Midday Roundup: Britain finally joins fight against ISIS in Syria

Keep calm and bomb on. Britain’s parliament voted Wednesday night to join its allies fighting Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in Syria. Prime Minister David Cameron made his case before the House of Commons, winning over a decisive majority that included many opposition Labour Party members: “The question is this: Do we work with our allies to degrade and destroy this threat? And do we go after these terrorists in their heartlands, from where they are plotting to kill British people? Or do we sit back and wait for them to attack us?” he asked lawmakers. Minutes after the vote, British warplanes launched attacks on oilfields helping keep ISIS flush with cash. Britain’s Defense Ministry said the airstrikes targeted parts of the Omar oilfield, which sits just inside Syria’s border with Iraq, necessary for ISIS to extract oil. The country also sent additional warplanes to its base in Cypress. Britain had already conducted bombing raids in Iraq, but had not, until last night, joined the effort in Syria.

Agency in crisis. A bipartisan congressional committee investigating the Secret Service released its report today, calling the presidential protection detail an “agency in crisis.” Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched the investigation after a series of high-profile security breaches that embarrassed the agency and left critics screaming for reform. And those incidents were not one-off lapses, lawmakers found. “The agency’s recent public failures are not a series of isolated events, but the product of an insular culture that has historically been resistant to change,” the report claims. Low staffing levels contribute to the troubles, according to lawmakers, but “systemic mismanagement” also is a problem. Not surprisingly, the report noted, few people want to work for the agency now: “The high attrition rate means that the personnel who remain are significantly overworked, and morale is at an all-time low.”

Back to jail? A South African appeals court has overturned former Olympian Oscar Pistorius’ manslaughter conviction and ordered him sentenced for murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp. The panel of five judges ruled Pistorius must be re-sentenced. He could face up to 15 years in prison. The trial judge gave him a five-year prison term, but he only served one year before getting out on parole. He is now under house arrest at his uncle’s mansion in Pretoria, South Africa. Pistorius claimed he shot Steenkamp after mistaking her for a burglar. The appeals court ruled no matter who he thought was behind the door of his bathroom, Pistorius should have known the shooting likely would result in a death. Prosecutors claim the couple had been fighting and Pistorius shot Steenkamp in a rage.

Weather wrestling match. Negotiators at the climate change conference in Paris are hammering out an agreement after opening speeches by world leaders this week. President Barack Obama said Wednesday that battling climate change means setting standards. But back home, the House passed a resolution requiring the president to get the advice and consent of the Senate before obligating the U.S. to any climate agreement. A second resolution sheds EPA rules that force steep cuts in emissions from coal-powered plants. The president vows to veto the resolutions, and supporters likely don’t have the numbers needed to override a veto.

In memoriam. Sandy Berger, former national security adviser under President Bill Clinton, has died after a battle with cancer. He was 70. Berger served as Clinton’s top foreign policy adviser in 1992 before becoming deputy security adviser and later national security adviser in 1997. He oversaw the response to the al Qaeda bombings of the U.S. Embassies in East Africa and the NATO-led bombing of Kosovo. After leaving office, Berger served as an informal adviser to Hillary Clinton. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for removing classified documents from the National Archives in Washington.

WORLD Radio’s Kristen Eicher, Christina Darnell, and Mary Reichard contributed to this report.