ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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September 19, 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.

WORLD

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

U.S.

Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser wants the FBI to investigate before she testifies Time)

Christine Blasey Ford wants the FBI to investigate her allegation that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before she testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next week, her lawyers said in a letter sent Tuesday to the panel. The lawyers wrote that Ford, who is now a college professor in California, wants to cooperate with the committee. But in the days since she publicly accused Kavanaugh of the assault when they were teens at a party 35 years ago, the lawyers said, she has been the target of “vicious harassment and even death threats.” Her family has relocated, they said.

Former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort agrees to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, pleads guilty to conspiracy charges (CNBC)

… Manafort's plea deal with Mueller dramatically ramps up the legal and political danger already facing Trump, who is being eyed by the special counsel for possible obstruction of justice.

Hurricane Florence, ‘just a Cat 1,’ reveals flaw with Saffir-Simpson scale (Washington Post)

…The central problem with the Saffir-Simpson scale is that — as its full name clearly states — it measures only wind. It doesn’t capture such threats as coastal storm surge and heavy rainfall or say anything about the size of a hurricane.

Middle-class income hit an all-time high last year, US Census says (Jewish World Review)

Middle-class income rose to the highest recorded levels in 2017 and the national poverty rate declined as the benefits of the strong economy lifted the fortunes of more Americans, the U.S. Census reported Wednesday.

Trump is rebuked after questioning number of deaths attributed to Hurricane Maria  (Washington Post)

President Trump drew widespread rebukes Thursday — including from several fellow Republicans — after falsely claiming that the number of deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria had been inflated by Democrats to “make me look as bad as possible.”  In morning tweets, Trump took issue with the findings of a sweeping report released last month by George Washington University that estimated there were 2,975 “excess deaths” in the six months after the storm made landfall in Puerto Rico in September 2017. 

The feds lost—yes lost—1,475 immigrant children (USA Today)

… The Office of Refugee Resettlement reported at the end of 2017 that of the 7,000-plus children placed with sponsored individuals, the agency did not know where 1,475 of them were… A documentary from the PBS program Frontline said that the federal government has actually released some of the minors to human traffickers.

The simple reason more immigrant kids are in custody than ever before (CNN)

A record number of immigrant children are in US custody, and it's likely because the Trump administration's policies are keeping them there. As of this week, there are 12,800 immigrant children being cared for by the Health and Human Services Department. That's the most ever, an HHS spokeswoman confirmed.

Newly Released Eric Holder Memo: Feds Can Use FISA to Spy on Journalists (Reason)

 The federal government can use the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to spy on journalists. So said a pair of 2015 Justice Department memos, including one from then–Attorney General Eric Holder.

U.S. foreign-born population swells to highest in over a century (Reuters)

The number of foreign-born people in the United States grew last year to its highest share in over a century, according to Census Bureau data published on Thursday.  The increase took the number of foreign-born residents to 44.5 million in 2017, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier….  Foreign-born residents made up 13.7 percent of the U.S. population in 2017….  The data also showed that an increasing number of immigrants were Asian or had advanced university degrees, extending a trend that has been in place for over a decade during which immigration from Mexico slowed. The share of immigrants from Mexico fell to 25.3 percent last year…

WORLD

U.S. announces its withdrawal from U.N. Human Rights Council (NPR)

After more than a year of complaints and warnings — some subtle and others a little less so — the Trump administration has announced that the United States is withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council.

State Department to cap admissions of refugees fleeing war, violence and persecution at lowest point ever: 30,000 (USA Today)

The Trump administration will dramatically restrict the number of refugees allowed to resettle in the United States next year — permitting no more than 30,000 people fleeing war, violence and persecution across the globe to make a new home in America. That's down from the 45,000 refugee cap set last year, which was already the lowest since Congress passed the Refugee Act in 1980…The drop immediately drew rebukes from human rights organizations…

'Mariachi musician' gunmen kill three in Mexico City (BBC)

Gunmen dressed as traditional mariachi musicians have killed five people and wounded eight in Mexico City, sending onlookers fleeing.

U.S. will no longer fund peace-building programs for Palestinians (NPR)

The Trump administration has confirmed it will no longer fund peace-building programs for Palestinians and Israelis — including an interfaith youth program and a project for children with disabilities. It's the latest in a series of announcements of the U.S. cutting hundreds of millions of dollars for Palestinians, with the aim of pressuring Palestinian leaders to cooperate with U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal with Israel.

Snowden Validated: European Court Says the Mass Surveillance He Exposed Violates Privacy Rights  (Reason)

Today the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the U.K.'s mass collection of everybody's internet communications data violated privacy and failed to provide sufficient safeguards… By a 5-2 vote the court's judges determined that the U.K. had violated the privacy components of the European Convention of Human Rights.

Chinese official says China is educating, not mistreating, Muslims (Reuters)

 China is not mistreating Muslims in Xinjiang province but is putting some people through training courses to avoid extremism spreading, unlike Europe, which had failed to deal with the problem, a Chinese official told reporters on Thursday.

Anti-Kremlin activist saved by prompt treatment: doctors  (Reuters)

 Anti-Kremlin activist Pyotr Verzilov would probably have died following an apparent poisoning in Moscow last week if he had not received prompt medical treatment, his doctors in Germany said on Tuesday…. Doctors at the hospital said Verzilov was suffering from anti-cholinergic syndrome, a condition in which the passage of certain neurotransmitters is blocked, the sudden onset of which was strongly indicative of poisoning.

A $280 Million U.S. Aid Program Was Supposed To Help 75,000 Afghan Women. It Helped 60. (Reason)

Since 2015, The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent $280 million on a program intended to help tens of thousands of Afghan women enter their country's work force and gain promotions. According to a report from the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the program has helped somewhere between no women and roughly 60.


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