GOP presidential hopefuls and Caitlyn Jenner: Culture war brewing?

June 08, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Transgenderism and Caitlyn Jenner's transition to a female identity are fraught issues for many Americans, but Republican presidential hopefuls are taking up the issue with dignity and respect.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

Protesters burned ballot boxes in several restive states of southern Mexico on Sunday in an attempt to disrupt elections seen as a litmus test for President Enrique Pena Nieto's government, while officials said the vote was proceeding satisfactorily despite "isolated incidents." Thousands of soldiers and federal police were guarding polling stations where violence and calls for boycotts threatened to mar elections for 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, nine of 31 governorships and hundreds of mayors and local officials. Midterm elections usually draw light turnout, but attention was unusually high this time as a loose coalition of radical teachers' unions and activists vowed to block the vote.

Scott Walker, a likely Republican presidential contender, is riding high in polls in the early voting state of Iowa. Walker, who built his reputation by taking on labor unions, has led the five most recent polls in Iowa, including the respected Des Moines Register poll. The governor dodged questions on Saturday about whether he would participate in the state's straw poll in August, a test of strength that traditionally winnows the field. The poll has been criticized for being too expensive for candidates. Several other contenders, including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, have said they will skip the straw poll. Without Walker, the state party might be forced to drop it.

In a stunning rebuke of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ambitions to expand his powers, Turkish voters stripped his party of its simple majority in parliament, preliminary election results showed Sunday. With 99.9 percent of the vote counted, Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, had the support of only around 41 percent of voters. The biggest setback for AKP came with the rise of the main pro-Kurdish party, HDP, which for the first time easily cleared the threshold of ten percent for representation as a party in the parliament.

American Pharoah led all the way to win the Belmont Stakes by 5 ½ lengths on Saturday, becoming the first horse since 1978 to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes — one of the sporting world's rarest feats. "Wow! Wow!" jockey Victor Espinoza said moments after crossing the finish line. "I can only tell you it is just an amazing thing." The bay colt with the unusually short tail easily defeated seven rivals in the grueling 1 1/2-mile race, covering the distance in 2:26.65 — sixth-fastest in Belmont history — to end the longest stretch without a Triple Crown champion in history.

Residents boarded up home and storefront windows on Sunday around the resort area of Los Cabos in preparation for a weakening Hurricane Blanca as it neared the Baja California Peninsula. After strengthening rapidly to a Category 4 storm on Saturday, Blanca was downgraded to Category 1 the following day. It was expected to weaken further to a tropical storm and pass to the west of the peninsula's southern tip, moving near or along its southwestern coastline in the evening and on Monday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday she expects a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies to produce a "united signal" against Russia that sanctions can only be softened if a February peace accord for Ukraine is fully implemented. Even before the issue was brought to the table, most of the leaders had already expressed their support for the idea. This year's meeting of the leading industrialized democracies was the second in a row without Russia, which was ejected from what was the G-8 last year over its actions in Ukraine.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

To send a comment to the Editor, email editor@csmonitor.com.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error