On the updated version of Hot off the Wire (posted Feb. 3 at 6:38 a.m. CT):

• The U.S. was tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon spotted over American airspace, and China said that it would look into those reports. The discovery further strained already tense relations between Beijing and Washington.
• It will be an icy day in New England as Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas continue to recover from severe ice and cold that has moved out from the region.
• Pope Francis opens the second and final leg of his African pilgrimage by heading to South Sudan.
• Three decades after Bill Clinton signed into the law the nation’s family and medical leave legislation, he was back at the White House on Thursday.
• LeBron James continued to close in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's all-time scoring record, Giannis Antetokounmpo had another big scoring night, the NBA completed its All-Star rosters, and three Top 10 college basketball teams kept winning.

From the original version of Hot off the Wire (posted Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. CT):

• President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met for more than an hour at the White House, aiming to avert a national debt limit crisis.
• House Republicans have voted to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
• A published report says federal authorities are investigating whether embattled New York Rep. George Santos raised $3,000 for life-saving surgery for a disabled veteran’s dog and then kept the money for himself.
• Federal prosecutors say a New York man has pleaded guilty to making threatening phone calls to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
• The Philippines says it is allowing U.S. forces to broaden their footprint in that Southeast Asian nation.
• The most expansive federal report in over two decades on guns and crime shows a shrinking turnaround between the time a gun was purchased and when it was recovered from a crime scene.
• A whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris.
• President Joe Biden attended the annual National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday in Washington and delivered a message of unity.
• People gathered Thursday at Gobbler’s Knob as members of Punxsutawney Phil’s “inner circle” summoned the groundhog from his tree stump at dawn to learn if he has seen his shadow — and they say he did, meaning six more weeks of winter.
• Australia is removing the British monarchy from its bank notes. The nation’s central bank said Thursday its new $5 bill would feature an Indigenous design rather than an image of King Charles III.

—The Associated Press