Globe Trot: Meltdown in Venezuela

VENEZUELA: The “mother of all protests” has left at least three people dead, as hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Caracas to protest socialist rule and the country’s devastating economy. Some are too hungry to protest.

Venezuela’s meltdown is a story of the eclipse of U.S. influence and the rise of a Marxist regime seeded with Cuban influencers.

TURKEY: Questions persist about the validity of last Sunday’s referendum—with one monitor reporting the number of votes exceeded the number of voters in more than 2,300 ballot boxes across the country.

FRANCE: Quick guide to French elections happening Sunday, as yesterday’s attack in Paris once again shows why security is a dominant theme.

Religion, long off the table in French civic life, has become a dominant issue.

SYRIA: It seems clear the United States did kill dozens of civilians in a Reaper drone strike on a mosque in Syria. Graphic graphics. It’s worth noting that the United States regularly drops multiple 500-pound bombs, as it did here, that are roughly equivalent to the MOAB dropped on Afghanistan last week.

IRAQ: “Mistakes were made” is a growing problem with the U.S. airstrike campaign in Iraq and Syria.

It’s tradition in Iraq for Christians to share Easter eggs with Muslims—and Yazidis—to talk about new life in a messiah.

Good explainer on the Yazidi people and what they believe. I’m working on a story about ongoing ISIS trafficking and abuse of Yazidi and Christian captives.