10 things you need to know today: September 6, 2023

(Image credit: Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Images)

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1. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio sentenced to 22 years
2. Judges: Alabama GOP congressional map still hurts Black voters
3. Capitol physician: 'No evidence' McConnell suffered stroke or seizure
4. Texas AG Ken Paxton pleads not guilty as impeachment trial begins
5. Sullivan warns North Korea not to supply Russia with weapons
6. Murdaugh lawyers accuse official of jury tampering, request new trial
7. Cuba says human trafficking ring sent Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine
8. Regulators take step toward massive air bag inflator recall
9. Tropical Storm Lee expected to become Category 4 hurricane
10. Summer 2023 was the hottest on record

published 6 September 2023

1. Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio sentenced to 22 years

A federal judge in Washington on Tuesday sentenced former Proud Boys leader Henry "Enrique" Tarrio to 22 years in prison for organizing his gang of extremist supporters of then-President Donald Trump for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Prosecutors had asked for 33 years. The court found Tarrio and others guilty of seditious conspiracy for trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power to President Biden after Trump's 2020 defeat. Tarrio's sentence was the "most severe penalty handed down so far to any of the more than 1,100 people charged in connection with the Capitol attack," The New York Times reported, and it will probably remain the harshest penalty because of the severity of the charges Tarrio faced.

Alabama's new congressional map produced by Republicans must be redrawn because it illegally dilutes the influence of Black voters, a panel of federal judges ruled Tuesday. The ruling marked the second time the court has thrown out the plan for new districts enacted by the GOP-controlled state legislature. In the first version, just one of the state's seven congressional districts was majority Black, even though more than a quarter of Alabama's population is Black. The second version increased the number of Black voters in a second district but fell short of a majority. Creating a second heavily Black district would be expected to increase Democrats' chances of winning a second seat, boosting their chances of retaking a House majority.

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There is "no evidence" Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suffered a stroke or seizure when he froze midsentence in two recent press conferences, the Capitol physician said Tuesday. McConnell, 81, received medical clearance to return to work. McConnell's office released a letter from attending physician Brian Monahan in response to questions about his health, which has declined since he suffered a concussion in a March fall. McConnell told colleagues a "concussion can take its toll" and he was still recovering, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said as lawmakers returned from August break and focused on averting a government shutdown. "I told him, I said I was glad to see him back, couldn't wait to disagree with him," Durbin said.

Suspended Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pleaded not guilty on Tuesday as the state Senate began his impeachment trial. Paxton, a Republican and just the third official to be impeached in state history, faces 16 impeachment counts for bribery and misuse of office. He has been suspended since the GOP-led state House in May overwhelmingly approved sending the case to the GOP-led Senate. The first witness House impeachment managers called was Jeffrey Mateer, a former Paxton aide who resigned in September 2020. Mateer and seven other employees signed an Oct. 1, 2020, letter telling Paxton they had reported suspicious activity to law enforcement agencies. Mateer rejected Paxton's claim that RINOs, or Republicans in Name Only, were behind the allegations.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned Tuesday that North Korea will "pay a price" if it provides weapons Russia is requesting for its war in Ukraine. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly plans to make a rare trip to Russia this month to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss supplying weapons, such as artillery shells and antitank missiles, for Russian forces. The Kremlin said Tuesday it had "nothing to say" about the U.S. reports on a planned high-level meeting between North Korea and Russia on military supplies. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Ukraine on Wednesday in a show of support for Kyiv. Congress is preparing for debates over future Ukraine aid.

Defense attorneys for disgraced South Carolina lawyer Alex Murdaugh, who was convicted earlier this year of murdering his wife and son, accused Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca "Becky" Hill of jury tampering and demanded a new trial. Murdaugh's lawyers, citing interviews with two jurors, alleged in a filing with the South Carolina Court of Appeals that Hill "tampered with the jury by advising them not to believe Murdaugh's testimony and other evidence presented by the defense, pressuring them to reach a quick guilty verdict." Murdaugh's lawyers said Hill didn't want the case to end in a mistrial because that would have prevented her from getting a book deal. Hill did not immediately comment.

Cuba announced this week that it had disrupted a human trafficking ring operated from Russia that recruited Cubans to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. The announcement followed a recent report by Miami media about Cubans joining Russian soldiers in Ukraine. The Miami affiliate of NBC Universal's Spanish-language Telemundo network interviewed two Cubans who said they were lured to Russia with phony promises of construction jobs, $2,200 and a Russian passport. "We don't know what to do anymore," one of them told Telemundo after allegedly being told he was being sent to Ukraine. "Attempts of this nature have been neutralized and criminal proceedings have been initiated against those involved," Cuba's foreign ministry said. Russia did not immediately comment.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday it had made an initial determination that a Tennessee company's air bag inflators could explode, injuring or killing people with shrapnel. The decision marked a key step toward making the company, ARC Automotive, recall 52 million inflators made by it and another company under license. The agency scheduled an Oct. 5 hearing, the next step to asking a court to order the defiant company to recall the allegedly defective products. In May, the agency said the inflators were involved in at least seven injuries and two deaths in the U.S. and Canada since 2009, The Associated Press reported. At least 25 million cars in the U.S. are believed to contain the inflators.

Tropical Storm Lee formed in the central Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, and forecasters warned it would strengthen into a powerful Category 4 hurricane by the end of the week. Lee's winds strengthened rapidly overnight, rising from 45 miles per hour on Tuesday to 65 mph early Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center said it could reach hurricane strength later Wednesday, and could threaten the northeastern Caribbean islands by the weekend. Lee is expected to intensify rapidly as it passes over record-warm Lesser Antilles waters. Forecasters said it could reach the mainland United States next week, hitting anywhere on the East Coast between Florida and Maine.

The World Meteorological Organization confirmed Wednesday that the summer of 2023 was the hottest ever measured in the Northern Hemisphere. Last month was the hottest August ever recorded with modern equipment, and the second hottest month ever, after July 2023, according to the WMO and Copernicus, the European climate service. August's temperatures were 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial averages, roughly equal to the ambitious cap set by the 2015 Paris United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference. The global average temperature from June through August was 16.77 degrees Celsius (62.19 Fahrenheit), nearly 0.3 degrees Celsius above the previous record, set in 2019.

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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.