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

President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. NAFTA negotiations with Canada to resume next week
2. Federal judge declines to shut down DACA
3. Former Trump aide Papadopoulos admits lying, begs leniency
4. Russia-linked lobbyist pleads guilty, will work with Mueller probe
5. Trump's disapproval rating hits new high of 60 percent
6. John McCain lies in state at the Capitol
7. Aretha Franklin's funeral a glamorous 'celebration of life'
8. DeVos won't try to block school gun purchases made with federal funds
9. Former ER actress fatally shot by police
10. College football kickoff continues with Washington-Auburn, Miami-LSU

last updated 1 September 2018

1. NAFTA negotiations with Canada to resume next week

NAFTA negotiations with Canada will resume next week, the White House said Friday, days after President Trump touted a new bilateral trade agreement with Mexico. The talks have been complicated by off-the-record remarks Trump made Thursday to Bloomberg which were obtained and published by the Toronto Star. Trump said he would only accept a deal "totally on our terms," but that he would not say this publicly because it would be "so insulting" to Canada. On Twitter Saturday, Trump accused Bloomberg of the leak and said Canada has "taken advantage of our Country for many years!"

U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen on Friday ruled against eight states in a suit asking for a hold on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Obama administration's program delaying deportation of young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. DACA critics were hopeful Hanen would take their side, as he ruled against another Obama-era program offering similar respite for parents of U.S. citizens. Hanen's Friday ruling said former President Obama did not have legal authority to introduce DACA via executive order, but he cited the years-long delay in seeking this injunction as his rationale for denying it.

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.

Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in a court filing late Friday admitted to lying to federal investigators, a charge to which he pleaded guilty in October. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is seeking up to six months of jail time for Papadopoulos, but his defense attorneys asked for leniency in the form of a probationary sentence. When Papadopoulos lied to the FBI, his lawyers said in Friday's filing, he was not intending to harm their investigation but to "save his professional aspirations and preserve a perhaps misguided loyalty to his master." The sentencing hearing is this coming Friday.

A lobbyist named W. Samuel Patten on Friday pleaded guilty to working as an unregistered foreign agent and agreed to cooperate with federal investigators including Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Patten admitted to lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee and spending $50,000 on four tickets to President Trump's inauguration on behalf of a Ukrainian oligarch though he knew the inaugural committee cannot accept funds from foreign nationals. Patten is linked to Konstantin Kilimnik, an aide to Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort who is reportedly tied to Russian intelligence and has been indicted by the Mueller probe.

President Trump's disapproval rating hit a record high of 60 percent Friday, a Washington Post /ABC News poll found. Only 36 percent of Americans approve of his job performance, a four-point drop since April. While Trump maintains popularity among 78 percent of Republicans, more than 9 in 10 Democrats and 59 percent of independents disapprove of his performance. Trump responded to the survey results on Twitter late Friday, claiming the Washington Post/ABC pollsters are intentionally inaccurate and citing another poll that consistently gives a more favorable — and outlying — report.

The late Sen. John McCain arrived at the U.S. Capitol for the final time Friday morning to lie in state under the rotunda through the evening. McCain is only the 31st person to ever be honored this way. Vice President Mike Pence spoke at a ceremony memorializing the longtime Arizona Republican, praising his "iron will" and his tireless work ethic, while House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) remembered McCain as a "man of conviction." McCain's funeral will take place Saturday, and he will be buried Sunday in Maryland.

Former President Bill Clinton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Smokey Robinson spoke Friday at the fittingly glamorous Detroit funeral for soul legend Aretha Franklin. Her body arrived at the Greater Grace Temple in a white hearse and gold-plated casket, and guests rolled in for the "celebration of life" with signature Franklin style, arriving in 130 pink Cadillacs, a tribute to her song "Freeway of Love." Clinton praised Franklin as the "composer of her own life song," and pop star Ariana Grande sang Franklin's hit "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" in tribute.

"I have no intention of taking any action concerning the purchase of firearms or firearms training for school staff under the [Elementary and Secondary Education Act]," Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a letter Friday to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. The letter argued DeVos does not have the authority to stop schools from using federal funds to purchase weapons to arm educators. The decision, she said, belongs to local school districts and administrators.

Actress Vanessa Marquez, best known for her role on the medical drama ER, was killed by police officers Thursday, the South Pasadena Police Department confirmed Friday. The police were performing a welfare check on Marquez, 49, who was observed having seizures and a mental health crisis. She picked up a BB gun the officers said they believed to be a handgun, and police opened fired. No officers were injured, and their body camera footage has not been released. A 2015 study found those with untreated mental illness are 16 times more likely to be killed by police than other Americans.

College football's opening weekend continues with a stacked slate of games Saturday. First, No. 6 Washington faces No. 9 Auburn at 3:30 p.m. Eastern. While the Tigers' defense looks strong, the Huskies' star running back Myles Gaskin and quarterback Jake Browning make a formidable duo. Other notable games over the weekend include the season opener for No. 1 Alabama, playing Louisville at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, and No. 8 Miami versus No. 25 LSU on Sunday evening. In the first day of games Thursday, No. 21 University of Central Florida routed the University of Connecticut 56-17, while Northwestern toppled Big Ten rival Purdue 31-27.

Explore More

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.