10 things you need to know today: January 20, 2016

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1. Supreme Court to review Obama's immigration executive actions
2. Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump
3. Taliban gunmen kill 21 at university in Pakistan
4. Michigan governor apologizes for Flint water crisis
5. Carson cancels events after campaign workers' van crashes
6. Netflix shares jump after it adds more subscribers than expected
7. U.N. reports nearly 19,000 civilians killed in Iraq
8. Islamic State confirms Jihadi John's death
9. Greyhound crash kills two in California
10. Bernie Sanders widens lead over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire

published 20 January 2016

1. Supreme Court to review Obama's immigration executive actions

On Tuesday The Supreme Court said it would review a challenge to President Obama's executive action that would potentially shield millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation. Obama's program would let people who entered the country illegally but are parents of citizens or lawful residents to stay and apply for work permits, provided they have been in the U.S. at least five years and have no criminal record. Obama made the move because Congress failed to pass comprehensive immigration reform, but lower courts blocked it when Texas and 25 other GOP-led states sued, saying Obama overstepped his authority.

Sarah Palin endorsed Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in Iowa on Tuesday, saying he is doing well because he is "going rogue." Trump said he was "greatly honored" to have the support of the former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate. The support from Palin, a favorite of many Tea Partiers, could help Trump win over skeptical conservatives as he heads into the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses.

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Taliban militants stormed a university in northwest Pakistan and killed at least 21 people on Wednesday. Dozens more were wounded. The death toll was expected to rise as army commandos searched for victims and any remaining gunmen across the campus of the school, Bacha Khan University, in Charsadda, Peshawar. Umar Mansoor, a senior Pakistani Taliban commander who was behind a December 2014 student massacre at a military-run school in nearby Peshawar, claimed responsibility. The Pakistan Taliban's central organization, however, condemned the attack.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) apologized for the city of Flint's drinking-water crisis during his State of the State address Tuesday, saying, "I let you down," and promising, "We will fix it." "Government failed you at the federal, state, and local level," he said, speaking directly to residents of Flint. The city's water became contaminated with lead after an emergency manager appointed by Snyder in 2014 switched the city's water source to the polluted Flint River to save money. The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it was reviewing the government's handling of the water emergency.

Ben Carson suspended his GOP presidential campaign events on Tuesday and Wednesday after one of his campaign's vans crashed in Iowa, killing a volunteer, 25-year-old Braden Joplin. Two other volunteers and a staffer were treated at an area hospital and released. Carson flew from South Carolina to the Nebraska hospital where Joplin was rushed after the accident, praising him as a compassionate and "amazing young man." Police said the driver of the van, a campaign staffer, lost control after hitting a patch of ice while changing lanes on I-80. The van flipped on its side and was hit by another car.

Netflix shares surged by more than eight percent late Tuesday after the video-streaming service reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street's expectations. Netflix also added more subscribers than expected due to its expansion overseas. Netflix added 1.56 million new domestic subscribers in the last three months of 2015, slightly below its forecast of 1.65 million, but it had a total gain of 17 million subscribers as it launched its service in 130 new countries, putting it into a total of 190 nations.

A United Nations report released Tuesday said that 18,802 civilians were killed in Iraq between January 2014 and October 2015. The U.N. called the toll "staggering," and blamed much of the suffering on the Islamic State. In addition to the deaths, 36,245 civilians were injured, and another 3.2 million — including a million school-aged children — were driven from their houses. ISIS has killed civilians with bombs and public beheadings, and by running them over with bulldozers or burning them alive. "These acts may, in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide," the report said.

The Islamic State on Tuesday confirmed that Mohammed Emwazi, the British national known as Jihadi John, was killed in an airstrike last year. The car Emwazi was riding in was "targeted in a strike by an unmanned drone in the city of ar-Raqqah, destroying the car and killing him instantly," a media outlet associated with the Islamist extremist group reported. British Prime Minister David Cameron said after the November airstrike that Emwazi, who was seen in videos showing the beheadings of Western hostages, was a "barbaric murderer," and the strikes by British and American drones was "the right thing to do."

A Greyhound bus overturned on a wet California highway ramp on Tuesday, killing two people and injuring at least nine others. The driver of the bus told police he was drowsy before the accident, which occurred as most of the passengers slept. A passenger claimed the driver had nodded off. The bus left Los Angeles on Monday night and was due to stop in San Jose and San Francisco before reaching Oakland.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has surged into his biggest lead yet over Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, just three weeks ahead of the early-voting state's primary, according to a CNN/WMUR poll released Tuesday. Sanders now has a lead of 27 points, 60 percent to 33 percent. Sanders led Clinton 50 percent to 40 percent in a poll by CNN/WMUR in late-November/early December. Clinton won New Hampshire's 2008 Democratic primary. Sanders, however, has been steadily building momentum in the state, a neighbor of his home state.

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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.