Addresses United Nations
President Obama addresses the General Assembly of the United Nations. He calls President Assad of Syria is a “tyrant” and urges the international community to work together to defeat ISIS, and that he is prepared to work with Russia and Iran to resolve the conflict.
By [Russia’s] logic we should support tyrants like Bashar al Assad…because the alternative is surely worse….When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people it’s not a matter of one nation’s internal affairs…There is no room for accommodating an apocalyptic cult like ISIL..We must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo.
On the Iran nuclear deal:
For two years, the United States and our partners including Russia, including China…stuck together…That is the strength of the international system when it works the way it should.
White House welcome
Francis is welcomed formally to the U.S. by President Obama. In an English speech he introduces himself as the son of the kind of “immigrant family” on which America was built. He also talks about family values, and climate change:
I would like all men and women of good will in this great nation to support the efforts of the international community to protect the vulnerable in our world and to stimulate integral and inclusive models of development.
Obama:
Holy Father, we are grateful for your invaluable support of our new beginning with the Cuban people, which holds out the promise of better relations between our countries, greater cooperation across our hemisphere, and a better life for the Cuban people.
The president and Pope meet for one-on-one talks in the Oval Office, with the Pope receiving a sculpture of an ascending dove made from metal taken from the Statue of Liberty and wood which once grew in the White House garden.
Women’s rights speech
Obama wraps up visit to Kenya with a speech about discrimination against women.
Every country and every culture has traditions that are unique and help make that country what it is, but just because something is part of your past doesn’t make it right; it doesn’t mean it defines your future. Around the world there is a tradition of oppressing women and treating them differently and not giving them the same opportunities, and husbands beating their wives, and children not being sent to school. Those are traditions. Treating women and girls as second-class citizens. Those are bad traditions. They need to change.
Treating women as second-class citizens is a bad tradition: it holds you back. There’s no excuse for sexual assault or domestic violence, there’s no reason that young girls should suffer genital mutilation, there’s no place in a civilised society for the early or forced marriage of children. These traditions may go back centuries; they have no place in the 21st century.
‘Iranians Are Liars’
Graham criticizes Obama for negotiating with Iran and claims that Iranians are liars in an address to Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
I ran the pool room when I was a kid and I met a lot of liars, and I know the Iranians are liars…The Iranians cheat and they lie. They are a radical regime. They want a master religion for the world; the Nazis wanted a master race.
Addresses Ferguson situation
President Obama addresses the nation and asks for local police to be open and transparent about Brown’s death investigation. Obama criticizes police for detaining two journalists during protests.
Now’s the time for healing. Now’s the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson.