ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

January 20, 2016 (San Diego's East County)-- East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen about important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a wide variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

Presidential campaign

• Poll: Neck and neck 2016 races in Iowa, New Hampshire (NBC)
• Sanders’ Medicare for all plan takes aim at for-profit healthcare system (Common Dreams)
• Who won Dem Debate?  Online polls point one way (CBS)
• Rand Paul: Unite the ‘two Americas’(The Hill)
• Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump (New York Times)
• Republican lawmakers worried about running on Trump’s coattails (Reuters)
• British lawmakers debate banning Trump after Muslim comments (Reuters)
• A guide to what Ted Cruz wants to abolish, bar or change (Washington Post)

Other national news

• Anger and scrutiny grow over poisoned water in Michigan city (New York Times)
• Airport workers demand higher wages (WUSA)
• FAA fails to ensure pilots' manual flying skills: report (Reuters)
• Family-owned forest land may soon change hands (APM Marketplace)
• Thou Shalt Not Toss Food: Enlisting Religious Groups To Fight Waste (NPR)

WORLD

• Islamic State kidnaps 400 civilians in Syrian city of Deir al-Zor: monitor (Reuters)
• South China Sea? For Beijing, Taiwan is the No. 1 security issue (Reuters)
• Polish president calls for beefed-up NATO presence (AP)
• Pakistan arrests imam after boy cuts hand off in blasphemy error (Reuters)
• North African men suspected of stoning transgender women in German city (JPost)
• Aid Groups Witness Starving Syrians (NPR)
• Islamic State militants attack Jakarta, seven killed (Reuters)

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

U.S.

Presidential campaign

Poll: Neck and neck 2016 races in Iowa, New Hampshire (NBC)

(Two) weeks until the first presidential nominating contest, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are running neck and neck in Iowa, while Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are also locked in a tight race in the Hawkeye State. What's more, Clinton and Sanders are within the margin of error in New Hampshire, while Trump has built a 16-point lead in the same state.

Sanders’ Medicare for all plan takes aim at for-profit healthcare system (Common Dreams)

Just before Sunday's Democratic primary debate in South Carolina, Bernie Sanders released the details of his Medicare-for-All universal healthcare proposal, saying it is "time for our country to join every other major industrialized nation on Earth and guarantee health care to all citizens as a right, not a privilege."

Who won Dem Debate?  Online polls point one way (CBS)

According to Google's fact sheet on the Sunday evening showdown, Bernie Sanders was the most-searched Democratic candidate on Google during the debate, which was carried by NBC News and on YouTube. And that happened in every single state, the search giant adds.

Rand Paul: Unite the ‘two Americas’(The Hill)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is using Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to push for criminal justice reform to unite "the two Americas." "Let’s commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King by uniting the two Americas into one: an America that includes justice for one, and justice for all," Paul wrote in a Time op-ed on Monday. Paul pointed to the deaths of two African-American men — Eric Garner, who died while in police custody and Michael Brown, who was shot by a white police officer — as evidence of the "uneasy coexistence of the two Americas" and "undercurrent of unease." 

Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump (New York Times)

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee who became a Tea Party sensation and a favorite of grass-roots conservatives, endorsed Donald J. Trump in Iowa on Tuesday, providing him with a potentially significant boost just 13 days before the state’s caucuses.

Republican lawmakers worried about running on Trump’s coattails (Reuters)

The prospect of running for re-election with Donald Trump at the top of the Republican ticket was worrying some party lawmakers as they huddled for an annual retreat, where a few forecast trouble if Trump becomes the party's presidential nominee. "Heaven help us," Representative Peter Roskam said when asked about it by a reporter.

British lawmakers debate banning Trump after Muslim comments (Reuters)

British lawmakers on Monday debated a petition to ban U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from Britain over remarks on Muslims, but while describing his comments as "crazy" and "offensive", most said the ban would go against free speech.

A guide to what Ted Cruz wants to abolish, bar or change (Washington Post)

Sen. Ted Cruz wants to get rid of or change a lot of things if he is elected president. Imagine, he tells audiences in a small Iowa library or a South Carolina middle school gym or during a nationally televised debate, a country with no Internal Revenue Service. It's just one of the things, including what he calls an "alphabet soup" of regulators, that would be different under a President Cruz.

Other national news

Anger and scrutiny grow over poisoned water in Michigan city (New York Times)

Michigan’s attorney general opened an investigation Friday into lead contamination in Flint’s drinking water, and the governor asked President Obama to declare a disaster as National Guard troops fanned out across this anxious city to help distribute bottled water, water filters and testing kits.

Airport workers demand higher wages (WUSA)

Airport workers from across the country spent Martin Luther King Jr. day calling for an end to economic injustice.

FAA fails to ensure pilots' manual flying skills: report (Reuters)

The Federal Aviation Administration is failing to ensure that airline pilots maintain their flying skills so they can safely take control of an aircraft from automated systems during an unexpected event, according to a U.S. Transportation Department report released on Monday.

Family-owned forest land may soon change hands (APM Marketplace)

2016 may turn out to be a big year for real estate. In this case, it's forests that are for sale. Over a third of U.S. forest land is owned by private families. And many of those owners are now senior citizens, suggesting that their land may soon change hands.

Thou Shalt Not Toss Food: Enlisting Religious Groups To Fight Waste (NPR)

The Environmental Protection Agency is launching an initiative to engage religious leaders of all faiths to reduce food waste. Many groups have already embraced the challenge as a moral imperative.

WORLD

Islamic State kidnaps 400 civilians in Syrian city of Deir al-Zor: monitor (Reuters)

Islamic State militants kidnapped at least 400 civilians when they attacked government-held areas in the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday, a monitoring group said.

South China Sea? For Beijing, Taiwan is the No. 1 security issue (Reuters)

For China, whose President Xi Jinping is already taking an increasingly muscular approach to claims in the East and South China Sea, the question of Taiwan trumps any other of its territorial assertions in terms of sensitivity and importance.

Polish president calls for beefed-up NATO presence (AP)

Polish President Andrzej Duda called on NATO Monday to make its presence "as permanent as possible" in Poland to safeguard his country and region from an aggressive Russia.

Pakistan arrests imam after boy cuts hand off in blasphemy error (Reuters)

Pakistani police have arrested the imam of a mosque for inciting violence after a 15-year old boy who was told by the cleric that he was a blasphemer went home and cut off his own hand.

North African men suspected of stoning transgender women in German city (JPost)

Three young men from North Africa were arrested on Saturday in the western German city of Dortmund for stoning two transgender women.

Aid Groups Witness Starving Syrians (NPR)

UNICEF's Dr. Rajia Sharhan traveled to the Syrian city Madaya with one of the first convoys in months getting to town to deliver food and medicine. She describes the suffering to NPR's Rachel Martin.

Islamic State militants attack Jakarta, seven killed (Reuters)

Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the heart of Indonesia's capital on Thursday and the assault was claimed by Islamic state, the first time the radical group has targeted the world's most populous Muslim nation.