Donald Trump 'to spend $2m a week on campaign'

 US Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump says he is planning to spend $2m (£1.3m) a week on campaign advertising. Mr Trump said he would bring out "substantial" adverts in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina ahead of primary elections in February. Meanwhile, former New York Governor George Pataki has pulled out of the race for the Republican nomination. Correspondents say he has failed to make any impact in the polls. Mr Trump, a property tycoon, has previously said that he is funding his campaign himself and wouldn't be in the pocket of lobbyists or powerful corporate entities. He has also insisted that he has spent very little on his campaign so far, and yet is the frontrunner. "I'll be spending a minimum of $2m a week and perhaps substantially more," Mr Trump said in a video broadcast. "I'm going to be doing big ads in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and they're going to be very substantial."

'The schlong and short of it'

And so, an unlikely year in US politics nears its end with Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump sparking a debate about Yiddish semantics. It all stems from his use of the word "schlonged" when talking about Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton. Referring to her defeat by Barack Obama in the 2008 primary race, he told supporters in Michigan: "She was favoured to win and she got schlonged, she lost." Use of the word, which is from the Yiddish slang for penis, has been criticised but Mr Trump hit back on Twitter. "Once again, #MSM [mainstream media] is dishonest. 'Schlonged' is not vulgar. When I said Hillary got 'schlonged' that meant beaten badly," he wrote. Advertisement So was he correct to suggest it is a neutral, commonplace saying? Mr Trump tweeted that the phrase had been used in politics before, to refer to an earlier Democratic campaign.