ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

October 26, 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.

• Who Is Winning the Election? Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump Polls 10 Days Out (Newsweek)
• Key lines to understand the Kamala Harris town hall on CNN (CNN)
• Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age (New York Times)
• Ghost guns and transgender care: Major cases before US Supreme Court (BBC)
• Life of the Mother: How Abortion Bans Lead to Preventable Deaths (ProPublica)
• Death toll from Hurricane Helene rises to 227 as recovery efforts continue (!0 News)
• Rudy Giuliani ordered to turn over NYC apartment, 26 watches to Georgia election workers  (NPR)

WORLD

• Israel confirms Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza (AP)
• Thousands of North Korean Soldiers Moving to Russia-Ukraine Border (Newsweek)
• In the heartland of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, the old ways have changed and violence rages (AP)
• Israel limited its attack on Iran, hoping to ease tensions for now  (Washington Post)
• Israel bombs Lebanon, Gaza ahead of one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 attacks (Reuters)
• Gazans wonder how to deal with tons of rubble (Reuters)
• Mexican mayor assassinated days after taking office (Reuters)
• This Caribbean nation is preparing for the ravages of climate change by selling citizenship (Washington Post)
• A-bomb survivors use Nobel Peace Prize to share anti-nuke message with the young  (AP)
• Norway introduces temporary border checks after its terror threat level was raised (AP)
• Powerful storm knocks out power to 1.4 million homes in Brazil's largest city  (AP)
• Zelenskiy says North Koreans fighting with Russians in Ukraine (Reuters)

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

U.S.

Who Is Winning the Election? Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump Polls 10 Days Out (Newsweek)

With just 10 days to go before the 2024 presidential election polling suggests the contest is too close to call, with some models pointing towards victory for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris whilst others suggest Donald Trump will secure a second term in the White House.

Key lines to understand the Kamala Harris town hall on CNN (CNN)

Vice President Kamala Harris tried to engage undecided and persuadable voters at a CNN town hall in Delaware County in the key state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday. While she did not offer many details of policy proposals, she did talk about reaching across the political aisle as a way of contrasting herself with former President Donald Trump, who declined to join the town hall. Below are key lines from the event.

Trump’s Speeches, Increasingly Angry and Rambling, Reignite the Question of Age (New York Times)

Former President Donald J. Trump vividly recounted how the audience at his climactic debate with Vice President Kamala Harris was on his side. Except that there was no audience. The debate was held in an empty hall. No one “went crazy,” as Mr. Trump put it, because no one was there. Anyone can misremember, of course. But the debate had been just a week earlier and a fairly memorable moment. And it was hardly the only time Mr. Trump has seemed confused, forgetful, incoherent or disconnected from reality lately. In fact, it happens so often these days that it no longer even generates much attention.

Ghost guns and transgender care: Major cases before US Supreme Court (BBC)

A new nine-month term begins for the US Supreme Court on Monday with major cases that will shape many aspects of American life.

Life of the Mother: How Abortion Bans Lead to Preventable Deaths (ProPublica)

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, doctors warned that women would die, but lawmakers who passed state abortion bans didn’t listen. The worst consequences are now becoming clear.

Death toll from Hurricane Helene rises to 227 as recovery efforts continue (!0 News)

Helene made landfall in Florida on Sept. 26 and killed people in six states as it moved up the East Coast.

Rudy Giuliani ordered to turn over NYC apartment, 26 watches to Georgia election workers  (NPR)

Rudy Giuliani must turn over sports memorabilia and other prized possessions to two Georgia election workers who won a $148 million defamation judgment against him, including his New York City apartment, more than two dozen luxury watches and a 1980 Mercedes once owned by movie star Lauren Bacall, a judge ruled Tuesday.

WORLD

Israel confirms Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza (AP)

Israeli forces in Gaza killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was the man Israel has hunted for more than a year. Sinwar has topped Israel’s most wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war just over a year ago...There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death. The military confirmed Sinwar’s death after conducting DNA tests...

Thousands of North Korean Soldiers Moving to Russia-Ukraine Border (Newsweek)

Some 2,000 North Korean soldiers have completed training in Russia and are being sent to its Western regions near the border with Ukraine, Japan's Kyodo News said on Thursday.

In the heartland of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, the old ways have changed and violence rages (AP)

Cellphone chats have become death sentences in the continuing, bloody factional war inside Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel.  Cartel gunmen stop youths on the street or in their cars and demand their phones. If they find a contact who’s a member of a rival faction, a chat with a wrong word or a photo with the wrong person, the phone owner is dead.  Then, they’ll go after everyone on that person’s contact list, forming a potential chain of kidnapping, torture and death.

Israel limited its attack on Iran, hoping to ease tensions for now  (Washington Post)

Tehran was quick to downplay the damage inflicted by the Israeli strikes...

Israel bombs Lebanon, Gaza ahead of one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 attacks (Reuters)

Israel bombed targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip on Sunday ahead of the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks that sparked its war as Israel's defence minister declared all options were open for retaliation against arch-enemy Iran. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested against Israel's military campaign around the world from Jakarta to Istanbul and Rabat after rallies in major European capitals, Washington and New York on Saturday.

Gazans wonder how to deal with tons of rubble (Reuters)

Gaza's rubble, piled up, would fill the Great Pyramid of Giza 11 times. It is growing daily, and may take more than a decade to clear.

Mexican mayor assassinated days after taking office (Reuters)

The mayor of the capital of Mexico's violence-plagued state of Guerrero was killed on Sunday less than a week after he took office, the state's governor confirmed.  Alejandro Arcos was killed just six days after he took office as mayor of the city of Chilpancingo, a city of around 280,000 people in southwestern Mexico…. WhatsApp depicting a severed head on top of a pick-up truck, appearing to be that of Arcos.  … Guerrero has become one of the deadliest states for aspiring and elected public officials, as well as for journalists. 

This Caribbean nation is preparing for the ravages of climate change by selling citizenship (Washington Post)

Dominica aims to become the world’s most climate-resilient island nation, without taking on dangerous levels of debt or waiting for the money that wealthy nations have so far failed to deliver. Instead, it has turned to wealthy individuals — often in China or the Middle East — who will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege of obtaining Dominican citizenship, and in turn traveling more easily in the West. / Dominica’s program of selling citizenship goes back to the 1990s. But the program — mushrooming in size just before Hurricane Maria struck — has since outgrown the entire domestic tax base, becoming the primary source of national revenue.

A-bomb survivors use Nobel Peace Prize to share anti-nuke message with the young  (AP)

The recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a fast-dwindling group of atomic bomb survivors who are facing down the shrinking time they have left to convey the firsthand horror they witnessed 79 years ago.Nihon Hidankyo, the Japanese organization of survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was awarded for its decadeslong activism against nuclear weapons.  The survivors, known as hibakusha, see the prize and the international attention as their last chance to get their message out to younger generations.

Norway introduces temporary border checks after its terror threat level was raised (AP)

Norway is introducing temporary border checks on its frontiers with other Western European nations after the domestic security agency raised the terror threat level, police said Saturday. / The checks will apply until Oct. 22, according to a police statement.  / It cited “a challenging threat picture” and the Oct. 8 announcement by the security agency, PST, that it was increasing Norway’s threat level from “moderate” to “high,” the second-highest level on a five-tier scale. PST pointed to an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli targets in particular.

Powerful storm knocks out power to 1.4 million homes in Brazil's largest city  (AP)

Around 1.4 million households in Sao Paulo, Brazil, were without power on Saturday almost 24 hours after a brief but powerful storm swept through South America’s largest metropolis. At least seven people were killed.

Zelenskiy says North Koreans fighting with Russians in Ukraine (Reuters)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that defence relationships with his country's partners would have to change in light of North Korean transfers of people as well as weapons to Russian forces in Ukraine.