Recapping the past few weeks in world news

The past few weeks have been filled with numerous world shaping events, and since The Anchor has taken a bit of a break  on reporting, here is a quick recap of the highlights:

April 1

Win for LGBT in Costa Rica

Carlos Alvarado defeated Fabricio Alvarado in the second  round of voting to become the new President of Costa Rica. He will be the first president to be pro same-sex marriage.

April 7

Brazillian former president submits to 12 year sentence

The impeached Luiz Inácio  Lula da Silva addressed the public alongside his impeached successor. He vowed not to fight his  arrest and to serve the 12 years given to him for corruption after failing his second appeal despite  maintaining to state his innocence.  April 8 Terror reaches the north The first terror charges in  Finland are leveled at Abderrahman Bouanane in a court within  a prison. He is charged with the  murder of two and eight attempted murders, all occurring  in Turku’s main market square.

April 9

Nigerian police fire at civilian protestors

Nigerian police opened fire with bullets and tear gas at Shiite  Muslims protesting the imprisonment of Islamic Movement  of Nigeria (IMN) leader Ibrahim Zakzaky. The protestors did not resort to violence, saying that the only action that would halt their efforts is the liberation of their leader.

April 10

Diplomatic meeting with Qatar

President Trump hosts Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin  Hamad Al Thani, praising their counter-terrorism efforts, which is currently a disputed area of discussion in the White House and among Qatar’s neighbors.

April 12

New eyes in the sky

TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, is announced to launch from Cape  Canaveral on April 16 by NASA. Upon launch, TESS will be searching for exoplanets.

April 13

Gaza Strip gets hot Israeli forced open fire on protesters burning tires and Israeli flags along the Gaza border,  killing one and injuring 233.

April 14

Multilateral response in Syria

The United States, France and the United Kingdom targeted  manufacturing plants of chemical weapons and other Syrian  military sites in response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons within their borders

April 15

Russian spy trial in U.K.

In the U.K. case regarding the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal and his daughter  Yulia Skirpal, the U.K. opposition leader demanded “incontrovertible evidence.”

April 15

Timbuktu attack

An attack unprecedented in size killed one and injured over a dozen others when two cars and “many” militants bearing the U.N. symbols and hallmark blue  helmets attacked two U.N. military bases near a Malian airport.

April 16

Boston Marathon American

Dream Desiree Linden won the women’s elite race of the Boston Marathon, becoming the first  American woman to do so in 33 years. Yuki Kawauchi of Japan won the men’s elite race. In the wheelchair division, Marcel Hug won the men’s race and Tatyana McFadden of the U.S. won the women’s race.

April 16

Kite bombs launched at Israeli territory

Gaza Palestinians have begun sending kites attached to firebombs into Israeli territory.

April 16

Korea Summit taking shape

In preparation for the interKorean Summit, planned for  April 27, 2018, South Korea opened a press center and online platform. This summit precedes, and will set a precedent for, the North Korea-United States summit which has not set a date but is proposed to be before the end of May, 2018.

April 16

200 immigrants freed

Proactiva Open Arms ship was  released after 29 days, freeing 200 immigrants who were  detained along with the ship upon suspicion that the search and rescue mission was taking  part in illegal immigration after they refused to return the  immigrants to Libya.