ECM WORLD WATCH: GLOBAL AND NATIONAL NEWS

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May 25, 2016 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

Presidential primary

Other national news

INTERNATIONAL

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

U.S.

Presidential Primary

Donald Trump Is About To Start Getting Intelligence Briefings (NPR)

When it's obvious who the nominees will be, presidential candidates get intelligence briefings. That's about to start.

Hillary Clinton accuses Donald Trump of rooting for housing crisis (Sacramento Bee)

Hillary Clinton, increasingly turning her focus to a general election contest with Republican Donald Trump, on Tuesday accused the New York businessman of rooting for the 2008 housing market collapse so that he could profit from it. “He actually said he was hoping for the crash that caused hardworking families in California and across America to lose their homes,” said Clinton, flanked by laborers at a union hall in Los Angeles County. “All because he thought he could take advantage of it and make some money for himself.”

Trump once revealed his income tax returns: they showed he didn’t pay a cent (Washington Post)

The last time information from Donald Trump’s income-tax returns was made public, the bottom line was striking: He had paid the federal government $0 in income taxes. The disclosure, in a 1981 report by New Jersey gambling regulators, revealed that the wealthy Manhattan investor had for at least two years in the late 1970s taken advantage of a tax-code provision popular with developers that allowed him to report negative income. Today, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Trump regularly denounces corporate executives for using loopholes and “false deductions” to “get away with murder” when it comes to avoiding taxes.

Other national news

Our water, our future: Voters in Oregon defeat Nestle’s attempt to privatize water (Truthout)

Blue yard signs bearing the words "Yes on 14-55: Our Water, Our Future" dotted lawns throughout Hood River County, Oregon, in the run-up to the primary election held on May 17. Just as many of these signs appeared to share a lawn with a Cruz or Trump yard sign as with a Clinton or Sanders sign. The issue that brought conservatives and progressives together in this way was clear-cut: keeping Nestlé Waters North America from building a water bottling plant and extracting over 118 million gallons annually from a spring in a small, rural community 45 miles east of Portland.

Unanimous: Senate approves bill allowing 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia (The Hill)

The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation that would allow victims of the 9/11 terror attacks to sue Saudi Arabia, defying vocal opposition from the White House. The upper chamber approved the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act by unanimous consent…President Obama has threatened to veto the bill. Schumer said he wouldn’t uphold a veto, and expects that most senators wouldn't, either. "I think we easily get the two-thirds override if the president should veto," Schumer said.

GOP blocks provision to require women to register for the draft (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Buckling under conservative pressure, the Republican-led House Rules Committee pulled a legislative sleight of hand and stripped a provision from the annual defense policy bill that would have required women between the ages of 18 and 25 to sign up for a military draft.

Faced with a fracking giant, this small town just legalized civil disobedience (Yes)

A new first-in-the-nation law will shield residents from arrest as they use direct action to stop fracking-wastewater injection wells.

New Pell grants to pay for college classes in high school (CS Monitor)

The Obama administration will spend about $20 million in the 2016-17 school year to help about 10,000 students.

Why the sugar industry hates the FDA’s new nutrition facts label (Washington Post)

For more than two decades, the label had gone unchanged, which, for the most part, food manufacturers seemed to like. Specifically, the industry was content that the label did not reveal the amount of "added sugars" in a product -- the sugar content not present before the food was produced and packaged -- or how much of these added sugars people should consume daily.

Nile crocodiles identified in South Florida (CNN)

…A team of scientists has identified three reptiles captured near Miami as Nile crocodiles, a species native to Africa…Nile crocodiles have a dangerous reputation in their native homeland. Between 2010 and 2014, they were responsible for about 480 attacks on people and 123 fatalities in Africa.

The Controversy Over Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel (NPR)

The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement seeks to pressure Israel to stop building West Bank settlements. Laurie Goodstein of The New York Times explains the latest group to consider BDS.

He Was Caught Trying To Join ISIS, Now He's In Jihadi Rehab (NPR)

A Somali-American, who pleaded guilty to attempting to join the Islamic State, has been approved for America's first jihadi rehab program. His counselor explains the de-radicalization process.

 

INTERNATIONAL

Wait, now Bayer is trying to buy Monsanto?  (Mother Jones)

Global agrichemical giants take a break from killing bugs and weeds and take aim at each other.

Human trafficking survivor who smashed triathlon record (CNN)

… Bastidas ran, biked, and swam from Cancun, Mexico, to Washington DC.…The greatest moment came at the end of her Guinness World Record run, when she was met by cheering crowds of trafficking survivors, who ran alongside her in the final miles to Washington, DC. …Perhaps the most fitting message for everything Norma Bastidas has gone through comes from the one quote attributed to Lao Tzu many people know by heart: "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Gazans say Jordan restricting movement (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Gazans who endured a border blockade by neighboring Egypt and Israel for almost a decade thought they were finally catching a break when Israel slightly eased restrictions on travel from the Hamas-ruled territory in recent months.

"Un-Islamic" modeling leads to eight Instagrammers' arrests in Iran (CS Monitor)

Sterilizing cyberspace is on the Iranian government's agenda, as prosecutors arrested eight women for showing their hair on Instagram. 

The EU Should Be Focusing on Its Own Countries’ Transgender Laws, Not North Carolina’s Bathrooms (Reason)

….Take a handful of major European countries—France, Belgium, and the Czech Republic. In those countries, according to data by Transgender Europe (partly funded as an EU program), in order for the government to legally acknowledge a transgender person's shift in sex, that individual is required by law to get sterilized…. Transgender Europe...have a checklist here showing what sorts of laws exist in different nations that are either helpful or harmful to transgender people.

Sweden: Refugee from Rwanda convicted in 1994 genocide (San Diego Union-Tribune)

A Swedish citizen originally from Rwanda was sentenced to life in prison Monday for his role in the 1994 genocide in the African country.


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