TRUMP WINS NEVADA CAUCUS
Donald Trump has won the Nevada caucus with a comfortable margin (45.9% of the votes) over his nearest Republican rivals Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, according to results reported this morning by The Washington Post. This third consecutive win by the American billionaire, after victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, cements his lead in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Marco Rubio finished second with 23.8% of votes, followed by Ted Cruz with 21.5% of votes. “We’re winning, winning, winning the country, and soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning,” Trump said in his victory speech, in which he also expressed his love for the “poorly educated,” as CNN reports.
GUANTANAMO CLOSING PLAN ANNOUNCED
President Barack Obama revealed a blueprint yesterday to close the controversial Guantanamo prison in Cuba and urged lawmakers to support it, The Washington Post reports. “This is about closing a chapter in our history,” he said from the White House. The plan will move as many as 60 prisoners to prisons on U.S. soil. This was immediately condemned by lawmakers. Arizona Senator John McCain described the plan as “a vague menu of options, not a credible plan for closing Guantanamo, let alone a coherent policy to deal with future terrorist detainees.”
NEPAL PLANE CRASH KILLS 23
A plane crash in western Nepal early this morning has killed all 23 people on board, The Himalayan Times reports. The twin-engined plane, operated by Tara Air, was travelling from the town of Pokhara to Jomsom. The control tower lost contact with the aircraft shortly after taking off. Most of the victims were Nepali, but a Chinese woman and a Kuwaiti man were also among the 20 passengers on the flight along with the three crew members.
NEW RISKS THAT ZIKA IS SPREADING BY SEX
U.S. health authorities announced yesterday they were investigating 14 new cases of the Zika virus that were possibly sexually transmitted, The New York Times reports. The reports concern women, some pregnant, who have not travelled to Latin America, where the virus has largely spreaded, but whose male partners have. Scientists say sexual transmission of the Zika virus is extremely rare, but if these cases are confirmed, this mass outbreak could be even more serious than previously thought.
VERBATIM
“That day, I thought: “Even the Good Lord has abandoned me”,” the soon-to-be former president of FIFA Sepp Blatter told the French sports daily Sepp-blatter-ce-jour-la-je-me-suis-dit-meme-le-bon-dieu-m-a-abandonne”>L’Equipe in an interview published today, referring to May 27, 2015. That day, Swiss police, cooperating with the FBI, raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested seven top FIFA executives, eventually leading to Blatter’s suspension. In the interview, which was published ahead of Friday’s election of the new president of FIFA, Blatter also tackles the former head of UEFA and would-be successor Michel Platini, who, along with the 79-year-old Swiss, was banned from any FIFA activity for eight years. “He’s always been a spoiled child,” Blatter said. “People have carried him, he’s never had to fight.”
REFERENDUM BLOCKS MORALES AMBITIONS
With 51% voting against a referendum to change the constitution, Bolivian President Evo Morales has been blocked from seeking a fourth term in office in 2019. Read more in our Extra! feature.
ON THIS DAY
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From Iran to Cuba, time for today’s 57-second shot of history.
LIBYA: MIGRANTS AND WAR
- The Italian navy said it rescued at least 731 migrants on six boats and found four bodies yesterday off the Libyan coast, the daily La Repubblica reports. More than 6,700 people have arrived in Italy via Libya since the beginning of the year.
- Meanwhile, a senior French official has confirmed to Le Monde that France is running covert operations on Libyan soil. Read more about it here, Exclusive: France’s Clandestine “Precursor” Operations In Libya.
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Photo: Federico Gambarini/DPA/ZUMA
Millions of people around the world will have to do without “fun-size” Mars bars, Snickers, Milky Ways and Celebrations for a short while, after a German consumer found a small piece of red plastic in one of the products. In a statement , the company said it was recalling such products in 55 countries. The measure luckily doesn’t concern regular-sized chocolate bars.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
The consequences can be catastrophic when cyber criminals blackmail hospitals. Experts are warning hospitals that they’re not doing enough to protect their patients’ data, Die Welt reports: “These incidents give rise to fear of a particular kind, cyber threats worthy of a science fiction drama: the evil pharmaceutical company that steals patients’ data for their own benefit; the faceless criminals that steal data of famous patients to blackmail them for millions; the hackers able to turn respiratory or anaesthetic machines off via remotely controlled programs. ‘Data protection is not present in many of our hospitals,’ says Karl Lauterbach, spokesperson for health policies of Germany’s Social Democratic party. ‘It is actually surprising that nothing major has happened yet.'”
Read the full article, Cyber Attacks On Hospitals, A New Kind Of Deadly Virus.
MY GRAND-PERE’S WORLD
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ELIZABETH LINE
A London rail line is set to be renamed the “Elizabeth Line.” For Elizabeth Line, who works for a publisher in New York, it was a nice surprise to see herself trending on Twitter. Perhaps the Queen should to turn to Snapchat.
