5 Things To Know For Your New Day – Tuesday, February 24
ISIS STRONGHOLD
Life on the inside: Months ago, ISIS claimed Raqqa in northern Syria as the capital of its so-called caliphate. Now an activist is giving CNN an inside look. The details are harrowing. Airstrikes. Executions. Forced blood donations and marriages to ISIS fighters. Women younger than 45 aren’t allowed to leave the city, he says. Neither are foreign fighters. “ISIS takes their passports,” the activists says. “if anyone tries defection from this, they will kill them immediately.”
NETANYAHU IRAN
Different stories: In 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the case that Iran was drawing dangerously close to building a nuclear weapon. A month later and in private, the Israeli spy agency Mossad said the threat wasn’t as great as he suggested, according to media reports citing leaked intelligence documents. A senior Israeli official responded to the reports yesterday, denying any contradiction between the two positions. Western powers have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. It’s a charge Iran denies.
HOMELAND SECURITY FUNDING
New tactics: Congress only has until Friday to sort out the stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. This is the money that pays for the folks who are supposed to keep us safe from terrorism and other threats. A lot of Republicans don’t want to pay for implementation of the President’s immigration executive orders and have tied that issue to Homeland Security funding, hoping Democrats will blink. So far, that hasn’t happened. It looks like the bill will be split into two parts to allow separate votes on Homeland Security and immigration funding.
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source: CNN.com
