(FORT HOOD, Texas) — The Army is investigating the death of 21-year-old Pvt. Ana Basalduaruiz, a combat engineer at Fort Hood, Texas, who had served with the division for the last 15 months.
Basalduaruiz, who was found dead last month, told her mother she was being sexually harassed by a superior and her family offered to pick her up from the base, her family told ABC News.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division and the chain of command are actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding Basalduaruiz’s death, Fort Hood told ABC News.
Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén was murdered at the same base after reportedly being sexually harassed by another soldier. The soldier killed himself while being pursued by police. A report released nearly a year after her death confirmed that Guillén had been sexually harassed by a superior.
An autopsy will be conducted on Basalduaruiz’s body Thursday, according to her aunt, Itzi Ortega.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Pvt. Ana Basalduaruiz, and we extend our sympathies to her father, mother, and her sister,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Sullivan, commander, 91st Engineer Battalion. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time. She was an exceptional teammate that will truly be missed.”
Basalduaruiz’s family was told they will not hear anything else until the investigation into her death is completed.
According to the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2021 report on sexual assault and harassment in the military, 29% of women and 7% of men experienced sexual harassment. The 29% for women is an increase from the last report on fiscal year 2018 — when 24% of women stated they suffered sexual harassment. The increase was driven by the experiences of enlisted women and those under the age of 25, according to the report.
Basalduaruiz joined the military in 2020 but did not start training until August 2022 because of the pandemic, her aunt said.
Guillén’s sister, Mayra Guillén, reacted to Basalduaruiz’s death on Twitter.
“I’m aware of the death of Ana Basaldua in Ft Hood, TX. May she Rest In Peace. She was only 21 years old … I will be speaking to the family soon, I find it very sensitive to speak on something I’m not fully aware off yet and this is also very triggering for me … I need to gather my thoughts and then I’ll be able to share them,” she said in a Tweet.
(WASHINGTON) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress on Thursday the U.S. “banking system is sound” after two bank failures stirred economic fears.
Yellen, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, began her remarks by addressing the abrupt collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in California and Signature Bank in New York.
“I can reassure the members of the committee that our banking system remains sound, and that Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them,” she said. “This week’s actions demonstrate our resolute commitment to ensure that depositors’ savings remain safe.”
Yellen faced a grilling from lawmakers on the government’s response and whether regulators missed warning signs that Silicon Valley Bank, the country’s 16th largest bank, was in jeopardy. Investigations are underway at the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Silicon Valley Bank’s demise.
Yellen told lawmakers in her opening remarks that the government took “decisive and forceful actions to strengthen public confidence in our banking system” in the wake of the failures.
That included guaranteeing the protection of all Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank deposits, which many Republicans have slammed as a prioritization of the rich.
Yellen also highlighted the Federal Reserve’s plan to establish a new lending facility to give additional support to banks to meet the needs of all depositors.
“Nerves are certainly frayed at this moment,” committee chair Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said as he began the hearing.
Sen, Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, pressed Yellen on whether there was a liquidity risk at Silicon Valley Bank. Yellen attributed the bank’s downfall to a run that led to liquidity problems.
“There will be a careful look at what happened in the bank and what initiated this problem, but clearly the downfall of the bank, the reason it had to be closed, was that it could not meet depositors’ withdrawal requests,” she told the senator.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Chasten Buttigieg appears on ABC’s “The View,” March 16, 2023. — ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Chasten Buttigieg, author and the husband of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, told co-hosts of ABC’s The View on Thursday that he has not heard from former Vice President Mike Pence since Pence made what the White House called a “homophobic joke” aimed at his family over the weekend.
Asked by co-host Sunny Hostin if he’s heard anything from Pence, or if expects to, Buttigieg quickly said, “No.”
“No, and I think it’s not ‘woke,’ you know, to say that something is homophobic or misogynistic. Doesn’t make you woke. It doesn’t make you a snowflake to tell someone they made a mistake,” he said, defending his husband for taking parental leave.
“I know we all struggle to find a balance between work and family life. I’ve never seen someone work harder than my husband to find that balance, but I think Republican or Democrat, we can all agree when your child — our prematurely born child — is barely five pounds, when your kid is connected to a ventilator, you don’t want to be anywhere but by their bedside,” he said.
Pence, headlining at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington for journalists and politicians, mocked Buttigieg for taking parental leave after the birth of his adopted twins, while he said Americans faced issues with air travel.
“He took two months ‘maternity’ leave whereupon thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, the air traffic system shut down, and airplanes nearly collided on our runways. Pete is the only person in human history to have a child and everyone else gets postpartum depression,” Pence said, according to reporters present.
The Buttigiegs’ twins, now 18 months, were born prematurely, developed Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV) and one was hospitalized and put on a ventilator — a “terrifying” experience that the couple documented on Medium and a point Chasten raised in a tweet aimed at Pence.
“I spoke up because we all have an obligation to hold people accountable for when they say something wrong, especially when it’s misogynistic, especially when it’s homophobic, and I just don’t take that when it’s towards my family, and I don’t think anyone else would, especially when you bring a very small, medically-fragile child into it,” he said.
Buttigieg also said Pence’s comments were “part of a much bigger trend attacking families.”
“The thing about what he said is it flies in the face of what he says he is. He says he’s a family values Republican. So I don’t think he’s practicing what he preaches here,” he said.
“Someone wrote this, and he checked it and purposely said maternity leave rather than paternity leave — but also, it’s a bigger conversation about the work that women do in families — taking a swipe at all women and all families and expecting that women would stay home and raise children is a misogynistic view, especially from a man who said just last year that we should be supporting more people that adopt,” he added.
ABC News’ Gio Benitez asked the transportation secretary himself on Monday afternoon if he thought Pence owed him an apology, to which he responded, “I’ll let others speak to that.”
“It’s a strange thing to me because the last time I saw him, he asked me about my kids like a normal person would. I guess, you know, at a political event in white tie, it’s a little different,” Buttigieg said.
Marc Short, Pence’s former chief of staff and co-chair of an advocacy group Pence founded, called the response from the White House “faux outrage.”
“The White House would be wise to focus less on placating the woke police and focus more on bank failures, planes nearly colliding in mid-air, train derailments, and the continued supply chain crisis,” Short said in an earlier statement.
The conversation on The View Thursday turned to the significance of paid parental leave, which is not required by federal law in the U.S.
“Everyone should have paid family leave, for both spouses, it’s so important,” he said. “There’s nothing weak about that work. It’s the hardest work you’ll ever do in your life.”
Transportation Secretary Buttigieg also told co-hosts of The View in October 2021 that “maybe some good came out of” the attacks he’s faced because, he said, “It’s helped us have a conversation about parental leave.”
“Every American ought to be able to get paid parental leave. That’s something that the president believes in and has proposed. It’s something I believe,” he added at the time.
(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 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.
(TOPOCK, Ariz.) — Eight freight rail tankers derailed near Topock, Arizona, on Wednesday evening, according to BNSF Railway.
Despite initial reports from the Mojave County Sheriff’s Office that the train was carrying hazardous materials, BNSF confirmed that the train was actually carrying corn syrup. According to BNSF, “there were no injuries as a result of the derailment and preliminarily reports indicate there are no hazardous materials involved.”
The initial alarm about the derailment prompted concern on social media and in some local areas, with train derailments in the national spotlight following a hazardous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in early February.
Chris Higa, 25, drove roughly 30 minutes from his home in Bullhead City, Arizona, to visit the site of the derailed train after hearing about the derailment on a police scanner.
“Being in my own town, it was definitely one of those like ‘Wow, is this actually happening?’” he said.
However, his reaction, once he arrived at the site of derailment, changed from concern to shock and awe.
“Kicking on that light bar, my vehicle, I could see the part of the train, and it was like, wow, there’s an actual train in the middle of the desert,” he said.
Higa said he could not smell or see anything that indicated a release of hazardous materials; rather, he just saw a portion of the sprawling train in the desert, the rumbling from its diesel engine and an increasing law enforcement response.
“I didn’t notice anything out of the blue, there was no smell. It was just that humid air,” he said. “There was no discoloration in the air, anything of any chemicals, no glowing of anything.”
Earlier that evening, the area was under a tornado warning, with flooding impacting the area as well. Higa said he witnessed some storm runoff potentially impacting the train tracks and BNSF confirmed that the track is blocked, with no estimated time for when it might be reopened.
Amtrak announced that at least one scheduled trip in the nearby area was canceled due to a “disabled freight train blocking the route ahead.”
The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said that the National Transportation Safety Board has been notified of the incident and will investigate the derailment.
(NEW YORK) — The word “bailout” is sure to make anyone who remembers the 2008 financial crisis nostalgic in all the worst ways. At the time, the government used taxpayer money to keep some of the country’s largest financial institutions afloat.
Two regional banks recently collapsed. As depositors of those banks feared for the money in their accounts, the Fed stepped in to replenish any of the money depositors would have lost.
The U.S. government and even the banks struggle to call it a bailout in any way that relates to what happened in 2008, with the government refusing to call it a bailout at all, and there’s a couple of reasons for all of this.
What happened?
When Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank were seized and shut down by regulators last weekend, depositors of those banks feared for their money. The FDIC insures depositors’ money up to at least $250,000 – meaning if you had more than that amount in one of those banks, you may be out of luck.
However, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the FDIC announced they would make sure all depositors with accounts at SVB and Signature Bank would have access to their funds by the next day — beyond just the $250,000 guaranteed by the FDIC.
The Fed announced a few other actions as well — like making funds available for other financial institutions in the form of one-year loans. This is all to instill confidence in other banks after SVB’s collapse, and to avoid any run on the banks.
The money is going to customers, not the institutions.
“In 2008, we were actually bailing out companies,” said Art Hogan, a chief market strategist with B. Riley Wealth and Art’s with over 30 years experience working in the U.S. equity markets. “Banks that were seen as too big to fail.”
But now, as Hogan puts it, the government is not coming to save SVB or Signature Bank — noting that all the money is going towards depositors, not the banks.
“But [the government] is not going to let the depositors get hurt,” says Hogan. “They’re actually rescuing depositors in banks that made some bad decisions over the course of the last year or so.”
That means investors, employees or others who were making money from these institutions are out of luck and should not be able to touch any of the money the government will be using to make depositors whole.
“What happened during the financial crisis: shareholders and bondholders of many of our biggest banks were bailed out by the government,” said Gerard Cassidy managing director with RBC Capital Markets. Cassidy has been with and provided RBC with investment research on the U.S. banking industry for more than 30 years.
“The shareholders and bondholders of the two respected banks that failed — Silicon Valley and Signature, were completely wiped out; And so, from that standpoint, I would say this is not a bailout,” he said.
SVB is not in complete shambles. HSBC on Monday announced a deal to buy the U.K. subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank, which has a new name: SVB Bridge Bank.
But back to the word “bailout” — which has no traditional definition. Some still consider the actions taken by the government over the last week a bailout. The difference, per some experts, between now and 2008 is simply who is being bailed out: the depositors.
“Bailout,” yelled senior economics fellow at Brookings Institution, Aaron Klein, during a phone interview with ABC News. “That’s what it is — plain and simple.”
Klein spent over a decade working in government, including his time as chief economist of the Senate Banking. During that time, he worked on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) — a $700 billion government bailout authorized by Congress in October of 2008.
Klein’s point is that the depositors being made whole beyond the original $250,000 guarantee are, in essence, getting bailed out. Everyone who had less than that in their accounts was already guaranteed their money back by the Fed, he noted.
“If you lined up 20 Americans in a room, the 19th richest person will have – based on the average – about $69,000 in their bank account,” noted Klein. “Very few Americans have more than $250,000 in a single bank.”
Per the bank’s own description, SVB catered its services to venture capitalists (VCs), start-up and leaders in the tech industry — many of whom could be considered financially “well-off”.
“VCs should say thank you,” wrote New York Times’ and CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Twitter.
“It is a bailout,” he wrote. “Not like 2008. But it is a bailout of the venture capital community + their portfolio companies (their investments). That’s the depositor base of SVB.”
If the government is stepping in to guarantee these bank customers their money beyond the $250,000 guarantee, many are left wondering where that money is coming from and how this is not considered a bailout.
No taxpayer money will be used, says the Fed.
The White House, the Treasury and the FDIC have been blunt about one talking point: the money for these depositors at SVB and Signature Bank will not come from taxpayers.
“For the banks that were put into receivership, the FDIC will use funds from the Deposit Insurance Fund to ensure that all of its depositors are made whole,” said a senior Treasury Department official Sunday.
The Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) is a program run by the FDIC mainly funded through quarterly assessments on insured banks, paid by the banks — as well as interest on funds invested in government bonds. This is how that $250,000 gets guaranteed, but now the government is going beyond that guarantee to ensure confidence.
The DIF currently has over $100 billion in it, which should be a “sufficient” amount to make SVB and Signature Bank whole, officials said Monday.
The funds offered in the form of one-year-loans to other banks, savings associations, credit unions, and other eligible depository institutions — all of whom will have to put up qualifying assets as collateral — will come from a new Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP).
This is more of a failsafe. The BTFP is aimed at safeguarding banks who may have lost depositors’ confidence after the SVB and Signature Bank collapse.
“This action will bolster the capacity of the banking system to safeguard deposits and ensure the ongoing provision of money and credit to the economy,” the Fed said in a statement. “The Federal Reserve is prepared to address any liquidity pressures that may arise.”
If needed, the BTFP will be partially funded by up to $25 billion from the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF). The ESF is an emergency reserve fund normally used for foreign exchange intervention.
The Fed says it “does not anticipate that it will be necessary to draw on these backstop funds.”
It’s unclear how much harm the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank did to depositors’ confidence — earlier this week, stocks of more than two dozen regional banks tumbled.
Banks varying in size from around the country, including San Francisco-based First Republic Bank and Salt Lake City-based Zions Bank, find themselves in market turmoil as some customers rushed to withdraw their deposits and investors dumped bank stocks fearing a run on those banks.
The turmoil in regional U.S. banks spread to Europe Wednesday. The stock of Credit Suisse, a long troubled Swiss bank, plunged 24% on Wednesday. While American banks stocks had another down day. Analysts say the rapid interest raise increases by the federal reserve are shaking confidence in the entire sector.
Nevertheless, the Fed says it’s prepared to make depositors whole should any other bank suffer the same fate as SVB and Signature Bank.
It’s worth noting that most experts agree that the collapse of these two banks was caused by poor management and misguided financial decisions, and should be considered exceptional circumstances.
“This was a poorly managed bank that ran into a couple of different issues at the very same time,” said Cassidy regarding SVB. “It looks like everyone’s money will be insured even beyond $250,000 – so the idea is not to panic, this will settle down…we’ll get through this.”
(NEW YORK) — Maternal mortality rates in the United States continue to rise and Black women continue to be most affected, new data shows.
Deaths of women during and just after pregnancy have been steadily increasing over the past few years, according to a report published Thursday by the National Vital Statistics System.
Rates jumped from 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020 to 32.9 in 2021, the new report found. Rates went up from 2019 to 2020 as well.
“It was a continuation of what we saw from 2019 to 2020,” Donna Hoyert, author of the report and a statistician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC News. “But it was a bigger increase than in previous years.”
Mortality rates were highest in non-Hispanic Black women.
According to the report, non-Hispanic Black women died during and just after pregnancy at a rate 2.6 times that of non-Hispanic white women. That gap is consistent with previous reports.
“The maternal mortality rates in black women certainly reflects the systemic racism and discrimination in health care,” Dr. Joanne Stone, professor and system chair of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive science at the Icahn School of Medicine, told ABC News. “Black women are at a higher risk for complications like preeclampsia and hemorrhage, as well as chronic health conditions.”
People of color often face discrimination or other gaps in care when receiving health care, and that is linked to poorer treatment, according to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Black women often do not receive adequate health care, so pregnancy complications like high blood pressure are not properly treated, which can lead to death, according to another study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
“There are certain things that are happening for some groups that aren’t happening for others,” said Martha Wingate, professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Organization at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health.
Thursday’s National Vital Statistics System report also found that women 40 years and older had higher rates of death during pregnancy.
That may be because as women get older, they have a higher risk for chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes, which may complicate childbirth, said Stone. These women are also more likely to need fertility treatments to get pregnant, she said, which can lead to carrying multiple fetuses at the same time and can lead to greater mortality rates as well.
Pregnant people can take some steps to lower their mortality risk. The CDC says that women of reproductive age should maintain a healthy weight and diet, stop use of all substances and take care of health problems before becoming pregnant.
While more research is needed to identify ways to reduce mortality rates and close the gap between inequities in healthcare, Westgate said women should listen to their bodies and seek out care if something feels wrong. Reducing those rates does not just help pregnant people — it helps everyone around them, she said.
“We’re talking about families,” Westgate said. “It’s not just the mom.”
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. European Command has released dramatic declassified video taken by the MQ-9 Reaper drone that shows the moment that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with it after attempting to spray the drone with jet fuel.
The video was taken from a camera on the drone’s underside and shows two different passes taken by the jets to spray the drone, the second one being the collision with the propeller at the rear of the drone, which is visible in the footage.
Communications were lost with the drone as the image can be seen pixelating into color bars.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats in Congress are proposing additional aid for local first responders amid the ongoing conversation concerning rail safety in the wake of the February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
In the time since the Feb. 3 derailment, lawmakers in Washington have focused on the state and federal response to the spilling of toxic chemicals that contaminated soil and water in East Palestine and neighboring Darlington, Pennsylvania. Now, Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey is introducing legislation that would give local emergency workers additional resources to deal with similar incidents in the future.
According to U.S. Department of Transportation data, there have been an average of 1,475 train derailments per year from 2005-2021. Firefighters, police and other local agencies that deal with hazardous material are often the first to arrive on the scene of hazardous derailments, even before state and federal teams can be deployed.
Casey’s bill, set to be introduced Thursday, would create a new fund which would be used to reimburse emergency responders for costs incurred when responding to a train derailment in their communities.
That fund, which would be managed by the Federal Railroad Administration, would be paid into by shippers and carriers moving hazardous material.
Democratic senators from the states most affected by the East Palestine derailment are co-sponsoring the legislation: Sherrod Brown of Ohio and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
“The first responders who risked their lives and wellbeing to protect Pennsylvania and Ohio from Norfolk Southern’s disaster are heroes who deserve much more than our gratitude,” Casey said in a statement, referring to the company operating the train that derailed last month.
“The Assistance for Local Heroes During Train Crises Act will help our communities better prepare for future derailments and cover the cost of damaged equipment, overtime pay, and more—all paid for by the companies that ship and carry these materials,” Casey said. “Along with the Railway Safety Act, this legislation will help keep our communities safe from hazardous train derailments and hold railroads accountable for the damage these crises inflict.”
In the aftermath of the East Palestine derailment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has emphasized the need for increased response training for first responders. Earlier this month, he announced he had spoken with the CEOs of both Norfolk Southern and CSX rails about those additional resources.
Casey said he identified similar needs in Pennsylvania.
In response, Norfolk Southern agreed to create a new first responder training center near East Palestine, with the first sessions set to begin Tuesday in Bellevue. Trainings will focus on preparing for and responding to rail incidents involving hazardous materials.
The company says they have also reimbursed and committed more than $3 million to the East Palestine Fire Department for equipment used in the derailment response, including $220,000 to replace self-contained breathing apparatus air packs, which allow firefighters to breathe compressed air when responding to fires.
“The derailment in East Palestine made clear that ensuring first responders are prepared for disasters involving hazardous materials is vitally important to the safety of communities,” DeWine said in a statement last week. “Often first responders are volunteers, and their need to have the most up-to-date training and equipment is essential. Today’s commitment by Norfolk Southern is an important next step in the company’s commitment to make the citizens of Ohio and of East Palestine whole after the recent derailment, a commitment Ohio will continue to monitor closely.”
Casey’s bill goes further, creating a fund to anticipate future challenges. It comes as Congress continues to debate whether and how to regulate railroads.
Casey, Brown and Fetterman, along with Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, have already introduced a more expansive rail reform bill, the Railway Safety Act, in response to the East Palestine derailment.
That proposal has bipartisan co-sponsors, including Republican Sens. Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio, of Missouri and Florida. It would enhance safety precautions for trains carrying hazardous material, including by requiring that wheels of trains carrying hazardous materials be scanned for heat every 10 miles; mandating a two-person crew aboard all trains; and increasing the fines that the U.S. Department of Transportation can levy against corporations for breaking rules.
The Railway Safety Act would also implement new provisions that would require carriers to provide advance notification and information to state emergency response officials about what they are transporting.
The legislation Casey is introducing on Thursday would require local officials, like fire departments and other emergency responders, to be kept in the loop when a train is moving hazardous material through their communities.
Casey’s office noted local emergency responders and firefighters are often “the first line of defense for public safety.”
They do so sometimes “with limited knowledge of what has been spilled or caught fire” and, even so, “help evacuate residents, fight fires, close roads, and perform other urgent tasks to mitigate disaster,” Casey said — work which can “quickly surpass the budget of local first responder organizations, especially if they need to pay workers overtime, replace damaged equipment, or purchase supplies” and especially for smaller, more rural towns through which these rails often run.
“Emergency personnel who respond to hazardous train derailments deserve more than our thanks,” Casey said.
What remains to be seen, however, is whether there will be the necessary Republican support to move forward on enacting Casey’s bill focused on first responders.
The East Palestine derailment inspired some unusual bipartisanship among area politicians, who acknowledged the trauma that derailment caused to the village — and the urgent need for systemic safety improvements in the rail industry.
Still, larger efforts to impose new federal-level rules on the rail industry have struggled to gain steam with all Republicans in Congress, who worry about prematurely regulating a private industry.
Conservatives in the House cast the reform legislation as overly restrictive while some in the GOP have also said they want to see the National Transportation Safety Board’s final report on the derailment before endorsing legislation. That report could take more than a year to be completed.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to work with the legislation’s sponsors to move the Railway Safety Act onto the floor. It’s possible that Casey’s new legislation could be included as part of that discussion.
But without 60 votes, the legislation won’t clear the Senate. That’s led proponents of new regulations to grow restless.
“I tell you what I’d do on that rail bill: I’d go to the floor and I’d make senators vote on it every single day until there’s some progress made,” Hawley said Wednesday. “The strategy here … from the rail lobbyist and their allies is to delay, delay, delay until public pressure appears to have cooled off. Meanwhile, the people of East Palestine and others as these accidents continue will have gotten no relief.”
(BOSTON) — Two young skiers were rescued Tuesday night after getting lost while skiing outside the Wachusett Mountain ski area boundaries, according to the Princeton Fire Department.
Princeton Fire Chief John Bennett told ABC News’ Boston affiliate station WCVB-TV that the two skiers — both 15-year-old boys — waited three hours in chest-deep snow before calling authorities.
With their phone’s battery level at 9%, the skiers were able to call 911, and dispatchers were able to identify the location of the cellphone signal, which identified that they were two miles “from any civilization,” according to the Princeton Fire Department in a statement released Wednesday.
Sharing their body heat to survive, the two skiers were able to wait while crews “battled the elements, darkness and dangerous snow pack,” the Princeton Fire Department said.
“I was worried. I was worried,” Princeton fire chief John Bennett told WCVB. “I was looking at it on my way here responding, and that’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s on old fire roads on the back side of the mountain. So they had gotten a long way from the ski area.”
The Princeton area reported nearly 30 inches of snow from the March nor’easter, according to WCVB, although higher elevations likely received additional snowfall from the storm.
The mountain the boys were rescued on is part of the Wachusett Mountain State Reservation in Massachusetts about 50 miles west of Boston. It features approximately 3,000 acres of hiking amid a 2,000-foot mountain summit that can experience sudden and severe weather conditions, especially in the winter, according to WCVB.
An ambulance was standing by for when the boys returned but it was deemed that neither needed medical treatment following the incident and both teenagers were released back into the care of their families, WCVB said.
“This could have ended tragically,” the fire department said. “But these boys are very lucky.”
