10 things you need to know today: September 27, 2018

1. Trump slams Democrats ahead of hearing on allegations against Kavanaugh

President Trump held a rambling, 80-minute press conference on Wednesday, alternating between touting his foreign and economic policies and accusing Democrats of manufacturing the allegations of sexual assault that have surfaced against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. This is a "big fat con job," Trump said, adding that "they go into a room and I guarantee you, they laugh like hell at what they've pulled off on you and the public." The first of several women who have now accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault, Christine Blasey Ford, will testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, along with Kavanaugh. Trump has himself been accused by at least 10 women of sexual misconduct, and he said these "false" charges "absolutely" made him sympathetic toward Kavanaugh, although he could change his mind depending on how the hearing goes.

The New York Times

2. Trump accuses China of trying to swing midterms against him

President Trump on Wednesday accused China of trying to interfere in November's midterm elections to hurt him politically. "Regrettably, we found that China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election coming up in November against my administration," Trump said at the United Nations Security Council. "They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade." China's Security Council representative spoke after Trump and denied any meddling. "We do not and will not interfere in any countries' domestic affairs," said Wang Yi, China's State Councilor and Minister for Foreign Affairs. "We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China." Trump and his aides offered no evidence to support the president's claim.

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CNN

3. New sexual misconduct allegations surface on eve of Kavanaugh hearing

Two more sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh surfaced Wednesday, on the eve of a Thursday Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford will testify on Ford's claim that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school. The third accuser, Julie Swetnick, publicly identified herself and said that in the early 1980s Kavanaugh attended high school parties where girls were drugged and raped. Republican investigators for the committee on Tuesday asked Kavanaugh, according to documents released Wednesday, about an allegation that he assaulted a woman he dated in 1998 while working for independent counsel Ken Starr. Kavanaugh denied all of the allegations, telling Senate staffers the latest allegations were "ridiculous and from the Twilight Zone."

CNBC CNN

4. Fed hikes interest rates for third time this year

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time this year on Wednesday at the end of a two-day policy meeting. Economists expect one more rate hike this year. The quarter-point hike — the eighth since 2015 — brings the Fed's benchmark overnight interest rate of 2 percent to 2.25 percent. The U.S. central bank forecast at least three more years of economic growth and signaled that it was pressing ahead with its plans to unwind the economy-boosting policies it used to help fuel the recovery from the Great Recession. The Fed removed the word "accommodative" from its statement on its monetary policy, which some analysts interpreted as the end of an era, but Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the removal of the word did not signal a policy change.

Reuters The Associated Press

5. Report: Russian wanted in nerve-agent attack is military colonel

One of the men wanted by British authorities in the nerve-agent attack against former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter was identified in media reports Wednesday as Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga, a decorated Russian colonel in Russia's military intelligence service. Prosecutors in the U.K. earlier this month charged two Russians they identified as Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov with attempted murder for the Skripals' poisoning with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent, in the city of Salisbury in southern England. Russia said the men were tourists, and they appeared on television claiming they went to Salisbury to visit its cathedral. Several news outlets, citing reporting by intelligence website Bellingcat, said Boshirov was really Chepiga, and two European security sources backed up the reports.

The New York Times Reuters

6. Trump says he wants to keep Rosenstein on the job

President Trump said Wednesday he would prefer to have Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Russia election-meddling investigation, stay in his job and "let him finish up." Trump and Rosenstein are scheduled to meet on Thursday, but Trump said their talk could be delayed. Rumors circulated earlier this week that Rosenstein would resign or be fired following a New York Times report that he had suggested secretly recording Trump, and tried to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. "I'm talking with him," Trump said at a news conference. "He said he never said it ... And we'll see." Shortly after the Times story came out, Trump said at a Missouri rally that he would "get rid" of a "lingering stench" at the Justice Department.

The Washington Post

7. Congress sends Trump bill to avoid government shutdown

The House on Wednesday approved a spending bill keeping the government open through Dec. 7 and averting a partial government shutdown that would have hit when current funding runs out on Monday. The Senate approved the spending plan in a 93-7 vote last week, so the $854 billion bill now goes to President Trump for his signature. Trump has said it was "ridiculous" that the legislation didn't include funding for his long-promised wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, but that he would sign it. "We're going to keep the government open," Trump told reporters at the United Nations. The bill includes $675 billion for the Defense Department, with a 2.6 percent increase in military pay, the biggest raise in nine years.

The Associated Press

8. Trump administration investigates Yale admissions policies

The Trump administration on Wednesday disclosed that both the Education Department and the Justice Department are investigating whether Yale University discriminates against Asian American applicants. Yale denied any unfairness and said it would fully cooperate with investigators. News of the inquiry came out in a letter from the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights to the Asian American Coalition for Education. The agency already has challenged admission practices at another elite university, Harvard, but it said it was declining to follow up on similar allegations concerning Dartmouth College and Brown University. The Yale investigation marked the latest sign that the Trump administration is taking a critical look at affirmative action and admissions practices many schools consider key to the pursuit of diversity.

The Washington Post

9. Trump expresses clearest support yet for two-state Israeli-Palestinian solution

President Trump said Wednesday at the United Nations that he backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "I like a two-state solution. That's what I think works best ... That's my feeling," Trump said. The statement was Trump's clearest expression of support yet for a two-state solution. In the past he has said he would back one only if both sides agreed. Trump's remarks came after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of the annual meeting of U.N. leaders. Netanyahu wants any future Palestinian state to be demilitarized and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Trump said he hoped to unveil a new peace plan within three months.

Reuters

10. North Carolina group warns against dangers of polluted Florence runoff

The nonprofit North Carolina Coastal Federation on Wednesday released a warning against swimming or even wading off parts of the state's coast due to dangers of "severe" illness from contaminated runoff from Hurricane Florence. The group said in a release that going into affected waters could lead to "bacterial infections, earaches, hepatitis, skin rashes, and respiratory issues," and advised people who touch the water to wash their hands. Earlier this week, NASA satellite images showed polluted runoff blackening rivers and estuaries. The North Carolina Recreational Water Quality Division said flood waters were tainted with septic tank waste, sewage, fuel, chemicals, and animal waste, including some from industrial hog farms.

The Charlotte Observer