Snowden — Turkey — Latvia & Croatia — Colombia — Syria & Lebanon — Gay Marriage in the US — Bruegel blog

After an unexpectedly long pause of four weeks we are back! Did we miss anything? Oh yeah, a hell of a lot. And so begins the long road of playing catch up with the NEWZ. So we talk about the whistleblower case of Edward Snowden and the newly erupting diplomatic war between the US and Ecuador. We also cover (in review) the events at Gezi Park in Istanbul where the turkish society is shouting for freedom from a repressive culture put out by prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. We also track the path of resistance to Brazil where an outpouring of protests is obviously making much more of an impression to the government than in Turkey. We also look at Latvia that is about to join the Euro and Croatia that is about to join the EU. In Colombia the FARC is still alive and turning to Gold instead of drugs to fund their activities. Finally the US is making a bold move towards allowing gay marriages across the country due to a new ruling of the Supreme Court. Finally we present you our latest NEWZ source: the Breuel blog.

Mark Fonseca Rendeiro

Tim Pritlove

• Meet the Whistleblower Responsible for the Massive NSA Leak | Alternet
• Obama Seeks to Play Down Snowden’s Import – NYTimes.com
• Turkey protests: Istanbul calm, but clashes in Rize and Adana | GlobalPost
• 2013 protests in Brazil – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Latvia Is Ready to Jump Aboard Euro Zone – NYTimes.com
• Accession of Croatia to the European Union – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Illegal gold mining profits for rebels in Colombia five times larger than cocaine | MINING.comBBC News – Syria war exerts growing strain on Lebanon tinderbox
• Supreme Court rulings mark bold advance for gay marriage – latimes.com
• NEWZ Source: Breugel blog