good afternoon to you and yours. first from fox at 3:00 in new york city. we have new developments out of ukraine. a major gun battle marks a turning point in the crisis there. for the very first time since all of this began, ukrainian troops are striking back. finally making good on threats to stand up against the pro russian forces tearing apart the eastern part of the country. the ukrainian government reports troops took on gunmen and storms the airport. the firefight came hours after ukraine s acting president announced an anti-terror operation. pro russian forces have taken over government buildings in cities across eastern ukraine and western officials say tens of thousands of russian troops have gathered along ukraine s eastern border. the red line right near. not a good situation. western leaders blame president vladimir putin for fueling the uprising. that s exactly what happened when putin took over crimea back in march. only this time, it appears ukraine s military
librarian. pierson s one victim clair davis remains in critical condition this morning. there s a silver lining for one of the victims of april s boston marathon bombing. james costello was severely injured in the blast this spring. he had taken a look at him in a picture in the aftermath. he was burned. his clothes were in tatters. he endured a long, long rehabilitation including skin grafts and procedure to remove nails from his abt men. but that s where he met nurse krista dagastino. while on a cruise for the bombing, the two of them, costello popped the question and she said yes. he said i now realize why i was involved in the tragedy, it was to meet my best friend and the love of my life. i know. a little choked up. it s a really nice end to that story. now to business. later today we get an update on
neighborhood killing two people on board. witnesses say the pilot apappeared to make a sharp turn right before that plane went down. i thought for sure he hit a neighbor s house. he did it on purpose. i mean, he banked it on purpose so he wouldn t hit any houses. that flight had just taken off and was on its way to new orleans. astronauts gearing up for three spacewalks. the first one is scheduled for this saturday. they need to fix a broken cooling line on the international space station. we ve been telling you about that angle of the story. they hadn t shut down all nonessential equipment after half of the cooling system shut down last week. a happy update to share with you this morning. a victim of the boston marathon bombing is now engaged to a nurse who helped save him. or helped bring him back to life, so to speak. james costello, seen in this photo taken after the bombing, he needed multiple surgeries to treat severe wounds and also shrapnel
0 sign saying merry christmas. thanks to everyone who responded. the daughters who live in that house are going to be on fox & friends coming up. you want to stay tuned to hear their side of the story. absolutely. fox & friends starts right now. hope you have a great day. they ll be on at 8:20. have a good one. bye. good morning. it is wednesday, december 18. i m elisabeth hasselbeck. two people just woke up filthy rich, but there could even be more winners. we re going to show you the mega millions numbers coming up. the government s budget deal may have support on both sides of the aisle but is it on the back of our heroes? now disabled american veterans are being shown the door. talk about a man s best friend. a service dog leaps in front of an on coming train to save his blind owner. and they both survive. fox & friends, as far as we can tell, starts now. hey, this is justice napolitano wishing you a merry christmas and happy new year from fox & friends. loo
0 i feel good. i don t even know. i can t sleep tonight. teeing good! another winning ticket was sold in georgia in atlanta. each one worth $318 million, but, of course, you take the lump sum, it is a measly $170 million. let s move on to other news this morning. the senate ended debate on the ryan murray budget proposal setting up a fim vote on the bill later today. 12 republicans voted to advance the bill along with every democrat and independent in the senate. minority leader mitch mcconnell and marco rubio and ted cruz and rand paul voted against the measure. a number of republicans were against a portion of the bill that will cut $6 billion in retirement benefits for veterans. but senate leader harry reid blocked an amendment that would have blocked those cuts. president obama now expects to sign the bipartisan bill if it passes the final votes before he heads to hawaii for the winter pushed back on the surveillance programs making a hard case for some reform. after the meeting,