Donald Trump is running for president again, hoping to become the second president in U.S. history to win nonconsecutive terms. To find out how he’s doing in one of his strongholds, VOA chief national correspondent Steve Herman went to Mount Storm, West Virginia. Camera: Saqib Ul-Islam.
…

Pope Francis called Wednesday for people to restrain spending ahead of the upcoming Christmas holiday and use the money saved to help the people of Ukraine. 

Speaking during his weekly audience at the Vatican, the pope said, “there is so much suffering in Ukraine” as he advocated for a “humble Christmas.” 

“They are hungry, they are cold, so many die for lack of doctors and nurses,” he said. “Let’s not forget them. Christmas yes, in peace and with the Lord, yes. But with Ukrainians in the heart.” 

Ukraine has experienced repeated Russian airstrikes on its infrastructure in recent months, causing power and water outages. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
…

American journalist Grant Wahl, who collapsed and died while covering the World Cup in Qatar last week, passed away at the age of 49 due to an aortic aneurysm that ruptured, his wife Dr. Celine Gounder said.

“An autopsy was performed by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office. Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium. The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms. No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him,” Gounder said in a post on her husband’s substack site.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, an aortic aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the aorta, the large artery that carries blood from the heart through the chest and torso.

“His death was unrelated to COVID. His death was unrelated to vaccination status. There was nothing nefarious about his death,” she added.

Wahl is credited with helping grow the popularity of soccer in the U.S. and reported on some of the sport’s biggest stories.

He spent more than two decades writing for Sports Illustrated before starting his own website.  

American soccer players both past and present along with other sports figures have been paying tribute to Wahl since his death.

After his body was returned to the U.S. earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted “I so appreciated Grant Wahl, whose writing captured not only the essence of the beautiful game but also the world around it.”

Some information in this report came from the Associated Press.
…

Helicopters and lifeboats swooped to the English Channel off the coast of Kent in southern England to rescue a small boat that capsized in the freezing water, killing four people, authorities said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed in comments before Parliament there was a loss of life but offered no specifics. Home Secretary Suella Braverman was expected to update the House of Commons later Wednesday.

“After a coordinated search and rescue operation led by HM Coastguard, it is with regret that there have been four confirmed deaths as a result of this incident. Investigations are ongoing and we will provide further information in due course,” the government said in a statement. “This is a truly tragic incident.”

The U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency coordinated a rescue operation involving the Royal Navy, border officers, Kent police and the French navy. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution also dispatched boats.

The South East Coast Ambulance Service said it sent help at about 3:40 a.m. local time to help the coast guard.

Thousands of migrants have relied on small boats to cross the Channel in hopes of receiving asylum in the U.K. The British government has been under pressure to stop people from paying smugglers to cross some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes in flimsy vessels.

But the number of people who choose to make the dangerous voyage continues to climb. Some 44,000 people made the journey so far this year, compared to 23,000 last year and 8,500 in 2020, according to government figures.

Sunak pledged Tuesday to clear a backlog of asylum-seeker applications and announced new measures aimed at curbing the number of migrants reaching the U.K. by crossing the Channel.

Sunak said he planned to introduce legislation early next year to ensure people who arrive illegally cannot remain in the country.

The prime minister said he was adding hundreds of workers to process asylum claims and to clear the backlog, estimated at more than 143,000 pending applications, by the end of 2023. The extra staff will also focus on the swift removal of Albanian migrants who have arrived via the Channel in increasing numbers, Sunak said.
…

The U.S.-Africa summit kicked off Tuesday in the nation’s capital with a full agenda. Topics ranged from climate adaptation and energy transition to peace, security and governance. A special forum highlighted African youth and the role of the diaspora. VOA’s Mariama Diallo attended the summit and has this report.
…

The United States is preparing to send the Patriot missile defense system to Ukraine to shoot down incoming Russian missiles, a decision that could be announced as soon as this week, a U.S. defense official and a second U.S. official told VOA on Tuesday.

Both officials spoke on condition that they not be identified because the decision has not yet been formally announced. The decision was first reported by CNN.

Ukraine has asked its Western partners for air defenses, including the U.S.-made Patriot system, as Russia has used its missile arsenal along with newly acquired Iranian drones to target critical civilian infrastructure, including electrical power facilities needed to keep the population warm as temperatures fall.

Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, declined to comment on the Patriot battery transfer, saying he had “nothing to announce at this time.”

“We’ll continue to look at ways that we can best support Ukraine to protect their population and to protect their broader infrastructure to be able to survive these attacks,” Ryder said.

The U.S. has provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in military support, including air defense weapons ranging from Stingers — a surface-to-air missile system light enough to carry — to the larger NASAMS anti-aircraft systems, which can provide air defense against short-to-medium-range targets.

But on Tuesday, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat told reporters that Ukraine was still “not able to shoot down ballistic [missiles] by air defense means that we have in our arsenal.”

“Therefore, the most effective method of destroying these missiles is at the launch, where they are,” he added.

Analyst warns of ‘limited return on investment’

NASAMS are designed to protect population centers from air-to-surface threats and can identify and target fixed and rotary-wing aircraft, cruise missiles, and drones. NASAMS, however, are not considered effective against ballistic missiles.

Retired Rear Admiral Mark Montgomery, a defense analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, acknowledged that Ukraine was “out of the kind of weapon needed” to defend against ballistic missiles but criticized the potential Patriot acquisition.

“Patriot is an extremely complex and expensive system to operate. Each round of Patriot is between $3 [million] and $4 million apiece. That is a very expensive system. It would use up a lot of the money being set aside for them, I think, with a very limited return on investment,” he told VOA.

Montgomery also raised concerns that providing Patriots to Ukraine would drain from the Ukrainian military’s already small batch of NASAMS operators.

Instead, he suggested sending more of the air defense weapons that Ukraine is already receiving and using to great effect, or perhaps providing Ukraine with the Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) system that the U.S. has used in the Middle East.

“For me, Patriot is not a great answer.,” he said. “More NASAMS, more S-300s, you know, more cowbell.”
…

A massive storm blowing across the country spawned tornadoes that wrecked homes and injured a handful of people in parts of Oklahoma and Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as much of the central United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest braced Tuesday for blizzard-like conditions.

An area stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado was under blizzard warnings, and the National Weather Service said as much as 61 centimeters of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Ice and sleet were expected in the eastern Great Plains.

Forecasters expect the storm system to hobble the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days, as well as move into the Northeast and central Appalachians. Residents from West Virginia to Vermont were told to watch out for a possible significant mix of snow, ice and sleet, and the National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon, depending on the timing of the storm.

The severe weather threat also continues into Wednesday for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

In the South, a line of thunderstorms brought tornadoes, damaging winds, hail and heavy rain across North Texas and Oklahoma in the early morning hours, said National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Bradshaw. Authorities on Tuesday reported dozens of damaged homes and businesses and several people injured in the suburbs and counties stretching north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The weather service examined about a dozen different areas across North Texas to determine if Tuesday’s damage was caused by high winds or tornadoes.

A tornado warning prompted the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to issue a “shelter in place” order Tuesday morning, asking passengers to move away from windows, the airport announced via Twitter.

More than 1,000 flights into and out of area airports were delayed, and upwards of 100 were canceled, according to the tracking service FlightAware.

In the Fort Worth suburbs, about 20 local homes and businesses were damaged, according to the North Richland Hills police department.

In nearby Grapevine, police spokesperson Amanda McNew reported five confirmed injuries.

“The main thing is that we’ve got everyone in a safe place,” McNew said just after noon. “We’re starting the process of going through the city looking at damage to property, to businesses, homes and then roads.”

A possible tornado blew the roof off the city’s service center — a municipal facility — and left pieces of the roof hanging from powerlines, said Trent Kelley, deputy director of Grapevine Parks and Recreation. Tuesday was also trash day, so the storm picked up and scattered garbage all over, he said.

Photos sent by the city showed downed power lines on rain-soaked streets, as well as toppled trees, damaged buildings and a semitrailer that appeared to have been tossed around a parking lot.

Meanwhile, a tornado damaged the Oklahoma town of Wayne shortly after 5 a.m. Tuesday. There was widespread damage but no deaths or injuries, McClain County Sheriff’s Capt. Bryan Murrell said.

“We’ve got multiple family structures with significant damage … barns, power lines down,” Murrell said. The town is about 72 kilometers south of Oklahoma City.

National Weather Service meteorologist Doug Speheger said wind speeds reached 111-135 mph (179-211 kph) and the tornado was rated EF-2. It was likely on the ground for about two to four minutes, according to the weather service.

In parts of Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota, the National Weather Service warned that up to about 2.5 centimeters of ice could form and winds could gust up to 72 kph. Power outages, tree damage, falling branches and hazardous travel conditions threatened the region.

All of western Nebraska was under a blizzard warning from Tuesday through Thursday, and the National Weather Service said up to 51 centimeters of snow was expected in the northwest. Winds of more than 80 kph at times will make it impossible to see outdoors, officials said.

The Nebraska Department of Transportation closed stretches of Interstate 80 and Interstate 76 as heavy snow and high winds made travel dangerous. The Nebraska State Patrol, which was called to deal with several crashes and jackknifed semitrailers overnight, urged people to stay off the roads.

“There’s essentially no one traveling right now,” said Justin McCallum, a manager at the Flying J truck stop at Ogallala, Nebraska.

In Colorado, all roads were closed in the northeast quadrant of the state. The severe weather in the ranching region could also threaten livestock. Extreme winds can push livestock through fences as they follow the gale’s direction, said Jim Santomaso, a northeast representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association.

“If this keeps up,” said Santomaso, “cattle could drift miles.”

In western South Dakota, a 418-kilometer stretch of Interstate 90 was closed Tuesday morning due to “freezing rain, heavy snow, and high winds,” the state’s Department of Transportation said. Interstate 29 was also expected to close and secondary highways will likely become “impassable,” the department said.

Xcel Energy, one of the region’s largest electric providers, had boosted staff in anticipation of power outages.

A blizzard warning has been issued on Minnesota’s north shore, as some areas are expecting up to 61 centimeters of snow and wind gusts up to 65 kph. And in the south of the state, winds gusting up to 80 kph had reduced visibility.

National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye in the Twin Cities said this is a “long duration event” with snow, ice and rain through Friday night. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.

Wet roadways are just as dangerous when temperatures hover around freezing, Dye said.

The same weather system dumped heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada and western U.S. in recent days.
…

A stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial shutdown of the U.S. federal government began moving through the House of Representatives on Tuesday, as Congress scampered to meet a midnight Friday deadline when existing funds expire.

The one-week, government-wide funding bill is designed to give lawmakers additional time to finish negotiations on a year-long “omnibus” spending bill that would expire on September 30, 2023, the end of the current fiscal year.

A first, procedural vote on the legislation was set for Wednesday.

The larger of the two bills is expected to appropriate more than $1.5 trillion for the U.S. military and a range of non-military programs. The measure is also expected to contain new emergency funds to aid Ukraine in its battle against Russian forces.

Ukraine could get billions more, after Biden asked Congress last month for $37 billion.

The House was expected to pass the one-week “continuing resolution” on Wednesday or Thursday, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat, told reporters.

“We have no intention of shutting down the government of the United States, which is costly and harmful in almost every respect,” he said.

Once passed by the House, it would be sent quickly to the Senate for passage no later than Friday, in time for President Joe Biden to sign it into law.

Then, all attention would shift to the omnibus bill next week. Besides containing the aid to Ukraine, it also is expected to fold in an unrelated bill reforming the way Congress certifies U.S. presidential elections.

The latter is aimed at avoiding a repeat of the deadly turmoil of January 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump tried to stop the certification of Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Negotiations continued on other parts of the large spending bill, including increases to non-military spending that Democrats, who narrowly control Congress, want in the face of Republican opposition.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned his Republicans want work on the omnibus bill wrapped up by December 22. “We intend to be on the road going home on the 23rd,” he told reporters.

Failure to reach agreement by then, he added, would mean that another temporary funding bill, going into early next year, would be necessary.

That is a result Democrats — and some Republicans — want to avoid as the negotiations on the funding bill would get more complicated next year, when Republicans take majority control of the House.

Conservative Republicans have been clamoring for deep domestic spending cuts Democrats want to avoid.

“There’s a lot of work left to do,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat said. “But we’re optimistic that if we preserve the good faith we’ve seen so far, we will get there.”
…