Stuff YOU Should Know
First Aid for New Health Care System Now that it’s up and running again, the most recent challenge facing the U.S. government is rolling out the new health care system created by the Obama administration. To make sure all citizens who were eligible have access to health insurance, the government set up a website called […]
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U.S. and Japan Partner on Security Last month, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel met with their Japanese counterparts, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera. Together these leaders worked out ways to align on security measures that better protect both countries against threats from North Korea and […]
No Life on Mars (Probably)
When NASA launched its Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover in 2011, one of the main goals of its 98-week mission was to determine the red planet’s “habitability.” Last month, the journal Science published a paper that reported the life on Mars is highly unlikely. This is because the rover has yet to find evidence of […]
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Income Gap Between Americans Grows A group made up of economists from around the world compiled IRS figures from the past 100 years. They concluded that the difference in income between the richest 1% of earners in America and the rest is the widest since the Great Depression. Even though the gap has been growing […]
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International Response to Syria The conflict in Syria has been going on for more than two-and-a-half years. The United States has tried to avoid military intervention. However, the president made a statement last year that use of chemical weapons would change the nation’s position. Even though Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denies having used sarin nerve […]
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The Latest in Syria btw has been reporting on the on-going violence in Syria between President Bashar al-Assad and those who oppose him. The latest development concerns allegations that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own citizens. On August 21, a gas attack on the town of Ghouta (near Damascus) left 1,300 […]
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U.S. Embassies Closed On August 4, nineteen U.S. embassies and consulates (sometimes called diplomatic missions) were closed in response to feared attacks by al Qaeda. Most of these government operations were located in the Middle East. U.S. Intelligence agencies such as the CIA intercepted conversations between two high-level al-Qaeda operatives plotting an attack. All but […]
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Edward Snowden Awaits Fate in Russia Last month, btw reported on Edward Snowden, a former defense contractor for both the CIA and the National Security Association (NSA) who exposed questionable surveillance practices by the U.S. government by telling a British newspaper. Shortly after the story was published, Snowden fled to Hong Kong in order to […]