10 things you need to know today: August 31, 2016

(Image credit: JASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images)

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1. Trump to visit Mexico before immigration speech
2. ISIS spokesman killed in Aleppo
3. FBI recovers 30 more Clinton emails on Benghazi
4. Rubio and McCain defeat challengers in primaries
5. Obama commutes sentences of 111 more nonviolent federal inmates
6. Whitman becomes first big-name Republican to campaign for Clinton
7. Gov. Chris Christie vetoes New Jersey minimum wage hike
8. Some of Orlando nightclub shooting 911 tapes released
9. Google to start ride service to rival Uber
10. Chicago police leader recommends firing five officers over McDonald shooting

published 31 August 2016

1. Trump to visit Mexico before immigration speech

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will travel to Mexico on Wednesday to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto hours before Trump makes what he has billed as a "major speech" on immigration. Peña Nieto on Friday extended an invitation to both Trump and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to visit Mexico. Trump's trip comes after he has suggested he might soften his call for deporting all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. Clinton's campaign dismissed Trump's trip as a distraction. A senior Clinton adviser said in a statement that what matters is whether Trump "remains committed to the splitting up of families and deportation of millions."

Islamic State spokesman and strategist Abu Muhammad al-Adnani was killed in Aleppo, Syria, the Islamist extremist organization's Amaq news agency said Tuesday. The 39-year-old Syrian was a founder of the group and ran the propaganda operation that produced videos of beheadings and massacres. He also was responsible for ISIS's external operations division, which recruited terrorists and organized attacks abroad. The Pentagon confirmed it had targeted al-Adnani in an airstrike but could not confirm his death.

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The State Department announced Tuesday that the FBI had recovered 30 more emails on the 2012 Benghazi attack from the private email server Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state. Republican Donald Trump's presidential campaign harshly criticized Clinton, now the Democratic presidential nominee, over the revelation. Trump's senior communications adviser Jason Miller said the disclosure "raises questions about the more than 30,000 emails she deleted." Clinton has said she turned over all of her work emails, deleting only personal messages. Her lawyer was not immediately available for comment.

Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and John McCain of Arizona beat primary challenges from fellow Republicans on Tuesday. Rubio now faces a general election battle against Rep. Patrick Murphy, a two-term Democrat, in what could be one of the year's most expensive Senate races. McCain also could face a tough race in his bid for a sixth term, with Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick appealing to Latinos and Native Americans for support in the diverse state. Also, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who resigned as Democratic National Committee chairwoman after the release of emails critical of Sen. Bernie Sanders in his bid for the party's presidential nomination, beat a challenger, law professor Tim Canova, endorsed by Sanders.

President Obama has commuted the sentences of 111 federal prisoners convicted of drug crimes, the White House said Tuesday. Obama this month has now shortened the sentences of 325 inmates, nearly doubling his previous total. He also has denied 2,227 cases since Aug. 8 as he sifts through a backlog of 11,477 cases. The commutations are part of Obama's two-year effort to grant early release to inmates given long sentences before Congress began shortening prison terms for non-violent drug crimes.

Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman on Tuesday became the first high-profile Republican to publicly campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. "Hillary would do a far better job in creating jobs and for our economy," Whitman, a top GOP fundraiser who ran unsuccessfully for governor of California in 2010, told business leaders in Denver. Whitman endorsed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the Republican primary, but she has called Donald Trump, who won the GOP nomination, a "demagogue" she could not support.

Republican Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday announced that he would veto legislation seeking to raise the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next five years. The bill called for getting started by hiking the wage from $8.38 to $10.10 on Jan. 1, 2017. Christie said the plan, pushed by Democrats, would have been a burden to small businesses. "All of this sounds great, raising the minimum wage, when you're spending someone else's money," he said. Democrats, who control the statehouse, said the measure would boost the state's economy, and vowed to get around Christie's opposition by raising the minimum wage with a constitutional amendment.

The Orange County, Florida, Sheriff's Office on Tuesday released 20 calls to 911 from loved ones of people who were trapped inside the Pulse nightclub during a June 12 mass shooting that left 49 people dead. The calls were made by family members and friends, or people who had gotten out of the club. Authorities did not release calls made by people in the club or by the shooter, Omar Mateen, because those recordings are tied up in a lawsuit between the city of Orlando and news organizations. "There's like 18 people, two are dead, they're in the bathroom," says one man whose girlfriend had texted him. "They're all scared to death, they all think they're gonna die."

Google plans to launch its own ride-sharing service to rival Uber, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing a source close to the matter. Google, considered an ally of Uber after investing $258 million in the company in 2013, started a pilot program around its California headquarters in May, enabling thousands of workers at select firms to use the Waze app to carpool at low rates, and plans to offer the service to all Waze users in San Francisco this fall. Uber and Lyft, a rival service, let users hail rides like taxis, but navigation app Waze, which Google acquired in 2013, is branching out by helping users connect with fellow commuters.

Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson on Tuesday recommended the firing of four patrol officers and a sergeant for their roles in the 2014 shooting death of a black teenager, Laquan McDonald. The recommendation applies to officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot McDonald 16 times and has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge, and four colleagues accused of lying about the shooting. Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson had recommended firing 10 officers over the shooting, but four of them have left the force in the last two weeks.

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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.