‘Intelligence failure’ preceded Sri Lanka bombings

SRI LANKA: Suicide bombers struck an evangelical church and two Catholic churches, three hotels, and other sites on Easter Sunday in what appeared to be a coordinated attack that has left an estimated 290 dead and wounded more than 500 others. St. Sebastian Church posted on Facebook photos of the aftermath in its building, where perhaps 100 worshippers were killed. At Zion Church, a charismatic evangelical congregation on the island of Batticaloa, the pastor greeted the man who would turn out to be the suicide bomber, a visitor who said he was a Muslim.

SYRIA: Ahead of another round of peace talks in Kazakhstan, focus will be on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and whether he will abide Kurdish control in northeastern Syria border areas. Since last Thursday, jihadists have killed about 35 pro-government military personnel. Also, it snowed across Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Jordan over Easter.

BRITAIN: With 18 staff members resigned, Britain’s only gender transition facility is facing increased criticism it is fast-tracking children into sex change procedures. The number of children referred to the National Health Service’s Tavistock Centre has soared, from 94 in 2010 to 2,519 last year. Clinicians say they were pressured to quickly initiate treatment on children that could be irreversible.

“I would talk about it as an ‘atrocity,’” one female clinician, who remained anonymous, told The Times of London. “I know that sounds quite strong, but it felt as if we were a part of something that people would look back on in the future, and ask, ‘What were we thinking?’”

UKRAINE: Fiction became reality when a comedian whose only political experience was to play a president on television became the country’s next president. Volodymyr Zelensky, 41, beat the incumbent and four other candidates in a comparative landslide, continuing a trend of outsiders ousting establishment politicians in Europe and elsewhere.

UNITED STATES: Overmuch has been said already about the Mueller report, released Thursday. For competing smart perspectives from conservatives, read takes by Kim Strassel of The Wall Street Journal and David French at National Review. There’s more to look into concerning the Trump administration’s apparent willingness to further Russia’s annexations in Ukraine, including Crimea and a portion of eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia is carrying out a crackdown in Crimea over Jehovah’s Witnesses it has labeled extremists.

LIBYA: U.S. President Donald Trump’s outreach to militia leader Khalifa Haftar could drive up oil prices.

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