Morning News Roundup (01 June)

First off, some coverage and opinion on the seeming about-face by the BushCo Gang on Iran:

• The Bush administration offered for the first time yesterday to join European talks with Iran over its nuclear program, but only if the Iranian government suspends efforts to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel, which the administration calls part of a covert attempt to make bombs.
  
  A senior administration official said there is substantial agreement from Russia and China -- two nations that have resisted sanctions against Iran -- on an escalating series of U.N. penalties that would be imposed if Iran does not comply. [WaPo]
  
  
• Iran's foreign minister has said his country is ready to talk to the US - but insisted that it will continue with uranium enrichment. In comments reported on Iranian state-run television, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran "will not give up our nation's natural right [to enrichment], we will not hold talks over it. But we are ready to hold talks over mutual concerns". [BBC]
  
  
• Vice President Cheney “was dead set against” yesterday’s decision to offer the prospect of direct talks with Iran, one former Bush official said, but in the end “it came down to convincing Cheney and others that if we are going to confront Iran, we first have to check off the box” of trying talks. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• Tehran's blustery initial response, dismissing the offer for talks as U.S. "propaganda," only shows how completely Bush's gambit caught the Iranians off guard. Several aspects of Wednesday's announcement indicate that the administration has done some serious thinking, and rethinking, on Iran.
  
  First, despite Iran's history of mendacity with its nuclear program, Rice made a point Wednesday to acknowledge — twice — Iran's right to a civilian nuclear energy program. It was a necessary concession to Iran's pride in its program and to the fact that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty allows for it.
  
  Second, in a concession to both Iran and Europe, Rice said the U.S. would "actively support" greater European economic cooperation with Iran. This reverses decades of U.S. attempts to wreak economic pain on Iran. It also offers hope that China and Russia, which have strong economic ties to Iran and have opposed U.S. efforts to exert pressure on Iran at the U.N., may be more likely to support U.S. efforts. [LATimes Editorial]
  
  
• Ms Rice's approach increasingly brought her into conflict with the vice-president, Dick Cheney - the dark lord of rightwing Republicanism; and Donald Rumsfeld, the Pentagon tsar whose political infighting skills repeatedly undermined Mr Powell. But both men have lost ground in recent months, largely because of Iraq. They are believed to have opposed an opening to Iran as a "concession" to terrorism and blackmail. So did Israel. Speaking at the White House last week, Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, warned that Iran's activities represented an existential threat with which there could be no compromise. But yesterday Ms Rice made it crystal clear who is calling the shots in Washington now. [Simon Tisdall @ The Guaridan]
  
  
• In light of this move with Iran, David Brooks pulls out his old college cheerleading outfit:

  [T]his display of competence causes me to remember that over the past several weeks this administration has done a number of things well (the nominations of Michael Hayden and Henry Paulson, to name just two). Maybe there's life in this presidency yet.

Now, the rest of the news:

• The U.S. military investigation of how Marine commanders handled the reporting of events last November in the Iraqi town of Haditha, where troops allegedly killed 24 Iraqi civilians, will conclude that some officers gave false information to their superiors, who then failed to adequately scrutinize reports that should have caught their attention. Led by Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell, the investigation has pursued two lines: : not only whether falsehoods were passed up the chain of command, but also whether senior Marine commanders were derelict in their duty to monitor the actions of subordinates. The inquiry is expected to conclude by the end of this week. [WaPo]
  
  
• In a blow to British hopes for an early pullout of troops from Basra, the Iraqi Prime Minister has declared a month-long state of emergency during a trip to Iraq's British-controlled second city, in an attempt to quell increasing violence. The Shia-dominated southern sector of Iraq, where Britain has 7,200 soldiers, has experienced mounting unrest in recent months, with violence being blamed on sectarian rivalry, militias as well as rival tribal groups. [The Independent]
  
  
• Youths in two Paris suburbs threw rocks at police officers and set a dozen cars ablaze overnight Tuesday, in the second night of violence reminiscent of the unrest that swept France in October and November. Much of the violence last year was in areas of high unemployment and poor housing, where youths of immigrant origin complain of discrimination. The center-right government has announced measures to alleviate the problems, but little has changed. [NYTimes]
  
  
• Parts of New Orleans had been sinking much faster than previously thought before Hurricane Katrina hit last August, a study in the Nature journal suggests. It says some very low-lying areas of the US city should not be rebuilt, describing them as "death traps". [BBC]
  
  
• ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson looks into the future via his crystal ball and sees...

  "I'm looking at the world 15 to 20 years out," he said. "That's where I'm living." He said that the mix of energy sources 20 years from now would resemble the mix today.
  [...]
  Exxon has drawn criticism from a several quarters, including Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman, the California Employees' Retirement System and Sierra Club, for doing what they say is too little to develop alternatives to petroleum. [WaPo]

• After years of decline, global concentrations of ozone in a key region of the stratosphere have held steady for the past eight to nine years, according to two new, independent studies. Scientists noted initial signs of this trend three years ago. But these latest efforts benefit from an additional three years of measurements. And they appear to be the first to specifically attribute the changes to the Montreal Protocol, a 1987 international treaty that phased out key chemicals known to destroy ozone.
  
  For David Doniger, the climate-policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, these results indicate that when it comes to the environment, "global treaties work." [Christian Science Monitor]
  
  
• Whatever happened to the Republican Party of Teddy Roosevelt, a political party distinguished by its forward-looking environmental policy? Today, we have the College Republican National Committee (CRNC) urging its 200,000 student members on 1500 campuses to hold beach parties to mock the threat of global warming. If this is representative of the generation that is going to inherit the earth, the earth is in trouble big-time. [Bush Greenwatch]
  
  
• Worst. President. Ever.

  President Bush is the worst president in the last 61 years, according to a new national Quinnipiac poll. Bush is named by 34%, followed by Richard Nixon at 17% and Bill Clinton at 16%. [Political Wire]