Monday morning news: January 16, 2023

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Ukraine » AUDIO: [Ukraine air raid siren]

Residents in Kyiv ran for cover on Sunday as a series of explosions cracked the skies over Ukraine’s capital. Officials say no one was killed in the attack.

But that was not the case in the city of Dnipro where at least 30 civilians died.

Moscow’s forces launched 33 cruise missiles on Saturday. Ukrainian defenses shot down 21 of them, but the rest found their marks.

AUDIO: [Ukrainian]

A survivor of the attack said the area has no military targets.

Rescue workers continue to search for survivors under the rubble of an apartment building.

Nepal plane crash » In Nepal, at least 68 people are dead after a plane crashed while descending near an airport in the town of Pokhara.

AUDIO: [Hindi]

One local resident said he was sitting on his back porch when he saw a plane overhead suddenly veer sideways and plummet to the ground.

Authorities have not yet determined what caused the crash. Air traffic controllers lost contact only minutes before the plane went down.

Congo church bomb » 10 people are dead and dozens more wounded today in eastern Congo after a bomb went off during a church service. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: The blast ripped through a Protestant church in the town of Kasindi Sunday morning.

Photos of the blast show the dead scattered among shattered glass and lumber.

A local Islamic States affiliate has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Eastern Congo has suffered violence for decades amid terrorist attacks and bloody conflicts between armed groups and militias.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Biden speaks at MLK’s old church on eve of MLK Day » MUSIC: [“We Shall Overcome”]

President Biden marked Martin Luther King Day by delivering a Sunday morning address at the Atlanta church that King once pastored.

BIDEN: My message to the nation on this day as we go forward, we go together. We choose democracy over autocracy, a beloved community over chaos. We choose believers in the dreams. To Be doers to be unafraid, always keeping the faith

Biden is the first sitting president to deliver a Sunday speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock serves as senior pastor of the historic church.

Biden documents » Meantime, in Washington, fallout continues from the discovery of documents marked classified at President Biden’s old office and in his personal home.

Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman told CBS there’s a difference between this situation and former President Trump’s possession of classified documents.

GOLDMAN: This administration is doing things by the book. There is a divide and a separation between the Department of Justice and the White House that certainly did not exist in the last administration.

But Republican Congressman Jim Jordan says the biggest difference is how the Justice Department is handling the two cases.

JORDAN: It’s this double standard. Biden mishandles classified inflation, they get treated a certain way. And then of course, President Trump gets his home raided 91 days before this midterm election.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week appointed a special counsel to investigate Biden’s possession of the documents.

CA weather + emergency declarations in CA, Alabama » California is bracing for more severe weather this week as the death toll from recent storms continues to mount.

Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters over the weekend:

NEWSOM: Nineteen people now have died and, you know, for all the focus that is wildfires in the state of California, just consider the last two years. We never had anything like that in terms of civilian deaths. So these weather events are taking more lives in the last two years than the wildfires.

On the other end of the country, at least 9 people died in Alabama and Georgia after severe storms and tornadoes tore through both states.

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

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