10 things you need to know today: May 14, 2019

(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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1. Barr picks prosecutor to investigate origins of Russia inquiry
2. U.S., China announce more tit-for-tat tariffs
3. Pompeo heads into Putin meeting after surprise EU visit on Iran
4. Trump welcomes Hungary's far-right prime minister to White House
5. Supreme Court overturns 40-year-old precedent on suing states
6. 2 Alaska sightseeing planes collide in mid-air, killing 4 people
7. Supreme Court rules iPhone users' lawsuit against Apple can proceed
8. Jimmy Carter, 94, recovering from broken hip
9. Felicity Huffman pleads guilty to SAT exam cheating scheme
10. Actress Doris Day dies at 97

published 14 May 2019

1. Barr picks prosecutor to investigate origins of Russia inquiry

Attorney General William Barr reportedly has assigned a prosecutor, John Durham, to look into the origins of the Russia investigation to determine whether all of the efforts to collect intelligence on people involved in President Trump's campaign were "lawful and appropriate." Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, has a history of investigating national security officials. His appointment comes weeks after Barr testified to Congress that he believed "spying did occur" on Trump's 2016 campaign, but the question was "whether it was adequately predicated." Durham's investigation will be the third focusing on early efforts to examine possible ties between Russia's election meddling and Trump associates. FBI Director Christopher Wray said last week he knew of no illegal surveillance and that he would not call agents' work "spying."

The Trump administration has targeted another $300 billion in Chinese goods for possible tariff hikes after China said Monday it would raise levies on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods starting June 1. China's move was retaliation for President Trump's decision to raise levies on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. China said its tariffs on more than 5,000 products would rise to 20 percent or 25 percent, up from 5 percent or 10 percent. The intensifying trade tensions between the world's two largest economies came after Trump accused Beijing of reneging on commitments in a draft trade deal. The dispute shook markets, sending the three main U.S. stock indexes falling more than 2 percent on Monday.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads into a Tuesday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss numerous hotspots where the U.S. and Russia are on opposing sides, including Iran and Venezuela. The meeting in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi comes a day after Pompeo made a surprise appearance at a gathering of European foreign ministers in Brussels to push for support in the Trump administration's clash with Iran over its nuclear program. European leaders pushed back as they continued trying to save the 2015 Iran nuclear deal despite the Trump administration's withdrawal last year and newly toughened sanctions. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he feared escalating tensions between the U.S. and Iran could lead to war.

President Trump on Monday welcomed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to the White House. This is the far-right leader's first formal White House meeting with a U.S. president since 1998. Orban, who has pushed restrictive immigration policies, has been called "Trump before Trump" by the president's former adviser, Stephen Bannon. But Trump's White House advisers reportedly urged him not to fully embrace Orban at this meeting. In a joint press conference, Trump said Orban has done a "tremendous job" and is "highly respected all over Europe." A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote a letter to the president expressing concern that "Democracy in Hungary has significantly eroded" under Orban and asking him to bring this up during the visit.

The Supreme Court's conservative majority on Monday overturned a precedent set in 1979 that denied states sovereign immunity from private lawsuits. In the 5-4 ruling, the court's conservative majority said in an opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas that the Constitution protects states from being "haled involuntarily before each other's courts." Thomas acknowledged that the decision marked a departure from the normal respect for precedent, but justified it by saying the 1979 decision was "contrary to our constitutional design." Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, saying it was "dangerous" to overrule a precedent simply because five justices have "come to agree with earlier dissenters on a difficult legal question," adding that the question now is "which cases the court will overrule next."

Two floatplanes carrying cruise ship tourists collided in Alaska on Monday, killing four people. Two others remained missing. Federal investigators were expected to arrive Tuesday to try to determine what caused the midair crash near the southeast Alaska town of Ketchikan. The passengers, from the cruise ship Royal Princess, were taking sightseeing flights. One of the planes, a single-engine de Havilland Otter DHC-3 operated by flightseeing company Taquan Air, was carrying 11 people when it went down on the way back from Misty Fjords National Monument, part of the Tongass National Forest. Ten survivors were taken to a Ketchikan hospital in fair or good condition.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Monday that four iPhone users have the right to pursue a major antitrust lawsuit against Apple over its App Store. The plaintiffs argue that Apple has a monopoly over the sale of iPhone apps and is using it to charge higher prices than it could get in a free market. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose majority decision was joined by the court's four more liberal justices, emphasized that the court was not taking a position on the merits of the lawsuit, but said the lawsuit could proceed because protecting consumers from monopoly pricing is the central concern of antitrust law. In his dissent, Justice Neil Gorsuch said only app developers should be allowed to sue on those grounds.

Former President Jimmy Carter is recovering after a fall that left him with a broken hip, the Carter Center said in a Monday statement. Carter, 94, was getting ready to go turkey hunting when he fell in his home. He underwent surgery at Phoebe Sumter Medical Center and was "recovering comfortably" with his wife, Rosalynn, at his side, according to the statement. "President Carter said his main concern is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit," the statement said. "He hopes the State of Georgia will allow him to rollover the unused limit to next year." Carter, a Democrat, served as president from 1977 to 1981. He announced in 2015 that he had been diagnosed with brain cancer, then said several months later that he was cancer-free following treatment.

Oscar-nominated actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty Monday to paying someone $15,000 to correct her daughter's SAT exam to boost her college admission odds. The Desperate Housewives actress, who is married to actor William H. Macy, tearfully said her daughter did not know about the scheme. Another parent, Los Angeles businessman Devin Sloane, pleaded guilty alongside Huffman in a Boston courtroom. Sloane paid $250,000 to get his son into the University of Southern California as a phony water polo recruit. Five parents have now entered guilty pleas in the nationwide college admissions scandal, which involves dozens of parents and coaches. Huffman is due to be sentenced in September.

Hollywood icon Doris Day died Monday morning at 97. The Doris Day Animal Foundation said Day, who was America's top box-office draw in the late 1950s, was "in excellent physical health" until "recently contracting a serious case of pneumonia." Day started her career as a pop and jazz singer. She recorded her signature, Oscar-winning hit "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" for Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much, in which she also starred. Day was nicknamed "the Virgin Queen" because she played chaste characters in movies such as Pillow Talk. Her 1975 memoir Doris Day: Her Own Story countered her sunny image with details of bankruptcy and abusive marriages. She eventually turned to a quiet life of animal activism.

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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.