10 things you need to know today: May 26, 2018

(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images)

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1. Trump suggests canceled North Korea summit might proceed
2. Kim and Moon meet amid summit uncertainty
3. Trump makes sanctions relief deal for Chinese telecom
4. Federal government lost track of 1,475 migrant children
5. Cohen reportedly met with Russian oligarch at Trump Tower
6. Irish pro-life campaign concedes defeat
7. Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty, posts $1 million bail
8. Indiana science teacher stops middle school shooting
9. USC president resigns over campus doctor's sex abuse scandal
10. 42 million Americans expected to travel for Memorial Day weekend

last updated 26 May 2018

1. Trump suggests canceled North Korea summit might proceed

After canceling his scheduled June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday, President Trump said Friday the meeting could still happen as planned. "We will see what happens," Trump mused. "We're talking to them now." On Twitter later Friday, Trump said his team is "having very productive talks with North Korea about reinstating the Summit," adding that it could "be extended beyond" the original date if needed. Kim told Trump pulling out of the summit wasn't "the world's desire."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in gathered for a surprise meeting Saturday to discuss the fate of inter-Korean relations given the new uncertainty over Kim's proposed summit with President Trump. The two-hour talks happened in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) bordering the two Koreas and focused on how to keep the Trump-Kim conversation on track. "We see it as fortunate that the embers of dialogue between North Korea and the United States weren't fully extinguished and are coming alive again," said Moon's office. "We are carefully watching the developments."

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The Trump administration on Friday announced it has made a deal to help a Chinese telecom, ZTE, shuttered by a U.S. Commerce Department export ban. ZTE obtains about one quarter of its manufacturing components from American businesses, and it suspended operations earlier this month after the administration imposed sanctions as a penalty for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea. On Twitter Friday evening, Trump accused Democrats of letting "ZTE flourish with no security checks." He continued: "I closed it down then let it reopen with high level security guarantees, change of management and board, must purchase U.S. parts and pay a $1.3 Billion fine."

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is unable to say what happened to 1,475 of 7,635 migrant children it placed with sponsors and then checked on late last year. The sponsors are typically parents or other family members and are vetted by HHS before the placement is made, but the system is far from perfect: In one case in 2016, migrant minors were handed over to human traffickers running an egg farm. News of the missing children first came to light in an HHS official's congressional testimony in late April, but it drew widespread attention Friday and Saturday given the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant parents and children.

In the run-up to the inauguration, President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with a Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch to discuss strengthening relations between Washington and Moscow, The New York Times reported Friday. Viktor Vekselberg reportedly met with Cohen three separate times, including on the day of the inauguration. Soon after, a private equity firm linked to Vekselberg awarded Cohen a $1 million contract. Cohen also received hundreds of thousands of dollars from businesses like AT&T and Novartis to provide access and insight into the Trump administration.

Exit polling and early vote counts indicate a majority of Irish voters have backed the repeal of their country's constitutional ban on abortion. Save the 8th, the campaign supporting retention of the amendment prohibiting abortion, conceded defeat Saturday after Friday's vote, calling the decision "a tragedy of historic proportions." If the ban is lifted, the Irish Parliament is expected to pass a law legalizing abortion through the 12th week of pregnancy, with exceptions for later abortions if the mother's health is at risk or there is a diagnosis of fatal fetal abnormalities.

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to the police Friday morning, where he was charged with first- and third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sex act. He entered a "not guilty" plea and was released on a $1 million cash bail, fitted with a GPS tracker. Actress Rose McGowan, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 1997, tweeted, "We got you, Harvey Weinstein, we got you." Actress Mira Sorvino, who has accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, called him a "monster" and said she was "proud of and grateful to" all the women who "stood up" to him.

A science teacher named Jason Seaman stopped a school shooting in his classroom at Noblesville West Middle School in Noblesville, Indiana, on Friday. A boy in the class asked to be excused, returning shortly with two handguns he begin firing in the room. Seaman threw a basketball he was holding at the shooter and then tackled and disarmed him, restraining the student despite being shot three times. Seaman and one injured student were hospitalized as the investigation into the attack continues. He is expected to make a full recovery.

University of Southern California President C.L. Max Nikias resigned Friday under pressure over his administration's handling of a sex abuse scandal involving a campus gynecologist, Dr. George Tyndall. Some 300 people have accused Tyndall of inappropriate behavior over the course of his 30 years on campus. One of the dozen civil lawsuits now leveled against USC says he "routinely made crude comments, took inappropriate photographs, and forced plaintiffs to strip naked and groped them under the guise of medical treatment for his 'sexual gratification.'" Tyndall has denied all wrongdoing.

A huge number of Americans are planning to hit the road over Memorial Day weekend, AAA estimated Friday. Around 42 million people are expected to take some kind of trip, a 5 percent increase from last year's holiday weekend and the highest estimate in more than a decade. About 37 million will be driving to their destination, despite a recent spike in gas prices. Airfare prices are slightly down, likely a factor for many of the three million who will be flying for their vacations.

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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.