ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

June 13, 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.

• Senators strike bipartisan gun deal, heralding potential breakthrough (Washington Post)
• 31 Patriot Front members were arrested near an Idaho Pride event  (NPR)
• 22 mass shootings. 374 dead. Here’s where the guns came from (AP)
• Biden lays out plan to fight inflation (The Hill)
• U.S. to drop COVID testing for incoming international air travelers (Reuters)
• Texas school shooting victims take action against gun maker (Reuters)
• U.S. marks Memorial Day weekend with at least 11 mass shootings (Washington Post)
• Biden calls on Congress to act on gun control, saying 'too many' schools have become 'killing fields' (NBC)
• Guns overtake cars as leading cause of death for U.S. youth (San Jose Mercury)
• NEW INDICTMENT: Proud Boy leader faces even more serious charges for January 6th coup plot (Washington Press)

WORLD

• Handguns: Canada proposes total freeze on ownership (BBC)
• Russia's war is ravaging Donbas, Ukraine's beleaguered heartland. Here's what the region means to Putin (CNN)
• Violence erupts in Jerusalem during controversial flag march (CNN)
• The EU moves to bar insurance on ships carrying Russian oil. It'd be a big blow (NPR)
• Iran now has enough uranium for nuclear weapon, UN watchdog reportedly says (Forbes)
• Russia has blocked 20 million tons of grain from being exported from Ukraine  (NPR)

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

U.S.

Senators strike bipartisan gun deal, heralding potential breakthrough (Washington Post)

…Twenty senators — 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans — signed a statement announcing the framework deal. The move indicated that the agreement could have enough GOP support to defeat a filibuster …Under the tentative deal, a federal grant program would encourage states to implement red-flag laws that allow authorities to keep guns away from people found by a judge to represent a potential threat to themselves or others, while federal criminal background checks for gun buyers younger than 21 would include a mandatory search of juvenile justice and mental health records…Other provisions would prevent gun sales to domestic violence offenders beyond just spouses, closing what is often called the “boyfriend loophole”; clarify which gun sellers are required to register as federal firearms dealers…and establish new federal offenses related to gun trafficking. The agreement does not include a provision supported by President Biden, congressional Democrats and a handful of Republicans that would raise the minimum age for the purchase of at least some rifles from 18 to 21.

31 Patriot Front members were arrested near an Idaho Pride event  (NPR)

Law enforcement arrested 31 members of a white nationalist organization known as the Patriot Front near a Pride event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, on Saturday, on a charge of conspiracy to riot.

22 mass shootings. 374 dead. Here’s where the guns came from (AP)

A look at how suspects in mass shootings over a decade obtained guns, based on police accounts, court documents and contemporaneous reporting.

Biden lays out plan to fight inflation (The Hill)

President Biden laid out a three-part plan on Tuesday for combating high inflation, which has been a major strain on his job approval rating. “We now have a chance to build on a historic recovery with an economy that works for working families. The most important thing we can do now to transition from rapid recovery to stable, steady growth is to bring inflation down. That is why I have made tackling inflation my top economic priority,” he said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed ahead of a meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later Tuesday.

U.S. to drop COVID testing for incoming international air travelers (Reuters)



The Biden administration will drop pre-departure COVID-19 international air testing requirements effective Sunday at 12:01 a.m. after heavy lobbying from airlines and the travel industry, a senior administration official told Reuters.

Texas school shooting victims take action against gun maker (Reuters)

The father of a 10-year-old girl slain in the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting and a school employee have taken initial steps that could lead to lawsuits against Daniel Defense, the maker of the semiautomatic rifle used in last week's massacre that killed 21 people. Lawyers for Alfred Garza, father of Robb Elementary School student Amerie Jo Garza, requested in a letter on Friday that Daniel Defense provide information about its marketing to teens and children.

U.S. marks Memorial Day weekend with at least 11 mass shootings (Washington Post)

After a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers last week, many politicians, public figures and gun-control advocates said the U.S. government should ensure mass shootings could not happen again. But mass shootings have already happened again — and again. At least 14 mass shootings have taken place across the United States since Tuesday, from California to Arizona to Tennessee.

Biden calls on Congress to act on gun control, saying 'too many' schools have become 'killing fields' (NBC)

President Joe Biden laid out specific actions he wants Congress to take on gun control legislation Thursday, calling Republican congressional opposition to the measures “unconscionable.”

Guns overtake cars as leading cause of death for U.S. youth (San Jose Mercury)

 For decades, the biggest threat kids faced growing up came from the automobiles they happily hopped into every day for a trip to school, the store or soccer practice. Now, it’s gunfire. As the country mourns its latest school shooting victims in Uvalde, Texas, it also has reached a grim milestone: Guns now kill more kids and teens in the U.S. than auto accidents do.

NEW INDICTMENT: Proud Boy leader faces even more serious charges for January 6th coup plot (Washington Press)

Former Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the radical right-wing gang had their federal indictments upgraded from merely conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 presidential election to seditious conspiracy today, documents unsealed in federal court revealed. This latest development puts the Proud Boy defendants in the same traitorous category as Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers, and 10 other members of that militia who have also been charged with seditious conspiracy for their actions surrounding the January 2021 violent assault on the Capitol…

WORLD

Handguns: Canada proposes total freeze on ownership (BBC)

Canada should introduce a total ban on the buying and selling of all handguns, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said.  His government is proposing a new law that would freeze private ownership of all short-barrelled firearms.The legislation would not ban the ownership of handguns outright - but would make it illegal to buy them.

Russia's war is ravaging Donbas, Ukraine's beleaguered heartland. Here's what the region means to Putin (CNN)

Fighting in Ukraine has rounded on Donbas, a sprawling and beleaguered heartland region that has suffered years of conflict and now serves as the bloody stage on which Russia's war could be decided.

Violence erupts in Jerusalem during controversial flag march (CNN)

Thousands of Israelis marched in a controversial flag-waving procession through east Jerusalem on Sunday, after Palestinian factions warned the event could ignite a new round of tensions.

The EU moves to bar insurance on ships carrying Russian oil. It'd be a big blow (NPR)

The European Union today formally approved the plan for its members to stop buying Russian oil shipped by sea because of the war in Ukraine. That could be a big economic blow to Russia over time, and so could a part of the package that anyone who owns a car can relate to. It's about insurance.

Iran now has enough uranium for nuclear weapon, UN watchdog reportedly says (Forbes)

Iran has amassed enough enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency viewed by several media outlets Monday, as the IAEA presses Iran to cooperate with a probe into its nuclear program and the United States seeks to re-enter a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

Russia has blocked 20 million tons of grain from being exported from Ukraine  (NPR)

20 million tons of grain are trapped in Ukraine because of a Russian blockade of its ports. Getting the grain out by rail or truck is proving to be a huge logistical challenge.