Monday morning news: February 27, 2023

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington.

Ukraine F-16s  » The White House says it is ruling out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine … for now. National security adviser Jake Sullivan told ABC’s This week that what Kyiv needs for this phase of the war are:

SULLIVAN: Tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles. And so, what the president is saying is that he’s focused on those capabilities, and the F-16 question is a question for later.

But House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said he believes the U-S can and should do more now. He said he recently met with military brass at a security conference in German.

MCCAUL: They’re all in favor of us putting not only F-16s in but longer range artillery to take out Iranian drones in Crimea.

He said in his view, holding back some of the weapons Ukraine is asking for only serves to prolong the war.

Ukraine on the ground latest » Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s open to a peace plan that China proposed for ending the war. The plan calls for Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.

But Ukrainian lawmaker Kira Rudik says China’s peace plan may not be an option.

RUDIK - The only way that we see right now, for us to end the war is to win the war, to restore our sovereignty, and then to figure out the way of how to make sure that Russia would not attack us again.

CIA director on Ukraine / China » Even while China is proposing a peace plan in Ukraine… The U-S government suspects it is also thinking about selling weapons to Russia.

CIA Director William Burns:

BURNS - We're confident that the Chinese leadership is considering the provision of lethal equipment. We also don't see that a final decision has been made yet. And we don't see evidence of actual shipments of lethal equipment

Burns also acknowledged that China could be trying to turn the West’s preoccupation with the war in Ukraine to its own advantage.

BURNS - it's conceivable, but I think there's no foreign leader who's watched more carefully Vladimir Putin's experience in Ukraine the evolution of the war than Xi Jinping has.

Meanwhile, US intelligence says China is preparing to invade Taiwan by 2027. But Burns says some Chinese leaders also now doubt their ability to successfully take control of the island.

Israel Palestinian talks » Israeli and Palestinian leaders are promising to work toward lasting peace as bloodshed continues in and around the West Bank. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The Jordanian government has been mediating peace talks,  and announced over the weekend that both sides affirm the need to de-escalate the conflict.

But violence spiked almost immediately after the announcement, when a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli citizens in the West Bank.

[NETANYAHU - Speaking in Hebrew]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded for calm as Israeli rioters set fire to numerous cars and homes and assaulted Palestinians in the settlement of Huwara.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli gunfire killed one person. At least four other people were wounded.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Rough Weather across the US » Thousands of people in Michigan are still without power… after severe winter storms destroyed power lines in the Detroit area.

Michanders are used to rough winters. But southern Californians? Not so much.

One resident along the Santa Clara River just north of LA said Sunday …

MOS: I can’t get to work right now because of the snow. And also I’m kind of afraid that we’re going to have to evacuate if it gets any worse.

The winter blast slammed Southern California on Saturday.

Meanwhile rain and snow are falling again in Northern California.

Zack Taylor with the National Weather Service:

TAYLOR - There is another series of storm systems that will begin to move through the West Coast. Over the next couple of days, bringing in additional threat of heavy mountain snow, all the way from the Oregon and Washington cascades down through the Sierra Nevada and California where there could be an additional four to six feet of snowfall likely in the highest year.

Northern California is now under blizzard and winter storm warnings until Wednesday.

An estimated 60,000 Californians were without power on Sunday.

New presidential poll » Former President Trump is the early odds-on favorite for the GOP presidential nomination, according to a new Fox News poll.

Among Republicans in a survey of 1,000 registered voters, 43% said Trump is their preferred candidate.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was second with 28%. Former ambassador Nikki Haley and several others received single-digit support.

The poll suggests history could repeat itself.

Ahead of the 2016 election, with the rest of the field divided … Trump became the first Republican in more than a half century to win the GOP nod without a majority of the primary vote.

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

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