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

(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

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1. New ethics rules would ravage Clinton Foundation donor base
2. Trump woos black voters, predicts 95 percent support in 2020
3. U.S. chases away Syrian warplanes after regime airstrikes threaten American forces
4. CDC warns pregnant women to avoid Florida's South Beach
5. Judge recommends criminal charges for Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio
6. Clinton ordered to testify under oath to email practices
7. President Obama to visit Baton Rouge next week
8. Swimmer Ryan Lochte apologizes via Instagram for Rio robbery scandal
9. California wildfire destroys 100 homes, is 40 percent contained
10. Usain Bolt completes undefeated Olympic career with triple-triple golds

last updated 21 August 2016

1. New ethics rules would ravage Clinton Foundation donor base

Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton pledged Thursday that if she is elected president, her family's foundation will stop accepting donations from corporations or foreign governments, citizens, or groups, a practice that has raised concern about unethical conduct during her tenure as secretary of state. But if she makes good on that pledge, more than half of the foundation's high-dollar donors will no longer be able to contribute, according to a calculation from The Washington Post. Some 53 percent of donors who have given at least $1 million, including one member of the foundation's board of directors, fall into one of the suspect categories.

Donald Trump promised to overwhelmingly win the African-American vote in his hypothetical reelection campaign in 2020 while speaking at a rally Friday night. Black Americans are living as "refugees in their own country" thanks to rival Hillary Clinton's policies, he argued, and should vote Trump because, "What the hell do you have to lose?" After four years in office, Trump added, "I guarantee you that I will get over 95 percent of the African-American vote. I promise you." Trump made his remarks to a predominantly white audience at a Michigan town which is 93 percent white. He is currently losing to Clinton 91 percent to 1 percent among African Americans.

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A Pentagon official said Friday evening U.S. coalition fighter jets chased away two Syrian warplanes attempting to fly over Hasaka, Syria, an area where American Special Forces are stationed. The skirmish comes after an incident on Thursday in which Syrian government planes bombed Kurdish and American troops at Hasaka. Though no Americans were injured, the Pentagon earlier on Friday issued a warning to the Bashar al-Assad regime which suggested the United States would be willing to shoot down Syrian planes should they continue to fly near U.S. outposts.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday warned pregnant women to avoid South Beach, Florida, after the region of Miami Beach was identified as a second Zika infection zone following the Wynwood neighborhood on the mainland. The CDC previously warned pregnant women to avoid Wynwood and consider postponing all nonessential travel to the entirety of Miami-Dade County. So far, Zika virus has been transmitted via local mosquito bite to five people in Miami Beach, bringing the total number of cases in Florida that are unrelated to travel abroad up to 36. Until three weeks ago, all U.S. cases of the Zika virus, which is linked to severe birth defects, were believed to have been contracted overseas.

A U.S. district judge ruled Friday that controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, along with several of his colleagues, should be charged with criminal contempt of court because they ignored court orders connected to a 2007 racial profiling case. The judge argued that Arpaio for 18 months willfully violated court instructions to stop detaining drivers solely on suspicion of illegal immigration, and that one of his subordinates concealed almost 1,500 IDs confiscated during traffic stops from a department investigation into such confiscations. Arpaio has developed a national following for his aggressive immigration policing; critics say the lawman, who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," engages in racial profiling and harassment.

A federal judge on Friday ordered Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to submit written testimony under oath about the private email server she used while secretary of state. The ruling is a partial victory for conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch, which filed a public records lawsuit seeking to force Clinton to testify in person. Judicial Watch now has until October 14 to submit questions for Clinton to answer, after which she will have 30 days to make her reply. If the questions arrive quickly enough, Clinton could be forced to testify before Election Day.

President Obama will visit Louisiana's capital city of Baton Rouge next week, the White House announced Friday. Baton Rouge has been devastated by floods that have killed at least 13 people and left thousands more displaced. Obama (and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton) have faced criticism for not making public plans to visit the besieged Louisiana capital, while Republican nominee Donald Trump visited Baton Rouge on Friday. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) seemed to implicitly defend Obama and Clinton when he mentioned in a speech Thursday that presidential visits require substantial security efforts from local police forces, and he'd rather first responders be dedicated to addressing the disaster at hand.

Gold medal-winning U.S. swimmer Ryan Lochte apologized Friday for his behavior at a Rio de Janeiro gas station last weekend. "It is traumatic to be out late with your friends in a foreign country ... and have a stranger point a gun at you and demand money to let you leave," Lochte wrote in an apology note on Instagram, "but regardless of the behavior of anyone else that night, I should have been much more responsible in how I handled myself." Lochte originally told media he and three teammates were robbed at gunpoint during a taxi ride back to the Olympic compound, but security footage from a gas station undermined that claim, showing the four being detained by armed security guards until they paid for damaging a bathroom door. Lochte has also been suspended by USA Swimming, the national governing body of competitive swimming, and will reportedly be suspended from the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Firefighters are making progress against California's massive Blue Cut wildfire, which authorities now say has destroyed about 100 homes and more than 200 vehicles in affected areas. As of Friday night, the blaze is about 40 percent contained. Located 75 miles north of Los Angeles, the fire has already burned some 37,000 acres. "We've had a lot of fires and a lot of accidents in this area, but we always managed to get out of it without being hurt, but this time it's different," said 84-year-old Cecil Stevens, whose historic diner was burned to the ground. "It's over."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.