From fear of war to diplomatic accord: the steps to a nuclear agreement
Three years before Tuesday’s nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration dispatched a pair of senior military commanders to the Middle East for a different, if equally urgent, set of negotiations. The purpose: persuading Israel to delay an imminent military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
At the time, the chances for military action were considered so high that U.S. officials debated when, not whether, the bombs would fall. “We’ve admitted to each other that our clocks are turning at different rates,” Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after his talks with Israeli leaders in August 2012.
Now, White House officials are instead toasting a major diplomatic victory: a comprehensive agreement to severely restrict Iran’s nuclear program. In a remarkable reversal, the goal of freezing Iran’s progress toward a weapons capability was achieved not with warplanes but with handshakes.
Pluto mission: NASA's New Horizons 'phones home' after blackout
Updated 0342 GMT (1042 HKT) July 15, 2015
NASA has re-established contact with its New Horizons spacecraft after a planned communications blackout as the probe completes humankind's first flyby of Pluto.
Mission managers who were packed into the New Horizons "mission control" room anxiously waiting to hear from the spacecraft broke into applause.
The probe had spent more than 12 hours out of contact while it collected data from Pluto and its five moons.
The communications outage was planned, but it still had scientists on edge. The flyby was the most dangerous part of the mission; there was a chance that stray dust in the Pluto system could collide with the spacecraft.
Japanese Bills Would Expand Military's Role
A Japanese parliamentary committee approved legislation that would expand the role of Japan's military Wednesday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling bloc forced the vote in the face of vocal protests from opposition lawmakers and citizens.
Opposition lawmakers tried to stop the committee vote as hundreds of citizens protested outside.
The unpopular legislation was crafted after Abe's Cabinet adopted a new security policy last year that reinterpreted a part of Japan's post-World War II constitution that only permitted the nation's military to use force for its self-defense. The bills in question would allow Japan to also defend aggression against its allies — a concept called collective self-defense.
Abe has argued that Japan should better prepare for China's regional threat and do more to contribute to international peacekeeping efforts.
Here’s what will happen if Iran cheats on the nuclear deal
The United States, Iran, and a group of other world powers announced today that they have reached a deal that will prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. In its most basic terms, the agreement is an exchange: Iran is giving up its capability to develop a bomb, and in return, the US, Europe, and the UN are lifting the sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.
Iran’s government is deeply hostile toward the United States, and there is good reason to suspect that it would at least like the ability to obtain nuclear weapons, so it’s natural to be worried about whether such an agreement could really be a good idea. Iran has broken past agreements before. Why should we trust it?
Fortunately, the Iran deal doesn’t depend on blind trust that Iran will do the right thing. Rather, it contains strict monitoring and enforcement measures that will swiftly punish Iran for any violation.
So the real question we should be asking isn't "should we trust Iran" — we shouldn't — but, rather, whether the monitoring in the deal is good enough to catch Iran if it cheats, and if the enforcement mechanisms are punishing enough that Iran decides it would just be too risky to try cheating on the deal.
Japanese giant Mitsubishi to apologise to POWs used as slave labour
July 15, 2015 - 5:01PM
Seventy years after the end of World War II, a major Japanese corporation will finally apologise for using US prisoners of war as slave labour.
According to the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a senior executive of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation will apologise to 94-year-old James Murphy and relatives of other former POWs who toiled at plants its predecessor company operated in Japan during the war.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper called it an important gesture, coming just weeks ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.
"As far as I know, this is a piece of history," said Rabbi Cooper, who will helpmoderate the closed-door meeting on Sunday at the centre's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.
"It's the first time a major Japanese company has ever made such a gesture. We hope this will spur other companies to join in and do the same."
The apology will be made by Hikaru Kimura, senior executive for Mitsubishi Materials Corporation.
Why do deadly stampedes occur during Indian religious festivals?
Fatal stampedes occur frequently at Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with few crowd control or safety measures.
At least 27 people were killed and another 29 were injured Tuesday while trying to rush towards the Godavari river at Rajahmundry in India.
Thousands of worshipers flocked to Rajahmundry to participate in the Maha Pushkaralu festival, a 12-day event that takes place once every 144 years when participants bathe in the river.
According to reports, the stampede was triggered by pilgrims trying to retrieve their shoes that had fallen off in the rush to the river bank.
“Deeply pained at the loss of lives due to stampede at Rajahmundry. My condolences to the families of the deceased & prayers with the injured,” India’s Prime Minster Narendra Modi said on his official Twitter account.
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