ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

May 9, 2024 (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.

• House passes antisemitism bill as Johnson highlights campus protests (CNN)
• The FAA investigates after Boeing says workers in South Carolina falsified 787 inspection records (AP)
• Blinken says US cannot support Rafah assault without humanitarian plan (Reuters)
• Columbia University suspends pro-Palestinian encampments after encampment talks stall (Reuters)
• Columbia sued over safety of Jewish students amid protests (Bloomberg)
• Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog – and goat – in new book (Guardian)
• Judge warns Trump of jail time after finding him in contempt for gag order violation   (The Hill)
• Trump held in contempt for violating gag order in "hush money" trial. Here's why.  (CBS News)
• ProPublica Wins Pulitzer Prize for Supreme Court Coverage  (Pro Publica)

WORLD

• Israel strikes eastern Rafah as US warns a major assault could halt arms (Reuters)
• Ceasefire uncertain; Israel vows to continue Rafah operation (Reuters)
• Iraq criminalises same-sex relationships in new law  (BBC)
• Fentanyl scanners that were sitting idle for lack of federal funds can now be installed at the border to catch smugglers (NBC)
• Germany denounces spate of attacks on politicians recalling 'darkest era' of its history  (Reuters)
• Weary troops stuck on front line as Ukraine struggles to find manpower (BBC)

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

U.S.

House passes antisemitism bill as Johnson highlights campus protests (CNN)

The House voted on Wednesday to pass the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act, a vote that comes amid heightened concerns over antisemitism with Israel at war with Hamas and as pro-Palestinian protests have sprung up on college campuses across the country. Supporters of the legislation say it will help combat antisemitism on college campuses, but opponents say it overreaches and threatens to chill free speech.

The FAA investigates after Boeing says workers in South Carolina falsified 787 inspection records (AP)

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it has opened an investigation into Boeing after the beleaguered The FAA investigates after Boeing says workers in South Carolina falsified 787 inspection records...

Blinken says US cannot support Rafah assault without humanitarian plan (Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday he has still not seen a plan for Israel's planned offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that would protect civilians, repeating that Washington could not support such an assault. Blinken and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem for two-and-a-half hours, after which Israel repeated that the Rafah operation would go ahead despite the U.S. position and a U.N. warning that it would lead to "tragedy".

Columbia University suspends pro-Palestinian encampments after encampment talks stall (Reuters)

 Columbia University on Monday began suspending pro-Palestinian activists who refused to dismantle a tent encampment on its New York City campus after the Ivy League school declared a stalemate in talks seeking to end the polarizing protest.

Columbia sued over safety of Jewish students amid protests (Bloomberg)

 AJewish Columbia University student filed a proposed class action lawsuit against the school Monday, saying it failed to provide “a safe, in-person learning environment.”  The complaint says the pro-Palestinian encampment set up earlier this month at the university has “been the center of round-the-clock harassment of Jewish students, who have been punched, shoved, spat upon, blocked from attending classes and moving freely about campus, and targeted by pro-terrorist hate speech.”

Trump VP contender Kristi Noem writes of killing dog – and goat – in new book (Guardian)

“Cricket was a wirehair pointer, about 14 months old,” the South Dakota governor writes in a new book, adding that the dog, a female, had an “aggressive personality” and needed to be trained to be used for hunting pheasant. What unfolds over the next few pages shows how that effort went very wrong indeed – and, remarkably, how Cricket was not the only domestic animal Noem chose to kill one day in hunting season... Noem, who also represented her state in Congress for eight years, got her gun, then led Cricket to a gravel pit.

Judge warns Trump of jail time after finding him in contempt for gag order violation   (The Hill)

Former President Trump's hush money judge found he violated a gag order a 10th time, giving Trump his sternest warning yet that ...

Trump held in contempt for violating gag order in "hush money" trial. Here's why.  (CBS News)

Judge Juan Merchan said Trump violated the order nine times in recent weeks and fined him  $1,000 for each violation.

ProPublica Wins Pulitzer Prize for Supreme Court Coverage (Pro Publica)

 ProPublica won the prestigious public service Pulitzer Prize for what the judges described as “groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct.”... It is the seventh Pulitzer Prize for ProPublica.

WORLD

Israel strikes eastern Rafah as US warns a major assault could halt arms (Reuters)

Israeli tanks and warplanes bombarded areas of Rafah on Thursday, Palestinian residents said, after U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to withhold weapons from Israel if its forces launch a major invasion of the southern Gaza city.

Ceasefire uncertain; Israel vows to continue Rafah operation (Reuters)

Palestinian militant group Hamas on Monday agreed to a Gaza ceasefire proposal from mediators, but Israel said the terms did not meet its demands and pressed ahead with strikes in Rafah while planning to continue negotiations on a deal. The developments in the seven-month-old war came as Israeli forces struck Rafah on Gaza's southern edge from the air and ground and ordered residents to leave parts of the city, which has been a refuge for more than a million displaced Palestinians.

Iraq criminalises same-sex relationships in new law  (BBC)

Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relationships with jail terms of between 10 and  15 years

Fentanyl scanners that were sitting idle for lack of federal funds can now be installed at the border to catch smugglers (NBC)

Congress approved the necessary funds after NBC News reported the scanners were sitting unused in warehouses because there was no money to install them.

Germany denounces spate of attacks on politicians recalling 'darkest era' of its history  (Reuters)

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and European Union leaders denounced on Saturday a recent spate of attacks on politicians in Germany, including one that sent a member of the European Parliament to hospital with serious injuries.

Weary troops stuck on front line as Ukraine struggles to find manpower (BBC)

Ukraine is outgunned and outmanned by Russian invaders...