mm hmm.
Welcome to Cheddars news wrap. It is monday 13th 14th 2022.
Happy valentine's Day to you. I'm ken buffa in new york city.
Hannah has the night off. Thanks so much for joining me now.
Coming up the US closes its embassy in Ukraine as Russia
continues to build up its military forces at the border.
Also a crucial bridges back in action
after a major disruption from the freedom convoy and a bit later
another tech takeover could be in the works that's all ahead right here
on the news wrap. But first we gotta start with politics
and the latest on Ukraine.
So the US is closing its embassy in Kiev and moving operations to western Ukraine,
generous Megan Pratt joins his life outside of Washington
with all that's going down on this move.
Megan.
Yeah, this is a major major move for the United States right.
And part of the reason the White House is
saying that this State Department diplomatic move is happening
is because there has not been the de escalation
necessary to ensure a safe Ukraine right right now,
Ukraine is under threat from pretty much every side that Russia can touch.
So there are 100 and 30,000 troops on its border with Russia because
Russia has built up that troop presence by 30,000 over the weekend.
That is a lot of people and that's a lot of people to move into
place in a short amount of time just on the spur of the moment.
So keep that in mind.
Additionally, there are about 30,000 troops in northern Belarus,
Partly because there is an alliance between Russia
and Belarus one of Russia's only alliances and
because they were doing military drills and why
not just keep troops where they are right?
Plus Russia's been shoring up its naval presence south
of Ukraine in the Black Sea which also happens
to be where Crimea is the part of Ukraine that Russia took away from it in 2014.
You with me?
There's a lot happening here.
So the US has removed all of the personnel from its embassy.
Previously essential personnel were asked to stay and
there was a small consular section set up in
LVIV in the western part of Ukraine now love you will be the central presence of U.
S.
Diplomatic affairs in Ukraine for the time being a lot of diplomats
that were being asked to return home asked to return to the United
States because the fact is the situation for the United States is
so dangerous that they do not want their personnel on the ground.
Now for Ukrainian people, the leadership style is a little bit different.
The Ukrainian president continuing with his sort of
keep calm and carry on mentality joking or
maybe not today that he believes that Wednesday
will be the day that Putin invades Ukraine.
Remember he was a comedian before.
So some of the things he says often taken
literally are probably taken out of context of it.
But he did also say that Wednesday will be a Ukrainian national day
of unity in which they come together and fight against their threats.
And I think that that is really the message
he's trying to send right continue to be here,
continue to go to work,
continue to go to school because as long as we do
that we are stronger than anything that could could attack us.
But with the us removing its entire embassy from Kiev,
there's a sign that that threat that Keith could be taken in 48 hours or so.
Can is really real.
The us saying from the Pentagon from the State Department and from the White House
that an invasion could happen at any time and de escalation is just not happening,
Ken.
All right Megan.
Meanwhile President biden indicating that he could
start interviewing Supreme Court candidates soon.
So what do we know about this?
Well,
we have exactly two weeks from today for him
to make an announcement which is you know,
two weeks notice.
It seems like it works right.
Two weeks notice never works, but he's got two weeks to pick someone,
luckily he has a short list that is pretty stacked.
Now if you look at some of the women that President biden is rumored
to be considering at the top of the list for most people at Judge
Brown Jackson. She sits on the D. C.
Circuit Court of Appeals widely seen as the second highest court in the land.
She was already confirmed by this Senate last year with three Republican votes.
So she's really seen as sort of a great pick for the
president and we know that he's going to pick a black woman,
a couple of the other women.
He's considering there's the Supreme Court justice from California.
Now she doesn't sit on a federal court,
but she does in fact sit on the Supreme Court already.
That's attractive to the president.
Plus this would be a major shoutout to who else but
the vice president.
So that would be a big one plus Michelle Childs in south Carolina.
She has a lot of support from a lot of important congressional leaders,
including the two senators from south Carolina who happened to be republicans,
but she's not as popular with the Progressive left.
So these are kind of the top three picks.
There are many other women in judicial positions across this
country who are black women who could be considered.
But these three are really kind of on
the tongues and minds of everyone around Washington.
So the president will start those interviews. Those will be in person interviews.
There's no reason they wouldn't be.
And it will also be really instructive to see exactly what information we get
and don't get out of the White house because leaks will be very strategic,
but he's only got two weeks to make a decision and we'll be watching very closely ken,
Alright.
Megan Prats live outside Washington. Thank you as always for that report. Megan.
All right.
So the Ambassador Bridge, a crucial border crossing between the us and Canada.
Well it's open but police had to
get involved and they arrested demonstrators yesterday.
The bridge carries about $360 million dollars worth of goods per day.
In the nearly week long siege disrupted auto production in both countries.
Canada's Prime Minister,
Justin Trudeau said he will invoke emergency
powers to suppress the protests in Ottawa.
Truckers in the convoy are protesting the covid 19
vaccine mandate blockading streets downtown for more than two weeks
and a federal prosecutor has opened the hate crimes trial
of um are are berries killers by describing racist views.
The three men had expressed
including slurs,
the prosecutors saying George McMichael,
his son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William bryan
made false assumptions of our very because of the color of his skin.
Earlier 12 jurors and four alternates were selected. Eight of them are white.
Three are black and one juror is hispanic
that muk Michaels and brian have all pleaded not guilty in the federal case.
They were convicted of murder in a state court last year
and johnson and johnson subsidiary is under attack in court for attempting
to use the bankruptcy process to resolve tens of thousands of claims
that its talc based products cause cancer.
L. T. L. Management was launched to take the brunt off potential liabilities
in a legal maneuver known as the Texas two step
with its launch. L. T. L. Filed for
bankruptcy. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argue that allowing the L. T. L.
Bankruptcy to proceed would unfairly cap the payout
at $2 billion before the proposed subsidiary bankruptcy.
J and J faced $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements
and Russian figure skater Kamala Dala Eva is cleared to compete,
giving her an opportunity for a second gold
medal at the Beijing olympics.
But there's a Catch Vala even tested positive for a banned substance in december
with the court of arbitration for sport ruled in the favor of the 15 year old
due to the fact that she's a minor and does not need to be
provisionally suspended ahead of a full investigation.
Now, however,
the IOC says no medal ceremonies involving
Bolivia will take place during the Games.
That includes the ceremony for the team event, in which the us placed second
meaning athletes will leave the olympics without their medals
and a special programming note.
Cheddar news has you covered with the latest
from Beijing winter olympics from who's going home
with gold to the trending moments from the
Games tune into our special business of sports.
The Beijing winter olympics 2022 on friday february 18th
at 4:30 p.m. Eastern right here on cheddar news.
Okay, Sad news from Hollywood. Ghostbusters director, Ivan Reitman
has died according to his family. The prolific filmmaker died peacefully
in his sleep, saturday night at his home in California.
His Children said in a joint statement quote,
we take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness.
The countless others around the world.
Women's directing and producing credits include animal house stripes,
Ghostbusters, old school and up in the air.
He was 75 years old.
Alright,
so now let's take a look at a few global coronavirus headlines that we're watching.
We're learning why the FDA is plan to expedite authorization
of Pfizer's Covid vaccine for Children under five was delayed
dr scott gallop, who is
current fighter board member and former head of the FDA,
saying it was because of a low number of cases overall in the clinical trial
gallop explained that with most kids not getting symptomatic covid.
One case in either direction can impact
how regulators see the vaccines overall effectiveness.
The FDA says, well,
wait on data surrounding the effectiveness and
safety of a third dose for tolerance,
which won't come until april
and new data shows more than half of the
people in Minnesota who tested positive for covid in december
were vaccinated.
The data does not specify if they had received boosters though.
The state Health Department says the american variant was a large part of the trend.
However,
health officials say getting vaccinated and boosted remains
the best way to avoid becoming severely ill
as well as slow the spread
a mayo clinic expert emphasizes the vaccines are doing an excellent
job at what they were designed to do prevent severe disease,
Keep people out of the hospital and keep those people from dying.
Now, Sweden is recommending people ages 80 and up,
should get 1/4 dose of the code vaccine in order to fight waning immunity
in the face of Oh Macron,
the new recommendation says the second booster should be
administered at least four months after the first.
This comes after Sweden hit record infection levels earlier this year.
However, the country is scaling back pandemic restrictions and
testing this month, relying on boosters and milder symptoms
to ease pressure on their health care systems.
And finally, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for COVID-19
UK officials say she will self isolate and
a royal source says the duchess's triple vaccinated.
The duchess's positive result comes after her husband,
Prince Charles tested positive last week.
This is the first time she has caught the virus, but her husband,
who is first in line to the throne has caught it twice