ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

May 30, 2019 (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 a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Mueller says his investigation did not exonerate Trump (Los Angeles Times)
• Trump bypasses Congress to push through arms sales to Saudis, UAE (NBC News)
• Rolling Thunder is on its final ride in Washington (Washington Post)
• Thousands of immigrants forced into solitary confinement by ICE (NBC)
• Federal court: First amendment protects sharing food with homeless people (Forbes)
• Trump Administration Separates Some Migrant Mothers From Their Newborns Before Returning Them to Detention (Rewire)
• “American soil” is increasingly foreign owned (NPR)
• Number Of Asylum Seekers At Border Higher Than Previous Estimates, New Research Says (KPBS)

WORLD

• Tearful May resigns, paving way for Brexit confrontation with EU (Reuters)
• Factbox: How will Britain's Conservative Party choose PM May's successor? (Reuters)
• UK ever more polarized as Brexit Party storms to EU vote win (Reuters)
• Japan to limit foreign ownership of firms in its IT, telecom sectors (Reuters)
• French police hunt suitcase bomber after blast in Lyon (Reuters)
• German antisemitism officer: Don’t wear kippot in public (JPost)
• Record number of women set to enter India parliament (Reuters)
• Angola bans Islam and shuts down all mosques (International Business Times)
• Soldiers held hostage, villagers killed: the untold story of Venezuelan aid violence (Reuters)

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

U.S.

Mueller says his investigation did not exonerate Trump (Los Angeles Times)

…Mueller said Justice Department guidelines prevented indicting a sitting president, a remark that suggested it was the rules, not the lack of evidence, that spared Trump from criminal charges..“If we had confidence that the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller declared …As for Russia’s intervention in the 2016 campaign …“There were multiple systematic efforts to interfere in our [2016] election,” Mueller said. “And that allegation deserves the attention of every American.” Mueller, 74, also announced that he was resigning as special counsel and would return to private life…

Trump bypasses Congress to push through arms sales to Saudis, UAE (NBC News)

Lawmakers from both parties criticized the move, with Democrats calling it an abuse of presidential power.

Rolling Thunder is on its final ride in Washington (Washington Post)

Rolling Thunder — the Memorial Day weekend tradition that brings hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists to Washington — is on its final ride. …Waning attendance, falling revenue and frustration over security demands at the Pentagon contributed to the organizers’ decision to abandon Washington as the primary locale for Rolling Thunder’s ride…

Thousands of immigrants forced into solitary confinement by ICE (NBC)

Watch NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez join Chris Jansing with his exclusive report about the thousands of immigrants that have been forced into solitary confinement by ICE – not for breaking any rules, but for being physically disabled or gay.

Federal court: First amendment protects sharing food with homeless people (Forbes)

In a colorful decision that managed to invoke the Boston Tea Party, Lady Macbeth and Jesus of Nazareth, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that feeding the homeless is “expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.” The decision revives a challenge brought by a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, which sued Fort Lauderdale, Florida for requiring a permit to share food in public parks.

Trump Administration Separates Some Migrant Mothers From Their Newborns Before Returning Them to Detention (Rewire)

Advocates told Rewire.News pregnant migrants detained in USMS custody are not receiving adequate services …Some women are even shackled during birth…some asylum seekers in the Western District of Texas who have given birth in USMS custody were forced to hand over their newborns to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)…t Rewire.News was unable to verify what happens to the children of women who do not have access to legal help.

“American soil” is increasingly foreign owned (NPR)

…today nearly 30 million acres of U.S. farmland are held by foreign investors. That number has doubled in the past two decades, which is raising alarm bells in farming communities. When the stock market tanked during the past recession, foreign investors began buying up big swaths of U.S. farmland. And because there are no federal restrictions on the amount of land that can be foreign owned, it's been left up to individual states to decide on any limitations.

Number Of Asylum Seekers At Border Higher Than Previous Estimates, New Research Says (KPBS)

The number of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border could be closer to 19,000, according to a new analysis from UC San Diego and the University of Texas at Austin.

WORLD

Tearful May resigns, paving way for Brexit confrontation with EU (Reuters)

Fighting back tears, Theresa May said on Friday she would quit, setting up a contest that will install a new British prime minister who could pursue a cleaner break with the European Union.

Factbox: How will Britain's Conservative Party choose PM May's successor? (Reuters)

Reuters - Britain's Theresa May said on Friday she would quit, setting up a contest that will bring a new prime minister to power who could pursue a cleaner break with the European Union.

UK ever more polarized as Brexit Party storms to EU vote win (Reuters)

Reuters - Nigel Farage's Brexit Party stormed to victory in a European election, riding a wave of anger at the failure of Prime Minister Theresa May to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union.

Japan to limit foreign ownership of firms in its IT, telecom sectors (Reuters)

Reuters - Japan's government said on Monday that high-tech industries will be added to a list of businesses for which foreign ownership of Japanese firms is restricted.

French police hunt suitcase bomber after blast in Lyon (Reuters)

Reuters - French police were hunting a suspected suitcase bomber on Friday after an explosion in the central city of Lyon that injured 13 people, officials said.

German antisemitism officer: Don’t wear kippot in public (JPost)

Jerusalem post - In a dramatic announcement, the German government’s commissioner to combat anti-semitism, Felix Klein, said on Saturday that the country’s Jewish community should avoid wearing kippot in public because of rising anti-semitism.  Klein is the first federal government representative to declare that Jews cannot practice their religion in public spaces because of the danger in Germany. 

Record number of women set to enter India parliament (Reuters)

Reuters - A record number of women are set to enter India's parliament after a marathon election that returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power, initial results showed on Friday.

Angola bans Islam and shuts down all mosques (International Business Times)

…The minister called Islam a "sect" which would be banned as counter to Angolan customs and culture.  Following the ban, there were unconfirmed reports that mosques across the vast southern African nation were being destroyed. "This is the final end of Islamic influence in our country," President Jose Edurado dos Santos told the Osun Defence daily.

Soldiers held hostage, villagers killed: the untold story of Venezuelan aid violence (Reuters)

At dawn on February 22, as Venezuela's opposition was preparing to bring humanitarian aid into the country, a convoy of military vehicles drove into the indigenous village of Kumarakapay...