10 things you need to know today: June 1, 2019

(Image credit: ERIC BARADAT/AFP/Getty Images)

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1. 13 killed in Virginia Beach shooting
2. Mexico will send D.C. delegation to talk Trump out of tariffs
3. DHS inspector general finds 'dangerous overcrowding' at El Paso border facility
4. Barr 'didn't agree with' Mueller's legal analysis
5. Missouri's last abortion clinic can remain open for now, judge says
6. Justice Department reportedly preparing to investigate Google for antitrust practices
7. Warren announces plan to make it possible to indict sitting president
8. Measles outbreak surpasses 25-year record
9. Trump lauds Boris Johnson, calls Meghan Markle 'nasty' ahead of U.K. visit
10. Tottenham, Liverpool set to square off in Champions League final

published 1 June 2019

1. 13 killed in Virginia Beach shooting

An employee opened fire at a Virginia Beach municipal center on Friday, killing 12 and wounding four others, Virginia Beach police Chief Jim Cervera announced. The suspect was shot and killed by police after he fired at officers. One officer was shot but was saved thanks to his bulletproof vest, Cervera said. The four injured victims were all in surgery on Friday. The shooter, who was a longtime city employee in the public utilities department, started shooting around 4 p.m. ET as workers were leaving for the weekend, per authorities. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) arrived in Virginia Beach a few hours after the shooting.

President Trump on Thursday said he would impose a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports starting June 10, and that the tariffs would rise another 5 percent each month, to a 25 percent cap, unless Mexico "substantially stops" the flow of undocumented immigrants into the U.S. On Friday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his foreign minister would lead a delegation to Washington, D.C. to talk Trump out of the decision. Bipartisan senators also reminded Trump that tariffs would harm the American economy and his chances of passing a trade deal with Mexico and Canada. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 all dipped the morning after Trump's announcement, and each closed down more than a percentage point on Friday.

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The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general discovered "dangerous overcrowding" during an unannounced inspection of a migrant processing facility, CNN reported Friday. The inspector general's report says the El Paso Del Norte Processing Center, which has a maximum capacity of 125, was found holding about 900 people on May 8. One cell with a maximum capacity of 35 was reportedly found with 155 detainees. "Corrective action is critical to the immediate health and safety needs of detainees," the report says, writing that detainees with "limited access to showers and clean clothing" wore "soiled clothing for days or weeks" and some were "standing on toilets in the cells to make room and gain breathing space." DHS said "our immigration is not equipped to accommodate a migration pattern like the one we are experiencing now."

Attorney General William Barr has changed his story on the Mueller report, saying in a CBS This Morning interview which aired Friday that the Justice Department "didn't agree with ... a lot of the legal analysis in the report." Barr's team felt the report reflected "the views of a particular lawyer or lawyers," he said, and instead "applied what we thought was the right law." But when releasing the report in April, Barr said the Department of Justice "accepted the special counsel's legal framework" in deciding not to charge President Trump with obstruction of justice. Also in the interview, Barr said he "personally felt" Special Counsel Robert Mueller "could've reached a decision" himself on obstruction, though he acknowledged DOJ policy meant Trump could not be indicted.

The only abortion clinic in Missouri can remain open for now. Judge Michael F. Stelzer on Friday granted a temporary restraining order that will allow the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic to remain open until at least Tuesday, when there will be a preliminary hearing. This comes amid a dispute between the clinic and the health department, with Gov. Mike Parson (R) saying "a number of serious health concerns" uncovered during an audit must be resolved, while the clinic argues the state's requests have been unreasonable. Without the clinic's license, which was set to expire on midnight on Friday without the judge's order, Missouri would become the first state to have no abortion clinic since Roe v. Wade.

The Justice Department has reportedly been preparing to launch an antitrust investigation of Alphabet Inc.'s Google, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal on Friday. The department will closely examine Google's business practices, including those related to its search engine and advertising. The investigation would come on the heels of multibillion-dollar antitrust fines for Google from the European Union, which are seemingly representative of a global shift in attitudes toward tech giants. If the Justice Department does go through with the investigation, it would be the first antitrust case against a major tech company during the Trump administration, though Google was the subject of an antitrust investigation as recently as 2013. The five Federal Trade Commissioners voted unanimously against bringing charges against the company at that time.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced a policy proposal on Friday that takes aim at the Department of Justice policy saying a sitting president can't be indicted. Warren laid out her plan to end this policy in a Medium post, saying it would involve Congress passing a law clarifying its "intent that the Department of Justice can indict the president of the United States." Warren says if elected president, she'd amend obstruction of justice statutes to "explicitly" allow for the president to be indicted. She also pledges to appoint an attorney general who "shares my strong conviction that no one — not even a president — is above the law." Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller said indicting President Trump was never "an option" because of DOJ policy.

This year has been the worst for measles in the U.S. in 27 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday. In the first five months of 2019, there have been 971 reported cases of measles, more than any year since 1992, when 963 cases were reported over the entire year. The CDC says 26 states have reported cases and 10 states are currently battling outbreaks. The U.S. declared measles eliminated in 2000, but if the outbreak lasts more than a year, the country will lose elimination status. "That loss would be a huge blow for the nation and erase the hard work done by all levels of public health," said the CDC, which also encouraged Americans to get vaccinated.

President Trump on Friday praised British MP Boris Johnson, a pro-Brexit warrior who is considered one of the favorites to replace outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May in June, in an interview with the British tabloid, The Sun, causing a stir in the United Kingdom before the U.S. president is set to visit the country on Monday. Trump said Johnson would make an "excellent" Prime Minister. In the same interview, Trump criticized Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, who will reportedly not be present when Trump meets with the rest of the royal family. Trump called her "nasty," when he learned of negative comments Markle made before the 2016 elections. He did, however, say he is sure Markle will "do excellently" as a royal.

Tottenham will face Liverpool in an all-English UEFA Champions League final on Saturday at 3 p.m. E.T. in Madrid. The match will be broadcast on TNT in the United States. Both clubs reached the final in exhilarating and unconventional style. Liverpool staged a miraculous 3-goal deficit comeback against Barcelona, netting four unanswered goals in the second leg of their semifinal matchup in May. Tottenham followed that with their own come-from-behind victory after finding themselves down an aggregated 3-0 to Ajax in the second half of the second leg, only to knot the contest and advance via tie-breaking rules. This will be the first all-England final since Manchester United played Chelsea in 2008.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.