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Liking mornings linked to being stupid –
People who are upbeat in the morning have extremely low intelligence, it has been confirmed. Researchers at the Institute for Studies found that self-styled ‘morning people’ have IQ levels below that of most people and even some animals. Professor Henry Brubaker said: “People who jump eagerly out of bed to begin their ‘morning rituals’ have the simplistic upbeat mentality that comes from a general lack of awareness. Labradors are also like that. “Their only evolutionary purpose is to clatter around in the kitchen making smoothies, annoying the more intelligent humans so much that they are forced to crawl grudgingly out of bed and start doing the things that are truly necessary to society. “‘Morning people’ love poor quality cheerful art like ‘beach grooves’ compilation CDs and films about street dancers succeeding against the odds. They’re nice. They just aren’t very bright.” [Daily Mash]

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Armed conflicts and attacks

• War in Afghanistan
  • April 2016 Kabul attack
    • A large explosion is reported in the Afghan capital Kabul a week after the Taliban declared the start of their annual spring offensive. The target was an Afghan government security compound with at least 28 people reported killed and more than 200 others injured. (Times of India), (AP via Fox News)
    • The United Nations Security Council condemns today’s attack in Kabul by the Taliban. (AP via The Washington Post)
• War in North-West Pakistan
  • A suicide bomber explodes his vest next to a government building in Mardan, Pakistan, killing one person and critically wounding three more. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
• Iraqi Civil War
  • Iraqi officials, following arrested IS militants’ directions, uncover two mass graves with bodies of about 40 people in Ramadi. (AP via Fox News)
• Syrian Civil War
  • Airstrikes that were likely carried out by Syrian government forces kill around 40 people in a crowded market in rebel territory in Syria‘s Idlib Governorate. (Reuters)

Disasters and accidents

• 2016 Ecuador earthquake
  • The death toll from Saturday’s earthquake has risen to at least 480 with 1,700 missing. Another 2,500 have been injured. President Rafael Correa states it is the worst disaster in Ecuador in seven decades, and the reconstruction will have a “huge economic impact” on the country. (BBC) (CBS News)

International relations

• Sweden–United States relations
  • Swedish deputy prime minister Åsa Romson is criticized after referring to the September 11 attacks in New York as mere “accidents”. Romson made the comments on public television while discussing the resignation of housing minister Mehmet Kaplan who had compared Israel’s treatment of Arabs to the Nazis’ treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. (Daily Mail) (The Local)
• Cross-Strait relations
  • Under pressure from the Chinese delegation, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters ejects the Taiwanese delegation from a symposium of the OECD Steel Committee; it was the first such incident since Taiwan joined the OECD Steel Committee in 2005. (Focus Taiwan) (AP via Daily Mail) (AFP via The Daily Star)
• The European Union offers to help the fledgling new UN-backed Libyan unity government with assistance in its security sector, managing migration, border management and police capacity building. This comes after Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj appealed to foreign governments for help in fighting ISIL and aid to rebuild the country. (The Guardian)
• India–United Kingdom relations
  • In response to an ongoing Supreme Court case regarding the ownership of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, the government of India said it should not try to reclaim it from the United Kingdom. The government argues that the diamond was given to the British as a gift and was not stolen. However, the Supreme Court says it will continue with the case. (BBC)

Law and crime

• Authorities in China sentence Huang Yu, a computer technician from Sichuan who worked for a government department which handled state secrets, to death for leaking more than 150,000 classified documents to an unidentified foreign power. The documents in question covered secrets ranging from the ruling Communist Party to military and financial issues. (The Guardian)
• Lutz Bachmann, the leader of the German far-right and anti-Islam Pegida movement, goes on trial in Dresden on charges of hate speech. (BBC)
• Transgender rights in the United States
  • An American federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, rules a transgender high school student who was banned from the boy’s bathroom can proceed with the lawsuit against the school board.(Richmond Times-Dispatch)
  • Yesterday, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a statement that North Carolina House Bill 2, a so-called bathroom bill, “…jeopardizes not only the dignity, but also the actual physical safety, of transgender people.” (The Washington Post)
• Kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir
  • A Jerusalem district court rejects an insanity plea and convicts Yosef Chaim Ben-David as the ringleader of the terrorist kidnapping and murder of the 16-year-old Palestinian. In November, the court convicted Ben-David’s two accomplices, both minors, of murder. (Haaretz) (Al Bawaba)
• While South Korea prepares for the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Associated Press reports the country has covered up widespread human rights violations, including rapes and murders, when it swept so-called vagrants off the streets in the years prior to the 1988 Games in Seoul. Thousands of victims have received no compensation, nor public recognition nor an apology. The AP says two early attempts to investigate were suppressed by senior officials and the current government refuses to revisit the case and is blocking a push by an opposition lawmaker. (AP)
• Flint water crisis
  • According to government officials, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette tomorrow will announce criminal charges against two state regulators and a Flint employee in connection with the city’s lead-tainted water crisis. (AP via Fox News)

Politics and elections

• United States presidential election, 2016
  • Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016, Republican Party presidential primaries, 2016
    • Voters in the U.S. state of New York go to the polls for a primary election with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump expected to win the respective contests for their parties in that state. (Reuters via The Star)
    • Donald Trump wins by a large margin in the Republican Party primary. (AP via OregonLive)
    • Hillary Clinton gains a decisive win (57.6 percent to 42.4 percent) over Bernie Sanders in the Democratic Party primary. (New York Times) (Five Thirty Eight) (The Washington Post)
• Philippine presidential election, 2016
  • Rodrigo Duterte apologizes for making remarks about rape. (Rappler)
• The government of the Australian external territory of Norfolk Island announces it is going to take its governance issue to the United Nations. Former and final Chief Minister of the island Lisle Snell said he seeks to have Norfolk Island added on the UN’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories and be given the rights that are accorded under the terms and conditions of being on the list. In 2015, the Australian government terminated Norfolk Island’s self-governing status in response to serious financial issues but without the islanders’ or government’s consent. (Radio New Zealand)
• Princess Sofia of Sweden and Prince Carl Philip announce birth of first son. (Daily Mail)

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