ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

October 27, 2021 (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.

• Democrats at odds over 'billionaires tax' to fund sweeping Biden agenda (Reuters)
• A 19th-Century Law Dismantled The KKK. Now It Could Bring Down A New Generation Of Extremists (Huffington Post0
• Jan. 6 committee chair: 'No question' Capitol riot was a premeditated attack (The Hill)
• House January 6 committee unanimously votes to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt (CBS)
• Supreme Court won’t block Texas abortion law but grants expedited review for Nov. 1 (Washington Post)
• Colin Powell was vaccinated against Covid, but suffered from a cancer that makes the shots less effective (CNN)
• Ethics Group: 7 House Members Are Violating The STOCK Act (NPR)
• Dwindling Alaska salmon leave Yukon River tribes in crisis (AP)
• Even Colorado's Largest Wildfire Was No Match For Beavers (KUNC)

WORLD

• Haiti faces disasters and chaos. Its people are most likely to be denied U.S. asylum (NPR)
• Biden vows to stand with Asia on freedom, hits at China on Taiwan (Reuters)
• Syria executes 24 people charged with lighting wildfires that devastated the country last year (CNN)
• U.S. offers payments, relocation to family of Afghans killed in botched drone attack (Reuters)

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

U.S.

Democrats at odds over 'billionaires tax' to fund sweeping Biden agenda (Reuters)

Senior Democrats in the U.S. Congress were at odds on Wednesday over a proposal to tax billionaires' assets to help pay for President Joe Biden's social and climate-change agenda, leaving it unclear if the idea had enough support to become law.

A 19th-Century Law Dismantled The KKK. Now It Could Bring Down A New Generation Of Extremists (Huffington Post0

In a Virginia courthouse this week, a historic trial will begin that aims to unravel the real motivations of the far-right activists behind the 2017 Charlottesville riot.

Jan. 6 committee chair: 'No question' Capitol riot was a premeditated attack (The Hill)

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, said Sunday there was “no question” that it was a premeditated attack. CBS’s “Face the Nation” played a portion of former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon’s podcasts, where he could be heard saying, “All hell is gonna break loose tomorrow. It's going to be moving. It's going to be quick. And all I can say is strap in. The war room, a posse, you have made this happen and tomorrow it's game day.”

House January 6 committee unanimously votes to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt (CBS)

The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol voted unanimously Tuesday night to hold former President Trump's adviser Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for defying a subpoena to appear and produce records. 

Supreme Court won’t block Texas abortion law but grants expedited review for Nov. 1 (Washington Post)

The Supreme Court on Friday accelerated the country’s debate over reproductive rights, leaving in place Texas’s most-restrictive-in-the-nation abortion law but scheduling a hearing in just 10 days to consider its future.

Colin Powell was vaccinated against Covid, but suffered from a cancer that makes the shots less effective (CNN)

Colin Powell, 84, died Monday morning due to complications from Covid-19 even though he was fully vaccinated, his family said in a statement. The former secretary of State’s death has led some to ask why they should bother getting vaccinated when there is still a chance they could get severely ill or die. Health experts say it’s important to note that no vaccine is 100% effective. In addition, Powell was elderly, a known risk for severe Covid, and suffered from multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that studies show can make the shots less effective.

Ethics Group: 7 House Members Are Violating The STOCK Act (NPR)

An outside ethics group filed ethics complaints Wednesday against seven U.S. House lawmakers — four Democrats and three Republicans — over failing to report stock trades…. Five of the seven lawmakers sit on the powerful House Financial Services Committee.

Dwindling Alaska salmon leave Yukon River tribes in crisis (AP)

In a normal year, the smokehouses and drying racks that Alaska Natives use to prepare salmon  to tide them through the winter would be heavy with fish meat, the fruits of a summer spent fishing on the Yukon River like generations before them. This year, there are no fish.

Even Colorado's Largest Wildfire Was No Match For Beavers (KUNC)

Deep in the Cameron Peak burn scar, nestled among charred hills, there’s an oasis of green — an idyllic patch of trickling streams that wind through a lush grass field. Apart from a few scorched branches on the periphery, it’s hard to tell that this particular spot was in the middle of Colorado’s largest-ever wildfire just a year ago. This wetland was spared thanks to the work of beavers. The mammals, quite famously, dam up streams to make ponds and a sprawling network of channels.

WORLD

Haiti faces disasters and chaos. Its people are most likely to be denied U.S. asylum (NPR)

Like thousands of Haitians, Gibbens Revolus, his wife, Lugrid, and their 2-year-old son, Diego, made the treacherous journey to the U.S.-México border from Chile and ended up under the international bridge in Del Río, Texas, last month.

Photos from the makeshift camp in Del Río show desperation and unsanitary conditions where almost 15,000 Haitians hoped to apply for asylum. U.S. Border Patrol officers on horseback were seen corralling people, pushing them back to the Río Grande and onto México.

Biden vows to stand with Asia on freedom, hits at China on Taiwan (Reuters)

President Joe Biden told Southeast Asian nations on Wednesday the United States would stand with them in defending freedom of the seas and democracy and called China's actions towards Taiwan "coercive" and a threat to peace and stability.

Syria executes 24 people charged with lighting wildfires that devastated the country last year (CNN)

Syria has executed 24 people who were convicted of terrorism charges for igniting last year's devastating wildfires that left 3 people dead and scorched thousands of acres of forests, the Syrian Ministry of Justice said Thursday…Eleven other people involved in setting the wildfires were given life sentences of hard labor, with four others sentenced to temporary hard labor…

U.S. offers payments, relocation to family of Afghans killed in botched drone attack (Reuters)

The Pentagon has offered unspecified condolence payments to the family of 10 civilians who were killed in a botched U.S. drone attack in Afghanistan in August during the final days before American troops withdrew from the country. The U.S. Defense Department said it made a commitment that included offering "ex-gratia condolence payments", in addition to working with the U.S. State Department in support of the family members who were interested in relocation to the United States.