Axios

Former Secretary of State John Kerry fired back at President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over their criticism of his meetings with Iran's Prime Minister, saying the administration should be more "worried about Paul Manafort" than his meetings, ABC News reports.

The big picture: Trump and Pompeo both criticized Kerry for meeting with Iranian officials on Friday. Pompeo said Kerry is directly undermining the current administration with his meetings and Trump called them "illegal." Kerry defended himself saying he only tried to figure out what Iran may be willing to do in order to "change the dynamic of the Middle East for the better."

President Trump is expected to announce new tariffs of likely 10% on $200 billion in Chinese goods after final details are ironed out over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing people familiar with the matter.

The details: The tariff level expected is well below the initial 25% rate proposed by Trump earlier this year. The president is aiming to keep the level low ahead of midterm elections and holiday shopping season, but could potentially increase the rate at a later date, per WSJ. The announcement comes just before a high-level meeting with Chinese and U.S. officials to discuss trade tensions.

The most telling split among 2020 Democratic hopefuls won’t be over policy, but whether to match President Trump's scorched-earth tactics, top Democrats tell Jonathan Swan and me.

"The key question is: How crazy will Trump make us?" asked a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns. "How far out there will you go to be like Trump?"

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be testing a new system that allows the president to send a warning message directly to your cellphone, the agency announced.

The details: The Wireless Emergency Alerts will send a test message on September 20th that reads, "Presidential Alert." It will be used "to warn the public about dangerous weather, missing children, and other critical situations," FEMA explained. Only users whose providers participate in WEA will receive the test.

Despite President Trump's crackdown on immigration, there were more than 44.5 million people living in the U.S. last year who had been born in foreign countries — the highest share of the population since 1910, according to new data released by the Census Bureau.

Two noteworthy trends: 1) Of the immigrants who arrived in the U.S. in the past 8 years, 41% were born in Asia and 39% in Latin America — a dramatic shift as more than half of those who arrived in the U.S. before 2010 had been born in Latin America. 2) A higher share of this population had at least a bachelor's degree in 2017 than in 2016.

President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded guilty Friday to new charges brought forth by the special counsel, and entered into a "cooperation agreement" with the Justice Department.

The big picture: In the new charges, Manafort was accused of disseminating false stories on behalf of his pro-Russia, Ukrainian client and not disclosing his lobbying efforts to the Justice Department as required by law. He was also found guilty last month on eight counts of bank and tax fraud.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has pleaded guilty to charges brought forth by special counsel Robert Mueller, and has entered into a "cooperation agreement" with the Justice Department. He'll also plead guilty to the 10 charges that were declared a mistrial last month, per ABC News.

The bottom line: It's not clear what kind of information Manafort has to provide Mueller — or who he might implicate. But five other charges were dropped by prosecutors, the NYT reports, "encompassing money laundering and violations of a lobbying disclosure law."

In an era where officials are leaking like never before, one team has consistently locked down information: special counsel Robert Mueller's office.

Why it matters: Mueller and his team have been the target of constant attacks from supporters of the president, but he has "special reason to be cautious," the New York Times reports, when even "the subtlest remark can be blown into a scandal" in the current political climate. And, his silence may be paying off — according to the Times, 55% of voters believe Mueller is "conducting a fair investigation."