World: Pope Francis made a brief symbolic visit to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday to draw attention to the Mediterranean refugee crisis. He returned to the Vatican with a dozen Syrian Muslim refugees, including six children. He said during his visit, “We have come to call the attention of the world to this grave humanitarian crisis and to plead for its resolution.”

Bringing home the refugees was not a spontaneous event. It required coordination between the Vatican and the governments of Greece and Italy.

>Saudi Arabia is threatening to sell off billions of dollars worth of US assets if Congress passes a bill allowing the Saudi government to be held responsible for the 9/11 attacks in lawsuits brought in American courts. Saudi Arabia would sell $750 billion in US treasury bills for fear that they might be frozen as a result of legal judgments. There has long been some suspicion that the Saudi government had some kind of involvement in, or knowledge of, the attacks, but the Obama administration is trying to discourage Congress from passing the bill.

Quake News: Just two days after two major earthquakes hit Japan, a 7.8 magnitude quake struck in Ecuador, damaging buildings and killing at least 77 people. Homes, businesses, and highway overpasses collapsed. People ended up sleeping in the street.

In Japan, at least 41 people are dead and rescuers are still digging people from the rubble. Broken buildings are teetering, still on the verge of collapse.

Top Gun: Continuing harassment of US forces, a Russian fighter jet performed a barrel roll within 50 feet of an American reconnaissance plane flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. A US spokesman said, “The unsafe and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries.” Last week Russian jets buzzed a US guided missile destroyer and Secy. of State John Kerry said the ship would have been within its rights to shoot.

The Numbers Game: Ted Cruz racked up another small victory, taking all 14 delegates in Wyoming in a voterless contest. He’s still far behind Donald Trump, but chipping away and making it harder for Trump to hit the magic number of 1,237 candidates. Trump has complained that the Republican system is “rigged” after Colorado gave Cruz all 34 of its delegates without holding an open vote among registered Republicans.

Always Low Taxes: Despite complaints about high corporate taxes from businesses and Republican politicians, the typical large American corporation pays 14 percent of its income in federal taxes, but two-thirds pay none, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. In 2012 alone, 42.5 percent of businesses defined as “large” by the GAO paid no federal tax.

International companies avoid taxes by leaving profits overseas, and through “inversions”; buying a company in a tax-friendly country to establish company headquarters where that company is based. And there are plenty of loopholes here at home.

Conflicting Thoughts: Actor George Clooney told NBC’s Chuck Todd last week “It’s ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics.” Then he hosted two fundraisers for Hillary Clinton that raised millions of dollars for Clinton’s campaign.

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