ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

June 5, 2023 (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.

• Here’s who would have to work for government benefits – and who wouldn’t – under the debt ceiling package (CNN)
• Jan. 6 rioters are raking in thousands in donations. Now the US is coming after their haul (AP)
• Supreme Court dramatically shrinks Clean Water Act’s reach  (Politico)
• Former Vice President Pence files paperwork launching 2024 presidential bid in challenge to Trump (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Ron DeSantis debuts presidential bid in a glitch-ridden Twitter 'disaster' (NPR)
• 8-year-old girl dies in Border Patrol custody in Texas, as agency struggles with overcrowding (AP)
• AP analysis: Most beauty school programs would be in jeopardy under US proposal (AP)
• A federal judge rejects Tennessee's anti-drag law as too broad and vague  (KPBS)
• Arizona announces limits on construction in Phoenix area as groundwater disappears (CNN)

WORLD

• Millions in Mexico warned to prepare for evacuation as Popocatépetl volcano spews ash (CNN)
• Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade (CNN)
• Russia issues arrest warrant for Lindsey Graham over Ukraine comments  (AP)
• Russians snitch on Russians who oppose war with Soviet-style denunciations (Washington Post)
• North Korea spent the pandemic building a huge border wall  (Reuters)
• Mexico prosecutors withdraw case against woman sentenced to prison for killing man raping her  (AP)
• Russia's Wagner boss says more than 20,000 of his troops died in Bakhmut battle (AP)
• Estonia, Latvia plan joint purchase of German medium-range IRIS-T air defense systems  (AP)
• Mount Etna volcano erupts, raining ash on Catania, forcing flight suspension at local airport  (AP)

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

U.S.

Here’s who would have to work for government benefits – and who wouldn’t – under the debt ceiling package (CNN)

Work requirements in two safety net programs for low-income Americans are set to change under the compromise debt ceiling package negotiated by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

 Jan. 6 rioters are raking in thousands in donations. Now the US is coming after their haul (AP)

Less than two months after he pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol, Texas resident Daniel Goodwyn appeared on Tucker Carlson’s then-Fox News show and promoted a website where supporters could donate money to Goodwyn and other rioters whom the site called “political prisoners.” The Justice Department now wants Goodwyn to give up more than $25,000 he raised — a clawback that is part of a growing effort by the government to prevent rioters from being able to personally profit from participating in the attack that shook the foundations of American democracy.

Supreme Court dramatically shrinks Clean Water Act’s reach  (Politico)

The Biden administration this year finalized a rule to cement broad protections for wetlands. That regulation must now be reworked in light of the Supreme Court ruling.  The 5-4 ruling in Sackett v. EPA creates a far narrower test than what has been used for more than half a century to determine when bogs and marshes fall under the scope of the 1972 law.

Former Vice President Pence files paperwork launching 2024 presidential bid in challenge to Trump (San Diego Union-Tribune)

Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork on Monday declaring his campaign for president in 2024, setting up a challenge to his former boss, Donald Trump, just two years after their time in the White House ended with an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and Pence fleeing for his life.

Ron DeSantis debuts presidential bid in a glitch-ridden Twitter 'disaster' (NPR)

It was supposed to be a historic moment for Twitter: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would smoothly kick off his presidential candidacy on the social media platform. An uninterrupted conversation between DeSantis and Twitter CEO Elon Musk would be live-streamed on Twitter Spaces to mark the event. But instead, the live audio event was beset with technical malfunctions. After some 20 minutes of crashing and echoing and chaos, it abruptly ended.

8-year-old girl dies in Border Patrol custody in Texas, as agency struggles with overcrowding (AP)

A little girl from Panama born with heart problems died in Border Patrol custody Wednesday, the second death of a child from Latin America in U.S. government custody in two weeks.

AP analysis: Most beauty school programs would be in jeopardy under US proposal (AP)

Under a new proposal intended to protect students, nearly two-thirds of cosmetology certificate programs at for-profit colleges would would risk losing federal funding. So would over a third of such programs in massage therapy and dental support services. Overall, 22% of programs at for-profit schools would face a federal crackdown, according to an Associated Press analysis of data released by the U.S. Education Department. The rules proposed Wednesday by the Biden administration aim to punish programs that leave graduates underpaid or buried in loans.

A federal judge rejects Tennessee's anti-drag law as too broad and vague  (KPBS)

Judge Thomas Parker says the first-in-the-nation law designed to place strict limits on drag shows is unconstitutional.

Arizona announces limits on construction in Phoenix area as groundwater disappears (CNN)

Arizona officials announced Thursday the state will no longer grant certifications for new developments within the Phoenix area, as groundwater rapidly disappears amid years of water overuse and climate change-driven drought. / A new study showed that the groundwater supporting the Phoenix area likely can’t meet additional development demand in the coming century

WORLD

Millions in Mexico warned to prepare for evacuation as Popocatépetl volcano spews ash (CNN)

Millions of people in Mexico have been warned to prepare for a possible evacuation after increased activity from the country’s most dangerous active volcano, which has been spewing ash into several nearby towns since last week, according to authorities. Ash from Popocatépetl volcano, which is in a central part of the country, has delayed flights in Mexico City and led authorities to close schools in dozens of municipalities. Some 25 million people live in a 60-mile radius of the volcano, which is about 45 miles southeast of Mexico City.

Erdogan wins Turkish election, extending rule to third decade (CNN)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won Turkey’s presidential election, defeating opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday’s runoff vote and stretching his rule into a third decade.

Russia issues arrest warrant for Lindsey Graham over Ukraine comments  (AP)

In an edited video of his meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was released by Zelenskyy’s office, Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, noted that “the Russians are dying” and described the U.S. military assistance to the country as “the best money we’ve ever spent.”  ….The Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, has moved to open a criminal inquiry against Graham, and the Interior Ministry followed up by issuing a warrant for his arrest as indicated Monday by its official record of wanted criminal suspects.

Russians snitch on Russians who oppose war with Soviet-style denunciations (Washington Post)

As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime cracks down on critics of the war and other political dissenters, citizens are policing one another in an echo of the darkest years of Joseph Stalin’s repression, triggering investigations, criminal charges, prosecutions and dismissals from work.

North Korea spent the pandemic building a huge border wall  (Reuters)

…in 2020, Kim Jong Un's regime embarked on a massive exercise to seal its borders with China and Russia….Since then, Pyongyang has built hundreds of kilometers of new or upgraded border fences, walls and guard posts, commercial satellite imagery shows…. Only 67 defectors made it to South Korea last year, compared with 1,047 in 2019, official data show…. North Korea has also ordered border guards to shoot anyone trying to cross…

Mexico prosecutors withdraw case against woman sentenced to prison for killing man raping her  (AP)

Mexican prosecutors announced Saturday night that they are withdrawing a case against a woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a man as he raped and attacked her.

Russia's Wagner boss says more than 20,000 of his troops died in Bakhmut battle (AP)

The head of the Russian private army Wagner says his force lost more than 20,000 fighters in the drawn-out battle for Bakhmut, with about 20% of the 50,000 Russian convicts he recruited to fight in the 15-month war dying in the eastern Ukrainian city.  The figure was in stark contrast with widely disputed claims from Moscow that it lost just over 6,000 troops in the war, and is higher than the official estimate of the Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 troops between 1979-89.

Estonia, Latvia plan joint purchase of German medium-range IRIS-T air defense systems  (AP)

Estonia and Latvia plan jointly to acquire German air defense systems for the protection of the two NATO nations’ airspace in what would be the biggest defense cooperation deal between the Baltic neighbors that border Russia, the Estonian and Latvian defense ministries said Sunday.

Mount Etna volcano erupts, raining ash on Catania, forcing flight suspension at local airport  (AP)

Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano, was erupting on Sunday, spewing ash on Catania, eastern Sicily’s largest city, and forcing a suspension of flights at that city’s airport.