Domestic

Jon Rahm won the 87th Masters at Augusta National Golf Club last Sunday. Rahm won the U.S. Open in 2021, his first career Masters win. He is the second player from Spain to win two different majors, joining legend Seve Ballesteros. Rahm shot a final round 69, which included four birdies, to finish at 12-under. His strong final round pushed him to outlast Brooks Koepka who owned a four-stroke lead on the rest of the field before the end of his third round. Rahm remained consistent with all aspects of his game, while Koepka started to see inconsistencies in his final round.

Last Monday, the Biden Administration asked the fifth US Court of Appeals to put Trump-appointed Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s recent ruling on hold. Kacsmaryk’s ruling would suspend the FDA’s longtime approval of mifepristone, a pill that is necessary to carry out medical abortions, and would in turn prevent the manufacturer from distributing the drug. The Justice Department told the FDA to maintain the status of mifepristone while filing a motion in the federal district court to clarify the ruling. According to the Justice Department’s lawyers, if Kacsmaryk’s ruling were to take effect it would “thwart FDA’s scientific judgment and severely harm women, particularly those for whom mifepristone is a medical or practical necessity.” 

Dem. Justin Jones was reinstated to the House of Representatives last Monday after a protest over gun violence on the chamber floor resulted in his expulsion along with another Democrat, Justin J. Pearson. A third Democrat who had joined them in protest was Rep. Gloria Johnson, who avoided expulsion from the Republican-controlled legislature. Now technically a new member, Jones said he can file 15 bills. Each of those bills will have to do with gun reform, he said, because “that’s what these young people are begging us to do…The first thing I do when I walk into this building as a representative is to continue that call for common sense gun legislation.” 

International

Last Tuesday the United Nations began a review of its presence in Afghanistan. Last week’s decision by Taliban rulers that Afghan women employed with the U.N. could no longer report for work is the latest in restrictions imposed since they seized power in August 2021. The U.N. calls the decision an unparalleled violation of women’s rights, and said it “will endeavor to continue lifesaving, time-critical humanitarian activities” but “will assess the scope, parameters and consequences of the ban, and pause activities where impeded.” The situation in Afghanistan has been called the world’s most severe humanitarian crisis. Three-quarters of those in need are women or children. Female aid workers play a crucial role in reaching vulnerable, female-headed households, making the Taliban’s decision particularly distressing.

The FBI has announced it is working to track down who leaked sensitive intelligence documents on social media sites on April 5. About 1,000 people usually have access to this type of sensitive material. The Pentagon is working to reduce this number. Former officials familiar with leak investigations predict that finding the source of this leak could happen quickly because “the universe of possibilities is relatively small.” One U.S. official indicated that printers that are authorized to print classified documents require a unique ID, and this fact may provide clues for the search. “I don’t think there’s huge damage here,” one official said regarding the leak. Concern for battlefield ramifications in Ukraine are also slight. “People are assuming this was all new to the Russians — it probably wasn’t.”