Tuesday morning news: December 4, 2018

President George H.W. Bush lies in state » Former President George H.W. Bush now lies in state at the U.S. Capitol where he’ll remain until tomorrow morning before funeral services.

AUDIO: [Sound from funeral]

His flag-draped casket arrived in the Capitol rotunda Monday, greeted by a full military honor guard and a 21-gun salute.

AUDIO: [Sound from funeral]

Members of Congress, the Supreme Court and others gathered to pay their respects on Monday. Vice President Mike Pence represented the White House.

PENCE: President Bush was a great leader, who made a great difference in the life of this nation. But he was also just a good man, who was devoted to his wife, his family, and his friends. 

His remains will be taken to the National Cathedral tomorrow, where his son, former President George W. Bush, will deliver his father’s eulogy.

The late president will eventually be laid to rest at the Bush Library in Texas, alongside his late wife Barbara and daughter Robin.

Fourth soldier dies from Afghanistan attack » The Pentagon says a fourth soldier has died from wounds suffered last week in Afghanistan. WORLD Radio’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Sergeant Jason Mitchell McClary died at the U.S. military hospital in Germany. The Pennsylvania native was just 24 years old. He was one of several victims of a roadside bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan.

Three other service members were killed in the explosion last Tuesday near Ghazni, and two others were wounded. It was the deadliest attack against U.S. forces in Afghanistan this year. The Taliban claimed responsibility.

McClary was assigned to 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colorado.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Astronauts blast off safely » AUDIO: [Sound of Soyuz]

Three astronauts, including American Anne McClain, successfully blasted off to the International Space Station on Monday from Kazakhstan.  

AUDIO: And liftoff. We have liftoff of Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques, and Oleg Kononenko blasting through the Kazak sky to the international space station.

The successful Soyuz MS-11 launch, followed an aborted mission in October.

The spacecraft docked at the space station yesterday after making four orbits around Earth. The three astronauts will spend six months conducting research and experiments in biology, physical sciences, and technology.

On Oct. 11, a Russian Soyuz rocket carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut touched down safely after a malfunction occurred two minutes into flight. A Russian investigation blamed the incident on a sensor damaged during the rocket’s final assembly.

Goodlatte says Comey is fighting House subpoena » James Comey has reached a deal to testify privately to the House Judiciary Committee. In doing so, the former FBI director backed off his legal fight for an open hearing.

His attorney said as part of the deal, Comey will be free to speak about the questioning afterward and that a transcript will be released 24 hours after he testifies.

House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte says his panel wants to question Comey as part its ongoing investigations of the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal and the Russia probe.  

GOODLATTE: Mr. Comey is, as the former FBI director, at the center of both these investigations, launched in 2016, with regard to Hillary Clinton and the Trump campaign, and this is the culmination of that. 

Comey says he resisted a private meeting with the committee out of concern lawmakers would selectively leak information from his testimony.

Children return to school in wake of Northern CA wildfire » Thousands of children returned to school this week in North California, three weeks after the Camp wildfire destroyed their homes and classrooms.

About 31,000 students in all went back to school. Many of them are going to class in other buildings because their schools were damaged or destroyed, or are inaccessible inside evacuation zones.

Officials brought in counselors from around the country to help children distressed by their escape through the flames and the loss of their homes.

Authorities have lifted evacuation orders from some areas affected by the Camp wildfire this week. But the devastated town of Paradise remains off limits.

Tumblr to start blocking adult content / Starbucks to block access to pornography in stores » The social media platform Tumblr has announced it will begin blocking pornographic content later this month. WORLD Radio’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, NEWS EDITOR: The announcement came after Apple yanked the Tumblr mobile app from the App Store because images of child sexual abuse reportedly appeared on the platform.

Tumblr said as of December 17th, most forms of nudity and anything “that depicts sex acts” will be banned. It also said in a statement that “as Tumblr continues to grow and evolve” we have a responsibility to consider our impact “across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets.”

Meantime, Starbucks is taking new measures to prevent customers from viewing pornography inside its stores. The coffee chain already has a policy against viewing such content, but currently does not use content filters on its public Wi-Fi. But in a statement the company said—quote—“we have identified a solution to prevent this content from being viewed within our stores … and we will begin introducing it to our U.S. locations in 2019.”

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Leigh Jones.

(AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Visitors file past the flag-draped casket of former President George H.W. Bush as he lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Monday, Dec. 3, 2018. 

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