ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

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February 18, 2022 (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.

Supreme Court will weigh Biden’s bid to scrap ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy (Los Angeles Times)

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear an appeal from President Biden and decide whether he may end the Trump administration’s policy of requiring migrants seeking asylum to wait on the Mexican side of the border until their cases can be heard.

Donald Trump Has to Face Jan. 6 Claims Holding Him Civilly Liable: Judge (Newsweek)

A judge has ruled that former President Donald Trump must face civil claims attempting to hold him liable for his role in the violent January 6 Capitol protests. The former president aimed to have the case dismissed, but his motion was denied. A ruling by the judge dismissed Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani from the case but left in Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio.

The Fed is setting out to kill inflation. Brace for collateral damage. (Politico)

Calls for the Fed to act quickly to raise rates from their historically low levels have reached a fever pitch following last week’s report that inflation jumped 7.5 percent over the last year, a four-decade high.

White House warns of the extensive sanctions Russia could face if it invades Ukraine (CNN)

A White House official warned of the sanctions Russia could face for an invasion of Ukraine, telling reporters Friday that the administration is in the process of “converging on the final package,” which contains “the most severe measures we’ve ever contemplated against Russia.”

Keep track of your Venmo, PayPal and other payment app transactions in case the IRS comes asking (Washington Post)

You are going to have to report revenue on goods and services of more than $600 a year.

White House records taken by Trump contained classified information, National Archives confirms (NBC)

The agency told Congress it has "identified items marked as classified national security information" in boxes that were sent to Mar-a-Lago.

McConnell denounces RNC’s censure of 2 House Republicans; McCarthy dodges the question (Los Angeles Times)

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that it was “not the job” of the Republican National Committee to censure Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the House investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, which he described as a “violent insurrection” in contrast to the party’s resolution characterizing it as “legitimate political discourse.”

MLB cancels first week of spring training games; daily negotiations to begin Monday (USA Today)

Major League Baseball called off the first week of spring-training games Friday and announced it will begin daily negotiating sessions Monday with the Major League Baseball Players Association in hopes of reaching a deal to avoid delaying the start of the 2022 regular season.

Pence rebuked Trump -- and received an outpouring of GOP support in response (CNN)

…In the hours after his stunning rebuke of his onetime running mate, Pence fielded calls from donors, Republican lawmakers and top conservative leaders eager to privately applaud him. His speech to a gathering of conservative legal minds had caught their attention after he declared -- in no uncertain terms -- that "Trump is wrong" in his insistence that Pence could have unilaterally overturned the results of the 2020 presidential election…Trump's repeated suggestions that his vice president could have rejected those ballots was "un-American," Pence said.

WORLD

Shelling intensifies in eastern Ukraine amid concern Russia's creating a pretext for an invasion (CBS)

Ukrainian forces and the pro-Russian separatists they're fighting in the country's east reported a second day of increased shelling on Friday, as the leaders of the rebels' self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics accused the Ukrainian government of planning an imminent attack. The rebel administrations in the two breakaway regions announced plans to evacuate thousands of civilians into neighboring Russia. Western leaders say an escalation in the fighting in Ukraine's Donbas region — which has simmered for almost eight years — could be part of Russian efforts to create a "false-flag" pretext to invade.

All the Beijing snow is human-made -- a resource-intensive, 'dangerous' trend as planet warms (CNN)

It would be hard to hold a conversation over the deafening sound of the snow machines preparing the Olympic venues northwest of Beijing...It is almost beautiful -- except that the venues are surrounded by an endless brown, dry landscape completely devoid of snow. In an Olympic first, though not an achievement to boast about, climate variability has forced the Winter Games to be virtually 100% reliant on artificial snow -- part of a trend that is taking place across winter sports venues around the world.

Canadian police arrest 2 leaders of protesting truckers (NPR)

Hundreds of truckers clogging Canada's capital stood their ground and defiantly blasted their horns Thursday, even as police arrested two protest leaders and threatened to break up the nearly three-week protest against the country's COVID-19 restrictions.

Biden tells U.S. citizens to leave Ukraine, saying military wouldn't rescue them  (NPR)

The U.S. isn't planning a military operation to help its citizens leave Ukraine, President Biden says, and they should do so on their own. "American citizens should leave now," Biden said as Russia amasses a military force around its neighbor. Biden made the remarks in an interview with NBC News' Lester Holt, who asked him what kind of scenarios would prompt a U.S. rescue mission, if Russia invaded. "There's not [one]," Biden said. "That's a world war — when Americans and Russians start shooting at one another, we're in a very different world than we've ever been in."

2022 Olympics: Russia's Kamila Valieva struggles in free skate, fails to medal amid doping scandal (The Athletic)

Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva, competing despite being at the center of a doping scandal, finished out of the medals in the women's competition Thursday after struggling through her long program. The 15-year-old's fourth-place result means the three skaters who made the podium will receive their medals.

Exclusive: U.S. could prosecute Russians in Valieva doping case - USADA chief (Reuters)

The United States could prosecute the Russians involved in figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping case under the American Rodchenkov Act, the head of the U.S. Anti Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, told Reuters on Friday. The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act (RADA) was signed into U.S. law in 2020 and empowers American prosecutors to seek fines of up to $1 million and jail terms of up to 10 years, even for non-Americans, if their actions have affected results of U.S. athletes.

 

 



 


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