Tuesday morning news: December 6, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

SCOTUS religious rights » Supreme Court justices heard arguments Monday in what could be a landmark case for religious liberties.

Justice Neil Gorsuch described the predicament of a Christian web designer in Colorado.

GORSUCH: We have an individual who says she will sell and does sell to everyone, all manner of websites. But she won’t sell a website that requires her to express a view about marriage that she finds offensive to her religious beliefs.

The designer is Lorie Smith and her beliefs are that God designed marriage between one man and one woman.

Liberal Justice Sonya Sotomayor compared biblical views of marriage to racism.

SOTOMAYOR: But how about people who don’t believe in interracial marriage or about people who don’t believe that disabled people should get married. Where’s the line?

Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said the line is wherever the state compels people to express a message that violates their religious convictions.

GA runoff »It’s Election Day in Georgia again. Voters will decide a runoff between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his GOP challenger Herschel Walker, who made his final pitch to voters this week.

WALKER: If you want a change, go out and vote and voice your opinion because this race very, very important.

The incumbent senator did the same.

WARNOCK: We’ve had incredible turnout during the early vote period, but do not rest on the strength of that. Don’t spike the football before you get into the endzone.

Early voting for the runoff has already shattered records in Georgia.

An average of recent polls gives Warnock a 3-point lead over Walker.

China COVID restrictions » China is easing some of the world’s most stringent COVID-19 lockdown measures. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: On Monday, commuters in Beijing and at least 16 other cities could board buses and subways without a recent virus test for the first time in months.

Industrial centers including Guangzhou near Hong Kong have reopened markets and businesses and lifted most curbs on movement.

Chinese authorities say new variants of the coronavirus are weaker. But they’re keeping restrictions on neighborhoods with infections.

And they’ve yet to say when they might end their “zero-COVID” strategy that confined millions of people to their homes and set off protests nationwide.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Ukraine new Russian barrage / Russia base explosions » Russia on Monday unleashed its latest “massive missile attack” across Ukraine, striking homes, killing civilians, and knocking out power yet again.

The port city of Odesa was especially hard hit.

ZELENSKYY: [Ukrainian]

President Volodymyr Zeleknskyy said Ukrainian troops were able to shoot down most of the incoming missiles, but not all of them. At least four people were killed.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Vladimir Putin is trying “to bring the Ukrainian people to their knees.”

KIRBY: And just the utter brutality of continuing to strike clearly civilian targets with that goal in mind, really just to cause human suffering. He certainly is not going after military targets.

Hours earlier, explosions rocked two air bases deep inside Russia. Officials in Moscow said the base shot down two Ukrainian drones attacking the sites.

Ukraine did not immediately comment on the explosions.

Attacks at NC power station » Kirby also said the White House is keeping a close eye on an investigation into attacks on power substations in North Carolina.

KIRBY: We’re supporting local law enforcement and local officials as appropriate, and we’ll stay plugged in on this as the investigation goes [SIC].

The FBI now is joining that investigation.

Local officials say it appears that one more gunmen opened fire on power substations in Moore County, knocking out power to tens of thousands of people.

Traffic lights went out throughout the county. Businesses handed out free food or coffee and many of them placed signs in their windows that read “cash only.”

Indonesia volcano » Rescuers on Monday searched for possible victims after a volcano erupted on Indonesia’s most densely populated island. WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY, REPORTER: Mount Semeru in the East Java province fired thick columns of ash nearly 5,000 feet into the sky on Sunday.

Hundreds of rescuers fanned out Monday across the worst-hit villages where tons of volcanic debris buried houses and mosques.

Heavy monsoon rains eroded and finally collapsed the lava dome atop the 12,000-foot volcano.

That triggered an avalanche of blistering gas and lava down the sides of the mountain.

For WORLD, I’m Mary Muncy.

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

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