Tuesday morning news: July 10, 2018

President Trump announces Supreme Court nominee » President Trump has chosen his nominee to be the next Supreme Court justice.

TRUMP: It is my honor and privilege to announce that I will nominate Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court.

The 53-year-old Kavanaugh has been a judge on the federal appeals court in Washington since 2006. He previously served in President George W. Bush’s administration. If confirmed, he’ll take the place of his former boss. He once served as a law clerk for retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Kavanaugh also worked on Ken Starr’s investigation of then-President Bill Clinton. And an article he later wrote for the Minnesota Law Review could get a lot of security during confirmation hearings. He wrote that presidents should largely be exempt from “time-consuming and distracting lawsuits.”

Following President Trump’s announcement, Kavanaugh explained his judicial philosophy, saying “a judge must interpret the law, not make the law.”

KAVANAUGH: A judge must interpret statutes as written, and a judge must interpret the Constitution as written, informed by history and tradition and precedent.

Kavanaugh could face a tricky confirmation battle in the Senate. Republicans have razor thin majority, meaning his nomination may hinge on several red-state Democrats.

Deadline to reunite families at border » Fifty-four immigrant children under age 5 are expected to be reunited with their parents today. That in response to a court-ordered deadline, after those families were separated at the border when the children’s parents crossed into the U.S. illegally.  

But the children returning to their parents today are only about half of the 100 or so toddlers covered by the court order.

A Justice Department lawyer acknowledged this week that the government would not meet the deadline for all the children, citing a variety of reasons. In some cases, the parents of the youngsters have already been deported.

Meanwhile, a federal appeals court denied the government’s request to detain parents and their children together. They will will be set free in the U.S. pending the outcome of their immigration cases, which can take several years.

Japan floods » Rescue workers are searching for survivors in southwest Japan after record rainfall and deadly flooding. WORLD Radio’s Paul Butler has more.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: More than 100 people are dead and at least 60 others are still missing after torrential rains drenched the region around Hiroshima. The rain also triggered landslides that demolished roads and buildings.

Millions of people heeded warnings to evacuate over the weekend. And many who remained were forced to scramble to rooftops as floodwaters rose. Thousands of survivors are now without food, electricity, or water.  

More than 70,000 troops and other rescuers are working to reach those trapped by flooding and debris. But emergency officials warn that more landslides could still occur.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Paul Butler.

More children rescued from Thai cave » Expert divers on Monday rescued four more of the boys who have been stranded in a cave in northern Thailand.

Rescuers have now led eight of the 12 children to safety. But four boys and their 25-year-old soccer coach remain trapped.

The rescued boys were not immediately reunited with their families. Doctors had concerns about infectious diseases. They’ve taken urine samples and x-rays of the boys’ lungs.

The race is on to rescue the remaining five from the cave before heavier rains set in. Harder rain raises water levels inside the cave and creates stronger currents, hampering rescue efforts.

Another Novichok death in the U.K. » The nerve agent poisoning of a British couple is now a murder investigation. Forty-four-year-old Dawn Sturgess died after being exposed to the Soviet-era chemical Novichok. Forty-five-year-old Charlie Rowley remains critically ill.

Neil Basu is Assistant Commissioner with the Metro Police. He said that in the four months since former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned, along with a police officer who found them unconscious, no other people besides Dawn Sturgess and Charley Rowley have displayed Novichok symptoms.

BASU: But their reaction was so severe, they resulted in Dawn’s death and in Charlie being critically ill. This means they must have got a high dose, and our hypothesis is they must have handled a container that we are now seeking.

More than a hundred police officers are hunting for an object that may have contained the nerve gas.

Basu said the working theory is that the couple’s exposure was linked to the March attack on the Skripals, who both survived.

U.K. foreign secretary resigns » More trouble for British Prime Minister Theresa May’s government as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson quits. WORLD Radio’s Leigh Jones has that story.

LEIGH JONES, NEWS EDITOR: Johnson, who served as a key campaigner for Brexit, stepped down on Monday.  

His departure came just hours after the resignations of Brexit Secretary David Davis and Steve Baker, a minister in the U.K.’s Brexit department.

The cabinet shakeup rattled the government as a group of British lawmakers also protested May’s move toward a “soft” Brexit.

Davis said the prime minister’s plan to maintain trade and regulatory ties with the EU gives “too much away, too easily.” May wants to keep British- and EU-goods in a free trade zone. It would also force Britain to keep the EU’s regulations for goods and agricultural products.

Britain has less than nine months to reach a Brexit agreement with the EU before a March 29, 2019, deadline.

Reporting for WORLD Radio, I’m Leigh Jones.

I’m Kent Covington. Up next—Michael Cochrane on how facial recognition technology is helping law enforcement. Plus, the backlash against ICE. This is The World and Everything in It.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci) President Donald Trump shakes hands with Judge Brett Kavanaugh, his Supreme Court nominee, in the East Room of the White House.

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