ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

November 26, 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.

• Farm bankruptcies jump to highest level since 2011 as Trump’s tariffs bite (Business Insider)
• Trump says he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terror organizations (The Hill)
• Exclusive: Giuliani associate willing to tell Congress Nunes met with ex-Ukrainian official to get dirt on Biden (CNN)
• Giuliani is said to be under investigation for Ukraine work (New York Times)
• DNA test shows Hunter Biden is father of Arkansas woman’s baby (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

WORLD

• In squalid Mexico tent city, asylum seekers are growing so desperate they're sending their children over the border alone (Washington Post)
• Netanyahu charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust (CNN)
• Italian Council is flooded immediately after rejecting measures on climate change (CNN)
• Koalas ‘Functionally Extinct’ After Australia Bushfires Destroy 80% Of Their Habitat (Forbes)
• Hong Kong police warn city on ‘brink of total collapse’ (Financial Times)

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

U.S.

Farm bankruptcies jump to highest level since 2011 as Trump’s tariffs bite (Business Insider)

A tit-for-tat tariff dispute between the Trump administration and China has piled on pressure in an already strained Farm Belt, leaving an increasing number of growers unable to stay afloat. 

Trump says he will designate Mexican drug cartels as terror organizations (The Hill)

…Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement later Tuesday that it would seek high-level meeting with State Department officials to address the designation and the flow of money to organized crime, Reuters reported.

Exclusive: Giuliani associate willing to tell Congress Nunes met with ex-Ukrainian official to get dirt on Biden (CNN)

A lawyer for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani tells CNN that his client is willing to tell Congress about meetings the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee had in Vienna last year with a former Ukrainian prosecutor to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden.

Giuliani is said to be under investigation for Ukraine work (New York Times)

Prosecutors are investigating whether the president’s lawyer broke laws meant to prevent covert foreign influence on the government.

DNA test shows Hunter Biden is father of Arkansas woman’s baby (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

DNA testing has established, “with scientific certainty,” that Hunter Biden is the father of an Arkansas baby, according to a motion filed Wednesday in Independence County on behalf of the child’s mother, Lunden Alexis Roberts.

WORLD

In squalid Mexico tent city, asylum seekers are growing so desperate they're sending their children over the border alone (Washington Post)

In the middle of the largest refugee camp on the U.S. border — close enough to Texas that migrants can see an American flag hovering across the Rio Grande — Marili’s children had fallen ill. Josue was 5. Madeline was 3. The small family was huddled together in a nylon camping tent with two blankets last week when the temperature sank to 37 degrees. The children started coughing, Marili said. Then their fingers and toes turned bright red. The camp’s doctor had begun to see cases of frostbite.

Netanyahu charged with bribery, fraud and breach of trust (CNN)

Israel's Attorney General unveiled the charges in three separate corruption cases against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking the first time in Israel's history that a sitting PM faces indictment in criminal investigations.

Italian Council is flooded immediately after rejecting measures on climate change (CNN)

Veneto regional council, which is located on Venice's Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night -- just after it rejected measures to combat climate change.

Koalas ‘Functionally Extinct’ After Australia Bushfires Destroy 80% Of Their Habitat (Forbes)

As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bushfires, koala populations have dwindled along with their habitat, leaving them “functionally extinct.” The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, Deborah Tabart, estimates that over 1,000 koalas have been killed from the fires and that 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed.

Hong Kong police warn city on ‘brink of total collapse’ (Financial Times)

Hong Kong is on the “brink of total collapse”, the territory’s police warned on Tuesday as a second day of violence pushed the five-month crisis towards a new and more dangerous phase. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in the city’s financial district and at university campuses, a day after the shooting by officers of a demonstrator unleashed a fresh wave of violence that continued through the night.