ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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February 9,  2023 (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.

WORLD

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

U.S.

Video of President Biden’s State of the Union speech: (C-Span)

C-Spans coverage of the President’s 2023 State of the Union speech, followed by the Republican response.

The biggest moments from Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address (Time)

Speaking before Congress for the first time after Republicans captured the House majority, President Joe Biden celebrated how far the nation’s economy has come since high inflation peaked last summer and called on congressional Republicans to work with him on immigration, guns, abortion, and other issues… The President’s speech before a politically divided Congress comes as the nation grapples with complex domestic and international issues, including economic instability, a standoff over raising the debt limit, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and escalating tensions with China. Biden offered a reassuring assessment of the nation’s current state as it emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic with its lowest unemployment rate since 1969. The economy created 12.1 million jobs between January 2021, when Biden took office, and this January—to which Biden remarked that more jobs were created in two years than under any previous President during a four-year term.

Former top FBI counterintelligence agent Charles McGonigal charged with violating Russia sanctions  (CNBC)

The former top FBI agent for counterintelligence in New York has been charged with a former Soviet diplomat with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia by providing services to the oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Charles McGonigal also was charged Monday in Washington in connection with accepting $225,000 in cash — while working at the FBI — from a former employee of a foreign intelligence service.

Republicans' plans to slash Social Security and Medicare are becoming clearer: 'We have no choice but to make hard decisions' (Yahoo News)

After being evasive about their plans for entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare in the months leading up to midterms, the House GOP has begun to confirm its intention to cut spending on both. That's according to The Washington Post's Tony Romm, who reported that Republican lawmakers are willing to use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in order to get the Biden administration to cave on spending cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Failing to raise the debt ceiling by the summer could cause the US to default on its debt for the first time in history, the consequences of which would be dire.

2022 military intelligence report mentioned Trump-era balloon sightings: report (The Hill)

A 2022 military intelligence report mentioned sightings of high-altitude Chinese balloons during the Trump administration, CNN reported Monday. ..

The report from last April, entitled “People’s Republic of China High-Altitude Balloon,” stated that a Chinese surveillance balloon circumnavigated the world in 2019, during the Trump administration, and went past Hawaii and Florida in the process…a U.S. senior defense official said last week that spy balloons belonging to the Chinese government crossed over U.S. territory briefly at least three times during the Trump administration.  

Blinken postpones China trip after discovery of surveillance balloon (NPR)

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to China after the discovery of what the Pentagon alleges to be a Chinese surveillance balloon. China's government says it's a weather balloon.

Oath keepers members found guilty of seditious conspiracy (CNN)

Three members of the Oath Keepers and a fourth person associated with the far-right militia group were convicted of seditious conspiracy by a Washington, DC, jury on Monday for their role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection.  The four men – Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo – were accused of plotting to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral college victory, a conspiracy that culminated in the attack on the US Capitol.

US reunites nearly 700 kids taken from parents under Trump (ABC)

A Biden administration task force designed to reunite children separated from their families during President Trump's presidency has reconnected nearly 700 children with their families, officials said Thursday. President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office to reunite families that were split up under the Trump administration’s widely condemned practice of forcibly separating parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border to discourage illegal immigration.

Police warn that torture suspect is using dating apps (AP)

A man accused of torturing a woman he held captive in Oregon, and who was convicted in Nevada of keeping another woman in captivity, is using dating apps to find people who can help him avoid the police or to find new victims, authorities said Friday.

Federal appeals court strikes down domestic violence gun law (KPBS)

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that the government can't stop people who have domestic violence restraining orders against them from owning guns....

Classified documents found at Pence’s home (CNN)

 A lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Yo-yo car sales ensnare buyers in bad deals. Will the FTC crack down on dealers? (NPR)

...odds are good that in the paperwork you signed when you bought your own car, there was some legal language saying the sale may not really be final. It often asserts that if the car dealer has trouble with the financing on its end after the sale, it can later cancel the deal, try to get you to agree to different terms, and take the car back if you refuse. … NPR has found that this happens regularly around the country — sometimes with painful consequences, such as losing your car or even getting arrested — and that tougher rules for car dealers can make a difference. All this is especially relevant right now, as the Federal Trade Commission is in the midst of drafting new rules for dealers.

WORLD

More than 3,800 killed in Turkey, Syria after powerful earthquake and aftershocks (Washingotn Post)

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in southern Turkey early Monday killed more than 3,600 people there and in neighboring Syria, officials said, as rescuers searched flattened buildings in frigid weather for survivors. The earthquake — felt as far away as Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Egypt — occurred in Kahramanmaras province, north of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.

Chinese spy balloons under Trump not discovered until after Biden took office (CNN)

The transiting of three suspected Chinese spy balloons over the continental US during the Trump administration was only discovered after President Joe Biden took office, a senior administration official told CNN on Sunday…CNN reported on Sunday that the Pentagon had briefed Congress of previous Chinese surveillance balloons during the Trump administration that flew near Texas and Florid

Iran acknowledges it has detained 'tens of thousands' in recent protests (NPR)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday reportedly ordered an amnesty or reduction in prison sentences for "tens of thousands" of people detained amid nationwide anti-government protests shaking the country, acknowledging for the first time the scale of the crackdown.

AP interview: Pope says homosexuality is not a crime (AP)

Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

Brazil Wants to Abandon a 34,000-Ton Ship at Sea. It Would be an Environmental Disaster (Time)

Somewhere in the South Atlantic ocean right now, a 34,000-ton, 870-ft. aircraft carrier is floating aimlessly on the waves. The vessel, caught in an international dispute over its toxic contents, is about to become one of the biggest pieces of trash in the ocean.

 

 


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