ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

August 15, 2018 (San Diego’s East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen on important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• After disaster alert failures, U.S. moves toward national system (Reuters)
• FBI warns banks about ATM hacking scheme (CNN)
• Do children have a right to literacy? Attorneys testing that question (Washington Post)
• U.S. Farm-Export Prices Drop Most Since 2011 (Bloomberg)
• U.S. House candidates vulnerable to hacks: researchers (Reuters)
• Chinese Song Found on US Voting System, 11-Year Old Hacks Mock FL SoS Website, More News from DEF CON Vote Hack Village (Bradblog)
• Democrats and Young People Prefer Socialism to Capitalism, Poll Finds  (Reason)

WORLD

• Burying ‘One Child’ Limits, China Pushes Women to Have More Babies (New York Times)
• IAF levels Hamas security HQ after Beersheba hit (JPost)
• North Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile program: confidential U.N. report (Reuters)
• Man suspected of terrorism attack on UK parliament after driving into pedestrians (Reuters)
• U.N. says it has credible reports that China holds million Uighurs in secret camps  (Reuters)
• Surprise Taliban Attack Leads To Days Of Fighting, Hundreds Of Deaths (NPR)
• Police fire tear gas as Romanians rally against government  (Reuters)
• From laboratory in far west, China's surveillance state spreads quietly (Reuters)

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

U.S.

After disaster alert failures, U.S. moves toward national system (Reuters)

 Critical failures have prompted a review of disaster alerts in the United States.

FBI warns banks about ATM hacking scheme (CNN)

The threat was reported Sunday by Krebs on Security, a popular cybersecurity blog run by the journalist Brian Krebs. Krebs reported that the scheme is known as an "ATM cash-out," which means the attackers can hack a bank or payment card processor and use stolen information to withdraw large sums of money at ATMs worldwide. His report cited a confidential alert the FBI shared with banks last Friday.

Do children have a right to literacy? Attorneys testing that question (Washington Post)

When Jamarria Hall strode into Osborn High in Detroit his freshman year, the signs of decay were everywhere: buckets in the hallways to catch leaking water, rotting ceiling tiles, vermin that crisscrossed classrooms. In the neglected school, students never got textbooks to take home, and Hall and his classmates went long stretches — sometimes months — with substitute teachers ..Hall was part of a class of Detroit Public Schools students who sued state officials in federal court, arguing that the state had violated their constitutional right to learn to read …

U.S. Farm-Export Prices Drop Most Since 2011 (Bloomberg)

Prices for U.S. farm exports dropped in July by the most in more than six years as a trade war with China heated up, Labor Department figures showed Tuesday.

U.S. House candidates vulnerable to hacks: researchers (Reuters)

 Three of every 10 candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives have significant security problems with their websites, according to a new study by independent researchers that underscores the threat hackers pose to the November elections.  The research was due to be unveiled on Sunday at the annual Def Con security conference….

Chinese Song Found on US Voting System, 11-Year Old Hacks Mock FL SoS Website, More News from DEF CON Vote Hack Village (Bradblog)

… the 26th annual hackers convention, DEF CON, held its 2nd annual Vote Hacking Village. After every voting system on display at last year's event was hacked within minutes by conference attendees, organizers tried to make it a bit more difficult this year. They made unverifiable electronic voting systems, optical-scan paper ballot tabulators and electronic pollbooks from a number of companies --- almost all of which will be in wide use across the country once again for this November's crucial midterms --- available for investigation and penetration. Once again, the hackers in attendance made short order of pretty much all of them.

Democrats and Young People Prefer Socialism to Capitalism, Poll Finds  (Reason)

Americans increasingly view capitalism in a bad light, to the point where more Democrats and young people seem to favor socialism, according to a new poll.

WORLD

Burying ‘One Child’ Limits, China Pushes Women to Have More Babies (New York Times)

Almost three years after easing its “one child” policy and allowing couples to have two children, the government has begun to acknowledge that its efforts to raise the country’s birthrate are faltering because parents are deciding against having more children. / Officials are now scrambling to devise ways to stimulate a baby boom, worried that a looming demographic crisis could imperil economic growth — and undercut the ruling Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping.

IAF levels Hamas security HQ after Beersheba hit (JPost)

Jerusalem Post - Close to 200 mortars and rockets were launched toward southern [Israeli] communities since Wednesday evening, leaving 28 injured….  The sole long-range rocket which flew some 40 km. from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area outside Beersheba shortly after 3 p.m. No damage was incurred, but it heralded an escalation in violence from the coastal enclave. Until now, Gaza’s fire had been directed at bordering communities….  Since the onslaught began Wednesday evening, the IAF has struck more than 100 terror targets, including a tunnel manufacturing plant, and a tunnel intended for warfare

North Korea has not stopped nuclear, missile program: confidential U.N. report (Reuters)

The six-month report by independent experts monitoring the implementation of U.N. sanctions was submitted to the Security Council North Korea sanctions committee late on Friday.

Man suspected of terrorism attack on UK parliament after driving into pedestrians (Reuters)

British police said they believe a man deliberately drove a car into pedestrians and cyclists on Tuesday before ramming it into barriers outside London's parliament in what appeared to be the second terrorism attack on the building in just under 18 months.

U.N. says it has credible reports that China holds million Uighurs in secret camps  (Reuters)

…Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, cited estimates that 2 million Uighurs and Muslim minorities were forced into “political camps for indoctrination” in the western Xinjiang autonomous region.

Surprise Taliban Attack Leads To Days of Fighting, Hundreds of Deaths (NPR)

The Taliban's surprise attack Friday on the city of Ghazni has now killed around 100 members of Afghanistan's police and security forces and between 20 and 30 civilians, Afghan officials said Monday. A U.S. military spokesman told NPR's Diaa Hadid that some 140 Taliban insurgents have also died – meaning the fighting has already cost nearly 300 lives since the Taliban launched its assault.

Police fire tear gas as Romanians rally against government  (Reuters)

 Tens of thousands of protesters rallied against the ruling Social Democrat (PSD) government on Friday in cities across Romania and the capital Bucharest, where riot police scuffled with some and fired tear gas.  The protests were organized and promoted by groups of Romanians working abroad, angry at what they say is entrenched corruption, low wages and attempts by the PSD to weaken the judiciary…

From laboratory in far west, China's surveillance state spreads quietly (Reuters)

Filip Liu, a 31-year-old software developer from Beijing, was traveling in the far western Chinese region of Xinjiang when he was pulled to one side by police as he got off a bus.