10 things you need to know today: May 13, 2019

(Image credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images)

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1. Sweden reopens rape investigation against Assange
2. Trump's top economic adviser admits U.S. consumers pay tariffs
3. Officer faces internal trial over Eric Garner's death
4. Filipino midterm elections seen as referendum on Duterte
5. Massachusetts man charged in deadly Appalachian Trail machete attack
6. Report: Pentagon getting some border-wall money from ICBM program
7. Actress Felicity Huffman to plead guilty in college admissions scandal
8. Seized North Korean ship arrives in American Samoa
9. Saudi Arabia says oil tankers sabotaged near UAE coast
10. Avengers: Endgame tops box office for 3rd straight weekend

published 13 May 2019

1. Sweden reopens rape investigation against Assange

Swedish prosecutors announced Monday that they would reopen an investigation into a rape allegation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Swedish authorities had dropped the case in 2017 because they could not bring in Assange for questioning because he had taken refuge in Ecuador's embassy in London. Assange was arrested last month after spending seven years in the embassy, so now it will be possible for Sweden to seek his extradition so he can be questioned and the investigation can be concluded. The development could trigger a battle between authorities in Sweden and in the U.S., where Assange faces a charge of conspiring to hack into government computers to steal secret documents.

President Trump's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, conceded Sunday that China doesn't directly pay tariffs on Chinese goods imported to the U.S., American importers and consumers do. His statement on Fox News Sunday came after Trump insisted that China would pay the higher tariffs he imposed Friday on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. "Both sides will pay," said Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council. He said China would pay through lost exports. He backed up Trump's view that a trade war will benefit the U.S. in the long run, if it forces China to treat U.S. companies better. "You've got to do what you got to do," Kudlow said. "This is a risk we should and can take without damaging our economy in any appreciable way."

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The police officer who wrapped his arm around the neck of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man who died while being forcefully arrested for selling cigarettes on a New York City sidewalk in 2014, faces a long-delayed internal disciplinary trial starting Monday. The officer, Daniel Pantaleo, 33, is accused of reckless use of a chokehold and intentional restriction of breathing. He has been on desk duty, but could be fired if the judge determines that his actions went beyond violating rules against chokeholds and amounted to a crime. A grand jury declined to charge Pantaleo, but the city paid Garner's family $5.9 million to settle a lawsuit in the case, which sparked an outcry after a video circulated showing Garner pleading, "I can't breathe," as Pantaleo pulled him to the ground and other officers handcuffed him.

Voters went to the polls in the Philippines on Monday in midterm elections seen as a referendum on the country's controversial president, Rodrigo Duterte. Opposition candidates, many of whom consider Duterte a budding dictator, are squaring off against Duterte allies hoping to dominate the Senate and strengthen Duterte's hand for the remainder of his term. "President Duterte's name is not on the ballot but this is very much a referendum on his three years of very disruptive yet very popular presidency," Manila-based analyst Richard Heydarian said. The key battle is for the 12 available spots in the 24-seat Senate, which serves as a check on Duterte's power. Opinion polls indicate that most of the 15 candidates with a chance to win a seat are Duterte allies, putting him in a strong position to consolidate power.

A 30-year-old Massachusetts man, James Jordan, has been accused of attacking two hikers with a machete on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, the FBI and federal prosecutors said Sunday in a joint news release. The attack occurred on federal land in southwestern Virginia. One of the hikers, a man, died; the other, a woman, was "severely injured," the federal authorities said. Wythe County Sheriff Keith Dunagan told NBC affiliate WSLS that the woman walked six miles before finding some other hikers early Saturday. Jordan faces federal charges for murder and assault with intent to murder. In April, Jordan was charged with criminal impersonation and drug possession after threatening hikers on the trail in North Carolina and Tennessee; he was put on probation and ordered to pay fines.

The Pentagon plans to divert $1.5 billion allocated for a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile program and a communications plane to help fund President Trump's border wall, The Washington Post reported Sunday, citing a Defense Department document. The document provides details on a plan the administration announced Friday for the construction of 80 more miles of border wall using Pentagon resources. The document supported Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan's statement that the funding shift won't hurt military preparedness. Democrats have expressed anger over the reprogramming, saying the Trump administration was sidestepping congressional authority so Trump can pay for the wall he promised in his 2016 campaign.

Actress Felicity Huffman is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to a conspiracy charge for paying $15,000 to have someone correct her daughter's SAT exam. The actress, who is married to the actor William H. Macy, is among 50 parents, coaches, and others accused of participating in a college admissions scandal in which wealthy parents paid for tricks such as bribes to coaches and entrance exam cheating to get their children into universities including Yale, Georgetown, and the University of Southern California. Huffman said in an April statement that her daughter "knew absolutely nothing about my actions." California admissions consultant William "Rick" Singer pleaded guilty in March to facilitating the cheating.

The North Korean cargo ship seized by the U.S. on suspicion of sanction violations has arrived in a port in Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa. The ship, the Wise Honest, was towed into port in the U.S. Pacific territory on Saturday after a three week trip from Indonesia. The coal ship was detained by Indonesian authorities in April 2018. The Trump administration announced last week it had seized the ship, one of North Korea's largest cargo vessels. The seizure came hours after North Korea fired two short-range missiles into the sea, its second weapons test in five days. The launches were seen as an expression of frustration over stalled talks with the U.S. on denuclearization and sanctions relief.

Saudi Arabia on Monday said four of its oil tankers were targeted Sunday morning off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, with two experiencing "significant damage" during the sabotage attack. One of the tankers was on its way to pick up Saudi oil bound for the United States. Saudi Arabia says no one was hurt in the attack, and no oil was spilled. The kingdom did not reveal which vessels were allegedly attacked, or who might have been behind the sabotage. On Thursday, the U.S. Maritime Administration issued a warning that "Iran and/or its regional proxies" could be targeting commercial sea traffic in the region; on Sunday, the agency issued a follow-up warning, but said the "incident has not been confirmed."

Avengers: Endgame held on for a third weekend at the top of the box office, adding $63.1 million in North American ticket sales to bring its total to $723.5 million. The Walt Disney Co. Marvel blockbuster also made $102.3 million internationally, bringing its global total to nearly $2.5 billion. It remained the second biggest money-maker of all time behind Avatar, which made $2.8 billion in its theater run. This weekend, however, Endgame nearly lost the top spot to a new rival, the Warner Bros. live-action Pokemon Detective Pikachu, which earned an estimated $58 million in domestic ticket sales. It edged out Endgame internationally, with $103 million.

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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.