ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

East County News Service

March 22, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• GOP leaders reveal changes to healthcare bill (The Hill)
• What to worry about when you worry about North Korea (Washington Post)
• FBI’s influence probe includes a look at far-right news sites (McClatchy News)
• How to read what Comey said today (LawFare)
• Restored and declassified videos reveal power of Cold War nuclear tests (CBS)
• US ‘women’s strike’ platform calls for ‘decolonization of Palestine’ (JPost)
• Man left undetonated explosive at NYC bus terminal, police say (Reuters)
• Al Qaeda operative guilty in deaths of U.S. servicemen, bomb plot  (Reuters)
• Idaho boy injured, family dog killed by government 'cyanide bomb' (Reuters)

WORLD

• North Korea's Weapons: What It Has, What It Wants (NPR)
• Where are the world’s happiest countries? (CNN)
• Man killed at Paris airport planned to 'die for Allah': prosecutor S (Reuters)
• Fukushima: Japan court finds government liable for nuclear disaster (BBC)
• Amid Massive Tainted-Meat Scandal, Brazil Assures Safety of Its Food Exports (NPR)
• Venezuela threatens to expropriate bakers that don't obey new bread regulations
• Why a New Zealand river now has legal personhood (CS Monitor)
• Inside the Ring: Iran behind Yemeni rebels' explosive boats (Washington Times)

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

U.S.

GOP leaders reveal changes to healthcare bill (The Hill)

… The changes include two measures that conservative Republican Study Committee members won at the White House on Friday: allowing states to require Medicaid recipients to work and allowing states to choose a Medicaid block grant over the cap system in the current bill…. the House changes ... also contain nods to calls from lawmakers to increase tax credits for older people to address projected cost spikes under the GOP bill, without actually making that change. 

What to worry about when you worry about North Korea (Washington Post)

In a remarkable statement last week, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declared that “the political and diplomatic efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to the point of denuclearization have failed.” Shortly afterward, in response to joint military exercises being conducted by the United States and South Korea, the North Korean government held a news conference and declared that “the situation is already on the brink of nuclear war.”

FBI’s influence probe includes a look at far-right news sites (McClatchy News)

Federal investigators are examining whether far-right news sites played any role last year in a Russian cyber operation that dramatically widened the reach of news stories — some fictional — that favored Donald Trump’s presidential bid, two people familiar with the inquiry say. Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton..The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said.

How to read what Comey said today (LawFare)

Today was a bad day for President Trump. Really bad.  Over the weekend, I wrote a short piece about how to understand the testimony FBI Director James Comey was to give today. The bottom line was that: "Comey's communicativeness with the committee—and through it with the public—will almost certainly be inversely proportional to the seriousness of the Russia investigation."

Restored and declassified videos reveal power of Cold War nuclear tests (CBS)

In the thick of Cold War tensions from 1945 to 1962, the United States carried out a whopping 210 atmospheric nuclear tests, with multiple cameras filming each test from different angles.

US ‘women’s strike’ platform calls for ‘decolonization of Palestine’ (JPost)

The platform for a strike to support feminism and women’s rights drew criticism from some over its call “for the decolonization of Palestine”…Shire also criticized the strike for the involvement of Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian woman convicted and sentenced by an Israeli military court in 1970 to life in prison for two bombing attacks, including one in 1969 that killed two Israelis.

Man left undetonated explosive at NYC bus terminal, police say (Reuters)

 Police arrested a man after he left a crude explosive device in a briefcase during rush hour at a busy New York City bus terminal, according to a criminal complaint filed on Thursday. The device did not detonate.

Al Qaeda operative guilty in deaths of U.S. servicemen, bomb plot  (Reuters)

 A Saudi Arabia-born man was convicted on Thursday of participating in a 2003 attack in Afghanistan that killed two U.S. servicemen and plotting to bomb a U.S. embassy in West Africa, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said. / A jury found Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, known by the nom de guerre Spin Ghul, guilty of all counts after only two hours of deliberations. He faces life in prison at his sentencing.

Idaho boy injured, family dog killed by government 'cyanide bomb' (Reuters)

A "cyanide bomb" planted by U.S. predator-control agents targeting coyotes near homes and hiking trails in Idaho exploded when a boy handled the device, injuring him and killing his dog, authorities and relatives said on Friday.

WORLD

North Korea's Weapons: What It Has, What It Wants (NPR)

The threat of North Korea's growing nuclear capability is in the spotlight. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Robert Litwak of the Woodrow Wilson Center about exactly what those nuclear capabilities are.

Where are the world’s happiest countries? (CNN)

These cold European countries are the world's happiest nations.

Man killed at Paris airport planned to 'die for Allah': prosecutor S (Reuters)

 A man shot dead by French soldiers at Paris Orly airport on Saturday shouted he was there to "die for Allah" and tried to seize a soldier's assault rifle, apparently intending to open fire on passengers…. The attacker... threw down a bag containing a can of petrol and seized hold of a woman air force member who was part of a military patrol at the airport… More than 230 people have died in France in the past two years at the hands of attackers allied to the militant Islamist group Islamic State….

Fukushima: Japan court finds government liable for nuclear disaster (BBC)

A Japanese court has ruled for the first time that the government bears partial responsibility for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. It ruled that the disaster could have been averted if government regulators had ordered plant operator Tepco to take preventive safety measures.  The government and Tepco were both ordered to compensate the evacuees…. 

Amid Massive Tainted-Meat Scandal, Brazil Assures Safety of Its Food Exports (NPR)

The country's federal police say that health officials were bribed to ignore outdated and adulterated meat. The European Commission has suspended imports from companies implicated in the allegations.  The scandal has significant economic implications: Brazil is one of the world's biggest meat exporters, generating some $12 billion in annual export revenues and selling to around 150 countries.

Venezuela threatens to expropriate bakers that don't obey new bread regulations

The new regulations, which come on top of existing price controls and foreign exchange controls, require that 90 percent of flour must be used to bake bread and only 10 percent can be used for pastries and cakes.  

 Why a New Zealand river now has legal personhood (CS Monitor)

The new person status for the river is the result of a settlement between the government of New Zealand and the Māori people, whose culture has a deep connection with the body of water.

Inside the Ring: Iran behind Yemeni rebels' explosive boats (Washington Times)

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels working to take power in Yemen are using a new weapon that is raising fears of seaborne attacks on both military and commercial shipping in the region. The weapon is an Iranian-designed remotely piloted small boat filled with explosives, a defense official told Inside the Ring.