Thursday morning news: June 14, 2018

Pompeo: Major disarmament in NoKo by 2020 » Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the United States wants “major disarmament” by North Korea by 2020. He said the Trump administration is optimistic about achieving that goal.

The secretary is huddling with diplomats in South Korea, following Tuesday’s historic summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

And Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that that meeting was direct, honest and productive.

PENCE: It resulted in a bold first step where North Korea’s leader committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. 

The vice president heard there addressing delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas.

After returning to Washington on Wednesday, President Trump tweeted—quote—“there is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea.”

But the White House acknowledges that plenty of work remains to hammer out a verifiable agreement with Pyongyang. And with that in mind, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling on President Trump to work closely with Congress.

GOP Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming noted that the Iran nuclear deal eventually fell apart, after the Obama administration opted not to put it to through the Senate as a treaty.

BARRASSO: Instead, they took it to the United Nations. I want something with North Korea that we can take to the United States Senate and get confirmed as a treaty. That’s how you have lasting relationships between countries. 

DOJ’s IG report to be released today » The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is expected to release today, an anticipated report on the department’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. WORLD Radio’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The report from Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz will detail the findings of his internal investigation.

The document reportedly hits former FBI Director James Comey hard over controversial decisions he made leading up to the 2016 election. It’s expected to address, among other things, his unusual statements to the public during the campaign.

The inspector general issued a blistering report back in April on former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. It found that McCabe leaked information to the media to “advance his personal interests,” and then misled investigators about it. He then issued a criminal referral to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., related to McCabe.

Inspector General Horowitz will be on Capitol Hill next week for a pair of hearings, where he’ll no-doubt have to defend his findings.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Colleges win HHS mandate case » A pair of Christian colleges scored a win in federal court this week in their fight against the Obama-era “abortion-pill mandate.”

Dordt College in Iowa and Cornerstone University in Michigan sued over 2011 rule from the Department of Health and Human Services. That rule forced all employers to pay for abortifacient drugs, regardless of their religious or moral convictions.

Last year the Trump-era Justice Department dropped its opposition to the lawsuit. District Court Judge Mark Bennett in Iowa said the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, And ruled that HHS can no longer enforce the mandate against the schools.

Gallup abortion poll » A new Gallup opinion poll shows Americans remain split on protecting the unborn. WORLD Radio’s Sarah Schweinsberg has that story.

SARAH SCHWEINSBERG, REPORTER: In the national poll, 48 percent identified as pro-life; and 48 percent as pro-choice.

It found that most Americans don’t favor an outright ban, but do want limits on abortions. Only 29 percent want to allow it under any circumstance. And just 18 percent want it outlawed all together.

Nearly half of all Americans, 48 percent, said abortion is morally wrong. 43 percent said it’s acceptable.

The poll used a random sample of more than a thousand people in all 50 states and Washington D.C.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Sarah Schweinsberg.

North America wins World Cup bid » World Cup soccer is coming back to North America.

INFANTINO: The member associations of Canada, Mexico and USA have been selected by the FIFA congress to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino.

The proposal would put 60 of 80 games in the United States and 10 each in Mexico and Canada.

FIFA, which is the international soccer governing body, is still trying turn the corner from a corruption scandal, after widespread bribery was exposed within the group two years ago. In contrast to the secrecy of past World Cup ballots, FIFA held an open vote. And voters resoundingly picked the North American trio over Morocco.

This year’s World Cup kicks off today in Russia.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: a conversation with the Southern Baptist Convention’s new president, J.D. Greear. Plus, China signals the end of its one-child policy could be at hand. This is The World and Everything in It.

(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) A man reads a newspaper reporting the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a newspaper distributing station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 12, 2018.

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