The Ukraine tripwire

May 05, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

As the conflict heats up again, a new factor – a small US training contingent – changes the equation for Russia.

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Former technology executive Carly Fiorina announced she's running for president, and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson launched his bid as well on Monday, as the Republican field of hopefuls expands once more. Both Fiorina and Carson have the potential to help the GOP win over a more diverse group of supporters in 2016. Fiorina is likely to be the only prominent woman to seek the GOP nomination, with Carson the only likely African-American. They are both also political outsiders in a field likely to be dominated by governors, former governors and senators.

Former President Bill Clinton defended his family's charitable foundation, saying there's nothing "sinister" about getting wealthy people to spend their money to help poor people in developing countries. "There's been a very deliberate attempt to take the foundation down," Clinton said in an interview aired Monday on NBC's "Today" show. Critics have raised questions about possible connections between donations made by foreign governments and policies his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, pursued while serving as secretary of state. And now that Hillary Clinton is running for president, critics have questioned whether long-term political donors are trying to win favor with the politically powerful Clinton family by supporting its charitable arm.

Israel's ceremonial president said Monday that an outbreak of violent protests by Ethiopian Jews has "exposed an open, bleeding wound in the heart of Israeli society" and that the country must respond to their grievances. Reuven Rivlin spoke a day after thousands of Ethiopian protesters clashed with police in Tel Aviv in an unprecedented scene of unrest and anger. The clashes reflected widespread frustration in the Ethiopian community, which three decades after it first arrived in Israel, has become an underclass plagued by poverty, crime and unemployment.

The US Supreme Court on Monday left intact New Jersey's ban on counseling intended to change the sexual orientation of gay children. The court declined to hear a challenge to the law, meaning that a September ruling by the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the ban is the final word on the matter. The appeals court said the ban, which Republican Governor Chris Christie signed into law in August 2013, did not violate the free speech or religious rights of counselors offering "gay conversion therapy" to convert homosexual minors into heterosexuals.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said 23 states reported combined spending of more than $1 billion on winter maintenance operations and 8 million work hours plowing or treating state roads from October to March. The states that responded to Monday's survey, obtained in advance by The Associated Press, also went through 6 million tons of salt and other huge quantities of brine and liquid deicing chemicals. One state reported using 216,000 gallons of beet juice, which can help salt stick to road surfaces.

Mystery writer Ruth Rendell, who brought psychological insight and social conscience to the classic British detective story, has died. Publisher Penguin Random House said Rendell — best known for the Inspector Wexford series of novels — passed away Saturday morning in London. Gail Rebuck, chair of Penguin Random House UK, said Rendell had been "an insightful and elegant observer of society" whose work "highlighted the causes she cared so deeply about." Rendell was one of Britain's most popular crime novelists and wrote dozens of books, including many under the pen name Barbara Vine.

McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook says he's stripping away layers of bureaucracy so the company can move faster to keep up with changing tastes. During a 23-minute video message posted online Monday, Easterbrook said the company's structure is too "cumbersome" and that it can no longer afford its "legacy structure." To foster quicker movement, McDonald's is restructuring its units into four groups: the flagship US market, international lead markets such as Australia and the United Kingdom, high-growth markets such as China and Russia, and the rest of the world.

It's a name that immediately evokes British royal history: Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Prince William and his wife Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, on Monday announced the name they picked for Britain's newborn princess, a choice seen as a tribute to both Prince William's parents and grandmother, the queen, as well as a link to Kate's family. The princess, the second child of William and Kate, will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, royal officials said.

“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.

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