10 thing you need to know today: April 13, 2015

(Image credit: (Hillary For America via AP))

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1. Hillary Clinton confirms she is running for president
2. Spieth wins Masters in record fashion
3. Marco Rubio set to join race for 2016 GOP presidential nomination
4. Video of Tulsa deputies during black man's fatal shooting released
5. France's far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen drops out of election
6. Airline performance dropped in 2014, ending upward trend
7. Brazilians stage massive anti-corruption protest
8. Yemen's president names popular figure vice president in peace move
9. Turkey pushes back at pope over Armenian genocide comments
10. Renowned German author Guenter Grass dies at 87

By Harold Maass, The Week US

published 13 April 2015

1. Hillary Clinton confirms she is running for president

Hillary Clinton launched her second bid for the White House on Sunday, ending months of speculation and kicking off her 2016 campaign by heading to Iowa. "I'm running for president," the former secretary of state, senator, and first lady said via online video and Twitter. "Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion." Clinton, who lost the 2008 Democratic nomination to President Obama, would be the first female president in the nation's history. She is the commanding frontrunner to win her party's nomination.

Jordan Spieth, 21, won the Masters golf tournament on Sunday, tying Tiger Woods' four-round record of 270, 18 under par. Spieth, in his first major victory, was the second youngest player ever to take the Masters green jacket, after Woods. The Texan also shot a tournament record 28 birdies, and became the first person since 1976 to finish every round at the top of the leader board. Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose finished tied for second, four strokes behind Spieth.

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Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) is expected to formally announce on Monday that he is running for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, will launch his campaign in an evening rally at Miami's Freedom Tower, where the government once processed immigrants fleeing Cuba's Castro regime. Rubio, whose rise was nearly blocked by GOP leaders five years ago, is expected to argue the nation needs fresh leaders. He joins an official Republican field that already includes Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, authorities have released body-camera video of an officer chasing and tackling an African American suspect, Eric Courtney Harris, who is then fatally shot by a 73-year-old reserve deputy. The white reserve deputy, insurance executive Bob Bates, said he thought he had pulled out his Taser. After a gunshot is heard on the video, Bates appears to say, "Oh, I shot him! I'm sorry." Harris, a convicted felon, screams, "He shot me. Oh, my God." He then says he is losing his breath, and a deputy replies, "F*** your breath."

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France's far-right National Front, said on Monday he would not be a candidate in a regional election. The move came as his daughter Marine Le Pen, who took over as the party's leader in 2011, urged him to retire, saying he had damaged the party recently by repeating his dismissal of Nazi gas chambers as a mere "detail of history." Jean-Marie Le Pen, 86, said however that he would not quit politics altogether, as his daughter has demanded.

The performance of U.S. airlines declined in 2014 after four straight years of improvement, according to an annual quality report to be released Monday. Most of the dozen airlines' tracked in the Airline Quality Report saw their marks fall in all four key areas, including baggage handling, consumer complaints, denied boardings, and on-time arrivals. "It's unfortunate, and we hope it's not the beginning of a downward trend," said report co-author Brent Bowen of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Sunday appointed his former prime minister, Khaled Bahah, as vice president in what was perceived as a conciliatory move toward a peaceful resolution of the country's civil war. Hadi fled to Saudi Arabia as Houthi rebels and their allies advanced on his last bastion of power in the port city of Aden. Bahah is popular across the feuding sides, and a Hadi aide said his appointment could help "revive the dialogue process sponsored by the United Nations."

Turkish leaders are lashing out at Pope Francis for calling the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in World War I the "first genocide of the 20th century." Turkey, heir to the Ottoman empire, recalled its ambassador and repeated its insistence that the Armenians died in war, not systematic genocide. "The pope's statement, which is far from historic and legal truths, is unacceptable," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted. "Religious positions are not places where unfounded claims are made and hatred is stirred."

German novelist and Nobel Prize winner Guenter Grass died of a lung infection on Monday. He was 87. His first novel, the inventive masterpiece The Tin Drum, established him as a literary force in 1959. He was known by many as a moral authority, although critical conservatives considered him a radical leftist. His reputation as his country's moral conscience took a hit in 2006 when he revealed he had been a member of the Waffen-SS as a teenager in World War II.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.