Por Helen Regan y Daria Tarasova, CNN

Los negociadores ucranianos, estadounidenses y rusos mantendrán conversaciones en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos el viernes, lo que marca la primera reunión conocida a la que asistirán los tres países desde la invasión a gran escala de Moscú en 2022.

El asesor del Kremlin, Yuri Ushakov, confirmó que Rusia se uniría a representantes de Ucrania y Estados Unidos en la primera reunión del grupo de trabajo trilateral sobre seguridad en Abu Dabi, confirmando así una declaración previa del presidente de Ucrania, Volodymyr Zelensky. No especificó la hora prevista para el inicio de las conversaciones.

Las conversaciones se producen después de que el enviado especial del presidente Trump, Steve Witkoff, y su yerno, Jared Kushner, se reunieran con el presidente de Rusia, Vladimir Putin, durante más de tres horas desde la noche del jueves. El asesor del Kremlin, Ushakov, describió esas conversaciones como “excepcionalmente sustanciales, constructivas y, diría yo, extremadamente francas y confidenciales”.

Pero también advirtió que “sin resolver la cuestión territorial… no se debe contar con lograr una solución a largo plazo”, y agregó que Rusia seguirá persiguiendo sus objetivos “en el campo de batalla, donde las Fuerzas Armadas rusas tienen la iniciativa estratégica”, hasta que se alcance un acuerdo.

Los recientes esfuerzos liderados por Estados Unidos para mediar el fin de la guerra de cuatro años no han logrado detener los combates, y las demandas de Moscú de que Ucrania ceda el territorio reclamado por Rusia han sido durante mucho tiempo un punto de fricción en las negociaciones.

Rusia ocupa alrededor del 20 % del territorio reconocido por el derecho internacional como parte de la Ucrania soberana, incluida casi toda la región de Luhansk y partes de las regiones de Donetsk, Kherson y Zaporizhia.

Las antiguas demandas maximalistas de Moscú incluyen que Ucrania entregue la totalidad de estas cuatro regiones, que ha anexado pero no ha conquistado totalmente.

La delegación rusa a Abu Dabi estará encabezada por el almirante jefe de la Dirección General de Inteligencia, Ígor Olegovich Kostyukov. La delegación ucraniana incluirá al subjefe de la oficina presidencial y jefe del Estado Mayor, Andrii Hnatov. La Casa Blanca aún no ha hecho comentarios sobre la reunión.

Minutos después de que comenzara la reunión entre Putin y Witkoff, Rusia dijo que su avión bombardero de largo alcance realizó el jueves un vuelo de patrullaje programado de cinco horas sobre el Mar Báltico, una acción probablemente pensada como una demostración de fuerza a medida que se intensifican los esfuerzos diplomáticos.

Horas antes de volar a Moscú, Witkoff dijo que las negociaciones “se habían reducido a un solo tema”, sugiriendo que tal vez un acuerdo estaba al alcance.

“Creo que lo hemos reducido a un solo problema y hemos discutido iteraciones de ese problema, y ​​eso significa que tiene solución”, dijo, hablando en un evento en Davos el jueves.

Un funcionario europeo confirmó más tarde a CNN que el tema restante al que se refería Witkoff era el territorio, sin dar más detalles.

El objetivo del líder de Rusia, Vladímir Putin, ha sido durante mucho tiempo la región ucraniana del Donbás, con ricas tierras de cultivo e importantes ríos. La pérdida de la región dejaría las vastas llanuras del centro de Ucrania vulnerables a cualquier futura ofensiva rusa.

La administración Trump ha aumentado la presión sobre Ucrania para que acepte un acuerdo de paz, a pesar de las preocupaciones generalizadas de que un acuerdo de ese tipo podría favorecer a Moscú .

Durante su discurso en Davos, el presidente de EE.UU. pareció indi

CNN, WSB, WLS, KCTV, WABC, WCHS, NORTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE, NC GOVERNOR VIA YOUTUBE

By Meteorologist Chris Dolce, CNN

(CNN) — More than half of the United States is about to face one of the most sprawling and menacing winter storms in years, one that threatens to deliver a historic blow of snow and ice.

The long-lasting storm begins Friday and, by its end on Monday, will have dropped a foot or more of snow and catastrophic amounts of ice over its 1,500-mile path from Texas to the Northeast. At least 10 states have already declared a state of emergency, and over 1,300 flights scheduled for Saturday have been canceled as the storm approaches.

Major Northeast cities like New York and Philadelphia could get their largest snowfall in at least four years, while major cities in the South anticipate devastating amounts of ice.

Over 160 million people across more than two dozen states are under winter storm or ice storm alerts, from the Southern Rockies and Plains, all the way to New England.

Major travel disruption on roads and at airports is expected across the storm’s entire footprint, and widespread and potentially long-lasting power outages are also possible, particularly from its ice storm in the South.

Extreme and record-breaking cold will only worsen the storm and its impacts by causing snow and ice to accumulate faster on roads, making them harder to treat, and possibly leaving those who lose power shivering without heat for days.

Travel and power outage impacts could last into at least early next week for areas that see significant snow and ice.

Here’s the latest on the storm:

Track shifts, with huge implications

The track of this storm has become clearer and has shifted north over the past couple of days.

That shift has implicated more of the Midwest and Northeast with heavy snow while still delivering destructive ice to a large portion of the South.

Its track could still shift slightly, and that could affect the exact amounts of freezing rain, sleet and snow each area receives, with dramatic effects.

“Even small shifts could lead to large changes in local impacts,” the Weather Prediction Center said.

It all begins Friday in the Plains, where the storm’s huge pool of moist air begins to clash with Arctic air. Through the weekend, the frigid temperatures will continue to feed the storm’s east and northeast expanding footprint, which covers more than two dozen states from the Plains to the South and Northeast.

The storm will finally exit New England by late Monday after spreading more snow and strong winds across the region and wreaking more travel havoc.

Ice could knock out power to many

Damaging ice from freezing rain is the storm’s most seri

By Tierney Sneed, Sarah Owermohle, CNN

(CNN) — As thousands of protestors demonstrate in Washington, DC, at Friday’s annual March for Life, the Trump administration faces a deadline to explain why it opposes a lawsuit that would achieve a key goal of its allies in the anti-abortion movement by ending the availability of abortion pills by mail.

The lawsuit, brought by Louisiana against the President Donald Trump-appointed health officials, is one of several pressure points the anti-abortion movement is pressing to push the administration to limit access to medication abortion, which now accounts for roughly two-thirds of all abortions in the United States.

“We’re at a point where, from a lot of the pro-life movement’s perspective, this is too important to play political games with,” Katie Glenn Daniel, the director of legal affairs for SBA Pro-Life America, told CNN. “They could pull these drugs out of the mail tomorrow. The justification is more than there.”

While Trump has erected some hurdles to abortion in his second term, his administration has not reversed regulatory rules that have allowed abortion pills to be sent by the mail. That policy, enacted under President Joe Biden, has made it possible for women within states that limit of ban abortion to obtain the two-step drug regimen used to terminate a pregnancy.

Trump health officials promised to look at the drug’s safety data, but they have been noncommittal about when that would happen, or if they would ultimately reverse the Biden-era changes.

“Where we are is that that the Trump administration has managed not to say anything,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at UC-Davis and author of several books about the anti-abortion movement. “It seems pretty clear politically that all the steps that Republicans and abortion opponents are taking aren’t really moving the administration.”

Anger within the anti-abortion community over the lack of action has reached a fever pitch and is manifesting in lawsuits, congressional hearings and calls for the firing of a top Trump appointee.

“We can simply fix this if we have the courage to do it,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and staunch Trump ally, said last week. “So, what all of us are telling the administration: ‘you’ve been a very pro-life president, Mr. President, it’s now time to deal with this issue.’”

The White House, which did not respond to CNN’s inquiry, is this week announcing new anti-abortion measures related to federal funding, including an expansion of a policy that bars foreign aid to groups that promote abortion. But SBA-List said that addressing abortion drugs was an “urgent” issue the administration must act on.

“If there are those that don’t care about the life issue, they should care about the politics of this,” said Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council. “This is going to be a political problem for those who have sold out the pro-life movement.”

Ire directed at Trump health officials

At a Senate hearing last week that aired GOP grievances about how medication abortion was reaching states that had banned the procedure, Republicans made clear that they had lost patience with the administration.

“Republican members of this committee and many other senators expect an answer,” said Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, the chair of the committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “At an absolute minimum, the previous in-person safeguards should be restored and that should be done immediately.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said in a September letter to Republican attorneys general that he had ordered drug regulators to “review the latest data” on mifepristone’s risks and safety. But Kennedy and agency spokespeople did not say when the review began or how long it would take.

Abortion advocates and mifepr

By Taylor Romine, CNN

(CNN) — Three people who denounced federal immigration agents in a protest at a St. Paul church on Sunday were arrested on federal charges and kept in custody Wednesday — and more arrests could be coming.

The protesters were charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, according to the Department of Homeland Security, after they and several others disrupted a Sunday service with chants denouncing Immigrations and Custom Enforcement over a pastor’s apparent role at the agency.

“They are trying to turn a peaceful, nonviolent demonstration into a crime,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the protesters arrested Thursday in an interview the night before her arrest, saying the focus should instead be on “what ICE has done” and their ”extremely brutal” enforcement actions in the campaign across the Twin Cities and Minnesota at large.

“I just don’t understand how this man looks himself in the mirror, and I don’t know how anyone who claims to be Christian could condone his behavior and the dual nature of the roles that he plays,” she said.

The arrests come as federal agents continue intense immigration enforcement, an incursion repeatedly criticized by state and local officials as unwanted, especially after the death of Renee Good. Despite Thursday’s arrests, people remained out in the streets protesting the Trump administration’s crackdown on the region.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey denounced the arrest of one of the protesters, calling it “a gross abuse of power,” while the White House celebrated — and also posted an altered photo of one of the protesters who was arrested.

Here is what we know about the arrests of the protesters:

What the protest was about

On Sunday, a group of people entered Cities Church in St. Paul during a service, where they sat and listened to the pastor preach, Levy Armstrong told CNN’s Erin Burnett. She was one of the people arrested Thursday and is also a Christian reverend.

After the pastor was finished praying, Levy Armstrong rose and repeated one of his statements, saying, “You just prayed that God would chasten you and help you get your house in order,” she told CNN in another interview. “And he said, ‘Correct.’ I felt that was an invitation for dialogue.”

She said she asked him about David Easterwood, who is listed as a pastor at the church and appears to be the same David Easterwood who is a top ICE official in the Twin Cities.

Easterwood was recently named as a defendant in a case brought by protesters who allege immigration agents violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights. A DHS spokesperson declined to say whether Easterwood was employed with ICE, saying “DHS will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers.”

When Levy Armstrong mentioned Easterwood’s name, she said the pastor started saying “Shame, shame.”

“And that is when I led us in chants: ‘Justice for Renee Good’ and ‘Hands up, don’t shoot,’” she said.

Video of the protest obtained by CNN shows people in the church sitting down as one person’s voice can be heard yelling. A man’s voice is heard saying “You are interfering,” and people started to get up from their seats and chant “Justice for Renee Good.” Another video obtained by CNN shows protesters chanting “ICE out.”

After officers responded to multiple calls reporting up to 40 protesters in the church

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) -

High School Girls Basketball:

Ventura 69, Pacifica 21: Kai Staniland poured in 24 points for the Cougars who are 10-0 in the Channel League.

Dos Pueblos 60, Rio Mesa 49 (2OT): Carly Letendre scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for DP.

San Marcos 52, Oxnard 24: Lily Ruvalcaba had 18 points for the Royals.

Buena 49, Santa Barbara 18: Presley Bosch scored 10 points for Bulldogs.

High School Girls Soccer:

Buena 3, Dos Pueblos 2: Tatiana Padilla scored a goal and had 2 assists for the Bulldogs who lead Channel League at 7-0-4.

San Marcos 1, Rio Mesa 0: Zeina Matni scored for Royals.

Santa Barbara 3, Pacifica 1: Paloma Valenzuela, Sofia Lopez and Lanaya Solis scored goals for the Dons.

Oxnard 1, Ventura 0: Ashley Herrera scored the lone goal of the match.

Laguna Blanca 4, Santa Clara 0: Elle Harris scored 2 goals for the Owls.

Coastal Christian 2, Bishop Diego 1

Thacher 3, St. Bonaventure 2

Grace 3, Cate 1: Scarlett Angel had a hat trick for the Lancers.

High School Boys Soccer:

Pacifica 3, Santa Barbara 0: Francisco Hernandez scored two goals for the Tritons who lead the Channel League at 8-2.

San Marcos 3, Rio Mesa 1: Ricky Olivo scored two goals for the Royals.

Dos Pueblos 3, Buena 3: Owen Ribbens tallied two goals for DP.

Ventura 1, Oxnard 0: Steven Mayorga had the lone goal of the match.

High School Girls Water Polo:

San Marcos 9, Long Beach Wilson 8: Jade Pattison scored 4 goals as the Royals won on the first day of the Elite 8 Tournament in Newport Beach.

Dos Pueblos 19, Rio Mesa 7: 10 different Chargers scored goals led by MacKenzie Beard scoring her first three varsity goals.

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