10 things you need to know today: August 23, 2016

(Image credit: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. State Department to release 14,900 newly discovered Clinton emails
2. Judge temporarily blocks Obama transgender bathroom guidelines
3. Trump says he is not 'flip-flopping' on immigration
4. Clinton emails show donors got access, but not favors
5. Turkey says it will 'cleanse' border area of ISIS fighters
6. Iran says Russia no longer using its air bases for anti-ISIS strikes
7. Virginia governor restores 13,000 felons' voting rights
8. Obama visits flood-ravaged Louisiana
9. Sports tribunal upholds ban against Russian athletes in Rio Paralympics
10. Speedo and other sponsors drop swimmer Ryan Lochte

published 23 August 2016

1. State Department to release 14,900 newly discovered Clinton emails

The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state found 14,900 work-related emails and documents that her lawyers had not previously disclosed, State Department lawyers told a federal judge on Monday. Clinton's lawyers turned over about 30,000 emails in 2014. The State Department and Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog that sued for access to Clinton's emails, are negotiating a plan to release the new materials. Clinton's campaign says she handed over "all the work-related emails she had in her possession in 2014," and supports the release of the new material, too, if it is work-related.

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Obama administration from enforcing national guidelines calling for public schools to let transgender students use restrooms corresponding to their gender identity. U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas ruled the "status quo" should hold until the case is decided. Thirteen states, led by Texas, have challenged the policy, saying the White House overstepped its authority by "policing public school property." The Obama administration says it is merely trying to protect transgender students' rights under existing laws against sex discrimination.

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.

Donald Trump and top supporters on Monday denied reports that he was "flip-flopping" on his vow to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. His new campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said a day earlier that it was "to be determined" whether Trump would use a deportation force he once proposed. Trump did not get into specifics, but said he was talking with Latino leaders to come up with tough but sensitive immigration policies. "I'm not flip-flopping," Trump told Fox News. "We want to come up with a really fair, but firm answer."

Government watchdog groups said Monday that Hillary Clinton's newly released emails indicate that Clinton Foundation donors got access to Clinton and her aides — but not favors — when she was secretary of state. The Democratic presidential nominee's GOP rival, Donald Trump, on Monday said her family's foundation was the "most corrupt enterprise in political history." Clinton's campaign chair, John Podesta, hit back, saying Trump should "come clean with voters" about his business "ties to the Kremlin." Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton, said that if she wins the election the foundation will stop taking foreign donations, and he will resign from its board.

Turkey vowed Monday to "cleanse" its borders of Islamic State militants. The statement came after a weekend suicide bombing at a Kurdish wedding killed at least 54 people. Turkish officials say the terrorist attack appeared to have been the work of ISIS, although no group immediately claimed responsibility. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said witness accounts indicated that the attacker was a child, although "a clue has not yet been found concerning the perpetrator."

Iran said Monday that Russian warplanes were no longer taking off from its air bases to attack Islamic State targets in Syria. Russia disclosed last week that it had hit ISIS targets on sorties from Iran. Tehran called Moscow's decision to make the arrangement public "ungentlemanly." On Monday, Russia's Defense Ministry said it had "successfully completed all the tasks" it had for its warplanes taking off from Iran. Bahram Zassemi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman in Iran, said Russia's use of its bases was a "temporary mission, that ended."

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) announced Monday that he had approved restoring voting rights for nearly 13,000 felons who had served their time. McAuliffe tried to restore voting rights for 200,000 felons with a sweeping executive order, but the state's highest court invalidated his executive order in July. Republicans had challenged the order, saying McAuliffe was just trying to add Democrats to voter rolls. McAuliffe said felon disenfranchisement, which hits African-Americans especially hard, is unfair, because it treats people who now work and pay taxes as "inferior second-class citizens."

President Obama landed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Tuesday to visit neighborhoods devastated by floods that killed at least 13 people and damaged 60,000 homes. After touring East Baton Rouge Parish, one of the 20 parishes hit particularly hard by the flooding, he delivered a statement on the federal government's response to the crisis. "What I want the people of Louisiana to know is that you're not alone in this, even after the TV cameras leave," Obama said. Republicans have criticized Obama for not cutting short his Martha's Vineyard vacation last week to visit the flood zone; Republican nominee Donald Trump visited the city Friday. Before returning to D.C., Obama will also meet with the families of Alton Sterling and slain police officers.

Russia lost its appeal of a ban that will prevent its athletes from competing in next month's Rio Paralympics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said Tuesday. The International Paralympic Committee decided on Aug. 7 to exclude Russia's entire 250-competitor team from the Sept. 7-18 event over the country's doping scandal, which also resulted in a partial ban on Russian Olympic athletes. The court, the highest tribunal in sports, said the ban was "proportionate in the circumstances."

Swimwear brand Speedo said Monday that it was ending its sponsorship agreement with swimmer Ryan Lochte over a drunken incident at a gas station during the Rio Olympics. Lochte and teammates Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger, and Jimmy Feigen were caught by security guards after Lochte tore down an advertising poster outside a bathroom, but Lochte later said they had been robbed at gunpoint by men claiming to be police. Speedo announced it would donate $50,000 from Lochte's endorsement fee to a Brazilian charity for children. Clothier Ralph Lauren and two other companies also dumped Lochte, meaning he has lost all of his major endorsement deals.

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.