10 things you need to know today: September 26, 2018

President Trump speaks at the UN General Assembly

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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1. Trump defends 'America first' policies at U.N.
2. Bill Cosby sentenced to 3 to 10 years for sexual assault
3. Senate Judiciary Committee schedules Friday vote on Kavanaugh
4. Trump lashes out at second Kavanaugh accuser, Democrats
5. Cruz and wife shouted out of D.C. restaurant
6. Trump administration sanctions members of Maduro's inner circle
7. New study puts South Sudan death toll at 382,000
8. Markets cautious ahead of Fed decision
9. Mexican security forces seize control over police in Acapulco
10. First-ever female duo will announce NFL games for Amazon Prime

published 26 September 2018

1. Trump defends 'America first' policies at U.N.

President Trump aggressively defended his "America first" foreign policy in his second annual speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. Trump said he had made progress against many of the threats he named last year in his first U.N. speech, such as North Korea and Islamist extremist terrorism, and boasted that the U.S. military is "more powerful than it has ever been before." He also cited the strength of the U.S. economy as a sign of his success, and claimed that his administration had accomplished more than nearly any other U.S. government in history, prompting some diplomats in the audience to chuckle and others to burst into laughter. Trump appeared momentarily flustered. He smiled, and said the reaction was not what he expected "but that's all right."

A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday sentenced comedian Bill Cosby to three to 10 years in state prison for his conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill, quoting from Constand's victim's statement to the court, told Cosby he had taken Constand's "beautiful, healthy young spirit and crushed it," adding that it was "time for justice." The former TV star was declared a "sexually violent predator" and will appear on a sex-offender registry for life. He was convicted in April on three counts of indecent aggravated assault. More than 60 women accused him of sexual misconduct. Defense lawyers argued Cosby, 81, was no longer a threat and was too frail for prison.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee's Republican leadership scheduled a Friday vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination. The panel will hear testimony on Thursday from Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, a professor who accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers. The committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, said it was "outrageous" to schedule a vote "two days before Dr. Blasey Ford has had a chance to tell her story." Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted: "If we're ready to vote, we will vote. If we aren't ready, we won't." Republicans announced Tuesday that they had hired Rachel Mitchell, an Arizona prosecutor and registered Republican, to question Kavanaugh and Ford.

President Trump stepped up his criticism of the women accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, saying at the United Nations on Tuesday that Kavanaugh's second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, was "totally inebriated and all messed up" when Kavanaugh allegedly exposed himself to her at a Yale party decades ago. Trump repeatedly said the allegations against Kavanaugh were part of a "con" by Democrats. "I think [Kavanaugh] is just a wonderful human being," Trump said. "I think it is horrible what the Democrats have done." Kavanaugh's freshman-year Yale roommate, James Roche, came forward to defend Ramirez, calling her "exceptionally honest," and saying that Kavanaugh was a heavy drinker who could be incoherent and belligerent when drunk.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and his wife, Heidi, were shouted out of an expensive Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C., this week by a crowd of about a dozen people expressing outrage over Cruz's support for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Cruz sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Republican leaders have expressed their determination to confirm Kavanaugh despite allegations of sexual misconduct by at least two women from decades ago. Organizers of the protest identified themselves as members of several left-wing groups, including a local anti-fascist group and a branch of the Democratic Socialists of America. Some said they were sexual assault survivors. When the first allegations surfaced last week, Cruz said in a statement that they were "serious and deserve to be treated with respect."

The Trump administration on Tuesday imposed new sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife, as well as Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, and several other members of Maduro's inner circle. President Trump urged other members of the United Nations to add pressure of their own on Venezuela, a once booming, oil-rich nation that has crumbled under food shortages and hyperinflation, which opposition leaders blame on Maduro's socialist government. "Today, socialism has bankrupted the oil-rich nation and driven its people into abject poverty," Trump said in remarks to the U.N. General Assembly. "We ask the nations gathered here to join us in calling for the restoration of democracy in Venezuela."

At least 382,000 people have died in South Sudan's civil war, which began after the nation broke away from Sudan seven years ago, according to an estimate in a State Department-funded study being released Wednesday. The estimate far exceeded an earlier one from the United Nations, which said in March 2016 that the often-overlooked conflict had killed about 50,000 people. Francesco Checchi, the lead epidemiologist on the study, said the estimate was conservative, and based on data from humanitarian agencies and media reports. Gordon Buay, deputy chief of mission at the South Sudanese Embassy in Washington, said the study was way off. "If you included disease and everything, it would be less than 20,000," he said.

Economists, fund managers, and strategists surveyed by CNBC expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates two more times this year, starting on Wednesday at the close of a two-day meeting of Fed policy makers. Ninety-eight percent of the 46 respondents in the latest CNBC Fed Survey predicted a quarter-point hike on Wednesday, with 96 percent forecasting another quarter-point increase in December as the Fed tries to prevent a strengthening economy from overhearing. "Fed funds increases in September and December are as certain as certain can be," John Donaldson, director of fixed income at Haverford Trust, wrote in his response to the survey. Markets were cautious early Wednesday ahead of the Fed's decision.

Mexican federal and state police, backed by the army, seized control of the police force in the Pacific Coast city of Acapulco on Tuesday in response to suspicions it had been infiltrated by criminals. Two police commanders were arrested on murder charges. Federal authorities decided to disarm the local police due to the "nonexistent response" to rising crime in the once-popular resort city, according to a statement by the Guerrero Coordination Group, a joint operation comprised of state, federal, and military departments. Acapulco, a beach town in the southern state of Guerrero, has become one of Mexico's most murder-plagued cities due to a rise in violence linked to Mexico's ongoing drug war.

Amazon Prime announced Tuesday that its Thursday Night Football broadcasts would feature veteran sports journalists Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer as commentators, the first women-only broadcasting team providing analysis for NFL games. Amazon Prime will give viewers four options when they watch football through the streaming service: a Fox broadcast featuring Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, a team of U.K. analysts, a Spanish-language broadcast, and the Storm-Kremer partnership. Storm, an ESPN anchor, and Kremer, an NFL Network correspondent, will make their debut during this week's matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams. They will offer analysis for 11 games this season.

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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.