The end of 2022 saw major layoffs at Twitter, Amazon, Salesforce and Snap. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, had its first layoffs ever, cutting about 13% of its staff. Deana Mitchell looks at what the tech job losses mean for the future.
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Month: December 2022
Zelenskyy: Ukraine Will Create Its Own Christmas Miracle
Ukrainians will create their own miracle this Christmas by showing they remain unbowed despite Russian attacks that have plunged millions into darkness, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a defiant message on Saturday.
Speaking 10 months to the day since Russian launched a war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions more, Zelenskyy said that while freedom came at a high price, slavery would cost even more.
“We endured at the beginning of the war,” he said. “We endured attacks, threats, nuclear blackmail, terror, missile strikes. Let’s endure this winter because we know what we are fighting for.”
Relentless Russian missile and drone attacks since October have caused massive damage to the country’s energy infrastructure, regularly leaving major cities without water and heat.
Zelenskyy made his remarks in a video address to Ukrainians who celebrate Christmas in December. Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and mark the occasion in early January.
“Even in total darkness – we will find each other – to hug each other tightly,” he said. “And if there is no heat, we will give a big hug to warm each other.”
“We will smile and be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.”
The clip, which lasted just less than nine minutes, was filmed outside at night with just a few white lights and a Christmas tree in the background.
Zelenskyy noted Ukrainian troops were fighting battles in the eastern Donbas region while others were in exile both home and abroad, having fled the Russians.
“We have been resisting them for more than three hundred days and eight years,” he said, a reference to Russia’s 2014 occupation of Crimea. “And will we allow them to achieve what they want?”
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Maxi Jazz, of UK Dance Music Band Faithless, Dies at 65
Maxi Jazz, the lead singer of the British electronic band Faithless, has died at the age of 65, the group announced Saturday.
The musician and DJ, whose real name was Maxwell Fraser, passed away at his home in south London, according to the dance music act behind 1990s hits including Insomnia and God is a DJ.
No details were given for the cause of his death.
“We are heartbroken to say Maxi Jazz died peacefully in his sleep last night,” Faithless tweeted, paying tribute to one of its legendary 1995 founding members.
“He was a man who changed our lives in so many ways. He gave proper meaning and a message to our music,” they said. “He was a lovely human being with time for everyone and wisdom that was both profound and accessible.”
Faithless first emerged in the mid-1990s, earning widespread recognition and critical acclaim with their album Insomnia.
They were seen as pioneers of the emerging dance music genre at the time.
The group, whose other core members included Rollo and Sister Bliss, went on to release six more studio albums as well as several compilation albums during their decades-spanning collaboration.
The most recent release was 2020’s All Blessed.
Jazz, who also fronted a band of musicians named Maxi Jazz & The E-Type Boys, will be best remembered for Faithless’ earlier tracks, including the 2001 club classic We Come 1.
The band was also renowned for its live performances and headlined some of the biggest festivals in the world, including on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage in 2002.
Sister Bliss paid tribute to her bandmate by sharing a black and white photo of him on Twitter.
“Sending love to all of you who shared our musical journey,” she wrote in the post.
Jazz, who hailed from Brixton in south London, was a lifelong supporter of Premier League football team Crystal Palace and was made an associate director of the club in 2012.
Its official Twitter account described him as a “legendary musician” and said the team would walk out to a Faithless track on Monday, a public holiday known as Boxing Day in the U.K., in tribute.
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At Least 10 Killed, Dozens Hurt in Fuel Tanker Blast Near Johannesburg
Ten people died and around 40 others were injured when a fuel tanker exploded in Boksburg, a South African city east of Johannesburg, emergency services said Saturday.
The tanker, transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), was caught beneath a bridge close to a hospital and houses on Saturday morning.
“We received a call at 0750 telling us a gas tanker was stuck under a bridge. Firefighters were called to extinguish the flames. Unfortunately, the tanker exploded,” William Ntladi, spokesperson for the emergency services in the region, told AFP.
One of those injured was the driver, who was taken to a hospital, he added.
The injured were in serious condition, Ntladi said. Six firefighters also suffered minor injuries.
Videos on social media showed a huge fireball under the bridge, which the tanker appeared to have been too tall to fit under.
It was carrying 60,000 liters of LPG, which is used in cooking and gas stoves and had come from the southeast of the country.
Witness Jean Marie Booysen described a “huge jolt” shortly after 6:30 a.m. local time.
“Today is indeed a very sad day in our little suburb,” she said, standing near a forensics team combing the scene.
“I went upstairs to have my cup of tea and I saw immense flames. I thought a house was on fire,” she said.
She said she later learned young neighbors had died from “here across the road, 16, the girl, and 25, the boy, who came and did my lawn every weekend for me.”
Another witness named William, who did not give his surname, described a series of explosions and said people nearby had felt the blast.
“I think I was 50 meters away from the scene and when the third one exploded, I was about 400 meters away,” he said. “We did burn behind our backs.”
your ad hereUkrainian Ballerina Finds Temporary Home in US
Back when 2022 started, Kristina Kadashevych surely could not have envisioned ending the year in the city of Richmond, in the U.S. state of Virginia, performing as the sugarplum fairy (and two other roles) in Richmond Ballet’s annual holiday extravaganza, The Nutcracker.
But then, the Ukrainian ballerina never could have imagined the year would turn out the way it has.
Kadashevych arrived for our interview in a second-floor studio at the Richmond Ballet dressed in a leotard, leggings and soft, puffy booties to keep her feet toasty. She started off, apologizing in advance for her English. “My English is not perfect,” she said — but it was really good — and then she told her story.
Last February, on the day before she was supposed to fly to Paris to join the Kyiv City Ballet for a tour as a guest principal dancer, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Instead of boarding a plane for Paris, Kadashevych, her 2-year-old son and her parents had to flee their home in Kharkiv, in the eastern part of Ukraine; crowd onto a train; and evacuate to the presumed safer western reaches of the country.
“It was dangerous,” she said, “and we were scared.”
What did they take with them?
“Just kid stuff,” she said with a smile, “and kid. That’s all.”
More soberingly, she recalled how difficult it was to leave home, not knowing when they would be able to return.
“You don’t know where you’re going. You have nothing. It’s a strange feeling.”
‘You cannot plan anything’
They eventually took refuge at the home of another ballet dancer, and Kadashevych, 33, made the difficult decision to leave her family and go ahead and join the ballet company in Paris.
“I needed to work because I have no practice,” she said. “I was just sitting and losing my profession.”
Artistic director Stoner Winslett explained why Richmond Ballet dancers went to great lengths to keep dancing through the pandemic.
“Dancers are like Olympic athletes; if you lie around your apartment and don’t train, you lose your skill,” she said.
Kadashevych has been dancing since she was 9 and professionally for the past 15 years. She never considered another line of work, saying that dancing brought her interesting experiences, extensive travel and unmatched joy. “Ballet gives you everything.”
She left her family, thinking she would return soon. A month or two. It didn’t work out that way as the war raged on.
“Everything is so — how to explain — you cannot plan anything.”
Kadashevych and the Kyiv City Ballet went on a tour — France, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom and later the United States — and were warmly greeted everywhere they went.
“In Europe, our performances were like a charity to help Ukraine,” she said. “Often, a lot of refugees from Ukraine came to those performances, so we felt we were doing important things and helping our country the way we can.
“Here in the U.S., we also have found huge support all over. Here, I also feel that everybody cares about me a lot, and I appreciate that.”
In between the tours, she went home to Ukraine for a month over the summer to visit her son, Lev, who will turn 4 in March.
“It was a very happy time,” she said. “I remember the moment when I come. It was early morning, and my son was sleeping, and I just lay next to him and waited until he woke up, and he could not believe it. ‘Really, Mommy, really?!’ He was so happy.”
‘Unexpected and very interesting’
So, how did Richmond happen?
She shares a common acquaintance with Igor Antonov, another native Ukrainian who was a longtime dancer with the Richmond Ballet and now is an artistic associate with the company and director of Richmond Ballet II. He texted Kadashevych and asked if she’d like to join the Richmond Ballet on a temporary basis. Her answer: Yes.
“It was unexpected and very interesting for me,” said Kadashevych, who came to Richmond while the rest of the Kyiv company returned to Europe.
Kadashevych is temporarily replacing a Richmond Ballet dancer on maternity leave. Winslett said “bringing a ballerina here who is unable to currently dance in her home country would be another way that our organization could further” the ballet’s mission “to awaken, uplift and unite human spirits through the power of dance.”
Kadashevych will remain with the company through February and also will perform in Firebird with Serenade, Feb. 17-19.
For The Nutcracker, Kadashevych danced the roles of the Sugarplum Fairy, the Snow Queen and Mrs. Silberhaus, though not all in the same performances. Kadashevych said she has danced in several versions of Nutcracker, but never one quite like Richmond’s — “It’s absolutely different, so it’s a new Nutcracker for me,” she said — and never three roles in one production.
“For me, it’s unusual … but it’s interesting to try everything because all roles are interesting and beautiful, and I really want to dance them all,” she said. “It’s a challenge, but it’s a good challenge.”
And as for being in Richmond, she said, “I love it. I really love it. The city and the company, as well, because they have really nice dancers, as professionals and as humans. So, I enjoy being here.”
The future? She does not know. She hopes to return to Ukraine soon, perhaps after Christmas, for a short visit. Beyond that, she’s not certain of much of anything, including if the situation will be better at home sooner rather than later.
“We all hope that it will,” she said, “but I’m not sure.”
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Pope on Christmas Eve: Remember the War Weary, Poor
Pope Francis on Saturday led the world’s Catholics into Christmas, saying in an apparent reference to the war in Ukraine and other conflicts that the level of greed and hunger for power was such that some wanted to “consume even their neighbors.”
Francis, celebrating the 10th Christmas of his pontificate, presided at a solemn Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. It was the first with a capacity crowd of about 7,000 following several years of restricted attendance because of COVID.
About 4,000 more people participated outside in St. Peter’s Square on a relatively warm night.
As has been the case for the past several months, a knee ailment prevented Francis from standing for long periods, delegating a cardinal to be the main celebrant at the altar of the largest church in Christendom.
Sitting to the side of the altar for most of the Mass, he wove his homily around the theme of greed and consumption on various levels, asking people to look beyond the consumerism that has “packaged” the feast, rediscover its meaning, and remember those suffering from war and poverty.
“Men and women in our world, in their hunger for wealth and power, consume even their neighbors, their brothers and sisters,” he said. “How many wars have we seen! And in how many places, even today, are human dignity and freedom treated with contempt!”
Since Russia invaded it neighbor in February, Francis has spoken out against the war at nearly every public event, at least twice a week, denouncing what he has called atrocities and unprovoked aggression.
He did not specifically mention Ukraine on Saturday night.
“As always, the principal victims of this human greed are the weak and the vulnerable,” he said, denouncing “a world ravenous for money, power and pleasure.”
“I think above all of the children devoured by war, poverty and injustice,” he said, also mentioning “unborn, poor and forgotten children.”
Drawing a parallel between the infant Jesus born in a manger and the poverty of today, the pope said: “In the manger of rejection and discomfort, God makes himself present. He comes there because there we see the problem of our humanity: the indifference produced by the greedy rush to possess and consume.”
Earlier this month, the pope urged people to spend less on Christmas celebrations and gifts and send the difference to Ukrainians to help them get through the winter.
The pope marked his 86th birthday last week and, apart from the knee ailment, appears to be in overall good health.
On Sunday, he is to deliver his twice-year “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to tens of thousands of people in the square below.
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Arctic Blast Sweeps US, Causes Bomb Cyclone
An arctic blast has brought extreme cold, heavy snow and intense wind across much of the U.S. — just in time for the holidays.
The weather system, dubbed a “bomb cyclone,” is disrupting travel and causing hazardous winter conditions. Where is this winter weather coming from, and what’s in store for the coming days?
What’s happening?
A front of cold air is moving down from the Arctic, sending temperatures plunging.
Much of the U.S. will see below-average temperatures, said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
Temperatures may drop by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) in just a few hours, the National Weather Service predicts.
Wind chill temperatures could drop to dangerous lows far below zero — enough to cause frostbite within minutes. In parts of the Plains, the wind chill could dip as low as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 57 Celsius).
Those in the Plains, the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes were cautioned to expect blizzard conditions as heavy winds whip up the snow, according to the National Weather Service.
Who will be affected?
Pretty much everyone east of the Rockies — around two-thirds of the country — will see extreme weather, said Ryan Maue, a private meteorologist in the Atlanta area.
Though much of the West Coast will be shielded from the cold, the Arctic front is expected to pass east and south all the way through Florida.
Heavy snowfall and intense winds could be bad news for air travel, Oravec said.
And for those planning to hit the road for the holidays, “you’re going to have pretty serious whiteout conditions,” Maue cautioned.
How long will it last?
This weather system is expected to bring some major “weather whiplash,” said Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research.
The cold isn’t going to stick around for long. After the dramatic plunge that will keep temperatures low for about a week, “everything will snap back to normal,” Cohen said.
Shortly after Christmas, temperatures are expected to start to warm up again, moving from west to east. They are likely to remain near normal through the end of the year in most of the U.S.
Why is this happening?
It all started farther north, as frigid air collected over the snow-covered ground in the Arctic, Maue said.
Then the jet stream — wobbling air currents in the middle and upper parts of the atmosphere — began pushing this cold pool down into the U.S.
As this arctic air is pushed into the warmer, moister air ahead of it, the system can quickly develop into serious weather — including what’s known as a “bomb cyclone,” a fast-developing storm in which atmospheric pressure falls very quickly over 24 hours.
These severe weather events usually form over bodies of water, which have lots of warmth and moisture to feed the storm, Maue said. But with the huge amount of cold air coming through, we could see a rare bomb cyclone forming over land.
Is this normal?
The storm is a strong one, but “not unheard of for the winter seasons,” Oravec said.
It’s pretty normal to have cold air build up in the winter. This week, though, shifts in the jet stream have pushed the air more to the southeast than usual, Oravec said — sweeping the freeze across the country and making storm conditions more intense.
The U.S. probably won’t reach record-breaking lows, like those seen in the cold snap of 1983 or the polar vortex of 2014, Maue said.
Still, “for most people alive, this will be a memorable, top-10 extreme cold event,” Maue said.
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A Magical American Christmas Town: Alexandria, Virginia
The city of Alexandria, Virginia, outside Washington, has been called one of the most magical Christmas towns in the United States.
Thousands of people come to enjoy the ambiance of the historic Old Town section or to visit the nearby Mount Vernon Estate and its mansion, the former home of George Washington, who served as the first U.S. president from 1789–1797.
There also are more modern homes in the city with bright outdoor Christmas displays. One of the most spectacular is the over-the-top display at the Farmer family house.
Old Town Alexandria was founded in 1749. Located on the Potomac River, it was a thriving seaport during the colonial era.
Visitor Keira DeMarco from Bethesda, Maryland, strolled down the 18th-century streets, admiring the centuries-old row houses.
“It’s really pretty here during Christmas,” she said. “I like the way people decorate their homes with garlands and put wreaths on their doors.”
Near the waterfront, Old Town sparkles in white.
A large Christmas tree blanketed in white bulbs takes center stage.
A canopy of twinkling white lights brightens the historical buildings on King Street, which features unusual restaurants and shops.
Adding to the ambiance is Gadsby’s Tavern Restaurant with its colonial-clad servers. Opened as a tavern in 1792, Washington was a frequent guest.
Eric Marcinski from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, dined at the restaurant with some friends. “It’s very festive in Old Town and having dinner at a place Washington went to makes it even better.”
Christmas, in Washington’s time
A short ride south by car — and a lot longer by horseback as Washington would have done — is the former president’s home of Mount Vernon along the Potomac River.
The estate lights up for two days of Christmas illuminations and provides candlelight tours that talk about the holiday traditions of the 18th century.
When visitor Rob Maynard from New York saw Christmas trees in the visitors center, he was surprised to learn Mount Vernon wasn’t decorated at Christmas. That’s because during colonial times the holiday was low key and there also weren’t any presents.
“It sure isn’t like that today,” he said. “I wish Christmas was less commercialized and more about spending time with friends and family.”
Christmas at Mount Vernon also features a camel named Aladdin who usually lives on a farm in Virginia but has been a fixture at the estate during the holiday season for the past 15 years.
The reason goes back to George Washington.
In 1789, Washington met a man with a camel who was traveling through the area during Christmastime. Washington paid him to bring the animal to Mount Vernon for a few days for the enjoyment of his guests.
Subtle to fantastic
Today, for the enjoyment of his visitors, Kurt Farmer is providing an entirely different experience with his never-too-many decorations display for about a week at Christmastime.
On a quiet street in Alexandria, his yard and house — even the roof — are covered with thousands of lights and with hundreds of plastic and inflatable carolers, snowmen, toy soldiers and more.
Some are newer, while others are vintage.
There’s a large collection of Santa Claus characters, including the jolly old man with his reindeer, which was hung from a tree.
“The flying Santa takes me back to my childhood,” said Farmer, who grew up in the house. “It’s in the same place I remember for the past 40 years.”
His father started the Christmas tradition, and Farmer continued it after he and his family moved into his boyhood home. It takes him 400 hours to set up the display.
While most visitors are local, others come from farther away.
“The Washington airport is not far from my house, and one night a pilot pointed out my Christmas display to the passengers on board,” he said. “A week later some of the flight attendants on that flight came to my house after finding it on social media.”
Some people come in their pajamas, even groups of adults, Farmer said.
“Maybe it gives them a feeling of home, so they come in something that feels cozy to them,” he said.
Farmer enjoys the “wow” reaction he gets from adults and kids as they look around.
“I’m glad I can provide a bit of happiness for people for a short time,” he said.
For Enrique Alvarez and his daughter Elena, it’s a tradition they look forward to every year.
“It makes us so happy,” he said and smiled. “No matter what my day was like, when I come here, I feel good.”
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Russian Shelling in Kherson Kills at Least 10, Injures Dozens
At least 10 people were killed and 55 were injured by Russian shelling in the southern city of Kherson on Saturday.
One of the rockets landed next to a supermarket in downtown Kherson, Yuriy Sobolevskyi, first deputy head of Kherson Oblast Council, said in a Telegram post. According to Ukraine’s Interior ministry, 66 cars were on fire after the shelling.
Russia is “killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram Saturday.
Photos of the strike — burning cars and what appeared to be corpses — were on the president’s Telegram account.
“Social networks will most likely mark these photos as ‘sensitive content,'” Zelenskyy wrote. “But this is not sensitive content — it is the real life of Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
A pro-Moscow official responded by accusing Ukraine of launching the attack in order to blame Russia.
In a tweet, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said the shelling of downtown Kherson “is not only another war crime, but also revenge on its residents who resisted the occupation and proved to the whole world that Kherson is Ukraine.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged families in Europe, North America, and beyond to “spare a thought for Ukraine … which is fighting evil right now.”
In a video address Saturday evening, Zelenskyy said this Christmas there are no festivities in Ukraine.
“Dinner at the family table cannot be so tasty and warm. There may be empty chairs around it. And our houses and streets can’t be so bright,” he said.
But he added the path of the Ukrainian people is illuminated by faith and patience.
“We endured attacks, threats, nuclear blackmail, terror, missile strikes. Let’s endure this winter because we know what we are fighting for,” he said.
Also Saturday, two people were killed and five people were wounded in the Donetsk region, according to the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Munitions shortage
Earlier Saturday, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia is facing a munitions shortage in its invasion of Ukraine.
The ministry said in an intelligence update Saturday that, “Despite the easing of its immediate personnel shortages, a shortage of munitions highly likely remains the key limiting factor on Russian offensive operations.”
“Russia has likely limited its long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure to around once a week due to the limited availability of cruise missiles,” the ministry said. “Similarly, Russia is unlikely to have increased its stockpile of artillery munitions enough to enable large-scale offensive operations.”
The British Defense Ministry said the munitions shortage made Russia vulnerable.
“A vulnerability of Russia’s current operational design is that even just sustaining defensive operations along its lengthy front line requires a significant daily expenditure of shells and rockets,” it said.
U.S. aid package
The U.S. House of Representatives Friday approved a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine. The measure, part of a $1.66 trillion government funding bill that passed the Senate a day earlier, will now go to U.S. President Joe Biden for signing into law. This package follows U.S. aid worth about $50 billion sent to Ukraine previously this year.
The move comes after Zelenskyy’s wartime visit to Washington this week.
Upon his return to Kyiv, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces “are working toward victory” despite Russia’s relentless artillery, rocket and mortar fire and airstrikes on Ukraine.
“We will overcome everything,” Zelenskyy pledged on Telegram. “We are coming back from Washington with … something that will really help.”
The U.S. promised Patriot missiles, something Zelenskyy has long sought to help counter Russian airstrikes, which have destroyed cities, towns and villages and knocked out power and water supplies across the country over the past three months.
Saturday marked 10 months since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Zelenskyy thanked Biden and the U.S. Congress for supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
U.S. officials say, however, that the single Patriot battery that Biden promised to supply to Ukraine will not change the course of the war.
Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report. Some material for this article came from The Associated Press, Reuters and the Agence France-Presse.
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22 Killed in Russian Nursing Home Fire, Electrical Problems Suspected
A fire ripped through an old people’s home in Russia’s Siberia region, killing 22 people and investigators are eyeing whether improper use of electrical equipment was to blame, news agencies said Saturday.
The blaze in the city of Kemerovo broke out Friday night and gutted the second floor of the building, which was not officially registered as a home for the elderly. It was out by the early hours when rescuers finished combing the rubble, state media and emergency services said.
Russia’s ministry for emergency situations said a group of senior officials had flown to Kemerovo, 3,600 km east of Moscow, and noted there were several possible causes for the blaze.
“One of them is a violation of the rules for the operation of electrical equipment,” the RIA news agency cited a ministry statement as saying.
RIA, citing city authorities, had earlier said breaches of fire safety regulations could have been to blame.
Many homes for the elderly operate without authorization in Russia, officials said, meaning they were considered private property and not subject to inspections.
Kemerovo saw one of the deadliest fires in Russia in recent times when a blaze swept through the upper floors of the “Winter Cherry” shopping center in 2018, killing 64 people.
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US Deep Freeze Forecast to Break Christmas Eve Records
An arctic blast gripped much of the United States Saturday driving power outages, flight cancellations and car wrecks, as plummeting temperatures were predicted to bring the coldest Christmas Eve on record to several cities from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
Temperatures are forecast to top out Saturday at minus 13 Celsius in the city of Pittsburgh, surpassing its previous all-time coldest Christmas Eve high, set in 1983, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Cities in Georgia and South Carolina – Athens and Charleston – were likewise expected to record their coldest daytime Christmas Eve high temperatures, while Washington was forecast to experience its chilliest Dec. 24 since 1989.
The flurry of yuletide temperature records was predicted as a U.S. deep freeze sharpened by perilous wind chills continued to envelop much of the eastern two-thirds of the nation into the holiday weekend.
The freeze already produced fatal car collisions around the country with CNN reporting at least 14 dead from weather-related accidents.
The arctic cold combined with a “cyclone bomb” of heavy snow and howling winds roaring out of the Great Lakes region Friday and into the Upper Mississippi and Ohio valleys wreaked havoc on power systems, roadways and commercial air traffic.
Border to border
From the Canadian to the Mexican border and coast to coast, some 240 million people in all were under winter weather warnings and advisories of some sort Friday, according to the weather service.
The NWS said its map of existing or impending meteorological hazards “depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever.”
With energy systems across the country strained by rising demand for heat and storm-related damage to transmission lines, as many as 1.8 million U.S. homes and businesses were left without power as of early Saturday morning, according to tracking site Poweroutage.us.
The disruptions upended daily routines and holiday plans for millions of Americans during one of the busiest travel periods of the year.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) had estimated that 112.7 million people planned to venture 80 km or more from home between Friday and Jan. 2. But stormy weather heading into the weekend likely ended up keeping many of them at home.
Nearly 2,000 U.S. flights were canceled Saturday, with total delays of more than 4,000, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. More than 5,000 flights were canceled Friday, the flight tracking service said.
The city of Buffalo and its surrounding county on the edge of Lake Erie in western New York imposed a driving ban and all three Buffalo-area border crossing bridges were closed to inbound traffic from Canada due to the weather.
The severe weather prompted authorities across the country to open warming centers in libraries and police stations while scrambling to expand temporary shelter for the homeless. The challenge was compounded by the influx of migrants crossing the U.S. southern border by the thousands in recent weeks.
Bitter cold intensified by high winds extended through the deep South to the U.S.-Mexico border, plunging windchill factors from minus 18 to minus 13 Celsius in El Paso, Texas. Exposure to such conditions can cause frostbite within minutes.
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US City Struggles Amid Surge of Migrant Arrivals
Like many U.S. cities, Denver, Colorado, is struggling to accommodate a sudden influx of migrants – more than 1,500 arriving by bus since December 9, according to Denver’s mayor. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti reports the newcomers are straining city social services already stretched thin during the holiday season. Camera: Scott Stearns, Video editor: Scott Stearns, Luis Da Costa
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France’s Kurds Protest after Paris Killings
Representatives of France’s Kurdish community gathered in central Paris Saturday for a demonstration to demand answers in the killing of three Kurds in the French capital they say has exposed the community’s vulnerability.
A gunman carried out the killings at a Kurdish cultural center and nearby cafe Friday in a busy part of Paris’ 10th district.
Police arrested a 69-year-old man, who authorities said had recently been freed from detention while awaiting trial for a sabre attack on a migrant camp in Paris a year ago.
After an angry crowd clashed with police Friday afternoon, the Kurdish democratic council in France (CDK-F) called on its website and social media channels for a gathering at midday (1100 GMT) Saturday at Republic Square, a traditional venue for demonstrations in the city.
Several hundred people gathered in the square, with many holding flags.
Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said Friday that possible racist motives would be part of the investigation, but Kurdish representatives said it should be considered a terror attack.
“We know that we are under threat, Kurds in general, Kurdish activists and militants. France owes us protection,” Berivan Firat, a spokesperson for the CDK-F told BFM TV.
Friday’s murders caused particular dismay in the Kurdish community as it prepared to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the killings of three Kurdish women in Paris.
“The Kurdish community is afraid. It was already traumatized by the triple murder (in 2013). It needs answers, support and consideration,” David Andic, a lawyer representing the CDK-F told reporters Friday.
Paris’ police chief was due to meet members of the Kurdish community Saturday morning ahead of the afternoon protest.
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Zelenskyy: Russia ‘Is Killing for the Sake of Intimidation and Pleasure’
Russia is “killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure,” Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted on Telegram Saturday after a Russian strike killed at least five people and wounded twenty in the recently liberated city of Kherson.
Photos of the strike – burning cars and what appeared to be corpses – were on the president’s Telegram account.
“Social networks will most likely mark these photos as ‘sensitive content’,” Zelensky wrote. “But this is not sensitive content – it is the real life of Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
Earlier Saturday, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia is facing a munitions shortage in its invasion of Ukraine.
The ministry said in an intelligence update Saturday that, “Despite the easing of its immediate personnel shortages, a shortage of munitions highly likely remains the key limiting factor on Russian offensive operations.”
“Russia has likely limited its long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure to around once a week due to the limited availability of cruise missiles,” the ministry said. “Similarly, Russia is unlikely to have increased its stockpile of artillery munitions enough to enable large-scale offensive operations.”
The British defense ministry said the munitions shortage made Russia vulnerable. “A vulnerability of Russia’s current operational design is that even just sustaining defensive operations along its lengthy front line requires a significant daily expenditure of shells and rockets.”
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine. The measure, part of a $1.66 trillion government funding bill that passed the Senate a day earlier, will now go to U.S. President Joe Biden for signing into law. This package follows U.S. aid worth about $50 billion sent to Ukraine previously this year.
The move comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wartime visit to Washington this week.
Upon his return to Kyiv, Zelenskyy defiantly said that Ukrainian forces “are working toward victory” despite Russia’s relentless artillery, rocket and mortar fire and airstrikes on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy pledged on Telegram, “We will overcome everything.” He also said, “We are coming back from Washington with … something that will really help.”
The U.S. promised Patriot missiles to help Ukraine fight against the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy has long asked for Patriot missiles to help counter Russian airstrikes, which have destroyed cities, towns and villages during 10 months of conflict and knocked out power and water supplies across the country over the past three months.
Zelenskyy thanked Biden and the U.S. Congress for supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
U.S. officials say, however, that the single Patriot battery that Biden promised to supply to Ukraine will not change the course of the war.
Washington and its allies have been unwilling to supply Kyiv with modern battle tanks and long-range missiles called ATACMS, which can reach far behind front lines and into Russia itself.
Both Kyiv and the Biden administration are wary that retaining U.S. congressional support for aid could become more complicated once Republicans take a slim majority in the House in the new year: A few right-wing Republicans oppose aid, and other lawmakers have called for tighter budget oversight.
During a Friday visit to Tula, Russia, a center for arms manufacturing, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the country’s defense industry chiefs to do more to ensure that the Russian army quickly receive all the weapons, equipment and military hardware it needs to fight in Ukraine.
“The most important key task of our military-industrial complex is to provide our units and front-line forces with everything they need: weapons, equipment, ammunition and gear in the necessary quantities and of the right quality in the shortest possible time frames,” he said.
Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report. Some material for this article came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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US Weather Service Issues Dire Winter Warning
The U.S. National Weather Service said Saturday the life-threatening cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills that a good portion of the country is currently experiencing could create “a potentially life-threatening hazard for travelers that become stranded, individuals that work outside, livestock and domestic pets.”
The weather service said, “If you must travel or be out in the elements, prepare for extreme cold by dressing in layers, covering as much exposed areas of skin as possible and pack winter safety kits in your vehicles. In some areas, being outdoors could lead to frostbite in minutes.”
“Blizzard Warnings, Winter Storm Warnings, Winter Weather Advisories and High Winds Warnings blanket much of the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes region, Ohio Valley and parts of the Northeast,” according to the NWS.
The service said there will also be “extremely dangerous travel with whiteout conditions where blizzard conditions occur, expect periodic whiteouts with near-zero visibility and considerable blowing and drifting of snow. Traveling in these conditions will be extremely dangerous, to at times impossible.”
The NWS said the Arctic blast that a large part of the country has experienced is spreading to the Eastern states Saturday.
Temperatures will be well below average from east of the Rockies to the Appalachians, the weather service warned.
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Santa Claus Undaunted by Arctic Blast, US Military Says
U.S. military officials have assured anxious children the arctic blast and snowstorm that wreaked havoc on U.S. airline traffic this week will not prevent Santa Claus from making his annual Christmas Eve flight.
“We have to deal with a polar vortex once in a while, but Santa lives year-round in one at the North Pole, so he’s used to this weather,” said U.S. Air Force Master Sergeant Ben Wiseman, a spokesperson for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, which tracks the yuletide flight.
For 67 years, NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian military command based at Peterson Air Force base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has provided images and updates on the legendary figure’s worldwide journey along with its main task of monitoring air defenses and issuing aerospace and maritime warnings.
The Santa tracker tradition originated from a 1955 misprint in a Colorado Springs newspaper of the telephone number of a department store for children to call and speak with Santa. The listed number went to what was then known as the Continental Air Defense Command.
An understanding officer took the youngsters’ calls and assured them that Santa, also known as Father Christmas or Saint Nick, was airborne and on schedule to deliver presents to good girls and boys, flying aboard his reindeer-powered sleigh.
Santa does not file a formal flight plan, so the military is never quite sure exactly when he will take off, nor his exact route, NORAD’s Wiseman said, although the Santa tracker goes live at 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT) on Friday on the NORAD website.
Once the jolly old elf’s lead reindeer, Rudolph, switches on his shiny red nose, military personnel can zero in on his location using infrared sensors, Wiseman said.
U.S. and Canadian fighter jet pilots provide a courtesy escort for him over North America, and Santa slows down to wave to them, he added.
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20 Die in Russian Nursing Home Fire
Russian officials say at least 20 people have died in a fire in a nursing home in the Siberian city of Kemerovo.
State media said the building was not officially registered as a nursing home.
The cause of the fire and how many people lived at the facility were not immediately clear.
Kemerovo is 3,600 kilometers east of Moscow.
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UK: ‘Russia’s Munitions Shortage Makes It Vulnerable’
Russia is facing a munitions shortage in its invasion of Ukraine, according to the British defense ministry.
The ministry said in an intelligence update Saturday that, “Despite the easing of its immediate personnel shortages, a shortage of munitions highly likely remains the key limiting factor on Russian offensive operations.”
“Russia has likely limited its long-range missile strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure to around once a week due to the limited availability of cruise missiles,” the ministry said. “Similarly, Russia is unlikely to have increased its stockpile of artillery munitions enough to enable large-scale offensive operations.”
The British defense ministry said the munitions shortage made Russia vulnerable. “A vulnerability of Russia’s current operational design is that even just sustaining defensive operations along its lengthy front line requires a significant daily expenditure of shells and rockets.”
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a $45 billion aid package for Ukraine. The measure, part of a $1.66 trillion government funding bill that passed the Senate a day earlier, will now go to U.S. President Joe Biden for signing into law. This package follows U.S. aid worth about $50 billion sent to Ukraine previously this year.
The move comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wartime visit to Washington this week.
Upon his return to Kyiv, Zelenskyy defiantly said that Ukrainian forces “are working toward victory” despite Russia’s relentless artillery, rocket and mortar fire and airstrikes on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy pledged on Telegram, “We will overcome everything.” He also said, “We are coming back from Washington with … something that will really help.”
The U.S. promised Patriot missiles to help Ukraine fight against the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy has long asked for Patriot missiles to help counter Russian airstrikes, which have destroyed cities, towns and villages during 10 months of conflict and knocked out power and water supplies across the country over the past three months.
Zelenskyy thanked Biden and the U.S. Congress for supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
U.S. officials say, however, that the single Patriot battery that Biden promised to supply to Ukraine will not change the course of the war.
Washington and its allies have been unwilling to supply Kyiv with modern battle tanks and long-range missiles called ATACMS, which can reach far behind front lines and into Russia itself.
Both Kyiv and the Biden administration are wary that retaining U.S. congressional support for aid could become more complicated once Republicans take a slim majority in the House in the new year: A few right-wing Republicans oppose aid, and other lawmakers have called for tighter budget oversight.
During a Friday visit to Tula, Russia, a center for arms manufacturing, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the country’s defense industry chiefs to do more to ensure that the Russian army quickly receive all the weapons, equipment and military hardware it needs to fight in Ukraine.
“The most important key task of our military-industrial complex is to provide our units and front-line forces with everything they need: weapons, equipment, ammunition and gear in the necessary quantities and of the right quality in the shortest possible time frames,” he said.
Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze contributed to this report. Some material for this article came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Biden Hails Outcome of Midterm Elections as Victory for Democracy
When President Joe Biden took office in early 2021, he was hoping to restore confidence in American democracy following the false allegations of a “stolen” 2020 presidential vote and then the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Nearly two years later, VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine takes a look at the administration’s record on strengthening democracy at home and abroad.
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US Saw Increase in Domestic Terror Threats in 2022
Early on a December morning, thousands of German police officers launched a series of raids across the country, arresting 25 people linked to a plot by a far-right group to overthrow Germany’s government.
Additional arrests were made in Austria and Italy — all of them connected to the Reichsbuerger movement (Citizens of the Reich), described by German authorities as a conspiracy-driven group inspired in part by the QAnon movement in the United States.
The arrests, which included a descendant of German royalty, a former lawmaker and a German special forces soldier, sparked calls for the German government to review security measures and investigate the possible infiltration of Germany’s military by extremist elements.
They also highlighted the shifting and increasingly complex landscape facing Western countries in 2022 and, counterterrorism officials say, for years to come.
“There’s a really hard persistent problem,” U.S. Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Joshua Geltzer told the Center for a New America Security, following the raids in Germany.
“There is a transnational dimension to especially the racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist category,” Geltzer added, noting U.S. officials are seeing members of far-right extremist groups travel for training and as well as some money flowing back and forth among different groups.
But most of the activity, according to Geltzer and other officials, involves the sharing of propaganda aimed at recruiting new adherents to the cause.
Those followers include people like American Peyton Gendron, the white 19-year-old gunman who recently pleaded guilty to murder, hate crime and terrorism charges for a May 14, 2022, shooting spree in which he targeted and killed 10 Black shoppers at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
In the United States, the growth of such extremist thinking and the threat of individuals taking action “has increased dramatically,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told a conference outside of Washington this past October, further warning of an “increasing level of anti-government sentiment.”
A month later, Mayorkas’ Department of Homeland Security reissued a National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin warning the U.S. is mired in “a heightened threat environment.”
“Lone offenders and small groups motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances continue to pose a persistent and lethal threat to the homeland,” the department warned in the bulletin.
U.S. officials and experts say making the threat more difficult to contain is that while there is a growing strain of anti-government and anti-authority thinking, the driving force is an ideological fluidity that shows few signs of dissipating.
“I think we are likely to see a continued diversification of the threat,” Colin Clarke, director of research at the global intelligence firm The Soufan Group, told VOA.
“Homegrown violent extremism, jihadist-inspired attacks, and the persistence of the far-right are all likely to remain threats in 2023,” he told VOA via email. “But these could be joined by an upsurge in attacks by other ‘types’ of terrorism, including neo-Luddite/technophobes (attacking infrastructure and 5G networks), so-called ‘Incels,’ a subset of violent misogynists, and conspiracy-driven terrorism, with overlaps to QAnon and other factions heavily influenced by disinformation.”
To cope with the rise in domestic extremism, this past year the U.S. Justice Department set up a new division to deal exclusively with the growing caseload.
Just a month after the Justice Department announcement, a key DHS official warned the threat environment had become more acute.
“We are seeing … increased specificity as it relates to calls for violence,” said John Cohen, the senior official performing the duties of the DHS undersecretary of intelligence and analysis.
Cohen further warned that the domestic rhetoric also had a foreign connection.
Foreign intelligence services and foreign terrorist organizations were also “promoting socio-political content … for the purposes of sowing discord,” he said, noting, “These narratives have, in fact, led to attacks in this country.”
your ad hereBurkina Faso Expels Top UN Official for ‘Discrediting Country’
Burkina Faso’s military government on Friday expelled the country’s top U.N. official without providing any specific explanation, but a senior Burkinabe diplomat says it was because she sought to “discredit the country” by preparing the evacuation of U.N. families over concerns about deteriorating security.
In a statement issued Friday, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Affairs ministry declared Barbara Manzi, the United Nations’ resident and humanitarian coordinator, “persona non grata,” ordering her to leave the country immediately.
Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been wracked by violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million people — creating a growing humanitarian crisis. Lack of faith in the government’s ability to stem the violence has led to two military coups this year.
According to a senior Burkinabe diplomat contacted by VOA’s Bambara Service, government leaders believe Manzi moved to begin withdrawing family members of U.N. workers in order to make the military government look bad.
The senior diplomat confirmed that top Burkinabe officials agree with comments broadcast Friday by Foreign Minister Olivia Rouamba, who said Manzi’s “unilateral” decision to begin evacuating families of U.N. workers is “discrediting the country and discouraging potential investors and even tarnishing the image of the country.”
In Friday’s broadcast, Rouamba says she has “a note from [Manzi] which makes the case of the evacuation of the families of the diplomats of the United Nations system from Ouagadougou for security reasons.
“The decision was taken unilaterally,” said Rouamba. “Besides these facts, [Manzi] predicted the chaos in Burkina in the coming months. We don’t know on what basis she can do that. She openly told us that she is in contact with terrorist leaders in Burkina, and the evidence is overwhelming because she goes to [the North] and she comes back as she wants while even our defense and security forces cannot make this kind of trip.
“In addition to that, she prohibited representatives of the 33 agencies [of the United Nations] from working with us.”
The United Nations did not immediately comment on the decision.
Manzi, who was appointed U.N. Resident Coordinator in August last year, often traveled to hard hit parts of the country to try to raise awareness about the deteriorating humanitarian crisis, according to Sam Mednick of The Associated Press. The Italy native has extensive experience with the U.N., working as the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ukraine, Iraq, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Before Burkina Faso, she was the resident coordinator in Djibouti.
Manzi’s expulsion comes amid a government crackdown on the international community. Last week, two French citizens were expelled from the country over accusations of espionage, and earlier this month, the government suspended French broadcaster Radio France Internationale for having relayed an “intimidation message” attributed to a “terrorist,” according to a statement from the junta.
Violence in the West African nation, which has rumbled on for about seven years, has been focused in the north and east, crippling local economies, causing mass hunger, and restricting access for aid organizations.
The U.N. provides some essential services, including supplying food for thousands of malnourished children. Some aid organizations say the decision to expel Manzi is a worrying sign and will make it harder for humanitarian groups to operate.
This is story originated in VOA’s Bambara Service. Some information is from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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China Sanctions 2 US Citizens Over Action on Tibet
China has sanctioned two U.S. citizens in retaliation for action taken by Washington over human rights abuses in Tibet, the government said Friday, amid an ongoing standoff between the sides over Beijing’s treatment of religious and ethnic minorities.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Todd Stein and Miles Yu Maochun, along with their close family members, would be banned from entering China. Any assets they had in China would be frozen and they would be barred from contact with people or organizations within China.
The notice said the measures were in response to the U.S. sanctioning two Chinese citizens “under the excuse of the ‘Tibet human rights’ issue.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China was responding to what it considered a violation of the “basic norms of international relations” and that Stein and Yu “behaved egregiously on Tibet and other China-related issues.”
“We would like to stress once again that Tibetan affairs are purely an internal affair of China, and the U.S. has no right to interfere in it, and that gross interference in China’s internal affairs will be met with strong countermeasures from China,” Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.
“We urge the U.S. to withdraw the so-called sanctions and stop interfering in Tibetan affairs and China’s internal affairs,” the spokesperson said.
In an emailed comment to The Associated Press, Stein said the sanction order against him “doesn’t matter” in the larger context.
“What matters is the thousands of prisoners of conscience jailed by Chinese authorities. Let’s not divert attention from their human rights abuses,” Stein said.
Yu could not immediately be reached for comment.
U.S. sanctions
On December 9, the U.S. imposed sanctions on Wu Yingjie, the top official in Tibet from 2016 to 2021, and Zhang Hongbo, the region’s police chief since 2018.
“Our actions further aim to disrupt and deter the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) arbitrary detention and physical abuse of members of religious minority groups in the Tibetan Autonomous Region,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in announcing the sanctions.
An accompanying Treasury Department notice said Wu had been responsible for “stability policies” in Tibet whose implementation involved “serious human rights abuse, including extrajudicial killings, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests, and mass detentions.”
It said that during Zhang’s tenure, police have been engaged in serious human rights abuses, including “torture, physical abuse, and killings of prisoners, which included those arrested on religious and political grounds.”
No specific accusations
The Chinese announcement gave no specific accusations against Stein and Yu.
Stein has been deputy staff director at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China since 2021 and previously served as senior adviser to Sarah Sewall, the undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, including serving as her lead staffer on Tibetan issues. Previously, he was director of government relations at the monitoring group International Campaign for Tibet.
The Chinese-born Yu is a senior academic who taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and is a noted critic of the regime of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. He served as key China adviser under former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
China in recent years has passed legislation mandating tit-for-tat sanctions against foreign individuals from the U.S., the EU and other countries over perceived slights against its national interests. Washington and others have compiled a long list of Chinese officials barred from visiting or engaging in transactions with their financial institutions ranging from the leader of the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong to local officials accused of human rights abuses.
Communist forces invaded Tibet in 1950, and China has ruled the Himalayan region with an iron fist ever since, imposing ever stricter surveillance and travel restrictions since the last uprising against Beijing’s rule in 2008.
China has also been accused of detaining hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in re-education camps as part of a campaign to wipe out their native language and culture, including through forced adoptions and sterilizations. China denies such charges, saying it has only been fighting terrorism, separatism and religious extremism.
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‘Armed with English’: Ukraine Soldiers Take Language Lessons
When Olena Chekryzhova followed in her grandmother’s footsteps and began teaching English, she never dreamed the job would lead to a monthslong stay at a front-line military base.
But that has become her new reality as Ukrainian soldiers scramble to learn English – military terms especially – so they can make the most of combat aid from Washington and elsewhere against Russian forces.
Donated supplies like HIMARS rocket systems have been a battlefront game-changer, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s lightning visit to Washington this week yielded further pledges, including, for the first time, the Patriot missile defense system.
Soldiers have found, however, that training materials for this equipment are available mainly in English, which is often also necessary to communicate with foreign volunteer fighters they encounter in the field.
To help topple the language barrier, Chekryzhova, 35, has traded in her quiet life of classroom conjugation to give crash courses to the armed forces.
‘Small contribution’ for her nation
The work included a five-month stint at a base in the eastern industrial Donetsk region, where she lived alongside soldiers and took part in training sessions.
“Some people think I’m crazy,” she told AFP at the facility in Kyiv where she is stationed.
But she added, “I think that teaching English in this case is the small contribution that I can do for my country, for the people of my country and for the military, who are protecting us from this terrorist attack.”
Nearly all Ukrainian soldiers had at least some English instruction in school, but it was not always useful, especially for the older ones.
“It was back in Soviet times, and this English I learned at school is like nothing, basically,” said Igor Soldatenko, 50, one of Chekryzhova’s students in Kyiv.
“The whole system was inadequate, as I see now. We were just learning texts without understanding them. … Nobody could use it in real life.”
The recent lessons, by contrast, have been more practical, giving him words like “wounded,” “semiautomatic” and “cache” as well as phrases such as “killed in action.”
The learning goes both ways, with Chekryzhova gleaning a new understanding of tactics and strategy — and an appreciation of the trials of military life.
‘Double pain’
While in Donetsk, she grieved along with soldiers who lost comrades — some of whom she taught directly — in fighting in her hometown of Bakhmut, a target of incessant Russian assault in recent months.
“For me it’s a double pain. Because on the one hand it’s my hometown, and on the other hand it has now become the grave of my students,” she said.
During a recent one-hour conversation lesson in Kyiv, the only time Chekryzhova’s students slipped briefly into Ukrainian was when discussing those they have lost.
But despite fighting back tears, soldier Yuriy Kalmutskiy, 36, insisted on completing his idea in English, even if it was somewhat broken.
“I lose a lot of friends. … It was my circle of close people, and I lose … they. I lose they,” he said. “It’s very hard.”
As they work toward ultimately mastering English, Chekryzhova’s students told AFP they drew some inspiration from Zelenskyy’s journey with the language.
“A few years ago, he [had] awful English. Everybody knows this,” Kalmutskiy said. “But he learned.”
That progress came in handy on Wednesday when Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. Congress in English, declaring that “Ukraine is alive and kicking” while appealing for more aid.
Difficulty in expanding program
Yet while individual students have made similar strides, Chekryzhova told AFP she is struggling to scale up her program to reach even more.
International organizations have so far rebuffed her requests for funding, saying they can’t be seen giving money to the military.
“They say they would like to help children, they would like to help animals, the elderly, maybe some internally displaced people or people who are abroad,” she said.
Her students scoffed at this approach, and Chekryzhova said she has little interest in dealing with “puppies and kittens or some nice old ladies.”
All said they were convinced studying English would help them win the war while furthering Ukraine’s military integration with Western and other countries.
“So,” Chekryzhova said as the lesson ended, “Are you armed with English?”
“Yes,” Soldatenko responded. “Yes, I think so.”
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US Life Expectancy Drops to Lowest in a Generation
The combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and high levels of opioid overdose deaths drove life expectancy in the United States down for the second consecutive year in 2021, with a child born in that year expected to live 76.4 years, the lowest figure since 1996, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By comparison, Americans born in 2019, the year before the pandemic took hold, could expect to live 78.8 years.
In 2019, the U.S. experienced 715.2 deaths per 100,000 people. In 2021, that rate had climbed by 23%, to 897.7.
While most countries in the world experienced a decrease in life expectancy during the pandemic, it was particularly pronounced in the U.S. And while many advanced economies, including France, Belgium, Switzerland and Sweden saw their life expectancy rates recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, death rates in the U.S. continued to climb.
Heart disease, cancer and COVID-19 remained the top three causes of death in 2021, unchanged from the preceding year. In 2021, the U.S. also recorded 106,699 deaths attributed to drug overdoses, or more than 30 per 100,000 people.
Since 2001, when the rate was below 10 per 100,000, the rate has increased every year.
Overdose deaths have an outsized effect on average life expectancy because victims are disproportionately young.
Differences by gender, race
Women in the U.S. have a higher life expectancy than men, on average. In 2021, a girl born in the U.S. could expect to live 79.3 years, while a boy could expect to live 73.5 years.
An American who turned 65 in 2021 could expect to live another 18.4 years on average, while women could expect to live 19.7 years longer — for men the number remained unchanged from 2020 — at 17 years.
Dividing the population by sex, race and Hispanic origin highlights stark disparities in death rates. Among men, American Indian and Alaska Native men had the highest rate of deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, at 1,717.5
The next-highest death rate was for Black men, at 1,380.2. White men experienced 1,055.3 deaths per 100,000, Hispanic men experienced 915.6, and Asian men just 578.1.
Among females, death rates were highest for American Indian and Alaska Native women, at 1236.6 per 100,000, followed by Black women, at 921.9. White women experienced 750.6 deaths per 100,000, followed by Hispanic women at 599.8. Asian women had the lowest death rate of any subgroup, with 391.1 per 100,000.
International comparison
Compared to other wealthy industrialized nations, particularly in Europe, U.S. life expectancy is not only lower, but also is getting worse.
A study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior in October charted the stark differences between the U.S. and many European nations. While almost all countries in Europe experienced a sharp decline in life expectancy in 2020, the first full year of the pandemic, many had returned to 2019 levels by the following year.
Among them, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and France all saw life expectancy rebound to near pre-pandemic levels in 2021. Other countries, including the U.K., Portugal, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia and Iceland had all recovered some, but not all the lost life expectancy.
Alone among wealthy European countries in posting two back-to-back declines was Germany, though its combined fall in life expectancy, less than one year in total, was far smaller than in the U.S.
Other European countries, mostly former Soviet states, also saw consecutive yearly declines, including Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland, though none of those saw a decline as sharp as in the U.S.
The only European countries with a steeper drop in life expectancy than the U.S. from 2019 to 2021 were Bulgaria and Slovakia.
The differences in life expectancy between the U.S. and other wealthy countries is even more stark when compared with industrialized countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Data collected by the World Bank shows that a child born in wealthy countries in that region, including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand had a life expectancy of 82 years or more in 2020.
Public health failure
Life expectancy declines in the U.S., particularly regarding deaths related to COVID-19, is especially frustrating to experts, who note the widespread availability of vaccines and the fact that medical professionals have far more knowledge about how to fight the disease than they did at the beginning of the pandemic.
“It is absolutely a public health failure and a political failure,” Noreen Goldman, the Hughes-Rogers professor of Demography and Public Affairs at the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs, told VOA.
“It’s certainly due, in part, to a lack of public health infrastructure, a lack of any kind of national coordination of our strategies during the pandemic, high politicization of vaccination and higher [vaccine] refusal rates in the U.S. than most other high-income countries,” she said.
Goldman said there are other complicating factors, not the least of which is the lack of universal health care, which is present in all other wealthy nations. Other factors play a role as well, including the high prevalence of other medical conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, which are associated with poorer COVID-19 outcomes.
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