Friday morning news: February 10, 2023

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Chinese balloons » On Capitol Hill, a unanimous vote …

AUDIO: The yeas are 419. The nays are zero. The resolution is agreed to.

The resolution condemned China for violating U.S. airspace with a balloon-mounted spying device.

US officials have learned that the spycraft had multiple antennas to intercept sensitive communications. And the device reportedly had Western-made parts with English words on them, raising questions about who sold those parts to China.

The Pentagon now says Chinese balloons did cross into US territory on multiple occasions in the past. But Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Marco Rubio, said maybe so, but not like this.

RUBIO: This thing actually entered over Idaho and then just cut a diagonal path right across the middle of the country. That has never happened. Period. End of story. Not now, not in the past.

Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman says the brazen violation of US airspace further indicates that China …

SHERMAN: Is the only competitor with the intent and the means to reshape the international order.

President Biden on Thursday again defended his decision to let the balloon travel across the country before shooting it down. He said he was following the advice of military leaders.

House DOJ weaponization hearing » Elsewhere at the Capitol, a House panel held its first hearing on what Republicans are calling the political weaponization of the government against conservatives.

GOP Senator Chuck Grassley:

GRASSLEY: It’s clear to me that the Justice Department and the FBI are suffering from a political infection that, if it’s not defeated, will cause the American people no longer to trust these storied institutions.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said lawmakers have heard from dozens of whistleblowers within the FBI, warning of politically motivated actions within the Department of Justice.

Democrats called the hearing political theater and said the Republican majority is abusing Congress’ oversight capacity. Democratic Sen. Jamie Raskin:

RASKIN: You could take oversight down a very dark alley, filled with conspiracy theories and disinformation. A place where facts are the enemy and partisan destruction is the overriding goal.

Southwest Airlines testimony » Meantime in the Senate, lawmakers grilled Southwest Airlines Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson about a winter systems meltdown that forced thousands of canceled flights and chaos at airports.

He told members of the Commerce panel:

WATTERSON: Let me be clear, we messed up. In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operations resiliency, from where and how we de-ice aircraft to the cold resistency of our ground support equipment and infrastructure.

A winter storm in December disrupted crew-reassignment software, stranding more than 2 million passengers.

The president of the airline’s pilots union said company leaders ignored warnings from pilots and flight attendants that the technology was out of date.

Watterson said Southwest is upgrading its software.

Earthquakes latest » The death toll from earthquakes in Turkey and Syria has now surpassed 20,000, as rescuers continue to pull survivors from the rubble.

AUDIO: [Shouting, applause]

A rescue crew heard there pulling a little boy to safety in Syria.

But time is running out for survivors still trapped in mangled remains of buildings.

President Biden Thursday called images from the region heartbreaking.

BIDEN: What you see — moms and dads pulling little babies out from underneath this rubble, so many people dying. And our thoughts are also with the survivors who have been torn apart by this tragedy.

The United states has deployed rescue assets and millions in relief funds to the region.

Zelenskyy in Brussels » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with European leaders in Brussels on Thursday.

He asked European Union officials to expedite Ukraine’s membership in the EU.

The president heard here through a translator:

ZELENSKYY (translated): We are fighting for the European values. We want to be a member of the European Union. So even when we fight, we have to fight with dignity and with those values.

Brussels was his last stop on a two-day tour of European capitals where he has urged Western leaders to send fighter jets to Kyiv.

Trump Facebook page is back » Former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts are back online after a two-year suspension. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The parent company of the social media giants, Meta, has restored the Trump’s access to his accounts.

The company suspended him indefinitely from its platforms in 2021 following the Capitol riot. Meta claimed he had violated its content policies.

The former president has a combined 57 million followers between Facebook and Instagram.

Twitter recently lifted its ban on Trump’s account, but he thus far, he’s stuck to posting exclusively on his Truth Social platform.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Burt Bacharach obit » MUSIC: [I’ll Never Fall in Love Again, Elivs Costello]

The man who wrote that song and many other chart-toppers has died. Burt Bacharach passed away Wednesday.

Few songwriters ever matched Bacharach’s gift for crafting top-10 hits for numerous artists from Elvis Costello to Tom Jones, to Dionne Warwick...

Bacharach died of natural causes. He was 94 years old.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit wng.org.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.