10 things you need to know today: August 15, 2023

1. Trump and allies indicted in Georgia election case

A Fulton County, Georgia, grand jury on Monday evening indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 allies, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, on sweeping racketeering charges over their effort to overturn Trump's narrow loss in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election. The 41-count indictment accused Trump and his associates of lying to the state government and lawmakers, and knowingly participating in "a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump." The former president's 2024 campaign called Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who led the two-year investigation, "rabidly partisan." Willis gave Trump and the other defendants until Aug. 25 to surrender. The indictment is Trump's fourth.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The New York Times

2. Hawaii governor warns Lahaina wildfire death toll will keep rising

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) said Monday that crews might find dozens more dead bodies as they search more areas burned in the wildfire that destroyed the historic Maui town of Lahaina. "We are prepared for many tragic stories," Green told "CBS Mornings" in an interview that aired Monday. "They will find 10 to 20 people per day, probably, until they finish. And it's probably going to take 10 days." The disaster is already the deadliest wildfire to hit the United States in more than a century. The death toll rose by three to 99 people on Monday. Flames rushed through some neighborhoods as fast as a mile a minute last week, trapping many people before they could flee.

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The Associated Press The Washington Post

3. Russia's central bank raises interest rates 3.5% after ruble crashes

The Russian central bank hiked interest rates by 3.5 percentage points on Tuesday in an emergency meeting after the ruble crashed. The policymakers raised their benchmark rate to 12% from 8.5% in a decision "aimed at limiting price stability risks," the central bank said in a statement. The move reflects the Russian government's intensifying concerns about the impact of President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine on Russia's economic stability. The ruble has lost a quarter of its value during the war and annual inflation has averaged 7.1% in recent months, far above the central bank's 4% target. Timothy Ash, senior emerging-market sovereign strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management, said the ruble will keep falling "unless the core problem, the war and sanctions, are resolved."

The New York Times Bloomberg

4. Health officials expect low demand for new Covid vaccine

A new Covid-19 vaccine is scheduled to be released next month as the new "Eris" form of the Omicron variant causes increasing hospitalizations, but public health experts say they fear demand will be limited. After the first vaccine became available in 2021, more than 240 million people (73% of the population) got at least one dose. By fall 2022, demand plunged because most people had either been vaccinated or been infected with the coronavirus. The new vaccine has been updated to fight the Omicron variant dominant since 2022. Public health officials will have to convince people "Covid isn't over and it still poses a risk" to get them to seek the shots, Kaiser Family Foundation Director of Survey Methodology Ashley Kirzinger said.

Reuters

5. 6 white former Mississippi officers plead guilty to state charges in racist assault

Six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleaded guilty on Monday to state charges for the racist assault and torture of two Black men during a January raid. Prosecutors say the officers — former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Brett McAlpin, Hunter Elward, Christian Dedmon, Jeffrey Middleton and Daniel Opdyke, and former Richland police officer Joshua Hartfield — nicknamed themselves the "Goon Squad" because they used excessive force and covered it up. In January, they admittedly entered a house without a warrant and assaulted the victims, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, for 90 minutes with stun guns and a sex toy, then shot one of them in the face. The officers earlier pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges.

The Associated Press

6. Montana judge sides with young plaintiffs in climate case

A state judge in Montana's Lewis and Clark County on Monday ruled in favor of a group of teens and young adults who had alleged the state's fossil fuel–based energy system and provisions in its Environmental Policy Act violated their right under the state's constitution to a "clean and healthful environment." District Judge Kathy Seeley wrote in her 100-page ruling that a state law barring consideration of the climate change impact of new projects has increased the state's fossil fuel emissions, harming the environment and the young plaintiffs. The state vowed to appeal, arguing it can't be blamed for climate change. Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R), called the ruling "absurd."

The Washington Post

7. Arkansas denies AP credit for African American Studies course

Arkansas has told high schools they can't give students Advanced Placement grade points for an AP African American Studies course, becoming the second state, after Florida, to reject the class. The College Board, which designs and administers AP exams, is offering the new course on a pilot basis at an expanding number of U.S. high schools this year. In January, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed an executive order banning "indoctrination and critical race theory" in schools, and the state says the AP course covers prohibited topics. A College Board spokesperson expressed "disappointment," saying the course is not indoctrination but "an unflinching encounter with the facts of African American history and culture."

Arkansas Times NBC News

8. Navy chief retires, leaving 3 military branches without confirmed leaders

Retiring Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday stepped down on Monday, making the U.S. Navy the third military branch without a Senate-confirmed leader for the first time in history. The Navy, Army and Marine Corps have been left without confirmed leaders as a Republican senator, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, blocks the confirmation of hundreds of military nominations in an attempt to force the Pentagon to drop a policy of covering travel costs for service members and their dependents to get abortions. "This is unprecedented. It is unnecessary. And it is unsafe," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at a ceremony at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where Gilday relinquished his command. President Biden has nominated Admiral Lisa Franchetti to become the first woman to lead the Navy.

Reuters

9. CNN shakes up shows in struggle to lift ratings

CNN on Monday announced significant changes to its morning and evening shows as it struggles to boost sinking ratings. CNN's prime-time lineup has been in flux since the 2021 firing of star anchor Chris Cuomo following revelations of his assistance to his brother, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, during a scandal. CNN replaced Cuomo earlier this year with former White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins. The network on Monday named Abby Phillip, a senior political correspondent and anchor of "Inside Politics Sunday," as host of a weeknight show in the 10 p.m. time slot. Laura Coates, an anchor and chief legal analyst at CNN, will get the 11 p.m. spot.

The New York Times

10. 'Black Godfather' Clarence Avant, former Motown chief, dies at 92

Former Motown Records president Clarence Avant has died at age 92. Avant, who died Sunday at his Los Angeles home, "shaped the careers not only of Bill Withers, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and other Black singers, but also of politicians, actors and sports figures," The New York Times said. A 2019 documentary about him was titled "The Black Godfather" in a nod to the extent of his influence. Avant, born in a segregated hospital in North Carolina, got his start managing a Newark, New Jersey, nightclub in the 1950s. There he met high-powered agent Joe Glaser, who hired him to represent jazz artists. In 1960, he formed Sussex Records, then in the '70s he started Tabu Records. He ran Motown in the 1990s.

Billboard The New York Times