World in Focus: Sputnik’s Daily Current Affairs Program | 11/01/17

Wednesday: As Obama prepares to leave office we look at the legacy he leaves for America; What does Lebanese President Aoun’s visit to Saudi Arabia mean for Saudi-Lebanon relations; and, UK’s mass surveillance legislation faces yet another legal challenge.

Eight years on from Barack Obama’s historic victory, which saw him swept to power on a wave of optimism embodied by the slogan “yes we can”, the outgoing president returned to Chicago for his farewell speech yesterday.  But how did Obama’s presidency fare in reality?  Did it live up to the rhetoric?  And what’s the legacy he leaves for America?
 
Lebanon's president, Michel Aoun, flew to Saudi Arabia this week on his first visit abroad since his October election. But will it spark a change in relations between the two countries?
 
It has been revealed this week that British commandos are training Bahrain’s armed forces on how to use sniper rifles. The revelation has angered human rights campaigners who, along with major organizations such as Amnesty International, have accused the Bahraini military of human rights atrocities committed against pro-democracy protesters in the 2011 Arab Spring.
 
The UK civil rights group, Liberty, has launched a landmark legal challenge to UK Government's recently enacted Investigatory Powers Act, nicknamed the Snoopers' Charter. The legislation was ruled unlawful by the European Court of Justice just last month — we’ll be discussing what this new challenge means, and just how efficient mass surveillance is anyway.

Details of the events leading up to the March 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq have been given by a former CIA analyst who was personally involved with the questioning of Saddam Hussein. We take a closer look at his comments, and ask international jurist Francis Boyle, who led the Kuala Lumpur war crimes trial against Bush and Blair, about the lead up to the invasion.
 
You can find previous editions of World in Focus here.
 
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