentration camp in Buchenwald during his trip to Germany. He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured the site, where some 250,000 prisoners were held from 1937 to 1945.” Obama: Buchenwald is the ultimate rebuke to Holocaust deniers “Obama on Friday visited the Nazi-era camp, where an estimated 56,000 people, including some 11,000 Jews, perished there at the hands of Nazis. He toured the memorial with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel.” Obama preaches peace in Germany “Barack Obama today signaled the start of a new push for peace in the Middle East following his speech in Cairo yesterday calling for a new beginning between the U.S. and Muslim countries.”

Judge Sotomayor. Speeches Show Judge’s Steady Focus on Diversity and Struggle “In speech after speech over the years, Judge Sonia Sotomayor has returned to the themes of diversity, struggle, heritage and alienation that have both powered and complicated her nomination to the Supreme Court.” Speeches reveal more about Sotomayor's thoughts on race “Judge Sonia Sotomayor, already facing controversy for a 2001 speech on the virtue of having 'a wise Latina' as a judge, made similar comments in a series of speeches released Thursday.”

Health care reform. Healthcare overhaul effort moves forward without Kennedy “Senate Democrats and the White House are stepping up preparations to overhaul the nation's healthcare system without the ailing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a politically and emotionally fraught move that could dramatically alter the course of what is expected to be a titanic legislative struggle.” GOP health plan tensions build “Senate Republicans showed growing frustration Thursday with President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats over a public insurance plan, calling it a deal breaker that would kill prospects for a bipartisan health care reform bill.”

Abortion. Slaying of George Tiller Focuses Attention on Late-Term Abortions “Tiller's death has focused attention on abortions late in pregnancy. While it is clear that they account for a tiny fraction of the 1.2 million U.S. abortions each year, much about the procedures is unclear, including exactly how many are done, by whom and under what circumstances.” Broken windows into abortion doctor's life “At the Boulder Abortion Clinic, Dr. Warren Hern leaves no window uncovered. Full-length blinds shroud the bulletproof entryway; in his office, vinyl shades block a small window.”

Tiananmen. China cracks down on Tiananmen memorial “Chinese police turned out in force yesterday to smother any commemoration of the crackdown in Tiananmen Square 20 years ago, but thousands lit candles in Hong Kong in memory of the victims.” Hong Kong Pays Tribute to Tiananmen Protesters While Beijing Stays Silent “China blanketed Tiananmen Square with police officers on Thursday, determined to prevent any commemoration of the 20th anniversary of a military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters that left hundreds dead.”

U.K. government. Purnell quits and tells PM to stand aside “Gordon Brown suffered another crippling blow last night when the Blairite Work and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell, resigned from the Government.” I won't walk away, insists Brown “Gordon Brown has unveiled a reshuffled cabinet and vowed to 'fight on' with his 'resilient' team to rescue the economy and clean up politics.”

Afghanistan. U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan is in full force “Most of the 17,000 combat troops ordered here by President Obama will be in place by mid-July -- nearly all of them fanning out across southern Afghanistan, the heartland of the Taliban insurgency.”

Pakistan. Pakistan mosque blast kills scores “At least 40 people are feared to have been killed in a bomb blast at a mosque in northwest Pakistan. The blast occurred in a village in Upper Dir district of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) while worshippers were attending Friday prayers.” As Envoy Holbrooke Visits Refugees, Pakistan Claims Decisive Progress in Swat “Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, declared Thursday that the tide had 'decisively turned' in the military's battle against Taliban extremists in the Swat Valley, but displaced Pakistanis in a sprawling tent city here said it was still unsafe for them to return home.” Taliban Stir Rising Anger of Pakistanis “But history moves quickly in Pakistan, and after months of televised Taliban cruelties, broken promises and suicide attacks, there is a spreading sense — apparent in the news media, among politicians and the public — that many Pakistanis are finally turning against the Taliban.”

Burma - Aung San Suu Kyi. Quiet support expressed for Suu Kyi “The spray-painted demands appear overnight -- 'Free Aung San Suu Kyi' read the scrawls on walls across this city -- only to be whitewashed by security forces as soon as they are discovered.”

Opinion. Words that could heal wounds of centuries (Robert Fisk, The Independent) “Preacher, historian, economist, moralist, schoolteacher, critic, warrior, imam, emperor. Sometimes you even forgot Barack Obama was the President of the United States of America.”

Editorial round-up: President’s speech in Cairo.
The Cairo Speech (New York Times) “When President Bush spoke in the months and years after Sept. 11, 2001, we often — chillingly — felt as if we didn’t recognize the United States. His vision was of a country racked with fear and bent on vengeance, one that imposed invidious choices on the world and on itself. When we listened to President Obama speak in Cairo on Thursday, we recognized the United States.”
The Cairo Appeal (Washington Post) “President Obama was the first to say yesterday that one speech cannot erase the accumulated hostility and mistrust between many of the world's Muslims and the United States. But his address in Cairo offered an eloquent case for American values and global objectives -- and it looked to be a skillful use of public diplomacy in a region where America's efforts to explain itself have often been weak.”
Obama and Islam (Chicago Tribune) “President Barack Obama came to the heart of the Arab world on Thursday to explain America and its aims to Muslims across the globe. This was The Speech. The long-promised, long-awaited moment that the new president -- drawing on his father's Islamic heritage -- would begin to change unflattering perceptions of America in the Islamic world.”
Obama in Cairo: something old, something new (Christian Science Monitor) “President Obama billed his Cairo speech to the Muslim world as a 'new beginning.' In some important ways, it did signal a fresh start. But there's also no getting around the 'old' work that needs to be done or the abiding principles that must guide that work.
Obama in Cairo (Los Angeles Times) “Rhetorically, at least, President Obama moved mountains in the land of Muhammad. Speaking from Cairo University to the world's estimated 1.5 billion Muslims, the American president made a frank appeal for a new relationship based on mutual respect.
A double new start (Haaretz) “The extraordinary speech by the U.S. president in Cairo was meant, in his words, 'to seek a new beginning' between the United States and Islam. This is an essential beginning following years of hostility and alienation between American administrations and Muslims and Arabs.
America and Islam (Times of London)Few speeches have been as eagerly awaited in the Middle East as President Obama's address in Cairo University to the Muslim world. And few speeches have been as carefully crafted, as powerfully delivered or as comprehensive in charting a new beginning between civilizations locked for the past decade in destructive mutual incomprehension.”
Obama's speech in Cairo: a bold vision (Guardian) “Barack Obama had set the bar high: to deliver a speech which addressed America's dysfunctional relationship not just with the Arab world but the Muslim one; a speech which encompassed not only contemporary conflicts but past ones; a speech which would not only restate common values but redefine them in terms of Islamic teaching and the Qur'an. He succeeded spectacularly in Cairo yesterday.”