10 things you need to know today: April 6, 2016

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1. Cruz and Sanders win Wisconsin primaries
2. UConn defeats Syracuse for a record fourth straight NCAA women's title
3. Mississippi governor signs controversial religious freedom law
4. Iceland prime minister steps down over Panama Papers scandal
5. Moderate GOP senator calls for Supreme Court confirmation hearings
6. Pfizer kills Allergan merger after U.S. tightens loophole
7. Cruz nearly catches Trump in nationwide poll
8. Jacob Zuma beats South Africa impeachment vote
9. California investigators seize anti-Planned Parenthood footage
10. Deposition ordered for 'Jackie' of debunked Rolling Stone rape article

published 6 April 2016

1. Cruz and Sanders win Wisconsin primaries

Sen. Ted Cruz beat Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders defeated Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton in the Wisconsin presidential primaries on Tuesday. Cruz won 48 percent of the vote, while Trump got 35 percent and Ohio Gov. John Kasich 14 percent. Cruz will get most of the state's 42 delegates, damaging Trump's odds of winning the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination outright. Sanders' solid win extended a series of recent victories, but Clinton still holds a commanding lead among committed delegates.

Connecticut clobbered Syracuse 82-51 to complete an undefeated season and win a record fourth straight NCAA women's basketball championship on Tuesday night. The victory was the 151st over four years for the class of UConn's Big Three of Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck, and Moriah Jefferson, another NCAA record. Stewart had 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists in the championship game and was named the Final Four's most outstanding player for the fourth straight time, another first.

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Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) signed a bill into law Tuesday allowing businesses, churches, and charities to refuse service to gay couples on the grounds of religious beliefs. Supporters of the Protecting Freedom of Conscience From Government Discrimination Act say it will protect the rights of people who believe marriage should only be between a man and a woman. Critics slammed Bryant for signing the bill, which Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin called "discriminatory and deplorable."

Iceland's prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, stepped down under pressure on Tuesday after being caught up in the Panama Papers scandal. Documents that were part of a massive leak from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Foneca, shed light on the offshore holdings and hidden wealth of numerous world leaders, business titans, criminals, and others. Gunnlaugsson was the first casualty, but the U.S. and governments around the world are looking into the 11.5 million leaked documents for signs of wrongdoing.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine on Tuesday became the second Republican to meet with President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, and afterwards broke with GOP leaders by calling for the Judiciary Committee to hold confirmation hearings. Republican leaders repeatedly have said they would not consider any Obama nominee, insisting that the next president should fill the seat left by the February death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Collins said Garland, a centrist appellate judge, was "well-informed, thoughtful, impressive," and "extraordinarily bright."

Pfizer has scrapped its $160 billion deal to take over smaller Dublin-based drug maker Allergan, putting an end to what would have been the biggest corporate inversion ever. The decision came a day after the Treasury Department unveiled new rules designed to curb such mergers, which corporations use to reduce their tax burdens by merging with foreign companies and shifting their home base overseas. The deal's demise marked a victory for President Obama, who on Tuesday called on Congress to close the corporate inversion loophole completely.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday has Ted Cruz almost catching up with Donald Trump, with Trump narrowly leading Cruz, 39.5 percent to 35.2 percent nationally, within the poll's 4.8 point credibility interval. The only other candidate to have tied Trump in the Reuters poll was Ben Carson, on Nov. 7. Cruz was trailing Trump by 20 percentage points in early March. The poll was conducted April 1-5, during a particularly rocky week for Trump and before he lost the Wisconsin primary to Cruz.

South African President Jacob Zuma survived an impeachment vote on Tuesday, thanks to support from the African National Congress' two-thirds majority in the 400-seat assembly. The country's highest court last week said that Zuma had violated the constitution by failing to repay taxpayer money spent on his private home. Zuma apologized on Friday, and that was enough to win the backing of ANC leaders. "That's the humility that is necessary for any leader," ANC General Secretary Gwede Mantashe said.

California authorities raided the home of the anti-abortion activist behind a series of anti-Planned Parenthood undercover videos on Tuesday. Investigators seized a laptop and hard drives containing all of the footage shot over 30 months by the activist, David Daleiden. California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) declined to comment on the investigation. California and other states are believed to be looking into whether Daleiden and his organization, the Center for Medical Progress, broke laws.

A judge has ordered the alleged sexual assault victim in a debunked Rolling Stone article to answer questions in a defamation lawsuit, according to court papers. The woman, identified as "Jackie" in the article, said she had been gang raped at a University of Virginia fraternity party. University of Virginia Associate Dean of Students Nicole Eramo, who was mentioned in the article, is suing Rolling Stone and its parent company for $7.8 million. Jackie's deposition is scheduled for Thursday.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.