10 things you need to know today: April 4, 2018

A woman killed herself after shooting three people at YouTube HQ.

(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

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1. YouTube shooting suspect 'hated' company
2. Trump announces plan to send military to guard southern border
3. Trump administration and China hit each other with more proposed tariffs
4. Report: Mueller says Trump a subject, not a criminal target
5. Lawyer gets 30 days in prison in first sentencing of Mueller investigation
6. Trump says he wants to 'get out' of Syria
7. Spotify stock price fluctuates in successful NYSE debut
8. DHS acknowledges detection of phone-spying devices in Washington
9. Liberal judge wins spot on Wisconsin Supreme Court in early midterm-year test
10. Designer of water slide arrested over 2016 accident that killed boy

published 4 April 2018

1. YouTube shooting suspect 'hated' company

A woman opened fire with a handgun at YouTube's San Bruno, California, headquarters near San Francisco on Tuesday, wounding at least three people before fatally shooting herself. The San Bruno Police Department identified the suspected attacker as Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who was in her 30s. The gunshot victims were taken to a hospital where one, a 36-year-old man, was in critical condition. Two women were in serious and fair condition. Police said investigators were still trying to figure out the motive, although Aghdam had posted videos accusing YouTube of filtering her posts so she would get fewer viewers. Her family had reported her missing. Her father said he told police she might be going to YouTube because she "hated" the company.

President Trump said Tuesday that he planned to have the military guard parts of the Mexican border until he can put tighter immigration restrictions in place and build his promised border wall. Trump said he had discussed the matter with Defense Secretary James Mattis. "Until we can have a wall and proper security," Trump said, "we're going to be guarding our border with the military." Active-duty soldiers are legally barred from domestic law enforcement duties, although previous presidents have deployed National Guard troops to provide support for immigration officials on the Mexican border. Trump also threatened to cut off aid to Honduras over a "caravan" of 1,000 migrants, mostly from Honduras, traveling north through Mexico.

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The Trump administration on Tuesday announced that it would impose 25 percent tariffs on Chinese industrial technology and other goods, accounting for about $50 billion in annual imports, unless China promptly makes trade concessions. China responded Wednesday by announcing plans to hit 106 U.S. products, including soybeans, with tariffs of up to 25 percent, escalating trade tensions between the world's two biggest economies and sending U.S. stock futures plunging early Wednesday. The list of targeted items unveiled by the U.S. Trade Representative's office included chemicals, motorcycles, dental devices, and other products. The U.S. said the proposed tariffs are a response to China's policies forcing American companies to transfer their technology to Chinese partners before doing business in the country.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller last month told President Trump's lawyers that Trump was a subject of the investigation into Russian election meddling but not a criminal target, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the discussions. Prosecutors consider someone a "subject" when their conduct is under investigation but there is not sufficient evidence to bring charges. In private negotiations on a possible interview with Trump, Mueller reportedly said he was trying to finish a report on potential obstruction of justice and wanted to ask the president whether he tried to block the investigation. Trump and some allies reportedly interpreted Mueller's words to mean Trump's risk of criminal charges are low, while some aides feared Mueller was baiting Trump into a risky interview.

Belgian-born lawyer Alex van der Zwaan was given 30 days in prison and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine by a U.S. judge Tuesday, making him the first person to be sentenced in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing Russia investigation. Van der Zwaan, who formerly worked for the Ukraine Ministry of Justice, had pleaded guilty in February to lying about an interaction with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, the longtime associate of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Van der Zwaan apparently falsely told Mueller's team that his final communication with Gates was an "innocuous text message," the charges say. He reportedly faced as much as five years in prison.

President Trump said Tuesday that he would like to "get out" of Syria. He did not give a target date for a withdrawal, but the statement came days after he said he wanted to leave soon and let other nations step up. Trump said he would "not rest until ISIS is gone," although he said the radical Islamist group was nearly defeated. When asked if he wanted to bring home U.S. forces, he said "it's time." U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, said the Islamic State had lost more than 90 percent of its territory in Syria since 2014, but that retaking ISIS-held areas around the town of Abu Kamal represented a major remaining challenge.

Spotify's stock made a successful debut on Tuesday and closed at $149.60 in its first day of trading on Wall Street, down from an opening price of $165.90 but 13 percent higher than the $132 per share reference price set by the New York Stock Exchange. The streaming music service's first-day closing price gave it a valuation of $26.6 billion. Analysts had predicted early volatility for the stock, because the company bypassed a traditional initial public offering of shares. It offered no new shares, simply letting employees and investors sell existing ones. The move left new buyers to haggle over what the stock's price would be, and meant that Spotify itself raised no money in the IPO.

The U.S. government has publicly acknowledged for the first time that foreign spies and criminals could be using devices known as cellphone-site simulators to track mobile phones and intercept calls and texts in Washington, D.C., The Associated Press reported Tuesday. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed in a March 26 letter to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that it had identified what it believed to be unauthorized cell-site simulators, which are also called "Stingrays" after a brand popular with police departments. DHS official Christopher Krebs, the top official in the department's National Protection and Programs Directorate, said in the letter that the department lacks the equipment and money to detect the devices, although their unauthorized use "may threaten U.S. national and economic security."

Wisconsin voters elected a liberal Milwaukee judge, Rebecca Dallet, to the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Tuesday, narrowing the conservative majority to 4-3. Dallet beat Michael Screnock, a Sauk County Circuit judge supported by conservatives. The election was nonpartisan, but the result was interpreted as the latest sign of rising Democratic enthusiasm ahead of this fall's crucial midterms in a state that narrowly favored President Trump in 2016. In January, a Democrat won a special election for a state Senate seat held by a Republican for 17 years in what Republicans warned was a "wake-up call," but the Wisconsin Supreme Court vote was the first to test the mood of voters statewide.

John Schooley, the designer of the "Verruckt" water slide at Schlitterbahn amusement park in Kansas City, was arrested at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport this week and charged with second-degree murder in the death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab, who was decapitated on the ride in 2016. Schooley was arrested as he arrived on a flight from China, Dallas police said Tuesday. Schooley was working on a project in Asia when a grand jury approved indictments against him and four others, including Schlitterbahn co-owner Jeffrey Henry, who also was charged with second-degree murder. Henry was arrested last week at his Texas home. Prosecutors say Henry rushed construction of what was the world's tallest water slide, and they say Schooley's planning was shoddy.

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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.