10 things you need to know today: April 18, 2016

Bernie Sanders walks through Brooklyn Bridge park

(Image credit: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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1. Brazil's lower house votes to impeach President Dilma Rousseff
2. Presidential candidates make last push for votes ahead of New York primary
3. Ecuador earthquake death toll jumps to 272 and is expected to keep rising
4. Oil price-freeze talks fail over Iran's absence
5. Netanyahu says the Golan Heights will never be returned to Syria
6. British airliner might have hit drone while landing in London
7. Russian jet buzzed U.S. plane in 'dangerous' incident, U.S. says
8. Cross-border attack from South Sudan kills 208 in Ethiopia
9. Thousands rally 'against hate' in Belgium
10. Jungle Book beats expectations with $103.6 million opening weekend

published 18 April 2016

1. Brazil's lower house votes to impeach President Dilma Rousseff

Brazil's lower house of Congress on Sunday voted to open impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff, sending the case to the Senate. Rousseff's administration has faced a corruption scandal and a shrinking economy, but the charges against her involve the alleged use of money from state-owned banks to cover up a budget deficit to improve her re-election odds. If the Senate takes the case, Rousseff will step down temporarily and Vice President Michel Temer will act as president while senators deliberate before voting next month.

The presidential candidates are making final pitches to New York voters ahead of the state's crucial primaries on Tuesday. The frontrunners, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, are heading into the contest with double-digit polling leads. Still, Trump rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz can win some of the state's coveted 95 GOP delegates if they keep Trump below 50 percent statewide, and in some of the state's 27 congressional districts. Clinton rival Bernie Sanders will look for a stronger-than-expected showing to preserve momentum gained in a string of recent wins.

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The death toll from a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Ecuador rose to at least 272, the country's leaders said Sunday night. At least 2,527 others were injured. The quake struck near fishing ports and tourist beaches 105 miles northwest of the capital, Quito. President Rafael Correa warned that the death toll would "surely rise, and in a considerable way," as rescue crews search for the missing, hoping survivors can be pulled from the rubble. "The pain is immense, but the spirit of the Ecuadorian people is greater," Correa said.

Negotiators from 18 major oil-producing nations failed to reach an agreement on freezing production during a Sunday meeting in Qatar. The talks hit a wall after Iran declined to send its oil minister, and regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia said it wouldn't agree to a freeze unless Iran signed on. Iran wants to boost its production back to levels seen before it was hit with now-lifted sanctions. Oil futures fell by 6.8 percent on the news, and analysts warned that the price of a barrel of crude could drop as low as $30 within days on fears that a global glut will continue.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the Golan Heights will "remain forever under Israeli sovereignty." Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, and in 1981, Israeli civil law was extended to the sparsely populated territory. With peace talks underway in Geneva, representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said they wanted to discuss returning the Golan Heights to Syria, but Netanyahu, visiting the region, said that's not an option.

A British Airways jet is believed to have hit a drone while landing at Heathrow Airport in London on Sunday. Police are investigating. The Airbus A320 landed safely after its front hit the object, and was cleared for its next flight. The airliner had 132 people and five crew members on board. If the suspicions of a drone collision are confirmed, the incident will be the first of its kind in the U.K.

A Russian jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea last week in the latest in a string of such dangerous incidents in the region, U.S. officials said Sunday. The Russian SU-27 fighter reportedly came within 50 feet of the American plane. The Russian plane executed a barrel roll over the American aircraft, a maneuver U.S. officials said was "unsafe and unprofessional." Two days earlier, a Russian warplane buzzed a U.S. destroyer cruising in the Baltic Sea.

Ethiopia's government on Sunday accused South Sudanese militants of killing 208 people in a cross-border raid. The gunmen reportedly also kidnapped 108 children and stole 2,000 head of livestock in the Friday attack in the Gambela region, which together with a neighboring province houses 284,000 South Sudanese refugees. The gunmen were not believed to be linked to either side in South Sudan's civil war. Cross-border cattle raids have occurred in the area before.

About 6,500 people joined a "march against hate" Sunday in Brussels, Belgium, where terrorists linked to the Islamic State killed 32 people last month. The rally took place in the Belgian capital's Molenbeek neighborhood, where many suspects in the bombings at the city's airport and a subway station, as well as last November's Paris attacks, lived. The march originally was scheduled for March 27, but was postponed due to security concerns.

The Jungle Book brought in $103.6 million on its debut weekend, the second biggest April box-office opening ever. The haul was surprisingly strong. Analysts had projected no more than $80 million for the Disney film, and the studio had even more modest expectations. Only last year's Furious 7 has had a bigger April debut. "We are ecstatic about where we’re starting and what it means for the future," said Dave Hollis, the studio's distribution chief.

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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.