ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

August 30, 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.

• State Department warns U.S. travelers about crime in Mexico (10 News)
• Blackwater founder Erik Prince implicated in murder (The Nation)
• Hurricane Harvey: 50 counties flooded, 30,000 people in shelters, 56,000 911 calls in just 15 hours (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Flood insurance premiums plunged before Harvey (AP)
• For Scott Pruitt’s EPA, climate science denial is mission critical: EPA chief is dead wrong about Hurricane Harvey (The Nation)
• Hurricane Harvey and the National Flood Insurance Fiasco (Reason)
• Donald Trump’s cybersecurity advisors resign, warning of ‘insufficient attention to growing threats’ (UK Independent)
• Trump impeachment most popular solution among Americans, poll  (Newsweek)
• Exxon accused by Harvard researchers of misleading the public on climate change (ABC News)
• At least 16 Americans affected by 'incidents' in Cuba: State Dept  (Reuters)
• Trump signs memo directing Pentagon to implement transgender ban (Reuters)

WORLD

• How Acapulco became Mexico’s murder capital (Washington Post)
• North Korea steps up work on parts for new reactor, IAEA says (Reuters)
• ‘A weapon against its neighbors’: former Al Jazeera bureau chief speaks out against network (JPost)
• Haitians Are Crossing from the U.S. to Canada (NPR)
• North Korea's 'reckless' missile launch over Japan sharply escalates tensions  (Reuters)
• Man with knife assaults two police officers outside Buckingham Palace (Reuters)
• 71 die in militant attacks on police, border posts in Myanmar (San Diego Union-Tribune)

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

U.S.

State Department warns U.S. travelers about crime in Mexico (10 News)

The U.S. State Department issued a travel warning Tuesday for popular Mexico tourist destinations due to criminal activity. U.S. citizens have been the victims of violent crimes including homicide, kidnapping, carjacking and robbery, State Department officials said in issuing the warning.

Blackwater founder Erik Prince implicated in murder (The Nation)

A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company’s owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,” and that Prince’s companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.”

Hurricane Harvey: 50 counties flooded, 30,000 people in shelters, 56,000 911 calls in just 15 hours (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Just how bad did Hurricane Harvey devastate Texas? Here's a look by the numbers.

Flood insurance premiums plunged before Harvey (AP)

Houston’s population is growing quickly, but when Harvey hit last weekend there were far fewer homes and other properties in the area with flood insurance than just five years ago, according to an Associated Press investigation….A former head of the federal flood insurance program called the drops “unbelievable” and criticized the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the program.

For Scott Pruitt’s EPA, climate science denial is mission critical: EPA chief is dead wrong about Hurricane Harvey (The Nation)

The human tragedy resulting from Hurricane Harvey is also an environmental crisis—and the Environmental Protection Agency, even as it has been disrupted and diminished by the Trump administration, is playing a crucial role in responding to the flooding that has created dramatic new perils for Texans. Unfortunately, the charlatan who heads the EPA, Scott Pruitt, is spinning discussions about that response to make them fit within the narrow confines of his climate-science denial...

Hurricane Harvey and the National Flood Insurance Fiasco (Reason)

Texans, watch out. An aftershock is following behind the catastrophic flooding produced by Hurricane Harvey in coastal Texas: The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is coming up for reauthorization. The main lesson that the public and policymakers ought to learn from Harvey is: Don't build in flood plains, and especially don't rebuild in flood plains. Unfortunately, the flood insurance program teaches the exact opposite lesson

Donald Trump’s cybersecurity advisors resign, warning of ‘insufficient attention to growing threats’ (UK Independent)

...A quarter of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council's 28 members quit with a joint letter in which they claimed Mr Trump "threatened the security of the homeland".

Trump impeachment is most popular solution among Americans, poll says (Newsweek)

Most people in a new survey said the best response to Donald Trump’s actions while president would be to impeach him or otherwise remove him from office.

Exxon accused by Harvard researchers of misleading the public on climate change (ABC News)

…Mr Supran and Ms Oreskes said as early as 1979, Exxon scientists acknowledged burning fossil fuels was adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and causing global temperatures to rise, but they said the company's position in newspaper ads remained significantly different by consistently asserting doubt about climate science.

At least 16 Americans affected by 'incidents' in Cuba: State Dept  (Reuters)

 Mysterious "incidents" caused physical symptoms in at least 16 Americans linked to the U.S. embassy in Cuba, the State Department said on Thursday, in what media reports have described as an "acoustic attack.”… CBS reported this week that Americans and Canadians working in Cuba had been diagnosed with hearing loss, nausea, headaches and balance disorders and conditions as serious as mild traumatic brain injury and damage to the central nervous system.

Trump signs memo directing Pentagon to implement transgender ban (Reuters)

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a memorandum on Friday that directs the U.S. military not to accept transgender men and women as recruits and halts the use of government funds for sex-reassignment surgeries for active personnel unless the process is already underway.

WORLD

How Acapulco became Mexico’s murder capitol (Washington Post)

The faded resort city is a symbol of the skyrocketing violence in Mexico.

North Korea steps up work on parts for new reactor, IAEA says (Reuters)

North Korea has increased its efforts to produce parts for a new nuclear reactor it is building while continuing to operate the main existing one that provides fuel for its atom bombs, the U.N. nuclear watchdog has said in an annual report on Friday.

‘A weapon against its neighbors’: former Al Jazeera bureau chief speaks out against network (JPost)

 former Al Jazeera English bureau chief in Cairo, who was imprisoned in Egypt, says governments like Israel rightfully take a tough stance against Qatari network due to its unethical methods. 

 Haitians Are Crossing from the U.S. to Canada (NPR)

You can add Canada to the list of countries who are dealing with a migrant crisis. This month alone, over 4,000 asylum seekers have crossed into Canada from the United States. These are numbers large enough that Canadian authorities are being forced to set up refugee camps. These are mostly Haitians who must leave the United States because their temporary protection granted after the 2010 earthquake is about to run out and they don't want to go back to Haiti.

North Korea's 'reckless' missile launch over Japan sharply escalates tensions  (Reuters)

 North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan's northern Hokkaido island into the sea early on Tuesday, prompting warnings for residents to take cover while provoking a sharp reaction from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other leaders.

Man with knife assaults two police officers outside Buckingham Palace (Reuters)

 A man with a "large knife" who assaulted two police officers outside Buckingham Palace on Friday night has been arrested, British police said.

71 die in militant attacks on police, border posts in Myanmar (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Ethnic Rohingya militants in western Myanmar launched overnight attacks on more than two dozen police and border outposts, leaving 12 security personnel and 59 Rohingya dead, the government said Friday, in a dramatic escalation of fighting in the troubled region.