10 things you need to know today: February 27, 2019

(Image credit: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

Jump to category:

1. Trump and Kim meet to start 2nd summit
2. House passes Democrats' proposal to block Trump's emergency declaration
3. Cohen to call Trump 'racist' and 'conman' in public testimony
4. Republican Mark Harris says he won't run in new N.C. election
5. Young immigrants reported sexual abuse in U.S. custody
6. U.S. military shut down Russian troll factory during 2018 midterms
7. Pakistan says it shot down 2 Indian fighter jets
8. DOJ won't challenge court approval of AT&T-Time Warner merger
9. Chicago's next mayor will be 1 of 2 black women
10. United Methodist Church keeps bans on same-sex marriage, gay clergy

published 27 February 2019

1. Trump and Kim meet to start 2nd summit

President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met face-to-face on Wednesday for the first time since their first summit last year. The two leaders and their aides are holding a two-day second summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, to discuss North Korea's nuclear program and concrete steps toward fulfilling Kim's commitment to eventual denuclearization made at their first meeting in Singapore last year. Trump touted his "special" relationship with Kim, saying that his "friend" could build a thriving economy like Vietnam's if he agrees to give up his nuclear weapons. In the days ahead of the talks, he lowered expectations for the summit, saying there was no rush to fully dismantle North Korea's nuclear weapons.

The Democrat-led House on Tuesday passed a resolution seeking to overturn President Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border. The vote was 245 to 182. Thirteen Republicans sided with Democrats, who disputed Trump's assertion that there was a crisis of illegal immigration, drug smuggling, and possible entry by terrorists across the border, which only a border wall could prevent. Republicans who joined Democrats have said Trump was setting a bad precedent by going around Congress to get billions of dollars to build his promised wall, and warned that future liberal presidents could declare emergencies to circumvent Congress. The Senate now has 18 days to take up the resolution, with passage uncertain and Trump vowing to veto 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.

President Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, plans to tell lawmakers Wednesday that Trump is a "racist," a "conman," and a "cheat," according to prepared statements several news outlets obtained ahead of Cohen's public testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Cohen also reportedly will say Trump knew that his adviser Roger Stone was seeking information from WikiLeaks about publishing hacked Democratic National Committee emails. Cohen also reportedly will provide details of the payment of hush money during the 2016 presidential campaign to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels, who claims she had an affair with Trump more than a decade ago. Trump tweeted that Cohen has been disbarred for "lying & fraud," and said his former lawyer now is "lying in order to reduce his prison time."

Republican Mark Harris announced Tuesday that he would not run again in the new North Carolina congressional election, citing his "health situation." The news came five days after the State Board of Elections called the new vote after concluding a hearing on allegations of election fraud by operatives hired by Harris' campaign. During the hearing, Harris revealed that he had recently suffered complications from an infection, and two strokes. Harris led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes on Election Day but election officials refused to certify the count due to the fraud allegations. Harris endorsed Republican Stony Rushing, a Union County commissioner, but the GOP will likely pick its candidate in a May primary with a general election in October.

Over the past four years, thousands of allegations of sexual abuse affecting unaccompanied immigrant minors in U.S. custody have been reported. The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement received 4,556 complaints, while the Department of Justice received an additional 1,303 — though it's unclear whether there's an overlap between the two departments. The majority of the allegations sent to the DOJ were made against other minors, but 178 were waged against adult HHS staff members, including 154 sexual assault allegations. A spokesperson for HHS said that the department takes any allegation "seriously" and acts "swiftly to investigate and respond."

The U.S. military blocked a Russian troll factory's internet access on the day of the November midterm elections, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing several U.S. officials. The U.S. Cyber Command targeted the Internet Research Agency, a company backed by a Russian oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin. "They basically took the IRA offline," a source familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. "They shut them down." The U.S. action marked the first major move by the U.S. Cyber Command under new leeway President Trump and Congress granted the agency last year.

Pakistan said Wednesday that it shot down two Indian warplanes that violated its airspace, further escalating tensions between the two countries in the disputed Kashmir region. Pakistan's military said it captured two Indian crew members. The claim was not immediately confirmed by India, although Indian officials said earlier that one of their jets had crashed on the Indian side of the de facto border in Kashmir. A day earlier, Indian fighter jets launched airstrikes against what India said was a camp on Pakistan's side of the border that was used by terrorists responsible for a recent bombing against Indian soldiers. Pakistan also said Wednesday that its air force had struck six targets in India without entering its airspace, taking care to cause "no human loss or collateral damage."

The Justice Department said Tuesday that it would not fight an appeals court ruling approving AT&T's attempt to buy cable giant Time Warner for $85.4 billion. President Trump opposed the massive acquisition. Trump saw the deal as a potential boost to Time Warner's CNN unit, which he frequently derides as "fake news." A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia handed AT&T a major victory, ruling unanimously in favor of the deal and calling the Trump administration claim that the merger would drive up consumer prices "unpersuasive."

Chicago will elect its first black female mayor April 2, after Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle advanced to a runoff election on Tuesday. Lightfoot, a former federal prosecutor, and Preckwinkle, the Cook County Board president, led a field of 14 candidates running to replace Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who is retiring after two terms. The most famous name on the ballot was William Daley, the brother and son of former Chicago mayors Richard M. Daley and Richard J. Daley and, like Emanuel, a former chief of staff to President Barack Obama. Lightfoot, a political outsider, is also the first openly gay woman to run for Chicago mayor. Turnout was low, at about 27 percent of registered voters.

Delegates at a conference of the United Methodist Church, the second biggest U.S. Protestant denomination, voted Tuesday to strengthen bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy. Conservatives from the U.S. and overseas pushed through the so-called Traditional Plan, and defeated a rival proposal to let regional and local church bodies determine whether to adopt more gay-friendly policies. "The church in Africa would cease to exist" if the bans were eased, said the Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia. Council of Bishops President Kenneth H. Carter said he feared progressive churches would now leave the denomination. Former Methodist pastor Rebecca Wilson called the vote devastating. "As someone who left because I'm gay," she said, "I'm waiting for the church I love to stop bringing more hate."

Explore More

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.