there are the military costs, the billions of dollars spent, the cities destroyed and the territories seized. the military, the lives lost, the refugees forced from their homes, the disruption to daily lives for ukrainians living in the shadow of putin s war, not to mention the spike in food and and energy costs beyond the theater of war, and these costs all continue to mount. this week, the u.s. pledged nearly $3 billion in additional security aid to ukraine. this comes as putin decreed in the size of the military as well. after half a year of war, what would it bring to bring this conflict to a close? i want to speak to john kirby now. admiral kirby, thank you for taking the time to be with us this morning. great to be with you, jim. first let s begin with the state of the war a half year in. the u.s. has given its biggest military package so far, and you increasingly hear from ukrainians not just about defending ground or defending territory, but we re seeing them atta
back up to, let s just say, many, many months, which would be an enormous improvement. okay. as you know, iran has many other ways of exerting aggression on its partners around the world. we ve seen details about a plot to assassinate john boltage in just recent weeks and months. what is your answer about those who say this will give billions of dollars of sanction relief to a state sponsor of terrorism? first of all, that was the same argument that was used in 2015, and the fundamental issue is does one or does one not of course, president obama decided to move forward reach an agreement on the understanding that they would have additional resources. now, in the meantime, the so-called maximum pressure campaign that president trump
good morning to you. it is tuesday, december the 20th. i m ali velshi joined again by alina cho this morning. good morning. good morning to you. so glad you re with us and up first, the u.s. keeping an eye out for advancing troops and any other threatening moves after the death of a dictator in north korea. north korean media show the images of kim jong-il s body laid out in a glass coffin. his third son and successor, kim jong un, paying respects. and live for us in seoul, south korea, anna, good morning. the south korean government sending its condolences along with a dose of what some are calling christian mystery diplomacy. what s that all about? reporter: that is right, alina. the sense of condolence, the official wording from the south korean government. this is a real thorn in relations because relations between the two countries hit rock bottom of late. it s worst of the relationships for years. offering sympathies certainly seems to be an act of south korea reach
through northern iowa into southern wisconsin. so travel very difficult in the heartland. so where s the tornado outbreak? this area in red is a moderate risk of severe storms, and chris, the chance of tornadoes, it looks like the st. louis area, down to memphis, including little rock, back up to louisville, indianapolis, and lexington. that s by far the worst of the weather. we re just moments away from the president s town hall meeting, where he is expected to talk about america s debt and the warning from the s&p about the u.s. s credit rating. and our richard lui has been tracking skyrocketing gas prices, which we know, richard, have been contributing to his lower approval ratings. what s it look like where you are? reporter: yeah, chris, we re going to be looking at prices so high at this station, the owner has run out of numbers. i ll tell you how high the prices will be come this memorial day, coming up.