Tuesday morning news: August 8, 2023

Gold Star families call for accountability » The families of soldiers killed in action testified on Monday … about a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan during the U.S. military pullout two years ago.

Darin Hoover’s son, Marine Sergeant Taylor Hoover was among those lost in the attack.

HOOVER: Admit to your mistakes. Learn from them so that this doesn’t happen ever, ever again.

Hoover said members of the Biden administration should have resigned over the catastrophic withdrawal.

Christy Shamblin also shared her grief. She’s the mother-in-law of fallen Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee.

SHAMBLIN: I can’t even begin to piece together the words that would convey to you the devastation her murder has brought to our family.

Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in the blast at the Kabul airport.

Trump legal » Former President Donald Trump’s legal team on Monday urged the judge overseeing the latest criminal case against him … to reject a request from teh Justice Department to limit what Trump’s allowed to say publicly about the case. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JS: Trump’s lawyers say the Justice Department’s proposed protective order concerning evidence in the case … is overly broad. They argue it would violate Trump’s First Amendment rights.

The attorneys said the judge should instead impose a more limited protective order that would only stop Trump from sharing materials deemed “sensitive." Those might include things like grand jury documents.

Protective orders aren't unusual in criminal cases, but Trump’s attorneys say then again … most defendants aren’t in the middle of a campaign for president of the United States.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Candidates in IA » Republican White House hopefuls are blitzing early voting states this week.

Former Ambassador to the U-N Nikki Haley touted her foreign policy credentials … and sounded alarms about a growing threat from Beijing.

HALEY: China has been planning war with the United States for years. That’s not overdramatizing. This is the biggest threat we’ve had since Pearl Harbor.

Haley heard there in Iowa before stumping in New Hamphsire on Monday.

She was one of seven Republican candidates to take the stage at an event hosted by Iowa Republican congresswoman Ashley Hinson.

North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum also attended, saying he’s the right man to get the U-S economy firing on all cylinders. He blasted President Biden’s policies … pointing to trade deficits and the spiraling national debt.

BURGUM: And the Biden administration tries to tell all of us, ‘Don’t worry, inflation is going down.’ That’s code word for - prices are increasing not as fast as they were yesterday.

DeSantis/NBC abortion » Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke in Iowa, as well.

Also this week, DeSantis sparred with NBC reporter Dasha Burns over late-term abortion.

DESANTIS: I would not allow what a lot of the left wants to do, which is to override pro-life protections throughout the country, all the way up really to the moment of birth in some instances, which I think is infanticide.

Burns interrupted, calling DeSantis’ remarks a “misrepresentation.” But the governor continued …

DESANTIS: Their view is that all the way up until that, there should not be any legal protections.
BURNS: There is no indication of Democrats pushing for that.

In a video NBC posted to social media, it cut off the governor’s rebuttal.

But in fact, numerous Democratic politicians have promoted abortion without legal limits.

One example heard here in an interview last year with then-Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan. Fox News’ Brett Baier asked if there should be any restrictions on abortion.

BAIER: Late term, anything?
RYAN: Look, you gotta leave it up to the woman.

And some pro-abortion activists have publicly pushed for legalized abortion until birth.

Saudi Arabia summit » U-S national security adviser Jake Sullivan met briefly with a top Chinese official over the weekend in Saudi Arabia …at a summit aimed at bringing the war in Ukraine to a peaceful end.

And State Department Spokesman Matt Miller he was glad that China chose to participate.

MILLER - The United States is happy to play any role that is productive, to stand with our Ukrainian partners. And we would welcome any other country that wants to play a productive role as well.

Miller emphasized that no peace talks had taken place directly between Ukraine and Russia.

Tou Thao » A Minnesota judge has sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao to nearly five years behind bars … for his part in the death of George Floyd.

He would be the fourth officer to serve prison time in relation to the incident.

But his attorney Robert Paule said Thao will appeal.

PAULE: I would point out that my client did not begin that day, did not go out to this call with anything but the purest of intentions.

Thao argues that he didn’t participate in the 2020 killing and only held back bystanders.

CORRECTION » And finally this morning, a correction. On the July 25 episode of The World and Everything in It, we reported on legislation in Louisiana protecting minors from transgender interventions. The report should have stated that the legislature had overridden Governor John Bel Edwards' veto of the bill. The law is set to take effect January first.

I'm KENT COVINGTON.

Straight ahead: The harms of athletic hazing.

Plus, a conversation with a C. S. Lewis chatbot.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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