5 things to know for Dec. 29: Ukraine, Southwest, Snowstorm, George Santos, Migrants

Hundreds of Twitter customers in a number of nations struggled to entry the platform Wednesday – at the same time as an error message urged, “don’t fret… Let’s attempt once more.” However as intermittent outages unfold, Twitter’s new proprietor Elon Musk mentioned it “works for me.”

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Air raid sirens blared throughout Ukraine this morning as Russia fired greater than 120 missiles, a Ukrainian presidential official mentioned. The mayor of Kyiv warned residents of attainable energy and water outages because of the assaults. “Cost your telephones and different units. Make a provide of water,” Mayor Vitali Klitschko mentioned in a publish on Telegram. A CNN crew within the Ukrainian capital heard the blasts from the brand new spherical of missile assaults. Officers reported the activation of air protection methods, together with in Kharkiv within the northeast, Mykolaiv within the south, in addition to Zhytomyr and Poltava in central Ukraine. “After the night time assault of self-exploding drones, the enemy is attacking Ukraine from numerous instructions with air and sea-based cruise missiles,” the Ukrainian Air Pressure mentioned. The assaults come after Russia’s international minister mentioned Moscow is not going to negotiate with Kyiv on the premise of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s proposed peace components.

Whereas Southwest Airways works to unravel its tangled mess of stranded passengers, uncollected baggage and grounded plane, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is pulling no punches, referring to the scenario as a whole “meltdown” of the system. An official for the union representing Southwest’s pilots mentioned they anticipate to have their flight schedules virtually again to regular by the top of the work week. As of early this morning, Southwest had canceled solely 39 flights for Friday – in comparison with practically 3,000 on Wednesday, in response to flight monitoring web site FlightAware. In all, Southwest has canceled about 15,700 flights since winter climate disrupted air journey on December 22. Different US airways have recovered from the storm’s results.

As first responders test on folks holed up in frigid houses with no energy, heartbreaking tales of loss are rising days after a blizzard ravaged western New York. On Christmas Eve, Monique Alexander left her home in Buffalo simply earlier than the snowstorm hit and instructed her daughter she’d be proper again. Her physique was discovered just a few hundred toes from her house. One other sufferer, Anndel Taylor, 22, was trapped in her automotive for hours and texted her household a video of the whiteout situations. She was discovered useless solely six minutes away from her home. The loss of life toll from the winter storm has climbed to 37 in western New York and a further 25 folks died throughout 11 states. In Buffalo, New York, houses have been surrounded by practically 52 inches of snow, many with out warmth as situations made roads impassable and knocked out energy for 1000’s within the area. “It’s a horrible storm with too many deaths,” Erie County Government Mark Poloncarz mentioned.

She heard cries for assist throughout lethal winter storm. Her actions saved a life

Republican Rep.-elect George Santos’ checklist of false claims continues to develop at the same time as he faces questions over his wealth and loans he made to his 2022 marketing campaign totaling over $700,000. His biography gave the impression to be partly fictional, together with his schooling and employment historical past, CNN confirmed. CNN additionally uncovered extra fabrications, together with claims he represented Goldman Sachs at a prime monetary convention. Santos is dealing with rising scrutiny from Home Democrats – and even from some corners of the GOP, with not less than certainly one of his fellow incoming Republicans calling for him to face an ethics investigation. Home GOP management, nonetheless, stays silent.

Watch: Rep.-elect Santos grilled on Fox after admitting to ’embellishing’ resume

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A tent processing middle goes up in El Paso, Texas, to extend migrant processing capability by about 1,000, in response to a spokesperson for US Customs and Border Safety. The power is predicted to be operational in January. As a way to put together for the attainable lifting of Title 42, the Division of Homeland Safety introduced it will be including 10 soft-sided amenities to spice up its processing capability. The power going up in El Paso is certainly one of them. “The addition of momentary processing amenities corresponding to this one will increase CBP’s capability to soundly take noncitizens into custody and place them into immigration proceedings,” mentioned company spokesperson Landon Hutchens. Title 42 was set to finish this month, however stays in limbo after the Supreme Courtroom issued an order permitting the coverage to stay in impact whereas authorized challenges play out – a course of that would stretch out for months.

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A 16-foot albino python lacking for months was reunited with its proprietor 

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This man is racing to show a grand American fowl continues to be on the market.

$640 million

That’s the estimated quantity of the jackpot for Friday’s Mega Hundreds of thousands drawing – the ultimate certainly one of 2022. 

“I’m drained as hell. I want a restoration beer.”

– Luka Dončić, after placing up a triple-double within the Dallas Mavericks’ 126-121 additional time win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday. The 23-year-old recorded a career-high 60 factors and a career-high 21 rebounds to go along with 10 assists, serving to the Mavericks come from 9 factors down with simply 33 seconds of regulation time remaining. It’s the primary time in NBA historical past {that a} participant has reached that stat line.

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From bubble wrap to impressionist portray

This artist makes use of bubble wrap to create lovely masterpieces. The artwork’s not solely inventive, it seems to be prefer it’s begging to be popped. (Click on right here to view)