Monday morning news: January 9, 2023

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Biden’s first trip to border » President Biden is in Mexico City today, his first trip to Mexico as president, one day after his first visit to the U.S. southern border.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre explained the purpose of Biden’s stop in El Paso, Texas.

PIERRE: Assess border enforcement operations there first hand; meet with elected officials there as well and local officials.

But amid a record border traffic surge, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wasn’t impressed with Biden’s 3-hour visit or his border policies.

ABBOTT: It’s about two years too late and about $20 billion dollars short of what needs to be done.

Immigration will be a major topic of discussion today as Biden meets with top Mexican and Canadian officials in Mexico City.

Biden recently announced a border policy shift, with Mexico’s blessing. The United States will send thousands of migrants from four other countries back across the border each month.

House expected to get to work today (Monday) after finally electing speaker » And House Republicans have promised to make border security a top priority as they get to work this week.

The House is hoping to pass a rules package today after it took Republicans nearly all of last week—and 15 rounds of voting—to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker.

It took plenty of wheeling and dealing for McCarthy to win over Republican holdouts.

Florida Congressman Byron Donalds said among the concessions McCarthy made …

DONALDS: We have firm commitments that any bill is going to be laid on the floor for 72 hours, so not just the members of Congress, but also the American people are able to read it.

The new GOP majority also plans to launch several investigations into the Biden administration, the Justice Department, and the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Fighting continued during Putin’s so-called ceasefire » In Ukraine, bullets and shells continued to fly over the weekend despite Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russian troops would observe a ceasefire around the orthodox Christmas holiday.

KONASHENKOV: [Russian]

Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Putin did in fact order a ceasefire and that Russian troops only acted in self-defense.

Ukraine never agreed to pause its fight against the invading army.

Officials in Kyiv and in Washington said they considered Putin’s proposal a ploy to allow his forces time to regroup from recent losses.

Iran » Iran announced the executions of two more men over the weekend in connection with anti-government protests.

NETANYAHU: [Hebrew]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the executions as despicable murders.

AUDIO: [Iran State TV anchor]

Iranian State TV reported government claims that the two men were executed for killing a security officer during protests in early November.

Human rights groups say the men did not receive a just trial.

Officially, Iran has executed at least four protesters. But activists say the government has sentenced more than a dozen people to death in closed-door hearings.

40 people killed, dozens injured in bus crash in Senegal » The African country of Senegal is observing three days of mourning after a bus crash that killed dozens. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER, REPORTER: A bus traveling down one of the country’s main roads suffered a tire blowout on Sunday causing it to veer into a head-on collision with another bus.

The crash killed at least 40 people and wounded 80.

In 2017, a similar incident occurred, resulting in 25 deaths.

Car crashes in West African country are not uncommon—poor road conditions, unsafe vehicles, and rule-breaking drivers often make driving unsafe.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Pro-Bolsonaro rioters storm Brazil's top government offices » In Brazil, a week after the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva supporters of the former president stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace Sunday.

They claim the election was stolen from President Jair Bolsonaro. WORLD’s Emma Freire says some of those protesters committed significant acts of violence.

FREIRE: They broke windows and furniture, set carpets on fire, and stole artworks. In remarks after the protests, Lula blamed Bolsonaro directly for what happened.

Lula said the former president incited violence with social media posts.

Police arrested hundreds of protesters.

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

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