Trading punches. Watching ripples. Remembering a legend. It’s Thursday, and here are the 5 things you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.
1. Campaign 2016
The gloves are officially off, at least on the Democratic side of this wacky nomination race. Yesterday Team Sanders and Team Clinton traded body blows, with Sanders saying Clinton wasn’t “qualified” to be president, you know with her accepting that Wall Street money and all. Earlier in the day Clinton wondered out loud if Sanders was even a Democrat, much less “ready to be president,” since he kind of bombed in an interview with a media outlet last weekend. And to think we always considered this match-up the more civil of the two.
2. Panama Papers
Ripples from the disclosures found within the Panama Papers continue to spread out: Iceland will swear in a new Prime Minister today, after Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down because the leaked documents revealed his links to an offshore company, triggering mass protests. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino is entangled in the mess as well. A controversial TV rights contract between UEFA — European football’s governing body — and a South American network has emerged from the leak. Infantino, who’s denied any wrongdoing, used to be UEFA’s general secretary — and the contract reportedly has his signature on it. Yesterday Swiss police raided UEFA’s headquarters.
3. Mine explosion disaster
He’s going to prison and has to pay a huge fine, but the punishment a former mining executive got yesterday will never be enough for some folks. Ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship got a year in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for his part in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 people in West Virginia in 2010. Blankenship’s company deliberately evaded safety regulations for years and even had two sets of books to mislead miners and inspectors. As he walked to a car after the sentencing, victims’ family members shouted at him.
4. Impeachment
Spring is in the air, and lawmakers’ thoughts are turning toward kicking folks out of office. In Brazil, President Dilma Rousseff is one step closer to getting the boot after a committee voted yesterday to continue the impeachment process against her. Closer to home, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley’s scandal overshadows everything there, but don’t mention the “I”-word to Bentley, who made clear in a news conference yesterday that he’s concentrating on the “real problems” the state faces and not the possibility that articles of impeachment may soon be introduced against him.
5. Death penalty
Executions are up sharply around the world. Amnesty International notes in its report on the death penalty that at least 1,634 people were executed last year, an increase of more than 50% over 2014. But most of that number comes from three countries: Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Together they accounted for almost 90% of all executions in 2015. The United States only had 28 executions last year, the lowest number in more than two decades.