ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

July 8, 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.

• Biden tells congressional Democrats he is "firmly committed" to staying in 2024 race (CBS
• Supreme Court wipes out anti-corruption law that bars officials from taking gifts for past favors (Los Angeles Times)
• How might a rogue president use the US supreme court immunity ruling? (Guardian)
• New $72,000 migrant smuggling routes to the US start with charter flights (Reuters)
• Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, curtailing power of federal agencies (SCOTUS blog)
• Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic abusers owning guns (10 News)
• U.S. home prices have far outpaced paychecks. See what it looks like where you live (NPR)
• Supreme Court opioid case makes it harder to shield wealth in bankruptcy (Washington Post)
• Exclusive: US prosecutors recommend Justice Dept. criminally charge Boeing (Reuters)
• Rudy Giuliani disbarred in New York for efforts to subvert 2020 election (The Hill)
• The Supreme Court rules for Biden administration in a social media dispute with conservative states  (AP)
• Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans  (AP

WORLD

• French voters deliver a win for the left, a blow for Le Pen and a hung parliament (Reuters)
• Fire used as 'weapon of war' in Sudan as entire towns and villages burned to the ground (NBC)
• Britain’s Labour pulled off a thumping election victory with just 34% of the national vote (CNBC)
• Russia wages a scorched-earth war in Ukraine with retrofitted bombs and new airstrips (NPR)
• More than 550 hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as temperatures exceed 50C [125 F] (Guardian)
• Over 20 NATO allies to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense in 2024, says Stoltenberg (Reuters)
• Crossbow attacker wounds a police officer guarding Israel's embassy in Serbia before being shot dead (AP)

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

U.S.

Biden tells congressional Democrats he is "firmly committed" to staying in 2024 race (CBS

President Biden on Monday sent a letter to congressional Democrats saying that he is "firmly committed" to staying in the race and making clear that he wouldn't be running again if he "did not absolutely believe I was the best person to beat Donald Trump in 2024." Mr. Biden also spoke to Democratic donors in a call, saying that he was done talking about the debate...

Supreme Court wipes out anti-corruption law that bars officials from taking gifts for past favors (Los Angeles Times)

The U.S. Supreme Court rules state and local officials may take gifts and payments for steering contracts to grateful patrons. David G. Savage in the Los Angeles Times

How might a rogue president use the US supreme court immunity ruling? (Guardian)

The ruling of the US supreme court in Trump v United States last week establishes that the president has immunity from prosecution for “official acts” taken while in office. The term “official acts” was not defined in the case, leaving it for lower courts ...“The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a scathing dissent. This new official-acts immunity now “lies about like a loaded weapon for any president that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the nation”.

New $72,000 migrant smuggling routes to the US start with charter flights (Reuters)

... The Biden administration has been working with some regional governments as well as travel companies to curb the flow of migrants.  In March, it began revoking U.S. visas for owners and executives of charter airlines and other companies thought to be facilitating smuggling...In May, the administration warned commercial airlines to be on the lookout for passengers who might be intending to migrate illegally to the U.S. Apprehensions on the border in April fell 48% from December...

Supreme Court strikes down Chevron, curtailing power of federal agencies (SCOTUS blog)

In a major ruling, the Supreme Court on Friday cut back sharply on the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer and ruled that courts should rely on their own interpretion of ambiguous laws. The decision will likely have far-reaching effects across the country, from environmental regulation to healthcare costs. By a vote of 6-3, the justices overruled their landmark 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which gave rise to the doctrine known as the Chevron doctrine. Under that doctrine, if Congress has not directly addressed the question at the center of a dispute, a court was required to uphold the agency’s interpretation of the statute as long as it was reasonable.

Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic abusers owning guns (10 News)

The ruling in United States v. Rahimi was an 8-1 decision.  The Supreme Court has upheld a federal ban on domestic abusers owning guns. The decision on Friday stems from the case of United States v. Rahimi, which centers around a federal law that prohibits someone under a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a gun.

U.S. home prices have far outpaced paychecks. See what it looks like where you live (NPR)

Millions of Americans are already shut out of buying a home, and the cost of buying one continues to rise. In past decades, it was common to find a house that cost roughly three times a buyer's annual income. But that ratio has skewed sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic, with home prices up a whopping 47% since early 2020. Median home sales prices last year were about five times the median household income, according to tabulations in a newly released report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, and there are signs it could get worse.

Supreme Court opioid case makes it harder to shield wealth in bankruptcy (Washington Post)

...the ruling will force companies to reconsider their strategies for dealing with a mountain of lawsuits when they want immunity from litigation for related parties, including owners and executives accused of receiving the spoils of improper activities….The decision also adds a fresh wrinkle to a controversial legal strategy, called the Texas two-step...

Exclusive: US prosecutors recommend Justice Dept. criminally charge Boeing (Reuters)

U.S. prosecutors are recommending to senior Justice Department officials that criminal charges be brought against Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab after finding the planemaker violated a settlement related to two fatal crashes, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Rudy Giuliani disbarred in New York for efforts to subvert 2020 election (The Hill)

Rudy Giuliani, who once served as New York City’s mayor and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has been disbarred “effective immediately” for his efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.   A panel of judges…wrote that Giuliani “flagrantly misused” his position as an attorney for former President Trump and his campaign to make “intentionally” false statements to courts, lawmakers and the public. …. The decision cited Giuliani’s false claims of smuggled ballots, dead or non-U.S. citizen voters casting ballots in the election as part of their reasoning. It focused on false claims he made about the election in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

The Supreme Court rules for Biden administration in a social media dispute with conservative states  (AP)

The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with the Biden administration in a dispute with Republican-led states over how far the federal government can go to combat controversial social media posts on topics including COVID-19 and election security. 

Conservative-backed group is creating a list of federal workers it suspects could resist Trump plans  (AP

…a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating scores of federal employees suspected of being hostile to the policies of Republican Donald Trump, an effort that dovetails with broader conservative preparations for a new White House… American Accountability Foundation are digging into the backgrounds, social media posts and commentary of key high-ranking government employees….With a $100,000 grant from the influential Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post 100 names of government workers to a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might be standing in the way of a second-term Trump agenda — and ripe for scrutiny, reclassifications, reassignments or firings.

WORLD

French voters deliver a win for the left, a blow for Le Pen and a hung parliament (Reuters)

France faced potential political deadlock after elections on Sunday threw up a hung parliament, with a leftist alliance unexpectedly taking the top spot but no group winning a majority.Voters delivered a major setback for Marine Le Pen's nationalist, eurosceptic National Rally (RN), which opinion polls had predicted would win the second-round ballot but ended up in the third spot, according to pollsters' projections.

Fire used as 'weapon of war' in Sudan as entire towns and villages burned to the ground (NBC)

More than 50 settlements have burned repeatedly, suggesting “intent” and possible forced displacement.

Britain’s Labour pulled off a thumping election victory with just 34% of the national vote (CNBC)

The U.K.’s Labour Party won a huge parliamentary majority in the country’s general election, but a quirk of the British electoral system means it did so with just 34% of the total votes cast.

Russia wages a scorched-earth war in Ukraine with retrofitted bombs and new airstrips (NPR)

"Their goal is to turn it into a ghost city, to make it so that no one will stay, that there will be nothing to defend, that it will make no sense to defend the city. They want to scare people, but they will not succeed." / Russia has accelerated its destruction of Ukraine's front-line cities in 2024 to a scale previously unseen in the war using the glide bombs and an expanding network of airstrips.

More than 550 hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as temperatures exceed 50C [125 F] (Guardian)

More than 550 hajj pilgrims die in Mecca as temperatures exceed 50C At least 320 of the dead are from Egypt and Saudi officials report treating more than 2,000 people for heat stress.

Over 20 NATO allies to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense in 2024, says Stoltenberg (Reuters)

More than 20 NATO members will meet the alliance's target of allocating at least 2% of GDP to defense this year, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday, highlighting how allies have raised military spending since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Crossbow attacker wounds a police officer guarding Israel's embassy in Serbia before being shot dead (AP)

An attacker with a crossbow wounded a Serbian police officer guarding the Israeli Embassy in Belgrade on Saturday…. Dacic identified the attacker as a 25-year-old Serb who converted to Islam. Police are investigating his possible network and ties with foreign terrorist groups after another person was arrested near the scene of the shooting, he added.