10 things you need to know today: September 21, 2015

(Image credit: (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP))

Jump to category:

1. U.S. pledges to accept more refugees
2. Viola Davis makes Emmys history, Game of Thrones wins big
3. Pope Francis meets with Fidel Castro
4. Tsipras and Syriza win Greek elections
5. Fiorina leaps into second behind Trump in latest GOP poll
6. VW chief apologizes for alleged emissions trickery
7. Ben Carson says no Muslim should ever be U.S. president
8. Two American hostages released in Yemen
9. Infant and two adults hurt in Alabama church shooting
10. Hundreds of California wildfire evacuees cleared to return home

published 21 September 2015

1. U.S. pledges to accept more refugees

Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. was prepared to increase the number of refugees it takes in from 70,000 this year to 85,000 in 2016, and 100,000 in 2017. Kerry announced the change after meeting with his counterpart from Germany, which is leading efforts to handle hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in Syria and other hot spots. "The need is enormous," Kerry said, "but we are determined to answer the call."

How to Get Away with Murder's Viola Davis made history on Sunday, becoming the first black woman to win an Emmy for best actress in a drama. HBO's Game of Thrones won best drama, and broke the record for most Emmys won in a single year with 12, smashing the old mark (nine) set by The West Wing in 2000. Veep won for best comedy series, and star Julia Louis-Dreyfus was awarded best actress in a comedy series. Jeffrey Tambor won best actor in a comedy for his role in Transparent. In the drama category, Jon Hamm won his first best actor award for Mad Men.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Pope Francis met with retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Sunday after celebrating Mass before 300,000 people in Havana's Revolution Plaza, urging Cubans to "serve people, not ideas." Francis gave Castro several books and two CDs of homilies, and the aging communist revolutionary gave the pontiff a 1985 interview book entitled Fidel and Religion. The pope, who has urged the U.S. and Cuba to continue normalizing ties, flies to the U.S. on Tuesday to continue a 10-day trip.

Greek voters returned Alexis Tsipras to power in snap elections, with his left-wing Syriza party taking 35 percent of the vote, according to a partial count Sunday. The main party on the right, New Democracy, took 28 percent. Its leader, Evangelos Meimarakis, conceded defeat. Tsipras first won the prime minister's job in January on an anti-austerity platform, then resigned last month and called early elections as he faced a rebellion within Syriza for accepting more austerity measures under a new European bailout.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina surged into second place in the Republican presidential field in a national CNN/ORC poll released Sunday. Real-estate tycoon and former reality TV star Donald Trump remained the front runner, but his support fell to 24 percent from 32 percent earlier in the month. Fiorina, fresh off a widely praised debate performance, jumped to 15 percent from 3 percent. Ben Carson dropped from second to third, with his support falling to 14 percent from 19 percent.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said Sunday he was "deeply sorry" for violations of auto emissions standards disclosed two days earlier by the Environmental Protection Agency. The company allegedly installed software in 482,000 diesel vehicles to cheat in emissions tests, potentially exposing people to unacceptable pollution levels. VW halted sales of the cars, including 2015 Golfs, Jettas, Passats, and Beetles. It could face up to $18 billion in penalties. VW stock dropped by 22 percent on Monday, its biggest drop in six years.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said Sunday that a Muslim would not be fit to be president of the United States. Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, the retired neurosurgeon and political newcomer said Islam is not compatible with the U.S. Constitution. NBC's Chuck Todd also asked GOP frontrunner Donald Trump whether he would be comfortable if a Muslim were elected president. "Some people have said it already happened," Trump said.

Six foreign hostages — two Americans, a Briton, and three Saudis — were freed Sunday by Shiite Houthi rebels after months in captivity in Yemen. A third American hostage, who is a Muslim convert, was supposed to be released as well, but the rebels decided to hold onto him for undisclosed reasons. The hostages were released at the Sanaa airport and flown to Oman. The freed Americans reportedly were Scott Darden, an employee of a Louisiana logistics company, and Sam Ferran, a Michigan security consultant.

An Alabama man was charged Sunday with shooting his former girlfriend, their 1-month-old son, and a 64-year-old pastor at the Oasis Tabernacle Church in East Selma. Witnesses said the suspect, James Junior Minter, 26, entered the church, sat between his ex-girlfriend — they recently broke up — and their son, then began shooting. The pastor was shot as he grabbed Minter, before parishioners jumped in and took the gun. Minter's girlfriend was shot in the jaw and shoulder. The infant was shot in the hand, and the preacher was shot in the leg.

California authorities on Sunday told 1,300 people forced to evacuate due to a Northern California wildfire that it was safe for them to go home. The residents of Hidden Valley Lake had to flee a week ago because of the so-called Valley Fire, one of two major wildfires that have killed five people and destroyed nearly 1,600 homes. A new fire that erupted Saturday killed one person and damaged another 10 homes in one of the drought-stricken state's worst wildfire seasons on record.

Explore More

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.