THE result of the general election in Israel poses as big a challenge for Barack Obama – to broker a just peace in the Middle East – as the economic crisis. With 11.4 million people now out of work in the United States, the President’s first priority remains financial stability and creating more jobs at home. But his bid for quiet diplomacy with Iran – in contrast to the belligerent noise of George W Bush – requires progress elsewhere in the region.
Archive for February, 2009
Israel’s election results give Obama a headache
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009TUC hits out at bosses’ threat to pensions
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009THE TUC has condemned threats to cut costs during the credit crunch-inspired recession by plundering employees’ pension schemes.
Workers protest at ‘masters of disaster’
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009FINANCE workers protested about the greed of their banking bosses outside the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee hearing on Tuesday.
US will ‘work with Russia’ on missile shield
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009THE United States will proceed in developing a missile defence system for Eastern Europe, US Vice President Joe Biden said last weekend at an international gathering of senior statesmen.
Ecuador throws out US embassy official
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009RAFAEL CORREA, the president of Ecuador, has ordered the expulsion of a US embassy official, accusing him of treating the country like an American colony. Speaking on his weekly radio and television programme, Mr Correa said the US official wanted to link economic aid to Ecuador with Washington choosing the head of the country’s anti-contraband police.
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009
LOTS of Barack Obama, of course, in newspapers and on television around the world. But not so much of Joe Biden. ’Twas always thus for Veeps, of course. When Bob Dole, the laconic Republican Senator from Kansas, was asked why he wanted the job when he stood on a ticket with President Gerald Ford in [...]
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Are British workers right to strike against the use of foreign labour? You said: YES: 71%, NO: 29%
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009
AS THE latest figures confirm the inexorable rise in unemployment, the bleedin’ obvious has slapped Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell around the chops. The Government, he has let it be known, has “stepped back” and is taking a “short pause” in order to take another look at its flagship revolutionary welfare policy of paying [...]
TELEVISION: Lightweight programmes take on heavyweight times
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, February 12th, 2009HOW does television tackle the burning issue of “taste and decency” – swearing and bare bums – on its own airwaves? Not by herding a bunch of us into a TV studio, screening a few “controversial” clips of recent programmes and asking for a show of hands on which of them we’d quite like to ban. Is TV Too Rude? – a recent edition of Tonight – was a shining example of televisual fatuity, purporting to be an exercise in audience democracy, but actually a display of competitive tutting and ranting, generating not a single original or helpful thought.
By Tribune Web Editor /Wednesday, February 11th, 2009
WELL, that didn’t last long. Is the honeymoon period of Barack Obama’s presidency already over, as he struggles to fill his team with people who have remembered to pay their taxes? Tom Daschle, the new President’s first choice as Health Secretary was backed “absolutely” by him earlier this week. In politics, this is often a [...]