ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

August 8, 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

• U.S. Employers Added 164,000 Jobs In July; Unemployment Holds At 3.7%  (NPR)
• Here's where jobs are growing — in one chart (CNBC)
• Landmark INF Treaty Between Washington And Moscow Collapses  (NPR)
• FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat (Yahoo News)
• Mitch McConnell’s obstruction in the spotlight following massacres (CNN)
• 680 undocumented workers arrested in record-setting immigration sweep on the first day of school (CNN)
• Iraqi man dies after Trump administration deportation (Politico)
• ACLU: U.S. has taken nearly 1,000 child migrants from their parents since judge ordered stop to border separations (Washington Post)
• Toni Morrison, first African American female author to win Nobel Prize, is dead at 88 (NBC)

WORLD

• The Arctic's ice sheet is melting at a rapid rate: 11 billion tons in one day (USA Today)
• Putin to Trump: We'll develop new nuclear missiles if you do (Reuters)
• North Korea threatens to take 'new road', launches more missiles (Reuters)
• Saudi Arabian women finally allowed to hold passports and travel independently (CNN) 

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

U.S

U.S. Employers Added 164,000 Jobs In July; Unemployment Holds At 3.7%  (NPR)

The economy is slowing down, but it keeps creating jobs at a healthy pace. Employers added 164,000 jobs last month, as the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7%, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate remains at a nearly 50-year low…The U.S. economy grew at a 2.1% rate in the second quarter, slowing from the 3.1% pace of the first three months of 2019…The slowdown was attributed to weaker business investment and a drop in exports amid the trade war and global economic weakness.

Here's where jobs are growing — in one chart (CNBC)

Several industries showed particularly strong growth in hiring including education, health care, professional and business services.

Landmark INF Treaty Between Washington And Moscow Collapses  (NPR)

A landmark Cold War-era arms control treaty between the United States and Russia officially collapsed on Friday, triggering fears of a new arms race. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned ground-launched cruise missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 km (310-3,400 miles). More than 2,600 missileswere destroyed by 1991. But both sides walked away from the pact Friday, each blaming the other for its demise.

FBI document warns conspiracy theories are a new domestic terrorism threat (Yahoo News)

The FBI for the first time has identified fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorist threat, according to a previously unpublicized document obtained by Yahoo News. (Read the document below.) The FBI intelligence bulletin from the bureau’s Phoenix field office, dated May 30, 2019, describes “conspiracy theory-driven domestic extremists,” as a growing threat, and notes that it is the first such report to do so. It lists a number of arrests, including some that haven’t been publicized, related to violent incidents motivated by fringe beliefs.  

Mitch McConnell’s obstruction in the spotlight following massacres (CNN)

President Donald Trump didn't cite new gun legislation in his public remarks Monday, following the pair of deadly mass shootings over the weekend, and he won't have to worry about any such bills so long as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the proud obstructionist of Capitol Hill, keeps them off the Senate floor. McConnell has for months now been the plug halting nearly every piece of legislation Democrats pass through the House, including gun measures that enjoy bipartisan support. 

680 undocumented workers arrested in record-setting immigration sweep on the first day of school (CNN)

After immigration authorities rounded up hundreds of workers in a massive sweep at seven Mississippi food processing plants, friends and family members are desperately searching for answers. A crowd waited outside a plant in Morton, Mississippi, Thursday morning, hoping authorities would release their loved ones. In this same spot, a day earlier, an 11-year-old girl sobbed and begged an officer for a chance to see her mom as bystanders tried to comfort her.

Iraqi man dies after Trump administration deportation (Politico)

A 41-year-old Detroit man deported to Iraq in June died Tuesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and two people close to the man’s family.  The man, Jimmy Aldaoud, spent most of his life in the U.S., but was swept up in President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement efforts. Edward Bajoka, an immigration attorney who described himself as close to Aldaoud’s family, wrote on Facebook that the death appeared to be linked to the man’s inability to obtain insulin in Baghdad to treat his diabetes.

ACLU: U.S. has taken nearly 1,000 child migrants from their parents since judge ordered stop to border separations (Washington Post)

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union told a federal judge Tuesday that the Trump administration has taken nearly 1,000 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border since the judge ordered the United States government to curtail the practice more than a year ago.

Toni Morrison, first African American female author to win Nobel Prize, is dead at 88 (NBC)

The famed African American writer wrote "Beloved" and "Song of Solomon" among other acclaimed works.

WORLD

The Arctic's ice sheet is melting at a rapid rate: 11 billion tons in one day (USA Today)

Scientists announced Thursday that July equaled, if not surpassed, the hottest month in recorded history. But that was not the only cause for concern. Greenland's ice sheet melted at its most rapid rate so far this summer on Thursday, losing 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean, according to data from the Polar Portal, a website run by Danish polar research institutions, and the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Putin to Trump: We'll develop new nuclear missiles if you do (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Monday that Moscow would start developing short and intermediate-range land-based nuclear missiles if the United States started doing the same after the demise of a landmark arms control treaty.

North Korea threatens to take 'new road', launches more missiles (Reuters)

North Korea fired missiles into the sea off its east coast for the fourth time in less than two weeks, the South Korean military said on Tuesday, as Pyongyang protested that joint U.S.-South Korea military drills violated diplomatic agreements.

Saudi Arabian women finally allowed to hold passports and travel independently (CNN) 

Women in Saudi Arabia are now allowed to hold passports and travel abroad without the consent of a male guardian, a major reform in the highly conservative kingdom.