ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

May 22, 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.

• Trump to Democrats: No deals on infrastructure, drug prices until they drop investigations (USA Today)
• Protests across U.S. on abortion bans (Reuters)
• U.S. placed immigrant children with traffickers, report says (New York Times)
• Morehouse College grads are surprised by a billionaire's promise to pay off their student loans (CNN)
• Judge orders Trump accounting firm to hand over records to Congress (CNN)
• First Republican lawmaker says Trump engaged in impeachable conduct (Reuters)
• Where women call the shots (Washington Post)
• The Trump administration is scrubbing Obamacare from government sites (Wired.com)

WORLD

• Wildfires force nearly 5,000 Canadians out of their homes as firefighters continue to battle growing blazes (CNN)
• Austrian government collapses as far right leader caught in video sting (Reuters)
• Ford will cut 7,000 white-collar jobs worldwide (CNN)
• Japanese manufacturers brace for fallout — and losses — from ongoing U.S.-China trade war (Japan Times)

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

U.S.

Trump to Democrats: No deals on infrastructure, drug prices until they drop investigations (USA Today)

President Donald Trump informed Democratic leaders Wednesday that he wouldn't work with them on shared priorities such as infrastructure and bringing down the cost of prescription drugs unless they abandoned investigations into his presidency.

Protests across U.S. on abortion bans (Reuters)

Thousands of people have taken part in co-ordinated rallies across the United States to protest against several states passing tough laws to restrict abortions. The anti-abortion bills, approved by Republican state legislatures amid a nationwide push for new restrictions by opponents of abortions, are likely to be challenged legally, forcing a ruling by the Supreme Court. Those against abortions hope the court - which now has a Conservative majority following appointments by President Donald Trump - could then overturn the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that established a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.

U.S. placed immigrant children with traffickers, report says (New York Times)

The Department of Health and Human Services placed more than a dozen immigrant children in the custody of human traffickers after it failed to conduct background checks of caregivers, according to a Senate report released on Thursday.

Morehouse College grads are surprised by a billionaire's promise to pay off their student loans (CNN)

Morehouse College seniors got a surprise Sunday when billionaire investor Robert F. Smith announced during his commencement speech that he would pay off the student loan debt for the historically black college's graduating class.

Judge orders Trump accounting firm to hand over records to Congress (CNN)

A federal district judge has told the accounting firm Mazars it will need to turn over Donald Trump's accounting records from before he was President to the Democratic-controlled House Oversight Committee…. asserting that Congress is well within its authority to investigate the President.

First Republican lawmaker says Trump engaged in impeachable conduct (Reuters)

U.S. Representative Justin Amash, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, on Saturday became the first Republican lawmaker to say the president has engaged in impeachable behavior. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election reveals that Trump “engaged in specific actions and a pattern of behavior that meet the threshold for impeachment,” Amash, who has signaled he would consider running as a libertarian against Trump in the 2020 election, wrote on Twitter.

Where women call the shots (Washington Post)

The nation’s first majority-female legislature is currently meeting in Nevada. Carson City may never be the same. 

The Trump administration is scrubbing Obamacare from government sites (Wired.com)

…The report was published Wednesday by the Sunlight Foundation, an open government group whose Web Integrity Project monitors some 30,000 government pages for updates and alterations. Looking at sites administered by the Department for Health and Human Services, it documents 26 instances in which information related to the Affordable Care Act was substantially altered or removed. 

WORLD

Wildfires force nearly 5,000 Canadians out of their homes as firefighters continue to battle growing blazes (CNN)

Nearly 5,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in northern Alberta, Canada to escape a monstrous blaze that has reached 200,000 acres, the province's government said Tuesday.

Austrian government collapses as far right leader caught in video sting (Reuters)

Austria raced on Saturday toward a snap election as Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pulled the plug on his coalition with the far right after its leader was caught on video offering to fix state contracts with a woman posing as a Russian oligarch's niece.

Ford will cut 7,000 white-collar jobs worldwide (CNN)

Ford is cutting 7,000 white-collar jobs, or about 10% of its salaried staff worldwide, as part of a cost-cutting effort it says will save the company about $600 million a year.

Japanese manufacturers brace for fallout — and losses — from ongoing U.S.-China trade war (Japan Times)

The U.S. government has announced a list of some 3,800 items of Chinese products that would be slapped with a tariff increase, including products assembled in China with parts exported from Japan, such as smartphones.