By Matthew Aguilera
Anchorage, Alaska: Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin announced her intention to run for the House of Representatives seat formerly occupied by Don Young, who passed away on the 18th of March. Her return is one which caught even members of her own party off guard, given her relative absence from politics since her failure to win the White House as Senator John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election. As Republican national committeewoman Cynthia Henry from Alaska puts it, Palin “…hasn’t been active in politics since the run for vice president and her service as governor. She hasn’t been involved, or I haven’t seen her at events” (Politico). Former President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed Palin, citing her value as a “…champion for Alaska values, Alaska energy, Alaska jobs, and the great people of Alaska” (CNN).
Hargeisa, Somaliland: A large fire ravaged much of a market in the capital of the Somali breakaway state of Somaliland on Friday night, destroying “…hundreds of businesses in the densely crowded market area as firefighters struggled to gain access to the flames” (BBC News). It is estimated that the destroyed property was worth in excess of two billion dollars, a sum which will fall hard upon the shoulders of the people of the breakaway state, given that the state only has a gross domestic product of roughly the same amount. Despite tense relations between Somaliland and Somalia, the event has “…united Somalis, with President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed of Somalia reaching out to Somaliland leader Muse Bihi Abdi in a rare phone call between the two. Abdi, who has been Somaliland’s president since 2017, has been pursuing international recognition of his territory’s self-declare independence, which Somalia opposes” (ABC News).
Tallahassee, Florida: New York mobster Dominic Taddeo, who “…killed three people and attempted to kill two others” (FOX 4) has escaped from federal custody on Wednesday, with the United States Marshals Service placing top priority on the investigation of his escape. His escape comes less than a year before he was set to be released, with Taddeo having been transferred from a “…medium-security prison in Sumter County, Florida, to a halfway house near Orlando” (CNN). Prior to his incarceration, Taddeo worked as a hit man for a Rochester-area crime family, and in 1992 pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering and the murder of three men during mob wars in the 1980s. The escapee had previously placed a request for compassionate release last year, however that request was denied when a New York judge rejected Taddeo’s claim that his hypertension put him at risk of health complications from COVID-19, as prosecutors said that “…medical records did not show that Taddeo was particularly unhealthy” (WFTC 9 ABC).
Budapest, Hungary: Viktor Orban was re-elected as the prime minister of Hungary on Sunday, marking the beginning of his fourth consecutive term since ascending to the office in 2010. “Orban’s Fidesz-led coalition had won 54 percent while the opposition coalition, United for Hungary, had 34 percent,” (NBC News) making the race anything but close. An issue which was incredibly crucial during the vote was that of relations with Russia, given the recent invasion of Ukraine. With the opposition coalition being largely pro-European, Orban frequented the claim that an opposition victory would involve sending forces to Ukraine, something which did not fare well with Hungarian voters. In addition, Orban claimed that “…supplying Ukraine with weapons — something which Hungary, alone among Ukraine’s European Union neighbors, has refused to do — would make the country a military target, and that sanctioning Russian energy imports would cripple Hungary’s own economy” (NPR).
