Photo, above: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is the new head of the Egyptian military and 44th defense minister in the history of the modern Egyptian army since its formation more than 200 years ago. In his mid-50s, he is one of the youngest members of the military council that was previously headed by Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi. Sisi was appointed to his new position amid major changes made by President Mohamed Morsy on Sunday, in which the older ranks of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, including Tantawi and Chief of Staff Sami Anan, were sent to retirement.  Sisi has been the director of military intelligence since the military council took power on 11 February 2011, following the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak.  He is a colonel general with no combat record, unlike Tantawi, who was a field marshal.  Sisi came out with press statements that embarrassed the military council when he told BBC and Human Rights Watch in June of last year that the Egyptian army conducted virginity tests for female demonstrators in Tahrir Square on 9 March 2011 to absolve soldiers of accusations of rape.  See -

Hour 1, Block A: Eric Trager in Cairo,

Hour 2, Block A: Eric Trager in Cairo.

Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, & Lee Smith, Weekly Standard senior editor and author of, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations.

Hour 4, Block A: Bret Stephens WSJ.

Hour 4, Block B: John Bolton, AEI.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Eric Trager in Cairo, brief report on Mursi's overthrow, with significant background noise. Coup by military, 300-plus Islamists arrested; Mursi rejects the coup. Recalls the Jasmine Revolution in China, leadership's fear that that yearning for democracy would spread into a state where there is none.  Egypt's economy is in tatters.

Fraser Howie, co-author of Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise, in re: yes, there's some liquidity in China, but interbank ending stalled to almost zero – rates have spiked as high as 30%; PBoC blinked, has provided cash to banks and slightly eased the situation. Central Bank secretly put in $23 bil, then more later.  All kept secret. Creating panic by injections and not telling. The growth of credit has been 20-2305 GPA, way ahead of GPD. Engineering liquidity crises within banks is no way to solve credit problems. Worse than rate spiking, is that the govt instructed local media not to mention any of this!  Btw: the whole staff of al Jazeera in Cairo was detained by police lest they broadcast anything unhappy during the coup.  China was growing at amazing rates for years, now is at7% or much less; real concern that within a year or two China could engender the next huge economic shock,. Major flight of money now, a stampede for the door.  The Australian economy, a "miracle" – was  living off another miracle for a decade, China. 

China June official PMI slips to 50.1, adds to growth worries   Growth in China's vast factory sector slowed to multi-month lows in June on faltering new orders, a pair of surveys showed on Monday, boding ill for the world's second-largest economy still smarting from fears of a credit crunch. Economists said the two purchasing managers' indices (PMI) reinforced their concerns that China's economic cooldown could deepen in the second quarter, especially with Beijing looking increasingly reluctant to take action to stimulate growth. "The Chinese economy is still struggling at the bottom," said Haibin Zhu, chief China economist of JPMorgan in Hong Kong. Zhu said slowing growth in [more]

China bank regulator says liquidity ample, debt risks manageable  China's chief banking regulator said on Saturday that liquidity in China's banking system is sufficient and pledged to control risks from local government debt, real estate and shadow banking.  Despite a cash squeeze that sent money-market interest rates soaring over the last two weeks, banks have more than enough reserves to meet settlement needs, Shang Fulin, chairman of the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said at a financial forum on Saturday.  "Over the last few days, due to multiple factors, the problem of tight liquidity has appeared in the market. But overall, liquidity in our banking system really isn't scarce," Shang said at a speech to the  [more]

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 1, Block B: Lobsang Nyandak, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Americas, in re: on this coming Friday, the 78th birthday of HH the Dalai Lama. Peoples Republic of China bans his picture in Tibet.  Local officials can’t grasp the notion that it's impossible to ban, while the characters in Beijing are clueless; also are unaware of the deep resentment against China that Tibet people hold.  Half a year ago, many public displays of HH's image; this ban is not sustainable.

US Ambassador Ends Visit to Tibet   U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke has ended a three-day visit to Tibet, where he met with local officials and some of the leading monks from Buddhist monasteries in the regional capital, Lhasa.  Patrick Ventrell, a spokesman for the State Department, told reporters in Washington Friday that the U.S. ambassador urged the political leaders there to preserve Tibet's language, culture and religion, and conveyed U.S. concerns about self-immolations.  More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in recent years to protest what they see as China's repression of their rights.  The U.S. embassy in Beijing says this is the first time a U.S. ambassador has traveled to Tibet since 2010.  Ventrell said the United States will continue its efforts to establish a consulate in Lhasa.  Meanwhile, the London-based rights group Free Tibet has confirmed that [more]

China: No policy change toward Dalai Lama  Chinese authorities have denied changing their stance on exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, after reports said Beijing had relaxed its policies of publicly denouncing him and banning worship of his image.  "Our policy towards the Dalai Lama is clear and consistent, and has not changed," China's state bureau of religious affairs said in a fax.  Reports by a Tibet-focused rights group and US-based Radio Free Asia said China was showing signs of rethinking some aspects of its Tibet policy, which has been blamed for sparking a wave of more than 110 self-immolations by Tibetans since 2009.  Authorities in some Tibetan areas were allowing locals to "openly venerate the Dalai Lama as a religious leader but not as a 'political' figure," Radio Free Asia reported.  Local authorities had dropped policies requiring monks to denounce the Dalai Lama, according to London-based rights group Free Tibet.  The issue has been seen as a key source of tension between monks and government officials.  China regularly condemns the spiritual figure, and has branded him an anti-China "separatist".  China's top religious authority repeated that position on Saturday, saying: "If the Dalai Lama is to improve his relations with China's government, he must drop his separatist position . . . and stop making statements which damage the peaceful development of Tibet."  Free Tibet said on Thursday that monks at a monastery in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, were told they could show pictures of the Dalai Lama, reversing a 17-year ban on displaying his image.  The Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and later founded the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 1, Block C: Hotel Mars, episode n.  Dr. David M. Livingston, The Space Show, and Dr Edward Stone, CalTech physicist and Chief Scientist at Voyager program, NASA/JPL; in re: the Voyager spacecraft (launched 1977) and its continued mission, to interstellar space, first human instrument to do so.  Picked up zone with radiation; Voyager is in outer reaches of the heliosphere, its outermost layer.  Interstellar space: ejecta from the Sun 15 mil years ago. Four working scientists; the Golden Record: a grooved LP record with many languages and cultural greetings from Earthlings, attached to the exterior of craft with a dustcover; will circulate the galaxy forever, long after we're no longer here (or anywhere?).  If the energy  lasts till 2020, we'll merely have an idea of where it's headed but will lose contact and have no direct way of determining where it is.  Before Voyager I and II launches, we knew of volcanoes only here – then discovered a 10X volcano on Jupiter. We launched two craft so we could at least get to Saturn. One instrument was included in case it ever got to interstellar space.  With modern instruments and computers, we’d have much greater capability; those on the craft can hold up to 4,000 words, only. Opportunity to launch efficiently to Neptune comes once every 130(?) years.  Voyager is the gold standard; every 240 million years it will orbit the Milky Way. Carl Sagan and eight or nine colleagues developed the record, just in time for the launch. "The record is for us: we can send this to leave Earth forever."

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 1, Block D: Nury Turkel, former president of the Uyghur-American Association and now a practicing lawyer in Washington, D.C., in re: new regime in China – not legitimate, but Xi leads the Communist Party in Beijing – and a resurgence of brutality and violence, now with 35 people dead.   Several events, incl a demo in Khotan in which Chinese troops just shot civilians, in southern Xinjiang, where they protested impingements on religious freedom, Beijing ordered Urumchi authorities to kill – said that 50 people died and many others were injured in fact, the real numbers are higher The Chinese govt elevated Uyghur from "natl affairs" to be handled by the Public Security Ministry.    Weak and insecure govts think they can conquer by machine guns and trucks; State Dept issued a statement last week asking the Chinese govt to respect Uyghur people and their rights. The govt in Beijing is using force as it did in 1989; US needs not to have relations with govts that kill their own people.   Last year, Chinese Communist leader was rc'd by US Congress – he shouldn’t have been allowed into the country.  Chine=a claiming it moves against "terrorist elements" – it equates any dissent at all with terrorism; it miscalculates the thinking of the West.

China ramps up security in Xinjiang after unrest  In a show of force after unrest last week that left 35 people dead, Chinese authorities have ramped up security in the far-western region of Xinjiang.  Armed police held rallies in several cities in Xinjiang over the weekend, the local government news website Tianshannet reported. The site carried images showing convoys of armored vehicles and trucks full of police officers in riot gear.  China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended the action Monday, saying the government will . . .  [more]

Hour Two

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Eric Trager in Cairo, brief report on Mursi's overthrow, with significant background noise. Coup by military, 300-plus Islamists arrested; Mursi rejects the coup. Recalls the Jasmine Revolution in China, leadership's fear that that yearning for democracy would spread into a state where there is none.  Egypt's economy is in tatters.  Trouble.

Walter Lohman, Director of Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, in re: In Cairo, an unpopular, elected govt dislodged by military coup, which gives pause to all governments and regimes.  Chinese always made nervous by any disturbance, street protest.  They’re not in power by any democratic means.  Assertive military in China; last month was horrible for the economy, CCP could be concerned that their military might think of doing what the Egyptian mil did to Mursi. However, the PLA is a part of the Communist Party. [The PLA is not responsible to the Chinese people; is responsible to the Party.]   China in Africa: Xi visited some of his enterprises in Arica, offered $20 mil (plunder); the US president offered $7 mil for electrification.  We can't compete with China using Twentieth Century mercantilism; we don’t need to be more like the Chinese, whose MO in the long run is not sustainable.  China has overcommitted its resource deals in Africa, at some time will renege, so the US by default will wind up doing better. Chinese are overextended in supplies and production – mountains of trashed computers, for example. So far, no headline in China on events in Cairo.  Eventually, Beijing will issue a bland, meaningless statement.  Men trying to hold on to their billions and hope we won't notice. 

African investment - Can Obama's Africa Power plan hold a candle to China? U.S. $7 billion initiative follows big Chinese projects  Obama hints U.S. investment will create markets, jobs   U.S. President Barack Obama's $7 billion plan to shine "light where currently there's darkness" in Africa by doubling access to power on the world's poorest continent was billed as a highlight of his African tour. He announced the Power Africa initiative in Cape Town on Sunday in a speech which he also urged the fast-growing but still troubled region to follow the shining example of South Africa's anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela. But Obama's proposal, which aims to partner U.S. government financing with private sector investment, may look low-wattage compared with China's already ongoing big electricity projects on the world's least-developed - and least lit - continent. Beijing has been lighting the way in Africa with billions of dollars of promised power investment and projects. As with other infrastructure development opportunities in Africa, Washington seems to be arriving late to the party. Visiting Africa in March, China's President Xi Jinping renewed an offer of $20 billion in loans to "help African countries turn resource endowment into development strength". A major chunk of this Chinese money is aimed at connecting up African economies with electricity, from Zambia to Ethiopia. "The major thrust of the Chinese infrastructure spend in Africa has been in the power sector. It is tens of billions of dollars," said Martyn Davies, the chief executive of Frontier Advisory, a strategy and investment advisory . . .  [more]

Why Obama is making an African power-play against China. Three-country tour meant to entice African trading partners away from China. When U.S. President Barack Obama wraps up an African tour today, it will mark the end of what some international development experts say is an attempt to counter China’s growing influence throughout sub-Saharan Africa and assert American economic dominance on the continent. China surpassed the U.S. in total trade in sub-Saharan Africa in 2009, but its increasingly strong economic ties took root in 2000, when then-Chinese president Hu Jintao hosted representatives from 44 African nations in Beijing to establish the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation. That meeting "set a mandate for China to become Africa's largest trading partner," says Richard Poplak, a Johannesburg-based Canadian author and journalist writing a book about China’s growing role in Africa. It was also an early sign that the Chinese viewed economic opportunity in Africa through a different lens from . . . [more]

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Nitin Gokhale, anchor at New Delhi Television, in re: yes, India is quite concerned about events in Egypt; supports democracy everywhere and for the instant are saying nothing. "Pakistan's army has the nation; the nation of India has its army."   Founding members of the Nonaligned Movement incl India, Egypt, Yugoslavia. Looking north to Bhutan: Chinese soldiers crossed the border into Bhutan (700,000 people, strategically placed) and destroyed materials in Bhutan – same tactic employed by China in India. Bhutan has not yet responded.  Geography: chicken's neck corridor. Bhutan's foreign policy is developed in consultation with India.  So far, the king of Bhutan has been an absolute monarch, friends with India; winds of change in Bhutan do not augur well for India. Foreign Minister has been extremely friendly to China – ordered trucks that normally wd be bought from India, beginning a new complication.

China now intrudes into Bhutan? In Ladakh, China appears to have done it once again. At the receiving end this time is India's longtime strategic partner Bhutan. TIMES NOW have accessed an internal note that has flagged off warning bells detailing the extent of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) intrusion into Bhutan. The Chinese not only setting up three camps with PLA personnel to man them but also carrying out patrols at two locations on the 28th of May.

Bhutan's road to democracy leads to China? There's a new anxiety in the top echelons of New Delhi about what's arguably India's only friendly neighbour, Bhutan. As the hill kingdom takes another baby step in its transition from monarchy to democracy with its second parliamentary election on July 13, there's realization here that complacence has possibly allowed some disturbing developments there to go unnoticed. Friendship with Bhutan is often taken for granted by our foreign policy mandarins. So, it was a rude shock when they learned last year from a Chinese press release that the new Bhutan PM, Jigme Thinley, has had a meeting with the then Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and the two countries were set to establish diplomatic ties. Given that Bhutan's foreign policy is conducted by and large in close consultation with New Delhi, such an important step without its knowledge created disquiet. Although the PM's office in Thimpu sought to play it down, senior officers recalled that Thinley had said months after taking over as PM that he only saw growing opportunities in China and no threat. As part of Bhutan's outreach to China was the decision last year to procure 20 Chinese buses, typically the kind of purchase that would normally be booked with, say, Tata Motors. It raised eyebrows. It did not help that the person who got the contract for supplying the buses was reported to be a relative of Thinley. What's ironic is that . . .  [more]

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 2, Block C:  . David Feith, WSJ Asia editorial board in Hong Kong, in re: Sixteenth anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to Beijing; always makes Beijing nervous. Over 400K people assembled in the rain – an enormous turnout, quite in line with political independence in Hong Kong.  A decade ago, Bejing tried to pass anti-sedition laws here, brought out one in eight residents; convinced govt to quit; same last year with a Beijing plan to [suffocate] Hong Kong schools. Chinese govt played stupid games with unclear middle initial on Snowden's papers; erosion of laws in Hong Kong, people are scared.  Snowden had four laptops and a thumb drive, as well as we know; everyone assumes that the Chinese authorities have all those data. Speculation: Snowden found that NSA was closing in on him, he panicked, ran to Hong Kong thinking China would rescue him. WE have no evidence that China was prepared in advance. He gathered a legal team here in and ad hoc way and long after he arrived. Only his partners-in-disclosure in the press seemed to know in advance.  His amazingly naïve statement from the Sheremetyeva complaining about US treatment of him.  It's all spun beyond his control; he's marooned in the Moscow airport and may well be retuned to the US.

Obama and Snowden: 'Zero' Effect  Both Obama and Snowden naively believe that if the U.S. abandons key defense tools, rival nations will soon follow its lead. It is tempting not to take Edward Snowden very seriously. The young National Security Agency leaker is a supposed defender of the U.S. Constitution who violates his oaths and subverts the democratic process; a self-proclaimed civil libertarian who seeks hospitality from the jailers of Beijing, Moscow and maybe Havana. But it is worth considering Snowden's fanciful strategy for curbing global cyber espionage—if only because it so closely resembles Barack Obama's strategy for curbing nuclear weapons. Snowden's approach might be called "cyber zero," as distinct from President Obama's pursuit of "nuclear zero," or the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. Both offer a troubling mix of grand dreams and faulty national-security logic. What is Snowden after? Contrary to initial claims by some of his defenders, he isn't a "whistle-blower" protecting fellow Americans from perceived violations of their constitutional rights. Rather, by revealing secrets that have nothing to do with Americans' privacy rights (such as how Washington monitors computer networks in China and diplomats meeting in Britain), Snowden conveys that his intent is far broader.  [more]

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 2, Block D:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, in re: Green Politics in China.   Leather milk (Chinese put leather in milk to raise the protein level), gutter oil.

Hour Three

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, & Lee Smith, Weekly Standard senior editor and author of, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations; in re: military coup  in Cairo – confirmed that Egypt's first democratically elected president is out, the head of he Supreme Court has been installed. The threat is that this is the largest democratic state to have a coup since WWII.  "Is this the new Nasser?" No – he holds no nationalist ideology, speaks of process to get past the current crisis; held in high regards suddenly now, but he's not expected to play the public role that Nasser did. Egyptian meltdown. War with Israel is a serious possibility in the future.  Whatever technocrats the SCAF puts in power will not be able to manage that Mursi could not. The problem is not Mursi, the problem is Egypt.  Downward spiral, economy near ruin, out of food stocks and staples; tanks moving, army owns 30% of the economy and has a lot to protect.  Erdogan in Turkey blames the Jews, blames anyone; cd happen n Egypt.  The army allowed the anti-Mubarak coup, and Tantawi was totally outmanoueuverd by the Muslim Brotherhood. Now the army takes charge – to do what?  You don't have to be a Muslim Brotherhood supporter to  think this is outrageous.  The US elite supports calls whenever the people go into the streets; OK, fine.  The army itself did enjoy broad-based support, was symbol of natl unity; not today,. No backstop. Saw he Saudi king congratulate Egyptians Qataris put $4bil loan plus more; what'll the new Qatari leadership do?  Egyptian army lined up al Jazeera reporters paid by Qatar and took them off.

Will Egypt Save Itself from Total Collapse by Going to War with Israel?  So, here are the facts that Egyptians and Western reporters alike would rather not face: There is simply no way that today’s Egypt can feed its own people, or fuel the tractors that harvest its crops—let alone attract tens of billions of dollars in foreign investment to grow a hi-tech miracle along the banks of the Nile. That’s fantasyland stuff—like the fantasy of an American-style constitutional democracy run by the Muslim Brotherhood and guaranteed by the Egyptian army.  So, what’s left? A short war today—precipitated by a border incident in Sinai, or a missile gone awry in the Gaza Strip, and concluded before the military runs out of the ammunition that Washington will surely not resupply—will reunify the country and earn Egypt money from an international community eager to broker peace. Taking up arms against Israel will also return Egypt to its former place of prominence in an Arab world that is adrift in a sea of blood. But even more important is the fact that there is no other plausible way out: Sacrificing thousands of her sons on the altar of war is the only way to save Mother Egypt from herself.

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 3, Block B:  . Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: US gives billions in economic aid to Egypt; this will be reviewed next year. Egypt moved 300 tanks into Sinai with Israel's permission; not because of movement f Hamas or its tunnels; may have been in anticipation because the Gaza border heats up, and mood there had turned against Muslim Brotherhood.  On 8 July Ramadan begins, which engenders much more complicated situations.  MB in Tunis, Oman, parts of the Free Syria Army, in Jordan – a dynamic and transnational organization.  This is not stable.  They've resisted since 1923, will not go away, Likelihood of clashes – the Islamic TV stations were put off air.  US will call this an interim step and give a lot of leeway. No infrastructure for governance!  King Abdullah of Jordan: it takes a minimum of three to five years. Egypt: a million babies born every year, most people earning $2 a day.  Zawahiri issues a statement itching for a fight. There will be starvation in Egypt: less than a month's worth of sugar, oil,  wheat.

Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 3, Block C:  Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re: (1 of 2) The Supreme Court’s decisions transformed the debate over gay marriage in the country. Unfortunately, how the Court reached its decisions should be disturbing to any follower of constitutional law, regardless of his or her personal views on same-sex marriage. My own libertarian instincts lead me to think that same-sex marriage is a legislative matter. After all, the states are often called laboratories of democracy. Now, though, those states are on a short leash . . .

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 3, Block D:   Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re:   (2 of 2) . . .  The Constitutional Merits     By a five-four vote, the Supreme Court struck down section 3 of DOMA. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion for the majority. Key to understanding his elusive opinion is Justice Kennedy’s ambiguous attitude to the role of tradition in constitutional adjudication. The issue is one with a long pedigree, and relates closely to the level of scrutiny that is invoked in constitutional deliberation. Virtually all of the historical challenges to legislation were the result of conscious departures from traditional common law rules, including the early twentieth-century challenges to the wage and hour laws. Many of the judges who struck down those statutes did so because they were anti-competitive labor statutes in disguise, intended to throttle the competition that low-pay or non-union workers gave to the rising power of trade unions. The stinging dissent of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in Lochner v. New York was written to uphold New York’s maximum hour law: I think that the word liberty in the Fourteenth Amendment is perverted when it is held to prevent the natural outcome of a dominant opinion, unless it can be said that a rational and fair man necessarily would admit that the statute proposed would infringe fundamental principles as they have been understood by the traditions of our people and our law.  Tradition saves the day in Holmes’s last clause.  The DOMA sponsors also appealed to that deep sense of tradition when . . . [more]

Hour Four

 Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 4, Block A:  Bret Stephens WSJ, in re: Ozymandias Returns Will Mohammed Morsi join the pharaohs, caliphs, pashas and strongmen that came before him?  On Sunday millions of Egyptians poured into the squares and streets of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities to register intense dissatisfaction with their first freely elected government and demand President Mohammed Morsi's resignation. On Monday the Egyptian military gave Mr. Morsi 48 hours to clean up his act, or else.  Democracy in Egypt has not been fun while it's lasted.  Where do things go from here? The good news is that the political bloom is off the Islamist rose. The Muslim Brotherhood, so sure-footed when it came to seizing power, proved surprisingly ham-fisted when it came to consolidating it. Islam is the answer, goes the Brotherhood's famous slogan—but not, as Egyptians are learning with each passing day, to the questions of how to shorten gas lines, or maintain public security, or attract foreign investment, or build foreign-exchange reserves.  There's also good news in that the army remains a willing and viable check on the Brotherhood's political power and street muscle. There were reasons to wonder about that after the military squandered much of its support with its long interregnum (and constitutional shenanigans) following Hosni Mubarak's downfall, and then again after Mr. Morsi sacked Mubarak-era Defense Minister Mohamed Tantawi and replaced him with Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.  Yet Gen. Sisi proved he was his own man on Monday when he issued the ultimatum to his presumptive boss, warning that "if the people's demands are not met [by Wednesday], the armed forces will announce a road map for the future and take a set of procedures and . . . oversee its implementation with the participation of all political forces."  Sounds lovely. But then, as Napoleon told one of his generals, "if you start to take Vienna, take Vienna." On Monday a spokesman for Gen. Sisi insisted the army was not threatening a coup, but . . .  [more]

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone.

Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 4, Block B: John Bolton, AEI, in re: The United States believes that only the Egyptian people can determine their country's future, but Washington is deeply concerned by the military's decision to remove President Mohammed Morsi and suspend the constitution, U.S. President Barack Obama said July 3 in a statement, CNN reported. Obama urged the military to hand full control back to a democratically elected civilian government and abstain from arresting Morsi or his supporters. He also said the United States was reviewing the implications of the coup for its assistance to Egypt.

Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Nicholas Wade, in re:  DNA Buried 7,000 Centuries Is Retrieved The genome is 10 times as old as any retrieved so far, and scientists now say that DNA should be recoverable from animals that lived a million years ago.

Wednesday  3 July 2013 / Hour 4, Block D: Sid Perkins, in re:  the re-discovery of an Israeli species of frog declared extinct in 1996 (I called it the Lazarus frog, a nod to so-called “Lazarus species” that are found again after being thought long dead; this could be a fun article to chat about . . .