Aid To Ukraine, Sen. Tuberville and Military Promotions, Fourth Republican Debate
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Ukraine counter offensive against russia brought few gains on the battle field.

These days, people like exhausted people attired.

will the U. S. And european union approve more a to ukraine despite the current .

stema skip with Michelle Martin n. And this is at first from N, P, R. news. Senator Tommy tuberville mostly dropped his protest against a pentagon rule on abortion.

We still get a Better tried to stand up the taxpayers of this country.

So why did he finally let four hundred promotions go forward now?

And a republican primary debate is tonight, and tesco sa alabama with just four presidential candidates.

If you don't win over those alabanda in the debate room that that may fall short of what people see then on TV.

is there any fallout from truth skipping the debate? Again, stay with us will give you need to start.

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Ukraine is facing a crisis over billions and military and economic aid from its most important backs, ers, the united states and the european union. Europeans are divided. The U. S. Congress is frozen, and the White house says russia will win this war .

without more funding. Bad timing ukraine counteroffensive has stalled in russian forces .

revenging p ukraine correspondent, join is is from key to tell us more about all this. Hello jana.

Hello ml.

So why is a to ukraine up in the air right now?

So bitch all, let's start with the united states, which has been perhaps ukrainian biggest global champion. U. S. Aid to ukraine is set to run out at the end of this year. And now IT looks unlikely that congress will approve new aid before then.

Republicans say they won't approve a spending bill that includes sixty one billion dollars for ukraine unless there's money for a border funding. Ukrainian president vladimir zealand, he was supposed to speak via video link to the senate, but he canceled at the last minute. The land's chief of staff, though, is in dc, and ukrainy foreign minister insisted the ukraine ans are lobbying everyone to make sure the funding comes through.

And what about the european and union, ukraine's other major supporter, and they're closer to the action, Frankly.

that's right. Well, IT turns out that the leaders of the european union also divided. They're supposed to meet next week to discuss a budget that includes the equivalent of about fifty four billion dollars in military economic to ukraine.

And they're also set to decide whether to open membership talks with ukraine. But any decisions, Michelle, require the approval of all twenty seven member states. And right now, the prime minister of hungary, Victor or born, he says he opposes more ad ukraine as well as opening eu membership talks.

Orban is close to the kremlin, as is another eu leader, the prime minister of slovakia. I spoke with a ukrainian journalist and soldier public cassan about this, and he told me that all this uncertainty only helps russia. He's saying if what we're talking about here is decreasing or stopping aid or the supply of weapons, of course this means that ukraine will lose more territory.

So trying to tell us more about what's happening on the battle field now?

Yeah, well, even as winter sets in parts of the front line are on fire. For the last couple of months, russian forces have been pushing hard to capture ukrainian land. Two fronts in the east.

The most difficult battle is around a town called that dev ka. Before the war, IT had about thirty two thousand people. IT also has ukraine ine's largest coke plant.

And that's the fuel, not the soda. Ah, now only a few hundred residents remain an eva. Ca, they're hiding basements and the russians are advancing.

And what about the ukrainian counteroffensive that we've heard so much about?

Yeah, well, the ground Operations for ukraine's counteroffensive are largely stalled, in part because russian forces have fortified their positions and land mind the front, especially in the south. I spoke to a member of ukraine's parliament, illumina bobo ka, as SHE serves on the defense committee, and he tells me what she's hearing from her.

These days, people like exhausted people attired people understand that if you want to get Victory and to take one village, to put one flag, IT costs a lot. And then that's a long way we have to go still.

And so IT feels like this will be a very bleak winter. They moved around. The country is much more pessimistic than IT was last year.

That's in paris. Joanna cassis and cave and a thank you so much.

your luck. And michel L.

Back here in the U. S, after nine months, alabama republican senator Tommy tuber ville has allowed more than four hundred military promotions to proceed.

He've been putting a hold on senate votes to approve those promotions. And hold like this is the targeting of any senator, though it's rarely used to this extent. Tab ravel was protesting a pentagon policy that remembers service members for traveling for abortion services. He admits he failed to change that policy.

We didn't get to win. We wanted. We still got a bad policy. Try to stand up the taxpayers of this country.

npr congressional correspondent, director waters, with us now to tell us more about this. Good morning data. Good morning this.

So as we just said, this is going on for months now. What made top will decide to back down now? Like why now?

A really political pressure, but notably, some of the most public criticism came from fellow senate republicans who are growing frustrated. Some sharper bugs came from military veterans like eye, a senator, jane urn, still ask a senator, dan Sullivan, who warned about the damage this was causing to the military.

Also, senate majority leader chuck humor was planning a vote to get around to rebels hold to change how the senate approves military promotions. In some senate, republicans were open to voting for that, senators complained. Tuberville was blocking hundreds of officers promotions over a policy that they weren't involved in crafting. This was a policy put into place after the supreme court overturned rovers is wade IT covered the cost service members incurred for accessing abortion services, some needed to travel out of state following new laws banning the procedure. Tuber will admitted the holds didn't work, but he said he might fight the policy in court.

I think we, we saw some success. We didn't get as much as as we wanted. But again, when they change rules on you had no opportunity to to, other than possibly down the road. I law school.

okay, he says he had some success duty.

No, I mean, no policy has change at all. I mean, he argues, he put a spotlight on the issue, but he also admit any legal fight he could wage could take a really long time to play out. His whole block actions on these promotions was really unprecedented in terms of how many people had impacted, how long IT lasted. But as Steve mentioned, the senate rules, any one senator has the ability to place these holes. Summer warn, this episode should be a warning to others to not do this.

He held out for many, many months, heard our national security, caused discompose lation to so many military families who have been so dedicated to our country and didn't get anything that he wanted.

And and one of the pentagon's response to this whole episode, and I also wanted, know he hasn't dropped all the holes, has he? They're still some that he's holding up.

right? He's still holding up. Eleven, four star generals, top of the says he wants a more thoro wedding of these top leaders. Dependent is pushing for them to be approved quickly, depending on spokesman. Regular general patt writer stressed that these generals include the vice chiefs of various services. The commander of the pacific fat, the northern command commander of cyber command space command rider, says these are all key areas overseeing a lot of policy and needs senate .

approval quickly, clearly vital in critical organizations, all of which require experienced senior leaders in those positions quickly.

Did you before we let you go? What were the repercussions of this backlog on the families of service members?

A lot of people were in limbo from months. Officers were unable to move for their new positions that impacted their spouses getting jobs or their kids starting new schools. Summer brought up the promotions hours after taboo released the hold, and over four hundred were approved by voice vote.

That is, appears there war to. Thank you.

Thanks for.

Four of the remaining republic and presidential candidates will be on stage for tonight's debate in alabama.

and four is the smallest lineup so far. Florida govern a descente st. Former south CarOlina governor nicki Haley, the entrepreneur, the VC ra swanny, and former new jersey governor Christie, former president trump will not be there, instead attending a fund raiser near miami.

M. P, R. Franco or donis is here with us to talk about the stakes of this fourth republican debate. And he's actually here with us in the studio. Good morning.

Good morning.

Was okay. So who are you going to be watching .

most closely and be watching nicky hai and radiation antis? I expect a lot of people will be also I mean, hailee got some momentum.

She's actually caught up to descanted s in 投 and that's really LED to some greater interest for her on the campaign trail as well as with donors。 You know, she's also picked up some big money donors in recent weeks and this debate is another chance for heard to make the case that she's the best alternative to trump, who of course, is still the front runner to sanus is meanwhile is going to try to defend his second place position. He's really fighting for attention.

okay. So the debate is in obama, but the eva caucuses are just six weeks away. So how how are they going to sort of handle that or .

speak to that? This is going to be a lot of obama republicans in the room, but they don't vote until super tuesday, which is in march. Republican strategist dug hey told me that he is too late. He says the most important voters are an ira, new hampshire .

and south CarOlina. Now you still have to win over the room, because if you don't win over those abandons in the debate room, that that may fall all short of what people see then on TV. But if you're nicki hai around discendent st. Especially, and you will have a break out moment here. That break out moment is defined by how you translate into the polls into those early caucus and primary states.

Now he expects the candidates will be spending a lot of time speaking to issues that are important to voters in those three states. And plus a republican primary, there's really not a lot of difference between the policy positions for those remaining candidates. So they need to stand out in other ways. It's going to be more about personalities OK.

But the biggest personality trump won't be there. I think I rank I think we keep saying this over and over again. I mean, this is the fourth book. This is the fourth time he hasn't gon has his absence made a difference? I mean.

that really hasn't dented his support. You know he still, of course, is going to be know the elephant who is not in the room. He's going to likely dominate all parts of the conversation, at least many parts of the conversation. We ll see if the candidates go after him directly, which they haven't so much. I in his hold really remains very strong.

but this time he doesn't have some separate event planned to go inside with the debate.

Yeah that's probably the biggest change. There's no counter programing process. He hasn't scheduled any other events to can steal attention away. And that, you know not insignificant. I mean, that means maybe more republicans will tune into the debate. And really with fewer candidates on stage, that means they might have some more time to talk, they might have some more time to shine. But you, again, this is still very much a race for second place. And these debates there are kind of supposed to be these big events in the presidential primary, you know, these markey nights, but trumps absence has kind accept some of that energy away, kind of taken away some of the .

drama that we've come to expect every four years.

And that's a first for wednesday, december six.

I Michelle Martin, and i'm Stephen skip. Today's episode was edited by marc, Kathy snow and making prats produced by lily, chaos monkey, corona and linsey totted, we get engineer support from the ever supportive daily abbott. And our technical director is that comma, john.

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