There are greater than 1,700 college students from Ukraine finding out at faculties and universities within the U.S.
Many are balancing finding out overseas with organizing on campus to lift consciousness concerning the warfare.
In the meantime, college students try to determine find out how to keep within the US on non permanent protected standing or if they’ll even return dwelling to Ukraine.
Regardless of being 1000’s of miles away from the shelling in Ukraine, Marta Hulievska will get anxious when she hears loud sounds. The freshman at Dartmouth School is usually occupied with her household who fled the Russian navy, her dad who stays of their hometown, and when she’ll have the ability to return dwelling.
She’s afraid to fall asleep and miss information about her household.
“You sort of enter like this various world the place you are not in America and you are not in Ukraine, you are like someplace in between,” she stated, describing her expertise as “second-hand PTSD.”
“And this simply impacts your psychological well being lots.”
For the reason that Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hulievska, 19, has continued finding out medieval historical past and artistic writing whereas fundraising and organizing rallies with the newly shaped Ukrainian Pupil Affiliation at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. It has helped distract herself from continually checking the information.
In the meantime, her mom, sisters and grandmother have been compelled to flee to western Ukraine from Zaporizhzhia when Russian navy forces took over Europe’s largest nuclear plant. She worries about her father, who stayed behind and has to maintain the lights off after darkish to defend himself from Russian troops concentrating on civilian areas. She stated he’s usually awoken by the sound of sirens summoning him to bomb shelters — typically as much as thrice an evening.
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“There’s lots of guilt concerned too, you understand. Why am I right here within the secure place the place they don’t seem to be?” she stated. “Typically, it is like one step away from despair.”
Hulievska is one among a whole lot of Ukrainian college students residing in the USA and anxiously awaiting information about family and friends who stay there amid the invasion. Many are balancing finding out overseas with organizing on campus to lift consciousness concerning the warfare. Not sure if they will have the opportunity to return to Ukraine when their packages finish, many try to seek out methods to remain within the nation longer.
“It’s actually arduous to be going via a disaster in your nation once you’re not in your nation,” stated Sarah Ilchman, co-president of the Institute of Worldwide Schooling, a nonprofit that helps college students and students join with worldwide experiences. “Possibly there are individuals at dwelling who have been going to pay for his or her tuition and that is not there anymore.”
‘THIS IS MY LAND, I STAY’: These Ukrainian ladies are amongst 1000’s selecting to battle, not flee
There are greater than 1,700 college students from Ukraine finding out at faculties and universities within the U.S., in line with a 2021 report from the institute.
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The IIE has launched grants and scholarships — and is taking donations — to supply assets for Ukrainian college students, threatened and displaced students, and pupil refugees, Ilchman stated. On campuses, worldwide pupil service workplaces are additionally facilitating emergency funding, serving to join Ukrainian college students and provide psychological well being assets.
“That is so critically necessary to help college students holistically,” stated Ilchman. “Once they’re in disaster, it’s good to maintain all of the wants not simply the the visa standing or the tutorial or the monetary, however clearly clearly additionally the emotional.”
Establishments are additionally serving to college students safe non permanent protected standing, which the Division of Homeland Safety early this month prolonged to Ukrainians who’ve lived in the USA since March. The standing will defend them from deportation for the subsequent 18 months.
RETURNING HOME:Worldwide college students lastly escape Ukraine: ‘It felt like a miracle’
Anastasiia Pereverten, 19, plans to use for non permanent protected standing after she finishes the spring semester on the College of Wyoming the place she is finding out cultural research. She desires to get a piece allow to seek out an internship, since she’ll now not have entry to school housing or eating when the semester ends in Might.
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“I’ve no bodily potential to get again dwelling,” stated Pereverten, a sophomore pupil from Kyiv. “For now, it is the one plan I’ve as a result of that is principally the one alternative you could have.”
She has been afraid for her household, who are actually within the suburbs of Kyiv in a “comparatively secure place.” She has adjusted to her new actuality by specializing in supporting them and her nation, she stated.
As the one Ukrainian pupil on campus, she’s organized quite a few rallies and talks at her college. She’s additionally raised greater than $1,000 to ship to the Ukrainian military for ammunition and provides.
“I am making an attempt to do my finest by way of supporting my nation and my individuals and my household,” she stated. “Their emotional state is now like excessive precedence for me.”
WHERE ARE THEY GOING? Thousands and thousands of refugees are fleeing Ukraine
Like Pereverten, 16-year-old Yaryna Kholod is the one Ukrainian pupil residing on campus on the Emma Willard College in New York. She arrived in September for a yr overseas.
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Kholod stated the previous few weeks have been troublesome as a result of her grandparents reside in Mykolaiv, the place shelling has lately broken a most cancers hospital and residential buildings.
In the meantime, her 10-year-old sister, frightened by what gave the impression of an explosion at a close-by airport not lengthy after the invasion, packed the household’s photograph albums and fled with their mom to western Ukraine. Their father stayed behind and joined the territorial protection.
She stated her college has been extremely supportive. Kholod gave a speech providing recommendation for college students and college on how they’ll help Ukraine and afterward her classmates created a big poster with messages of help.
“That was very candy,” she stated. “And I’ve been very positively stunned that after that lots of neighborhood members have been reaching out to me.”
For Hanna Onyshchenko, a Ph.D. pupil finding out economics on the College of Michigan, spending time with the opposite Ukrainian and Ukrainian American college students helps her really feel much less alone.
She has been glued to the information, however her buddies be certain that she is taking breaks, going for walks and getting out within the solar, she stated.
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“It helps emotionally since you need not say many phrases,” she stated. “We assist our buddies to get their households out of nation simply because we all know one another.”
Onyshchenko spends half her days organizing to lift consciousness about Ukraine and gathering help for college students who’re struggling financially. The 28-year-old from Chernihiv, which has been attacked by Russian forces, is main a petition asking her college to “publicly condemn the invasion and prioritize help to Ukrainian students and college students fleeing the battle.”
College of Michigan’s president has since denounced the assaults and the college turned one among a number of to announce it’ll begin the method to finish its present investments in Russia.
Onyshchenko stated when she first arrived within the U.S. in 2018, nobody understood her concern that Russia may invade Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of the Donbas area.
Now that her fears have been validated, she’s annoyed on the lack of motion from the worldwide neighborhood and hopes the warfare will not fade out of Western information cycles.
“My president asks for assist, and the individuals in Europe nonetheless hesitate,” she stated, her voice breaking. “You are like, ‘right here we go once more, the identical cycles.’”
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She urged People to take heed to the experiences of Ukrainians, warning of the harmful results of propaganda. Onyshchenko stated her grandmother, who moved to Russian in 2016, now not speaks to her after watching Russian media.Russian President Vladimir Putin has criminalized the unfold of data that counters the federal government’s narrative concerning the warfare, which the nation refers to as a “particular navy operation.”
“I simply need individuals to concentrate to historical past and to the expertise that Ukrainians have on this warfare,” she stated. “I consider in our military, I consider in individuals and consider that if there can be a name, I will additionally return dwelling and battle for Ukraine. We should have our houses.”
PIERCING THE PROPAGANDA VEIL:US, Schwarzenegger, hackers give Russians uncensored view of Ukraine warfare
STUDENTS PROTEST:US faculties denounce Russia, pull out of nation over Ukraine warfare
SUPPORT THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE: These apps and web sites will help you ship cash
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Contact Breaking Information Reporter N’dea Yancey-Bragg at nyanceybra@gannett.com or comply with her on Twitter @NdeaYanceyBragg
Democrats have long been viewed as the big-tent party — a proudly noisy collection of differing views and competing interests, often prompting headlines describing them as “in disarray.”
Now, Donald J. Trump’s commanding victory may be ushering in a big-tent era for Republicans.
Even before he takes the oath of office on Monday, cracks in his freshly expanded coalition have emerged. With their divides, the incoming president and his party are being forced to confront a reality that has often tripped up Democrats: A bigger tent means more room for fighting underneath it.
In recent weeks, some congressional Republicans have dismissed Mr. Trump’s threats of military force against Greenland. Republicans from farm states have squirmed at his plans to impose new tariffs on all goods entering the United States. Opponents of abortion have grumbled about his selection of an abortion rights supporter for his cabinet. Mr. Trump’s embrace of tech billionaires has troubled conservatives who blame their companies for censoring Republican views and corrupting children.
And last week, a fight over the direction of immigration policy prompted Stephen K. Bannon, an architect of Mr. Trump’s political movement, to attack Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key Trump adviser, as a “truly evil person.”
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“The big battles are all on our side of the football — meaningful, tough,” Mr. Bannon told The New York Times.
This wide range of internal fights over policy and power may be run-of-the-mill in politics, but they are somewhat extraordinary for the Trump-era Republican Party. Since Mr. Trump, a former Democrat unbound by strict ideology, effectively hijacked the party in 2016, the internal clashes have largely been between two clear factions: the traditional Republicans and the Republicans who embraced Mr. Trump.
But eight years later, most of the old guard has been thoroughly conquered or converted. Mr. Trump is entering a Washington where nearly all Republicans consider themselves part of his movement. They just don’t all agree on what, exactly, that means.
Inauguration Day will offer a vivid display of the new crosscurrents in the party. When he takes the oath of office, Mr. Trump will be joined not only by Vice President JD Vance, who spent years railing against big tech, but by at least four technology executives who are part of a crop of industry moguls who warmed to Mr. Trump in recent months, pouring money into his inauguration committee.
For most of his political career, Mr. Trump has been laser-focused on pleasing the voters who elected him. In his first term, Mr. Trump largely worried about holding on to his core group of supporters: white, working-class voters.
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But with a bigger, more diverse coalition, that task has grown more complicated and far less clear. Mr. Trump’s victory in November was marked by notable gains in traditionally liberal cities and suburbs and among the Black, Latino, female and younger voters who have long been central to the Democratic Party’s base.
While those voters largely supported Mr. Trump’s goals of lowering prices and curbing illegal immigration, it’s unclear whether they also support the full scope of conservative policies — like ending automatic citizenship at birth and banning abortion nationwide — that some of his hard-right supporters are eager to implement.
“This is the most racially diverse incoming governing coalition for a G.O.P. since at least 1956, and that has the potential to change things,” said Ralph Reed, a Republican strategist and founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, who said he had attended every Republican inauguration over the past four decades. “But they’re good challenges to have.”
Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the House from 1995 to 1999, pointed to two policy debates that will help show whether the party is ready to cater to its new voters.
One is whether Republicans support a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, a cohort of immigrants who were brought to the country as children. Stripping them of their legal status comes with the political risk of alienating moderate voters, Mr. Gingrich said.
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A second test, he said, would be whether Republicans can muscle through a tax bill before July 4 in order to stimulate the economy and help the party keep control of the House through the 2026 midterms.
“There will be mistakes and confusion and tension, but there will also be enormous changes,” he said.
Mr. Trump doesn’t have much wiggle room in Congress, where even slight ideological differences could have an outsize impact on his ability to enact his agenda. The party’s slim, three-vote margin in the House means that any Republican lawmaker has the power to slow down legislation, if not scuttle it entirely. In the Senate, Republicans have 53 votes, leaving little room for dissent on a majority vote.
During his first term, Trump’s grip on his voters — backed up by frequent political threats — stifled most opposition within the party. Whether his political hold remains as strong in his second — and final — term remains to be seen.
Republican strategists say there are plenty of issues where there is broad agreement across the party, including expanding the tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration and curbing illegal immigration.
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Even within those issues, the challenge may be in the details. Already, Mr. Bannon and Mr. Musk have tangled over H-1B visas, a skilled-worker immigration program that has long been a key source of labor for Silicon Valley. Mr. Trump suspended H-1B visas during his first term, but last month seemed to indicate support for keeping the program.
The debt ceiling has created distance between Mr. Trump and deficit hawks in his party, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who last month refused to free him of the spending constraint.
Republicans also disagree over setting a new corporate tax rate and how much of the new tax cuts should be paid for by slashing spending.
A group of Republicans from swing districts in New Jersey, New York and California have vowed to block the tax bill unless a cap on a state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, is raised significantly. Many other Republicans oppose the measure, which would largely benefit wealthier families in blue states.
Foreign policy is another area with considerable intraparty divides, particularly over ending the war in Ukraine and over the role Russia should play in the region. Whether Republicans follow Mr. Trump’s lead and take a softer position toward Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, may offer hints of the party’s direction on America’s traditional alliances abroad.
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Still, Brad Todd, a Republican strategist, said no one understood the temperature of the Republican Party quite like Mr. Trump, who spends hours calling different lawmakers, donors and activists to get their views.
“Trump is not ideological,” Mr. Todd said. “He’s a pragmatic, practical person. He is a populist in that he wants to do popular things.”
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Donald Trump has held his first call with China’s President Xi Jinping since leaving the White House in 2021, with the two leaders discussing the fate of TikTok just before the Supreme Court upheld a law to ban the app in the US.
The conversation between the leaders was their first in four years and came just two days before the law is due to take effect, forcing app stores to stop offering it to users.
“I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform on Friday. “We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!”
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China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two leaders agreed to “set up a channel of strategic communication to keep in regular touch on major issues of shared interest”.
While it painted a positive picture of the call, the ministry said Xi warned Trump that the US should approach the “Taiwan question” with “prudence”.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has refused to rule out using force to occupy the island.
Trump’s incoming national security team has been in contact with Beijing, but the call between the Chinese leader and incoming US president marks the first direct conversation between the men in four years.
The call comes three days before Trump is inaugurated at a ceremony that will be attended by China’s vice-president Han Zheng, marking the first time a top Chinese official has attended a US inauguration.
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The Financial Times reported last week that Xi would send an envoy to Washington after Trump invited the Chinese leader to attend the event.
Some Trump advisers had hoped Beijing would send Cai Qi, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee who is very close to Xi and wields much more power than Han, who sometimes stands in for Xi in ceremonial roles.
Washington and Beijing are waiting to see what kind of China policy Trump will unveil at the start of his administration. He has threatened to impose tariffs on imports from China and many other countries but it is unclear whether he will do so to gain leverage for negotiations with Beijing or whether he will start negotiations over a possible trade deal with China and apply tariffs if the talks are not successful.
The conversation comes two days before US app stores are obliged to stop carrying TikTok, the video-sharing app that has been downloaded by more than 170mn Americans. The law — upheld in a Supreme Court ruling on Friday morning — bans the app unless its Chinese owner ByteDance sells the platform.
Trump has expressed support for TikTok, raising questions about whether his administration will prosecute companies that violate the law.
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US-China relations plummeted to their lowest point since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979 during the Biden administration over issues ranging from US export controls to differences over Taiwan.
While Biden and Xi succeeded in partially stabilising relations over the past year, the countries remain at loggerheads over a range of issues, including Chinese support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has named several vocal China hawks to serve in his administration, including Mike Waltz as US national security adviser and Marco Rubio as secretary of state.
Scott Bessent, the nominee for Treasury secretary, this week said Trump would push China to buy more US agricultural produce, such as corn and soyabeans which were part of a narrow trade deal he did with China last time.
Bessent said Trump would also be aggressive in imposing export controls that would affect China. Beijing has frequently slammed the Biden administration for introducing tough export controls on chips and technology related to artificial intelligence in an effort to slow down the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army.
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But China experts are watching closely to see if some of the technology billionaires in Trump’s orbit, such as Elon Musk, will attempt to convince the incoming president to take a less tough stance on the issue.
Old photo of fire captain Shane Lawlor and his two sons at a Santa Monica Fire Station. Lawlor has been a firefighter for 17 years. He was dispatched last week to the Pacific Palisades and is still fighting the fires there.
Jaleh Lawlor
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Jaleh Lawlor
When the fires in Los Angeles broke out just over one week ago, fire captain Shane Lawlor was quickly dispatched to the Palisades. He has been at work ever since. On his first day, Lawlor was on his team’s fireline for 20 hours straight with no breaks for food or sleep. He’s still working the fireline and has been sleeping on-site or at his station in Santa Monica when he’s not on duty.
Back at his home in Carlsbad, Calif., Lawlor’s son, Cian Lawlor, is a fifth grader and budding journalist at Magnolia Elementary School. The 11-year-old has a new podcasting kit that his family recently got him for Christmas.
Earlier this week, NPR asked Cian to interview his dad over Zoom. It was the first rest day since the fires began for Lawlor, who took the call from his post at the Santa Monica Fire Department Station 2. Cian was at their home in Carlsbad, a few hours south of L.A. This was also the first time the father and son had connected in a week.
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“I’m glad he gets to do this and help people in need,” Cian says about his dad’s job. “He puts out his heart for the greater good.”
This interview was prepared and conducted by Cian, with help from Magnolia Elementary’s broadcasting club, MagTV’s director, Andrew Luria. The photos were taken by Cian’s friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland. NPR sat in on their conversation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Cian Lawlor, 11, interviews his dad, Shane Lawlor, over Zoom. Cian is a budding journalist and member of his school’s broadcasting club, MagTV. He came up with his own questions for this interview.
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Cian Lawlor: What goes through your mind when you’re fighting fires such as this one? Were you scared?
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Shane Lawlor: Scared? Not so much. But definitely, you have to take care of yourself. You have to understand your surroundings. It is so fast-moving, and there’s so much going on that hearing important radio traffic that could be very important is very difficult. Making sure that you know when you are in the wrong place and you’ve got to get out of there is very, very important.
Cian: How did this fire compare in its size and damage to the other fires you have fought?
Lawlor: There’ve been big fires in California in the past that I’ve been on, but nothing like this for pretty much everyone.
I used to live in Santa Monica before, so I do know a lot of the neighborhoods that have been affected and those neighborhoods are all gone. They’re not even there anymore.
In terms of the size of the fire, I haven’t seen anything bigger in my career. I don’t think very many people have. And in terms of the scope of the damage, it has been obviously just utterly devastating.
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Cian: What were the winds like and how did they affect the fire and the job you were doing?
Lawlor: The wind makes you think that you are doing a good job on one side of a nice house, but then you go around the corner and the wind has caused the fire to start on the other side of the house. So you are kind of wasting your time and you need to redirect. So it just makes it very challenging.
The biggest effect on me was what we call embercasting. And that’s just small, tiny little bits of embers that blow off a tree or a building when they’re burning and they kind of whip around you. They can come up behind you. They’re all over and when they’re blowing it makes it very difficult to do your job.
Those embers are what start other fires. So you’re constantly protecting yourself from those hot embers in that wind and you’re constantly chasing the new fires that they’re starting. So that makes it very, very difficult.
Cian: When you look at the destruction and all the homes lost in the fires, what is your reaction?
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Lawlor: It starts with a sense of disappointment that you couldn’t have saved a lot or more of these homes. And then it moves on to sympathy for the folks who have lost those homes.
And then you also kind of get a sense of appreciation for the fact that we still have a home to go to. We have to appreciate what we have, because there’s plenty of families who don’t have a home or anything like that anymore.
Screengrab from the video chat between Cian and his father.
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Cian: Tell me something that happened that made you really proud.
Lawlor: I’m very proud of the crews that were around me. They really did everything in their capabilities to save each and every home. They were working so hard all day and all night. No food, no anything for hours and hours, no sleep just to try and save whatever they could. That’s a big sense of pride.
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Cian: What is the morale like at the department now?
Lawlor: There’s definitely fatigue, physical fatigue, and there’s definitely mental fatigue from it. But we’re doing okay. Everyone is very appreciative of all the support we’ve been shown. There is so much food and so many well-wishers coming to our fire stations that it really gives us a boost every day to keep going, knowing that we’re hopefully making just a little difference in someone’s life.
Cian: Are you still currently fighting fire? What does your job look like on a daily basis now?
Lawlor: Yes, I am. I’m currently assigned to the Palisades Fire. We started on 12-hour shifts, and now we’re working full 24-hour shifts. So you’re talking to me on my rest day. It’s as much a physical rest as it is a mental break. And then I will be reporting back for my 24-hour shift at 6 a.m. tomorrow, and I’ll be there for another 24 hours. So we are still directly engaged on the fire line, which is literally the very edge of the fire, where if the fire is going to kick up again, that’s where it will start.
You have people who hike in and they use tools to put in hoseline along the entire perimeter of this fire. And if anything comes up, now there’s a hoseline in place and they can fight it. Does that answer your question buddy?
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Cian sits for a portrait at his home in Carlsbad, Calif. His friend and fellow Magnolia student journalist, Eivan Wheyland, took the photos.
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Cian: Got it. Do you have any questions for me?
Lawlor: What would you want to tell a ten-year-old boy whose home is now gone or has been affected by the fire?
Cian: I would tell them, I’m glad you’re safe. Look on the bright side. Everything’s going to be okay. How can we help you with your needs?
Special thanks to Cian’s mom, Jaleh Lawlor, Magnolia Elementary School’s broadcasting club, MagTV, and the club’s director, Andrew Luria.
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MagTV is a 2024 fourth-grade winner in the NPR Student Podcast Challenge, which you can learn more about here.
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