Thursday morning news: September 1, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

UN inspectors Zaporizhzhia » In Ukraine, a convoy of United Nations-marked SUVs finally arrived in Zaporizhzhia city on Wednesday.

A team of U.N. nuclear inspectors is on the ground in Ukraine this morning.

They’re inspecting the Russian-occupied and war-battered Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi:

GROSSI: This operation is a very complex operation. We are going to a war zone. We are going to an occupied territory. And this requires explicit guarantees from the Russian Federation.

He said both sides have guaranteed the safety of inspectors.

Grossi warns the plant is in dangerously poor shape. Inspectors hope to develop a plan to shore up the facility and avoid a catastrophe.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russian forces must not interfere with the inspection.

KIRBY: We want to make sure that Mr. Grossi and his inspectors get full and complete access so that they can better understand the operations of that plant.

With fears of a radiation leak on the rise, officials have begun distributing anti-radiation iodine tablets to nearby residents.

UN cites possible crimes vs. humanity in China’s Xinjiang » A new UN report says China may be guilty of crimes against humanity. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: The U.N. human rights office has released its long-awaited report, citing “serious” rights violations and patterns of torture in China.

The report points to the Chinese government’s detention of Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in the western Xinjiang region.

It calls for an urgent international response to the allegations.

Outgoing U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet faced criticism for not releasing the report earlier after China pressured her office to withhold it.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

FBI-Trump latest » A Dept. of Justice court filing says classified documents were “likely concealed and removed” from former President Trump’s Florida estate prior to the FBI’s raid.

DOJ officials claim it was part of an effort by Trump’s team to obstruct a federal investigation.

The government filed the document as it tries to convince a judge not to appoint an independent special master to review documents the FBI seized.

Trump and his supporters say that’s essential to a fair process. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem:

NOEM: Hiding these documents and this information, keeping it within the DOJ is wrong. It needs to be transparent so people can start to build trust back in the FBI and the DOJ and what they’re doing.

Security camera footage shows documents being removed from the storage room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Jackson » In Jackson, Mississippi, people waited in lines at distribution sites and flooded stores Wednesday for water to drink and cook amid the ongoing water crisis.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba told residents the water is safe to bathe in…

LUMUMBA: However, if you are drinking or cooking with it, we ask you to boil that water. If you are washing your dishes, we ask that you boil the water in that circumstance.

The owner of a local diner said it’s getting expensive to truck ice in from out of town.

AUDIO: It also means that all my staff has to do double the work because we can’t do free refills. We have to have a cup of ice that we’ve outsourced the ice.

President Biden this week approved an emergency declaration for the state and pledged federal support.

COVID boosters » The FDA has approved the first update to COVID-19 vaccines.

The new shots are designed to target the most common omicron strains. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said they contain the same basic ingredients as the original COVID mRNA vaccines …

CALIFF: But are modified to target the circulating omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5, as well as the strain that was included in the original vaccines.

The drugmakers submitted evidence that their shots increased patients’ antibodies against omicron. But it’s not clear yet how well the vaccines ward off illness or how long the protection lasts.

Califf said the FDA hopes the modified Moderna and Pfizer boosters will blunt a potential new winter wave.

The boosters could be available within days, but the CDC must still issue a recommendation as to who should get the shots.

Taiwan warning shots » Taiwanese forces fired warning shots at Chinese drones this week as they hovered over the Kinmen islands of Taiwan. WORLD’s Anna Johansen Brown has more.

ANNA JOHANSEN BROWN, REPORTER: After bullets zipped past the drones, they retreated to the nearby Chinese city of Xiamen.

TSAI: [Speaking Taiwanese]

Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-Wen said Beijing is making a habit of intruding in her country’s airspace.

The incident comes amid heightened tensions with China after the Chinese military held military drills in the Strait of Taiwan. Taiwanese officials viewed the war games as a rehearsal for an invasion.

The United States is reportedly set to approve a defense package for Taiwan worth more than a billion dollars. It would include anti-ship and air-to-air missiles, which could be used to repel a potential Chinese invasion.

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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