ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

May 24, 2017 (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.

• Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence  (Washington Post)
• Read full text of Trump's Riyadh address to the Muslim world (Jerusalem Post)
• Trump urges Muslim world to `drive out the extremists’ (The Hill)
• Did Trump commit high crimes and misdemeanors? (Huffington Post)
• Flynn takes 5^th on Senate subpoena (Washington Post)
• ‘President has declared war’: Journalists denounce attacks on press freedom (Guardian)
• Killing C.I.A. Informants, China Crippled U.S. Spying Operations (New York Times)
• Homelessness in the U.S.:   Sleep study and accommodation directory (Tuck.com)
• Supreme Court finds the GOP packed black voters into two North Carolina districts to help win more House seats (New York Times)
• Ex-employee of U.S. defense firm pleads guilty in espionage case (Reuters)
• Reinventing high school (CS Monitor)
• Ex-U.S. Congressman Weiner pleads guilty in teen 'sexting' case (Reuters)

WORLD

• European Union votes to end visa-free travel for Americans (Independent)
• Manchester attack:  22 dead and 59 injured in suicide bombing (BBC)
• Japan cabinet approves bill to allow emperor to abdicate (Reuters)
• Reformists win big during recent Iranian election (CS Monitor)
• Poll Shows Increased Support for NATO on Both Sides of the Atlantic (NPR)
• The European Union Wants to Censor Hate Speech on Social Media (Reason)
• Oxfam: Combined Wealth of 5 Richest Nigerians Could Lift Country Out of Poverty (NPR)
• Dutch King Reveals Secret Life as Part-Time Pilot on KLM Airline (NPR)

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

U.S.

Trump asked intelligence chiefs to push back against FBI collusion probe after Comey revealed its existence  (Washington Post)

President Trump asked two of the nation’s top intelligence officials in March to help him push back against an FBI investigation into possible coordination between his campaign and the Russian government, according to current and former officials. Trump made separate appeals to the director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, and to Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, urging them to publicly deny the existence of any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. Coats and Rogers refused to comply with the requests, which they both deemed to be inappropriate…

Read full text of Trump's Riyadh address to the Muslim world (Jerusalem Post)

US President Donald Trump called on Arab leaders to do their share to fight "Islamist extremism" on Sunday in Riyadh

Trump urges Muslim world to `drive out the extremists’ (The Hill)

President Trump on Sunday implored Muslim nations to form a new coalition to defeat extremism in a high-stakes speech meant to ease fears that the U.S. is at war with Islam.  

Speaking in Saudi Arabia during his first foreign trip as president, Trump struck a more accommodating tone toward Islam, a religion he repeatedly targeted during his presidential campaign.

Did Trump commit high crimes and misdemeanors? (by Marjorie Cohn, professor emeriti at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, in Huffington Post)

The old adage that the cover-up is worse than the crime may once again prove true.

Flynn takes 5^th on Senate subpoena, as a top House Democrat alleges new evidence of lies  (Washington Post)

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser under President Trump, refused to comply with a Senate Intelligence Committee subpoena as a top House Democrat disclosed portions of new documents suggesting Flynn lied about his Russia ties to federal investigators. Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee must now meet to vote and decide whether to hold Flynn in contempt or accept his attempt to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

‘President has declared war’:  Journalists denounce any attack on press freedom (Guardian)

President’s apparent suggestion that the FBI should ‘consider putting reporters in prison’ prompts call to action from journalists increasingly under attack.

Killing C.I.A. Informants, China Crippled U.S. Spying Operations (New York Times)

Up to 20 CIA informants were killed or imprisoned by the Chinese government between 2010 and 2012, the New York Times reports, damaging US information-gathering in the country for

Homelessness in the U.S.:   Sleep study and accommodation directory (Tuck.com)

It’s difficult to sleep if you don’t have a home. It’s especially difficult to sleep deeply when you have no way to secure your personal belongings and you’re worried about your personal safety.  Unfortunately, this describes what sleeping is like for the homeless.

Supreme Court finds the GOP packed black voters into two North Carolina districts to help win more House seats (New York Times)

The Supreme Court rebuked North Carolina’s Republican leaders Monday for shifting tens of thousands of black voters into two congressional districts that had steadily elected black Democrats, striking down the move as racial gerrymandering. The Constitution forbids a state from “separating its citizens into voting districts on the basis of race” without a compelling reason, the high court said in an opinion joined by its four liberals and conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.

Ex-employee of U.S. defense firm pleads guilty in espionage case (Reuters)

(A former employee of a U.S. defense contractor has pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to sell sensitive satellite information to a person he believed was a Russian intelligence agent, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday.

Reinventing high school (CS Monitor)

Textbooks are rare. So are traditional grades. Students progress at their own pace. See how one New Hampshire school is retooling education.

Ex-U.S. Congressman Weiner pleads guilty in teen 'sexting' case (Reuters)

 Former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner wept on Friday as he pleaded guilty to sending sexually explicit messages to a teenage girl, capping a "sexting" scandal that played a role in last year's U.S. presidential election during its waning days.

WORLD

European Union votes to end visa-free travel for Americans (Independent)

The European Parliament has voted to end visa-free travel for Americans within the EU.

It comes after the US failed to agree visa-free travel for citizens of five EU countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania – as part of a reciprocity agreement. US citizens can normally travel to all countries in the bloc without a visa.

Manchester attack:  22 dead and 59 injured in suicide bombing (BBC)

Twenty-two people, including an eight-year-old girl, were killed and 59 injured when a suicide bomber attacked concert-goers at Manchester Arena… t is the worst terrorist attack in the UK since the 7 July bombings in 2005, in which 52 people were killed by four suicide bombers... Islamic State has said - via IS channels on the messaging app Telegram - it was behind the Manchester attack, but this has not been verified.

Japan cabinet approves bill to allow emperor to abdicate (Reuters)

Japan's cabinet approved a bill on Friday that would allow Emperor Akihito to step down, paving the way for the first abdication by a Japanese emperor in nearly two centuries.

Reformists win big during recent Iranian election (CS Monitor)

Candidates backing reform of Iran’s clerically overseen government swept municipal elections in Tehran, taking all 21 local council seats in the country’s capital while moderate President Hassan Rouhani won a second term in office, authorities said on Monday. / Their win in Friday’s election marks the first-time reformists have gained total control of Tehran’s municipal council since such votes began in the Islamic Republic in 1999. Iranian media also reported similar big gains for reformists in other major cities.

Poll Shows Increased Support for NATO on Both Sides of the Atlantic (NPR)

The uptick in support, especially among U.S. Democrats, comes after the turbulent U.S. presidential race where Donald Trump called NATO "obsolete." He now says it's "no longer obsolete."

The European Union Wants to Censor Hate Speech on Social Media (Reason)

EU ministers today approved a plan that will require social media platforms and online video hosts to block and remove videos that contain "hate speech, incitement to hatred and content justifying terrorism from their platforms,…."

Oxfam: Combined Wealth of 5 Richest Nigerians Could Lift Country Out of Poverty (NPR)

Oxfam calls the level of inequality in the country "obscene." The disparity is only growing, the charity says, in light of what it describes as the misallocation of the country's resources.

Dutch King Reveals Secret Life as Part-Time Pilot on KLM Airline (NPR)

For more than two decades, King Willem-Alexander has regularly served as a co-pilot on commercial flights. He is rarely recognized, he told De Telegraaf newspaper.