(LOS ANGELES) — A California family is desperate for news after their mother was kidnapped outside her home in Mexico more than five weeks ago and has not been seen or heard from since.
Maria del Carmen Lopez, 63, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, was kidnapped in Pueblo Nuevo in the state of Colima on Feb. 9, according to the FBI, which is conducting a joint investigation with law enforcement authorities in Mexico.
Her family told ABC Los Angeles station KABC that witnesses described seeing a white van drive onto her property.
“There was an exchange of words,” her daughter, Zonia Lopez, told KABC in an emotional interview this week. “She was refusing to get into the van.”
Another individual reportedly got out of the vehicle and helped pull the mother of seven into the van and then they drove off, according to her family. The woman’s family has been unable to get ahold of her since.
“We all started calling her, to see if she would pick up her phone or answer a message, and we have not heard from her,” Zonia Lopez told KABC.
“At this point, we need answers, we need to find my mother,” she told the station.
The FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office announced this week it is offering up to a $20,000 reward for information leading to her location.
The State Department advises U.S. citizens not to travel to the state of Colima due to “widespread” violent crime and kidnapping.
The Lopez family — which said investigators informed them their mother’s case may be part of an organized kidnapping — is not losing hope.
“Us knowing how strong she is, and that she’s fully thinking of us seven, and if we’re bringing out that energy to her and we maintain those thoughts, we know we’re going to have our mom,” Zonia Lopez told KABC.
Maria del Carmen Lopez is described as a Hispanic female with blonde hair and brown eyes who is 5’2″ and weighs approximately 160 pounds.
Anyone with information about her physical location should contact their local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.
(HOUSTON) — The announcement that Texas state officials are taking over leadership of Houston Independent School District later this year is drawing concerns from some community members and educators about state government overreach and the decision’s impact on schools.
Some experts are calling the move a major “blow” to Texas’ largest public school district, marking a turning point in education policy that follows years of controversial decisions in the state, including legislation on race, parental rights and gender-affirming care.
“Texas has the ninth largest economy in the world,” Kevin Malonson, executive director of nonprofit Teach Plus Texas told ABC News. “As Texas thinks, so goes the rest of the country.”
The state’s Education Agency is enforcing one of the largest school district takeovers in the history of the U.S., with some educators, who are already facing high attrition levels and staffing challenges, saying they’re uncertain about their futures. Teachers told ABC News they are worried the takeover could prompt school closures, among other reforms in the nation’s eighth largest school district.
“A lot of teachers that were thinking about leaving or retiring are going to do so, so it [the takeover] has caused an instability within the teaching force in our school district,” Houston Education Association (HEA) President Michelle Williams told ABC News.
“The uncertainty is really just everything driving teachers to make decisions about what they’re going to do – whether they’re going to break the contract or stick it out,” Williams said.
But Mike Morath, the state’s commissioner of education, told ABC affiliate KTRK in Houston that the intervention was “necessary.” He said TEA is appointing a new Board of Managers for the school district because of academic failures by Wheatley High School.
Wheatley violated the state’s 2015 law – HB 1842 – that mandated an “intervention” and sanction of a public school that has received an academically unsuccessful performance rating for at least two consecutive school years, Morath said.
“What that law requires is if that threshold is ever met, that the commissioner of education is required, it’s not discretionary, is required to either order a closure of that school or order a board of managers for the whole district,” Morath told KTRK. “It’s not in the best interest of kids at Wheatley to close Wheatley, so that leaves us with the board of managers,” he said.
Due to the school’s underwhelming performance, the law was triggered in 2019. Morath wrote in a recent letter to the superintendent and board of trustees, “the district obtained an injunction” that prevented TEA from taking that required intervention action.
Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court delivered an opinion that vacated this long-standing injunction, and it was formally dissolved on March 1.
The job description for the school district’s Board of Managers states a desire for the new board to improve academic outcomes for students, but the district claims it has already made recent improvements.
“In the last 19 months, we have already seen vast improvements,” HISD Superintendent Millard House II wrote in a statement earlier this week. “Because of the hard work of our students, teachers, and staff, we have lifted 40 of 50 schools off the D or F TEA accountability ratings list,” he said.
Malonson said the move breaks from precedent in the state. He said Texas normally opposes state mandates, instead it would leave decisions up to the school districts.
“Texas is all about local control,” Malonson told ABC News. “That’s the elephant in the room. This flies in the face of everything Texas is about as far as local control. And it’s not just people at the state level that talk about local control, it’s the districts, it is – that is a thing – that is as Texas as Texas can be.”
As Houston residents have seen the TEA intervention unravel for more than three years, some are worried that TEA can’t be trusted, Malonson said.
“All they hear is TEA is coming in to take over, TEA is the boogeyman, for a lot of people,” he said. “Literally, this is a state takeover of your school district. It is going to make you anxious.”
But, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, D-Texas, went even further saying the impact of this decision could reverberate around the country because Houston is the “most diverse” city in the nation. The Houston representative is calling for a federal civil rights investigation.
“This proposed takeover is devastating,” Rep. Jackson-Lee told ABC News. “I need them [the Department of Education] to seek more information and investigate this situation. I need them to determine whether there is due process, whether children are protected by equal protection of the law, whether the civil rights of the children are violated. And frankly, I need them to assess whether a title six complaint is warranted.”
More than 80% of HISD students are Black and Hispanic, according to school district data. Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin.
The U.S. Department of Education told ABC News it has been in contact with Jackson-Lee’s office regarding the matter and it values and encourages community input in education decisions.
“We cannot prejudge the effect of state and local decisions that have not yet been implemented,” a spokesperson for the department said in regards to the state’s announcement.
Michelle Williams has taught at HISD for over a decade. She’s most concerned about closures or her school being turned over to the charter system, but she also believes TEA’s move is political.
“It’s partisan politics playing with [the] education of 196,000 students,” Williams told ABC News. “We’re a democratic city that constantly has pushed back against the governor [Republican Greg Abbott]. During the pandemic, HISD was one of the school districts that instituted a mask mandate with the state saying that we cannot institute a mask mandate. So we have done some things that have pushed back on the political atmosphere.”
As the process plays out, Malonson cautions against immediate reactions before the appointment of the new board on June 1st.
“Today, tomorrow, even next week, not a whole lot of stuff is going to happen,” Malonson said. “I’m certain that there is a hefty amount of skepticism and fear about, like, just what TEA is going to do.”
He added, “So I think for the morale of the city, being the largest district in the city, the largest in the state. I think it’s going to be a blow to the morale of the city and people are just going to be wondering what happens next.”
(NEW YORK) — Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders quietly signed into law on Thursday a bill that will create a “monument to the unborn” on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol.
Sanders’ team confirmed the bill signing in a release late Friday.
State Senate Bill 307, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kim Hammer and Rep. Mary Bentley, allows for private funds “of gifts, grants, and donations from individuals and organizations” to pay for a monument to “unborn children aborted during the era of Roe v. Wade.”
Once the monument is installed, it would then be maintained by taxpayer funds due to its location.
Bentley said its intent is to “remember those children we were not able to protect and we will not be able to forget.”
Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, an organization that challenged the installation of a Ten Commandments monument on State Capitol grounds in 2017, called the move to place an anti-abortion monument there a “performative political stunt.”
“Arkansas is ranked as one of the worst states in the nation for overall child well-being, maternal health, and the life expectancy among adults, yet the legislature has enacted dangerous limits and bans on reproductive healthcare. Lawmakers should be working to protect Arkansans with real solutions instead of this type of performative political stunt,” Dickson said in a statement to ABC News.
A total ban on abortion, except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency, took effect in Arkansas last June when the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
But despite a super majority of Republicans in the legislature identifying with anti-abortion rights, the bill to make a monument enshrining Arkansans’ aborted fetuses did not see unanimous support among Republicans in the state legislature.
The House passed the legislation Tuesday in a 60-19 vote with two Republicans voting “no.” Ten Republicans didn’t vote, and another ten Republicans voted “present,” which has the same effect as voting no. When the bill moved through the state Senate last month, two Republicans didn’t vote and one Republican voted present.
“From a Christian perspective, this has the look and feel of spiking the football,” said state Rep. Steve Unger, a Republican who voted against the bill, on the House floor. “It looks like gloating.”
“Public memorials to our nation’s wars where we face an external threat are right and proper,” he added. “A memorial to an ongoing culture war where we seem to be shooting at each other is not.”
Unger told ABC News on Friday, “My comments reflected my beliefs, but I respect other convictions.”
Rep. Jeremiah Moore, the other House Republican to vote against creating the monument, warned it could “have an unintended effect on the pro-life cause.”
“I believe that life is precious, but we must approach this issue with grace. It will serve as a poke in the eye to all those who don’t share our beliefs,” he said in a floor speech.
Rep. Tippi McCullough, a Democrat who voted against the legislation, told ABC News, “I could think of a thousand ways to better spend money that would be helpful to our citizens.”
“This bill makes no real distinctions in the type of abortions it would enshrine with a statue on Capitol Grounds. That means a woman who went through a traumatic pregnancy that resulted in the death of her child-to-be would have to face a monument commentating that awful moment when she comes here to the people’s house,” McCullough said in a statement to ABC News. “Abortion was legal in this country for nearly 50 years. Putting a monument outside these walls won’t change that. The state has no business in a woman’s healthcare or in a family’s tragedy.”
Hammer, one of the bill’s sponsors, countered the criticism to say, “Abortion had no unintended affect because it achieved what those who supported it intended for it to do which is to kill innocent lives.”
“Many tax dollars went to organizations that supported and encouraged abortions,” Hammer told ABC News in a statement. “Rep. Moore can defend his own comments. I will defend remembering the 250,000 innocent babies through a visual reminder in the hopes that we will never repeat a terrible chapter in our nation’s history.”
Hammer also said he is in touch with a company already that wants to donate the monument but did not disclose the company’s name or a description of the design. The secretary of state will have final approval of the monument’s maker and design, which the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission will select, according to the bill’s text.
While there are hundreds of anti-abortion monuments across the country, this appears to be among the first approved for the grounds of a state Capitol.
The National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, an anti-abortion rights group, which says it exists “to honor the gravesites of our unborn brothers and sisters,” told ABC News it was not aware of any other currently existing monuments to unborn children on the grounds of other State Capitols.
Lawmakers in Tennessee approved legislation in 2018 allowing for a similar privately-funded monument to anti-abortion rights on its state Capitol grounds, but that monument has yet to be installed, said spokesperson John Jansen.
Monuments already on Arkansas Capitol grounds include statues honoring the Little Rock Nine, the first Black students to enter Little Rock Central High School under the landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, and one of the Ten Commandments, which was damaged a day after it was installed when a man ran it over in protest. It has since been repaired.
(NEW YORK) — More than 40,000 graduating medical students learned Friday where they will spend the next three to seven years of their medical training.
With the United States grappling with a simultaneous shortage of primary care physicians and a rural health care crisis, many of the graduating students are set to enter the front lines of the country’s health care shortage.
At least 136 rural hospitals and health systems closed between 2010 and 2021, and over 40% of rural hospitals operate with negative profit margins. Despite billions of dollars in investment in health care, hospitals throughout the United States face the possibility of shutting down.
“I would say it is probably the worst time for health care that we ever experienced,” Joanne Conroy, the chief executive officer and president of Dartmouth Health, told ABC News. She noted that increased costs, inflation, limited housing, and workforce shortages have made running rural hospitals more challenging.
“We know what to do if we face another pandemic,” Conroy said. “The question is whether or not we have the financial resilience in order to survive it.”
Many hospitals that remain open have cut costs to survive, offering fewer services and beds.
In 2020, 47% of rural community hospitals did not provide obstetric services, with 89 obstetric units closing between 2015 and 2019. Seven million women reside in counties with limited or no access to maternity care, impacting half a million newborns annually.
According to Conroy, patients can already feel the impact of the crisis, noting that some women in New Hampshire need to drive two hours to deliver their babies. Other effects include fewer available beds in emergency rooms, delays for elective surgery and longer wait times for prescriptions or ambulance pickups.
For new medical professionals entering their residency, especially those joining rural systems, the circumstances of the struggling health systems are out of their control.
“It is not my job to fix all of the problems for an entire community, that’s impossible. When you feel like that’s your responsibility, burnout is basically inevitable,” said Katie Stevenson, a Tufts medical student. “When you feel like your goal is to do the best you can with the resources you have, you are able to right-size your expectations a bit.”
An increasing number of students are entering medical school programs that focus on rural medicine. In 2019, the Health Resources and Services Administration issued grants to create 32 newly accredited rural residency programs, supplementing the preexisting programs.
This year, Tufts School of Medicine will graduate its tenth class of students from its Maine Track MD program – a partnership with Maine Medical Center that allows students to pursue a community-based curriculum and gain financial incentives to encourage primary-care specialties.
Graduating roughly 40 students annually, 27% of Maine Track students have been matched to programs in Maine and 47% have been matched into primary care programs, according to Dena Whitesell, an assistant dean for students at Tufts and psychiatrist at Maine Medical Center.
“We know that students and residents who live in an area [and] who train in an area are more likely to practice in that area in the future,” Whitesell said.
Liv Fauver, a Tufts student who matched with a University of Vermont residency program, grew up in rural New Hampshire and said she felt motivated to work in a similar community where she could positively impact the local residents.
“I think for me, my goal is to live and work in the community that I serve,” she said. “So I’m really in a place where I go home or go to the grocery store and see my patients all the time, because that’s the world that I live in and work in.”
While rural hospitals have closed in record numbers, PCPs – medical professionals who patients regularly use for checkups and other routine care – face additional challenges, especially in rural areas, according to experts.
Greg Sawin, a PCP who has practiced in Massachusetts and Maine as well as Duke University School of Medicine professor, said he worries that the goals of primary and long-term preventative care can sometimes be at odds with larger health care systems.
“We get paid to do things to people. We don’t get paid to keep populations healthy,” he said.
Moreover, he believes the costs associated with medical schools – including the high cost, the likelihood of incurring debt and substantially higher pay to pursue competitive specialties like orthopedic surgery or dermatology, for example – disincentivize primary care options like family or internal medicine.
“It can be very appealing to want to go into a specialty where you’re guaranteed to make more money and pay that debt off more easily,” Stevenson said.
Owen Foster lives in rural Vermont and has felt the impact of the decreased number of available PCPs, spending six months to book an appointment with a doctor. Living in a rural area, Foster shares his dilemma with millions of Americans in rural areas impacted by the shortage of PCPs.
“You need basic things at certain intervals in your life,” he told ABC News. “If you don’t have a primary care provider, you can’t get that and you can’t get the referrals you need, so it’s really, really difficult.”
What makes Foster’s experience unique is his position as the state of Vermont’s top health care regulator. As chair of Vermont’s Green Mountain Care Board, he oversees the quality and cost of the state’s health care system.
Learning about the shortage of primary-care physicians in Vermont, Foster decided to use the opportunity to find a PCP as a chance to examine the market as a “secret shopper.”
“What I found was I was completely incapable of getting a doctor,” he said. “I called eight places and the best I got was on an indefinite wait list, which never came to fruition.”
Rural areas comprise about two-thirds of the primary care health professional shortage areas nationwide, even though only 20% of Americans live in rural areas.
The problem is also likely to worsen over time. Projections indicate that the United States will likely suffer a shortage of between 17,800 and 48,000 PCPs by 2034.
Moreover, health care professionals believe that the shortage of PCPs can make other elements of health care more expensive and worsen overall patient outcomes. Sawin gave the example of a person getting strep throat. Without a PCP, the person might go to a local hospital emergency room, which is significantly more expensive than other treatment options.
“In terms of mismatch of resources, you know, a kid with strep throat showing up in the ER is like cutting butter with a chainsaw,” Sawin said.
Foster added that primary care providers are “critical to controlling the costs of a health care system” due to their role in the early identification of issues, their ability to diagnose mental health issues, and their approach to preventative medicine.
According to Foster, PCPs in rural areas, however, struggle to find and retain staff, negotiate with insurance companies and prevent burnout. The shortage of PCPs, combined with the increased health care needs of the older population in rural areas, creates a concerning combination.
Despite these issues, Foster said he was optimistic about some approaches to make primary care more financially feasible, including adding a floor for PCP spending within health plans and government involvement in rate setting.
A new generation of students graduating from rural track programs also has the potential to reverse the tide of the PCP shortage in rural areas, with 571 additional primary care matches this year. Stevenson, for example, matched with the Swedish Cherry Hill rural program in Washington state.
“I think we have an opportunity in this country to do a much better job of taking care of our patients if we do a better job of funding primary care and preventative care and creating healthy environments,” Stevenson said.
(NEW YORK) — A man was charged Friday with transmitting a threat after he allegedly threatened to kill police officers at a St. Patrick’s Day parade just outside of New York City.
Ridon Kola’s alleged online threats were made toward officers and the mayor of Yonkers, New York, who are set to participate in Yonkers’ parade on Saturday, according to prosecutors.
Kola allegedly wrote, “I will crucify Yonkers cops and their bosses all along McLean ave. It will be a horror scene,” according to the criminal complaint.
Kola lives around the end of the parade route, according to the complaint.
After Kola was questioned by authorities, his “conduct escalated as he continued to assure police his threats would be carried out,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
A Yonkers city official said no changes will be made to Saturday’s parade, though officers will be present to ensure everyone is safe.
“I want to commend our Yonkers Police Department, FBI, NYPD, Joint Terrorism Task Force, and all agencies involved in thwarting this threat,” Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano said in a statement.
“Yonkers is proud to host one of New York’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades and threats like this will not intimidate us from celebrating the many contributions of our Irish American community,” the mayor added.
Kola’s online posts also “demonstrate support of radical Islamic extremism and terrorist attacks, including at least one terrorist attack committed on a public holiday,” according to the criminal complaint.
In a “recent threatening post,” Kola showed himself with an ax, according to the complaint.
Kola is expected to appear in federal court in White Plains, New York, on Friday.
(LONG BEACH, Calif.) — California health officials have shut down an elementary school in Long Beach after at least 136 students and staff reported symptoms of norovirus as of Thursday, according to the city’s health department.
“Despite stringent control measures, there has been evidence of ongoing transmission and, as a result, the school will be temporarily closed until Wednesday so that deep cleaning — an outbreak management strategy — can be thoroughly conducted,” the Long Beach Health Department told ABC News.
Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that is the most common cause of viral gastroenteritis, which is an inflammation of the inside lining of the gastrointestinal tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although it’s often referred to as a “stomach bug” or “stomach flu,” norovirus illness is not related to influenza.
All school and child care operations at Carver Elementary will remain closed Friday through Tuesday, the district said. The school will not implement virtual classes while it is closed, but teachers are allowed to give students work to be completed at home.
A health screening process will be implemented when students return to school on Wednesday morning, according to the district.
“Health officials have determined that this length of closure is the most effective way to stop the further spread of this common virus,” the Long Beach Unified School District said in a letter to families.
“Norovirus is a very contagious virus that causes sudden vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and abdominal pain. Norovirus spreads primarily through direct and indirect contact with an ill person’s feces (poop) or vomit,” the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services said in a letter to families.
Direct and indirect contact can include changing diapers, caring for or sharing foods or utensils with a sick person, touching contaminated areas, surfaces or objects, and then touching their mouth or food before washing their hands, according to the health department.
Symptoms begin 12 to 48 hours after a person has come into contact with the virus and symptoms can last up to three days, health officials said.
Infected individuals are contagious as soon as they feel sick and can remain contagious up to two weeks. There is no specific treatment for norovirus, however, drinking fluids is important to replace fluids lost from vomiting and diarrhea, according to health officials.
On Wednesday, parents were told to notify the school of any students who continued experiencing symptoms of norovirus and to keep those students home, the district said.
Parents must also monitor students and staff must self-monitor every day before going to school.
“Students and staff with symptoms of norovirus must not go to school or work and must stay home until symptoms have resolved AND you stay symptom free for 48 hours (72 hours for cafeteria staff),” the department said.
(WASHINGTON) — A new court filing claims that most of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 surveillance footage aired last week by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which he used to downplay the seriousness of the attack, was aired without the approval of the U.S. Capitol Police — despite Carlson’s claims to the contrary.
Capitol Police general counsel Thomas DiBiase said in a sworn affidavit filed in D.C. federal court Friday that despite DiBiase’s requests to a senior Republican staffer that he review every clip from the USCP’s internal system that would be made public, he was shown and approved “only one clip” that Carlson ultimately aired on his show last Monday and Tuesday.
“Since that clip was substantially similar to a clip used in [former President Donald Trump’s second] Impeachment Trial and was publicly available, I approved the use of the clip,” DiBiase said. “The other approximately 40 clips, which were not from the Sensitive List [of cameras deemed the most sensitive], were never shown to me nor anyone else from the Capitol Police.”
The statement from DiBiase directly contradicts a statement Carlson made on his show that his team had coordinated with Capitol Police on what was appropriate to air.
“Before airing any of this video, we checked first with the Capitol Police,” Carlson said last Monday. “We are happy to say the reservations were minor and for the most part they were reasonable.”
But sources told ABC News that just hours before Carlson went on the air, Capitol Police were informed that they would not have an opportunity to review the footage beforehand as they had expected they would be able to do.
DiBiase said that he emphasized the USCP’s desire to review every clip during numerous conversations with the staff director for the Committee on House Administration, which controls congressional operations and security.
According to the affidavit, the handover of video to Carlson’s team was a departure from the processes followed by the now-disbanded House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack and the Justice Department’s separate ongoing criminal probe into the riot.
“I informed the staff director that this was the same process followed by the Select Committee and the prosecutors in all of the criminal cases: that we were shown and had to approve of every clip before it was made public. This was followed in all cases by both the Select Committee and the prosecutors,” DiBiase said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has stood by his decision to grant Carlson access to the raw security footage, telling reporters that he has no regrets about the arrangement. But he has repeatedly refused to answer questions about Carlson’s comments on the show, in which he defended the protesters and said they were correct to “believe that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted.”
Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said in an internal memo to U.S. Capitol Police last Tuesday that the commentary on Carlson’s show was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6 attack.”
Five people died during or after the attack, including four protesters and one police officer, and approximately 140 officers suffered injuries, according to the Department of Justice.
DiBiase’s affidavit was filed in court in the case of William Pope, a Kansas man charged for his participation in the Jan. 6 attack, who has accused prosecutors of violating his rights by not allowing him to access footage relevant to his defense. Prosecutors have disputed his claims.
McCarthy said last week that the Jan. 6 committee never asked Capitol Police about the footage before airing it during their public hearings. But as ABC News has previously reported, according to sources, Capitol Police did have the opportunity to review clips before the committee aired them publicly.
(WASHINGTON) — Marking St. Patrick’s Day in Washington, President Joe Biden began a day of festivities by welcoming Ireland’s prime minister to the White House.
Biden, donning a shamrock-green tie in homage to his Irish roots, held a bilateral meeting with Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office — a return of a tradition put on hold for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve been great friends,” Biden said. “You’ve been a great friend to the United States, and Ireland and the United States share great friendship and long, long traditions.”
Varadkar, also known as the taoiseach, thanked Biden for the invitation and for his support leading up to the Windsor Framework, which was the proposed post-Brexit legal agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The two leaders also discussed standing together to support Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
“It means a great deal, speaking out against Russian aggression, and our deepening economic ties,” Biden said. “We have a lot to talk about.”
However, Biden and Varadkar did not hold a joint news conference following their meeting. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, when asked Thursday by ABC News’ Karen Travers why one wasn’t planned, said it’s something done “in coordination” with the visiting head of state.
After their Oval Office meeting, Biden and Varadkar went to Capitol Hill for a luncheon hosted by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy with the Friends of Ireland.
Biden will later host Varadkar for a Shamrock presentation and reception at the White House featuring singer-songwriter Niall Horan of One Direction fame.
The celebrations, which included the White House fountain being dyed green, come ahead of Biden’s expected trip to Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The accord, signed in April 1998, helped bring an end to decades of conflict in Northern Ireland.
Varadkar said he was looking forward to Biden’s visit, as the president said earlier this week it was his intention to travel to Ireland for the occasion.
“I promise you that we’re going to roll out the red carpet and it’s going to be a visit like no other,” he told Biden. “Everyone’s excited about it already.”
Biden replied, “I look forward to that,” but didn’t say exactly when he would make the trip.
Varadkar began the day at Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence for breakfast with her and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
There, Varadkar, Ireland’s first openly gay head of government, praised the U.S. for its leadership on gay rights.
“From Stonewall to Sacramento to San Francisco, America has led the way when it comes to LGBT equality. I don’t think I would be here today were it not for what America did,” he said, thanking Harris specifically for her work on marriage equality.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops have liberated nearly 30,000 square miles of their territory from Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, but Putin appeared to be preparing for a long and bloody war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 17, 11:54 AM EDT
ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying in a statement Friday that Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of” unlawfully deporting children from occupied areas of Ukraine and bringing them to Russia.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, alleging she carried out the same war crime.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the arrest warrants “have no meaning for the Russian Federation” and “are legally null and void.”
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, tweeted that the arrest warrants are “just the beginning.”
Mar 16, 12:15 PM EDT
Russia has committed ‘wide range of war crimes’ in Ukraine: UN-backed report
Russia has committed a “wide range of war crimes” and possible crimes against humanity in Ukraine, according to a new United Nations-backed investigation.
“The body of evidence collected shows that Russian authorities have committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in many regions of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation,” the human rights report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine stated. “Many of these amount to war crimes and include willful killings, attacks on civilians, unlawful confinement, torture, rape, and forced transfers and deportations of children.”
Additionally, Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy-related infrastructure and use of torture “may amount to crimes against humanity,” the report concluded.
The commission said it conducted interviews with nearly 600 people, inspected graves, destruction and detention sites and consulted satellite imagery and photographs as part of its investigation.
Mar 16, 11:51 AM EDT
Poland to deliver MiG-29 jets to Ukraine ‘in the coming days’
Poland plans to deliver four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine “in the coming days,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at a press conference on Thursday.
The latest news shortens the timeline announced earlier this week by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who had said they might send the Soviet-designed fighter jets to Ukraine in the next four to six weeks.
Mar 16, 11:08 AM EDT
225 Russians killed in last 24 hours in Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces have killed 225 Russian fighters and injured another 306 in the past 24 hours in the Bakhmut area, according to Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Ukraine army.
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a brutal battle for the city in eastern Ukraine for months, with both sides seeing high rates of casualties.
Cherevaty said that in the last day, the occupiers in the area of Bakhmut and nearby villages — including Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka and Ivanivskoho — tried to attack Ukrainian positions 42 times. There were 24 combat clashes in the Bakhmut area alone.
In total, in the Bakhmut direction, the occupiers shelled Ukrainian positions 256 times with various types of artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, Cherevaty said. Of them, 53 shellings were in the area of Bakhmut itself.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 15, 12:08 PM EDT
Putin says effort underway to increase weapons production
Russia is working to increase its weapons production amid an “urgent” need, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
“Prosecutors should supervise the modernization of defense industry enterprises, including building up capacities for the production of an additional volume of weapons. A lot of effort is underway here,” Putin said at a meeting of the Collegium of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.
Putin added that the weapons, equipment and ammunition are “urgently” needed.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 13, 4:04 PM EDT
White House welcomes Xi Jinping speaking to President Zelenskyy
The White House is welcoming reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to soon speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since Russia’s invasion began, while cautioning that after speaking with Ukrainian counterparts, “they have not yet actually gotten any confirmation that there will be a telephone call or a video conference.”
“We hope there will be,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a briefing on Air Force One. “That would be a good thing because it would potentially bring more balance and perspective to the way that the new PRC is approaching this, and we hope it will continue to dissuade them from choosing to provide lethal assistance to Russia.”
“We have been encouraging President Xi to reach out to President Zelenskyy because we believe that PRC and President Xi himself should hear directly the Ukrainian perspective and not just the Russian perspective on this,” Sullivan continued. “So, we have in fact, advocated to Beijing that that connection take place. We’ve done so publicly and we’ve done so privately to the PRC.”
Sullivan said the U.S. has “not yet seen the transfer of lethal assistance of weapons from China to Russia,” after previously warning it was being considered.
“It’s something that we’re vigilant about and continuing to watch carefully,” he added.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 13, 12:27 PM EDT
Russia agrees to 60-day extension of Black Sea Grain Initiative
Russia said Monday it will extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative after it expires on March 18, but only for 60 days. The announcement came after consultations between U.N. representatives in Geneva and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin.
“The Russian side, noting the package nature of the Istanbul agreements proposed by UN Secretary General António Guterres, does not object to another extension of the Black Sea initiative after the expiration of the second term on March 18, but only for 60 days,” Vershinin said, according to Russian media reports.
Russia’s consultations in Geneva on the grain deal were not easy, Vershinin said. Russia will rely on the effectiveness of the implementation of the agreement on the export of its agricultural products when deciding on a new extension of the grain deal, according to reports.
Ukraine, which is a key world exporter of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and fertilizer, had its shipments blocked in the months following the invasion by Russia, causing a worldwide spike in food prices. The first deal was brokered last July.
Mar 12, 4:13 PM EDT
More than 1,100 Russians dead in less than a week, Zelenskyy says
Russian forces suffered more than 1,100 dead in less than a week during battles near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the focal point of fighting in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
During his nightly address, Zelenskyy described the battles as “Russia’s irreversible loss.”
Russian forces also sustained about 1,500 “sanitary losses,” meaning soldiers were wounded badly enough to keep them out of further action, Zelenskyy said.
Dozens of pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed, as were more than 10 Russian ammunition depots, Zelenskyy said.
-ABC News’ Edward Seekers
Mar 10, 3:17 PM EST
Russia says Nord Stream explosion investigation should be impartial
The investigation into who was behind the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline explosion should be “objective, impartial and transparent,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agency Interfax.
“I do not want to threaten anyone. I do not want to hint at anything either. I just know that this flagrant terror attack will not go uninvestigated,” Lavrov added.
Russia also said it will distribute its correspondence with Germany, Denmark and Sweden on the investigation of the Nord Stream explosion among the members of the United Nations Security Council soon.
Russia claimed the three countries are denying Russia access to information and participation in the investigation, first deputy permanent representative to the U.N. Dmitry Polyansky said in an interview, according to Russian news agency TASS.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Tanya Stukalova
Mar 10, 3:03 PM EST
Russia says Nord Stream explosion investigation should be impartial
The investigation into who was behind the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline explosion should be “objective, impartial and transparent,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agency Interfax.
“I do not want to threaten anyone. I do not want to hint at anything either. I just know that this flagrant terror attack will not go uninvestigated,” Lavrov added.
Russia also said it will distribute its correspondence with Germany, Denmark and Sweden on the investigation of Nord Stream explosion among the members of the United Nations Security Council soon.
Russia claimed the three countries are denying Russia access to information and participation in the investigation, first deputy permanent representative to the U.N. Dmitry Polyansky said in an interview, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Mar 10, 9:46 AM EST
Zelenskyy says Ukraine had nothing to do with Nord Stream explosions
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that Ukraine had anything to do with the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions last year.
“As for the Nord Stream, we have nothing to do with it,” Zelenskyy said Friday.
The New York Times published a report that U.S. intelligence suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the pipeline.
Zelenskyy also suggested that the information being spread about the involvement of pro-Ukrainian groups in the attack could be done to slow down aid to his country.
-ABC News’ Natalia Shumskaia
Mar 09, 2:45 PM EST
Power returns to Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after attacks
Electricity supply has been fully restored in Kyiv after Russia’s overnight barrage of missile attacks on Ukraine, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said in a Telegram post Thursday.
Also, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is now “receiving electricity for its own needs from the Ukrainian grid after power supply was cut,” Russian news agency Interfax reported.
-ABC News’ Tatiana Rymarenko and Natalia Shumskaia
Mar 09, 7:25 AM EST
Russia ‘brutalizing’ Ukrainian people, White House says
Russia’s overnight barrage of missiles aimed at civilian infrastructure may have knocked heat out to as much as 40% of Ukrainians, the White House said on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to “brutalize” the people of Ukraine, John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America on Thursday.
“It also appears, George, that they were definitely targeting civilian infrastructure,” Kirby said. “I would agree with the Ukrainians. He’s just trying to brutalize the Ukrainian people”
Russian forces early on Thursday launched 81 missiles from land and sea, Ukrainian officials said. Eight uncrewed drones were also launched in what officials described as a “massive” attack.
Eleven regions and cities were targeted in an attack that lasted at least seven hours, officials said.
Kirby said on Thursday that the White House expects to see more fighting on the ground in Ukraine for at least the “next four to six months.”
“We know that the Russians are attempting to conduct more offensive operations here when the weather gets better,” he said.
Mar 09, 3:59 AM EST
Zelenskyy decries Russia’s ‘miserable tactics’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Russian officials had returned “to their miserable tactics” as they launched at least 81 missiles at Ukrainian sites overnight.
“The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them,” he said on Telegram. “They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.”
He added, “We thank the guardians of our skies and everyone who helps to overcome the consequences of the occupiers’ sneaking attacks!”
Mar 09, 3:34 AM EST
81 missiles launched in ‘massive’ Russian attack, Ukraine says
Waves of missiles and a handful of drones were launched overnight by Russia, targeting energy infrastructure and cities across Ukraine, officials said.
The attack on “critical infrastructure” and civilian targets lasted throughout the night, Verkovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, said on Twitter. Energy was being gradually restored on Thursday morning, the body said.
Ukraine’s parliament and military said at least 81 missiles were fired from several bases. Eight Iranian-made drones were also launched, the military said.
Ukraine destroyed 34 cruise missiles and four drones, military officials said on Facebook.
“Russia’s threats only encourage partners to provide long-term assistance to Ukraine,” said Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.
Russia “will be sentenced as a terrorist state” for its attacks, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Rada’s chairperson, said on Twitter.
Mar 09, 12:35 AM EST
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant now running on diesel generators, energy minister says
The last line that fed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been damaged following missile strikes, and the plant is now working on diesel generators, according to the Ukrainian energy minister, Herman Galushchenko.
Mar 09, 12:16 AM EST
Emergency power outages nationwide due to missile attacks, provider says
DTEK, the largest private grid operator in Ukraine, said emergency power outages are in effect due to the missile attacks in the Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Dnipro regions.
Mar 09, 12:27 AM EST
Multiple missile strikes reported across Ukraine
Multiple explosions have been reported in city centers all over the country, including Dnipro, Odesa, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi and Kharkiv.
Residents in multiple areas are being asked to shelter in place, and communication and electricity has been impacted.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said multiple explosions were reported in the Holosiiv district.
The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, said Russia struck the city at least 15 times overnight.
The head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration said there had been no casualties and that the power supply is being restricted.
Mar 08, 2:05 PM EST
Ukraine says it was not involved in Nord Stream Pipeline bombings
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov denied Ukraine was involved in the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline, which carries natural gas from Russia to Germany. While the pipeline was not active at the time of the bombing last September, it was filled with fuel.
The denial comes after The New York Times reported that intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the Nord Stream bombings last year.
After the story broke, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned against “jumping to conclusions” about who carried out the explosion, suggesting it could have been a “false flag” operation to blame Ukraine.
German authorities were reportedly able to identify the boat used for the sabotage operation, saying a group of five men and one woman using forged passports rented a yacht from a Poland-based company owned by Ukrainian citizens. The nationalities of the perpetrators are unclear, according to a separate report by Germany’s ARD broadcaster and Zeit newspaper.
“We have to make a clear distinction whether it was a Ukrainian group, whether it may have happened at Ukrainian orders, or a pro-Ukrainian group [acting] without knowledge of the government. But I am warning against jumping to conclusions,” Pistorius said on the sidelines of a summit in Stockholm.
A Russian diplomat said Russia has no faith in the U.S.‘s “impartiality” in the conclusions made from intelligence.
(NEW YORK) — A string of bank collapses in recent days sent panic rippling through the financial sector, prompting an extraordinary U.S. government intervention to save depositors and a sharp drop for bank stocks in the U.S. and Europe.
Some people and institutions, however, made money amid the turmoil.
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker sold $3.6 million worth of the company’s shares less than two weeks before the bank’s collapse, drawing scrutiny from lawmakers like Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who called on the bank to claw back the compensation.
Meanwhile, as panic mounted and bank stocks plummeted over a three-day period before the Silicon Valley Bank failure, $2.3 billion in profit flowed to short sellers, traders who bet that the shares would fall, data firm S3 partners said.
Finally, in the aftermath of the bank collapse, a wave of new depositors opened up accounts at some of the nation’s largest banks, such as JPMorgan Chase.
Here’s what you need to know who benefited from the banking crisis and why:
Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker
Financial filings showed millions worth of shares sold by Becker’s trust late last month, raising questions about what he knew about the imminent financial trouble faced by the bank.
Khanna, who represents the district in which Silicon Valley Bank was headquartered, called for the return of the money to depositors.
“I have said that there should be a clawback of that money,” Khanna said on Monday. “Whatever his motives, and we should find out, that $3.6 million should go to depositors.”
Silicon Valley Bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kevin Murphy, a professor of finance and business economics at the University of Southern California who specializes in executive compensation, said the stock sale has elicited valid concern.
“There’s no question that this raises eyebrows,” Murphy said. “The optics are bad.”
However, the conduct may be “less problematic” than it appears, he added.
After the exercise price and taxes associated with the sale, Becker stood to gain roughly $1 million, Murphy said, noting that the amount makes up a fraction of the $9.9 million in total compensation received by Becker last year.
Becker’s stock options were set to expire in May, leaving him just a few months shy of the deadline, Murphy added. The stock sale falls within conduct permitted by law.
“It raises red flags,” Murphy said. “But I wouldn’t put as much weight on it as the layman.”
Still, the company could ultimately claw back some or all of the money from Becker, he added, citing financial documents filed by the company earlier this month.
“They do have a policy in place,” he said. “There is scope here for the board to initiate a recoupment but it’s somewhat limited.”
Short sellers
Another set of individuals who profited amid the distress at Silicon Valley Bank is short sellers, investors who make money when a stock drops.
As shares of banks plummeted before and after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, short sellers have generated massive profits.
On a single day last week, shares of Silicon Valley Bank plummeted 60%. The stock price of First Republic Bank, another regional lender under stress, fell 30% on Thursday to a low last seen 13 years ago. It later rallied after big banks announced $30 billion in combined deposits in the bank.
Over a nine-day period in early March, short sellers raked in $7.1 billion on $50 billion worth of investments, a staggering return of about 14%, Ihor Dusaniwsky, a managing director at S3 partners, told ABC News.
“That’s a phenomenal return,” Dusaniwsky said. “You’re catching lightning in a bottle.”
The success of short sellers in recent days has stoked concern over the possible role such traders play in depressing the price of Silicon Valley Bank shares, heightening panic on social media and exacerbating the ensuing bank run.
The influence of short sellers deserves scrutiny in the case of Silicon Bank, since its depositors were made up of a relatively small group of venture capital firms, tech startups and other large investors, Connel Fullenkamp, an economics professor at Duke University who studies short selling, told ABC News.
“That’s something we have to take seriously in the case of Silicon Valley Bank because the community of depositors is so internet savvy and tech savvy,” Fullenkamp said. “A big part of the story is how much communication there was among the depositors and certainly this feedback loop of short sellers and depositors can make things worse.”
However, fears about the negative consequences of short selling in a banking crisis overlook the useful role played by such traders, he added.
“Without the short sellers, we get this really strong positive bias that prices keep going up and up — it’s too easy to create stock price bubbles,” he said. “Short sellers are skeptics who put their money where their mouth is.”
Big banks
In the aftermath of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, as uncertainty spread through the financial system, a flood of depositors opened new accounts at large U.S. banks.
JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank, received a huge wave of customers and deposits, amounting to hundreds of accounts and billions of dollars, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The bank is telling employees to forego targeting customers amid the financial turmoil but the inflow of customers has arrived regardless, the source said.
JPMorgan Chase declined to respond to a request for comment.
Other top banks, including Bank of America and Citi, have benefited from a similar flood of customers and deposits, the Financial Times reported.
Bank of America declined to comment; and Citi did not respond to a request for comment.
While some big banks gained depositors, the nation’s largest financial institutions took action on Monday in an effort to stabilize the financial sector, placing $30 billion in First Republic bank, one of the embattled regional lenders.
Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs were among a slew of big banks that participated in the effort.
“This action by America’s largest banks reflects their confidence in First Republic and in banks of all sizes, and it demonstrates their overall commitment to helping banks serve their customers and communities,” the banks said in a press statement on Thursday.
“Regional, midsize and small banks are critical to the health and functioning of our financial system,” the statement added.
