Wednesday morning news: September 7, 2022

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Liz Truss day one » British Prime Minister Liz Truss arrived on London’s Downing Street just hours after officially assuming office on Tuesday.

Standing in front of the prime minister’s official residence, Truss told Britons…

TRUSS: I’m confident that together we can ride out the storm. We can rebuild our economy, and we can become the modern brilliant Britain that I know we can be.

She quickly began appointing senior members of her Cabinet. She tackles a to-do list dominated by an energy crisis and a rapidly rising cost of living.

British news media reported that Truss plans to cap energy bills, and she has vowed to cut taxes.

Truss also paid tribute to her predecessor.

TRUSS: Boris Johnson delivered Brexit, the covid vaccine, and stood up to Russian aggression. History will see him as a hugely consequential prime minster.

Johnson bowed to pressure to step down following a series of controversies.

Typhoon » One of the strongest storms ever to hit South Korea brought brutal winds and nearly three feet of rain on Tuesday.

Typhoon Hinnamnor made landfall near the port of Busan. It knocked out electricity to nearly 70,000 homes, shattered street lamps, and grounded transport services.

At least 14 people died weeks earlier when heavy rainfall triggered flooding around the capital city of Seoul.

UN calls for safety zone around Zaporizhzhia » The U.N. atomic watchdog agency is once again calling on Russia and Ukraine to establish a demilitarized safety zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: Shelling continued around the nuclear plant on Tuesday, a day after it was again knocked off Ukraine's electrical grid.

Fears continue to mount that the fighting could trigger a catastrophe in a country still scarred by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

UN inspectors issued a report calling for the “establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone" around the facility.

Normally the plant relies on power from the outside to run the critical reactor cooling systems. A loss of those cooling systems could lead to a meltdown or other release of radiation.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Putin attends joint military drills with China, others » Vladimir Putin on Tuesday aimed binoculars at a distant horizon where his troops carried out joint military drills with Chinese forces.

AUDIO: [Military drills]

The weeklong exercise in eastern Russia is intended to showcase growing defense ties between the Kremlin and Beijing. China sent more than 2,000 troops along with military vehicles, combat aircraft, and warships to take part in the drills.

But several other countries are participating, including Mongolia, Nicaragua, Syria, and a handful of ex-Soviet nations.

Russia to buy rockets, artillery shells from NoKo » Meantime, Russia is in the process of purchasing millions of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea.

Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said this is a sign that the war in Ukraine has likely strained Russia’s own supplies.

RYDER: The fact that they’re reaching out to North Korea is a sign that they’re having some challenges on the sustainment front.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it could be a very large transaction.

KIRBY: Our sense is it could include literally millions of rounds of rockets and artillery shells from North Korea.

U.S. intelligence officials believe the Russians could purchase more military equipment from North Korea in the future.

Uvalde back to school » Students in Uvalde, Texas, walked into their first day of school past police cars, guards, and security fences.

They did not return to Robb Elementary, the scene of the mass shooting in May. The school will be demolished.

But other schools in the district reopened Tuesday with new security measures.

Parents of surviving students were understandably on edge.

PARENT: I was scared I wouldn’t get her back. But we went through drills all summer. I taught them you know, if you hear anything in the hallway, get out the window.

Some parents moved their children to online classes or charter schools.

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

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