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

Trump says China wants to resume trade talks.

(Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

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1. Trump says China wants to restart trade negotiations
2. Former Rep. Joe Walsh says he'll challenge Trump in GOP primaries
3. White House: Iranian foreign minister's G-7 visit 'a surprise'
4. 36 arrested after Hong Kong protesters, police clash
5. G-7 leaders vow to help Brazil deal with Amazon fires
6. Ex-Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio announces he is running for a 7th term
7. California investigators say deputy lied about being shot by sniper
8. Angel Has Fallen leads weekend box office
9. Tropical Storm Dorian strengthens as it approaches eastern Caribbean
10. Louisiana team wins Little League World Series

published 26 August 2019

1. Trump says China wants to restart trade negotiations

President Trump said Monday that China had expressed willingness to resume trade negotiations. "China called last night our top trade people and said, 'Let's get back to the table,' so we'll be getting back to the table, and I think they want to do something," Trump said on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in France. China's top negotiator said earlier Monday that Beijing was ready to resolve the trade war through "calm negotiations." U.S. stock futures had been down following mixed messages on China from Trump during the G-7 meeting. First he said he had "second thoughts" about his tariffs on Chinese imports, then the White House said he meant he questioned whether the tariffs should be higher. After Trump raised the possibility of a deal, U.S. stock index futures turned solidly positive.

Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), who was elected as a Tea Party Republican in 2010, announced Sunday that he would challenge President Trump in the Republican primaries. Walsh, who once stoked controversy by questioning former President Barack Obama's birth certificate and religion, said he was launching his bid because somebody had to challenge Trump for the GOP nomination. "The country is sick of this guy's tantrum — he's a child," Walsh said on ABC's This Week. Host George Stephanopoulos noted that Trump has extremely high approval ratings within the party, and Walsh responded that conservatives deserve an alternative. Walsh, now a conservative radio host, said he regretted helping to "create" Trump, and some of his attacks on Obama.

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The White House said Sunday "it was a surprise" when Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in the coastal French town of Biarritz during the Group of Seven summit where President Trump and other world leaders had gathered for the G-7 summit. Trump downplayed the visit, saying Monday he had signed off on French President Emmanuel Macron's invitation to Iran's top diplomat. Macron has been urging Trump to open a dialogue with Tehran following his withdrawal last year from the nuclear deal between world powers and Iran. Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said the U.S. is willing to talk if Tehran will negotiate with no pre-conditions.

Police in Hong Kong arrested 36 people, including a 12-year-old, on Sunday, following a violent anti-government protest. Tens of thousands of people marched peacefully earlier in the day. Some protesters broke away at the end of the rally, and started setting up barriers in the road. Police responded, putting up warning flags and then using tear gas to get the protesters to leave. In response, demonstrators threw bricks and gasoline bombs toward the officers, The Associated Press reported. After the remaining protesters, holding sticks and rods, started chasing officers down the street, police pulled their guns on the group, with one firing a warning shot. Demonstrators have been filling the streets for more than two months, calling for democratic elections and investigations into allegations of police brutality.

World leaders said Sunday at the weekend Group of Seven summit that they would help Brazil fight fires currently devastating the Amazon region. French President Emmanuel Macron has called the fires a global crisis, noting that the Amazon produces 20 percent of Earth's oxygen. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country and others would try to help Brazil with reforestation after the fires are out. "Of course [this is] Brazilian territory, but we have a question here of the rainforests that is really a global question," she said. "The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions." Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has accused Macron of violating Brazil's sovereignty by threatening to hold up a trade deal if his government doesn't do more to address the fires, which reportedly were set by loggers and farmers.

Joe Arpaio said Sunday he is running again for sheriff in Maricopa County, Arizona, announcing the news exactly two years after President Trump pardoned his federal contempt-of-court conviction. "Watch out world!" the 87-year-old said in a statement. "We are back!" Arpaio served six terms, becoming known for the harsh conditions of his jails. He housed immigrants in tents outside during extreme heat, and made some prisoners wear pink underwear. Arpaio was defeated in November 2016, and convicted in July 2017 of contempt of court for disregarding a federal judge's order to stop arresting immigrants based on suspicion that they were undocumented. Trump pardoned Arpaio, one of his earliest supporters, in August 2017.

California authorities have determined that a Los Angeles County deputy lied when he claimed last week that he had been shot by a sniper while standing in a parking lot outside a sheriff's station. The deputy, Angel Reinosa, has been relieved of his duties pending an investigation that could result in charges for filing a false crime report. Reinosa triggered a massive police response on Wednesday when he made a frantic radio call saying he had been shot as he walked to his car. At first, investigators said he had been saved by his bulletproof vest. The department later said a single bullet had pierced his shirt but not his skin. Reinosa, 21, later admitted he used a knife to cut the holes in his shirt.

Angel Has Fallen led the domestic box office over the weekend with a $21.3 million debut, according to studio estimates released Sunday. The Lionsgate film's opening total beat expectations and came in similar to the previous installment, 2016's London Has Fallen. In the new film, Gerard Butler's Secret Service agent character is wrongly accused of trying to assassinate the U.S. president, played by Morgan Freeman. Angel Has Fallen has received strong audience reviews. Fast & Furious spinoff Hobbs & Shaw opened in China and lifted its worldwide total to $588.9 million. Disney "live-action" animated film The Lion King remained in the top four domestically as its worldwide total surpassed $1.5 billion, ranking it No. 9 of all time without adjusting for inflation.

Tropical Storm Dorian strengthened in the Atlantic overnight as it headed toward the Lesser Antilles. Dorian, the fourth tropical storm of the hurricane season, was about 300 miles east-southeast of Barbados, moving west at up to 15 miles per hour. It was expected to hit some of the islands on the eastern edge of the Caribbean in the first half of the week. Forecasters say it could reach hurricane strength by late Tuesday or early Wednesday after crossing over the Lesser Antilles into the Caribbean. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for Barbados, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, meaning they should expect winds of 39 mph to 73 mph over the next 36 hours. Martinique, Grenada, and Dominica are under tropical storm watches, as they could face tropical storm conditions in the next two days.

Louisiana shut out Curacao 8-0 on Sunday to win the Little League World Series. The team from suburban New Orleans was the state's first to win the championship. Louisiana shortstop Stan Wiltz snared a line drive to end the game, prompting his teammates to pile onto him in celebration. "It felt like my glove was a magnet," he said after the victory. A day earlier, he helped the team get into the final with an unassisted double play that put away Hawaii. The winners lost their first game of the tournament to Hawaii, then won six games in eight days to become the first squad to take the championship after dropping their opening game. "People from New Orleans and Louisiana in general are very resilient type of people," manager Scott Frazier said. "And this team exemplifies the resiliency that we have from the area that we come from."

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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.