Crosstalk: April 18, 2016

Each Friday, Jim Schneider presents listeners with stories that go uncovered by many news services. This week's stories included: --U.S. Navy ship buzzed recently by Russian jets in the Baltic Sea could have opened fire under U.S. military rules of engagement. --China's military has deployed new fighter jets to a contested island in the South China Sea. --The U.S. and the Philippines will solidify a new and increasingly complex military relationship driven partly by China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. --India and the U.S. have agreed in principle to share military logistics. --Budget cuts leaving Marine Corps aircraft grounded. --The U.S. military charges a Taiwan born Navy officer with espionage for allegedly passing military secrets to the Chinese or Taiwan. --Switzerland is considering staging a tank battalion at its southern border with Italy after news that Austria is ready to shut down the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria. --Germany announced new integration reforms that will remove worker protections from European Union and German citizens so that refugees can compete with them for jobs. --A former luxury hotel in Austria that was turned into a migrant center is the site of an outbreak of a deadly bacterial disease. --Number of children used by Boko Haram as human bombs has been rising. --ISIS weapons cache found at a Spanish tourist hotspot and linked to a planned terror attack. --Syrian refugees are entering the U.S. at an average rate of 358 per week. --A man who pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to ISIS attended a Bloomington, Minnesota, mosque. --The Harvard University law school hosted a Muslim Brotherhood organized conference on April 13th. --The Citadel is considering a request that a student be allowed to wear the hijab in keeping with her Muslim faith. --A Republican state lawmaker from Tennessee has come under attack because she disseminated copies of a video that criticizes Islam. --Al Jazeera America is off the air. --President Obama appears to be planning revenge against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. --Palestinian President will have nothing to do with a Jewish Israel. --10 mayors across America to form a coalition united in protest against states that are passing anti-LGBT laws. --The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has issued a final ruling revising the definition of 'spouse'. --Louisiana governor signs an executive order that gives brand new protections to homosexuals and transgenders from employment discrimination on state-tied places of work including with contractors. --North Carolina's governor signed an executive order that serves to affirm and improve his state's commitment to privacy and equality in the wake of new bathroom privacy bill. --Missouri's religious liberty bill continues to draw criticism. --The Department of Homeland Security's naturalization test says 'freedom of worship' rather than 'freedom of religion'. --A Christian small business owner in Texas will pay for labor and materials to place 'In God We Trust' decals on city vehicles. --A voluntary religious lunch effort for students in Middleton, Wisconsin, under fire. --The Bible was one of the top 10 most challenged books of 2015. --The largest private coal company in the world filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. --President Obama to sign Paris global warming agreement next Friday. --A new exhaustive study on precipitation levels from Stockholm University in Sweden indicates that assumptions made by the United Nations and other climate change activists are badly flawed. --A lawsuit can go forward against the maker of the rifle that was used in the Sandy Hook shooting.