10 things you need to know today: December 23, 2015

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1. Trump leads by more than 20 points in new national poll
2. Kentucky governor orders clerks' names off marriage licenses
3. U.S. releases names of service members killed in Afghanistan bombing
4. Virginia ends concealed carry agreements with 25 states
5. Only 6 GOP candidates for the next debate?
6. Afghan forces rush to counter Taliban offensive in Helmand province
7. Washington Post pulls cartoon portraying Ted Cruz's daughters as monkeys
8. Germany arrests man over Syrian refugee drownings
9. Editor quits after casino magnate Sheldon Adelson buys Las Vegas paper
10. Teen rescued 60 hours after landslide in China

published 23 December 2015

1. Trump leads by more than 20 points in new national poll

With 2015 set to close, Donald Trump, the perennial frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination, commands 39 percent of support from Republican-inclined voters, a CNN/ORC poll released Wednesday has found. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz trails at 18 percent — an improvement since the last CNN/ORC poll in November, but still a distant second to Trump. Ben Carson and Marco Rubio each have 10 percent. Everyone else is in single digits. Trump also has a wide lead on his competition when it comes to questions of the economy, illegal immigration, and ISIS.

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) on Tuesday ordered county clerks' names to be removed from state marriage license forms. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis spent five days in jail for refusing to issue licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage across the U.S. in June. Davis, citing her Apostolic Christian beliefs, tried to take her name off licenses after returning to work. Her lawyer called the governor's move "a wonderful Christmas gift," but the ACLU said it would deepen confusion because state law requires clerks' names on licenses.

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The Defense Department on Tuesday released the names of the six service members who were killed in a suicide bombing near Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Air Force Major Adrianna Vorderbruggen, one of the first openly gay service members to marry a same-sex partner, was commanding a routine security patrol Monday when a man on a motorcycle drove into the group and set off a bomb. Also killed were Technical Sgt. Joseph Lemm (a New York police detective), Staff Sgt. Louis Michael Bonacasa of Long Island, Staff Sgt. Michael Cinco of Texas, Staff Sgt. Chester McBride Jr. of Georgia, and Staff Sgt. Peter Taub of Philadelphia.

Virginia will stop honoring out-of-state concealed handgun permits from 25 states, Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced Tuesday. Herring, a Democrat, said Virginia lawmakers have who can conceal handguns in Virginia, "and we cannot have that decision undermined by recognizing permits from other states with more permissive standards." Virginia will uphold permit reciprocity agreements with five states — West Virginia, Michigan, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah — but drop those from 25 states with weaker laws.

As few as six candidates are expected to make it onto the stage in the next Republican presidential debate, under polling cut-offs released by the host, Fox Business Network, on Tuesday night. To earn a spot on the main stage in the Jan. 14 debates in Charleston, South Carolina, candidates must place in the top six nationally, or the top five in Iowa and New Hampshire. In current polls, the top qualifiers are the same under all of the criteria — Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Sen. Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Barring polling changes, Sen. Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich would not qualify for the main debate.

Afghanistan's defense minister said Wednesday that the government has rushed security forces to confront a Taliban offensive threatening to take over the Sangin district of Helmand province. Sangin, which borders Pakistan, is a major source of poppies used in opium production, a source of cash for the Taliban. The district also has transit routes used to bring in arms. Britain has sent a small contingent of soldiers as advisers to help the Afghan forces, who have been responsible for confronting the Taliban since the end of the international combat mission last year.

The Washington Post on Tuesday night took down a cartoon posted online in which the daughters of Sen. Ted Cruz, a leading Republican presidential candidate, were depicted as monkeys. The cartoon, by Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes, ran with the caption, "Ted Cruz uses his kids as political props." Cruz was portrayed as an organ grinder in a Santa outfit. Cruz criticized the paper in a tweet for making "fun of my girls." The Washington Post editorial page editor said in a note posted in place of the cartoon that the paper's policy is "to leave children out of it."

Police in Germany on Tuesday arrested a 37-year-old Syrian man suspected of human trafficking in connection with the drowning of five migrants off the Turkish coast in April. The man allegedly took $2,400 from fellow immigrants and, despite bad weather, put them in a Greece-bound boat that later sank. The case came as the total number of migrants and refugees crossing into Europe this year surpassed 1 million, marking a fourfold increase from 2014. Most are refugees fleeing poor, war-torn areas of Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and traveling from Turkey to Greece.

Michael Hengel resigned as editor of The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Tuesday, less than two weeks after billionaire casino magnate and major GOP donor Sheldon Adelson and his family bought the newspaper. Hengel reportedly told employees that he figured he wouldn't last long in what "had the makings of an adversarial relationship" with the paper's new owners, so he decided to take a severance option. The newspaper's $140-million purchase was shrouded in mystery until the Review-Journal reported last week that Adelson and his family were behind it.

Rescuers pulled a teenager from the rubble of a landslide in an industrial park in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Wednesday, 60 hours after he was buried alive in a massive wave of earth and debris that smashed into 33 buildings. Police rushed the survivor, 19-year-old Tian Zeming, to a nearby hospital. One of Tian's ankles was stuck in debris, and doctors are trying to save his foot, a hospital representative said. The scene of the disaster is covered in mud 10 yards deep in some places. At least 90 people are still missing.

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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.