Friday morning news - February 4, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden urges unity at National Prayer Breakfast » Hours earlier, President Biden spoke on Capitol Hill at the annual National Prayer Breakfast. The president said he prays for healing of the bitter political divide in America.

BIDEN: One of the things I pray for, and I mean it, is we sort of get back to the place — It’s so busy; I think things have changed so much — but that we get to really know each other. It’s hard to really dislike someone when you know what they’re going through [is] the same thing you’re going through.

Biden added, “Rather than driving us apart, faith can move us together.”

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and guests from across the country and around the world attended.

The National Prayer Breakfast takes place on the first Thursday of every February.

It’s a tradition that started in 1953 under President Dwight Eisenhower. Every president since has participated in the event.

U.S. says new intel shows Russia plotting false flag attack » Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Thursday that the United States and the UK have intelligence, revealing plans by Moscow to stage a false Ukrainian attack.

Kirby said the Russian government developed the plan to fabricate a justification to invade Ukraine.

KIRBY: We believe that Russia would produce a very graphic propaganda video, which would include corpses and actors that would be depicting mourners, and images of destroyed locations as well as military equipment at the hands of Ukraine or the West.

The United States just declassified that intelligence, which it has shared with NATO allies and Ukraine.

U.S. officials also released a map of Russian military positions and detailed how officials believe Russia will try to attack Ukraine with as many as 175,000 troops.

Also on Thursday, NATO warned that Moscow continues to build up military assets in neighboring Belarus. Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg:

STOLTENBERG: Over the last days, we have seen a significant movement of Russian military forces into Belarus. This is the biggest Russian deployment there since the Cold War.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday offered to mediate talks between Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate tensions.

Winter storm continues to blast dozens of states » A massive winter storm continued to cover many states with rain, sleet or snow on Thursday while disrupting flights and knocking out power to more than 100,000 homes and businesses.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters…

ABBOTT: We are dealing with one of the most significant icing events that we’ve had in the state of Texas in at least several decades.

Ice accumulating on power lines can cause widespread power outages.

The path of the storm stretched further from the central United States into more of the South and Northeast Thursday. Heavy snow fell from the Rockies to New England.

And today, Andrew Orrison with the National Weather Service says the Northeast should brace for a lot more winter weather.

ORRISON: Areas of New York and northern New England will be seeing particularly heavy snowfall, and we’re expecting storm totals across those areas to be in excess of a foot.

In warmer areas farther south, the winter front sparked thunderstorms in parts of Alabama and Mississippi.

Army begins discharging vaccine refusers » The U.S. Army this week began discharging soldiers who have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown reports.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: The Army follows the Marine Corps, Air Force, and Navy, which were already discharging troops for refusing the shots.

The Army announced on Wednesday that it would immediately begin discharging soldiers who don’t comply with the mandate.

More than 3,300 soldiers have refused to get the vaccine and have been issued official written reprimands.

The Pentagon has ordered all service members—active-duty, National Guard and Reserves—to get the shot, saying it is critical to maintaining the health and readiness of the force.

Roughly 97 percent of all soldiers have gotten at least one shot. More than 3,000 have requested medical or religious exemptions.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Anna Johansen Brown.

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

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