ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

July 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.

• Donald Trump Jr. makes the Russian connection (New York Times editorial board)
• ICE officers told to take actions against all undocumented immigrants (Pro Publica)
• Trump suggested a cyber-security pact with Russia. Lawmakers dumbfounded. (Wash. Post)
• Hobby Lobby agrees to forfeit 5,500 artifacts smuggled out of Iraq (NY Times)
• Trump team met with lawyer linked to Kremlin during campaign (NY Times)
• Republicans call Obamacare a ‘failure.’These 7 charts show they couldn’t be more wrong. (LA Times)
• Activists cry cowardice as Republicans senators shut door to healthcare town halls (Guardian)
• Was election rigged against Sanders? DNC lawsuit demands repayment for donors  (Newsweek)
• Judge Overturns Utah's 'Ag-Gag' Ban on Undercover Filming at Farms (NPR)
• New Rule Opens Credit Card Companies, Banks to Class-Action Suits (NPR)
• Black gun owners ask: Does the Second Amendment apply to us? (CS Monitor)
• 10 Charts That Compare the Relative Strength of the U.S. and Russia (Reason)

WORLD

• Trump says Russia was `satisfied’ with his election-meddling denials (Reuters)
• British Columbia wildfires – 14,000 evacuated as fires spread (BBC)
• ISIS lose last stronghold in Iraq but the militant group lives on (Newsweek)
• Spurned by Trump, China and Mexico talk about a trade deal (CNN)
• 122 countries approve first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons (Time Magazine)
• UN: Gaza 'unliveable' 10 years after Hamas takeover (Reuters)
• Germans angry over 'orgy of violence' at Merkel's pre-election G20 (Reuters)
• Huge crowd rallies in Istanbul against Turkey's post-coup crackdown  (Reuters) 
• International Investigators Targeted by Spyware Sold to Mexican Government (NPR)
• French groups to protest Netanyahu attendance at Paris Holocaust ceremony (Jpost)
• [Beijing just told 340 million Chinese not to criticize Putin on social media (Vox)
• 'UNHRC focusing on Israel, ignoring other countries operating in occupied areas’ (Jpost)

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

U.S.

Donald Trump Jr. makes the Russian connection (New York Times editorial board)

All along, the truth was right there in the emails — Donald Trump Jr.’s emails, that is, which he released publicly on Twitter Tuesday morning after learning that The New York Times was about to publish their contents. In language so blunt and obvious it would make a Hollywood screenwriter blush, the emails confirm what the president, his son and others have denied repeatedly for more than a year: that top members of the Trump campaign met with representatives of the Russian government in the expectation of help in damaging Hillary Clinton and getting Donald Trump elected.

ICE officers told to take actions against all undocumented immigrants encountered while on duty (Pro Publica)

The head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit in charge of deportations has directed his officers to take action against all undocumented immigrants they may cross paths with, regardless of criminal histories. The guidance appears to go beyond the Trump administration’s publicly stated aims, and some advocates say may explain a marked increase in immigration arrests.

Trump suggested a cyber-security pact with Russia. Lawmakers say they were dumbfounded. (Washington Post)

On Sunday morning, President Trump spoke of his new alliance with Russian President Vladimir Putin to erect an “impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded.”… Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) quipped on NBC's “Meet the Press” that Trump's plan was “not the dumbest idea I've ever heard, but it's pretty close.” Graham called Trump “literally the only person I know of who doesn't believe Russia attacked our election in 2016"…Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking on CBS's “Face the Nation,” deadpanned: “I am sure that Vladimir Putin could be of enormous assistance in that effort since he’s doing the hacking.”

Hobby Lobby agrees to forfeit 5,500 artifacts smuggled out of Iraq (NY Times)

…In 2010, as a deal for the tablets was being struck, an expert on cultural property law who had been hired by Hobby Lobby warned company executives that the artifacts might have been looted from historical sites in Iraq, and that failing to determine their heritage could break the law. Despite these words of caution, the prosecutors said, Hobby Lobby bought more than 5,500 artifacts — the tablets and clay talismans and so-called cylinder seals — from an unnamed dealer for $1.6 million in December 2010.

Trump team met with lawyer linked to Kremlin during campaign (NY Times)

Two weeks after Donald J. Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination last year, his eldest son arranged a meeting at Trump Tower in Manhattan with a Russian lawyer who has connections to the Kremlin, according to confidential government records described to The New York Times. The previously unreported meeting was also attended by Mr. Trump’s campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, as well as the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner…While President Trump has been dogged by revelations of undisclosed meetings between his associates and Russians, this episode at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, is the first confirmed private meeting between a Russian national and members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle during the campaign.

Republicans call Obamacare a ‘failure.’ These 7 charts show they couldn’t be more wrong. (LA Times)

… every measure of healthcare spending, access and cost has improved since the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Timothy McBride of Washington University in St. Louis has done the heavy lifting of pulling together the relevant charts and graphs, and posting them online in a series of 12 tweets compiled on Storify. We’ve culled some of the most important, and present them here.

Activists cry cowardice as Republicans senators shut door to healthcare town halls (Guardian)

… The majority of Senate Republicans have so far ducked interactions with the public during recess week – supposedly a time for elected officials to return to their districts and meet with constituents.

Was election rigged against Bernie Sanders? DNC lawsuit demands repayment for campaign donors (Newsweek)

A class action lawsuit alleging the Democratic National Committee worked in conjunction with Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign to keep Bernie Sanders out of the White House has been raging on in the courtrooms for months…Jared Beck, a Harvard Law graduate and one of the several attorneys who filed the suit against the DNC and its former chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz, wants retribution for donations made by supporters to the Vermont senator's campaign, citing six legal claims of the DNC’s deceptive conduct, negligent misrepresentation and fraud. The DNC violated Article 5, Section 4 of its own charter by working with a single campaign to effectively choose who would win the Democratic ballot, the attorneys stated in the suit. 

Judge Overturns Utah's 'Ag-Gag' Ban on Undercover Filming at Farms (NPR)

A federal judge has ruled Utah's ban on secretly filming farm and slaughterhouse operations is unconstitutional, striking down what critics call an "ag-gag” law... The ban violates the First Amendment's free-speech protections, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby said.

New Rule Opens Credit Card Companies, Banks to Class-Action Suits (NPR)

[A new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] regulation, set to take effect in 60 days, would prevent financial institutions from requiring that disputes be settled by arbitration.

Black gun owners ask: Does the Second Amendment apply to us? (CS Monitor)

The National African-American Gun Association has grown from 800 to 20,000 members since 2015.

10 Charts That Compare the Relative Strength of the U.S. and Russia (Reason)

Just how strong is Russia? That is a question that many Americans may be asking themselves in the aftermath of the alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

WORLD

Trump says Russia was `satisfied’ with his election-meddling denials (Reuters)

President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he thought his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had been satisfied with his assertions that Russia had not meddled in the U.S. presidential election.Speaking at the end of a G20 summit in Germany where the two leaders met face-to-face for the first time, Putin said he believed he had been able to establish a personal relationship with Trump, and that the initial groundwork had been laid for an improvement in U.S.-Russian ties.

British Columbia wildfires – 14,000 evacuated as fires spread (BBC)

Some 14,000 people have been evacuated in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) as more firefighters arrive to help fight the flames.

ISIS lose last stronghold in Iraq but the militant group lives on (Newsweek)

Iraqi security forces expect to take full control of Mosul in the coming hours as Islamic State's defensive lines collapse in its former de facto capital in Iraq, state television reported on Saturday.

Spurned by Trump, China and Mexico talk about a trade deal (CNN)

President Trump threatened to slap tariffs on China and Mexico during his campaign. Now the two nations could team up for their own trade deal.

122 countries approve first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons (Time Magazine)

More than 120 countries approved the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons Friday at a U.N. meeting boycotted by all nuclear-armed nations.

UN: Gaza 'unliveable' 10 years after Hamas takeover (Reuters)

"Across the board we're watching de-development in slow motion," Robert Piper, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.  "Every indicator, from energy to water to healthcare to employment to poverty to food insecurity, every indicator is declining. Gazans have been going through this slow motion de-development now for a decade."

Germans angry over 'orgy of violence' at Merkel's pre-election G20 (Reuters)

About 20,000 police struggled to contain several hundred anti-capitalist militants who torched cars, looted shops and hurled Molotov cocktails and stones during the July 7-8 summit. Tens of thousands more people demonstrated peacefully.  Overall, 476 officers suffered injuries ranging from cuts and firework burns to eye damage from laser pointers. Police said on Sunday they had arrested 186 people and took 225 into custody.

Huge crowd rallies in Istanbul against Turkey's post-coup crackdown  (Reuters) 

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Sunday at the culmination of 25-day march that has grown into the biggest protest against a government crackdown following last July's failed military coup.

International Investigators Targeted by Spyware Sold to Mexican Government (NPR)

The Mexican government has been accused of using high-tech software to spy on members of an international commission investigating a mass murder in the country.

French groups to protest Netanyahu attendance at Paris Holocaust ceremony (Jpost)

[The French President invited] Israeli Prime Minister to attend a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the Vel' d'Hiv mass roundup of Parisian Jewry… / According to French website LeMuslimPost, a number of organizations have called on their supporters to protest… / "In what way does this event concern Israel? The state didn't exist at the time [of the Holocaust]," one anti-Israel organization said.

Beijing just told 340 million Chinese not to criticize Putin on social media (Vox)

The Russian president is the first foreign leader to be protected from online criticism in China. / The government’s willingness to make an exception and extend this privilege to Putin reflects the growing affinity between the two countries….

'UNHRC focusing on Israel, ignoring other countries operating in occupied areas’ (Jpost)

The UNHRC has been pushing efforts to boycott businesses that are active in Jewish settlements…A new report points out that the UN's Security Council has been turning a blind eye to the activity of 40 European countries that operate in some of the world's occupied territories.