Recap: April 4 – 10
Greece deports migrants, Paris attack suspect arrested, Mississippi passes controversial bill and update on Keystone pipeline leak in this week’s news.
Apr 10, 2016
International Affairs
“They had braved risks and hardships to get to Greece, having crossed the narrow strait from Turkey in flimsy rafts like nearly a million others last year — with hundreds dying along the way. But on Monday, Greek and European Union officials sent them back — 202 migrants — beginning a central part of a deal worked out with Turkey last month to stem the flow of people making the perilous journey to European shores.”
“The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared them with a large network of international partners, including the Guardian and the BBC.” Read more from CavsConnect here.
“ISIS-affiliated militants captured more than 300 workers and contractors at a cement factory in Syria, state news reported Thursday. Al-Badiyeh Cement Co. said the militants were holding the workers and contractors from the plant near Damascus, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, citing a source in Syria’s Ministry of Industry.”
“Is a terror suspect arrested Friday in Belgium the hat-wearing man seen in airport surveillance video moments before one of two deadly terror attacks in Brussels? That’s what investigators are trying to determine after nabbing Mohamed Abrini in a police operation in the Anderlecht district of Brussels. Abrini has been tied to the terror attacks on Paris last November through surveillance video and DNA. Authorities now can question him about the Brussels airport bombing on March 22, part of the attacks that killed 32 people.”
“A powerful earthquake rattled Pakistan’s capital and other cities across the country on Sunday, causing panic among people but with no immediate reports of casualties or major damages. Pakistani official Arif Ullah told The Associated Press that the magnitude-7.1 quake was centered near Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan. Germany’s GFZ Research Center for Geosciences set the quake’s magnitude at 6.5.”
Domestic Affairs
“A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can count everyone, not just eligible voters, in deciding how to draw electoral districts. The justices turned back a challenge from Texas voters that could have dramatically altered political district boundaries and disproportionately affected the nation’s growing Latino population. The court ruled that Texas’ challenged state Senate districting map, using total population, complied with the principle of “one person, one vote,” the requirement laid out by the Supreme Court in 1964 that political districts be roughly equal in population.”
“Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a controversial religious freedom bill Tuesday, a piece of legislation that gay rights groups and the state’s businesses have decried as discriminatory. Protesters had urged the governor not to sign it, saying it enables discrimination of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. But Bryant said he signed the bill into law ‘to protect sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions of individuals, organizations and private associations from discriminatory action by state government.'”
“TransCanada plans to reopen the Keystone pipeline on Saturday, a week after a spill was discovered in an underground section of the pipeline in South Dakota. After days of searching for the source of the spill, TransCanada announced on Friday it had identified a “small leak” on the pipeline near the Freeman pump station in Hutchinson County. TransCanada said regulators have given the company conditional approval to resume delivering oil on the pipeline on Saturday following completion of repairs. However, the conditional restart calls for the pipeline to operate a “reduced pressure” to make sure it’s functioning correctly.”
Election:
“Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Bernie Sanders won Tuesday’s primaries in Wisconsin, dealing setbacks to frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and giving both winning candidates a burst of momentum as more delegate-rich contests loom in a matter of weeks.”
“Continuing a string of victories across the West, Senator Bernie Sanders won the Wyoming Democratic caucuses Saturday, chipping away at Hillary Clinton’s delegate lead before a major primary in New York next week. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, The Associated Press declared Mr. Sanders the winner with 56 percent of the vote.”
