News Wrap: Thousands of asylum seekers wait along border as Title 42 remains in place

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• Judy Woodruff:

  In the day's other news: As President Zelenskyy arrived, the U.S. Senate confirmed Lynne Tracy as the new American ambassador to Russia. She sailed through on a 93-2 vote in a signal of us solidarity with Ukraine. Tracy is a career diplomat in the first woman to be U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

  A second massive winter storm and as many weeks is rolling into the nation's midsection tonight. The system is on track to bring blizzard conditions to the Northern Plains and the Midwest and frigid conditions all the way to Florida by Friday. Heavy snow already blanketed parts of Washington state and Western Canada. Some 200 million people across the U.S. are now under extreme weather alerts.

  Along the U.S. Southern border, thousands of migrants waited again today looking for the end of a pandemic era ban on asylum. For now, the so-called Title 42 restrictions on legal protection once migrants enter remain in force, pending a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

  In the meantime, many migrants have been camped out in the cold just inside Mexico. Some say they can't wait much longer.

• Elis Antonio Cazarez, Nicaraguan Migrant (through translator):

  I'm going to ask for permission to see if they let me enter legally. And, if not, then I'm going to try to stay to see if they give me asylum, and, if not, then migrate, because I wanted to get ahead for my children.

  And, honestly, I have lost a lot of time already.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The Biden administration has asked the Supreme Court to let Title 42 lapse, but not until after Christmas. States supporting the restrictions have warned that ending them would overwhelm services and shelters.

  In Britain, growing labor troubles became even more serious today, as ambulance workers went on strike across England and Wales. They staged the one day walk out to demand better staffing and higher wages in the face of soaring inflation. Paramedics insisted they would still answer lifesaving calls.

• Jonathan Phipps, Paramedic:

  Nobody takes this lightly. I have been talking to people inside. They — nobody wants to be on strike. We hate it. Like, we don't want patients to suffer. I certainly don't. I'm not withdrawing my labor today, but I thought it's important to stand in solidarity, send the message out.

• Judy Woodruff:

  The ambulance crews plan another one-day strike next week. Nurses have already held two walkouts this month.

  Elon Musk now says that he is ready to let someone else run Twitter. That's after users asked him to step down in an online poll. Musk tweeted today that — quote — "I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job."

  The billionaire's takeover of Twitter, with sudden policy shifts, has unnerved users and advertisers.

  On Wall Street, stocks finally rallied on a report that showed consumer confidence improving. Major indexes were up 1.5 percent or better. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 526 points to close at 33376. The Nasdaq rose 162 points. The S&P 500 added 56.

  And pro football great Franco Harris has died. He was a Hall of Fame running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers who won four Super Bowls in the 1970s. In 1972, Harris made the legendary play dubbed the Immaculate Reception, scooping up a deflected last-second pass to score and win a playoff game. Franco Harris was 72 years old.

  Still to come on the "NewsHour": Ukraine's president prepares to address Congress as the war grinds on; a congressional committee votes to release former President Trump's tax returns; two film critics give their takes on the best movies of 2022; plus much more.

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