10 things you need to know today: September 1, 2015

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1. High Court says Kentucky clerk must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples
2. Latest batch of Clinton emails contains dozens with classified information
3. Obama says politicians who don't fight climate change aren't "fit to lead"
4. Ben Carson catches Donald Trump in Iowa poll
5. Turkish court arrests three Vice News journalists covering Kurdish insurgents
6. Blue Bell prepares to resume sales four months after listeria outbreak
7. Anti-Semite convicted of Kansas triple murder
8. Thailand arrests second suspect over Bangkok bombing
9. Stocks fall after China releases weak manufacturing data
10. Murder rates rise in numerous U.S. cities

published 1 September 2015

1. High Court says Kentucky clerk must issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Kentucky county clerk's request for permission to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs. The ruling does not end the challenge by the clerk, Kim Davis, but it means that she will have to start issuing the licenses, or face the possibility of being held in contempt, which could mean daily fines and even jail time. Davis, an Apostolic Christian, stopped issuing all marriages licenses after the court's June 26 decision saying gay couples had a constitutional right to marry.

The State Department released 7,000 more pages of Hillary Clinton's emails from her time as secretary of state, including 125 messages that had been redacted because they contained classified information. None of the emails were deemed classified when they were sent in 2009 and 2010, a State Department spokesman said. The release was the biggest yet under a monthly disclosure order ordered by a court after it was revealed Clinton had used a private email server as secretary of state.

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President Obama on Monday called for world leaders to do more to fight climate change as he started a three-day tour of Alaska. Obama said nations around the world are facing more droughts, more floods, rising sea levels, and other problems, and unless stronger action is taken now we will "condemn our children to a world they will no longer have the capacity to repair." He added that any politician "who refuses to take this issue seriously or treats it like a joke, is not fit to lead."

Ben Carson pulled into a tie with Donald Trump in Iowa in the latest Monmouth University Poll released Monday, marking the first time that a GOP rival has closed the gap in Trump's lead in the primary. Both Carson and Trump got 23 percent support from Iowa's Republican voters, while former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came in third with 10 percent of the vote. No other candidate in the Republican field had double-digit support.

A Turkish court on Monday ordered three Vice News journalists to be formally arrested on terrorism-related charges. The journalists — Iraqi national Mohammed Ismael Rasool, and Britons Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury — were detained covering Kurdish insurgents in the country’s southeast. The court said they had knowingly helped an armed terrorist organization. The New York-based media site called the charges "baseless and alarmingly false," and said Turkey was trying to "intimidate and censor" the journalists.

Blue Bell Ice Cream announced Monday that it was preparing to return its products to store shelves four months after shutting down production over a listeria outbreak that was linked to three deaths. "We have been working diligently to prepare our facilities to resume test production, and our focus throughout this process has been to ensure the public that when our products return to market, they are safe," said Greg Bridges, Blue Bell's vice president of operations.

Frazier Glenn Cross was convicted of capital murder on Monday for killing three people at a Kansas Jewish community center and nearby assisted living facility. The jury now moves on to the sentencing phase of the trial to decide whether to call for the death penalty. The 74-year-old Cross — also known as Frazier Glenn Miller Jr. — had a history of anti-Semitic and white supremacist beliefs. He was thought to be targeting Jews, although the victims were not Jewish.

Thai security forces made a second arrest in connection with the Erawan Shrine bombing that killed 20 people in Bangkok on Aug. 17, the head of Thailand’s military government, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, said Tuesday. The second suspect is a foreign man, although police did not release his identity. He was detained at Thailand's border with Cambodia. Authorities also have issued an arrest warrant for a 27-year-old woman from a Muslim area in southern Thailand, although her family said she moved to Turkey weeks before the bombing.

World stocks and commodity prices fell sharply on Tuesday as weak manufacturing data from Chinese deepened fears of the health of the world's second largest economy. Global markets had rebounded somewhat over the last several trading days, but on Tuesday European markets opened down by as much as 2.5 percent after Asian stocks fell. U.S. stock futures fell by 1.5 percent overnight after comments from Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer suggested the central bank would go ahead with an interest rate hike in September.

Rates of murder and other violent crimes have risen sharply this year in more than 30 U.S. cities. For example, there have been 136 murders in St. Louis, up from 85 the same time last year. In New Orleans, the number has jumped to 120, compared to 98 last year. Washington has gone from 73 murders at this point last year to 105 this year, and Baltimore has gone from 138 to 215. Authorities disagree on the causes, and blame everything from gang drug-turf fights to less aggressive policing due to scrutiny over the use of force.

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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.