ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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February 8, 2021  (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.

WORLD

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



U.S.

Democrats split over criteria for $1,400 payments as relief bill advances (Washington Post)

Party leaders are newly divided over how to target the next round of stimulus checks as they aim to pass a $1.9 trillion relief package quickly.

Senate eyes speedy Trump impeachment trial (The Hill)

Senators say a historic second impeachment trial for former President Trump could last just a matter of days in what is shaping up to be a speedy process….scheduled to start on Tuesday.But senators are signaling they want to get it over with quickly, suggesting it could last roughly a week. Democrats, while arguing Trump’s trial is necessary, are also focusing their political energy on passing coronavirus relief.

Democrats’ $50,000 student loan forgiveness plan would make 36 million borrowers debt-free (CNBC)

The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and other Democratic legislators on Thursday, reintroduced a resolution again calling on the White House to forgive $50,000 in student debt for all borrowers by executive action.

Was the storming of the US Capitol a coup? An academic group now says yes (Politifact)

the Coup D’etat Project at the University of Illinois’ Cline Center for Advanced Social Research… has decided that the events of Jan. 6 do fit the definition of an "attempted dissident coup." under the group’s taxonomy. The storming of the Capitol "was an attempted coup d’état: an organized, illegal attempt to intervene in the presidential transition by displacing the power of the Congress to certify the election," the center announced on Jan. 27.

Sports leaders seek to protect women's sports while accommodating transgender girls and women USA Today)

…. the group of women’s sports leaders, including tennis legend Martina Navratilova, several Olympic gold medalists and five former presidents of the Women’s Sports Foundation, is asking Congress and the Biden administration to limit the participation of transgender girls and women who “have experienced all or part of male puberty (which is the scientific justification for separate sex sport),” while accommodating and honoring their sports participation in other ways. Options could include separate heats, additional events or divisions and/or the handicapping of results. 

Revealed: US citizen newborns sent to Mexico under Trump-era border ban (Guardian)

At least 11 migrant women sent to Mexico border towns without birth certificates for newborns since last March

Exclusive: Dozens of former Bush officials leave Republican Party, calling it 'Trump cult' (Reuters)



Dozens of Republicans in former President George W. Bush's administration are leaving the party, dismayed by a failure of many elected Republicans to disown Donald Trump after his false claims of election fraud sparked a deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol last month.


 

WORLD

Al-Qaeda's leader in Yemen under arrest: UN report  (MSN)

The leader of Al-Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate has been under arrest for several months, according to a United Nations report released on Thursday. 

Hong Kong unveils national security guidelines for children aged six and above (Reuters)



Hong Kong has unveiled controversial guidelines for schools in the Chinese-ruled city that include teaching students as young as six about colluding with foreign forces and subversion as part of a new national security curriculum... The Education Bureau’s guidelines, released late on Thursday, show that Beijing’s plans for semi-autonomous Hong Kong go beyond quashing dissent, and aim for a societal overhaul to bring its most restive city more in line with the Communist Party-ruled mainland.

Russian court jails Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, West demands his release (Reuters)



A Russian court jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on Tuesday in a ruling which the opposition politician blamed on what he called President Vladimir Putin's hatred and fear of him.

Police find 12 bodies dumped on road in Mexico's Veracruz state (Reuters)

Twelve people believed to be members of a self-defense group were killed in the western Gulf Coast state of Veracruz and their bodies dumped on a dirt road, local authorities said on Monday.

Israel sharing COVID-19 data with Pfizer to help fine-tune vaccine rollout (Reuters)

Israel is giving weekly data updates on its COVID-19 outbreak to vaccine maker Pfizer under a collaboration agreement that may help other countries fine-tune their inoculation campaigns and achieve "herd immunity", officials said.

Vale will pay nearly $7 billion over Brazilian dam collapse that killed 270 people (CNN)

Vale has agreed to pay nearly $7 billion in compensation after a dam collapsed at one of its mines in Brazil two years ago, killing 270 people and causing huge damage to the local environment.  The settlement with the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, which was announced on Thursday, is the largest in the country's history, according to local media.

 

 

 

 

 



 


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