Need to know

5 at 5: Monica Lewinsky tells all, finally

Also: auditor general reports, missing Nigerian schoolgirls, and where is Rob Ford?

Monica Lewinsky arrives at the International Exhibition and Conference Centre in Edinburgh in this Monica Lewinsky in a file photo from 2004. (Robert Paterson/Reuters)

Monica Lewinsky in a file photo from 2004. (Robert Paterson/Reuters)

Monica Lewinsky writes about affair with Bill Clinton in Vanity Fair. Lewinsky, now 40, is breaking her silence after more than 10 years, with a first-person essay in the latest issue of Vanity Fair that is grabbing headlines Tuesday. “It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress,” she writes in a preview, posted to the magazine’s website. Though the full story doesn’t come out until Thursday, in the preview on the Vanity Fair website, Lewinsky says there was no abuse, and that the relationship was a consensual one between two adults. Any abuse, she writes, came after the affair “when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position.” Why tell her story now? Lewinsky says she was moved by the story of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old college student, who killed himself in 2010 after he was filmed kissing another man. Sharing her story, she writes, could help someone else. Its timing is also certain to irk the Hillary 2016 campaign team.

Auditor General finds prison system is still too crowded. Among the most interesting findings from AG Michael Ferguson’s report, released this morning, is that federal prisons are, again, going to be overcrowded within a few years, even after the Conservative government has taken measures to overhaul the system. Recent prison improvements and expansions were just quick-fix solutions and didn’t consider the long-term, the report found. Here are more of the highlights from the AG’s report on First Nations policing (not working), public-service pensions (potentially unsustainable), the company that handles paid federal employee moves (not tendered properly), StatsCan jobs data (not good), and the CRA (improving).

Story of kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls gains momentum. Nearly a month after more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by a group of Islamic militants in the northeast part of the country, the international community seems to be paying attention. The militant group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, which occurred on April 14 as the girls, all between the ages of 16 and 18, were writing a final physics exam. The U.S. state department said Tuesday that the Nigerian government has accepted its offer of support and that it will send a team, including law enforcement and military, to aid the government in finding the girls and negotiating for their release. Until now, the Nigerian government and its military have come under criticism for failure to locate the girls, who are thought to be hidden in dense forest in the northeast part of the country. Some may also be in neighbouring countries by now. The exact number of missing girls is unclear, with reports saying between 176 and 276. The U.S. aid comes amid news reports that eight other girls have been kidnapped from a village in Borno, the same state where the initial kidnapping occurred.

German foreign minister warns of impending war in Ukraine. If nothing changes, the conflict between Ukraine and Russia could soon shift to an all-out war, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned in a series of interviews Tuesday. The acting Ukrainian interior minister wrote on Facebook Monday that more than 30 Russian militants (he calls them terrorists) were killed in clashes outside the eastern city of Slavyansk. Tensions remain high in other parts of the country, as well, especially after violence in the city of Odessa over the weekend. “The bloody pictures from Odessa have shown us that we are just a few steps away from a military confrontation,” Steinmeier said in interviews published Tuesday.

Where, exactly, is Mayor Rob Ford? Ford is in treatment for substance abuse, that much his brother Coun. Doug Ford and his lawyer will confirm, but there are questions today about just where the mayor ended up. The questions were spurred by a Globe and Mail report that says Ford flew to Chicago on a private plane, but voluntarily chose not enter the country (or, perhaps was volun-told not to enter). Meanwhile, Toronto City Hall met for its first council meeting since the Ford Circus left town, but Ford couldn’t stay away entirely. He called his brother, Coun. Ford at city hall, and spoke on the phone briefly with his one-time friend Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong. Also on Tuesday, Doug Ford sat in his brother’s vacant mayor chair for a bit and he wouldn’t rule out his own run for mayor, should Rob Ford be forced to drop out of the race. So, the Ford Side Show continues until the main act reappears.

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