10 major news events you may have missed this past week

Italians have found a source of hope in the rebuilding of the Morandi bridge, a vital structure that collapsed two years ago and killed 43 people in Genoa.

But now, as the new bridge nears completion amid the coronavirus outbreak, Italians have transitioned the tragedy into a source of pride.

"A new light shines, giving hope to all of Italy," said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte after the last pieces of the bridge were installed, before it reaches completion with a layer of concrete and asphalt.

The bridge's initial collapse was due largely because of a failure to keep up with day-to-day maintenance for its aging infrastructure. Its demise was seen as a national embarrassment.

But with completion on the horizon, Italians are amazed by how quickly the structure was recreated, and have taken a sense of pride in the rebuilding, the New York Times reported.

The mayor of Prague, Zdenek Hrib, has been placed under police protection following a reported Russian ploy to murder him with poison.

According to the Czech investigative magazine, Respekt, an assassin crossed the borders with Russian diplomatic papers and a suitcase full of ricin, a fatal poison, meant to kill the mayor. A day after the report was published, Hrib was placed under police protection.

Hrib confirmed he was placed under protection efforts in an interview with a Russian independent radio station called "Echo of Moscow," but did not say whether it was because of the Respekt report.

Respekt reported that the assassin was a member of the Russian secret service and sought to kill Hrib after a series of actions meant to undermine the Russian government and promote "pro-Western foreign policy."

Czech authorities have not publicly corroborated the report.

According to the Guardian, Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the report was "fake."

"We don't know anything at all about this investigation. We don't know who did the investigation. It looks like yet another canard," Peskov said.

Roughly 90% of Sudanese women have been subjected to female genital mutilation, a procedure that can lead to fatal health and sexual problems.

But now, under a new Sudanese government, the invasive procedure has been outlawed. Under the new law, anyone who performs genital mutilation will be subjected to up to a fine and up to three years in prison.

The decision marks a major victory for women's rights in Africa, where genital mutilation is practiced in at least 27 countries.

"This is a massive step for Sudan and its new government," Nimco Ali of the Five Foundation, an organization that campaigns for an end to genital mutilation globally, told the New York Times.

"Africa cannot prosper unless it takes care of girls and women. They are showing this government has teeth."

But advocates for the new law have warned that this is just the first step in the battle to protect women from the procedure. Female genital mutilation has long been ingrained within religious and cultural beliefs, and ending the practice entirely will be difficult to track.

This week, the Democratic members of New York's board of elections voted to cancel the state's Democratic primary, which was scheduled to take place on June 23.

The unprecedented move was made because to curb millions of people from going out to vote in the middle of the pandemic. However, the state will still hold congressional and state-level primaries that same day.

The decision was met with backlash from Bernie Sanders' campaign, who noted that limiting the ability for New Yorkers to vote was undemocratic. Though Sanders suspended his campaign in early April, he remains on the ballot to collect delegates in order to influence the Democratic platform at the Democratic National Convention, scheduled to take place this summer.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who was an outspoken supporter of Sanders' campaign, noted that the decision to hold state-level primaries would still bring people to voting booths regardless.

"Again: NY is still holding primary elections on June 23rd. This decision does not change the fact that people will still be going outside to vote," she wrote on Twitter. "If NY doesn't want to risk possibly millions of ppl voting in-person, we need to mail everyone a ballot. Not an application for one."

Following the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an immediate ban of over 1,500 models of assault weapons.

The new ban includes a two year grace period for current owners of assault weapons to comply with the prohibition. The government stated that it will quickly implement a buy-back program to safely remove those weapons from current owners with compensation.

"There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada," Trudeau said in a news conference in Ottawa.

This decision comes after 22 people were killed over a 12-hour long shooting spree in Nova Scotia last month.

On Wednesday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association Board of Governors announced that it would support changing a rule to allow college athletes to receive money from using their name, image, or likenesses.

The Board sent their recommendations to three NCAA divisions, and expect the new rules to take effect at the start of the 2021-22 academic year.

The new statement includes information on allowing athletes to make an income as social media influencers, through commercials, or by holding autograph sessions, but will not allow athletes to receive money directly from universities.

Athletes will also not be permitted to use their school or conference logo in order to remain separate from school employees.

The NCAA has faced scrutiny for years over this issue, with critics noting that the intuition makes billions of dollars in revenue without giving a cut of the share to those who drive the income. Additionally, students who don't play sports but participate in entertainment-driven fields such as acting, or music, are able to make money as a college student.

New satellite data collected from NASA is providing scientists with the most detailed look at Antarctica's ice loss.

The system uses technology that can reflect back extremely precise images of ice surface levels, providing an overview of shifting ice levels throughout East Antarctica, West Antarctica, and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The research will help scientists better understand what's causing ice loss in Antarctica, and how that will relate to rising sea levels. Though the continent is losing large quantities of ice mass from climate change, that change has been uneven in some places. Where ice is lost in some areas, it may be gained more quickly in others.

Now, the high-resolution satellite data provides researchers with an overview of these areas, allowing the scientific community to better understand how ice shifts will affect the planet.

"Now we've got it all on the same map, which is a really powerful thing," Dr. Fricker, a glaciologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA, told the New York Times.

Overall, the researchers found that Antarctica lost enough ice from 2003 to 2019 to raise the sea level roughly one-quarter of an inch.

An unprecedented Facebook video posted by Rami Makhlouf, a powerful businessman and cousin to President Bashar al-Assad, revealed tensions within the ruling family.

Makhlouf pleaded with his cousin to help him avoid the government from seizing his assets, claiming that he does not have the money to pay what authorities are demanding. In the video, Makhlouf uses formal language and suggests that he's unable to address Assad on this matter directly — an indication that the two had a falling out.

Makhlouf once played an essential role in handling Syria's financial matters, and the video suggests that the conflict could be the most significant struggle for power in the family's regime in nearly 50 years.

"It's very big," Bassam Barabandi, a former diplomat who defected from the Syrian Embassy told the Washington Post. "Rami was in the inner circle from day one of Bashar's rule. He's built into the regime. To take him out would be like a divorce."

The largest bank in Israel, Bank Hapoalim, has pleaded guilty to helping US customers evade taxes by transferring money to offshore accounts, as well as for laundering money as part of a bribery operation related to international soccer.

The bank has agreed to pay $900 million for the combined crimes. As part of a crackdown on off-shore tax evasion by the US Department of Justice, American prosecutors found that the bank helped to evade taxes on more than $7.6 billion worth of deposits.

Prosecutors found that the bank had set up false accounts for US costumers in order to avoid paying taxes for over a decade.

In regard to the money laundering case, the bank admitted to helping launder millions of dollars in bribes to officials in FIFA, the international soccer association.

Tara Reade, a former staffer who worked in Joe Biden's Senate Office, has accused the Democratic presidential nominee of sexually assaulting her in 1993. Insider broke two new pieces of evidence that corroborate those claims.

In a series of interviews with Insider, Reade's former neighbor Lynda LaCasse said that Reade told her about the assault in the mid-90s.

"This happened, and I know it did because I remember talking about it," LaCasse said.

Another source, Lorraine Sanchez, who worked for a state senator with Reade in California in the mid-90s, told Insider that she remembers Reade saying she was fired from her job after filing a sexual harassment claim against her former boss in Washington, D.C.

This new evidence surfaced after Reade alleged that Biden sexually assaulted her in a semiprivate congressional hallway in 1993. In March, Reade told politics podcaster Katie Halper that she went to meet Biden to give him a gym bag. During that encounter, Reade said that Biden pushed her up against the wall, forcibly reached under her skirt, and penetrated her with his fingers.

According to Reade's account, when she refused Biden's advances, he became annoyed and said: "Aw man, I heard you liked me." Before walking away, Biden continued by saying "You're nothing to me," Reade said, then shook her by the shoulders and said, "You're OK, you're fine," and left.

LaCasse recalled that Reade mentioned the assault one night in 1995 or 1996 when they were sitting outside of their homes.

"She was crying," she said. "She was upset. And the more she talked about it, the more she started crying. I remember saying that she needed to file a police report," LaCasse told Insider.

LaCasse said she remembered Reade talking about being penetrated under her skirt. "She was devastated," LaCasse said.

At a time when Reade has faced harsh scrutiny and blatant denial from the Biden campaign, LaCasse told Insider that she decided to independently come forward now to support her friend.

"I have to support her just because that's what happened," LaCasse said. "We need to stand up and tell the truth."

For more information on these new developments, read the series of interviews here.