gallagher in los angeles as we continue our live coverage of the crisis in eastern europe. it is 10:00 p.m. here on the west coast, 8:00 o clock thursday morning in the ukrainian capital kyiv. the battle for ukraine s independence now in its 36 day with tempered optimism of a nearing cease fire . as one ukrainian city official puts it, russia s pledge to scale back the war turned out to be quote a complete lie. in reality, russia is turning up the heat around the capital , shelling homes, stores, libraries and other civilians. moscow also stepping up its brutal assault on the southeastern donbas region after redeploying troops . vladimir putin wants that area turned over to separatists in washington. president biden has pledged an additional 500 million dollars in aid to ukraine. but with thousands now dead on both sides and the number of war refugees topping four million, president vladimir
corrupt venezuelan government officials. the vice president of venezuela was designated as a drug trafficking kingpin. over 500 million dollars of his drug trafficking related assets, 500 million dollars were seized in the united states alone. they have made such incredible advances on holding the corrupt venezuelan government officials holding them accountable. and it is unfair that president trump is not getting credit for it. does this gesture releasing an american change anything significant in terms of relations going forward? well, i think it s a very small step in the venezuelan government trying to generate and build up a bit more confidence. and they really have a long way to go because they have ostracized not just the united states but the entire region, all of latin america. they haven t upheld their part of many bargains of kind of many deals that they have been making in many negotiations. i think it is i mean, it is one small step. very early to tell but hopefully
they are getting 500 million dollars. rick? kevin, there was a late friday night decision on transgender troops that apparently restrict many who currently serve and ban others who might. can you tell us about that policy? listen, here s what happened. the senior military at the pentagon have been advising the president throughout in this circumstance and they are telling him listen you have to listen to us. we know what s best on the ground. effectively what this does rick is it means if you are transgender and you are in the service, you can still serve. you will be limited however given what you can do to serve your country. others who hope to join the military who happen to be transgender, the road to join the u.s. services just got a whole lot tougher. let me share a bit of a statement from the defense secretary. he said this in my professional judgment these policy wills place the department of defense these policies will place the department of defense in the strongest pos
hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for planned parenthood. white house officials say yep, it s a bitter pill to swallow, but a necessary one says the president. we looked at a veto. i looked very seriously at the veto. i was thinking about doing the veto, but because of the incredible gains that we ve been able to make for the military, that overrode any of our any of our thinking. criticism obviously from the right in particular, rick, for not fully funding a border wall separating the u.s. and mexico, but again, they say the money, the 1.6 billion is more or less a down payment. this will be more payments as they try to fund that southern border barrier. meanwhile, planned parenthood still getting over about a half billion dollars, 500 million dollars in this particular budget. they say they do not use federal funds to fund abortion services, but critics still wonder why