ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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July 5, 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.

General news

Trump-Russia investigation

WORLD

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

U.S.

General news

5 changes GOP might make to healthcare bill (The Hill)

Senate Republican leaders are laboring to secure 50 votes for an ObamaCare repeal bill after being forced to delay the legislation before the July Fourth recess...Every tweak would have consequences, but here are five changes that could be made to the bill.

How Congress is taking back power from Trump on national security (CNN)

In ways big and small, Congress is taking back power from President Donald Trump on national security matters. From Russia to the Pentagon budget, Republicans in Congress are proposing new checks to curb the White House's power and in some cases simply ignoring the Trump administration's desires on national security and foreign policy.

Why the Koch brothers want to kill an obscure Senate rule to help shape the federal courts (USA Today)

The influential donor network tied to billionaire Charles Koch is taking aim at a longstanding Senate tradition that allows Democratic senators to block judicial nominees from their states, as conservatives race to seize on one-party control of Washington to rapidly reshape the federal judiciary. Their target: The “blue-slip” process, which keeps judicial nominees from moving forward in Senate confirmation if a home-state senator raises an objection.

Hawaii files court challenge to part of Trump travel ban (The Hill)

…Currently, administration guidelines say that travelers from the affected countries can only come into the U.S. to visit spouses, parents, children, siblings or sons- and daughters-in-law. Hawaii's challenge seeks to expand the exemptions to include "fiancés, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins of people currently living in the United States."  “In Hawaii, ‘close family’ includes many of the people that the federal government decided on its own to exclude from that definition," Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin said…”Unfortunately, this severely limited definition may be in violation of the Supreme Court ruling.”

Court halts EPA rollback of methane rules (Houston Chronicle)

A federal appeals court on Monday dealt a blow to the Trump administration's bid to cast aside environmental regulations that restrict the energy industry, ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency cannot delay an Obama-era rule limiting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.

Trump could face trial for alleged university fraud (Newsweek, via San Diego Jewish Times)

Donald Trump may have settled a lawsuit over his Trump University seminar program, but the case into the alleged fraud is far from over. Indeed, a lawyer representing one of the plaintiffs, who has refused to accept the $25 million settlement Trump made shortly after his election victory last November, has said that it’s a very “real possibility” that the president could go on trial.

Chris Christie caught sunbathing after closing all state beaches over July 4th weekend (Vanity Fair)

America’s least popular governor makes a bid for infamy. Thousands of people found themselves locked out of New Jersey’s state-run parks and beaches over the July Fourth weekend after America’s least-popular governor, Chris Christie, ordered a government shutdown Saturday morning over a budget standoff with the state Assembly. … Christie, in a bit of stunningly poor optics, has apparently been sunbathing with his family—enjoying having the entire island to himself…

This woman’s name appears on the Declaration of Independence. So why don’t we know her story? (Washington Post)

This Fourth of July, look closely at one of those printed copies of the Declaration of Independence. See it? The woman’s name at the bottom? .. Mary Katharine Goddard. If you’ve never noticed it or heard of her, you aren’t alone. She’s a Founding Mother, of sorts, yet few folks know about her. And some of America’s earliest bureaucrats did their best to shut her down…Goddard was fearless her entire career as one of America’s first female publishers, printing scoops from Revolutionary War battles from Concord to Bunker Hill and continuing to publish after her offices were twice raided and her life was repeatedly threatened by haters.

Trump-Russia investigation

Now we have a roadmap to the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia (New York Magazine)

Most of the commentary surrounding the Russia scandal has treated the possibility that Donald Trump’s campaign deliberately colluded with Moscow as remote, unfounded speculation. The new reporting that has broken this weekend suggests instead that this collusion likely did take place.

NSA Director frustrated Trump won’t accept that Russia interfered in election (The Hill)

…National Security Agency (NSA) Director Mike Rogers is frustrated that he has not yet convinced President Trump that U.S. intelligence indicates Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, CNN reported Wednesday. Rogers vented frustration over his fruitless efforts to lawmakers during a recent closed-door briefing on Capitol Hill, a congressional source familiar with the meeting told the news network.  The NSA director also reportedly said the White House lacked focus about the continued threat of the Kremlin's cyber efforts, especially regarding voting systems in the U.S., another congressional source said.

The time I got recruited to collude with the Russians (Lawfare)

I read the Wall Street Journal’s article yesterday on attempts by a GOP operative to recover missing Hillary Clinton emails with more than usual interest. I was involved in the events that reporter Shane Harris described, and I was an unnamed source for the initial story.

WORLD

North Korea missile launch marks a direct challenge to Trump administration (Washington Post)

North Korea’s latest test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile marks a direct challenge to President Trump, whose tough talk has yet to yield any change in Pyongyang’s behavior as the regime continues its efforts to build a nuclear weapon capable of striking the mainland United States. The missile — launched … late Monday in the United States — flew higher and remained in the air longer than previous attempts, enough to reach all of Alaska, experts said.

North Korea says its ICBM can carry nuclear warhead; U.S. calls for global action (Reuters)

North Korea said on Wednesday its newly developed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) can carry a large nuclear warhead, triggering a call by Washington for global action to hold it accountable for pursuing nuclear weapons

Police seizes servers of Ukrainian software firm after cyber attack (Reuters)

Ukrainian police on Tuesday seized the servers of an accounting software firm suspected of spreading a malware virus which crippled computer systems at major companies around the world last week, a senior police official said.

The memo:  Trump faces high stakes meeting with Putin (The Hill)

President Trump will be playing for high stakes when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, later this week. The encounter between the two men, the first since Trump became president, will be closely scrutinized in light of the allegations of Russian meddling in last year’s U.S. election — and because of the ongoing probes into whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. But it is far from certain that Trump will even bring up the issue of Russian interference.

Germany passes censorship law to fight online hate speech (CS Monitor)

German lawmakers approved a bill on Friday aimed at cracking down on hate speech on social networks, which critics say could have drastic consequences for free speech online. The measure approved is designed to enforce the country's existing limits on speech, including the long-standing ban on Holocaust denial. Among other things, it would fine social networking sites up to 50 million euros ($56 million) if they persistently fail to remove illegal content within a week, including defamatory "fake news."

Improving ties between Egypt and Hamas unsettle Palestinian politics (Reuters) 

A series of meetings between Hamas and senior officials in Cairo in recent weeks points to improving ties between Egypt and the Islamist Palestinian movement, with implications for Gaza, Palestinian politics and the wider region.

Palestinian Authority lays off 6,145 of its Gaza employees (JPost)

The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday forced 6,145 of its civil employees in the Gaza Strip into early retirement, as a part of measures to pressure Hamas to concede control over the territory, a PA government spokesman said.  Over the past two months, the PA has slashed the salaries of its employees in Gaza, reduced electricity to the area, and cut medical budgets.

Venezuelan lawmakers beaten, besieged in latest violence (Reuters)

Pipe-wielding government supporters burst into Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress on Wednesday, witnesses said, attacking and besieging lawmakers in the latest flare-up of violence during a political crisis.


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