Congress Gives Mixed Reaction to Obama's State of the Union Speech
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Congress Gives Mixed Reaction to Obama's State of the Union Speech by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
U.S. lawmakers have expressed a mix of reactions to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, with a particular focus on his economic policies and the ongoing international negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. After the speech Tuesday night at the Capitol in Washington, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called Obama's speech a "powerful vision of opportunity and prosperity" for American families, and highlighted his plans to help those in the middle class. But Republicans in the Senate, who reclaimed a majority this year, questioned how the president would fund those initiatives. Senator Cory Gardner expressed opposition to raising money through new taxes. "The President has had six years and the situation has gotten worse as people are working harder and harder each and every day to try to make ends meet. We need to make sure that we’re not increasing taxes on hard-working American families, on American job creators, and unfortunately that seems to be the President’s only plan," said Gardner. On Iran, Obama said enacting new sanctions would "all but guarantee" the negotiations would fail, but some members of Congress are pushing for more economic pressure. Senator Gardner said the current effort has given too many concessions to Iran, while not getting enough in return. Democratic Senator Eliot Engel also wants more sanctions, which have hurt Iran's economy during the past few years. "I happen to have felt, and still feel, that sanctions have brought Iran to the negotiating table and that further sanctions can force Iran to negotiate in better faith," said Engel. Republican Ed Royce, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also criticized Obama's efforts to combat global terrorism, saying the president "has been eager to declare victory over jihadist groups." Representative David Scott, a Democrat, expressed similar dissatisfaction with the president's counterterror policies. "I would have loved to have seen him come out much more aggressive in the war against radical Islamic terrorism. He’s weak there and he has - is being perceived as weak on the world stage there. He’s a great guy, you cannot make foreign policy the way you want the world to be, you got to make your foreign policy the way the world is," said Scott. Others backed Obama, including Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, who said he "showed his leadership when he talked about America leading a united world in confronting the threat of terrorism."
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US Couple Present Defense in Bali Suitcase Murder Caseby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
A U.S. man and his pregnant girlfriend presented their defense on Wednesday at a hearing where they stand accused of murdering the woman's mother, whose battered body was found stuffed in a suitcase on the resort island of Bali last August. Tommy Schaefer and Heather Mack, both from Chicago, argued through their lawyers that the prosecutor's case lacked credible witnesses and was unclear on where the crime took place. “We object to the prosecutor's letter because it's not valid,” said Edi Iswahyudi, a member of Schaefer's legal team. Schaefer was charged last week with premeditated murder and Mack is charged with assisting her boyfriend in the killing of her mother, Sheila von Weise-Mack. Under Indonesian law, the defendant does not enter a plea until the end of the trial. According to Schaefer and Mack's defense statements, which were read out in Denpasar District Court, evidence in the case was also prone to manipulation. The presiding panel of three judges will decide on Jan. 28 whether the trial will proceed or if the case will be dismissed due to inadequate evidence. Schaefer and Mack, both of whom were brought handcuffed to the court, could face the death penalty if found guilty. A U.S. court ruled on Tuesday that Mack can have access to $150,000 of her trust fund to pay legal bills and food costs. Bali police conducted a four-month investigation into the killing that included a re-enactment with the defendants at the luxury hotel where Wiese-Mack's body was found. Other evidence submitted to prosecutors included CCTV footage showing the couple speaking to a taxi driver after dropping the bloodied suitcase along with other luggage outside the hotel.
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 CNBC |
Ukraine 'turning point' close: Russian deputy PM
CNBC The conflict over Ukraine's borders with Russia, which has soured Moscow's relationship with the West and stirred up new concerns about global unrest, may be close to a "turning point", according to Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia's deputy Prime Minister. UPDATE 1-Russia may see oil output fall by 1 mln bpd at most- deputy PMReuters Russia's Oil Output May Drop by 1 Million Barrels a Day – Top OfficialThe Moscow Times Russia may see oil output fall by 1 mn bpd at most: Deputy PMEconomic Times all 16 news articles » |
A surge in violence in east Ukraine is undermining international hopes that Russia's financial crisis and Western sanctions will force President Vladimir Putin to change policy on the conflict.
 RT |
'What a dreamer!' Rogozin ridicules Obama claim of Russian economy in ruins
RT The statement was the first reaction of a senior Russian official - Rogozin currently holds the position of deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry – to Barack Obama's claim of US victory over Russia, made in Tuesday's State of the ... and more » |
The United Nations said the Islamic State executions were “ruthless murder” and were “another terrible example of the kind of monstrous disregard for human life that characterized [Islamic State’s] reign of terror over areas of Iraq.”
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 РИА Новости |
Лавров надеется, что США в ситуации с Кубой не хотят насолить России
РИА Новости Москва надеется, что США восстанавливают отношения с Кубой исходя из своих национальных интересов, заявил глава МИД РФ Сергей Лавров. Министр иностранных дел РФ Сергей Лавров во время пресс-конференции по итогам деятельности российской дипломатии. © AP Photo/ ... МИД РФ обвинил Запад в незаконных поставках оружия УкраинеНТВ.ru Лавров о словах Барака Обамы: попытки изолировать Россию результата не принесутИнтерновости.ру Лавров: Россия не допустит «холодную войну»Комсомольская правда НОВАЯ ПОЛИТИКА-Российский Диалог-Актуальные новости - периодическое издание о событиях в мире Все похожие статьи: 177 » |
Red Tape, Not Red Carpet, For Afghan Man Who Saved Life Of U.S. Soldier by noreply@rferl.org (Frud Bezhan, Freshta Negah)
When an Afghan villager saved an American soldier from the Taliban, it was a story fit for the silver screen. But there is no Hollywood ending for Mohammad Gulab in his quest for asylum in the United States.
 РБК |
Верховная рада рассмотрит вопрос об увеличении армии до 250 тыс. человек
РБК Численность личного состава украинской армии увеличат до 250 тыс. С такой инициативой обратился к парламенту премьер-министр Украины Арсений Яценюк. При этом самих военнослужащих будет 204 тыс. человек. Премьер попросил Верховную раду рассмотреть вопрос на ... Кабмин Украины просит парламент увеличить общее количество военнослужащих на 68 тыс.ТАСС Все похожие статьи: 135 » |
Ruling AK party seeks to bring curtain down on corruption case but dissent among MPs grows
A Russian intelligence warship has docked in Cuba’s capital, Havana, ahead of historic talks there between U.S. and Cuban diplomats.
Russia says United States believes it is "number one" and seeks world domination
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Turkey’s president is intent on using all the authority of his office — and more
 Forbes |
The Four Horsemen Of Russia's Economic Apocalypse
Forbes IN MARCH 2013 a group of bankers and lawyers gathered in the Frankfurt offices of Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank to monitor the transfer of nearly $28 billion in U.S. currency from an account controlled by Russia's state-owned oil giant, Rosneft Rosneft, ... |
Six Reasons Why Putin has Stepped Up Russian Aggression in Ukraine Now by paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, January 21 – Since Moscow’s Anschluss of Crimea almost a year ago, many in Russia, Ukraine and the West have asked not only why Vladimir Putin has chosen the path of aggression but also why he has chosen it now rather than at some other time and what his timing says about his broader plans for the future.
Some have suggested that it reflects simply a desire to save himself by “a short victorious war.” Others have said that his moves are a reflection of his assumption that no Western leader will stand up to him. And still others that the Kremlin leader is animated by a sense of his own greatest as the latest “ingatherer of the Russian lands.”
Now that it has become clear that the Kremlin leader is stepping up the level of Russian aggression in Ukraine by sending additional men and materiel into Ukraine in an effort to end the stalemate that had been emerging between pro-Moscow and Ukrainian forces there, analysts are again asking why now and what does Putin’s timing presage for the future.
Today, as reported by Kseniya Kirillova, Nikolay Vorobyev, a Ukrainian analyst now living in Washington, provides six reasons for Putin’s latest moves, reasons that he says were “predictable” if not always taken seriously (nr2.com.ua/hots/Vojna_na_Donbasse/Pochemu-Putin-aktivizirovalsya-imenno-seychas-88710.html).
The six are:
- The Russian economy. Putin and his entourage “are beginning to understand that the economic problems” Russia faces now are fundamentally different and much worse than those of 2008. They are “serious and long-term,” and consequently, the Kremlin wants to divert Russian attention from those to a foreign enemy lest protests against itself start up.
- The European Union. It is no clear that “no one intends to lift the sanctions against the Russian Federation” anytime soon. As a result, Vorobyev says, “Putin decided to launch an asymmetrical military strike not only against Ukraine but also to ‘show his teeth’ to the entire West,” lest the West disconnect Russia from the SWIFT banking system or do something else.
- The Minsk Agreements. Neither Moscow nor its clients in the Donetsk or Luhansk is going to observe the September 5 accords. “Putin needs a new Minsk and new accords that will be even more unfavorable for Ukraine. Therefore, his ‘force them to peace’ effort began earlier than planned.
- The Donetsk airport. The airport had become “a symbol of the steadfast nature of Ukrainian forces” and at the same time a very public indication of the weakness of the Russian side. That was too much for Putin and those around him and consequently, Vorobyev says, Moscow decided to intervene more massively and publicly than before.
- The United States. Not only is military assistance beginning to reach Ukraine, but the prospects are that there will be more of it now that the Republicans control Congress and Senator John McCain heads the defense committee. As a result, the situation for Russia in Ukraine is likely to worsen, and “the Kremlin decided to attack now.
- Financial Assistance to Ukraine. The IMF, the World Bank and the US are beginning to provide the level of assistance to Kyiv that may allow Ukraine to avoid a default. Given that “the main goal of the Kremlin today is to weaken the economy as much as possible” before that aid arrives, Putin decided to move.Given all these factors, Vorobyev says, “Ukraine today as never before must show the maximum of firmness, patience and solidarity.” What is happening now recalls the events in the Maidan last February 18-19, he says, and “we all know the result” of that for Ukraine and for its future.
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Iraqi PM Calls for More Help to Combat ISby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says U.S.-led airstrikes against the Islamic State group have been "very effective," but that his government expects more help from the international community. In an interview Wednesday in Baghdad with the Associated Press, Abadi stressed the need for fighting on the ground and said the training that international military advisers are giving Iraqi forces needs to happen more quickly. "We are very thankful for the air campaign to support our military, but I think you cannot achieve victory without a real fight on the ground, and we are doing this fight and we are expecting other countries to match our fight," he said. "We don't want anybody to fight with us on this, but we need support and logistics." The prime minister also said Iraq is struggling to find the resources to buy arms and needs help to get them quickly. President Barack Obama has ruled out sending ground troops to Iraq. He authorized the air campaign there last August targeting Islamic State militants.
 Business Insider |
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Pope Seeks to Clarify Breeding 'Like Rabbits' Remarkby webdesk@voanews.com (Reuters)
Pope Francis on Wednesday sought to clarify his remark that Catholics should not breed “like rabbits,” saying economic injustice - not large families - was the real cause of poverty. Francis had made the comment during a news conference aboard the plane returning from a week-long Asia trip on Monday when speaking about birth control. His unusually frank language raised eyebrows, particularly on social media, where some commentators said it was offensive to people who were raised in large families. “I have heard it said that families with many children and the birth of many children are the among the causes of poverty. I think that is a simplistic opinion,” he said during his weekly general audience at the Vatican. The economic system, which had placed money at its center and created a “throw-away culture”, was the main cause of poverty, not large families, he said. During the news conference on the plane, the leader of the 1.2-billion-strong Roman Catholic Church restated its ban on artificial birth control, adding there were “many ways that are allowed” to practice natural family planning. The Church approves only natural methods of birth control, principally abstinence from sex during a woman's fertile period.
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Lavrov: US 'Aggressive" on World Issuesby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says President Barack Obama's State of the Union address reflected what he called the U.S. desire to dominate world affairs. Lavrov spoke Wednesday, ahead of a meeting in Berlin to discuss Ukraine. He went on to say that the U.S. has set an "aggressive" course. But he said Moscow continues to cooperate with the West on fighting terrorism, despite the tensions over Ukraine. Obama, in his State of the Union address, said the United States is standing strong with its allies while Russia is isolated with its economy in tatters. The Russian economy has been suffering largely because of Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis. Later Wednesday in Berlin, Lavrov was to meet with officials from Ukraine, France, and Germany. He said he expects the talks to focus on pulling back heavy weapons from the front line in Ukraine, where fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists has escalated. Lavrov also repeated Russia's denial that it is supporting the separatists. Ukraine claimed Tuesday that Russian forces attacked its military units fighting separatists in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk region. Russia denied this.
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With Russia's military modernization plans set to boost defense spending to a record 3.3 trillion rubles ($50 billion) this year, President Vladimir Putin got the chance to meet the army's newest recruit - a humanoid battle robot.
Yemen Rebels Guard Presidential Compoundby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Shi'ite Houthi rebels have replaced the guards outside Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi's home, further pressing their control of the country's capital. The rebels took up the positions Wednesday, a day after clashing with Yemeni security forces at the site in Sana'a. Hadi is said to be safe inside the house. Rebel leader Abdel Malik Al Houthi said in a televised speech late Tuesday that his faction wants an end to what he called "corruption and totalitarianism" in Yemen. He stopped short of calling for the government's ouster but warned that further action against it is possible. Elsewhere, authorities in the southern city of Aden closed the airport there Wednesday, saying the move was a protest against attacks on the Hadi's power and the country's sovereignty. The United Nations Security Council and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon have called for a cease-fire and the restoration of the government's full authority. Houthi seek greater rights Houthi forces, calling for greater rights for Yemen's Shi'ite minority, overran Sana'a in September. On Saturday, the Houthis kidnapped Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, the president's chief of staff, as the government was trying to draft a new constitution. Yemen has been wracked by internal divisions. The Houthi movement has spread beyond its traditional rebellion in the north as separatists continue to press their cause in the south. Meanwhile, the Yemen-based group Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed attacks both at home and abroad, most recently on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris earlier this month. The Shi'ite Houthi movement is fiercely opposed to the militant Sunni AQAP. But it is also against U.S. interference in Yemen. The Hadi government has been instrumental in helping the U.S. battle AQAP, in particular by allowing U.S. drone strikes against AQAP targets.
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A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has said “Israel will certainly pay” for an airstrike it carried out in Syria that killed an Iranian general along with six Lebanese Hizballah fighters.
Afghans Sour On Economy As Growth Slowsby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL)
A new poll shows a majority of Afghans view their economic prospects as grim and getting worse.
 Lenta.ru |
В США начнут производство автоматов Калашникова
РБК Украина Американская компания Russian Weapon Company (RWC), которая занималась импортом вооружения из Российской Федерации, планирует во втором квартале 2015 г. начать производство автоматов Калашникова в США, передает CNN. Компании пришлось прекратить импорт оружия ... АК-47 начнут производить в СШАПолит.ру Импортер продукции концерна "Калашников" начнет в США собственное производство оружияТАСС Американцы начнут собственное производство автоматов «Калашникова»Московский комсомолец Утро.Ru -Информационно-сервисный портал Воронежа -ФБА «Экономика сегодня» Все похожие статьи: 54 » |
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OCCRP: Putin is Corruption's 'Person of the Year'by webdesk@voanews.com (Jeffrey Young)
A Europe-based investigative journalists’ group that follows organized crime and corruption in government has issued a report naming Russian President Vladimir Putin its “2014 Person of the Year.” The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) editor Drew Sullivan said Putin “has been a real innovator in working with organized crime." "He has created a military-industrial-political-criminal complex that furthers Russia’s and Putin’s personal interests," he said. "I think Putin sees those interests as one and the same.” The OCCRP alleges that the Russian president set up a system to ensure productive interconnections with criminal elements. “Putin began arresting most major organized crime figures in Russia several years ago, but then quietly released them,” the group said. “That was the start of Russia’s state policy of working with organized crime. OCCRP believes Putin agreed to tolerate criminality in exchange for criminals’ support in advancing what he defined as Russian interests.” The anti-corruption group, which has offices in Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America, based its choice on the opinions of “more than 125 OCCRP-affiliated investigative reporters and 20 reporting agencies.” The group said the Russian president advances his agenda with the help of a vast network of accomplices. Executive Director Paul Radu wrote in the “award” announcement that “Valdimir Putin and his siloviki," which the RT-backed Russiapedia describes as the unofficial term for "a group of high ranked politicians ... who used to be members of the military or of the security services" — "fused a Cold War mentality with modern organized crime strategies and technologies to create a new level of transnational organized crime.” “The Russian-backed money laundering platforms have exploited the lack of transparency in the global financial and offshore company registration systems to create a new criminal financial infrastructure used by crime groups from as far away as Mexico and Vietnam,” Radu said. Russia analyst Donald Jensen of Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies said Putin follows a long line of Russian leaders who have operated with degrees of impunity. “[Russia’s] rulers, from Tsarist though modern times, have largely acted as though they owned the whole country, including Russia’s people, land, and resources,” Jensen said. “The distinction between political power and property — clearly divided in the West by rule of law — in Russia, is thus unclear. Property rights are weakly protected. “From this core dynamic derives three fundamental aspects of Russian politics: first, corruption is not a threat to the system — it is its lifeblood,” he said. “Second, the practice of corruption is a cardinal tool of governance and maintaining power for the elites. Third, the contradictions between formal constitutionalism, institutions, and property rights on paper — weak as they are — and the deeper reality of patrimonial relationships, causes permanent tension in the system.” Putin’s background has given him intimate knowledge of the Russian Federation’s structures and how to use them to his advantage. “After graduating from Leningrad State University, Putin was assigned to work in the state security agencies,” including the KGB, reads one passage from his official biography. Following an official hiatus from his years within state security agencies, during which he worked in the office of President Boris Yeltsin, Putin returned to his intelligence roots in July 1998, when he was named director of the FSB, the KGB successor agency. He was elected president in the wake of Yeltsin's resignation less than two years later. Over the years, many allegations of corruption have cropped up against Putin. But his official public position is that corruption must be suppressed. In November 2014, the Kremlin’s official Putin web page reported that the president submitted a draft law to the State Duma to adjust penalties for even minor corruption-related offenses. The law was initially portrayed as an effort to crack down on bribery and other corrupt practices, but a key part of its announcement suggested otherwise. “Analysis of legal practice shows that paying lower fines achieves the desired punishment effect in minor corruption cases and at the same time considerably increases the likelihood that the fine will actually be paid,” it reads. VOA sent a written request to the Russian embassy in Washington asking for a reaction to the OCCRP report but received no response. Russia’s state-run media recently released the results of a new poll indicating the public perception of corruption in government has improved. The ITAR/TASS news agency reported that 66 percent of Russians believe the rate of official corruption is high. The state news agency said that number compares favorably to figures from the past five years, when 75 percent to 86 percent of respondents said corruption was high. ITAR/TASS reported that on the other end of the spectrum, the percentage who considers Russia’s corruption level low had stayed roughly the same, at about two percent.
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Russia is boosting its troop presence in eastern Ukraine and attacks from separatist rebels have intensified as they seek to gain more territory from government forces, the Ukrainian military said Wednesday.
Russian Civil Rights Activists Face Criminal Prosecutionby noreply@rferl.org (RFE/RL's Russian Service)
Russia's Investigative Committee has launched investigations against civil rights activist Mark Galperin, accusing him of "multiple violation of the law on public gatherings."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has endorsed a proposal to merge the Federal Space Agency -- Roskosmos, and the United Rocket and Space Corporation.
Although there was a flurry of media attention in October and November focusing on Umar Shishani, Islamic State's military commander in Syria, he has been conspicuously absent from the scene in recent weeks and months. Why?
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Как развивается ситуация на востоке Украины? Что говорит по этому поводу Сергей Лавров на своей пресс-конфе...
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War of attrition for symbolic and increasingly strategic frontline in eastern Ukraine intensifies
More than Half of Russia’s Urban Residents are Now Poorby paul goble (noreply@blogger.com)
Paul Goble
Staunton, January 21 – For many, the face of poverty in Russia is to be found in the country’s dying countryside, but a new survey finds that more than half of the population of its largest cities is now poor and predicts that ever more urban Russians are becoming poor, a development with potentially ominous political consequences.
Even in Moscow, 43 percent of the residents are poor, with nine percent of them critically poor, according to a study of 35 cities in the Russian Federation with more than 500,000 residents carried out by sociologists at the Russian government’s Finance University (dp.ru/a/2015/01/19/Peterburg_zanjal_29-e_mest/ and sobkorr.ru/news/54BD12C465D96.html).
Those figures compare with an average of 54 poor for all the cities surveyed, with the situation in Toliatti, Astrakhan, Penza, Volgograd and Saratov being somewhat worse and that in St. Petersburg and Vladivostok somewhat better. The average for all such Russian cities was 54 percent.
Last month, Vice Prime Minister Olga Golodets said that there were 15.7 million poor people in Russia now, but she conceded that given inflation and the economic crisis, that number is going up especially as the purchasing power of Russian incomes falls. The actual number is almost certainly higher, and it is increasingly urban rather than rural.
The study devoted particular attention to the possibility that rising unemployment might trigger protests. “The main moving force for social protests,” they said, consists of “poor and unemployed youth.” Given that unemployment among the young is still relatively low, it said, the situation is currently stable (newizv.ru/politics/2015-01-21/213443-porok-bednosti.html).
Yevgeny Gontmakher, deputy director of IMEMO, says that he is certain that mayors can address these problems successfully. But they are largely on their own because there is no central government program for the poor in cities and the program for company towns is not being implemented in an effective way.
Elena Afanasyeva, a member of the Federation Council, says that she believes that oblast centers have the resources to alieve poverty but that other cities do not. In the case of the latter, regional officials must intervene and make every effort to “reduce the level of poverty” in the cities of their regions.
Regional leaders have one resource that they are not using, she continues. They can speak directly to the Russian president, but they don’t about such problems because they “fear losing their high posts.” As a result, Afanasyeva says, Vladimir Putin does not know the full extent of the problem or has only a distorted idea about it.
But she notes that there is even more poverty in Russia’s smaller cities that are not company towns. They have been almost completely forgotten by the government and as a result, “they are dying out and degrading” with those who can leaving, their budgets falling, and poverty increasing. She called on Moscow to begin focusing on these cities as well.
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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has dismissed criticism of his country's rights records saying that freedom of the press and other human rights are "guaranteed" in Azerbaijan.
As he enters his seventh year at the nation’s helm, President Barack Obama put forward an agenda he said will strengthen national and global security.
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