10 things you need to know today: June 9, 2016

LeBron James on the court against the Golden State Warriors

(Image credit: Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. Pressure mounts for Sanders to drop out after Clinton clinches nomination
2. Israel suspends Palestinian entry permits after deadly shooting
3. Trump backs away from fundraising estimate, saying he doesn't need $1 billion
4. Obama vetoes attempt to roll back retirement savings rule
5. Sen. Elizabeth Warren to endorse Hillary Clinton soon
6. Judge in Stanford rape case gets death threats
7. Detroit man exonerated for quadruple murder after eight years in prison
8. 13 killed in airstrikes on three Aleppo hospitals
9. Cavaliers avoid disaster by winning Game 3 of NBA Finals
10. Maria Sharapova suspended from tennis for two years

published 9 June 2016

1. Pressure mounts for Sanders to drop out after Clinton clinches nomination

President Obama is meeting with Bernie Sanders on Thursday, and White House aides say Obama will nudge him to get behind Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee. Sanders, who says he will keep fighting into the July convention, is facing mounting pressure to drop out — two of his top supporters in Congress joined other Democrats on Wednesday in urging him to end his campaign now that Clinton has the delegates she needs to lock up the nomination. "We have our nominee," said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sanders' sole supporter in the Senate.

The Israeli military on Thursday sent more troops into the West Bank and revoked permits for 80,000 Palestinians to visit Israel after two Palestinian gunmen killed four people in a Tel Aviv restaurant on Wednesday. The gunmen posed as restaurant patrons, ordering food before pulling assault rifles out of their bags and opening fire. A security officer shot at least one of the suspects. Police identified them as cousins from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Attacks by Palestinians — mostly stabbings — have killed more than two dozen Israelis and two Americans since October.

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.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Wednesday "there's no reason" he has to raise $1 billion for his general election campaign. Trump had estimated he would raise that much. He has held just two major fundraisers in the three weeks since he agreed to help the GOP raise money. On Tuesday, however, the former reality TV star said he simply doesn't "need nearly as much money as other people need because I get so much publicity." Hillary Clinton, after clinching the Democratic nomination, is ramping up her fundraising efforts to raise $1.1 billion.

President Obama on Wednesday vetoed an effort to undo rules protecting retirement savings with requirements on investment advisers. Obama said the veto, his third this year, will preserve rules ensuring that workers and retirees "receive retirement advice that is in their best interest, better enabling them to protect and grow their savings." Republicans have argued that the rules would make it harder for low- and middle-income Americans to find affordable investment advice.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reportedly plans to endorse Hillary Clinton for president within a week or two, abandoning the neutrality she maintained during the primaries now that Clinton has become the party's presumptive nominee. Warren, a hero among progressives, has been one of the party's most outspoken critics of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. She is expected to ratchet up her criticism of Trump in a Thursday speech. She said she probably should not be chosen as Clinton's running mate, although she has not ruled out the possibility.

The Santa Clara County sheriff's office has stepped up security at the local courthouse after a string of death threats to the judge who gave a six-month jail sentence to former Stanford University swimmer Brock Allen Turner, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. The judge, Aaron Persky, has faced an angry backlash for the short sentence — prosecutors had asked for six years. A Stanford University law professor, Michele Dauber, launched an effort to recall Persky in a 2017 vote.

A Detroit man, Davontae Sanford, was released Wednesday after spending eight years in prison — starting when he was 14 — after he was wrongfully convicted for a quadruple murder. Sanford was arrested after he approached police near the scene of the crime. After hours of police interrogation over two days, he confessed. Witnesses said his voice sounded like one of the shooters, but two weeks after his sentencing a hitman confessed to the murders and led police to the murder weapon. Michigan police decided to conduct a fresh investigation last year.

At least 13 people were killed Wednesday in airstrikes on three hospitals in three hours in rebel-held parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo. Government forces are trying to regain control of the divided city, but it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the strikes. One of the attacks targeted one of the last hospitals in the area still offering pediatric care. "Everyone must question their humanity when babies have to be taken out of incubators because of attacks on hospitals," UNICEF regional director Peter Salama said.

The Cleveland Cavaliers trounced the Golden State Warriors 120-90 on Wednesday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals. They now trail the Warriors 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. LeBron James led the Cavs with 32 points and 11 rebounds, and Kyrie Irving added 30 points, helping the team bounce back after two straight blowout losses. "We finally got back to our game," said James. "It was a good flow, a collective team win." The Cavaliers kept Warriors superstar and league MVP Stephen Curry to 19 points.

The International Tennis Federation suspended Maria Sharapova for two years Wednesday for testing positive for a newly banned performance enhancing substance, meldonium. A three-person independent panel said Sharapova, 29, was not trying to cheat, but bore "sole responsibility" for the offense. "The ITF spent tremendous amount of time and resources trying to prove I intentionally violated the anti-doping rules and the tribunal concluded I did not," said Sharapova, who called the suspension "unfairly harsh" and plans to appeal.

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.