There’s nothing like the bond between a mother and son.
On season one of The White Lotus, Lukas Gage played resort staffer Dillon, who shared a very—shall we say—intimate scene with his boss Armond, played by Murray Bartlett.
The scene in question required Lukas to be naked from the waist down, which would probably be an awkward thing for most actors to discuss with their families. However, in Lukas’ case, his mom couldn’t have been prouder.
“She says, ‘That’s a great ass. Get that money. Get that bag and be committed,’” Lukas told Variety March 16. “My mom’s cool. She’s like a cool little hippie lady. With nudity, I think we both share sort of a European vibe.”
The scene in The White Lotus served to prep Lukas and his family for the fourth season of Netflix’s You, in which Lukas received a golden shower.
When that scene came out, Lukas received feedback from more than just his mom.
Dow Jones futures were little changed overnight, along with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures. FedEx (FDX) reported earnings late Thursday, signaling a possible FDX stock breakout.
X
The stock market rally attempt had a strong session, reversing higher from morning lows. The Nasdaq led the way, fueled by big caps such as Apple stock, Microsoft (MSFT), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia (NVDA).
But Thursday’s market catalyst was news of a $30 billion deposit infusion for embattled California-based First Republic Bank (FRC). JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and Wells Fargo (WFC) announced that they will each make a $5 billion uninsured deposit into First Republic. Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are contributing $2.5 billion each. Bank of New York Mellon (BK), PNC Financial (PNC), State Street (STT), Truist (TFC) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) are each making an uninsured deposit of $1 billion.
FRC stock, down over 36% intraday and up as much as 28%, closed up 10.3% to 34.38. Shares are off more than 70% this month. Several other regional banks moved higher as well, including Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL) and Pacific Western Bank (PACW), often called PacWest.
But FRC stock plunged 17% in late trading as First Republic suspended its dividend. WAL stock and PACW stock retreated solidly overnight.
JPM stock closed up 1.9%, rebounding from just above the 200-day moving average. Citi and BAC stock also closed up nearly 2%.
The First Republic rescue report followed Wednesday night news that Credit Suisse (CS) would borrow up to $53.7 billion from the Swiss National Bank while also buying back debt. CS stock rose solidly intraday, but closed flat at 2.16. Shares hit a record low of 1.75 intraday Wednesday.
Banks tapped $164.8 billion from the central bank’s backstops in the week ended March 15, the Federal Reserve data showed late Thursday. That includes a record $152.85 billion from the discount window, up from $4.58 billion in the prior week. That’s likely mostly from the FDIC-run successors to SVB Financial and Signature Bank. Banks also borrowed $11.9 billion from the Bank Term Funding Program. Under that new Fed facility, banks can take out one-year loans under favorable terms in exchange for quality collateral.
Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft stock flashed buy signals Thursday, along with Lantheus (LNTH), Workday (WDAY) and Lennar (LEN).
Investors could have chosen to add a little exposure Thursday, but remain cautious. The major indexes showed strength, but volume fell vs. Wednesday. So it’s still a market rally attempt, not a confirmed uptrend.
Dow Jones Futures Today
Dow Jones futures were even vs. fair value. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures edged higher.
The 10-year Treasury yield dipped 2 basis points to 3.56%, but the two-year yield climbed 5 basis points to 4.18%.
Remember that overnight action in Dow futures and elsewhere doesn’t necessarily translate into actual trading in the next regular stock market session.
FedEx Earnings
FedEx earnings topped fiscal Q3 views but missed on revenue. The shipping giant raised full-year EPS guidance. FedEx stock soared 12% to 227.92 overnight, signaling a possible breakout. Shares rose 4.5% to 204.05 in Thursday’s regular session, back above the 200-day and 50-day lines. FedEx stock is working on a 217.48 flat-base buy point, but investors could use a move above the March 9 intraday high of 213.31 as an early entry.
United Parcel Service (UPS) rose 3% in extended trade on FedEx earnings, suggesting a breakout or at least an early entry. Shares rose 1.9% to 187.90 on Thursday, rebounding from near the 50-day and 200-day lines and flirting with short-term resistance and a trendline going back a year. UPS stock is in a flat base with a 193.81 buy point within a yearlong consolidation.
The stock market rally had a strong day, rebounding to close near session highs as bank crisis fears ebbed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2% in Thursday’s stock market trading. The S&P 500 index popped 1.8%, with First Republic and AMD stock the top performers. The Nasdaq composite jumped 2.5%. The small-cap Russell 2000 bounced 1.4%.
U.S. crude oil prices rose 1.1% to $68.35 a barrel after plunging to a 2023 low on Wednesday. Copper prices edged up 0.75%.
The 10-year Treasury yield popped 9 basis points to 3.58%, rebounding from 3.37% intraday. The two-year yield reversed higher to jump 16 basis points to 4.13%.
Markets are now expecting quarter-point Fed rate hikes in March and May, and project more rate cuts after that. Needless to say, Fed rate projections are in flux.
The European Central Bank went ahead with a half-point rate hike on Thursday.
ETFs
Among growth ETFs, the Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) popped 2.7%, while the Innovator IBD Breakout Opportunities ETF (BOUT) gained 2.1%. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV) rallied 2.7%, with MSFT stock a major component. The VanEck Vectors Semiconductor ETF (SMH) jumped 4%.
SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) climbed 1% and the Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) 1.3%. U.S. Global Jets ETF (JETS) and SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) both gained 1.8%. The Energy Select SPDR ETF (XLE) advanced 1% and the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLV) 0.9%
The Financial Select SPDR ETF (XLF) rebounded 1.9%. JPM stock is a key XLF holding, along with Citigroup stock and BofA. SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) bounced 3.5%, with FRC stock, Western Alliance, PacWest and many larger regional names.
Reflecting more-speculative story stocks, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) ran 3.1% higher and ARK Genomics ETF (ARKG) advanced 1.7%.
AAPL stock rose 1.9% on Thursday to 155.85, rebounding from its 21-day line, rising for the fourth straight day in above-average trade. The iPhone giant is not extended from its 200-day and 50-day lines. Shares, which had their best close in nearly six months, also came up to a trendline from early February. Apple stock has a 1,547.48 flat-base buy point.
MSFT stock popped 4.05% to 276.20, rising for a fourth straight day in heavy volume. Up 11% for the week, shares are close to the 276.86 flat-base buy point. But Microsoft is also getting close to being extended from the 200-day and 50-day lines. The relative strength line is already at a 52-week high, a bullish sign. The RS line, the blue line in the charts provided, tracks a stock’s performance vs. the S&P 500 index.
Along with general market optimism and safe-haven flows into tech giants, Microsoft appears to be benefiting from its AI chatbots, which could offer a chance to gain market share in the internet search sector.
LNTH stock jumped 7.6% to 78.83, breaking out into a buy zone. While 75.20 was still arguably a buy point, the 77.04 cup-with-handle entry on a weekly chart seems more relevant.
WDAY stock rose 4% to 191.72, extending Monday’s bounce from the 50-day line. Shares are still in range from a prior cup base, with a 184.60 buy point. Investors could use that or the bounce from the 50-day and 21-day lines. Workday stock is on track to have a new flat base with a 193.74 buy point after Friday’s close.
LEN stock also advanced 4%, to 104.20. The rebound from near the 50-day line offered an early entry. The homebuilder has a 109.38 flat-base buy point, according to MarketSmith analysis. On Wednesday, shares initially rose following strong Lennar earnings and guidance, but reversed lower. Thursday’s move pushed above Wednesday’s intraday high. The RS line for LEN stock is already at a 52-week high.
Market Rally Analysis
The stock market rally attempt enjoyed a broad-based, robust advance Thursday, fueled by optimism that bank woes will be contained.
The Nasdaq composite rebounded strongly from a convergence of all the major averages, breaking a trendline from the early February highs. The Nasdaq 100, which includes Apple stock and Microsoft, decisively broke its trendline.
The S&P 500 index moved back above its 200-day line. It’s not that far from the 50-day line. Breaking above that would likely mean the S&P 500 would clear its own trendline. Of course, it wouldn’t take much for the S&P to fall back below its 200-day or test recent lows.
The Dow Jones rebounded toward its 200-day line, but the 50-day is some ways off. The Russell 2000 climbed, but has work to do.
Nasdaq’s price action was impressive, but volume was lighter than on Wednesday. So Thursday didn’t qualify as a follow-through day. Investors can look for a follow-through day on the Nasdaq or S&P 500 now. Friday will be a quadruple-witching day, so volume will likely be higher.
Leading stocks stood out once again. Many are extended, such as Nvidia, AMD and Arista Networks (ANET). But a number of stocks flashed buy signals or moved back into position.
While Thursday’s headlines were positive, that could all change if there’s another shoe to drop in the banking sector.
Meanwhile, big shifts in Treasuries, Fed rate hike expectations and other markets will feed back into stocks.
The stock market rally attempt has not yet been confirmed, but the big price gain and technical action in the Nasdaq were bullish. The action of leading stocks was even more so.
Investors could have added some exposure Thursday. But be careful of ramping up quickly in this volatile, news-driven market. There’s also nothing wrong with waiting for a FTD before stepping back in. Many top stocks are still in range or moving into position.
Remember, if you’re quick to jump into stocks and rally attempts, you have to be just as quick stepping out.
In any case, make sure your watchlists are ready.
Read The Big Picture every day to stay in sync with the market direction and leading stocks and sectors.
Please follow Ed Carson on Twitter at @IBD_ECarson for stock market updates and more.
Kenya’s Chyulu Hills stretch across the plains where Amboseli meets Tsavo, a rugged outcrop of volcanic rock gently blanketed in green, with elephants, zebras, and giraffes roaming along the horizon. A short hop via bush plane from Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Chyulu Hills served as the muse for Ernest Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa” and is a favorite destination for those seeking unobstructed views of Kilimanjaro without having to book an additional flight to Tanzania.
Last year, a pilot project partnership between Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust and the local community deployed a fleet of four electric vehicles to aid in conservation work. It’s the first step in a larger effort to curb environmental pollution in the area and will foster quieter patrols for anti-poaching rangers and zero-emissions transport for community firefighters.
ol Donyo Lodge, a Relais-Chateaux camp – one of three in Kenya – by renowned photographers Dereck and Beverly Joubert, sits nestled in the hills, and offers visitors quiet luxury. The eight-room lodge was partially renovated during the pandemic and offers each guest their own DSLR camera, a sunken hide adjacent to a watering hole to see the last great tuskers of the world up close, and horseback riding treks across the Kenyan savannah. A maximum capacity of 16 guests at the conservancy’s only lodge ensures a personalized experience for every traveler on 270,000 acres of untouched African wilderness owned by local Maasai community members.
Josh Duggar’s 12 ½ year prison sentence has been extended for almost two additional months, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
The 35-year-old disgraced reality star, who was convicted on child pornography charges in 2021, originally had a release date of Aug. 12, 2032. Earlier this week, online prison records for Duggar indicated that his release was pushed back until Aug. 22, 2032, per Insider. However, the records now cite his release date as Oct. 2, 2032.
The sentence extension comes as Duggar reportedly remains in solitary confinement, where he was placed after allegedly being caught last month with a contraband cellphone. The “19 Kids and Counting” alum has been serving his sentence at the low-security federal prison FCI Seagoville near Dallas.
An attorney for Duggar and a representative for FCI Seagoville did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Josh Duggar’s prison release date has been pushed back to Oct. 2, 2032.(Washington County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images / File)
A federal jury in Arkansas found Duggar guilty in December 2021 on charges related to the receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography. Last May, he was sentenced to 151 months in prison. Duggar was transferred from Washington County Jail in his home state of Arkansas to FCI Seagoville in Texas last June.
Lawyers for Duggar are seeking to reverse his conviction. During a federal appeals court hearing in February, they argued that investigators violated his rights by seizing the phone he was using to try to call his lawyer during the search that found the images.
Duggar was arrested in April 2021 after a Little Rock, Arkansas, police detective found child pornography files were being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. Investigators testified that images depicting the sexual abuse of children were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a dealership he owned.
Duggar was sentenced to 12 ½ years in prison after being convicted on child pornography charges.(Kris Connor / Getty Images / File)
Prosecutors said that the computer Duggar used had a monitoring program on it to report his activities to his wife, Anna Duggar, but the images and video were downloaded after separate software was installed that would allow him to download items without being detected.
Additionally, prosecutors said that Duggar was free to leave the scene and instructed not to speak with agents without an attorney, and he was also with two other people whose cellphones weren’t seized, indicating that “he had an option to speak to a lawyer even though obviously the officers had appropriately seized the phone at the outset of their search.”
Duggar’s attorneys argued, “What federal agents did is they physically took the phone out of his hand, and from that point forward, deprived him of the ability to communicate with his legal counsel, as was his constitutional right.”
Lawyers for Duggar are seeking to reverse his conviction.(Washington County Sheriff’s Office / File)
Duggar appeared alongside his father, mother, nine brothers and nine sisters on the TLC reality series “19 Kids and Counting,” which ran from 2008 to 2015.
Allegations against Duggar date to 2006, when authorities received a tip from a family friend that accused him of molesting four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. However, the investigation ended after it was concluded that the statute of limitations had passed on any possible charges.
The allegations reemerged in 2015, leading to the cancellation of “19 Kids and Counting.” Duggar later apologized for marital infidelity and a pornography addiction and sought treatment.
First Republic Bank began to founder after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, with its stock dropping from $115 per share on March 8 to around $20 Thursday. Now it looks like First Republic—which like SVB had numerous uninsured depositors—will get by with a little help from its friends.
Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase will contribute about $5 billion apiece, while Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will deposit around $2.5 billion, the banks said in a news release. Truist, PNC, U.S. Bancorp, State Street and Bank of New York Mellon will deposit about $1 billion each.
In the same release, the group said the “action by America’s largest banks reflects their confidence in First Republic and in banks of all sizes.” The statement said the depositors were also demonstrating an “overall commitment to helping banks serve their customers and communities.”
While bank stock nosedived Thursday, reports of aid to First Republic managed to push them back up. The deposits, CNBC reports, must remain with the beleaguered bank for up to four months.
According to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, bank execs recently convened with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others in Washington to talk over the plan. The WSJ quoted from a joint statement by the Treasury, Fed, FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency which said in part that the “show of support by a group of large banks is most welcome, and demonstrates the resilience of the banking system.”
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, Chasten 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.
Chasten Buttigieg appears on ABC’s “The View,” March 16, 2023.
ABC News
“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 and typically comedic 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 Buttigieg 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.
Chasten 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.
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks with reporters following a roundtable discussion on police reform, March 2, 2023, in North Charleston, S.C.
Meg Kinnard/AP
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,” Pete 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.
In comments Thursday night, reported by The Associated Press, Pence defended his comments, telling reporters in New Hampshire: “The Gridiron Dinner is a roast. I had a lot of jokes directed to me, and I directed a lot of jokes to Republicans and Democrats. The only thing I can figure is Pete Buttigieg not only can’t do his job, but he can’t take a joke.”
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.
Pete Buttigieg (r) and husband Chasten announced the expansion of their family with the arrivals of babies Penelope Rose and Joseph August via Twitter, Sept. 4, 2021.
@PeteButtigieg/Twitter
“Everyone should have paid family leave, for both spouses, it’s so important,” Chasten Buttigieg said. “There’s nothing weak about that work. It’s the hardest work you’ll ever do in your life.”
Pete 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.
Severe weather ripped through North Texas on Thursday as residents faced a series of severe thunderstorms that brought a tornado warning, rain, and hail to the region.
The National Weather Service said there was a chance of wind gusts up to 70 mph and large hail as tornado warnings were issued Thursday night through 8 p.m. The watch stretched from just north of Waco up into Oklahoma, and from Cisco in the west to Paris, Texas.
Footage from downtown Dallas and Fort Worth showed darkened skies as the storm system moved through the metropolis area.
Along with Texas, the central Gulf Coast and the Southeast Plains will be hit with severe weather this week with the risk of large hail, damaging winds, tornado warnings and flooding rainfall.
On the cold side of this system, measurable snow will fall over the northern Plains, sections of the Midwest and the Great Lakes. A powerful cold front associated with the system will drop temperatures significantly, with freeze advisories up for the Plains and Southeast.
A Republican-dominated committee in the Florida State House voted to advance a six-week abortion ban on Thursday, although the state’s current 15-week ban is still being decided in state court.
All 13 GOP members of the Healthcare Regulation subcommittee voted in favor of the proposed House Bill 7, filed in Florida’s House this month. The bill would prohibit physicians from knowingly performing an abortion if the fetus is more than 6 weeks old, unless in cases where the mother’s life in danger, or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest and is not further along than 15 weeks.
HB 7 also bans physicians from dispensing abortion-inducing drugs through platforms like tele-health. Instead, a physician “must be physically present in the same room” when the abortion is performed or when abortion-inducing drugs are dispensed.
Anyone who “willfully performs, or actively participates in, a termination of pregnancy” in defiance of the new guidelines would be committing a felony of the third degree, punishable by up to five years in prison under Florida state law.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis previously signed a 15-week abortion ban—House Bill 5—into law in the spring. The bill, which also makes providing an abortion outside of the guidelines a third-degree felony, went into effect July 1 after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections established in Roe v. Wade.
The current Florida ban has faced multiple challenges in court, including a case filed by several abortion providers in the state who argue that the bill violates Florida’s constitutional protection for individuals’ privacy. The Florida Supreme Court agreed in January to review the case, which was struck down by lower courts, but justices did not grant providers their request to immediately block HB 5 while the lawsuit proceeds.
The newly proposed six-week ban would only go into effect if the 15-week ban holds up in court.
An abortion-rights activist holds a sign that reads “Keep Abortion Legal” at a protest on July 13, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. On Thursday, a Florida committee voted to advance a bill that would ban abortion in the state after six weeks of pregnancy. John Parra/Getty Images
Republican state Representative Jenna Persons-Mulicka, who proposed the six-week abortion ban, said that the bill “recognizes the importance and value of the life of innocent, unborn human beings.”
“The bill that’s before you is not solely a reflection of my personal beliefs, but a result of listening in an attempt to build consensus around a policy that supports life,” she added, according to the Associated Press.
On Thursday, Democratic House Representative Anna Eskamani proposed an amendment to HB 7 that would strike the six-week abortion ban in its entirety, which failed to be adopted. Fellow Democrat representatives Allison Tant and Kelly Skidmore also proposed amendments that would ease the requirements for the rape, incest and life endangerment exceptions to the bill, but both amendments were also struck down.
Eskamani addressed the Florida legislature after her amendment failed, sharing how she both worked for Planned Parenthood and was a patient there before being elected to the House.
“It’s very important that we protect reproductive rights, and I’m incredibly concerned that the direction we are going in Florida is creating a scenario, as Representative Tant mentioned, where people do not even know they’re pregnant at six weeks,” she added.
Newsweek has contacted Planned Parenthood via email for comment.
Today I presented an amendment to HB7 that would strike the 6 week abortion ban; it failed along a party line vote. We will keep fighting. pic.twitter.com/Xd6xZ4V5H5
— Rep. Anna V. Eskamani 🔨 (@AnnaForFlorida) March 16, 2023
A six-week limit on abortion has often been referred to as a “heartbeat bill.” Fetal cardiac activity can often be detected between the sixth and seventh weeks of pregnancy, according to the American Pregnancy Association.
Ohio passed a six-week abortion ban following Roe’s overturning, but a judge ordered the ban to be blocked in October, pending a legal challenge that the bill violates state privacy laws. Abortion is currently legal for fetuses up to 20 weeks old in Ohio.
In November, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated its statewide abortion ban at six weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion was one of the top voter issues heading into the 2022 midterms, and in January, an NPR/Ipsos poll found that three in five Americans feel abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Nearly 70 percent of the poll’s respondents also said they would support voting on the issue of abortion using a ballot measure or voter referendum at the state level, like Kansas voters did in August.
Oregon will temporarily suspend rebates for buying or leasing an electric vehicle for a year starting in May
SALEM, Ore. — Oregon will temporarily suspend rebates for buying or leasing an electric vehicle for a year starting in May because too many people are applying and the program is running out of money, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Thursday.
A growing number of Oregonians are buying or leasing electric vehicles, with over 60,600 registered in the state.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced Wednesday the suspension of the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program that has disbursed more than $71 million over five years to help people buy or lease roughly 25,000 of those vehicles. A fifth of the rebates went to low- and moderate-income households, state data shows.
Since the end of 2018, the state has offered two cash rebates for Oregon drivers who buy or lease electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids under $50,000. The standard rebate of up to $2,500 is available regardless of income and can be received at participating dealers. The “charge ahead” rebate of $5,000 is aimed at low- or moderate-income households and must be accessed via a mail-in application. The two rebates can be combined for up to $7,500 cash back.
“Even though we’re announcing a temporary suspension, it really shows the program is a victim of our own success,” Rachel Sakata, senior air quality planner with the environmental quality department. “We’re one of the top states in the nation in terms of the percentage of EV sales.”
Oregon’s Department of Transportation estimates that people will be driving 1.5 million electric vehicles in the state by 2035. About 3.2 million passenger vehicles are registered in Oregon today.
Since the end of 2018, the state has offered two cash rebates for Oregon drivers who buy or lease electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids under $50,000. The standard rebate of up to $2,500 is available regardless of income and can be received at participating dealers. The “charge ahead” rebate of $5,000 is aimed at low- or moderate-income households and must be accessed via a mail-in application. The two rebates can be combined for up to $7,500 cash back.
The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) saw investors loading their bags with USD Coin (USDC), along with an exodus of funds from centralized exchanges (CEXs) to decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
Outflows from centralized exchanges often spike when the markets are in turmoil, explained blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis in a March 16 blog post, as users are likely worried about losing access to their funds when exchanges go down.
Funds sent from CEXs to DEXs following SVB’s collapse. Source: Chainalysis.
Data from Chainalysis shows that hourly outflows from CEXs to DEXs spiked to over $300 million on March 11, soon after SVB was shut down by a Californian regulator.
A similar phenomenon was observed during the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX last year, amid fears that the contagion could spread to other crypto firms.
However, data from the blockchain analytics platform Token Terminal suggests that the surge in daily trading volumes for large DEXs was short-lived in both cases.
Daily trading volumes for large DEXs from September to March. Source: Token Terminal.
USDC was identified as one of the top assets being moved to DEXs, which Chainalysis said was unsurprising given that USDC depegged after stablecoin issuer Circle announced it had $3.3 billion in reserves stuck on SVB, prompting many CEXs like Coinbase to temporarily halt USDC trading.
What was surprising, Chainalysis noted, was the surge in USDC acquisitions on large DEXs such as Curve3pool and Uniswap, saying: “several assets saw large spikes in user acquisition, but none more than USDC.”
Token acquisitions on Uniswap from March 7 to March 14. Source: Chainalysis.
Chainalysis theorized that this was due to confidence in the stablecoin, with some crypto users loading up on USDC while it was relatively cheap and betting that it would regain its peg — which it did on March 13, according to CoinMarketCap.
USDC’s brief depeg from March 11 to March 13. Source: CoinMarketCap.
Last May, the National Toxicology Program (NTP), a federal research agency, was set to release its eagerly awaited report into the cognitive and neurodevelopmental impacts on humans from fluoride exposure.
The report was anticipated for several reasons, including its review of studies linking fluoridated water to cognitive harm in children. Water fluoridation is the long-established public policy of adding fluoride to drinking water to fight tooth decay. The report was also set to play a key role in an ongoing lawsuit, filed by government accountability nonprofit Food & Water Watch, to get the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate water fluoridation because of fluoride’s possible neurotoxic harm. More than two years ago, the judge put the case on hold in expectation of the NTP report’s public release.
Before the NTP could release the report, however, “They were blocked,” said Linda Birnbaum, NTP director until 2019. According to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records obtained by the plaintiffs and shared with Capital & Main, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) held back the release of the report after criticism of its findings from health and dental organizations that advocate for community water fluoridation. Those groups challenged the report’s scientific validity and expressed concern that it could jeopardize water fluoridation, which they said could especially impact the dental health of low income communities.
The report found that a link between typical levels of fluoride added to water and possible harm to brain development is unclear, with a recommendation for more studies, according to records. But the report did find a possible link to cognitive harm at approximately two times the current recommended water fluoridation level, records show. Some health experts believe this finding makes current water fluoridation levels potentially unsafe for developing fetuses and young children. Because many common foods and drinks contain fluoride, consuming them along with fluoridated water could amount to harmful exposure levels, these experts say.
Leading up to the report’s intended release, individuals from dental organizations including the American Dental Association (ADA) scrutinized the report’s scientific credibility in communications with staff from other dental groups and health agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the NTP, divisions of HHS, records show.
This January, Birnbaum issued a scathing legal declaration as part of the lawsuit, writing, “The decision to set aside the results of an external peer review process based on concerns expressed by agencies with strong policy interests on fluoride suggests the presence of political interference in what should be a strictly scientific endeavor.” Birnbaum said she issued the legal declaration in part over concerns the report might never be publicly released.
The NTP has announced that it will now release the report on March 15, alongside an updated version of the same document that includes the NTP’s responses to what it describes as a “significant number” of comments and criticisms received from experts at various federal health agencies.
Birnbaum, however, remains adamant that the science proves there is “no real benefit” from ingesting fluoride. “The benefit from fluoride is from topical applications,” she said.
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Water fluoridation is described as one of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th century for its part in reducing tooth decay in adults and children by roughly 25%. According to the latest figures, nearly 73% of people connected with community water systems receive fluoridated water, accounting for more than 200 million people, or just under two-thirds of the overall U.S. population. Advocates argue that fluoridation is especially needed in low income communities where rates of tooth decay are generally higher than in wealthier neighborhoods.
At the same time, a growing body of research links fluoride exposure to neurotoxicological impacts in humans, including IQ loss and a higher prevalence of ADHD in children.
The NTP has been working since 2016 on its systematic review of the science into these impacts. By the time the report was set for release last May, it had already undergone more rounds of peer review than is typically the case for such a document, court records show — twice with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), and external peer review by five experts in the field. According to Birnbaum, similar reports are typically sent out for public comment, peer reviewed by an on-site panel, then finalized by the NTP.
Despite this unusually rigorous review process, a network of health officials and influential dental groups argued that the NTP had failed to address several issues raised by the NASEM review committee. These issues include a need to consider more studies in the review, and a failure to properly account for bias among some of the studies selected. One key health official wrote that if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been given the option to clear the report, “We would have non-concurred,” records show.
Birnbaum said she strongly disagrees that the NTP had failed to address NASEM’s concerns. In her declaration, Birnbaum wrote that various sources told her the five external peer reviewers agreed with what was then the final report’s conclusions, and that “NTP’s staff and leadership considered the monograph to be complete and ready for publication by May 2022.”
The report’s critics also feared its findings could erode public trust in water fluoridation, with the head of one leading dental research organization calling it “potentially very bad fluoride news.”
In April of last year, American Fluoridation Society President Johnny Johnson wrote an open letter to “Oral Health Advocates and Public Health Leaders” warning how the NTP’s findings were already causing public health officials to second guess their stance on community water fluoridation (CWF).
“In at least one U.S. state the NTP’s draft Monograph has led to that state’s Toxicologist not being willing to support CWF as safe, when in the past that same Toxicologist was supportive. This is directly due to the NTP’s report,” Johnson wrote.
In response to questions, Johnson wrote in an email that “since the NTP report is not yet publicly available, it would be premature to comment on something that I haven’t seen.” Johnson did not answer when asked which state toxicologist had reversed their stance on water fluoridation.
Though the report has not been public, records suggest that in the lead-up to last May’s scheduled release it had been shared with members of nongovernmental dental groups like the ADA.
If federal health agencies shared the report with outside organizations, “That was completely inappropriate,” said Birnbaum. “It’s either everybody gets a chance to look at it, or only very restricted government entities,” Birnbaum added. “That trust, I would say, was broken.”
In a February 2022 email to various senior health officials including HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine, ADA senior manager for strategic advocacy and public policy Robert Burns asked the NTP to “exclude — or carefully consider how to characterize — any lingering neurotoxin claims” from the upcoming report. He wrote that “such claims are often taken out of context,” and might “undermine national, state, and local efforts to expand community water fluoridation” at the CDC’s recommended levels.
Jayanth Kumar, who sits on the board of the nonprofit Association of State & Territorial Dental Directors (ASTDD), wrote in June to other figures within the organization that the NTP “has dug in and doesn’t want to change its recommendations. The report gives the impression that the effect observed at high level [sic] of fluoride is causal although the report doesn’t state it. NTP recommends more studies at low F [fluoride] levels.”
Neither Burns nor the ADA responded to repeated requests for comment.
Kumar, state dental director for the California Department of Public Health, forwarded an email request for comment to an agency spokesperson, who wrote “CDPH does not comment on pending litigation or on studies in which it did not participate.”
Last May, current NTP Director Rick Woychik sent the document for yet another round of peer review with the agency’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC). Once the BSC has made its recommendations, Woychik will decide about “publication and dissemination” of what is now expected to be the final version of the report.
The decision to put the report on hold last May appears to have come from Levine, communications show. Levine’s office did not answer questions about whether she made the decision to shelve last May’s report and if so, why. A spokesperson for Levine instead linked to the NTP webpage summarizing the report’s scientific progress.
Christine Flowers, communications director for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), where the NTP is headquartered, did not answer questions about who ultimately decided to shelve NTP’s report last year. Instead, she pointed to the same NTP webpage.
“It is important to note that the NTP is an INTERAGENCY organization made up of the NIH [National Institutes of Health], FDA [Food and Drug Administration] and the CDC, which work collaboratively,” Flowers wrote in an email.
* * *
The EPA’s legal drinking water limit for fluoride is 4 parts per million (ppm), but that level was established for naturally occurring fluoride. The CDC uses a nonenforceable guideline of 0.7 parts per million (ppm) as a safe level to counter problems like dental fluorosis, which is a change in the appearance of tooth enamel.
Communications between federal health officials and others show that the report the NTP was set to issue last May found that at typical fluoridated water levels in drinking water in the U.S., the effects on brain development are unclear. But it found a possible statistical association with cognitive harm and fluoridated water exposure at approximately 1.5 ppm and above, records show.
That level is not low enough to be safe because of fluoride in other foods and drinks consumed daily, said population health scientist Bruce Lanphear, an expert witness for the plaintiffs. This includes certain teas, coffee, canned shellfish, as well as oatmeal, raisins and potatoes. “Even if there’s no effects at the optimally fluoridated levels, people are going to be exposed to other sources of fluoride like black tea,” explained Lanphear. “For pregnant women or avid drinkers of black tea, they’re going to get more fluoride because it’s a hyper accumulator of fluoride.”
The CDC provides guidelines for fluoride intake in small children and babies in the womb, including a recommendation for youngsters under 8 years old living in communities where fluoride occurs naturally at levels above 2 ppm to be given alternative drinking water.
The CDC recommends breastfeeding infants, as breastmilk contains significantly less fluoride than fluoridated drinking water. If breastfeeding is not possible, the CDC also endorses using fluoridated water in infant formula, though it suggests mixing the formula with low-fluoride bottled water to lessen the risk of dental fluorosis.
Infants who are fed formula made with fluoridated tap water can have three to four times higher fluoride exposure than adults, warned Lanphear. He added that before an infant’s teeth erupt, there’s no benefit to fluoride exposure. “There are vulnerable groups we have to be worried about,” he said, “and that’s not being brought out adequately by these agencies.”
With the U.S. Army failing to meet its recruiting goals, it is bringing back a classic jingle and advertising campaign from the 1980s and 1990s, but with some updates. David Martin reports.
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The Bachelorette alum, 32, posted a photo via her Instagram Story on Wednesday, March 16, while out to dinner with a mystery man. In the snap, several plates of food are placed on a restaurant table alongside a hand that does not belong to Windey.
Both the former ICU nurse and Bersten, 28, were part of the DWTS Tour — which wrapped up earlier this week. While Windey partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy for season 31 of the Disney+ series, she paired up with the So You Think You Can Dance alum at one point in the competition after Chmerkovskiy tested positive for COVID-19.
Bersten was named the ABC personality’s partner for the Halloween episode as the Ukraine native recovered. Bersten, for his part, was paired with Jessie James Decker for the season, but the duo was eliminated one week prior.
At the time, Windey was engaged to Erich Schwer, who was a contestant on her season of the ABC series. However, rumors swirled that the two were no longer together after the Bachelor Nation star was seen without her engagement ring. In November 2022, the former couple revealed they called it quits less than two months after their proposal aired during the Bachelorette season finale.
“It was hard,” Windey exclusively told Us Weekly after she addressed the split for the first time on a November 2022, episode of DWTS. “Thank you for acknowledging that. And ultimately, I’m just grateful that I was able to do it on my own terms and when I was ready. It was just a new experience overall — being so public and being thrown into this. I think now it’s just kind of trying to move forward.”
Gabby Windey, Alan Bersten.Larry Marano/Shutterstock
Following her split from Schwer, Windey and her fellow DWTS competitor Vinny Guadagnino made headlines for a potential romance after the twosome began to consistently flirt with one another on social media.
“[Vinny’s] so much fun. We built a good friendship on the show and just I think like naturally kind of clicked,” the Illinois native told Us in December 2022. “I think both of our senses of humor are similar, so [we are] just, like, flirting in the comments [and] seeing where things go.”
The Jersey Shore star, for his part, acknowledged he and Windey “have great chemistry” but exclusively told Us in January 2023 that they were not dating.
While on tour together this winter, Bersten seemingly donned one of Windey’s costumes and shared a photo of him in the outfit on his social media. The flirty interaction sparked fan speculation that the twosome may be more than good friends.
“My favorite looks from this tour,” he captioned the slideshow with him in the blue dress as the last photo. In the comments section, Windey quipped: “You’re gonna stretch it out!!”
A Woodland Hills man has been charged with shaking down workers in the Koreatown karaoke industry, allegedly enforcing his demands by beating one victim with a baseball bat and shooting another.
Daekun Cho, 38, was arrested Thursday and charged with the federal offense of interfering with commerce by threats or violence.
Nadine Hettle, the deputy public defender assigned to his case, declined to comment. If convicted, Cho faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Michael Choi, a special agent for Homeland Security Investigations, identified Cho in an affidavit as a member of the Grape Street Crips, a predominantly Black gang based in Watts’ Jordan Downs housing project.
In 2022, Los Angeles police cultivated an informant who said Cho was collecting monthly protection fees from karaoke bar owners and doumi, or hostesses, Choi wrote.
A man who drove doumi to karaoke lounges told police that Cho approached him in the parking lot of one such business in 2019 and demanded payment in return for protection.
On the 15th of every month, the driver and his business partner paid Cho with cash or through Venmo, Choi wrote, without specifying the amounts.
In 2021, after the driver refused to pay an increased rate, Cho and another man pulled him from his car outside McQueen Karaoke on Western Avenue and beat him with baseball bats, breaking his arm, the agent wrote. An associate who had been on the phone with the driver told police that he heard the driver screaming, “I will pay! I will pay!”
Cho also stole the Honda Odyssey the driver had been using to transport the doumi, according to the affidavit.
At 1:30 a.m. on a Friday in July 2022, another driver pulled into the lot outside On and Off Karaoke to drop off two doumi, Choi wrote.
Cho pulled open the car door and told the driver that no one from his company was allowed to drop off doumi at the bar, the affidavit says.
As the driver pulled into the street to leave, he heard gunshots and the sound of glass shattering. One of the doumi was bleeding from a gunshot wound to her neck, he told police.
Another driver said he had paid Cho every month for four years before deciding to stop. He was sitting in his car in January, he told agents, when Cho attacked him and robbed him of $1,000. The next day, he sent Cho $400 through Venmo, Choi’s affidavit says. The driver began working with investigators and agreed to wear a wire the next time he made a payment.
When Cho messaged him through the KaKao Talk app to collect the fee for February, the driver claimed his Venmo account was locked and asked to pay in cash, Choi wrote.
Cho changed the meeting location three times, asking at one point, “U called cops?” before finally telling the driver to give the cash to an intermediary at Sixth Street and Ardmore Avenue.
Agents saw the driver hand cash to the intermediary, who wasn’t identified in the affidavit. That person then sent the money to Cho through Venmo, the agent wrote.
Days after Sheriff Robert Luna confirmed turning an investigation into suspected gun permitting fraud over to state prosecutors, the department on Thursday walked back that statement and said the matter had instead been turned over to federal authorities.
During an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Monday, Luna said it would have been a “conflict of interest” for the Sheriff’s Department to handle the case, and that once he took office he’d make sure to send the matter elsewhere, just as he’d suggested on the campaign trail.
“When I got here, we did turn it over to the state attorney general’s office,” he said during an interview at the Hall of Justice. “That had no business being in this building.”
After The Times published a story Thursday morning about the case, Jason Skeen — Luna’s chief of staff — reached out to say the sheriff had misspoken, and, in fact, the matter had not been referred to state prosecutors.
“Investigators met with the FBI,” Skeen said. “That was toward the end of January.”
An FBI spokeswoman would not confirm or deny the meeting, or the investigation. But after initially deferring to local authorities, a spokesperson for the California attorney general confirmed Thursday that the Sheriff’s Department did not hand off the case to that office.
News of the investigation first became public last year, when two deputies were relieved of duty and a Monterey Park gun store was raided. The actions were part of a probe that officials said stemmed from the discovery of “irregularities” in the process for issuing licenses to carry concealed weapons, also known as CCW permits.
Then-Sheriff Alex Villanueva put his often-criticized Public Corruption Unit in charge of the investigation, which he said had begun in late 2021.
In a news release in September, the department said detectives had served warrants at “multiple locations regarding weapon law violations” and, in the process, seized evidence involving “individuals who appear to have been involved in a possible long-term scheme to defraud the citizens of Los Angeles County.”
The release included few details about the specific allegations. But, a few weeks later, The Times published an investigation into the department’s handling of concealed carry permits. The Times found that among the thousands who received such permits were dozens of Villanueva donors and other people linked to him. Several gave questionable reasons for needing to be armed, received their permits more quickly than average or were assisted by two deputies who worked directly for Villanueva.
Those deputies — Gisel Del Real and Carrie Robles — were each relieved of duty in September, and detectives showed up at Del Real’s home to ask her questions and seize evidence.
Three months later, Del Real and Robles filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that they’d been sexually harassed at work as early as 2020 and that they’d only been put under criminal investigation in retaliation for reporting the harassment.
On the campaign trail, Luna criticized Villanueva’s handling of the case, saying “the sheriff should not, and cannot investigate himself.”
In emails this week, Villanueva said that was never the case, and that he was “deliberately walled off from any involvement and decision making” regarding Public Corruption Unit investigations.
That unit, he said, had contacted “both state and federal law enforcement agencies for assistance” before the department’s Internal Criminal Investigation Bureau took charge of the case.
Then in January, after Luna took office, sheriff’s investigators started talking with the FBI. According to Skeen, those conversations eventually led to a meeting, and the Sheriff’s Department handed off the case.
Following this week’s interview when the sheriff mistakenly said the matter had been forwarded to the state attorney general, Skeen said he and the sheriff spoke briefly about the case Wednesday and decided to double-check their facts internally.
The two later realized that it had in fact been handed over to the FBI.
The U.S. attorney’s office did not immediately comment on whether federal prosecutors have become involved.
Chinese companies, including at least one connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have been sending Russia assault rifles, drone parts, and body army, according to a new report.
Data obtained by Politico indicates these shipments to Russia occurred between June and December 2022, well after Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping looks to Afghanistan to widen China’s growing economic interests.(Photo by Thomas Peter/ Reuters)
The state-owned defense contractor, China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, sent CQ-A rifles to the Russian company Tekhkrim in June 2022, according to customs data. Although these rifles were tagged as “civilian hunting rifles,” they’ve been reported to have been used by Chinese paramilitary police.
The data also showed that Chinese companies had sent Russian entities 12 shipments of drone parts and more than 12 tons of body armor.
It is not clear from the customs data that Beijing is shipping these items to Russia for the express purpose of aiding its war effort in Ukraine, as this equipment can be labeled as “dual-use.”
Fox News Digital has contacted the U.S. State Department for comments on the latest developments.
FILE: Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin talk to each other during their meeting in Beijing, China on Feb. 4, 2022.(Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
The report comes after officials said last month the U.S. was “confident” China was considering providing lethal aid to Russia to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
The U.S. and its NATO allies have repeatedly warned that any nation – including China – will see swift and severe economic sanctions if they are found aiding Russia’s war effort.
Beijing has struggled to keep a balance between maintaining constructive relations with the West while condemning the U.S. of “hysterics,” as Beijing did over the shooting down of the surveillance balloon and accusing it of escalating the war by providing defensive aid to Ukraine.
Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
Bradford Betz is a Fox News Digital breaking reporter covering crime, political issues, and much more.
US European Command released footage of the Tuesday encounter between a US surveillance drone and the Russian fighter jets as it played out over the Black Sea.
The newly declassified video depicts critical moments in the mid-air encounter, which the Pentagon said lasted between 30 and 40 minutes.
The video shows the camera of the MQ-9 Reaper drone pointed backward toward its tail and the drone’s propeller, which is mounted on the rear, spinning. Then, a Russian Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jet is shown approaching. As it draws closer, the Russian fighter jet dumps fuel as it intercepts the US drone.
In another portion of the footage, the Russian jet makes another pass. As it approaches, it again dumps fuel. The video from the drone is then disrupted as the Russian fighter jet collides with the MQ-9 Reaper, damaging the propeller and ultimately forcing the US to bring down the drone in the Black Sea. Russia has denied that a collision occurred.
When the camera comes back online in the footage, the view is again pointed backward, and the propeller is shown damaged from the collision. With the propeller damaged, the drone operators effectively flew the aircraft as a glider as it descended over the Black Sea, bringing it down in international waters southwest of Crimea. On its way down, two US officials told CNN the operators remotely wiped the drone’s sensitive software, mitigating the risk of secret materials falling into enemy hands before it crashed into the water.
The downing of the drone marked the first time Russian and US military aircraft have come into direct physical contact since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Despite the release of the dramatic footage, and the back-and-forth over who is to blame, the Biden administration has not said it will take action against Russia over the downing of the drone, perhaps indicating a desire to not further escalate tensions after the Kremlin said Wednesday that relations between Moscow and Washington are at their “lowest point.”
A senior Biden administration official said the footage “absolutely confirms” that there was a physical collision and dumping of fuel, but it does not confirm the pilot’s intent.
On Wednesday two US officials familiar with the intelligence told CNN that senior officials at the Russian Ministry of Defense gave the order for the Russian fighter jets to harass a US drone over the Black Sea this week.
The high-level military officials’ connection to the incident suggests that the fighter jet pilots were not taking rogue action when they interfered with the US drone.
But, at this time there is no indication that the highest of political leaders in Russia – particularly those in the Kremlin, including President Vladimir Putin – knew about the planned aggression in advance, one of the US officials said.
National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby said on “CNN This Morning” Wednesday that the drone had not been recovered and that he was “not sure” the US would be able to recover it.
Moscow had made clear it would attempt to retrieve the wreckage of the drone and the US believes Russia has recovered some debris, a US official familiar with the matter told CNN. The official described the recovered wreckage as pieces of fiberglass or small bits of the drone.
The Kremlin has said a decision on whether to retrieve the drone will come from Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
“This is the prerogative of the military. If they believe that it is necessary for our interests and our security in the Black Sea, they will do it,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Thursday.
Peskov said he did not know what the ministry has decided.
Moscow and Washington have been in contact through military and diplomatic channels.
The US is conducting an assessment of its drone operations in the Black Sea area following the incident, four US officials tell CNN.
It has not stopped the flights entirely amid the assessment – the military sent the same model of drone, an MQ-9 Reaper, on a mission in approximately the same area over the Black Sea shortly after the collision occurred, US officials told CNN, in an effort to survey the crash site and monitor Russian efforts to look for the debris.
But the US military is “taking a close look” at the drone’s routes and assessing how to better deconflict with Russian forces, the officials said, who have been regularly flying their fighter jets in and out of Crimea. The Pentagon has asked European Command to justify surveillance flights in the area going forward in part to assess risk, a senior US military official said.
The US is considering conducting another drone flight over the Black Sea in the coming days, the officials said. That is generally consistent with the drones’ typical operating schedule, which can fluctuate, they added.
Officials also plan to analyze the overall costs and benefits of flying these missions, comparing the potential intelligence value of a particular route versus the risk of escalation with Russia.
Officials also plan to analyze the overall costs and benefits of flying these missions, comparing the potential intelligence value of a particular route versus the risk of escalation with Russia.
Russia accused the US of violating airspace they said they created for their “special military operation” in Ukraine – a designation the US does not accept and the officials told CNN that Russia has not communicated any such airspace restriction.
Asked on Thursday whether the US had flown any drone missions over the Black Sea since the collision on Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder declined to comment on “specific missions, routes, and timelines of operations.”
“I think Secretary Austin was pretty clear that we’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace where international law allows and that includes the Black Sea region,” Ryder said.
The first official noted there is concern among some in the US military that limiting routes will impact intelligence gathering related to the Ukraine war. But the US also has other intelligence-gathering methods it utilizes when it is not conducting drone flights in the area, such as spy satellites.
This story has been updated with additional details.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s European Command on Thursday released the first declassified video images of the events leading up to a Russian fighter jet colliding with an unarmed U.S. reconnaissance drone on Tuesday, forcing the American aircraft down into the Black Sea.
The dramatic 42-second color video clip shows two high-speed passes by two Su-27 fighter jets, which spray a substance the Defense Department says is jet fuel on the MQ-9 Reaper drone. The Pentagon had previously said two Russian jets were involved in the incident, and a senior military official said on Thursday that the footage showed one pass from each jet.
On a final pass, one of the Russian jets collides with the drone, the Pentagon says, and the camera feed is lost for about 60 seconds. The footage that was released does not show the collision. The video then resumes, showing the aircraft’s damaged propeller, which the Pentagon said was struck by the Russian jet.
Defense Department officials said the video clip provided visual evidence to support the American version of the episode, the first known physical contact between the Russian and American militaries since the war in Ukraine started last year.
The Ukrainian military reported unusual Russian naval activity in the Black Sea on Thursday, with ships deployed in a way that suggested they were searching for the drone. Any successful salvage could be used by Moscow for propaganda purposes, but Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said Russia’s military would raise the drone only if necessary for security reasons.
A few hours after the video was released, the Pentagon said it was unlikely that Russia would be able to retrieve anything useful.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon spokesman, called the drone debris “U.S. property.” But he said that while Moscow may be trying to get to the debris, any Russian recovery efforts would be difficult. Senior officials said the wreckage was probably under 4,000 to 5,000 feet of water.
“It is our assessment, again, that it is very highly unlikely that even if they were to recover it, there wouldn’t be anything useful,” General Ryder said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Wednesday accused Russia of “dangerous and reckless and unprofessional behavior” in blaming Moscow for the downing of the drone. Russia has denied any wrongdoing and initially said faulty maneuvering by the American drone operators caused the crash.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned the Black Sea into an effective battle zone. Russia has blockaded Ukrainian vessels within their own ports, though Ukraine has been able to export its grain across the sea under a deal signed last July between the two warring countries.
The United States and Ukraine say the American drone was flying in international airspace on a routine surveillance and reconnaissance mission. American and Ukrainian officials have said they share intelligence gathered by such missions, particularly related to the threat posed by Russian warships and submarines in the Black Sea.
The video clip released on Thursday captures just a slice of what Pentagon officials say happened in the roughly 40 minutes leading up to the collision. During that time, while the drone was flying at about 25,000 feet, two Russian Su-27 fighter jets made 19 high-speed passes near the Reaper, dumping jet fuel on it during the last three or four, a senior U.S. military official said on Wednesday.
The collision happened as one of the Russian planes approached the drone at a high speed from behind, striking the MQ-9’s rear propeller, the official said.
The damaged drone limped along before its controllers brought it down in the sea about 75 miles southwest of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has used as a base for launching devastating strikes.
The MQ-9 Reaper is a larger version of the MQ-1 Predator drone, which the U.S. Air Force used until 2018. The Reapers are faster and can carry more munitions, according to the Air Force, which has paid as much as $32 million for one of them.
63% of voters (and 63% of independents) say they would rather Congress focus on issues like rising costs and healthcare than investigating the Biden administration.
● A similar 61% of voters (and 60% of independents) want Congress to focus on issues like rising costs and healthcare versus those who want Congress to spend time investigating President Biden’s family and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
● A resounding 86% of voters agree with the statement that they want their elected leaders to stop playing partisan games and work together to solve their problems, with 74% strongly agreeing.
The investigate Hunter Biden track that plays so well with Fox News, Newsmax, and conservative media is bombing with the rest of the country. The vast majority of Americans don’t want Congress to be wasting their time and money on investigations of President Biden and his son’s laptop.
The House Republican efforts to inject the Hunter Biden story into the broader political discourse have failed. The American people don’t care. Polling has consistently demonstrated that trying to find or create a Biden scandal is not a priority for the majority of Americans.
If House Republicans want to keep their majority, they would be wise to change course and drop the bogus Biden investigations. Since there is no chance that Republicans will get interest in governing, Republicans are setting the stage for Democrats to take back the House in 2024.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
