ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

April 24, 2019 (San Diego’s East County) -- East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen on important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Barr releases Mueller's report - and feels the heat (Reuters)
• Trump failed at obstruction because his aides refused to carry out orders, Mueller finds (NBC)
• The impossible challenge of tracking visa overstays  (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Ex-Obama lawyer charged with lying about foreign lobbying after leaving White House (USA Today)
• Airline employee pleads guilty to working as agent for Chinese government (Washington Post)

WORLD

• Notre-Dame blaze: 24 hours that rocked Paris and shocked the world (France 24)
• Evacuation plan saved most of Notre-Dame's treasures: insurance adjuster  (Reuters)
• As Sri Lanka mourns, ISIS claims Easter bombings (AP)
• Peru's ex-president Garcia kills himself to avoid arrest in Odebrecht probe (Reuters)
• Conservative victory in Canada's Alberta may spell trouble for Trudeau  (Reuters)
• Cyclone Idai's death toll rises to 847, hundreds of thousands displaced (Reuters)

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

U.S.

Barr releases Mueller's report - and feels the heat (Reuters)

Attorney General William Barr could have buried Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia report deep in the recesses of the U.S. Justice Department and simply told the public that President Donald Trump would not face criminal prosecution.

Trump failed at obstruction because his aides refused to carry out orders, Mueller finds (NBC)

Had President Donald Trump been left to his own devices, the findings in special counsel Robert Mueller's report released Thursday would have likely been far more damning for him.

Instead, the Mueller report makes clear, Trump's "efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful" — but only "largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests."

The impossible challenge of tracking visa overstays  (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Visa overstays account for an estimated 44 percent of the unauthorized immigrant population in U.S., study shows

Ex-Obama lawyer charged with lying about foreign lobbying after leaving White House (USA Today)

Prosecutors charged Gregory Craig with lying about his work on behalf of Ukraine.

Airline employee pleads guilty to working as agent for Chinese government (Washington Post)

A Queens woman who worked for Air China at John F. Kennedy Airport pleaded guilty Wednesday to acting on behalf of the Chinese government by placing unscreened packages on a flight from New York to Beijing.

WORLD

Notre-Dame blaze: 24 hours that rocked Paris and shocked the world (France 24)

President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday vowed to rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral within five years as France reeled with shock from the fire that raged through the Paris landmark. The spire of the the 12th-century cathedral collapsed Monday night as the blaze ravaged the wooden structure supporting the roof, but the façade and towers were saved along with many of the cathedral’s valuable art works.

Evacuation plan saved most of Notre-Dame's treasures: insurance adjuster  (Reuters)

Some 90 percent of the priceless relics and art works housed within the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral were saved from Monday's devastating fire as contingency plans to evacuate the treasures worked, a leading insurance adjuster said on Wednesday.

As Sri Lanka mourns, ISIS claims Easter bombings (AP)

As the death toll from the Easter bombings in Sri Lanka rose to 321 on Tuesday, the Islamic State group claimed responsibility and released images that purported to show the attackers, while the country’s prime minister warned that several suspects armed with explosives are still at large. Another top government official said the suicide bombings at the churches, hotels and other sites were carried out by Islamic fundamentalists in apparent retaliation for the New Zealand mosque massacres…Islamic State group, which has lost all the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, has made a series of unsupported claims of responsibility…

Peru's ex-president Garcia kills himself to avoid arrest in Odebrecht probe (Reuters)

Peru's former president Alan Garcia shot himself in the head on Wednesday to avoid arrest in connection with alleged bribes from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, taking his own life, in the most dramatic turn yet in Latin America's largest graft scandal.

Conservative victory in Canada's Alberta may spell trouble for Trudeau  (Reuters)

The landslide election win of a right-leaning, pro-energy industry party in Canada's main oil-producing province of Alberta signals momentum may be building against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau months ahead of a federal election in October.

Cyclone Idai's death toll rises to 847, hundreds of thousands displaced (Reuters)

Hundreds of thousands of people are in need of food, water and shelter after Cyclone Idai battered Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.