Top Stories Today – April 9, 2019
Top Stories Today – April 9, 2019
Israelis vote in close-fought election
Israelis are voting in the country’s most closely-fought general election in years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party, is seeking a fifth term in office. But he is facing corruption allegations and a strong challenge from former military chief Benny Gantz.
Gantz, head of the centrist Blue and White alliance, is challenging Netanyahu on the key issue of security and is promising cleaner politics. Israel’s Labor Party, which sealed a breakthrough peace deal with the Palestinians in the 1990s, has lost favor with voters in recent years. BBC
Trump shakes up the DHS
Several more Department of Homeland Security officials are leaving the administration after the resignation of DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. Trump announced Nielsen’s departure on Sunday evening, and on Monday, the White House confirmed that Secret Service Director Randolph Alles is also leaving his position. He will be replaced by Secret Service official James Murray. CNN reports that Alles was fired.
Additionally, CBS News reports that US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Lee Cissna, DHS undersecretary for management Claire Grady, and DHS general counsel John Mitnick are leaving as well as part of a “system-wide purge” led by Trump adviser Stephen Miller. The White House has not yet confirmed these additional departures. The New York Times, CNN via The Week
May meets Merkel for Brexit delay call
Theresa May is holding last-minute Brexit talks with the leaders of Germany and France, with the UK due to leave the EU in three days time. May met Angela Merkel in Berlin, and will meet Emmanuel Macron in Paris, as she urges both to back her request to delay Brexit again until 30 June. No 10 said the PM and Chancellor Merkel agreed “on the importance of ensuring Britain’s orderly withdrawal”.
There is a summit on Wednesday when all EU states will vote on an extension. Cross-party talks aimed at breaking the impasse are also set to continue. The negotiating teams will be joined by Chancellor Philip Hammond, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and shadow chancellor John McDonnell, with the Labor frontbencher saying they hoped to “broaden the talks”. But in a leaked letter seen by the Telegraph, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has warned that agreeing with Labor over its demand for a customs union is the “worst of both worlds” and will leave Britain unable to set its own trade policy. The UK is currently due to leave the EU at 23:00 BST on Friday. BBC
Trump’s ‘wait in Mexico’ policy blocked
A federal judge on Monday blocked an experimental Trump administration policy that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases make their way through the US immigration court system, a major blow to President Trump’s efforts to stem the surge of crossings at the southern border.
US District Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco enjoined the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) policy days after outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pledged to expand the program. The policy began in January at the San Ysidro port of entry in California but has been extended to the Calexico, Calif., entry and to the entry in El Paso, and Seeborg wrote that the approach would have been further extended if the court had not stepped in. Several hundred migrants have been returned to Mexico under the program after seeking asylum at the border. The Washington Post
US designates Iranian force as terrorist organization
For the first time, the United States is designating a part of another government as a terrorist organization, targeting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which is the Islamic Republic’s most powerful security organization.
The US action, which takes effect in one week and includes the IRGC’s elite secretive Quds Force, means it will be a federal crime to provide any type of support to the IRGC. The move “makes crystal clear the risks of conducting business with, or providing support to, the IRGC,” according to Trump’s statement. “If you are doing business with the IRGC, you will be bankrolling terrorism.” The Voice of America