ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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May 11, 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.

WORLD

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

U.S.

New FBI head contradicts White House on Comey (CNN)

Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe disputed Thursday the White House's assertion that FBI employees had lost faith in James Comey, saying the former FBI chief had "broad support" within the agency."I hold Director Comey in the absolute highest regard. I have the highest respect for his considerable abilities and his integrity," McCabe told members of the Senate intelligence committee.

Comey firing ‘worse than Watergate’ says former White House ethics lawyer (Rolling Stone)

An ethics lawyer who served in George W. Bush's White House is calling on Congress to investigate President Trump's abrupt dismissal on Tuesday of FBI Director James Comey.

Trump to appoint ‘voter fraud’ commission  (USA Today)

President Trump is expected to appoint a commission on Thursday to study his unproven allegations of voter fraud in last year's presidential election...Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach will be chairman and vice-chairman of the commission, which is expected to be composed largely of state and local election officials from both parties, officials said

Will Supreme Court rescue Trump’s travel ban?  (USA Today)

 As President Trump's effort to ban some travelers from six predominantly Muslim countries heads to yet another federal appeals court next week, the federal government's lawyers can't be blamed for looking further ahead — to the Supreme Court.

Presence of Russian photographer in Oval office raises alarms (Washington Post)

A photographer for a Russian state-owned news agency was allowed into the Oval Office on Wednesday during President Trump’s meeting with Russian diplomats, a level of access that was criticized by former U.S. intelligence officials as a potential security breach.

Tunnel collapses at Washington nuclear waste plant; no radiation released (Reuters)

 A tunnel partly collapsed on Tuesday at a plutonium-handling facility at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, but there was no indication workers or the public were exposed to radiation, federal officials said.

GOP Congress stiffs workers (Los Angeles Times)

n a remarkable feat of special-interest favoritism, House and Senate Republicans have pushed legislation through Congress to protect Wall Street firms at the expense of their own constituents. The measure, which awaits President Trump’s signature, would rescind an Obama administration ruling that supported state-run retirement savings plans for workers whose employers do not provide one.

Puerto Rico files for bankruptcy protection for public debt (CS Monitor)

The filing comes a day after several major creditors sued the US territory and its governor over defaults on the island's $70 billion in bonds.

Reporter arrested for asking questions (Reporting San Diego)

Veteran reporter for the Public News Service, Dan Hayman, was arrested for asking questions from Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

Forbidden questions:  24 key issues ignored by Washington elite and the media (TruthDig)

Donald Trump’s election has elicited impassioned affirmations of a renewed commitment to unvarnished truth-telling from the prestige media. …If only it were so…To illustrate the point, let me cite some examples of national security issues that presently receive short shrift or are ignored altogether by those parts of the Fourth Estate said to help set the nation’s political agenda. To put it another way: Hey, Big Media, here are two dozen matters to which you’re not giving faintly adequate thought and attention.

Lawmakers blast HHS gag order as harmful to whistleblowers (Govt. Exec.)

In another sign of tension between the Trump administration and congressional protectors of whistleblowers, two key Republican lawmakers have sent the Health and Human Services secretary a warning that a memo from his staff shortchanges the right to disclose wrongdoing to Congress.

WORLD

Marcon decisively defeats Le Pen in French presidential race (New York Times)

Emmanuel Macron, a youthful former investment banker, handily won France’s presidential election on Sunday, defeating the staunch nationalist Marine Le Pen after voters firmly rejected her far-right message and backed his call for centrist change… The outcome was a watershed for Ms. Le Pen’s party, the far-right National Front, giving it new legitimacy even though the results showed that the party remains anathema to much of the French electorate for its history of anti-Semitism, racism and Nazi nostalgia.

Mosul battle will be finished in days: Iraqi army chief (BBC)

… Lt Gen Othman al-Ghanimi told the BBC he hoped the jihadist group would be defeated in the city before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan begins on 26 May. Recent gains in the north meant the remaining militants were being squeezed into an ever smaller area, he added. Mosul fell to IS in 2014 and is its last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

Inside the Ring: China supercomputers threaten U.S. security (Washington Times)

China is eclipsing the United States in developing high-speed supercomputers used to build advanced weapons, and the loss of American leadership in the field poses a threat to U.S. national security. / That's the conclusion of a recent joint National Security Agency-Energy Department study….

Jakarta's Christian Governor Sentenced To 2 Years for Blasphemy (NPR)

The Indonesian court's decision has cheered Muslim conservatives and crushed the hopes of advocates of a more pluralistic and tolerant path for their nation.

What are 5,000 Chinese fighters doing in Syria? (JPost)

Beijing is worried about Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language, fighting alongside ISIS in the war-torn Levant.

 


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