10 things you need to know today: August 8, 2023

1. Biden tours West to highlight record on climate change

President Biden departed Monday for a trip out West touting his record on conservation, clean energy and veterans' benefits. The tour starts with a Grand Canyon stop to announce plans for a new national monument to preserve more than a million acres. The White House is using the trip to highlight Biden's accomplishments and contrast them with the legal problems of his main Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. Biden will visit Albuquerque on Wednesday to discuss how clean energy initiatives to fight climate change have created jobs. "You can expect us to highlight more groundbreakings of projects ... to show the American people how these investments and jobs are reaching their communities," said Natalie Quillian, White House deputy chief of staff.

The Associated Press

2. Ex-officer sentenced to 57 months over George Floyd killing

Ex-Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Monday for his role in the 2020 killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died after another officer, Derek Chauvin, held his knee on his neck for more than nine minutes. Thao held off bystanders who expressed concern for Floyd, and had previously testified he was merely a "human traffic cone." Thao, 37, did not apologize, saying his "conscience is clear." Judge Peter Cahill said, "I was hoping for a little more remorse." The case was the last one to be prosecuted in state court against the four officers involved in Floyd's killing, which touched off nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.

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Star Tribune The Associated Press

3. DeSantis says 'of course' Trump lost 2020 election

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) separated himself from many fellow Republican leaders, presidential candidates and plenty of the party's voters when he said in an interview with NBC News published Monday that former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to President Biden. "Of course he lost," DeSantis said. "Joe Biden's the president." DeSantis is Trump's closest rival for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, although he is far behind Trump in the polls. DeSantis acknowledged on Friday that Trump's false claims that the 2020 vote was rigged were "unsubstantiated." In a nod to widespread election denying within the GOP, though, DeSantis said the vote wasn't "perfect." Trump spokesman Steve Cheung said the Florida governor "should really stop being Joe Biden's biggest cheerleader."

NBC News The New York Times

4. Niger junta shifts reinforcements into capital after deadline passes

Niger's coup leaders moved reinforcements into the capital after declining to give up power before a deadline set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), CNN reported Monday, citing a military source. Niger's military brought in troops from other parts of the country in a convoy of about 40 pickup trucks. The coup leaders, who also closed the country's airspace, refused to let U.S. diplomats meet with ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, described by a U.S. diplomat as being under "virtual house arrest." ECOWAS leaders imposed sanctions and days later gave the ruling junta a week to return Bazoum to office, threatening to use force to restore his government, if necessary. The deadline passed Sunday and Bazoum's whereabouts remain unknown.

CNN Politico

5. Judge dismisses Trump defamation counterclaim

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan dismissed Donald Trump's defamation counterclaim against writer E. Jean Carroll on Monday, saying her statement that the former president had raped her was "substantially true." The ruling was the latest twist in a courtroom battle that began when Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he called her a liar for saying in a book that he raped her in a New York City department store changing room in the mid-1990s. Carroll, 79, won a $5 million verdict in that case, after Trump was found liable for defamation and sexual abuse, but not rape. Carroll, who is pursuing another defamation claim against Trump, said after the verdict that Trump had raped her, prompting Trump to file his counterclaim. Judge Kaplan dismissed it and said Trump hadn't shown Carroll made her statement out of malice.

Reuters

6. Appeals court blocks Biden's debt relief for defrauded student borrowers

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday blocked a new Biden administration plan to forgive student loan debt for people who attended colleges that misled them or closed suddenly. Career Colleges and Schools of Texas (CCST), which represents private career-oriented or trade schools in Texas, had challenged the so-called borrower defense rules. Many of the schools the group represents are for-profit colleges, whose students are disproportionately likely to default on student loans. The administration has long tried to help students who believe they were defrauded, a problem most common with for-profit schools. CCST argued that the Education Department rules put "a thumb on the scale to maximize the number of approved claims and, ultimately, further the administration's loan forgiveness agenda."

USA Today The Hill

7. Paramount reaches deal to sell Simon & Schuster to KKR

Paramount on Monday announced a deal to sell Simon & Schuster to the private-equity firm KKR for $1.6 billion. The sale will give KKR one of the biggest U.S. publishing houses, with big-name authors including Stephen King and Bob Woodward, increasing the presence of financial firms in the industry. Jon Karp, chief executive of Simon & Schuster, told The New York Times that he was "thrilled" with the deal. "They plan to invest in us and make us even greater than we already are," he said. "What more could a publishing company want?" Karp will remain the company's CEO. Simon & Schuster has been up for sale since 2020. An attempt to sell it to rival publisher Penguin Random House was disrupted by government antitrust concerns.

The New York Times

8. Red Cross ends restriction on blood donations by gay, bisexual men

The Red Cross on Monday started using new individual assessment standards that will allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood for the first time since the HIV/AIDS epidemic began. The updated screening process, approved in a federal rule change earlier this year, will lift a blanket ban on donations from gay men. Instead, would-be donors will be asked to wait three months after having had anal sex with a new or multiple sexual partners before giving blood, because anal sex has a higher chance of spreading HIV than other sex acts. The Red Cross, which provides 40% of the nation's blood and blood products, said the change would make blood donation more inclusive while keeping the blood supply safe.

CNN USA Today

9. South Korea moves World Scout Jamboree ahead of storm

South Korean officials on Tuesday started busing tens of thousands of Scouts inland as they moved the World Scout Jamboree from its coastal campsite ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Khanun. The evacuation effectively ended an event already disrupted by heat and controversies over hygiene and land use. The South Korean government has struggled to continue the Jamboree after thousands of British and American Scouts left over the weekend due to a heat wave that left some participants hospitalized. South Korean officials said the event, which drew tens of thousands of Scouts from 156 countries, would continue with cultural events, including a Friday K-Pop concert in Seoul.

The Associated Press

10. Trump gloats about U.S. women's soccer team's World Cup loss

Former President Donald Trump mocked the U.S. Women's national soccer team for its historic early loss to Sweden in the World Cup on Sunday. "The 'shocking and totally unexpected' loss by the U.S. Women's Soccer Team to Sweden is fully emblematic of what is happening to our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden," Trump wrote on his media platform, Truth Social. "Many of our players were openly hostile to America — ... WOKE EQUALS FAILURE." Trump, loser of the 2020 presidential election, ridiculed star Megan Rapinoe, an outspoken LGBTQ advocate who feuded with him before the team won the 2019 World Cup, for missing a penalty kick in a dramatic shootout. President Biden praised the team, saying, "you've made your country proud."

Business Insider The Guardian