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5 things to watch for this weekend
6/28/2014 6:40:08 AM
- The U.S. gets a break, but there are some magical matches coming this weekend
- First up, team Brazil, the beauty in the "beautiful game"
- Mexico plays dogged defense against this year's highest scorers from the Netherlands
- Looking to score with the right match? Dating apps go ape at Brazil World Cup
(CNN) -- Like what you've seen so far? Well, the World Cup will dish up even more soccer superlatives as the "Round of 16" kicks off on Saturday.
After surviving the "Group of Death," the U.S. soccer team will have to duck a knockout punch this week. Or throw one themselves.
With the complicated math of group play gone, the elimination principal will take to the pitch with the squads. That means it's win or go home. Team USA has to knock Belgium out cold to advance to the quarterfinals.
That's not until Tuesday. But wait! Leave that TV on!
Nascent U.S. footy fans shouldn't get tempted to take a break along with the home team they've newly fallen in love with, or they'll miss big games like Mexico vs. Netherlands on Sunday -- and the ultimate futbol acrobats on Saturday:
They're the beauty in the "beautiful game," the big kahuna, the unmatched five-time World Cup champions, the team sportscasters call "The Scratch" -- that has proven that soccer can be better than you-know-what: Brazil.
Here are this weekend's four knockout matches with viewing times and channels -- and at bottom, a fun way to find a love match and score yourself at the cup.
1. "The Scratch"
Brazil vs. Chile, noon ET Saturday on ABC, Univision
Despite the home field advantage, the Brazilian team is getting the jitters as rival Chile approaches, Brazil's coach told the BBC. But that's "normal," he said.
It doesn't seem to calm their nerves that FIFA ranks Chile's team 14th and Brazil's 3rd in the world.
-- Or that Brazil has won 48 of the two teams' 68 previous face-offs.
-- Or that it scored 159 goals vs. 58 for Chile in those matches.
-- Or that Brazil has shot seven goals in this tournament so far to Chile's five.
-- Or that Brazil has fired 23 shots on target at the goal at this World Cup compared to 10 for Chile.
Forget all of it. It doesn't matter.
FIFA ranked Spain No. 1, and they've already gone home.
If Chile gets just one more point than Brazil -- just the right ankle-breaking dance to the goal by maestro forward Alexis Sanchez -- or if their impenetrable goalie Claudio Bravo holds off one last goal attempt by Brazil.
Then Brazil goes home, too.
Er, uh, wait. They're home already. But they'd have to sit in the stands in front of the whole country without that sixth championship star on their jerseys.
In the first eigth final #LaRoja will face the #Seleção today! Which team will suceed? #WorldCup #Brazil #BRAvsCHI pic.twitter.com/0HA8xdRwfA
— Liebherr Group (@Liebherr) June 28, 2014 2. The bite
Colombia vs. Uruguay, 4 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC, Univision
It's almost like Colombia never lost star striker Radamel Falcao to injury even before the cup started.
They ate up their competitors in Group C play and go to the knockout round euphoric.
And at the same time, Uruguay literally lost a lot of its bite this week when FIFA suspended forward Luis Suarez for four months for ... well ... biting another player.
He's a massive scorer -- saved his team after it lost to Costa Rica 3-1 in Group D play. He shot both goals, when Uruguay downed England 2-1.
Uruguay's team is raving mad at FIFA for sending Suarez home. Maybe it will give the team the fire in the belly it needs to keep from joining him at Colombia's hands.
In their previous matchups, Uruguay has come out on top much more often. And they've still got forward Edinson Cavini, whom FIFA calls "a born goalscorer."
And he has a reputation for being much more laid back than Suarez.
Sports clothier Adidas has had some fun with the infamous chomp.
Really thinking this @adidas ad campaign with Luis Suarez making a biting motion is a good look for them. #WorldCup pic.twitter.com/uNzrkfGCO8
— Jeff D Lowe (@JeffDLowe) June 24, 2014 3. Big cheese or whole enchilada
Netherlands vs. Mexico, noon ET Sunday, ESPN, Univision
Call it Offense vs. Defense.
The Netherlands are to Europe what Wisconsin is to the United States in its clichéd role as a cheese maker -- although in reality, the European Union says Germany and France make more of it. But Holland has the stuff to be the big cheese of global soccer this year.
The guys in screaming orange jerseys have shot the most goals in this year's World Cup -- 10, compared to the top two seeds -- Germany's and Brazil -- which have seven each.
They dominated their group, roundly stomping reigning world champ Spain 5-1 in their first game.
Mexico has played more defense than offense, scoring only four goals so far but also allowing only one. They held Brazil to a 0-0 tie.
REVIEW: #WorldCup matchday saw Brazil & Mexico seal passage @CBF_Futebol @FEMEXFUTOFICIAL-http://t.co/9a4nvoNeIl pic.twitter.com/z34CMbY9bP
— FIFAWorldCup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 24, 2014 But Mexico may have just turned up the heat. It looks like their scoring hope Javier Hernandez just got cranked in their 3-1 win against Croatia.
If they beat the Dutch, they would reach the level of their best ever performance at the World Cup. They've only previously made it to the group of eight twice before.
4. Pleased to meet you. Now, please, go home!
Costa Rica vs. Greece, 4 p.m. ET Sunday, ESPN, Univision
They've never met on a World Cup pitch before. And it's no wonder.
This is only Costa Rica's third appearance at a World Cup, and only Greece's second.
Greece has shot only two goals so far this tournament but also allowed only one. Costa Rica has shot twice as many, while allowing only one and putting away major contenders Italy and Uruguay.
Sound like Greece is the underdog? Consider that FIFA ranks the team 12th in the world and Costa Rica 28th.
Remember many good things come from Greece, even if they are from Brazil:
This is the best World Cup because: 1. It's in Brazil 2. Everybody is on Twitter 3. Twitter comments/jokes 4. This: pic.twitter.com/FydrIQdo3w
— Giovana Ruaro-Lane (@giruaro) June 19, 2014 5. Scoring apps
No, no, not apps to keep score of the game. Apps to find the right match -- as in people to date.
Tinder and Blendr are dating apps for smart phones, and they're booming in Brazil at the World Cup.
With more than 600,000 fans pouring into Brazil for the tournament, Tinder says usage and downloads here have jumped 50%.
Many locals are using it to meet visitors from around the world.
At bars and open-air fan game viewing sites, people are checking their smart phones to see how many new matches they have -- and the apps turn up plenty of people to meet.
Time for a chat. Maybe with a particular goal in mind?
Tinder's winning at the #WorldCup! http://t.co/HpOLAijReb via @USATODAY pic.twitter.com/KO7JGGoM0K
— Tinder (@Tinder) June 24, 2014 ---------------------------------------
CNN's Rick Martin and Shasta Darlington contributed to this report. Fan zone photo by Rick Martin.
U.S. goalie: Support 'mind blowing'
6/27/2014 8:37:00 PM
- Team USA celebrating passage to last 16 of World Cup
- Goalkeeper Tim Howard has played key role
- Howard thanks fans for their support
- Striker Jozy Altidore winning race to face Belgium in last 16
How are you celebrating the World Cup? Join the global conversation on CNN Facebook Pulse
(CNN) -- Goalkeeper Tim Howard says the explosion of interest in soccer in the United States is "mind-blowing" off the back of Team USA's surprise progression from the World Cup "Group of Death" to the last 16.
Few gave the U.S. team much chance of finishing in the top two from the likes of Germany, Portugal and Ghana, but it has defied the pundits to reach the knockout stages.
Howard, who plays for Everton in the English Premier League, has been a key figure, making a string of fine saves to restrict group winners Germany to a 1-0 win Thursday.
It left Team USA tied on four points with Portugal, but qualifying for a match against Belgium next Tuesday because of a superior goal difference.
The 35-year-old veteran of 103 internationals had also been in top form as the U.S. tied Portugal 2-2 in its second group match, building on its 2-1 win over Ghana to start the tournament.
Read: U.S. sets up clash with Belgium
The huge support in Brazil, an estimated four times as many U.S. fans as followed England's under achieving team, plus unprecedented scenes across America with fans crowding to watch games on big screens, has come as something of a surprise to New Jersey-born Howard.
"The fact that it has really swept the nation is incredible for us as American players to see that," he told CNN.
"The interest has been mind-blowing and we've enjoyed watching every second of YouTube clips and Instagram and Twitter,"
"We've come so far in a short period of time. You know, the sport in our country really isn't that old," he added.
Howard also believes coach Jurgen Klinsmann has been vindicated for his selections after coming under fire before the start of the World Cup for leaving out fan favorite Landon Donovan and picking four German-born players in his squad.
Read: Do Latin Americans care more about football?
"He's from day one made a lot of bold, powerful decisions. Some people call it cutthroat even," he said. "But he's strong in his decision making, and that's what a leader has to be. You can never waver."
Klinsmann said Friday he was "optimistic" striker Jozy Altidore will return from injury to play against Belgium after sustaining a hamstring injury in the win over Ghana.
Another key player, midfielder Jermaine Jones, has also been cleared to play despite breaking his nose in the narrow loss to Germany.
Howard believes they can provide another upset to beat Belgium, which won all of its three group matches, building on the momentum of earlier performances.
"We have a lot of other things we want to do, starting with Belgium, but you know we're proud of ourselves. We worked hard.
"It was the Group of Death, and people didn't give us a lot of a chance. We have to believe we can do it," he added.
Read: Suarez banned for four months
Howard -- who spent four years with Manchester United before transferring to Everton -- has become something of a cult hero, sporting a thick black beard in direct contrast to his shaven head.
He had first grown it during the last EPL season and has changed his mind once or twice about its merits.
"It was my strength. I loved it, and then I cut it. I just cut it because I was tired of it.
"But I just decided to grow it back. There's never a rhyme or reason when I decide to grow it. It just happened."
Howard will be hoping it brings his side luck again when it faces Belgium, looking to reach the quarterfinals of a World Cup for the first time since 2002.
Read: Goalkeeper scores on 90-yard kick!
Read: Chiellini calls Suarez ban 'excessive'
Chiellini: Suarez ban 'excessive'
6/28/2014 2:38:50 AM
- Giorgio Chiellini says ban handed to Luis Suarez is "excessive"
- Suarez was banned from football for nine months for biting Chiellini
- NEW: FIFA chief says Suarez needs to seek professional help
- NEW: FIFA lifts ban on German great Franz Beckenbauer
How are you celebrating the World Cup? Join the global conversation on CNN Facebook Pulse
(CNN) -- Sympathy for biting footballer Luis Suarez has been in short supply, but Friday the Uruguayan found support from an unlikely candidate -- his latest victim.
Bitten on the shoulder by Suarez during Tuesday's match against Uruguay, Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini labelled the four-month ban handed down to Suarez by football's global governing body FIFA as "excessive."
"Now inside me there's no feelings of joy, revenge or anger against Suarez for an incident that happened on the pitch and that's done," Chiellini told his personal webiste.
"There only remains the anger and the disappointment about the match," added the Juventus defender, referring to Italy's exit from the World Cup after Uruguay's 1-0 win.
But FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke stood by the punishment handed out by the world governing body and told reporters that Suarez should seek professional help after his latest biting incident.
"I think he should find a way to stop doing it," said Valcke. "He should go through a treatment. It is definitely wrong."
Suarez has returned to a hero's welcome in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo while his countrymen prepare to play Colombia in the round of 16 on Saturday in Rio de Janeiro.
The Liverpool star's punishment, which also includes a nine-match international ban, prohibits him from football-related activities, meaning he will be prevented from training with his teammates until late October.
Read: Luis Suarez banned for bite
"I sincerely hope that he will be allowed, at least, to stay close to his teammates during the games because such a ban is really alienating for a player," added Chiellini.
"At the moment my only thought is for Luis and his family, because they will face a very difficult period."
The president of the Uruguayan Football Association confirmed it will appeal against Suarez's ban as one of his personal sponsors announced it was terminating its contract with the player.
"888poker signed Luis Suarez following a fantastic season for which his achievements were widely recognized," said gambling website 888poker.com in a statement.
"Regrettably, following his actions during Uruguay's World Cup match against Italy on Tuesday, 888poker has decided to terminate its relationship with Luis Suarez with immediate effect."
The bite on Chiellini is the third such offense of Suarez's career.
When playing with Dutch club Ajax in 2007 he was suspended for seven games for biting an opponent, while he was hit with a 10-match sanction for an identical offense while playing for Liverpool in April 2013.
Suarez also courted controversy in 2011, when he was handed an eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra.
Following previous indiscretions, Suarez has enjoyed the backing of his club Liverpool.
According to Spanish radio network Cadena COPE, Suarez's lawyer will meet with representatives of the English Premier League team in Barcelona.
Suarez has been heavily linked with a move away from Liverpool and, with the 27-year-old set to miss the first nine games of the Premier League season, it remains to be seen whether the Anfield team will continue to stand by its man.
Argentina great Diego Maradona has also come out in support of Suárez, likening the ban to being "handcuffed" and "thrown in Guantanamo."
Beckenbauer ban lifted
Meanwhile, FIFA has lifted its ban on German legend Franz Beckenbauer for failing to cooperate with its investigation of alleged corruption in the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Beckenbauer, a World Cup winner as a player and coach, was handed a 90-day suspension earlier this month, but it has now been revoked, the world governing body announced Friday.
Beckenbauer had claimed that the questions he was being asked to answer were in complicated English, but in a statement released on Twitter by his manager Marcus Hoefl, he admitted he had "under-estimated the matter."
Hoefl had confirmed on Twitter on June 18 that his client had since given detailed replies to the FIFA ethics committee probe, which is being headed by American lawyer Michael Garcia.
The 68-year-old Beckenbauer, who was a member of the FIFA executive committee which awarded the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, will not be traveling to Brazil for the current competition, Hoefl also confirmed.
Read: Luis Suarez -- Sympathy for "the devil?"
Read: Suarez -- Smitten or bitten?
Soccer: Now part of a New America?
6/27/2014 12:25:58 PM
- Ed Foster-Simeon says the World Cup has shown soccer in America is not just a passing fad
- America has become younger and more diverse, and loves soccer more than previous generation
- Growth is spurred from regions like Latin America, Africa, Europe, where soccer is the primary sport
Editor's note: Ed Foster-Simeon is President/CEO at U.S. Soccer Foundation and is a former Deputy Managing Editor at USA TODAY. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- Well, so much for the idea that Americans don't care about soccer.
The U.S. National team made it out of the so-called "group of death" Thursday to advance to the knockout round of competition at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Regardless of how much further the Stars and Stripes advance in the biggest sporting event on the planet, they already have revealed something that even casual observers can see.
Soccer is now woven inextricably into the fabric of American life.
Television viewership numbers continue to set new highs with each U.S. game The proverbial office water cooler has been abuzz with chatter about the U.S. team's dramatic 2-1 win over Ghana and its heartbreaking, last second 2-2 tie with Portugal. "Where are you watching the game" has become the question of the day. Thousands filled the streets for viewing parties in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Seattle and Washington -- in the middle of the workday.
Soccer used to be their game -- the Europeans, the South Americans, the Africans. Today it is our game too, bringing the nation together in a passionate embrace of its athleticism, its skill and, yes, its excitement.
But it hasn't always been this way. Even after the U.S. hosted the World Cup for the first time in 1994 -- setting attendance records that still stand today -- many still dismissed soccer as somehow not quite American.
Some, like political commentator Ann Coulter, still do. She wrote Thursday in the Clarion Ledger: "I promise you: No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer," she said in an op-ed. "One can only hope that, in addition to learning English, these new Americans will drop their soccer fetish with time."
A few million Americans disagree. Slowly, but surely though, soccer has grown on us as a nation.
Why? A changing America has become younger and more diverse, and those two demographics simply love soccer more than their parents.
Increased immigration from regions where you learn how to kick a soccer ball as soon as you learn how to walk -- Latin America, Africa, Europe -- and particularly, our growing Hispanic population, is only deepening the nation's relationship with soccer.
In the U.S., the Latino population has soared to 17%, according to the U.S. Census. And that number is only growing. And by most estimates, the U.S. will be more non-white than white somewhere around 2043, with most of that growth coming from countries where soccer is the dominant sport.
And members of the Millennial generation -- those born between 1980 and the early 2000s -- have been big drivers of the growth in soccer in the U.S. Between 1990 and today, the number of players registered in organized youth soccer programs doubled to 4 million, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation, the governing body for the game in the United States. While most Baby Boomers cut their sporting teeth on football, basketball and baseball, today's young adults are arguably the first generation to grow up with soccer as a major sport in their lives from their earliest childhood memories. It's a widely shared experience among today's young adults.
Today, soccer is the second favorite sport for those 12 to 24 years old. It's the third largest participation sport in the country. Soccer is the team sport with the highest growth rate over the past decade. That 41% of players are women only broadens its appeal.
U.S teams performing increasingly well on the international stage hasn't hurt either. The U.S. Men's National team has qualified for seven consecutive World Cups. Our Women's National team is ranked No. 1 in the world.
While interest naturally peaks among aficionados and novices alike during a mega event like the World Cup, and subsides afterward, this is not a passing fad.
Total attendance at soccer matches in the U.S. in 2013 exceeded 10 million, according to attendance figures compiled by U.S. Soccer. Our country has become the largest market in the world for international matches, according to the U.S. Soccer Federation, the governing body for the game in the United States.
At the professional level, Major League Soccer has expanded to 22 markets and there is more soccer on television in the U.S. than any other country in the world. Some 2,928 matches from around the world were shown live in 2012. TV ratings for the World Cup have already topped the NBA Finals and the World Series in America -- Sunday's game against Portugal brought in more than 25 million viewers and was the most-watch soccer match in U.S. history. It is a niche no more.
But we need to make it even more accessible. For example, the standard pay-to-play model -- where participation in local leagues can cost parents as much as $1,800 per child, not including travel -- has been a barrier to access for children and families in low-income communities. The U.S. Soccer Foundation is working to provide thousands of children and families in under-resourced communities with easy and affordable access to quality soccer programming and safe places to play.
Not too many years ago, the standard joke was that soccer was the game of the future -- and always would be. Well, it seems the future is finally here and it's here to stay.
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What Obama discovered about Iraq
6/28/2014 3:38:18 AM
- President Obama is asking Congress for $500 million to aid Syrian opposition
- Frida Ghitis: Obama realized he cannot ignore the twin disasters in Syria and Iraq
- She says the brutal ISIS has swept across the Syrian border into Iraq, creating havoc
- Ghitis: The violence opens the possibility that radical extremists will spread in the region
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for the Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer and correspondent, she is the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television." Follow her on Twitter @FridaGhitis. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- You cannot look away from the twin disasters befalling the people of Syria and Iraq. That is what President Barack Obama has realized.
More than three years after an uprising to topple Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad spun into a devastating civil war, Obama is asking Congress for $500 million to help arm and train the moderate Syrian opposition.
It is late. More than 150,000 Syrians have already died. It's a staggering number. And the situation is only getting worse.
Now Iraq, too, has become a battleground for sectarian conflict, threatening to create an even larger regional catastrophe. Competing groups and battling ideologies are at war, and the most extreme are fighting vigorously and making gains.
There's no question that this is the most complicated of conflicts. Three-dimensional chess does not begin to describe it. But there is also no question that all the wrong people are winning. That's partly because those with moderate ideology have not received any support while others are bolstered by outside backers.
Al-Assad, whose downfall seemed all but certain, receives military support from Iran and ground forces from Hezbollah, Lebanon's Iran-allied Shiite militia, which has helped him turn the tide in the battlefield. Obama threatened to intervene after al-Assad used chemical weapons, but backed away after a chemical disarmament deal, but al-Assad continues to slaughter civilians by the thousands.
The rebels seeking to topple al-Assad, meanwhile, are deeply divided and are fighting each other. Moderates have lost ground to Islamist extremists, who receive support from Persian Gulf donors. Extremists are also divided. The Nusra Front, an al Qaeda arm in Syria, has broken with ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
It is ISIS, whose brutality even al Qaeda considers excessive, that has swept across the Syrian border into Iraq.
The more fanatical the group, the better it is doing. The radicals' advances attract more support and make their ideology more appealing, which strengthens their numbers. And groups like ISIS, now flush with cash, have no intention of stopping their expansion.
Now the war in Syria has spilled in the worst possible way into Iraq, not only threatening the survival of that country but creating the very real possibility that a radical Islamist state of the most extremist kind could take root across both Syria and Iraq, creating a base of operations for attacks on U.S. allies, with Jordan first in line, and for terrorist training and planning.
There's no question that finding "moderates" is a very difficult task. And it's certainly true that Obama's plan to start arming the moderate opposition is risky. The weapons could fall into the wrong hands, as they have in the past, and stepping even indirectly into a sectarian war is a perilous proposition.
But this conflict has made even the most pessimistic prediction appear hopelessly optimistic. Some experts are calling this Middle East crisis the most dangerous one in 40 years. The scale of human suffering is staggering, and the stakes for long-term global stability enormous. The West's decision to stand on the sidelines has allowed the worst outcome to materialize. And it is morally indefensible.
The Iraqi quandary now makes it all even more complicated. The United States does not want to take sides in a Sunni-Shiite war. America's interest is a return to peace and victory for those -- in Syria and Iraq -- who would protect human rights and rule of law.
Washington is sending 300 advisers to work with the (mostly Shiite) Iraqi army. Now it will help arm the (mostly Sunni) moderate opposition in Syria. It is walking gingerly, projecting its nonsectarian position, as it should.
The turbulent Middle East may look like a distant, foggy disaster area, but it has a history of sending ripples that reach close to home, changing life for people in other parts of the world.
Already the war in Syria has attracted fighters from Western countries, from Europe and the United States. Syria and now Iraq are becoming training grounds for would-be terrorists.
European security agencies are sounding panicked about what this means for terrorism at home. "The threat of attack has never been greater," one European counterterrorism official said. FBI director James Comey said thousands of Europeans have traveled to Syria to fight with Islamists. Dozens of Americans have joined them. An American suicide bomber -- from Florida -- blew himself up in Syria recently.
Some of those violent jihadists with American and European passports, which allow them to travel easily almost anywhere, are returning home. A French citizen just back from Syria has been charged with killing four people in Brussels' Jewish Museum.
Bomb threats, like one a few days ago in Amsterdam, are being treated extremely seriously. The Dutch intelligence service says Dutch jihadis are returning to the Netherlands, bringing dangerous ideological baggage, determined to commit attacks on the West and radicalize Dutch Muslims.
British Prime Minister David Cameron calls the terrorist threat from Syria "the biggest risk we face."
As counterterrorism officials in the United States and Europe try to prevent attacks, the fighting in Syria and Iraq is destroying lives, creating a generation of traumatized people who may seek revenge, perpetuating this conflict and threatening to tear apart the Middle East.
Millions have been forced to leave their homes. Refugee camps are overflowing. Each individual in Iraq or Syria who has left home, each child who has been displaced by the war, has endured experiences we can scarcely comprehend.
It may be easier to look away, to say the problem is just too complicated, and that it's not ours to deal with. But the humanitarian, strategic and security ramifications have become impossible to ignore. Obama discovered he cannot look away. Neither should we.
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Bindi Irwin's advice to young girls
6/28/2014 12:20:10 AM
- Bindi Irwin is the daughter of the late Steve Irwin
- She thinks girls are trying to dress older
- She says she has an old soul
(CNN) -- Bindi Irwin has a message for girls her age: Cover it up.
The teen daughter of the late "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin said in a recent interview with News Corp Australia that she is "a big advocate for young girls dressing their age."
"I mean, for me, I look around at a lot of young girls that are my age and they're always trying to dress older," said Irwin, who turns 16 on July 24. "Whether it's wearing revealing clothes or hardly wearing any clothes at all, I feel really bad for them."
Irwin, who has picked up the wildlife conservation advocacy legacy of her father and grew up at the Australia Zoo, said she considers herself to be an old soul who "loves a cup of tea and a good book."
And while Irwin said her own personal style is evolving from her trademark khakis to more fashionable fare, she keeps it simple and conservative.
"A lot of times I want to grab these girls and say: 'Look, in 10 years you'll regret this,' " she said. "Just dress like who you are. Don't try so hard. A pair of jeans and a T-shirt is just as gorgeous and even makes you look classier."
Should U.S. pay slavery reparations?
6/28/2014 7:56:34 AM
- The Atlantic's June cover story about reparations generated strong reactions
- Eric Liu: There's a reflexive move to find reasons why reparation couldn't be done
- He says whether reparations are feasible or not, we should at least discuss the issue
- Liu: When we understand why reparations make sense will we get to "beyond race"
Editor's note: Eric Liu is the founder of Citizen University and the author of several books, including "A Chinaman's Chance" and "The Gardens of Democracy." He was a White House speechwriter and policy adviser for President Bill Clinton. Follow him on Twitter @ericpliu. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- African-Americans deserve reparations. Discuss.
The idea of reparations -- that the descendants of slaves should be compensated by the national government for the wrongs and the legacy of slavery -- has always been controversial.
When Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic wrote the June cover story, "The Case for Reparations," he set a traffic record for the magazine's website. He provoked responses from across the political and ethnic spectrum. Some of his critics did him the courtesy of reading the entire 16,000-word piece. Others, particularly in the Twittersphere, reacted viscerally to the headline and to reactions to the headline.
Through many of these responses, whether thoughtful or tossed-off, there's been a certain thread of uneasiness; a reflexive move to find reasons why reparation couldn't be done or why it wouldn't be workable or fair.
To me, this reflex is as interesting as the original argument. And it suggests that before America could ever actually do reparations, America would have to first be able to imagine the necessity of reparations. The greatest obstacle to considering reparation isn't practicality; it's a dearth of moral imagination.
Coates makes a powerful and persuasive case. He describes not just the obvious injury that demands redress -- namely, slavery -- but also the way in which whites after emancipation systematically and over most of the ensuing 150 years built a nation premised on second-class status for blacks and on supremacy for whites.
The obvious example is the latticework of code and custom that we call Jim Crow. But as Coates reminds us, white supremacy was not just about measures of outright racial subjugation; it was also baked into measures intended to create wealth and opportunity, like parts of the New Deal, which contained many devil's bargains with conservative Southern Democrats to exempt African-Americans. And it plays out in today's criminal justice and incarceration regimes.
What Coates recounts in painstaking detail is an un-whitewashed history of African-American citizenship. It comes as revelation only if you really didn't want to know the truth. Anyone black, by telling their family history, could have told you this history and anyone not black could have read about it.
But his article is in some ways mistitled. Coates is not quite making a case for reparations. He's making a case for a discussion of reparations. He doesn't pretend to spell out all the operational policy choices that would have to be made to put reparations into effect. The closest he comes to a legislative recommendation is to tout a perennially neglected bill that Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, introduces every session of Congress, which calls simply for a public study of the possibility of reparations.
This isn't a shortcoming of Coates' argument; it is its purpose. What we need to do is to study the issue in earnest. To have a hearing, in the deepest sense. To listen to the difference between Americanness and whiteness, and to notice the manifold ways that whiteness was (and is) an identity fabricated from the myth of blackness.
To be sure, every ethnic group that's not called white has experienced suffering in American life. But the experience of African-Americans is exceptional in its systematic, multigenerational, reverberating effects. And it's exceptional in its centrality to the founding and building of our nation. No experience reveals more than the African-American experience both the hypocrisy and the possibility of our national creed.
Does any of this answer the question everyone wants to rush to, the question of implementation and how reparations would actually work? How to decide which people are called "black" or "black enough" to get compensation? How to allocate reparations? How to decide how much? How to decide who decides? How to begin the process without it leading to the unraveling of every aspect of institutional wealth, privilege and power in our country? No, Coates doesn't answer these questions. He asks for a hearing.
And the point of a hearing on reparations -- and making it a civic experience as profound and prismatic as the Watergate hearing -- is not to get the American public to "how." It's to get us to "why." For only when we understand why reparations are justified, even if in good faith we cannot yet figure out how or even whether they could be feasible, will we have a shot at being "beyond race."
Maimonides said, "Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know' and thou shalt progress." On a topic as charged as race, and as woven into the warp and woof of American identity as whiteness, the temptation is always to speak emphatically from fear or pain. But if more of us in reaction to reparations simply say, "I do not know -- but I wish to understand," then we will be making true progress.
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Biden, Clinton, you're rich. Own it
6/28/2014 5:50:25 AM
- Errol Louis: Biden, Hillary gaffes show how wide America's wealth gap has become
- He says if they want to be president, they should find less tone-deaf way to discuss money
- Louis: Both may feel poorer than super-rich they know, but median U.S. income is $53,000
- Louis: They're not "just plain folks," they're among country's most fortunate; should own it
Editor's note: Errol Louis is the host of "Inside City Hall," a nightly political show on NY1, a New York all-news channel. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN) -- A pair of gaffes by Vice President Biden and ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton illustrate just how hard it is to explain how vast the gaps of income and wealth in America have become -- including the significant but seldom-discussed difference between being merely rich and being super-rich.
When Biden recently told an audience -- inaccurately, it turned out -- "I don't own a single stock or bond ... I have no savings accounts," he was widely seen as responding to earlier comments by Clinton that she and her multimillionaire husband, ex-President Bill Clinton, would not be seen by voters as part of the economic elite who crashed the economy because "we pay ordinary income tax, unlike a lot of people who are truly well off."
Both statements were widely seen as hopelessly off-key and out of touch, especially coming from politicians whose not-so-secret hopes for a shot at running for president in 2016 depend on connecting with average Americans.
If they expect to make it through the coming campaign without further ridicule, Biden and Clinton will have to figure out a better way to discuss -- or not discuss -- their personal finances.
Let's start with a reality check. Biden and his wife do, indeed, own multiple savings and stock accounts, but most have less than $15,000 in them. That makes Biden relatively poor, compared with his former colleagues in the U.S. Senate, whose average wealth is nearly $1 million.
But the vice president is much better off than the typical U.S. family, which has a savings account balance of only $3,800. More than half of all Americans own no stock at all, and only one-third have stock accounts worth more than $5,000.
Clinton suffers a similar problem of perspective. It's true that she and her husband ended the Clinton presidency facing $5 million in legal bills and no place to live (they'd spent more than a decade living in the Arkansas governor's mansion and then the White House). But Hillary Clinton's $8 million advance for her autobiography instantly moved the family into the 1%, and both she and her husband can command $200,000 per speech. Bill Clinton's net worth is estimated at $55 million.
Even with all that wealth, Clinton's underlying point -- that she and Bill earn their money and pay taxes on it every year -- is valid. The rarified company the former first couple keeps put them in touch with the super-rich -- heirs to great fortunes and owners of vast companies who don't need to write books or give speeches to rake in their millions.
It's the difference between life in the top 1% -- which requires household earnings of about $394,000 a year -- and the top .01%, where the money zooms into the stratosphere and, more important, comes mostly from stocks and other investments rather than work.
When merely rich people like Biden and Clinton look around within the 1%, they can't help but notice -- perhaps with a touch of envy -- that the top 0.1% crowd is living a very different lifestyle. It's one thing to fly first class (or even Air Force One) and quite another to pal around with people who command their own personal fleets of private jets.
But if Biden and Clinton are serious about a 2016 foray into the vote-getting business, they must suppress the very real urge to present themselves as "just plain folks" in a country where they are, by any measure, among the most fortunate. According to Census Bureau figures, half of all U.S. households earn less than $53,000 a year.
Those voters aren't likely to extend much sympathy to a vice president crying the blues about saving nothing while earning a federal salary of $233,000 a year or an ex-Cabinet member, ex-senator who commands $200,000 per speech.
The surest cure for seeming out of touch is to hit the campaign trail, with its endless string of town hall meetings and county fairs, its trips to diners, bowling alleys and factories during shift changes. It will take Biden and Clinton back to their own working-class roots, and remind them what real economic struggle looks like.
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Iraqi forces retake Tikrit, local leader and state-run TV say
6/28/2014 8:39:01 AM
- NEW: Semi-autonomous Kurdish region closes crossings used by Iraqis fleeing Mosul
- A combatant tells CNN that ISIS remains in control of Tikrit
- Iraqi military official says Iraqi jets are targeting ISIS locations in city of Mosul
- Iraqi military spokesman says 125 militants killed in operations across country
Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region closed off the crossings used by Iraqis fleeing violence in the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, raising fears of a humanitarian crisis as desperate families are left with nowhere to go.
The Kurdish regional government's decision came on the same day Iraq's air force carried out a series of airstrikes on Mosul, according to a senior Iraqi military official.
Hundreds of thousands fled when Iraq's second city fell to militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) two and a half weeks ago. Many headed for Kurdish-controlled areas.
Renewed conflict in the city, located about 420 kilometers (260 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, may now force many more to flee -- but it is unclear what options they have left.
Gen. Hilgord Hikmet, a spokesman for the Kurdish fighting force known as the Peshmerga, told CNN that the two main entrances from Mosul to Irbil and Duhok are now shut.
"No one from Mosul can now enter the Kurdistan region," he said. Refugees already in the Kurdish region are allowed to leave the area but are not allowed to come back, according to Hikmet.
This measure -- taken to preserve security and the region's stability, Hikmet said -- comes two days after a suicide car bomb struck a checkpoint manned by Kurdish forces in Kolchali, northeast of Mosul, according to Kurdish security forces in Irbil.
At least one Kurdish security officer was killed and 15 other people were wounded in that incident, security forces said.
Mosul airstrikes
Iraq's air force targeted locations held by ISIS when it struck Mosul from the air Saturday morning, the senior Iraqi military official told CNN.
The official, who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said the strikes were carried out by Iraqi jet fighters firing Hellfire missiles.
Seven civilians were killed when a house was struck in Mosul's Bashtabia neighborhood and two were injured, according to Dr. Salaheddin Thanoon al-Niaimi, general director of the Health Directorate of Nineveh province.
The Iraqi air force also struck an outdoor market in central Mosul and wounded 11 people, he said.
A week ago, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Iraq put the number who fled Mosul, a predominantly Sunni city, at about 800,000, about half the city's population.
Masoud Barzani, the Kurdish region's president, said on Friday that disputed areas of northern Iraq, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, will from now on be part of the Kurdish autonomous region, after Iraq's central government failed to hold a long-awaited referendum.
More than a week ago, when the Iraqi army withdrew from Kirkuk, the Peshmerga took control of the city, as well as many of the disputed villages.
ISIS has taken over swaths of northern and western Iraq in its quest to create an Islamic state stretching from Syria to Iraq.
Reports: Iraqi forces take Tikrit
Iraqi security forces went on the offensive against the Sunni extremist militants on Saturday, with state media and a local tribal leader saying they had retaken the city of Tikrit, former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's hometown.
Sheikh Khamis al-Joubouri, a key tribal leader in Tikrit, told CNN that the Iraqi security forces entered the city supported by special forces and fighters from among the local tribes, and had gained control.
He said that fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) retreated in the direction of Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces.
However, amid claim and counter-claim, a combatant told a CNN freelance reporter that ISIS fighters remained in control of Tikrit, but that there are fierce clashes in an area about 20 kilometers from the city center, toward Samarra.
State-run Iraqiya TV reported that the Iraqi army and volunteer militia groups had cleared ISIS fighters from the city, having advanced on the city from four directions.
Sabah Numan, a Counter Terrorism Unit spokesman, told the station that 120 militants had been killed and 20 vehicles destroyed in a large-scale operation that began Saturday morning.
CNN cannot independently confirm the reports.
Al-Joubouri said that the tribes were not aligned with the government or with ISIS and had stayed out of the fight until now.
But, he said, when ISIS fighters who arrived in Tikrit robbed banks and carried out executions, as well as bringing the local economy to a standstill, the tribal leaders offered their help to the Iraqi security forces poised outside the city. The tribal leaders shared their knowledge of the city, including routes and known ISIS positions, he said.
On Friday, Human Rights Watch reported that two mass graves believed to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians killed by ISIS and their militant allies had been discovered in Tikrit.
Iraq's military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, told a news briefing Saturday that Iraq's forces had regained the upper hand against ISIS and were now being supported by the tribes.
"We are advancing in all our fights," he said.
Atta said that a total of 125 ISIS fighters had been killed across Iraq in multiple operations, with 57 vehicles destroyed and 96 attack sorties flown by the air force.
In one setback for the military, seven Iraqi soldiers were killed and 29 were wounded on Saturday in clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS at a military base in the town of Jurf al-Sakhar, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraqi security officials said.
Mass graves, executions
Reports continue to emerge of atrocities committed by both sides.
Besides the alleged Tikrit executions, Human Rights Watch said Saturday that ISIS fighters kidnapped at least 40 Shia Turkmen, dynamited four Shia places of worship, and ransacked homes and farms in two Shia villages just outside Mosul, citing displaced residents and local activists and journalists.
The few Sunni villagers who remained told those who fled that at least some of the kidnapped men had been killed, the rights group said. However, they had not seen bodies and could not give more information.
ISIS destroyed seven Shia places of worship in the predominantly Shia Turkmen city of Tal Afar, about 30 miles west of Mosul, earlier in the week, Human Rights Watch added, citing local sources.
"The ISIS rampage is part of a long pattern of attack by armed Sunni extremists on Turkmen and other minorities," said Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The killing, bombing, and pillaging threatens to displace entire communities, possibly forever."
The two villages, Guba and Shireekhan, were initially seized by ISIS on June 10, during their advance on Mosul.
On Friday, Amnesty International said it had gathered evidence pointing to a pattern of "extrajudicial executions" of Sunni detainees by government forces and Shiite militias in the northern cities of Tal Afar, Mosul and Baquba.
"Reports of multiple incidents where Sunni detainees have been killed in cold blood while in the custody of Iraqi forces are deeply alarming," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser, who is in northern Iraq.
"The killings suggest a worrying pattern of reprisal attacks against Sunnis in retaliation for ISIS."
'Baghdad is safe'
Armed U.S. drones have started flying over Baghdad to provide additional protection for 180 U.S. military advisers in the area, a U.S. official told CNN on Friday.
But using the drones for any offensive strikes against ISIS would require approval from U.S. President Barack Obama.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, in a speech during a visit Friday to the Baghdad Operations Command, insisted the capital was not in danger.
"We have an army to respond to the catastrophe that has occurred, and Baghdad is safe and cannot be exposed to instability," he said, according to a statement released by his office.
"We will punish anyone making problems in the city of Baghdad."
The Prime Minister, who is widely blamed for fostering sectarian division, is under pressure to allow the formation of an inclusive government. Iraq's newly elected Parliament is due to meet on Tuesday.
CNN's Arwa Damon, Chelsea J. Carter and Hamdi Alkhshali reported from Baghdad, and Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London. CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq, Raja Razek, Ali Younes and Yousuf Basil contributed to this report, as did journalist Shirko Raouf.
Iraq inmate: Guards 'opened fire'
6/28/2014 3:57:22 AM
- One man says security force members shot, killed prisoners as ISIS fighters approached
- A woman says she found brother's body among many others at Tal Afar facility
- Amnesty International alleges that government forces, Shiite militias executed Sunni detainees
- Human Rights Watch finds mass graves thought to hold those killed by ISIS fighters, their allies
(CNN) -- Crammed into a prison cell with 36 other people, the man debated his fate as he listened to the shelling.
Outside, fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria fired mortars at the anti-terrorism detention facility in Tal Afar, where fierce battles raged between the al Qaeda splinter group and Iraqi security forces.
With the facility close to being overrun by ISIS fighters, the prison guards did the unthinkable.
"At about 2 a.m., three of the guards came into our cell ... and they opened fire with a machine gun," the man said in a video obtained by CNN.
The account mirrors allegations put forward by Amnesty International, which released a report Friday saying it has evidence pointing to a pattern of "extrajudicial executions" of Sunni detainees by government forces and Shiite militias in Tal Afar, Mosul and Baquba, cities where Iraqi forces were either routed or have been locked in fierce battles with ISIS fighters and allied Sunni militants.
"The killings suggest a worrying pattern of reprisal attacks against Sunnis in retaliation for ISIS gains," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser, who is currently in northern Iraq.
The government is aware of the Amnesty International allegations but has yet to see any evidence, said Abdul-Sittar al-Birqdar, spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council, which oversees the country's judicial system.
"At this stage, this is all just media reporting," he told CNN on Friday. "No witnesses have come forward, and no families have come forward with such claims. No one has officially asked for an investigation."
He called for the rights group to provide evidence, saying that "we are still monitoring and checking, and we will keep checking," adding that "under Iraqi law, we cannot move on it without claims and evidence."
'He was in the prison. He was killed'
Survivors and witnesses tell Amnesty International that Iraqi prison guards carried out the slaughter before Iraqi forces withdrew.
A video obtained by CNN, confirmed by Amnesty International as one of the rooms where the killings took place in Tal Afar, shows a prison cell, the floor slick with blood, where bodies of men are piled on top of one another. They appear to have fallen where they were shot.
In that same video, a woman in a black abaya with a printed head scarf stands over her brother, brushing flies from his body.
She said she found his body among others in a room in the Tal Afar detention facility.
"He was in the prison," said the woman, clearly in shock. "He was killed."
Asked how many bodies were among those with her brother, she said: "They killed a lot. I don't know."
Bodies found in Mosul
A similar scene appeared to play out at the anti-terrorism detention facility in Mosul, 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Tal Afar, Amnesty International said, where some of the dozens of bloated, twisted bodies found in a ditch were believed to have been executed by Iraqi guards before they withdrew.
A man, whom CNN is not identifying at his request, said he was being held at the same facility with about 80 others. He said he was held without charges after security forces picked him up eight months earlier.
"The guards were screaming out names. They took 15 of them and handcuffed them together," said the man, who is a university student.
Then they were taken away, he said.
Later, as ISIS fighters shelled the Mosul facility, detainees in one of the cells began chanting "Allahu akbar." That's when, the man said, one of the guards opened a cell and threw a grenade into it.
"Thank God, they were busy with the clashes, and they didn't have time to go through all the cells," he said.
The man said militants, presumably ISIS fighters, eventually released him and the other prisoners.
"They said, 'You are free. Whoever wants to go, swear allegiance to us and you can go home,' " he said.
The man said that when he heard that bodies had been found in a ditch near an abandoned potato factory, he went to see them. And there, he said, were the bodies of some of the men taken from the detention facility.
Human Rights Watch details alleged ISIS killings
Stories of executions and killings by both sides have swirled since ISIS fighters seized portions of northern Iraq in a lightning advance that stunned Iraqi security forces.
The Amnesty International report comes the same day that Human Rights Watch said two mass graves thought to contain the bodies of Iraqi soldiers, police and civilians, killed by ISIS fighters and their militant allies, were found in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
Using satellite imagery and publicly available photographs purportedly released by ISIS, Human Rights Watch said it appeared that ISIS fighters in Tikrit executed three groups of men a short distance from the former Iraqi leader's Water Palace on the banks of the Tigris River.
"The analysis suggests that ISIS killed between 160 and 190 men in at least two locations between June 11 and 14," the rights group said in its report. "The number of victims may well be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and accessing the area has prevented a full investigation."
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