10 things you need to know today: February 26, 2019

(Image credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

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1. Trump heads to Hanoi for 2nd summit with Kim
2. House prepares to vote on rejecting Trump national emergency declaration
3. Ex-national security officials: There's no border emergency
4. India bombs target inside Pakistan's territory in Kashmir
5. Former campaign staffer says Trump kissed her without consent
6. Pence announces more aid to Venezuelans, new sanctions against Maduro
7. Michael Cohen to start three days of testimony to Congress
8. Report: Evidence of human-caused climate change hits 'gold standard'
9. Cardinal George Pell convicted of child sex abuse
10. R. Kelly enters not guilty plea

published 26 February 2019

1. Trump heads to Hanoi for 2nd summit with Kim

President Trump departed Monday for Hanoi, Vietnam, where he will hold his second face-to-face meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Trump told reporters he expected a "very tremendous summit" aimed at delivering on promises to get North Korea to agree to concrete steps toward giving up its nuclear weapons. Trump is expected to arrive Tuesday evening. Kim arrived to a red-carpet reception on Tuesday after a 65-hour, 2,500-mile ride on an armored train that traveled from Pyongyang through China. He was greeted by Vietnamese officials, and waved to a crowd of people carrying Vietnamese and North Korean flags.

The Democrat-controlled House plans to vote Tuesday on a resolution seeking to overturn President Trump's declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border. It is expected to easily pass, but its fate is less certain in the Senate, which is controlled by the GOP. Democrats need four Republican senators to side with them. As of early Tuesday, three Republicans had indicated they would support it, saying Trump is setting a bad precedent by circumventing Congress to get money he wants to build a border wall. Trump on Monday stepped up pressure on Republicans to rally to his side. "I hope our great Republican Senators don't get led down the path of weak and ineffective Border Security," Trump tweeted. "Without strong Borders, we don't have a Country."

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Fifty-eight former national security officials released a letter on Monday saying they know of "no emergency that remotely justifies" diverting $8 billion to pay for the wall President Trump wants to build on the U.S.-Mexico border. The group includes officials who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations. The officials disputed the facts Trump has used as the basis for his declaration, noting that illegal border crossings are near a 40-year low, not a new crisis level, and that human and drug trafficking would not be affected significantly by a wall because they typically occur at border entry points, airports, and other places. The statement is partly aimed at supporting legal challenges to Trump's policy.

India launched an airstrike on Pakistan's side of the disputed Kashmir region early Tuesday, the latest escalation of tensions since a suicide bombing that killed more than 40 Indian soldiers in the region earlier this month. India said the airstrike targeted a terrorist training camp operated by the Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, and that Indian Mirage 2000 fighter jets had killed a "very large number" of militants. Pakistan's military said India's jets, facing a response by Pakistan's air force, dropped their payloads "in haste," hitting a forested area, and that no casualties or damage were reported.

Alva Johnson, who served as a staffer on President Trump's 2016 campaign, has filed a lawsuit saying that Trump kissed her without her consent in August 2016. Johnson says that before a rally in Tampa, Florida, Trump grabbed her hand and kissed her near her lips. "I immediately felt violated because I wasn't expecting it or wanting it," she said, calling it "super-creepy and inappropriate." White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denied Johnson's account, calling it "absurd on its face" and saying the allegation "never happened and is directly contradicted by multiple highly credible eye witness accounts."

Vice President Mike Pence announced an additional $56 million in humanitarian aid for Venezuelans during a visit to neighboring Colombia to reaffirm the United States' support for Venezuelan opposition leader and internationally recognized interim president Juan Guaidó. Pence also announced new sanctions against President Nicolás Maduro and officials in his embattled government. Pence urged regional leaders to freeze the Venezuelan state oil company's assets and to transfer Maduro's assets to Guaidó. Pence's visit with Guaidó in Colombia's capital, Bogota, came after a standoff at the Colombia-Venezuela border turned violent as Venezuelan security forces enforced Maduro's blockade against foreign aid the opposition is trying to get into the South American nation.

Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal lawyer, starts three days of appearances before Congress on Tuesday. Cohen testifies first at a closed session before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he is expected to face questions about his involvement in failed efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, and a disputed BuzzFeed News report saying prosecutors had evidence Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress. "We will be extremely thorough," Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the committee's chairman, said. Cohen, who soon starts a three-year prison sentence for crimes including tax evasion and campaign finance violations, will appear publicly before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday and the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday.

Evidence that human activity is causing global warming has reached a "gold standard" level of statistical certainty that means there is just a one-in-a-million chance the scientific consensus about climate change is wrong, according to a report by a U.S.-led team published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. "Humanity cannot afford to ignore such clear signals," the scientists wrote, citing satellite measurements of rising temperatures over the past 40 years. "The narrative out there that scientists don't know the cause of climate change is wrong," lead author Benjamin Santer said. "We do." President Trump has questioned climate change reports and plans to withdraw from the 197-nation Paris climate agreement.

A jury in Melbourne has found Cardinal George Pell, Australia's most senior Catholic and the Vatican's economy minister, guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys shortly after celebrating Mass in 1996. The 77-year-old Pell was also found guilty of indecently assaulting one of the teens a month later. The jury reached its decision on Dec. 11, but the court had forbidden publication about details in the trial until Tuesday. Pell is the most senior Catholic Church official to be convicted of sexual abuse. He faces up to 50 years in prison, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for Wednesday. He filed an appeal against the convictions last week.

R. Kelly pleaded not guilty on all 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse on Monday. The R&B singer spent the weekend in jail after he was indicted on Friday and turned himself in. He was reportedly unable to pay $100,000 of his $1 million bond, but was able to leave a Chicago jail after a woman listing herself as a "friend" paid the bail. Charges against Kelly include allegations of abuse against three minors between the ages of 13 and 16 and one adult woman; he has been accused of abusing several women and minors in allegations spanning decades. Kelly has denied all accusations.

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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.