Author: CNN

CNN
 — 

The Howard University men’s basketball is joining the fight to protect Black maternal health as the nation faces a crisis that leaves Black women at high risk for pregnancy-related complications and death.

The team will host a special event ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day with the organization Mamatoto Village that is focused on combating racism and health disparities for Black mothers. The event will be held Sunday in Washington DC, with the team helping to package pregnancy care kits.

Howard team coaches say the players decided to focus on the issue after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year – a controversial decision that is expected to leave millions of Black and brown women without access to abortion care.

In many states, Black and Hispanic women receive abortions at higher rates than White women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which collects data from state health agencies.

Black women are also three times more likely than White women to die of pregnancy-related complications, according to the CDC, and they encounter racism from health care providers at higher rates.

“Women’s health issues aren’t just women’s health issues,” Howard basketball coach Kenney Blakeney told CNN. “Everyone is affected by this, not only the women but also men.”

Blakeney says he recruits players who he feels can help carry on the university’s legacy of social justice activism.

“When we recruit our student athletes to Howard, we aren’t just recruiting them to represent us on the basketball court,” Blakeney said.

Blakeney says he gives the team a choice of what social justice activity they would like to participate in each year. After Roe v. Wade was overturned, he says his players felt they had to do something for Black maternal health.

Guard and team captain Jelani Williams says players believed it was important for them to use their platform to shine a light on an issue that is important but not spoken about enough.

“We have Black mothers, aunts, cousins, friends and we just felt like it would be… a good issue to shine a light on,” Williams said.

Freshman forward Shane Odom says he was immediately in support of the project.

“I kind of related to it,” Odom said. “I have a single Black mother. She had me very young, so I feel because I relate to it, it would be a good cause to support.”

Mamatoto organizers say they are grateful for the basketball team’s efforts and agree that Black maternal health issues affect men as well.

Executive director Aza Nedhari said Black maternal health is not Black women’s “burden to bear alone.” She adds that Black males have a responsibility as well. “Black men are fathers and they are brothers,” Nedhari said.

Nedhari is appreciative of any help for her organization.

“It’s always refreshing when Black men join alongside us to uplift the issues that are going on,” Nedhari said. “It just can’t be Black women carrying the bag and holding all the responsibility for making improvements for something that is a systemic and societal issue anchored in racism.”

Washington
CNN
 — 

Lawmakers in the Missouri House of Representatives this week adopted a stricter dress code for women as part of a new rules package, and now requires them to cover their shoulders by wearing a jacket like a blazer, cardigan or knit blazer.

The addition, which was proposed by Republican state Rep. Ann Kelley, sparked outrage from some Democrats who said the change was sexist because the dress code for men was not altered.

Men in the Missouri House of Representatives are required to wear a jacket, shirt and a tie. The previous dress code for women required “dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes or boots.”

Kelley, speaking on the House floor, said she felt compelled to offer the change that “cleans up some of the language … by mirroring the language in the gentleman’s dress code.”

“Men are required to wear a jacket, a shirt and a tie, correct? And if they walked in here without a tie, they would get gaveled down in a heartbeat. If they walked in without a jacket, they would get gaveled down in a heartbeat. So, we are so interested in being equal,” Kelley said on Wednesday during the floor debate.

Women hold less than a third of the seats in the Missouri House, which is made up of 116 men and 43 women, according to the state House site.

The dress code amendment was passed in a voice vote and the rules package was later adopted by the GOP-controlled legislature in a 105-51 vote, but not without pushback and debate from House Democrats.

“Do you know what it feels like to have a bunch of men in this room looking at your top trying to determine if it’s appropriate or not?” Democratic state Rep. Ashley Aune proclaimed from the House floor.

Republicans altered their amendment to include cardigans after Democratic state Rep. Raychel Proudie criticized the impact requiring blazers could have on pregnant women.

Democratic state Rep. Peter Merideth refused to vote on the amendment, telling his colleagues on the floor, “I don’t think I’m qualified to say what’s appropriate or not appropriate for women and I think that is a really dangerous road for us all to go down.”

“Y’all had a conniption fit the last two years when we talked about maybe, maybe wearing masks in a pandemic to keep each other safer. How dare the government tell you what you have to wear over your face? Well, I know some governments require women to wear things over their face, but here, oh, it’s OK because we’re just talking about how many layers they have to have over their shoulders,” Merideth added.

In the US Congress, up until 2017, reporters and lawmakers were required to wear dresses and blouses with sleeves if they wanted to enter the House chamber. A group of bipartisan female lawmakers protested over their “right to bare arms,” prompting then-Speaker Paul Ryan’s office to concede that the dress code “could stand to be a bit modernized.” The US Senate later amended its rules as well, The New York Times reported.

Aune told CNN Friday afternoon the change signals that Republicans in the state aren’t focused on “important issues.”

“In 2019 House Republicans passed the abortion ban that went into effect this summer after the Dobbs decision came down, fully restricting a women’s right to choose in this state, and on day one in our legislature they’re doubling down on controlling women,” she said on “CNN Newsroom.”

“It’s wild to me. I think it’s sending a message that the Republican Party, the Missouri GOP, doesn’t have the best interest in mind and (is) not focused on the important issues.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN
 — 

Days after California was hit by “the most impressive storm in nearly 20 years,” the state – fully saturated in many places – is gearing up this weekend for yet another series of atmospheric river events, with flooding, hail, powerful wind gusts and even funnel clouds possible in spots.

TRACK THE STORMS HERE >>

Another round of heavy rain already is falling Saturday on the Golden State, where extreme drought fueled by the climate crisis has given way in recent weeks to massive flooding amid a catastrophic sequence of ultra-wet atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport moisture thousands of miles. Recent storms have killed at least 18 people and left tens of thousands at a time without power.

Over 25 million people again are under flood watches across much of California’s central coastline, as well as the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. Though this weekend’s rain tally will be lower than previous storms, the threshold for flooding also is much lower because the ground is fully saturated in many areas.

“This atmospheric river is more progressive than some of the other atmospheric rivers that have occurred in recent weeks, which should help to limit the extent of the flooding potential,” the Weather Prediction Center said. “All that being said, just about all of California; from the coast and both the Shasta and Sierra Nevada on south to the Transverse Range feature soil moisture percentiles greater than 95%.”

“Portions of the state have picked up 15-20+” of rain and >600% of normal rainfall in the last two weeks,” they added.

And, unfortunately, the rain chances don’t end there: Yet another storm will bring renewed rain chances and flooding to much of the state Sunday afternoon through Monday morning before drier conditions finally set in later next week.

“A more intense surge of moisture is expected on Saturday ahead of a stronger Pacific storm system that will move inland through the day,” the prediction center said. “A broader slight risk of excessive rainfall is in place for both coastal northern California, where rainfall will continue from Friday, as well as upslope regions of the Sierra.”

Rain and snow are also forecast to spread into the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West Saturday into Sunday.

Widespread rainfall totals through Monday will range between 2 to 3 inches along the coast and interior valleys, with 4 to 6 inches possible for the San Francisco Bay area and the nearby Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia mountains. This will likely lead to a few instances of flooding as well as mud, rock and landslides.

“Rain is a certainty with (rain chances at) 100% areawide and with deep moisture and ample rainfall expected, flooding once again becomes a concern,” the National Weather Service office in San Francisco said.

San Francisco already has recorded one of the top 15 wettest winters on record with more than a month to go. If it does end up picking up 4 to 6 inches of rain over the next three days, the city easily will crack the top five.

A slight risk of excessive rainfall – Level 2 out of 4 – alert is in place, mainly due to extremely wet conditions preceding the forecast rainfall and leading to increased flooding concerns.

“Forecast soundings have been showing quite a bit of instability over the Central Valley behind the front later Saturday afternoon and into the evening with hail likely to accompany stronger storms, and maybe some funnel clouds,” the weather service office in Sacramento said.

River flooding is also a big concern, especially around the Russian River in Northern California and the Salinas River near Monterey. “Plan on additional disruptions to travel and mountain recreation through the weekend as periods of heavy snow return to the Sierra,” the weather service office in Reno said.

Mandatory evacuations for parts of San Benito County were ordered Saturday, with residents in the impacted portions ordered to leave their homes due to “severe flooding,” according to an online post from the county.

Neighboring Santa Clara County issued updated evacuation warnings to residents this weekend. Residents are being encouraged to gather essentials, such as personal items, important documents, clothing and non-perishable foods.

“Community members are also encouraged to stay off the roads, creek beds, waterways and fast-moving waters,” the release said.

Very heavy snow is also forecast for the Sierra, with 1 to 2 feet possible on Saturday and an additional 2 to 3 feet through Monday. “Heaviest snowfall days will be Saturday and Monday with less intense snow showers in between,” the weather service office in Reno said.

Strong winds will also accompany this system, gusting up to 40 to 50 mph in the Sacramento Valley and up to 60 mph in the mountains. This could lead to downed trees and power lines staked in now-extremely saturated soils.

“The system will be packing a decent amount of south winds and a high wind watch is in effect for the mountains of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties – the same strong winds will move into Ventura and LA counties Saturday evening,” the weather service office in Los Angeles said.

The good news is that by week’s end, the forecast calls for much drier conditions across all of California, which will allow for the ground to dry out and river levels to recede.

“It’s been a long time since California residents were happy to see an extended forecast of below-average precipitation,” CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller said. “But after the past three weeks, they certainly are.”

Here’s what you need to know about the international beauty pageant — and how you can watch:

84 women will compete in New Orleans

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said In a statement on the Miss Universe website she was “honored” to host the pageant.

“The City of New Orleans and the Miss Universe Organization share common values of celebrating inclusion, culture and the empowerment of women,” said Cantrell in the statement.

“Former Miss Universe delegates and winners have gone on to become surgeons, diplomats, politicians and business leaders, and they all champion social causes that are important to them. Hosting this event demonstrates the significant global impact an international city like New Orleans has on the world’s tourism and cultural stages,” she went on.

“We are honored to host the 71st annual Miss Universe pageant and show people around the globe why New Orleans is the best in the world at executing major events, festivals, conferences and conventions with a culture that is absolutely unmatched.”

The 70th Miss Universe, Harnaaz Sandhu, will crown her successor

Sandhu took home the title in southern Israel at the end of 2021. Eighty women competed in the competition, which was hosted by comedian Steve Harvey.

Sandhu is a vocal advocate for menstrual equity, inspired by her mother’s career as a gynecologist, according to the Miss Universe website. She is also an actor and an advocate for women’s rights and climate change awareness.

Jeannie Mai Jenkins and Olivia Culpo will host this year’s competition

Television host and stylist Jeannie Mai Jenkins will serve as the host for this year’s Miss Universe Competition alongside Olivia Culpo, who won Miss Universe in 2012.

You can watch the pageant on the Roku Channel

For the first year in the pageant’s history, the Roku Channel is the Miss Universe competition’s official broadcaster. In past years, the competition typically aired on Fox.

Fans hoping to watch the new Miss Universe be crowned live can check it out on Roku.com, Roku TVs, and the Roku App at 6 p.m. CST. The contest will be broadcast in Spanish on Telemundo.

CNN
 — 

Randall McCloud saw trees fall and the porch get pulled apart as he watched from the entrance of his mother’s central Alabama house Thursday – and it was about to get much worse.

He dashed inside the kitchen and tried to reach his mother and his cousin in a hallway, but suddenly had nothing more to run on.

“The floor disappeared under my feet, and I went straight to the ground” beneath it, McCloud told CNN’s Amara Walker on Saturday, recalling the moment a tornado ripped his mother’s home apart.

The home in Autauga County’s Marbury community, some 25 miles northwest of Montgomery, had just been clobbered by one of the twisters that raked the South on Thursday. Seven people were killed in that county alone and nine overall in that day’s storms, including two in Georgia.

McCloud was scraped but alive.

“Had to crawl back up into the end that was still standing … crawl back up into in the hallway,” he said.

He found his mother and cousin, both also OK. The hallway and a small part of the kitchen were intact, but they were otherwise trapped by debris with no immediate way out.

Worried about the ceiling collapsing, McCloud got his mother into a walker with a seat, and “pushed her up against the refrigerator,” he said.

“I figured if the roof collapsed, the refrigerator might take some of the force of the roof coming down some,” he said. “So we had a small area there in the kitchen (where) we were all kind of huddled together.”

“It was just (us) sitting there thinking any moment the rest of the roof and stuff was going to cave in on us.”

There was no quick way to get to them – the area was devastated.

At least 20 homes in Autauga County were either damaged or destroyed, Gary Weaver, the deputy director of the county’s emergency management agency, said. Wind intensity that caused the damage was rated EF-3, meaning gusts of at least 136 mph – the National Weather Service said.

Autuaga County’s Marbury area is about 45 miles northeast of Selma, an Alabama city, known for its role in the civil rights movement, that was devastated by an EF-2 tornado Thursday.

The same storm damaged both areas, but it wasn’t immediately clear if the path of damage was continuous, the National Weather Service said Friday.

In Autauga County, emergency workers and others cleared roads to get to the McCloud house. As people cut fallen trees, a neighbor used a skid steer loading vehicle to remove the pieces, McCloud said.

About three hours after the tornado hit, workers accessed the house and the family inside. McCloud’s mother was taken out on a gurney. “Once we got her out, we felt a lot better,” he said.

McCloud’s own home also was destroyed, as was another relative’s house, he said.

He and his mother are staying with his brother “until we can figure out a more permanent solution,” McCloud’s daughter Tiffany McCloud told CNN.

“It’s been something I really don’t want to experience again,” Randall McCloud said. “It was an ordeal.”

Washington
CNN
 — 

Professional wrestling is known for its outlandish, dramatic stories that have captivated generations. It’s an athletic soap opera built on emotional drama with wrestlers sometimes scheming in the background for months only to make their move at the opportune moment, drawing crazed reactions from arenas packed with fans who have followed every beat.

But the real-life saga playing out in World Wrestling Entertainment’s corporate office over the last several weeks surpasses even what most of what those performers and their backstage colleagues could dream up.

Vince McMahon, the longtime force behind WWE at the corporate and creative levels, made a shocking return to the company on January 10, nearly six months after announcing his retirement. McMahon was alleged to have used company funds to pay millions to multiple women in order to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct.

But over a series of just a few days last week, McMahon engineered his return to the company’s board of directors, reshaped it by forcing out some members, replaced them with his own allies, and used that new boardroom power to install himself in his old job as executive chairman. His own daughter – the heir apparent to the company who had appeared groomed to take the job for years – resigned.

The stunning and swift developments have the wrestling world reeling, with rumors of a sale burning up Wrestling Twitter and people inside and outside the company wondering what it all means for the future of WWE and professional wrestling itself.

In July, Vince McMahon – an ever-present force in WWE and professional wrestling, the man who remade the business in service of a vision that upended generations of tradition, creating his own hegemony – retired. Or he resigned, depending on who you ask.

It was a moment many wrestling fans and observers never thought would come. The longtime chairman and CEO of WWE was such an intense micromanager that he barely slept, rarely took vacations and almost never stopped putting his own spin on every single aspect of the company’s output. Many longtime followers of the company simply assumed he’d die in the role rather than retire.

But a series of revelations first reported in The Wall Street Journal about hush money payments to multiple women to cover up infidelity and allegations of sexual misconduct seemed to bring McMahon’s legendary run as the head of wrestling’s most important company to an end. Additional reporting came in December, with additional women accusing McMahon of sexual assault, seemed to cement his status as being permanently gone from WWE.

WWE has always been a family business – Vince McMahon, Sr., handed over the reins to his son in the 1980s – and it seemed set to continue that way. Vince McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, who only weeks before had taken a leave of absence from the company, stepped into the role of co-CEO with Nick Khan, a longtime executive in the entertainment and media industry.

And Paul Levesque – Stephanie McMahon’s husband and a Hall of Fame professional wrestler himself and better known by his ring name, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, or Triple H – assumed the job as the head of creative, putting him in charge of WWE’s storylines and in-ring action, which his father-in-law had long managed.

That moment last summer signaled a sea change in the professional wrestling industry.

Vince McMahon was more akin to a king than a business executive in the world of WWE, his fingerprints on everything. Through his ruthless business practices, he had molded the industry in his image, running most of his competition out of business and turning his company into the destination for pro wrestling. For most of two decades, he had a monopoly on the business.

But his creative output cratered in recent years. Stars who left WWE described a frustrating creative process dominated by McMahon that stifled their visions and led to a homogenized product that felt miles away from the company’s peak in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

With the vast majority of company revenue coming from TV rights, instead of fans spending money on tickets or pay-per-view events, the need to give the people what they want was replaced by content production. Sometimes it seemed as if Vince McMahon’s creative decisions were meant to antagonize and annoy his audience, appearing to ram home his vision of “sports entertainment” whether they liked it or not.

A turning point for many was the 2015 Royal Rumble event. Fans were clamoring for their favorite Daniel Bryan, one of the most gifted wrestlers on the planet, to win the event’s namesake. To many fans, Bryan’s run symbolized hope that the company would promote their favorite wrestlers instead of McMahon’s chosen ones.

But Bryan was unceremoniously eliminated in the first half of the match. The crowd in Philadelphia booed throughout the second half, chanting Bryan’s name and refusing to celebrate when Roman Reigns – widely seen as McMahon’s choice to be the future of the company despite fan apathy – won.

Shrinking viewership numbers reflected that loss of hope. While TV ratings overall have dropped in the last several years, with some exceptions, WWE’s drop outpaced the general decline in overall viewership and in the key 18-49 demographic, according to Wrestlenomics, a website that tracks the business side of the industry.

Once considered a wrestling genius, critics have more recently come to consider Vince McMahon a creative liability. The elevation of Levesque and the Stephanie McMahon-Khan duo appeared to signal hope that a new era was dawning over the WWE and that its creative system would finally get the long-needed injection of new ideas, new faces and new energy.

In December, The Wall Street Journal reported McMahon was eying a comeback – the first rumblings that the new era might be on shaky ground.

According to the Journal’s reporting, McMahon was telling people around him that he had received bad advice to step aside after the paper reported he used company funds to pay more than $12 million in hush money settlements to women to cover up “allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.”

The WSJ also reported McMahon believed the controversy would have blown over if he had just stayed on as head of creative and chairman of the company’s board of directors.

Then, in early January, McMahon made his move.

As revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, McMahon said he had to return to the company because negotiations over media rights and a “strategic alternatives review” required his “direct participation, leadership and support.” He told the SEC he was putting himself back on the company’s board of directors, along with two longtime allies – both of whom McMahon had fired from the company in 2020.

How could he do this, despite retiring in disgrace and ostensibly being away from the company for months? McMahon never sold his stock in the company and remained WWE’s controlling shareholder.

“The only way for WWE to fully capitalize on this opportunity is for me to return as Executive Chairman and support the management team in the negotiations for our media rights and to combine that with a review of strategic alternatives,” McMahon said in a news release. “My return will allow WWE, as well as any transaction counterparties, to engage in these processes knowing they will have the support of the controlling shareholder.”

Over the course of just a few days, he had gone from ostracized former wrestling executive to once again running the company that he had taken from a regional player to a global power. It just was the kind of swerve one might have expected from “Mr. McMahon,” Vince McMahon’s devious on-screen character, who served as wrestling’s greatest heel for years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Just days after reinstalling himself on the company’s board, WWE’s board of directors unanimously returned him to his old job as executive chairman.

Not only that, his daughter, Stephanie McMahon – who had seemed groomed to take over the company for years and played prominent roles on screen and off – resigned as chairwoman and co-CEO of WWE, leaving it all together.

Nick Khan was left as the company’s lone CEO. But the corporate machinations over the last week showed that, once again, McMahon was the real power in WWE.

There are reports that McMahon is exploring selling the company, but it’s not clear if there’s any truth to them.

So far, all of McMahon’s statements about his intentions pertain to business negotiations. But Stephanie McMahon’s departure has cast a cloud over her husband’s future with the company.

As his father-in-law forced his way back into the company, Levesque was gearing up for his first major period in charge of WWE’s storytelling heading into its most important time of year. WrestleMania season kicks off with January 28’s Royal Rumble event and continues through the first weekend of April, when WWE runs a two-night WrestleMania event – its biggest shows of the year – at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. This was likely to be the first major test for Levesque’s creative vision for WWE and had been hotly anticipated by wrestling fans.

McMahon’s reemergence now leads to questions over how much influence the chairman will seek to exercise over the creative direction of the company, and how it might clash with Levesque’s own vision.

Upon taking control of creative, the WWE Hall of Famer re-signed scores of wrestlers who McMahon had released in recent years, including stars like Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman, and given priority to other wrestlers who don’t fit McMahon’s typical vision of a professional wrestler – someone taller than 6-foot-3 inches, muscular, good looking and with actual wrestling ability considered optional.

The futures of those Levesque favorites now seem less certain than they did just a few weeks ago.

There are real questions over how fans will receive the news of McMahon’s return. A man once seen as a legend in the business is accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, then using the levers of corporate power to escape accountability. Fans have already tuned out from the company in droves in recent years and some may decide not to spend their money, time and attention on a product helmed by McMahon.

And then there’s the question of how McMahon’s return affects the pro wrestling industry as a whole.

All Elite Wrestling (AEW), an upstart promotion begun in 2019 by Tony Khan – the son of auto parts billionaire Shahid Khan and no relation to the WWE CEO – and several of independent wrestling’s biggest stars, has become the second-biggest wrestling company in the world by simply being what WWE is not.

Its focus on long-term storytelling, great matches, charismatic stars and less sanitized production has allowed AEW to break WWE’s monopoly on the wrestling industry and become a verified player in the business.

As such, it had become a home for some of the highest profile wrestlers in the industry who had been burnt out on WWE’s corporate culture and bending to McMahon’s whims. His departure back in July and Levesque’s ascension to the WWE creative throne led many observers to wonder if AEW stars would be looking to jump ship and head to WWE.

There were some hopes among WWE diehards that Levesque’s new regime might be successful enough to snuff out AEW’s rise. McMahon’s return may toss some doubt into the minds of AEW wrestlers who were thinking about moving to WWE in the future.

CNN
 — 

Tens of thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv Saturday night against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s proposed changes to the Israeli judicial system.

Despite pouring rain over the city, police estimated that more than 80,000 people flooded central Tel Aviv’s HaBima square and surrounding streets, according to Israeli media, while others took to the streets in Jerusalem for parallel protests.

Attendees held signs comparing Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and saying Israel was turning into the likes of semi-democratic Hungary and theocratic Iran.

Protesters told CNN they came out of fear for Israel’s future and to send a message to Netanyahu that the public wouldn’t stand for what they see as the dismantling of Israeli democracy.

Esther Hayut, the president of Israel’s Supreme Court, on Thursday attacked the proposed changes as “an unbridled attack on the legal system” and said they were “designed to force a fatal blow on the independence of the judicial system.”

The proposed reforms, announced last week by Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would seek to reform Supreme Court nominations via a review committee, and enable parliament to overturn Supreme Court rulings.

CNN
 — 

The Western alliance’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine received a shot in the arm this week as multiple European nations for the first time answered President Volodymyr Zelensky’s longstanding call to supply modern battle tanks to Kyiv.

France, Poland and the United Kingdom have pledged to soon send tanks for the Ukrainian military to use in its efforts to protect itself from Russia. Finland is considering following suit.

Britain plans to send a dozen Challenger 2 tanks and additionally artillery systems as part of efforts to “intensify” support for Ukraine, Downing Street said. Zelensky thanked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “for the decisions that will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners” after the two leaders spoke by phone Saturday.

Speaking alongside Zelensky in the Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda said he hoped tanks from a range of Western allies would “soon sail through various routes to Ukraine and will be able to strengthen the defense of Ukraine.”

The moves have piled pressure on Germany, which last week said it would transfer infantry fighting vehicles to Kyiv but is yet to commit to sending tanks. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has insisted that any such plan would need to be fully coordinated with the whole of the Western alliance, including the United States.

Western officials told CNN said that the decision by some countries but not others to send more tanks was part of a broader assessment of what was happening on the ground in Ukraine. NATO allies have spent recent weeks talking in detail about which countries are best placed to provide specific types of assistance, be it military equipment or money.

One senior Western diplomat suggested that more countries could increase their levels of military support in the coming weeks as the war enters a new phase, and a fresh Russian offensive could be just around the corner as the anniversary of the invasion approaches.

But Germany’s support is seen as crucial. Thirteen European countries, including Poland and Finland, are in possession of modern German Leopard 2 tanks, which were introduced in 1979 and have been upgraded several times since, according to the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

While any re-export of the tank by these nations would typically need approval from the German government, Berlin has suggested it would not block their transfer to Kyiv.

Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Thursday that Berlin would not stand in the way of other countries re-exporting Leopard tanks.

“Germany should not stand in the way of other countries taking decisions to support Ukraine, independent of which decisions Germany takes,” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said Thursday said on the sidelines of a Greens party meeting in Berlin.

German deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said Friday that it had not received an official request from Poland or Finland.

“There is no question to which we would have to say no. But we’re saying right now that we are in a constant exchange about what is the right thing to do at this point in time and how we best support Ukraine,” Hoffmann told reporters.

General Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s most senior military commander, told the Economist in December that the military needed around 300 tanks to beat back the Russians. The European Council on Foreign Relations estimates that around 2,000 Leopard tanks are spread across Europe.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said on Thursday he was confident that the tanks promised from the European partners would be delivered “very, very fast” and that Ukrainian Armed Forces would “master” the use of the tanks “in a matter of weeks.”

The decision of NATO members to send the tanks to Ukraine is not an uncontroversial move. German diplomats are privately briefing their concern that it marks an escalation in the West’s response to Russia and will be viewed in Moscow as an provocation.

Other European officials argue that the West has already transfered plenty of other advanced weapons that have been used to kill Russians, as well as provided intelligence used extensively to the benefit of Ukraine. Notably, the US has supplied its long-range advanced HIMARS rocket systems to Ukraine, which have helped it turn the tide of the war in recent months. In light of this, the officials contend, sending additional tanks is not that significant an escalation, regardless of what Moscow might say.

While European allies remain largely united in their support of Ukraine, diplomats who spoke to CNN said there was disagreement as to whether sending tanks and more weapons is the fastest and most effective way to bring the conflict to an end.

According to the Kiel Institute’s tracker on how much nations have donated to Ukraine, the UK, France and Poland have given $7.5bn, $1.5bn and $3.bn respectively. That money comprises a combination of military, financial and humanitarian aid, with Poland previously sending over 200 Soviet-style tanks.

European citizens remain strongly in favor of providing support to Ukraine, according to a recent Eurobarometer poll, which found that 74% thought European countries should continue to provide assistance. This means that if Germany does decide to move in line with France, the UK and Poland, it will probably find it has the political cover to do.

It is expected that the UK and France will continue to pressure Germany into joining them in the effort in coming days. If they succeed it would mean the three major European powers in lockstep as the war rumbles toward its one-year anniversary.

CNN
 — 

Kester Howard was painting on a balcony of her luxury cruise ship when a startling announcement came over the loudspeakers.

A nearby boat appeared to be in distress, and the captain was turning around to reach them.

Howard, a retiree from Brisbane, Australia, grabbed her phone to record what was happening. She’d been on many cruises before, but this was something she’d never seen.

Gradually a white vessel in the distance came into focus, and a rescue operation began.

“Look how that boat’s been put together. Those poor people,” Howard said, recording and narrating from her cabin balcony as the cruise ship maneuvered to bring them aboard. “You see it on TV; you don’t ever imagine seeing it in real life.”

Days earlier passengers aboard the Celebrity Beyond had rung in the new year with a glitzy party, waving glow sticks as they counted down to 2023. The ship boasts “boundless views,” on-board butlers and “rooms so luxurious you won’t want to close your eyes.” It was built to accommodate more than 3,200 passengers,

The makeshift boat bobbing in the massive cruise ship’s wake on January 2 was different in almost every possible way.

No name was visible on its hull. It appeared to be cobbled together with metal and Styrofoam. Nineteen people were crammed inside, shoulder-to-shoulder, and they were shouting for help.

It took more than an hour for the rescue to unfold that day, as passengers on the cruise watched anxiously and awaited updates from the captain.

“We definitely came face to face with the reality of this situation,” said Steven Glassman, who snapped photos of the rescue from one of the ship’s upper decks.

Glassman is a Fort Lauderdale city commissioner, and well aware of the increasing number of makeshift vessels turning up on Florida’s shores. But seeing a rescue at sea made the situation hit even closer to home. And at dinner that night, he said, many of the cruise’s passengers were talking about what they’d witnessed.

“It makes you realize how fortunate we are,” he said. “Here we are, sitting in a beautiful dining room on a beautiful ship and getting ready to eat a beautiful dinner, and we just watched people that had to be rescued. That’s the stark reality.”

Howard, Glassman and thousands of other passengers aboard the Celebrity Beyond weren’t the only ones confronted with that reality. Views of the dramatic rescue were seen around the world after the ship’s captain shared footage the next day with her 3.7 million combined followers on TikTok and Instagram.

It isn’t new for cruise ships traveling through the Straits of Florida, like the Celebrity Beyond was that day, to come upon boats of Cuban migrants. But a series of recent rescues and social media posts about them have brought a fresh wave of attention to these dramatic moments at sea and the migration crisis behind them.

In just over a week, from December 30 to January 7, at least six such rescues occurred in the region, including two aboard the Beyond.

Robert E. Rosen, a law professor at the University of Miami who teaches a course on legal issues in the cruise industry, calls the recent spate of rescues “amazing” but also says there’s a logical reason behind it.

“The number of cruise ships has been increasing dramatically over the last decade. Not only are they larger, there are more of them,” he says.

Couple that with an increasing number of migrants leaving Cuba via makeshift boats, traveling the same waters as they try to reach the United States, and it’s a trend that Rosen says is likely to intensify.

It’s difficult to pinpoint, though, whether cruise ships are crossing paths with migrant boats in distress more often.

The US Coast Guard says it doesn’t track that data, and points out that other commercial vessels in the region have also assisted with migrant rescues.

Colleen McDaniel, editor-in-chief of Cruise Critic, a review site and online cruise community, says the phenomenon has been occurring for years.

“Certainly it’s been in headlines lately. It’s not new or even totally uncommon,” she says. “I know many, many people who’ve been on a ship and say, ‘This happened to me.’”

Whether or not these rescues are happening more frequently, social media appears to be changing the way we see them.

For centuries humans have told and retold stories of seafarers in distress.

In some ways, the story of the Celebrity Beyond and the homemade migrant boat it saved is another version of this age-old tale, but one with a distinctly digital twist.

Captain Kate McCue, who has millions of followers on TikTok and hundreds of thousands more on Instagram, shared video of the rescue and its aftermath, thanking her crew for jumping into action and saving lives.

In the flurry of responses that followed, McCue, already popular online for being the first American female cruise ship captain and for sharing entertaining day-in-the-life videos of life on board, drew praise from many for taking the time to help those in need.

But some commenters argued there’s no room for more immigrants in the United States and voiced skepticism about the story.

“Rescue? That was a built boat not a life raft,” one response read.

“Is it really a rescue,” another commenter posted, “if people intentionally put themselves in a situation that needs rescuing?”

McCue didn’t directly address that criticism, but five days later, she shared video of another rescue. This time, a sailboat carrying four passengers was spotted in distress.

In her video about the January 7 rescue, which has also been viewed millions of times, McCue said two women and two men were safely brought aboard and the cruise was back underway about 30 minutes after the initial sighting of their boat.

“They had been at sea for 10 days,” she said, “the last 5 days without food.”

Once again, McCue praised her crew’s efforts, calling them “beyond amazing.”

“Safety of life at sea is a simple concept for seafarers,” she said. “Those in need, we assist.”

The Celebrity cruise ship’s captain isn’t the only one to post online about her experience crossing paths with migrants in distress.

The captain of Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady also offered his followers a glimpse of a December 31 rescue as his ship crossed the Straits of Florida.

“I had to stop with my beautiful Scarlet Lady, embark and assist 38 persons desperately looking for a new life, exactly on the new year eve,” Captain Giovanni Schiaffino wrote on Instagram. “I will never forget the eyes of those children to whom I brought some small gifts, and various chocolates … Thanks for making me understand the importance of life and the little things that make the difference on it.”

The post included photos of migrants receiving food and medical screenings once onboard. They’re sitting in a notably less glamorous part of the cruise ship, in an area with exposed pipes, fluorescent lights and a scratched linoleum floor. But they’re wearing the cruise’s official bath robes, with the words “Rock Star” embroidered in red on their backs.

While in the past we may have heard about the outcome of a cruise ship crossing paths with migrants in distress, social media posts like this are giving us a much clearer window into what things look like on board, both for those who’ve been rescued and for passengers whose luxury voyages have been interrupted.

Descriptions of rescue attempts are also popping up on message boards where passengers share their cruise experiences.

One recent thread on a Cruise Critic message board briefly details an attempt by another Virgin cruise ship to rescue a makeshift boat that at first appeared to be taking on water. “After investigating, the Captain reported that the small boat was not taking on water and the migrants refused assistance other than food and water and would not come aboard,” the post notes. The next post from the same author details the lunch and desserts he ate while watching the attempted rescue.

One of Howard’s many social media posts from aboard the Beyond shows the cruise director standing under a spotlight near a grand piano onstage, where he usually announced activities or introduced entertainment acts during the eight-day cruise. This time, he’s giving passengers an update on the recent rescue operation.

“Nineteen people were safely rescued. … We will now be taking them off with us to Fort Lauderdale. And they will disembark there. The authorities, of course, will look after them from there. But they are being fed … they are all healthy. They had been stranded at sea for five days,” he says, drawing applause from the crowd.

“And I don’t know if you managed to see the boat they were in. It was a homemade boat made of polystyrene, metal sheeting and – quite frankly – it probably would not have lasted much longer in the water, especially not overnight. But five days they’d been out there. So we are incredibly grateful. … It is a beautiful way to start the new year.”

Meanwhile, Cubans searching for loved ones they fear have been lost at sea are also taking to social media. In numerous Facebook groups, word of the cruise rescues have prompted prayers and expressions of gratitude.

But they’re far outnumbered by posts from people trying to find missing family members and worrying about their fates.

Several cruise lines involved in recent migrant rescues provided general statements to CNN, but declined interview requests and did not respond to questions about how frequently such rescues occur, or company policies about how to handle them.

“In keeping with maritime international law, the ship’s crew immediately launched a rescue operation, safely bringing 19 people and then 4 people onboard,” Celebrity said in a statement on Beyond’s recent rescues. “We are grateful for our crew’s quick action, and the lives saved as a result.”

Carnival spokesman Matt Lupoli said in an email that the cruise line doesn’t keep records on the frequency of rescues. “It is customary for cruise ships, and all mariners, to stop and rescue anyone spotted in distress at sea,” he said.

Virgin Voyages says its fleet is prepared to help if they encounter vessels in distress.

“It is our responsibility to respond and offer assistance to those in need, and our Crew are trained for this and ready to help. This often includes bringing these individuals on board, offering clothing, food, water and medical treatment if needed,” Virgin Voyages said in a statement. “We also work closely with designated authorities to support a safe transfer from the ship. When we encounter these scenarios, our priority is making sure everyone is safe and taken care of.”

Rosen, the University of Miami law professor, says maritime law is clear about what should happen when boats encounter vessels in distress.

“Maritime law requires the ship to render assistance to anybody in danger or in distress at sea, as long as they can do it without serious danger to themselves, their crew or their passengers,” he says.

What happens next can be murky, varying depending on cruise company policies and where the rescues occurred.

Of the six recent rescues reported in the region, four of the cruise ships went on to transfer the migrants to a US Coast Guard cutter. And most of those migrants have already been repatriated to Cuba, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. John Beal says.

Both recent groups of migrants rescued by the Beyond were taken to Port Everglades, Florida, and transferred to US Customs and Border Protection custody.

A CBP spokesperson says they’ve all since been paroled into the United States to await court dates before an immigration judge.

“Ultimately, whether the migrants are transferred to USCG at sea or CBP ashore, they are provided food, water, shelter, basic first aid and processed to determine their identity, nationality, criminal history, and if they have a legal basis to remain in the US,” Beal says.

Those who don’t have a legal basis to be in the United States will be processed for removal or repatriation, he says.

The recent series of cruise ship encounters happened the same week that authorities announced that an influx of Cuban migrants in the Florida Keys had temporarily forced them to close Dry Tortugas National Park. The park reopened this week, on the same day that the Coast Guard repatriated 273 Cuban migrants after interceptions at sea.

The Florida Straits have a long history as a corridor for illegal migration attempts. And many commercial vessels travel those same waters.

Last year CNN reported that the US and Cuba were dealing with the highest number of Cuban migrants to leave the island by boat since 2017, when then-President Obama in the final days of his presidency did away with the “Wet Foot, Dry Foot” policy that allowed Cubans who reached the US to stay in the country.

“If there are more migrant vessels,” Beal says, “there’s a greater likelihood cruise ships will see them while they’re out at sea.”

On the last night of her cruise on the Beyond, Kester Howard found herself fielding questions from friends on social media about what she’d just seen.

A week later Howard’s voice still cracks with emotion as she describes what she watched that day. In the makeshift boat below, desperate migrants cried out, “Help me! Please!” From nearby cruise ship balconies, Howard says fellow-passengers shouted, too. “We’re coming!” someone yelled. “We love you!”

Many times, she says, it seemed like the small, overloaded vessel and its passengers weren’t going to survive the rescue attempt.

“It really looked like they were going to get sucked under the ship,” she says.

She says she shared videos of what happened, and wants to speak out about the experience, because it’s important for others to see the same reality she did that day.

“To see it in real life, and to realize how many people must be doing this – and I don’t just mean in that area, but worldwide – in a day, or in a year,” Howard says.

It’s the kind of journey no one takes lightly, she says.

“You have to have a lot of guts to do that. You wouldn’t go into that not being terrified. For me, that’s the point, that they’re just so desperate to make such a decision and take such a risk and not know that it’s going to work, or if they’re even going to live,” she says.

She hopes others will respond the way she heard many of her fellow cruise passengers reacting that day – with empathy rather than fear.

But Howard acknowledges even on the cruise ship not everyone was won over by the migrants’ story. One dismayed fellow passenger told her they were surprised the ship had stopped to pick up the migrants. They turned away from the ongoing rescue, Howard says, to head to a pub onboard the ship.

On Facebook, Howard said she was watching strong winds whip across the cruise ship’s promenades, looking out at the dark waters, and thinking about what a close call it must have been.

“It was just before nightfall. If it had been even an hour later…they probably would have died,” she says.

Howard took comfort knowing that those 19 people were safe somewhere aboard the ship. She hoped they’d have a chance to reach their destination and begin the new lives they were seeking. But another thought crossed her mind, too, and she shared it on Facebook.

“I honestly don’t know how they spotted them,” she wrote. “Makes me wonder how many others are out there tonight and how many drown at sea.”

CNN
 — 

The Treasury Department said Friday the US could default on its debt as soon as June, setting up one of the first major battles on Capitol Hill after Republicans took control of the House.

The US will reach the debt limit on January 19 and then “extraordinary measures” will need to be taken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen wrote in a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. She said that the Treasury Department will pursue those measures, but they will only last a limited amount of time.

It is unlikely that the government will exhaust its cash and the “extraordinary measures” before early June, though she said there is “considerable uncertainty” around that forecast, Yellen wrote. She urged lawmakers to “act in a timely matter” to increase or suspend the debt limit.

“Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the US economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability,” she wrote.

The debt limit is the maximum that the federal government is allowed to borrow, after Congress set a level more than a century ago to curtail government borrowing. Congress has in the past raised the debt limit to avoid a default on US debt that economists have warned would be “financial Armageddon.” That’s what lawmakers did in late 2021 following the last standoff over the debt ceiling.

The immediate measures include some accounting maneuvers involving the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund and the Federal Employees Retirement System Thrift Savings Plan.

However, these moves will not affect retirees’ ability to access their savings, experts said. The funds will be made whole once the impasse is settled, Yellen wrote.

Yellen’s letter reinforced that the debt ceiling limit is an issue that Congress will have to deal with soon.

But it’s not an immediate problem, experts said.

“This is not the time for panic. We are many months away from the US being unable to meet all of its obligations,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “But it is certainly a time for policymakers to begin negotiations in earnest.”

Just how long the Treasury Department can continue the “extraordinary measures” will depend in part on how much 2022 tax revenue the government collects this spring. Also, inflation and interest rates have risen faster than some experts estimated last year, and new policies, including the student loan forgiveness program, were introduced, potentially shortening the window.

House Republicans are preparing contingency plans, but dealing with the debt ceiling limit will not be an easy task for Congress, especially now that the GOP has taken control of the House. It is expected to unleash a battle between conservatives GOP members, who want to tie any lifting of the limit to spending cuts, and Democrats, who fiercely oppose any reductions.

The Washington Post first reported the emergency plans.

McCarthy, in part of his negotiations to become speaker, promised to pass a proposal by the end of March telling the Treasury Department which payments should be prioritized if the debt ceiling is breached, GOP Rep. Chip Roy confirmed to CNN.

Roy, one of the key players in the standoff over McCarthy’s speakership, cautioned that the contours of the proposal are still being worked out, noting there are several different versions of a payment prioritization plan circulating inside the House GOP.

McCarthy is stuck in the middle, with his party holding only a razor-thin majority in the chamber. Also, any member can call for a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, one of several concessions McCarthy made to gain the top post after 15 rounds of voting last week.

At a news conference Thursday, McCarthy took a hard line over the debt limit.

Asked if he could guarantee that Republicans would provide the votes necessary to raise the debt ceiling, McCarthy said: “We don’t want to put any fiscal problems to our economy and we won’t, but fiscal problems would be continuing to do business as usual.”

McCarthy also said he “had a very good conversation with the president when he called me, and I told him I’d like to sit down with him early and work through these challenges.”

Republicans, he said, would not allow “spending money wastefully.”

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told CNN he thinks Republicans will ultimately “come to reality” and raise the limit.

“If you’re worried about inflation, default would be huge,” Schumer said.

Further complicating the situation is the fact that the debt ceiling negotiations will likely be tied to the fiscal year 2024 federal spending package, which Congress must pass before October 1 or risk a government shutdown.

The debt ceiling was last raised in December 2021 to $31.4 trillion.

The deadline comes sooner than some experts had expected. They were predicting the debt ceiling limit would not be breached until later this year, when the Treasury Department would have to start taking extraordinary measures to avoid defaulting on the government’s obligations.

Goldman Sachs warned last month that a close call could set off turmoil on Wall Street that causes losses in the retirement accounts and investment portfolios of everyday Americans.

“It seems likely that uncertainty over the debt limit in 2023 could lead to substantial volatility in financial markets,” Goldman Sachs economists wrote, noting that the 2011 standoff helped cause a deep selloff in the US stock market.

Beyond markets, Goldman Sachs said a failure to raise the debt limit in time “would pose greater risk to government spending and ultimately to economic growth than it would to Treasury securities themselves.”

That’s because in order to avoid a default on US debt, the federal government would shift money around to keep paying interest on Treasuries. That would create a massive hole that would need to be filled by delaying a host of other payments — including ones that millions of Americans count on such as paychecks to federal employees, benefits to veterans and Social Security payments.

“A failure to make timely payments would likely hit consumer confidence hard,” Goldman Sachs wrote.

The White House said Friday it will not offer any concessions or negotiate on raising the debt ceiling.

“We will not be doing any negotiation over the debt ceiling, but broadly speaking, at the start of this new Congress, we’re reaching out to all the members … making sure that we have those connections with those new members,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

She said in the past “there’s been a bipartisan cooperation when it comes to lifting the debt ceiling, and that’s how it should be.”

“It should not be a political football,” she added. “This is not political gamesmanship, and this should be done without conditions.”

Asked why Yellen was notifying Congress just six days before the debt limit is reached, Jean-Pierre referred those questions to Treasury, but said the “sooner Congress acts the better.”

“Even the prospect of not raising the debt ceiling will damage the full faith and the credit of our nation,” she said. “There’s going to be no negotiation over it, this is something that must get done.”

This story has been updated with additional reporting.