10 things you need to know today: September 9, 2013

Serena Williams celebrates winning her women&#039;s singles final match against Victoria Azarenka of Belarus at the U.S. Open on Sunday.

(Image credit: Elsa/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

1. Assad says he hasn't used chemical weapons

With a crucial Senate vote looming this week over authorizing military strikes against Syria, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told CBS the U.S. had no proof that he ordered a chemical attack that killed 1,400 people in August. Secretary of State John Kerry said, "The evidence speaks for itself." Kerry said Monday that Assad could prevent a U.S. attack by handing over his "huge stock" of chemical weapons. [Reuters, Wall Street Journal]

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Congress returns to work Monday (after a five-week recess) with a full agenda that will be dominated, at least initially, by debate over authorizing military strikes against Syria. The Senate will take up the matter on Monday, ahead of an expected vote on Wednesday. A vote could follow next week in the GOP-led House, where a majority is leaning against giving President Obama a green light to order the strikes. [Fox News]

NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous announced Sunday that he was stepping down by year's end, after five years as the leader of the nation's largest civil rights organization. He said he wanted to spend more time with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 1. Jealous, 40, was the youngest leader in the NAACP's history when he took over. He has been credited with whipping the organization into financial shape and making it more social-media savvy. [USA Today]

Early results indicate that Sergei S. Sobyanin, the incumbent and an ally of Vladimir Putin, has narrowly won Moscow's first mayoral election in a decade. Opposition candidate Aleksei A. Navalny, a Kremlin critic, challenged the count on Monday, however, saying Sobyanin had not won the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. The election was considered a test of Putin's power following 2011 and 2012 street protests over national elections. [New York Times]

A week after broadcasting that the U.S. had spied on the presidents of Brazil and Mexico, the Brazilian network Globo is reporting that America's National Security Agency also tapped into the computer systems of Google, the Brazilian state-owned energy firm Petrobras, and other companies. The report was based on documents journalist Glenn Greenwald received from NSA leaker Edward Snowden. [Reuters]

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam announced Monday that it had confirmed the authenticity of a newly identified major painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The work, "Sunset at Montmajour," was painted at the height of the artist's career, during his time in the southern French town of Arles, when he also painted "Sunflowers," "The Yellow House," and "The Bedroom." The museum will display the painting starting Sept. 24. [Bloomberg]

The National Park Service is investigating the shooting death of a 3-year-old girl in a campground at Yellowstone National Park. The child's mother told authorities that the girl shot herself with her father's pistol. The apparent accident came three years after a new federal law lifted a decades-old ban on the possession of firearms by visitors to most national parks. It was the first shooting death in Yellowstone since 1978. [Los Angeles Times]

A depression near Africa in the east Atlantic strengthened to become Tropical Storm Humberto early Monday. If, as expected, Humberto continues to intensify, it could become the season's first hurricane on Wednesday. Humberto would be the latest-developing first hurricane since the satellite tracking era began in the mid-1960s. Computer models suggest it might head north into the open ocean without threatening the U.S. [Sun-Sentinel]

Former basketball star Dennis Rodman revealed new details about his second visit to North Korea in an interview with Britain's Guardian on Sunday. Rodman said he had "a relaxing time by the sea" with the Hermit Kingdom's leader, Kim Jong Un. Rodman confirmed the rumored birth of Kim's baby daughter, and revealed her name, Ju Ae. Rodman also called Kim, who has threatened to rain nukes on the U.S., an "awesome guy" and a "good dad." [Guardian]

Serena Williams won the U.S. Open on Sunday, beating Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-1. The epic match marked Williams' 17th Grand Slam singles title, putting her one behind Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on tennis' all-time list. Williams is having one of the best years of her career, winning nine tournaments so far and losing just four of her 71 matches. Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal play in the men's final on Monday. [USA Today]

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.

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