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

President Obama and Bernie Sanders at the White House

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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1. President Obama endorses Hillary Clinton after meeting with Bernie Sanders
2. Appeals court upholds restrictions on carrying concealed guns
3. House approves Puerto Rico debt-relief legislation
4. WHO says women in Zika-affected nations should consider delaying pregnancy
5. U.N. panel finds Ireland abortion ban violates women's human rights
6. American ISIS defector charged with aiding terrorists
7. Biden tells Stanford sexual assault survivor she is a 'warrior'
8. Investigation into Hillary Clinton emails focuses on drone-strike discussions
9. Driver charged with second-degree murder for deaths of 5 cyclists
10. Thousands gather to pay respects to Muhammad Ali

published 10 June 2016

1. President Obama endorses Hillary Clinton after meeting with Bernie Sanders

President Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton for president on Thursday, saying in a web video, "I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office." Earlier in the day, Obama met with Clinton's primary rival, Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to keep fighting into the July Democratic convention. Sanders left the White House pledging to "work together" with Clinton, who clinched the Democratic nomination this week, to beat GOP standard-bearer Donald Trump. Leading progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren also endorsed Clinton, calling Trump a "thin-skinned, racist bully."

A federal appeals court in California said Thursday that people do not have a constitutional right to carry concealed weapons in public. A divided U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 that California counties can require gun owners to show that they have a specific reason for needing to carry a weapon. "The protection of the Second Amendment ... simply does not extend to the carrying of concealed firearms in public by members of the general public," the court said. Gun owners in two counties had challenged a requirement to show "good cause" for getting permits.

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The House on Thursday passed a bill that would create a financial control board to help Puerto Rico handle its finances, and let the island restructure some of its $70 billion in debt. The bipartisan 297-127 vote marked a victory for House Speaker Paul Ryan, who had urged conservative fellow Republicans to help pass the bill to keep the crisis from deepening. Puerto Rico is due to make a $2 billion debt payment in three weeks. "The Puerto Rican people are our fellow Americans," Ryan said. "They pay our taxes, they fight in our wars. We cannot allow this to happen."

The World Health Organization said Thursday that women in nations affected by the Zika crisis should put off getting pregnant if possible due to the mosquito-borne virus' potential to cause devastating birth defects. The virus' impact has been heaviest in Brazil, but it has spread to nearly 50 countries, primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. The WHO guidance signals rising alarm. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said women, their partners, and doctors should make decisions concerning pregnancy.

The United Nations panel on human rights announced Thursday it found Ireland's ban on most abortions to be a violation of women's human rights. The committee said it was cruel for the government to force the woman who brought forward the case, Amanda Mellet, to carry her fetus to term even though doctors had told her it wouldn't survive. Mellet traveled to England to have an abortion. The U.N. experts urged Ireland to change its laws and, if necessary, its Constitution to let women get legal abortions.

A Northern Virginia man, Mohamad Jamal Khweis, was charged with aiding terrorists in a federal court on Thursday. Khweis, 26, sold his car in December and flew to Europe to join the Islamic State, then became disillusioned with the Islamist extremist group after just three months. He turned himself in to Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, saying he had escaped from ISIS. Khweis was flown back to the U.S. on Wednesday to face trial. Khweis was born in the U.S. to Palestinian immigrants.

Vice President Joe Biden wrote an open letter to the unnamed victim in the Stanford University rape case, saying he was "filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth." The Stanford sexual assault survivor wrote a harrowing letter to her convicted rapist last week. Biden told the "courageous young woman" that "you are a warrior ... your story has already changed lives."

The Justice Department's ongoing investigation of Hillary Clinton's use of private email as secretary of state is focused partly on email exchanges about whether to challenge specific top-secret CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The 2011 and 2012 emails were usually sent over a secure government network, but several times officials used less secure networks, and aides forwarded the emails to Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, via her personal server. The emails didn't mention "drones," "CIA," or any details about targets.

Michigan prosecutors on Thursday charged Charlie E. Pickett, 50, with second-degree murder and reckless driving for allegedly plowing his pickup truck into a group of bicycle riders in Kalamazoo, killing five and injuring four. The cyclists belonged to a group that makes regular rides on Tuesday evenings. They were five miles into a 30-mile ride. "The investigation is not over and the police will continue to gather information on what lead up to this crash," Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting said.

Tens of thousands of people are gathering in Louisville, Kentucky, on Friday to pay their respects to boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The three-time heavyweight champion, cultural icon, and goodwill ambassador died last week after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. His funeral events began Thursday with an Islamic prayer service, and continue all day Friday, starting with a motorcade carrying Ali's body through his hometown. His pallbearers will include boxers George Foreman and Larry Holmes. Promoter Don King said Ali was "a fighter for the people," whose "spirit will live forever."

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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.