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January 9, 2024 (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.
- Congress faces crisis at home and abroad as 2024 deepens partisan division (CNN)
- How Trump's promise to pardon Jan. 6 rioters raises the threat of extremism (NPR)
- Most people think the U.S. crime rate is rising. They're wrong. (MSN)
- House GOP majority to shrink to 2 with Ohio lawmaker’s early resignation (The Hill)
- Haley declines to say slavery was cause of Civil War (Politico)
- Trump shares poll showing voters associate potential second term with "revenge" (Reuters)
- Ohio governor vetos ban on transgender care, sports participation (Reuters)
- Maine state official who removed Trump from ballot was targeted in swatting call at her home (AP)
WORLD
- Gaza war spreads to Beirut with killing of Hamas deputy leader (Reuters)
- Hundreds of passengers escape after jet collides with small plane on its way to Japan quake zone (Sky News)
- Russia pounds Ukraine's two biggest cities in new wave of attacks (Reuters)
- Chinese military purge exposes weakness, could widen (Reuters)
- Houthi militants attack container ship, Maersk halts Red Sea sailing (Reuters)
- At least five dead after huge earthquake rocks Japan on New Year's Day (Reuters)
- More than 20 countries now part of US-led Red Sea coalition, Pentagon says (Reuters)
- More Ukrainian children from Russia-held regions arrive in Belarus (NPR)
- Worldwide, 2024 elections are a target for bad actors trying to disrupt democracy (NPR)
- Second North Korean nuclear reactor appears to be using fuel, IAEA says (Reuters)
- India probes suspected human trafficking after 276 nationals return home (Reuters)
- Iran threatens Mediterranean closure over Gaza, without saying how (Reuters)
- In threatening shift, North Korea moves to redefine relations with South (Reuters)
- Egypt plans expansion of new capital as first residents trickle in (Reuters)
For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.
U.S.
Congress faces crisis at home and abroad as 2024 deepens partisan division (CNN)
... The most pressing issues are a pair of government shutdown deadlines in January and February and a high-stakes effort to strike a deal over border security and aid for Ukraine and Israel. It’s far from clear, however, whether lawmakers will be able to reach consensus over border security and foreign aid and legislation to avert a shutdown.
How Trump's promise to pardon Jan. 6 rioters raises the threat of extremism (NPR)
FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Republican appointed by Trump, called the attack an act of "domestic terrorism." The FBI has now arrested upward of 1,200 people. Prosecutors have secured around 900 guilty pleas or convictions at trial – in cases ranging from breaching the Capitol building to assaulting police, obstructing Congress, bringing a gun onto Capitol grounds and seditious conspiracy. An NPR review of social media posts, speeches and interviews found that Trump has made calls to "free" Jan. 6 defendants or promised to issue them presidential pardons more than a dozen times. Trump has said he would issue those pardons on "day one" of his presidency, as part of a broader agenda to use presidential power to exact "retribution" against his opponents and deliver "justice" for his supporters….
Most people think the U.S. crime rate is rising. They're wrong. (MSN)
A Gallup poll released this month found that 77% of Americans believe crime rates are worsening, but they are mistaken, the new FBI data and other statistics show. / The FBI data, which compares crime rates in the third quarter of 2023 to the same period last year, found that violent crime dropped 8%, while property crime fell 6.3% to what would be its lowest level since 1961, according to criminologist Jeff Asher, who analyzed the FBI numbers. Murder plummeted in the United States in 2023 at one of the fastest rates of decline ever recorded… “I think we’ve been conditioned, and we have no way of countering the idea” that crime is rising,” Asher said. “It’s just an overwhelming number of news media stories and viral videos — I have to believe that social media is playing a role.”
Federal officials examining the horrifying midflight blowout of part of an Alaska Airlines aircraft’s fuselage are testing the detached piece for clues on what led up to the plane’s “explosive decompression” after the missing piece was discovered in an Oregon backyard.
House GOP majority to shrink to 2 with Ohio lawmaker’s early resignation (The Hill)
House Republicans’ already-slim majority will dwindle even further later this month when Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) resigns earlier than expected. Johnson’s office on Tuesday confirmed the congressman’s new official resignation date of Jan. 21, after he was expected to resign to take a job as president of Youngstown State University before mid-March.
Haley declines to say slavery was cause of Civil War (Politico)
The former UN Ambassador and South Carolina governor, who has seen her star rise in the first-in-the-nation primary state, was appearing at a town hall event in Berlin, New Hampshire, when a voter asked her to identify the cause of the war. “I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run,” she responded. “The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do.”
Trump shares poll showing voters associate potential second term with "revenge" (Reuters)
... Trump shared the results of a poll commissioned by DailyMail.com, in which voters were asked to provide a word they most associate with Trump's plans for a second term. The results, presented in the form of a word cloud, indicated that "revenge" was the most popular choice.... In the Dec. 25 Truth Social post, Trump directed his attacks toward those who disagreed with him politically, whom he called "thugs". /"MAY THEY ROT IN HELL," Trump wrote. "AGAIN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
Ohio governor vetos ban on transgender care, sports participation (Reuters)
The bill, which passed the Republican-dominated state legislature this month, would prohibit physicians from performing gender reassignment surgery or prescribing puberty-blocking drugs to assist a minor with gender transition….
Maine state official who removed Trump from ballot was targeted in swatting call at her home (AP)
A fake emergency call to police resulted in officers responding Friday night to the home of Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows just a day after she removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause. She becomes the latest elected politician to become a target of swatting….
WORLD
Gaza war spreads to Beirut with killing of Hamas deputy leader (Reuters)
Israel killed Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in a drone strike in Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday, Lebanese and Palestinian security sources said, raising the potential risk of war in Gaza spreading well beyond the Palestinian enclave.
Hundreds of passengers escape after jet collides with small plane on its way to Japan quake zone (Sky News)
All 379 people on board Japan Airlines Flight 516 escaped the blaze in what's being called a "miracle" after the plane collided with a coastguard aircraft. Five people on board the other plane have died, local media reports.
Russia pounds Ukraine's two biggest cities in new wave of attacks (Reuters)
Russia pounded Ukraine's two biggest cities on Tuesday in a new wave of heavy air strikes that killed at least five civilians and prompted calls for the West to quickly provide more military assistance.
Chinese military purge exposes weakness, could widen (Reuters)
A sweeping purge of Chinese generals has weakened the People's Liberation Army, exposing deep-rooted corruption that could take more time to fix and slow Chinese leader Xi Jinping's military modernization drive amid geopolitical tensions, analysts say...Many of these were from the Rocket Force - a key arm of the PLA overseeing tactical and nuclear missiles.
Houthi militants attack container ship, Maersk halts Red Sea sailing (Reuters)
Iranian-backed Houthi militants attacked a Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) container vessel with missiles and small boats, prompting the company to pause all sailing through the Red Sea for 48 hours, Maersk said on Sunday.…A U.S. warship shot down another two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, according to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). Later…the same ship was attacked by Houthi militants...
At least five dead after huge earthquake rocks Japan on New Year's Day (Reuters)
The powerful earthquake that hit central Japan on New Year's Day killed at least five people….The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck in the middle of the afternoon on Monday, destroying buildings, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and prompting residents in some coastal areas to flee to higher ground.
More than 20 countries now part of US-led Red Sea coalition, Pentagon says (Reuters)
A total of more than 20 countries have agreed to participate in the new U.S.-led coalition safeguarding commercial traffic in the Red Sea from attacks by Yemen's Houthi movement as more nations join the effort, the Pentagon said on Thursday
More Ukrainian children from Russia-held regions arrive in Belarus (NPR)
Belarus' authoritarian president on Thursday attended a government-organized meeting with children brought from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying an international outrage over his country's involvement in Moscow's deportation of Ukrainian children…. A recent study by Yale University has found that more than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6-17 have been brought to Belarus from four Ukrainian regions.
Worldwide, 2024 elections are a target for bad actors trying to disrupt democracy (NPR)
Billions of people around the world are expected to head to the polls in 2024. But experts warn that these elections are ripe targets for bad actors seeking to disrupt democracy.
Second North Korean nuclear reactor appears to be using fuel, IAEA says (Reuters)
A reactor at North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex appears for the first time to be using atomic fuel, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said late on Thursday, which would mean the country has a new potential source of plutonium for its nuclear weapons.
India probes suspected human trafficking after 276 nationals return home (Reuters)
India has launched an investigation into how 303 Indians ended up on a chartered flight that was grounded in France last week because of suspected human trafficking ….The plane was held in France a day after the U.S. State Department said it would impose visa restrictions targeting individuals operating charter flights into Nicaragua for migrants heading towards the U.S.-Mexico border. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, the number of Indians caught trying to enter the United States illegally has tripled over the past three years.
Iran threatens Mediterranean closure over Gaza, without saying how (Reuters)
An Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said the Mediterranean Sea could be closed if the United States and its allies continued to commit "crimes" in Gaza, Iranian media reported on Saturday, without explaining how that would happen. Iran backs Hamas against Israel
In threatening shift, North Korea moves to redefine relations with South (Reuters)
North Korea is shaking up the way it handles relations with South Korea, enacting changes to policy and government organisations that would effectively treat the South as a separate, enemy state. The moves, which break with decades of policy, could have North Korea's foreign ministry taking over relations with the South, and potentially help justify the use of nuclear weapons against Seoul in a future war, analysts said.
Egypt plans expansion of new capital as first residents trickle in (Reuters)
Egypt is preparing to spend billions doubling the size of a lavish new capital it is building in the desert 45 km (28 miles) east of Cairo, where the first residents are trickling in, the head of the company overseeing the project said. / The city is the biggest of a series of mega-projects that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says are needed for economic development and to accommodate a growing population of 105 million, but critics say divert resources and increase Egypt's debt burden. / Government employees transferred in July to ministries and offices built in the new city's first phase….
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