April 24, 2019

Weekly World News Update

Tragedy in Sri Lanka; U.S. Pressures Iran; North Korea News; Ukrainian Election; Mueller Report Highlights Russia; Turmoil in Libya; Big Court Cases; Rwandan Genocide: 25 Years Later; Evaluating Progress for Earth Day and U.S. Global Infrastructure; and More Sanctions for Latin America

Quote of the Week " I will completely restructure the police and security forces in the coming weeks. I expect to change the heads of defence establishments within next 24 hours. The security officials who got the intelligence report from a foreign nation did not share it with me. Appropriate actions would have been taken. I have decided to take stern action against these officials." -- Maithripala Sirisena, President of Sri Lanka, in a televised address to the nation Tuesday, as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Tragedy in Sri Lanka “ Sri Lanka’s Perfect Storm of Failure” Lydia Khalil -- Foreign Policy, April 23, 2019 “ What’s Different About the Attacks in Sri Lanka” Krishnadev Calamur -- The Atlantic, April 22, 2019 “ Sri Lanka Bombings: What We Know” Bruce Hoffman -- Council on Foreign Relations, April 23, 2019

U.S. Stops Iranian Sanction Waivers “ As Trump Moves to Cut Off Iran’s Oil Revenues, What’s His Endgame?” Suzanne Maloney -- Brookings, April 22, 2019 “ Latest U.S. Pressure Has Iran Over a Barrel” Ray Takeyh -- Council on Foreign Relations, April 22, 2019 “ Trump’s Inconsistent Approach to Iran Oil Waivers Means He Can’t Have His Cake and Eat It Too” Randolph Bell -- Atlantic Council, April 22, 2019 " What Does the End of U.S. Waivers on Iran's Oil Exports Mean?" Anjli Raval and Ed Crooks -- Financial Times, April 22, 2019

North Korea's Bold Moves " Kim Jong-un Arrives in Vladivostok Ahead of First Meeting With Putin" Joshua Berlinger; Zahra Ullah; Darya Tarasova -- CNN, April 24, 2019 “ North Korea Says It Test-Fired New Tactical Guided Weapon” The Korea Times, April 18, 2019 “ North Korea Calls for Replacing Pompeo With ‘More Careful and Mature’ Negotiator” Koh Byung-joon -- Yonhap News Agency, April 18, 2019

Comedian’s Presidential Race Wins Him a New Stage  “ A Shadow Over Ukraine’s Presidential Election” Katharine Quinn-Judge -- International Crisis Group, April 19, 2019 “ How the West Helped Put a Comedian in Reach of Ukraine’s Presidency” Mary Mycio -- Atlantic Council, April 18, 2019 “ Zelenskiy's Landslide in Ukraine: What Does It Mean?” Olga Burlyuk; Balázs Jarábik; Denys Kiryukhin; Konstantin Skorkin -- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 22, 2019 " The World Just Witnessed the First Entirely Virtual Presidential Campaign" Adrian Karatnycky -- Politico, April 24, 2019

Russia Highlighted in Mueller Report “ 'Putin Has Won:’ Mueller Report Details the Ways Russia Interfered in the 2016 Election” Dustin Volz and Alan Cullison -- The Wall Street Journal, April 19, 2019

Libya in Disorder “ Russia’s Mediation Goals in Libya” Samuel Ramani -- Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 18, 2019 “ The Fight for Libya: What to Know” Steven Cook -- Council on Foreign Relations, April 19, 2019 “ Libya’s Perpetual Chaos” Ethan Chorin -- Foreign Affairs, April 19, 2019 “ Tripoli Chaos Closes in on the City’s Civilians” Tom Westcott -- The New Humanitarian, April 22, 2019

Global Court Cases to Watch “ Supreme Court Extends President Ghani’s Tenure” Gulabuddin Ghubar -- TOLOnews, April 21, 2019 “ Myanmar Court Confirms Reuters Reporters’ Sentence” Jon Allsop -- Columbia Journalism Review, April 24, 2019 “ After Sabarimala Temple, SC to Decide On Entry of Women in Mosques” Amit Anand Choudhary -- Times of India, April 16, 2019 “ Thousands Protest in Morocco Demanding Release of Jailed Activists” Ahmed Eljechtimi -- Reuters, April 21, 2019

Rwandan Genocide: 25 Years Later “ Rwanda, Part 3: A Genocide Forgiven, But Not Forgotten” Seif Kousmate -- The New Humanitarian, April 19, 2019 (Weekly World News Update Published Rwanda Parts 1 and 2 April 10)

Earth Day: Have We Made Progress? “ 7 Things We’ve Learned About Earth Since the Last Earth Day” Umair Irfan -- Vox, April 22, 2019 " 5 Environmental and Human Trends Worth Celebrating This Earth Day" Ronald Bailey -- Reason, April 22, 2019 " Earth Day 2019: These Amazing NASA Images Show Earth from Above" Hanneke Weitering -- Space.com, April 22, 2019

Tackling U.S. Global Infrastructure “ The Higher Road: Forging a U.S. Strategy for the Global Infrastructure Challenge” Matthew Goodman; Daniel Runde; Jonathan Hillman; Erol Yayboke -- Center for Strategic and International Studies, April 23, 2019

U.S. Lumps on Latin American Sanctions “ Trump Cracks Down on Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela” Gisela Salomon; Deb Riechmann; Matthew Lee -- Associated Press, April 17, 2019