Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Wake-Up Call: Mr. Zelensky Goes To Washington

Daily Mail US (12/21/22)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was making his way to Washington on Wednesday for a summit with President Joe Biden and to address Congress in his first known trip outside the country since Russia’s invasion began in February.

Zelenskyy said on his Twitter account that the visit was “to strengthen resilience and defense capabilities” of Ukraine and discuss cooperation between his country and the U.S with Biden.

The highly sensitive trip is taking place after 10 months of a brutal war that has seen tens of thousands killed and wounded on both sides of the conflict, along with devastation for Ukrainian civilians. It also comes as U.S. lawmakers are set to vote on a year-end spending package that includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and as the Pentagon prepares to send Patriot surface-to-air missiles to the country to defend itself.

Zelenskiy paid a surprise visit on Tuesday to the frontline city of Bakhmut, where he hailed the "superhuman" troops waging a battle that has come to symbolise the grinding brutality of the war in Ukraine.

Zelenskiy's office released video footage showing the president, dressed in khaki, handing out medals to soldiers inside a ramshackle industrial complex in the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region.

➤TRUMP TAX RETURNS TO BE MADE PUBLIC: A U.S. House of Representatives committee voted on Tuesday to release partially redacted tax filings from former President Donald Trump and said tax authorities had failed to properly scrutinize his returns while he was in office. The House Ways and Means Committee voted to release a summary of Trump's tax returns between 2015 and 2021, the years when he was running for president and serving in the White House, panel members said. It will take a few days to redact Donald Trump’s tax returns before they are ready to be released to the public.

➤2 DEAD, 12 INJURED AFTER MAGNITUDE 6.4 EARTHQUAKE ROCKS PARTS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: At least two people died and 12 were injured after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake rocked Northern California early Tuesday. The earthquake was the strongest earthquake the area has seen in years, it also damaged infrastructure and cut off power to tens of thousands of homes and businesses around Humboldt County. Tuesday's fatalities mark the first deaths stemming from an earthquake in California since one person died in 2019 during a 7.1 magnitude quake.

➤8 TEENAGE GIRLS CHARGED IN STABBING DEATH OF TORONTO MAN: A 59-year-old person living in a shelter to keep people off the street was stabbed to death by 8 teenage girls in Toronto. The mob of underaged teens were between the ages of 13 and 16 years old, and the criminal killings is considered a swarming by police. Authorities said three of the eight suspects had been in trouble with police before attacking the deceased victim. The girls now face second-degree murder charges.

✞SONYA EDDY DIES AT 55: General Hospital actress Sonya Eddy (right) has passed away at the age of 55. Octavia Spencer shared the news of her death to Instagram Tuesday. “My friend @sonyaeddy passed away last night. The world lost another creative angel. Her legions of @generalhospitalabc fans will miss her … My thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones, friends, and fans!” Spencer wrote. General Hospital executive producer Frank Valentini also paid tribute to Eddy on Twitter. “I am heartbroken about the loss of the incredible @TheRealSonyaEd. I truly loved her not only as actress, but as a friend. The lights in the hub of the nurse’s station will now be a little dimmer, but her spirit and light will live on in both the show and our set,” he wrote.

➤ATTEMPTED ROBBERY SUSPECT SHOT, DIES AT HOSPITAL: DeKalb County police say a man who attempted to rob a victim was killed in the process. Police responded to a call for a person being shot. When they arrived, officials found Antwon June had been shot. Police say he was transported to the hospital where he died from his injuries related to being shot. According to DKPD, the suspect attempted an armed robbery of his victims and during the course of the incident, the suspect was shot.



➤THESE 12 U.S. STATES WILL LET YOU ADD YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TO YOUR IPHONE: Apple continues to roll out a feature that allows residents of participating U.S. states to add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age. The feature has only launched in Arizona, Colorado, and Maryland so far, but Apple shared a list of additional U.S. states committed to supporting IDs in the Wallet app in the future. Those states are: Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and Utah.
➤PHARMACIES LIMIT SALES OF CHILDREN'S MEDICINE AMID SOARING RATES OF ILLNESS: CVS Health and Walgreens have announced limits on how much children's medicine people can buy over-the-counter. CVS has a two-product limit on children's pain-relief products. This applies to all pharmacy locations and online. Walgreens doesn't have an in-store buying limit, but has an online limit of six per transaction "to prevent excess purchasing behavior."


➤TOM BRADY OPENS UP ABOUT SPENDING CHRISTMAS WITHOUT GISELE BUNDCHEN AND THE KIDS: Following his divorce from Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady shared on his SiriusXM podcast Monday that he’ll be spending the holidays alone this year in a hotel. “I’m gonna learn how to deal with Christmas Eve in a hotel, and I’m gonna have to learn how to deal with Christmas and Christmas night and still go out there and be a professional,” he said. “It’ll be a new experience that I’ve never had before that I’m gonna learn how to deal with … I think that’s what life’s about.”



🏀MAT ISHBIA AGREES TO SUNS PURCHASE FOR RECORD $4 BILLION: Billionaire mortgage lender Mat Ishbia has agreed to purchase the majority stake of the Phoenix Suns and the WNBA's Mercury for a record price of $4 billion, Ishbia and current owner Robert Sarver announced on Tuesday. Ishbia is well-known and well-regarded within the league office, including with commissioner Adam Silver, and has developed relationships with a number of NBA owners. He will have to undergo a background check and a vote of approval from the board of governors, but that's expected to be a formality.


🏀NBA SCORES:
  • Utah Jazz 126 vs Detroit Pistons 111
  • Chicago Bulls 113 vs Miami Heat 103
  • New York Knicks 132  Golden State Warriors 94
  • Washington Wizards 113 Phoenix Suns 110
  • Denver Nuggets 105 Memphis Grizzlies 91

🏈EAGLES COACH NOT RULING JALEN HURTS OUT VS COWBOYS: Eagles coach Nick Sirianni confirmed Tuesday that quarterback Jalen Hurts has a sprained right shoulder, but he isn't ruling him out for Saturday's game against the Dallas Cowboys. Sirianni called Hurts one of the "toughest" players he knows and someone who "heals fast," so he isn't going to put a timetable on the injury to Hurts' throwing shoulder.

⚾UPON CLOSER REVIEW: Free agent Carlos Correa has agreed to sign with the New York Mets, a week after the 28-year-old and the San Francisco Giants reportedly agreed to a massive 13-year, $350 million contract, according to a report.  Jon Heyman, a baseball columnist for the New York Post, reported the confusing switch early Wednesday morning, the day after a medical issue was detected in Correa’s physical. "Breaking: Carlos Correa and the Mets have a deal. $315M, 12 years," Heyman reported.

⚾ADAM OTTAVINO AGREES TO 2-YEAR, $14.5M WITH METS: Reliever Adam Ottavino and the New York Mets are in agreement on a two-year, $14.5 million contract, reuniting the veteran right-hander with the team for which he posted a 2.06 ERA in 66 appearances this year. Ottavino, was among the most consistent relief pitchers in the National League, regularly appearing in high-leverage situations for a Mets team that won 101 games.

➤FIRST DAY OF WINTER! And right on scheduled a massive winter storm is bearing down on the central US is threatening to rapidly strengthen into what meteorologists call a bomb cyclone that will dump blinding snow on Chicago, throw holiday travel into chaos and send an arctic blast as far south as Texas.



Wind chill watches and warnings stretch from Montana to Alabama, and Chicago could get 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow driven by 55-mile (89-kilometer) per-hour winds, setting up a blizzard there and across the region, the National Weather Service said. The wild weather in one of the largest US air hubs will almost certainly delay and cancel flights across the country. The cold will then push east, bringing heavy snow to the eastern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. It also poses risks to energy infrastructure and crops.

A storm undergoes bombogenesis and becomes a bomb cyclone when its central pressure, a measure of its strength, plunges 24 millibars in 24 hours. The conditions are ripe for this system to fit that bill, said Tom Kines, a meteorologist for AccuWeather Inc. “This storm means business,” he said. “It is going to be a big slap in the face to a lot of people out in the Plains, the Midwest and the Great Lakes.”  

An estimated 112.7 million people will travel 50 miles or more from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2, up by 3.6 million from last year and getting close to pre-pandemic levels, according to AAA, a provider of travel insurance. United Airlines Holdings Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., American Airlines Group Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. issued travel waivers for a vast swath of the country ahead of the storm, allowing passengers to rebook their upcoming holiday travel with no fees.



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