10 things you need to know today: August 1, 2018

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1. Trump touts GOP candidates, and himself, at Florida rally
2. As trial starts, prosecutors call Manafort a 'shrewd' liar
3. Trump-Koch feud spotlights GOP rift before midterms
4. China threatens retaliation if U.S. doubles proposed tariffs
5. Facebook reveals Russia-like effort to influence midterms
6. Official warned of family separations' psychological harm to kids
7. Judge blocks release of plans for 3D-printed guns
8. Dozens injured in Aeromexico crash, but all survive
9. Turkish court rejects U.S. pastor's appeal despite Trump threat
10. Alan Alda reveals Parkinson's diagnosis

published 1 August 2018

1. Trump touts GOP candidates, and himself, at Florida rally

President Trump appeared Tuesday at a Tampa rally to support two Florida Republicans running for office, and to tout his agenda, from tariffs to voter IDs to the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. Trump said farmers have declared they are "okay" with tariffs that are costing billions, making them "true patriots." Trump falsely claimed that in order to buy groceries, people have to show photo ID, so they should have to do the same thing to vote. Trump also said he "can be more presidential than any president in history, except for maybe Abe Lincoln with the big hat," and proclaimed that if not for his campaign, people wouldn't be able to say "Merry Christmas" in public. "This may be — in fact it probably is — the greatest movement in the history of America," Trump told the overflow crowd of about 10,000. "To keep it going we need to elect more Republicans."

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's first trial began Tuesday in Virginia with jury selection and opening arguments on charges against President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort. In an opening statement, prosecutors called Manafort a "shrewd" liar with a pattern of unethical behavior. If convicted, Manafort, 69, faces seven to 12 years in prison. Mueller's team says Manafort failed to report a "significant percentage" of the $60 million he allegedly earned in Ukraine. Mueller has won indictments or guilty pleas from 32 people and three companies. Manafort is the only American who opted to go to trial. Mueller also reportedly has referred to Manhattan federal prosecutors three investigations into whether powerful Washington lobbyists — two Democrats and a Republican — failed to register as foreign agents for work contracted through Manafort.

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President Trump on Tuesday escalated his feud with the billionaire Koch brothers and their conservative political network, saying they had "become a total joke in real Republican circles." Trump made his comments in tweets following statements by Charles Koch and his aides at an annual donor conference, who said they would not support Republican Senate candidates who back Trump's policies on tariffs and immigration. Trump said the "globalist Koch Brothers" are "against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade. I never sought their support because I don't need their money or bad ideas." Trump has been at odds with the Koch brothers since they supported other candidates in the 2016 GOP primaries. The spat highlighted rifts within the GOP, but Republicans expect the Kochs to donate heavily to the party's candidates in this year's midterms.

China on Wednesday vowed to retaliate if the Trump administration goes through with a proposal to impose a 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, about 40 percent of what China exports to the U.S. every year. President Trump has not made a final decision on the plan, which is more than double the 10 percent tariff Trump in June instructed U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer to draw up on the goods. Beijing called the proposal "blackmail," and said it wouldn't work. Trump is using tariffs to pressure China into making trade concessions to open its markets more to U.S. companies. A source told Reuters the Trump administration could announce the tougher plan as early as Wednesday.

Facebook said on Tuesday that it had uncovered a campaign to influence the November midterm elections through fake accounts that were spreading divisive material. Facebook did not definitively link the effort to Russia, although it said some of the techniques being used were similar to those used by a Kremlin-linked group, the Internet Research Agency, that was indicted this year for alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The accounts focused on such divisive subjects as last year's "Unite the Right" white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which provoked deadly violence. The news was disclosed to lawmakers in private briefings and in a public Facebook post.

A top Health and Human Services official, Jonathan White, told senators on Tuesday that he and other officials warned the Trump administration that separating immigrant children from their parents at the Mexican border would not be "in the best interest of the child." White, the Office of Refugee Resettlement's former deputy director, said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that "there is no question that separation of children from parents entails significant potential for traumatic psychological injury to the child." He said he is trying to reunite more than 400 children whose parents were deported without them "as quickly as humanly possible." White was appearing at a committee hearing on the Trump administration's now-suspended policy of separating undocumented immigrant families at the border.

U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in Seattle on Tuesday blocked the imminent release of blueprints for untraceable, 3D-printed plastic guns. Lasnik issued a temporary restraining order hours before the designs were due to hit the internet. Several states sued to halt publication of the blueprints for making weapons that would be able to pass through security screening undetected. In June, the government reached a settlement with Texas-based Defense Distributed, allowing the company to start posting blueprints for the guns online Wednesday. On Monday, eight Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit to halt the settlement, saying that being able to print guns is a public safety risk.

An Aeromexico jetliner crashed just after taking off in northern Mexico on Wednesday. The governor of the state of Durango, Jose Aispuro, tweeted that nobody was killed, but dozens of people were left with minor injuries. Israel Solano Mejia, director of the local civil defense agency, said on regional TV that the plane "made it off the ground, but fell nose-first" a few hundred yards from the end of the runway. "The nose took the hit," he said. "The most seriously injured is the pilot." Most of the passengers were able to walk away from the aircraft. Authorities said there were 97 passengers and four crew members on the plane.

A Turkish court has rejected U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson's appeal for release from house arrest pending the result of his terror and espionage trial. Brunson's lawyer, Ismail Cem Halavurt, and Turkey's state-run media said they had been notified of the court's decision on Tuesday. President Trump last week warned of possible "large sanctions" against Turkey, a NATO ally, in retaliation for Brunson's jailing for allegedly supporting a 2016 failed coup. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that the threat of U.S. sanctions would not make Turkey back down. Brunson, an evangelical pastor from North Carolina, denies the charges against him.

Actor Alan Alda revealed Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In an interview with CBS News, the 82-year-old entertainer, best known for playing "Hawkeye" Pierce on M*A*S*H, said doctors diagnosed him three-and-a-half years ago. He said he decided to disclose his condition after noticing his thumb was twitching during TV appearances. He said he wanted to address it "before somebody does a story about this from a sad point of view" because "that's not where I am." Alda still acts and gives talks, and he recently launched a podcast. He said that he wants others with early-stage Parkinson's diagnoses to avoid being "immobilized with fear," because "you still have things you can do."

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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.