The year of identity

June 18, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Race, ethnicity, and gender identity are in the spotlight. Real identity is deeper, more durable, and more beneficial to humanity .

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Greece and its creditors took shots at each other on the eve a meeting of finance ministers tasked with finding a way to keep the nation from defaulting on its debt and, in the words of its central bank, suffering "a dramatic decline" in income. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called demands by the country's rescue lenders to slash pensions "incomprehensible," while European Union officials said their compromise proposals already leaned way over to Greece's side.

Flood-weary Texans were bracing for heavy rain and possible flooding Wednesday as tropical storm Bill was downgraded to a depression and continued to creep inland. The center of the storm was expected to move northward just west of the Interstate 35 corridor, dropping 4 to 5 inches of rain on areas of Central Texas still cleaning up and recovering from Memorial Day weekend floods that left 14 dead and two missing along the Blanco River alone in Blanco and Hays counties. The effects of the storm are being felt beyond Texas, as rain fell in Oklahoma and other states, including Missouri where a 60-year-old motorist died when floodwaters swept his car from the road.

Leaders of a North Texas city have repealed a voter-approved ban on hydraulic fracturing by energy companies. The Denton City Council early Wednesday voted 6-1 to drop the ban on fracking. Voters in Denton, 40 miles north of Dallas, approved the ban last November amid concerns over whether the process damages the environment and causes earthquakes. The Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association sued to block the ban. Gov. Greg Abbott last month signed a law that bars communities from imposing local ordinances preventing fracking and other potentially environmentally harmful oil and natural gas activities.

A tiger that broke loose after severe flooding at the Tbilisi Zoo mauled a man to death in the Georgian capital before being shot by police Wednesday, a day after officials said all the zoo's tigers had died. The Interior Ministry in the former Soviet republic said the tiger was hiding at an abandoned factory that had been turned into a construction market when he attacked the man Wednesday. The victim, who worked at the market, later died of his wounds at a hospital.

AT&T Mobility LLC has been slapped with a $100 million fine for offering consumers "unlimited" data, but then slowing their Internet speeds after they reached a certain amount. The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that the company misled consumers into buying plans they believed would give them unlimited ability to send and receive data, including Web browsing, GPS navigation and streaming videos. AT&T said it would "vigorously dispute" the fine, which is the largest proposed in FCC history.

Satellite data show people are overdrawing water from some of the world's largest groundwater basins. Researchers from the University of California, Irvine say it's unclear how much water is left in the most overburdened aquifers. The problem is expected to worsen with climate change and population growth. Arabian Aquifer System in the Middle East, which serves more than 60 million people, was considered the most stressed in the world followed by the Indus Basin aquifer of northwestern India and Pakistan. The farm-rich Central Valley in California was considered highly stressed.

“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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