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

1. Trump softens stance on Clinton and climate change

President-elect Donald Trump backed away from several of his most controversial campaign vows in a Tuesday meeting with New York Times editors and reporters. Trump said he would not push for fresh investigations against Hillary Clinton over her emails or her family's charitable foundation. He also promised to keep an "open mind" about whether to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, saying there was "some connectivity" between human activity and rising global temperatures, even though he once dismissed climate change as a hoax advanced by China. Trump also said he wanted to get along better with the Times, which he has blasted for negative coverage during the campaign.

The New York Times

2. Stocks push deeper into record territory, with Dow hitting 19,000

U.S. stocks extended their post-election rally on Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaking the 19,000 barrier for the first time. All three of the benchmark stock indexes closed at record levels for the second straight day. The Dow ended up by 67 points or 0.35 percent, closing at 19,024. The S&P 500 gained 4.8 points or 0.22 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 17.5 points, or 0.33 percent. The small-cap Russell 2000 index also hit another record high. Investors were expected to trade cautiously on Wednesday ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

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Reuters MarketWatch

3. Trump reportedly picks Gov. Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be his administration's ambassador to the United Nations, the Charleston, South Carolina, Post and Courier newspaper reported Tuesday. Haley, a rising star in the Republican Party, backed Sen. Marco Rubio, not Trump, early in the GOP primaries, and criticized some of Trump's proposals. When she met with him last week, she said he had always been a "friend and supporter." The nomination is expected to be announced on Wednesday morning. Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, would be the first woman named to a Cabinet-level post in the incoming Trump administration.

The Post and Courier The Washington Post

4. Tax document shows Trump Foundation admitted 'self-dealing'

President-elect Donald Trump's charitable foundation admitted in 2015 IRS tax filings that it violated a legal ban on using charity money to benefit nonprofit leaders, their families, and their businesses. The Donald J. Trump Foundation tax papers including the admission of the "self-dealing" were posted online, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. The newspaper said it could not immediately confirm whether the document was sent to the IRS. The Post reported that the Trump Foundation twice paid legal settlements to end lawsuits against Trump's businesses, and paid for items the Trumps bought at charity auctions three times in recent years, including two portraits of Trump.

The Washington Post

5. Computer experts suggest Clinton challenge election results in 3 swing states

A group of computer scientists and election lawyers is urging Hillary Clinton to request a recount in three key swing states — Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — due to what they say is evidence the election results in those states might have been hacked or manipulated. However, some prominent experts, including FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver and The New York Times' Nate Cohn, called the claims "weak" and "probably BS." The investigators found no evidence of tampering, just suspicious patterns, with Clinton receiving lower vote percentages in counties that used electronic voting machines compared to counties that utilized paper ballots and optical scanners. Clinton would have to get the electoral votes in all three of those states to overcome Trump's majority in the Electoral College.

New York Slate

6. Obama commutes sentences of more prisoners, pushing total over 1,000

President Obama commuted the sentences of 79 prisoners on Tuesday, raising the total number of commutations he has granted to 1,023. Most of the prisoners receiving reduced sentences were imprisoned for nonviolent drug crimes, although 342 were serving life sentences. "To date, the president has granted commutations to more prisoners than the past 11 presidents combined," the White House said in a statement. Obama has granted early release to 839 federal prisoners in 2016 alone. "We have two months left in this administration," White House counsel Neil Eggleston said. "I think you can anticipate that we will keep going until the end."

WhiteHouse.gov Time

7. Judge blocks Labor Department rule expanding overtime

A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday blocked a Labor Department rule that would double the salary level for workers entitled to time-and-a-half pay for work beyond 40 hours in a week. The rule had been scheduled to take effect Dec. 1. It would have extended mandatory overtime pay to four million workers by doubling the maximum a worker can earn and still be eligible for overtime to $47,476. U.S. District Judge Amos Mazzant issued an emergency injunction, siding with 21 states and a coalition of business groups who argued that the rule is not compatible with a federal law governing overtime.

Reuters Politico

8. Driver reportedly speeding before fatal Chattanooga school bus crash

Investigators said Tuesday that the driver in a fatal school bus crash was speeding before swerving and slamming into a tree. The wreck left the bus toppled on its side and nearly split in two. Thirty-seven students were on the bus, and at least five were killed, making the crash one of the deadliest accidents involving a school bus in recent years. The driver, 24-year-old Johnthony Walker, was arrested on five counts of vehicular homicide. The dead included three fourth graders, a first grader, and a kindergartner.

The New York Times

9. Colombia reaches new peace deal with FARC rebels

The Colombian government said Tuesday that it had reached a new peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Marxist rebel group. The agreement is scheduled to be signed Thursday. Voters unexpectedly rejected the original draft in an Oct. 2 referendum, and the revised draft appeared to include only minor modifications, such as providing more details on how the rebels would be confined for crimes committed during the 52-year civil war. President Juan Manuel Santos, who recently won the Nobel peace prize for his efforts to end the fighting, acknowledged that opposition politicians were likely to be dissatisfied, but said the revised deal offered a "unique opportunity to close this painful chapter in our history."

Reuters

10. Obama awards Medal of Freedom to high-profile group

President Obama awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 21 people on Tuesday, including Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks, Robert DeNiro, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Michael Jordan. It was Obama's last time handing out the nation's highest civilian honor, and the list of recipients represented what may have been the most high-profile list of honorees of his presidency. "This is America," Obama said. "It's useful when you think about this incredible collection of people that this is what makes us the greatest nation on Earth — not because of our differences but because in our difference we find something common to share."

USA Today