ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

November 6, 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.

Impeachment inquiry

• Trump impeachment hearings to go public next week (BBC)
• Sondland becomes 4th witness to confirm quid pro quo between Trump, Ukraine (MSNBC)
• Giuliani associate willing to comply in Trump probe (Reuters)

Other national news

• Democratic sweep in Virginia gives new life to the Equal Rights Amendment (CNN)
• Trump formally pulls out of landmark Paris climate agreement (The Hill)   
• In historic shift, The Salt Lake Tribune gets IRS approval to become a nonprofit (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Trump advisers have a plan for national parks: Amazon, food trucks and no senior discounts (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Smugglers are sawing through new sections of Trump’s border wall (Washington Post)
• Frank Luntz reveals unprecedented findings on how voters view President Trump (Fox News)

WORLD

• Iran fuels centrifuges, resumes uranium enrichment at Fordow (Reuters)
• Indigenous leader who protected rainforest in Brazil ambushed and killed (CNN)
• Slain U.S. citizens were part of Mormon offshoot with sordid history (NBC)
• Protests Greet Spanish King in Secession-Focused Catalonia (Time)

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

U.S.

Impeachment inquiry

Trump impeachment hearings to go public next week (BBC)

Congressional Democrats have announced the first public hearings next week in an inquiry that may seek to remove President Donald Trump from office. Three state department officials will testify first. So far lawmakers from three key House committees have heard from witnesses behind closed doors. 

Sondland becomes 4th witness to confirm quid pro quo between Trump, Ukraine (MSNBC)

According to Sondland's updated testimony, he "now recalls" telling a top aide to President Zelensky "that resumption of the U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement,” a statement committing Ukraine to investigate Trump's political opponents. With his revelation, Sondland has become the fourth witness to affirm a quid pro quo: military aid in exchange for political dirt.

Giuliani associate willing to comply in Trump probe (Reuters)

Lev Parnas, an indicted Ukrainian-American businessman with ties to Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, is now prepared to comply with requests for records and testimony from congressional impeachment investigators, his lawyer said. 

Other national news

Democratic sweep in Virginia gives new life to the Equal Rights Amendment (CNN)

The coming Democratic takeover of the Virginia legislature has cleared the path for the state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, which would ban discrimination on the basis of sex and guarantee equality for women under the Constitution. 

Trump formally pulls out of landmark Paris climate agreement (The Hill)   

President Trump on Monday began the yearlong process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.

In historic shift, The Salt Lake Tribune gets IRS approval to become a nonprofit (Salt Lake Tribune)

The Salt Lake Tribune is now a nonprofit, an unprecedented transformation for a legacy U.S. daily that is intended to bolster its financial prospects during a troubling time for journalism nationwide.

Trump advisers have a plan for national parks: Amazon, food trucks and no senior discounts (San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Trump administration is mulling proposals to further privatize national parks and limit the use of senior passes there, setting off an angry backlash from conservation groups and retirees

Smugglers are sawing through new sections of Trump’s border wall (Washington Post)

Smuggling gangs in Mexico have repeatedly sawed through new sections of President Trump’s border wall in recent months by using commercially available power tools, opening gaps large enough for people and drug loads to pass through, according to U.S. agents and officials with knowledge of the damage.

Frank Luntz reveals unprecedented findings on how voters view President Trump (Fox News)

Author and pollster Frank Luntz said Monday that President Trump's rhetoric is having an effect on voters that he has never observed before. Speaking on Fox News Radio's "Brian Kilmeade Show," Luntz said new focus group research from the past 10 days shows a majority of voters approve of what Trump is doing as president but disapprove of what he says.

WORLD

Iran fuels centrifuges, resumes uranium enrichment at Fordow (Reuters)

Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear facility, the country’s Atomic Energy Organisation (AEOI) said on Thursday, further stepping away from its 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers.

Indigenous leader who protected rainforest in Brazil ambushed and killed (CNN)

An indigenous leader was killed and another was injured when loggers allegedly ambushed them in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhao…The Guajarara are an indigenous tribe that works to protect the rainforest. The group has been continuously threatened by loggers who experts say have taken advantage of reduced controls and less oversight to seize control of forest lands.

Slain U.S. citizens were part of Mormon offshoot with sordid history (NBC)

The nine U.S. citizens who were killed in a brutal ambush by drug cartel gunmen Monday while traveling in Mexico belonged to a Mormon offshoot group that has been touched by cartel violence before… The group was part of the extended LeBaron family, Mormon fundamentalists who first came to Mexico nearly a century ago — when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City started cracking down on members who were still practicing polygamy…Ervil LeBaron, formed his own church that took on a cult following, said Anna LeBaron, who was one of Ervil's 51 children with 13 wives…The cult was disbanded in the early 1990s and her father died in prison in 1981 while serving a life sentence for murder.

Protests Greet Spanish King in Secession-Focused Catalonia (Time)

Violence and the disparaging of others have no place in the dispute over Catalonia’s independence, Spanish King Felipe VI said during a visit with his family to the northeastern region Monday that was greeted with widespread protests. The Spanish monarch has long been the target of fierce criticism by separatists. His speech two years ago calling for Spanish unity after police violently cracked down on those who tried to cast votes in a banned independence referendum angered many and fueled republican sentiment.