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Ryan Chatelain
South Carolina
UPDATED 6:27 AM ET Feb. 24, 2024
PUBLISHED 3:15 PM EST Feb. 23, 2024
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Ryan Chatelain
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More owners are listing their homes for sale as the spring buying season approaches.
New listings were up 10% for the four weeks ending Feb. 18 compared with a year earlier, marking the largest increase since December. Sellers are trying to leverage home values that have increased 6% over the past year, according to the real estate brokerage, Redfin.
Median sales prices are continuing to increase in many cities. San Diego topped Redfin’s list of cities where homes have appreciated the most (15%), followed by Newark, N.J. (14.3%); Anaheim, Calif. (13.5%), Philadelphia (12.6%) and West Palm Beach, Fla. (12.4%).
The three metropolitan areas that saw the largest year-over-year decreases were in Texas, led by San Antonio (-4.1%), Austin (-0.4%) and Fort Worth (-0.3%).
Despite the increase in listings, mortgage applications fell 10% last week compared with the week prior following an uptick in mortgage rates. The average rate is now more than 7% for the first time since December.
Pending home sales were down 7% as of Feb. 18 compared with a year earlier.
According to Redfin, potential home buyers are more interested in properties that are move-in ready than fixer-uppers requiring more investment. With fewer prospective buyers, sellers often need to offer concessions.
“I tell every one of my sellers to have an open mind and put on their buyer’s hat,” Redfin agent Shauna Pendleton said in a statement. “Nine times out of 10, buyers are asking for a concession in their initial offer right now, and usually the seller needs to accept the deal.”
The most common concessions are mortgage-rate buydowns, where sellers pay a lump sum to the lender for a temporary interest-rate reduction, and for sellers to cover the sale’s closing costs.
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Susan Carpenter
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Dr. DaNa Carlis is breaking barriers as the first African-American to lead NOAAâs National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, Oklahoma.
The laboratory studies severe weather, from tornadoes to winter weather. The National Weather Service uses their research to warn us and keep us safe from disruptive weather events.
NOAA appointed Carlis to the role in January 2023. Carlis is the first Black man named as a lab director.
We spoke to the NSSL director in 2023 about his historic appointment, his future for the NSSL and how he plans to inspire more Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) in meteorology.
âIt feels amazing! I am humbled by the opportunity to serve in this capacity as director of the National Severe Storms Laboratory,â said Carlis, describing his accomplishment.
A few years ago, the NSSL Director didn’t think he’d be taking this path in his career. However, he said he was striving for an opportunity to be a leader of science within NOAA.
Carlis is excited to inspire the next generation of science leaders.
âIâm looking forward to continuing to uplift others with the BIPOC community that can serve in this capacity. Itâs been a passion of mine to help and develop the next generation workforce,â said Carlis.
Over his 20-year career, Carlis led efforts to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within NOAA. Heâs the co-founder of NOAAâs Diversity and Professional Advancement Working Group (DPAWG).
Eight members of NOAA’s Diversity and Professional Advancement Working Group in 2023. Clockwise from the top left: Vankita Brown, John Moore, Terence Lynch, Maddie Kennedy, DaNa Carlis, Lonnie Gonsalves, Ashley Turnbull, and Janae Elkins. (NOAA)
Carlis knows how big of a deal it is to be the first African-American to lead this agency.
âIâm a firm believer that there are more talented people than me out there that will deserve this opportunity and probably have deserved it in the past. So, that Iâm the first is humble… but you know I got to continue to strive for change and NOAA is right behind me in terms of diversity, inclusion and equity in our senior leadership ranks,â Carlis told Spectrum News.
NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad, Ph.D. supports Carlisâ mission. Spinrad gave this statement in a news release: âNOAA is fortunate to have a leader with deep scientific expertise and the strong skills to elevate diversity, equity and inclusion into all aspects of NSSLâs culture.â
The role is a homecoming for Carlis, who grew up in Tulsa. Carlis is happy to be back in his home state and doing what he loves.
âI am going to full circle, returning to my roots of being in Oklahomaâ¦. I have kept myself grounded on who I am and where I come from,â said Carlis.
The Tulsa native says his upbringing made him the man he is today.
The NSSL director credits his mentors with sparking his passion for science.
âIt was mentors that really drew me in and after that first course in atmospheric science I fell in love with it because it was so applicable to peopleâs everyday lives,â Carlis recounted.
He also takes great pride in graduating from Howard University, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Washington D.C.
âThe main thing that really helped me⦠that I really needed was the support system. I needed to believe in me, I needed to be supported by people that was going to help raise me up and make sure and hold me accountable for being excellent, being a high achiever⦠thatâs what Howard University gave to me,â Carlis told us.
âI got to go in and learn the organization. So, Iâll sit back and listen for a few months and try to figure out⦠where we need to improve weather that is on the business side or science and technology side,â said Carlis.
The severe storms lab is a busy place, with its PERiLS project, radar improvements, field campaigns and much more.
The NSSL director says his mission for the agency is to meet their goals and make sure they’re successful. One of his priorities is to increase the engagement between the underserved communities and the NSSL.
âThe integration of social science and physical sciences like in meteorology and atmospheric is going to be really key to us being able to engage and serve those folks that are from underserved communities even better,â said Carlis.
In addition, Carlis thinks this is an opportune time for aspiring meteorologists to get into the field. He has this advice for them.
âI would love to see more African-American, Black meteorologists or just BIPOC meteorologist coming into this field because it just such a gratifying field of work that we do because of the impact that we have on peopleâs lives⦠so we need you.â
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
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Meteorologist Keith Bryant
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The United States and the European Union are piling new sanctions on Russia on the eve of the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony.
The U.S. Treasury, State Department and Commerce Department plan Friday to impose roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single tranche of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. They come on the heels of a series of new arrests and indictments announced by the Justice Department on Thursday that target Russian businessmen, including the head of Russia’s second-largest bank, and their middlemen in five separate federal cases.
The European Union announced Friday that it is imposing sanctions on several foreign companies over allegations that they have exported dual-use goods to Russia that could be used in its war against Ukraine. The 27-nation bloc also said that it was targeting scores of Russian officials, including “members of the judiciary, local politicians and people responsible for the illegal deportation and military re-education of Ukrainian children.”
“The American people and people around the world understand that the stakes of this fight extend far beyond Ukraine,” President Joe Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions. “If Putin does not pay the price for his death and destruction, he will keep going. And the costs to the United States — along with our NATO Allies and partners in Europe and around the world — will rise.”
While previous sanctions have increased costs for Russia’s ability to fight in Ukraine, they appear to have done little so far to deter Putin’s aggression or ambitions. The Biden administration is levying additional sanctions as House Republicans are blocking billions of dollars in additional aid to Ukraine.
The war is becoming entangled in U.S. election-year politics, with former President Donald Trump voicing skepticism about the benefits of the NATO alliance and saying that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to countries that, in his view, are not pulling their weight in the alliance.
Many of the new U.S. sanctions announced Friday target Russian firms that contribute to the Kremlin’s war effort — including drone and industrial chemical manufacturers and machine tool importers — as well as financial institutions, such as the state-owned operator of Russia’s Mir National Payment System.
In response to Navalny’s death, the State Department is designating three Russian officials the U.S. says are connected to his death. It also will impose visa restrictions on Russian authorities it says are involved in the kidnapping and confinement of Ukrainian children.
In addition, 26 third-country people and firms from across China, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, and Liechtenstein are listed for sanctions, for assisting Russia in evading existing financial penalties.
The Russian foreign ministry said the EU sanctions are “illegal” and undermine “the international legal prerogatives of the UN Security Council.” In response, the ministry is banning some EU citizens from entering the country because they have provided military assistance to Ukraine. It did not immediately address the U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. specifically was to target individuals associated with Navalny’s imprisonment a day after Biden met with the opposition leader’s widow and daughter in California. It was also hitting “Russia’s financial sector, defense industrial base, procurement networks and sanctions evaders across multiple continents,” Biden said. “They will ensure Putin pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home.”
The EU asset freezes and travel bans constitute the 13th package of measures imposed by the bloc against people and organizations it suspects of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
“Today, we are further tightening the restrictive measures against Russia’s military and defense sector,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “We remain united in our determination to dent Russia’s war machine and help Ukraine win its legitimate fight for self-defense.”
In all, 106 more officials and 88 “entities” — often companies, banks, government agencies or other organizations — have been added to the bloc’s sanctions list, bringing the tally of those targeted to more than 2,000 people and entities, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his associates.
Companies making electronic components, which the EU believes could have military as well as civilian uses, were among 27 entities accused of “directly supporting Russia’s military and industrial complex in its war of aggression against Ukraine,” a statement said.
Those companies — some of them based in India, Sri Lanka, China, Serbia, Kazakhstan, Thailand and Turkey — face tougher export restrictions.
The bloc said the companies “have been involved in the circumvention of trade restrictions,” and it accuses others of “the development, production and supply of electronic components” destined to help Russia’s armed forces.
Some of the measures are aimed at depriving Russia of parts for pilotless drones, which are seen by military experts as key to the war.
Since the start of the war, U.S. Treasury and State departments have designated over 4,000 officials, oligarchs, firms, banks and others under Russia-related sanctions authorities. A $60 per barrel price cap has also been imposed on Russian oil by Group of Seven allies, intended to reduce Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels.
Critics of the sanctions, price cap and other measures meant to stop Russia’s invasion say they are not working fast enough.
Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that primarily sanctioning Russia’s defense industry and failing to cut meaningfully into Russia’s energy revenues will not be enough to halt the war.
“One way or another, they will have to eventually address Russia’s oil revenues and have to consider an oil embargo,” Snegovaya said. “The oil price cap has effectively stopped working.”
Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo, in previewing the new sanctions, told reporters that the U.S. and its allies will not lower the price cap; “rather what we’ll be doing is taking actions that will increase the cost” of Russia’s production of oil.
He added that “sanctions alone are not enough to carry Ukraine to victory.”
“We owe the Ukrainian people who have held on for so long the support and resources they desperately need to defend their homeland and prove Putin wrong once and for all time.”
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U.S. microchip manufacturing is getting a boost from the Department of Energy.
On Thursday, the agency announced it will loan $544 million to SK Siltron to make silicon carbide semiconductors for electric vehicles.
The Energy Department expects the loan to create about 200 construction jobs for the company to expand its facility in Bay City, Mich., and to create up to another 200 skilled positions through a Michigan New Jobs Training Program with Delta College.
When complete, SK Siltron is projected to rank among the world’s top-five makers of silicon carbide semiconductors, joining Wolfspeed in Durham, N.C.; Coherent Corp. in Saxonburg, Penn.; and Xiamen Powerway Advanced Material Co. in China.
More than 80% of the world’s semiconductor production facilities are based in South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan, according to the semiconductor industry association, SEMI.
Silicon carbide semiconductors are used to help EVs charge more quickly and travel longer distances than traditional silicon semiconductors.
Increasing SK Siltron’s capacity will help electric vehicle makers secure the chips they need, the Energy Department said. EVs use about twice the number of semiconductors as gas-powered vehicles.
“This project reinforces President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to onshore and re-shore domestic manufacturing technologies that are critical to meeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious goal that half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 are zero-emissions vehicles,” the Energy Department said in a statement on its website.
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Susan Carpenter
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U.S. microchip manufacturing is getting a boost from the Department of Energy.
On Thursday, the agency announced it will loan $544 million to SK Siltron to make silicon carbide semiconductors for electric vehicles.
The Energy Department expects the loan to create about 200 construction jobs for the company to expand its facility in Bay City, Mich., and to create up to another 200 skilled positions through a Michigan New Jobs Training Program with Delta College.
When complete, SK Siltron is projected to rank among the world’s top-five makers of silicon carbide semiconductors, joining Wolfspeed in Durham, N.C.; Coherent Corp. in Saxonburg, Penn.; and Xiamen Powerway Advanced Material Co. in China.
More than 80% of the world’s semiconductor production facilities are based in South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan, according to the semiconductor industry association, SEMI.
Silicon carbide semiconductors are used to help EVs charge more quickly and travel longer distances than traditional silicon semiconductors.
Increasing SK Siltron’s capacity will help electric vehicle makers secure the chips they need, the Energy Department said. EVs use about twice the number of semiconductors as gas-powered vehicles.
“This project reinforces President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to onshore and re-shore domestic manufacturing technologies that are critical to meeting the Biden-Harris Administration’s ambitious goal that half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 are zero-emissions vehicles,” the Energy Department said in a statement on its website.
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Susan Carpenter
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Lyudmila Navalnaya, the mother of Russia’s top opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said Thursday that she has seen her son’s body and that she is resisting strong pressure by authorities to agree to a secret burial outside the public eye.
Speaking in a video statement from the Arctic city of Salekhard, Navalnaya said investigators allowed her to see her son’s body in the city morgue. She said she reaffirmed the demand to give Navalny’s body to her and protested what she described as authorities trying to force her to agree to a secret burial.
“They are blackmailing me, they are setting conditions where, when and how my son should be buried,” she said. “They want it to do it secretly without a mourning ceremony.”
Navalny, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, suddenly died in an Arctic prison last week, prompting hundreds of Russians across the country to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles. The Russian authorities have detained scores of them as they seek to suppress any major outpouring of sympathy for Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe ahead of the presidential election he is almost certain to win.
Navalny’s mother has filed a lawsuit at a court in Salekhard contesting officials’ refusal to release her son’s body. A closed-door hearing has been scheduled for March 4. On Tuesday, she appealed to Putin to release her son’s remains so that she could bury him with dignity.
In the video released Thursday, Navalnaya said she had spent nearly 24 hours in the Salekhard office of the Investigative Committee, where officials told her that they have determined the politician’s cause of death and have the paperwork ready, but she has to agree to a secret funeral. She didn’t specify what the cause of death was.
“They want to take me to the outskirts of the cemetery to a fresh grave and say: ‘Here lies your son.’ I don’t agree to this. I want you too — to whom Alexey is dear, for whom his death was a personal tragedy — to have the opportunity to say goodbye to him,” she said.
Navalnaya accused the authorities of threatening her: “Looking into my eyes, they say that if I do not agree to a secret funeral, they will do something with my son’s body. Investigator Voropayev openly told me: ‘Time is not on your side, the corpse is decomposing’,” she said, reiterating her demand to release her son’s body “immediately.”
Navalny’s death has deprived the Russian opposition of its best-known and inspiring politician less than a month before an election that is all but certain to give Putin another six years in power. Many Russians had seen Navalny as a rare hope for political change amid Putin’s unrelenting crackdown on the opposition.
Since Navalny’s death, about 400 people have been detained across in Russia as they tried to pay tribute to him with flowers and candles, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political arrests. Authorities cordoned off some of the memorials to victims of Soviet repression across the country that were being used as sites to leave makeshift tributes to Navalny. Police removed the flowers at night, but more keep appearing.
Earlier Thursday, imprisoned opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza urged Russians not to give up after Navalny ‘s death, and he alleged that a state-backed hit squad was taking out the Kremlin’s political opponents, according to a video posted to social media.
A British-Russian citizen, Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year sentence for treason at Penal Colony No. 7 in the Siberian city of Omsk. He comments came as he appeared via a video link in a court hearing over a complaint against Russia’s Investigative Committee for what he believes were two poisoning attempts against him. He alleges the committee didn’t properly investigate the attempts.
Kara-Murza is one of several opposition figures who have either been imprisoned, forced to flee the country or killed. He was convicted of criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was handed a stiff sentence as part of a crackdown against critics of the war and freedom of speech.
“We owe it … to our fallen comrades to continue to work with even greater strength and achieve what they lived and died for,” Kara-Murza said in the video, which was shared by the Russian Sota telegram channel.
Kara-Murza says the attempts to poison him took place in 2015 and 2017. In the first, he nearly died of kidney failure, although no cause was determined. He was hospitalized with a similar illness in 2017 and put into a medically induced coma. His wife said doctors confirmed he was poisoned.
Kara-Murza’s latest hearing came after months of postponements. In January, he was moved from another prison in Siberia and placed in solitary confinement over an alleged minor infraction.
According to the video shared by Sota, Kara-Murza alleged there is a “death squad within the Federal Security Service, a group of professional killers in the service of the state, whose task is to physically eliminate political opponents of the Putin regime.”
He said investigative journalists had shown the group of FSB officers participated in his poisoning, as well as Navalny’s poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 and the surveillance of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov before he was shot and killed in 2015 on a bridge near the Kremlin.
On Monday, Ilya Yashin, an opposition figure serving 8 1/2 years in prison for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine, alleged in a social media post shared on his behalf that Putin had killed Navalny.
“I have no doubt that it was Putin. He’s a war criminal,” Yashin said. “Navalny was his key opponent in Russia and was hated by the Kremlin. Putin had both motive and opportunity. I am convinced that he ordered the killing.”
The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the illnesses and deaths of the opposition figures, including Navalny.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said Thursday on her Instagram account that she had flown to visit her 20-year-old daughter, Dasha, a student at Stanford University.
“My dear girl, I came to hug you and support you, and you sit and support me” she wrote under a photo of herself and her daughter lying on a carpet.
Describing her daughter as “strong, brave and resilient,” Navalnaya said the family would “definitely cope with everything.” She also has a 15-year-old son, Zakhar.
Russian authorities have said the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown and have refused to release his body for two weeks as the preliminary inquest continues, his team said. It accused the government of stalling to try to hide evidence.
In a video on Monday, Yulia Navalnaya also accusing Putin of killing her husband and alleged the refusal to release his body was part of a cover-up.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegations, calling them “absolutely unfounded, insolent accusations about the head of the Russian state.”
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Associated Press
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AT&T said that it has restored three-quarters of its network after an outage on Thursday morning that disrupted phone service nationwide.
“Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored,”AT&T said in a statement to Spectrum News. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”
Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages.
Per Downdetector, users began to report issues after 3:30 a.m. ET. Reports peaked at at around 4:30-5:30 a.m. ET, depending on the carrier in question. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.
Areas reporting issues included New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, Chicago and Atlanta. Some municipalities across the country also reported issues with contacting emergency services, including 911.
The emergency services outage prompted at least one law enforcement organization to urge people not to test if 911 was working.
“Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” Massachusetts State Police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”
AT&T had more than 64,000 outages on Thursday morning. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, more than any other company in the U.S.
Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000, the outage tracking website said Thursday. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,900 outages reported. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.
In a statement to Spectrum News, Verizon said its network is “operating normally.”
“Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier,” the carrier said. “We are continuing to monitor the situation.”
Likewise, T-Mobile said that it did not experience an outage.
“Our network is operating normally,” the company said in a statement to Spectrum News. “Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”
NOTE: Spectrum News is owned by parent company Charter Communications, which owns and operates Spectrum Mobile.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Associated Press
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AT&T said that it has restored three-quarters of its network after an outage on Thursday morning that disrupted phone service nationwide.
“Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored,”AT&T said in a statement to Spectrum News. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”
Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages.
Per Downdetector, users began to report issues after 3:30 a.m. ET. Reports peaked at at around 4:30-5:30 a.m. ET, depending on the carrier in question. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.
Areas reporting issues included New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston, Chicago and Atlanta. Some municipalities across the country also reported issues with contacting emergency services, including 911.
The emergency services outage prompted at least one law enforcement organization to urge people not to test if 911 was working.
“Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” Massachusetts State Police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work.”
AT&T had more than 64,000 outages on Thursday morning. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, more than any other company in the U.S.
Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000, the outage tracking website said Thursday. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,900 outages reported. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.
In a statement to Spectrum News, Verizon said its network is “operating normally.”
“Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier,” the carrier said. “We are continuing to monitor the situation.”
Likewise, T-Mobile said that it did not experience an outage.
“Our network is operating normally,” the company said in a statement to Spectrum News. “Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”
NOTE: Spectrum News is owned by parent company Charter Communications, which owns and operates Spectrum Mobile.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Associated Press
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Users of several major cellular carriers, including AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, reported outages on Thursday morning, according to Downdetector, which tracks internet, communication and other service outages.
Per Downdetector, users began to report issues after 3:30 a.m. ET. Reports peaked at at around 4:30-5:30 a.m. ET, depending on the carrier in question. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.
Areas reporting issues included New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston. Some municipalities across the country also reported issues with contacting emergency services, including 911.
A source familiar told Spectrum News that the issue is not related to Verizon, but likely to another mobile carrier. The company’s customers could see issues they try to make or receive calls or texts from the impacted provider, the source said.
Spectrum News has reached out to T-Mobile and AT&T for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back later for updates.
NOTE: Spectrum News is owned by parent company Charter Communications, which owns and operates Spectrum Mobile.
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Spectrum News Staff
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Just 30% of the top 100 films of 2023 featured a female lead or co-lead, according to a new report by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative.
It’s a substantial downturn from the year 2022, when 44 films had a girl or woman lead, the report noted.
“This is a catastrophic step back for girls and women in film,” said Dr. Stacy L. Smith, who co-authored the report, in a statement. “In the last 14 years, we have charted progress in the industry so to see this reversal is both startling and in direct contrast to all of the talk of 2023 as the ‘year of the woman.’”
Who is responsible for the increase in underrepresented leads/co leads in film? It is NOT the legacy studios. And, moving films due to the strike didn’t affect the study findings. Read all about our new research here. https://t.co/H5mVNUtEZd pic.twitter.com/bCn2IxxxvM
— Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (@Inclusionists) February 21, 2024
While the report describes these findings as “awful,” it also noted a positive takeaway from some of USC’s other findings: The percentage of lead or co-lead actors from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group increased from the year 2022. More specifically, in 2023, 37 top-grossing films had a lead or co-lead from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, compared to 31 in 2022.
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Will Sayre
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Former President Donald Trump confirmed at least six names he said are on his shortlist to be his vice presidential pick in this year’s election.
In a Fox News town hall on Tuesday night, Trump said his list includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
The front-runner for the GOP nomination, Trump did not produce the names on his own but was rather presented them by town hall host Laura Ingraham, who said audience members suggested them. Ingraham then asked Trump, “Are they all on your shortlist?” Trump answered, “They are.”
It’s possible other names could also be on Trump’s list. There has been speculation, too, surrounding New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, among others.
Trump, 77, said the most important quality he’s looking for in a running mate is someone who could be a great president in the event that something happens to him.
He also said “you would like to get somebody that could help you from the voter standpoint” and added that he’s looking for a running mate who agrees with him on a wide range of issues, including border security, interest rates, electric vehicles, foreign affairs, the need for a strong military and school choice.
“I always say I want people with common sense because there’s so many things happening in this country that don’t make sense,” Trump said.
Trump told NBC News in September that he liked the concept of choosing a woman as his running mate, but added, “We’re going to pick the best person.” He did not say anything Tuesday night about his running mate potentially be a woman.
In another Fox town hall in Iowa in January, Trump said he already knew who his pick would be but did not elaborate. DeSantis and Ramaswamy were still opposing him for the Republican nomination at the time.
Scott also ran against Trump in the primary but exited the race before the first votes were cast. DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Scott have all endorsed Trump, with Ramaswamy and Scott actively campaigning for the former president.
Trump praised Scott, who attended the town hall, calling him “a great advocate.”
“He has been much better for me than he was for himself,” Trump said. “I watched his campaign, and he doesn’t like talking about himself, but, boy, does he talk about Trump.”
In 2016, Trump chose then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence to be his running mate, but the men had a falling out after Pence rebuffed Trump’s demand to block certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 election.
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Ryan Chatelain
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The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.
The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”
“Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.
Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman is pregnant are covered under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the Act’s coverage.”
The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.
“This ruling is stating that a fertilized egg, which is a clump of cells, is now a person. It really puts into question, the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told The Associated Press Tuesday. The group called the decision a “terrifying development for the 1-in-6 people impacted by infertility” who need in-vitro fertilization.
She said it raises questions for providers and patients, including if they can freeze future embryos created during fertility treatment or if patients could ever donate or destroy unused embryos.
Sean Tipton, a spokesman with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said at least one Alabama fertility clinic has been instructed by their affiliated hospital to pause IVF treatment in the immediate wake of the decision.
Dr. Paula Amato, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said a decision to treat frozen fertilized egg as the legal equivalent of a child or gestating fetus could limit the availability of modern health care.
“By insisting that these very different biological entities are legally equivalent, the best state-of-the-art fertility care will be made unavailable to the people of Alabama. No health care provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” Amato said.
Gabby Goidel, 26, who is pursuing IVF treatment in Alabama after three miscarriages, said the court ruling came down on the same day she began daily injections ahead of egg retrieval.
“It just kind of took me by by storm. It was like all I could think about and it was just a very stressful thing to hear. I immediately messaged my clinic and asked if this could potentially halt us. They said we have to take it one day at a time,” Goidel said.
She said her clinic is continuing to provide treatment for now, but said it will let her know if they have to change course.
Goidel said she turned to IVF and preimplantation genetic testing after the multiple miscarriages related to genetic issues.
“Without IVF, I would have to probably go through several more miscarriages before I even had an option of having a baby that is my own,” she said.
The plaintiffs in the Alabama case had undergone IVF treatments that led to the creation of several embryos, some of which were implanted and resulted in healthy births. The couples paid to keep others frozen in a storage facility at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center. A patient in 2020 wandered into the area and removed several embryos, dropping them on the floor and “killing them,” the ruling said.
The justices ruled that wrongful death lawsuits by the couples could proceed. The clinic and hospital that are defendants in the case could ask the court to reconsider its decision.
Michael Upchurch, a lawyer for the fertility clinic in the lawsuit, Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they are “evaluating the consequences of the decision and have no further comment at this time.”
An anti-abortion group cheered the decision. “Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action said in a statement.
Chief Justice Tom Parker issued a concurring opinion in which he quoted the Bible in discussing the meaning of the phrase “the sanctity of unborn life” in the Alabama Constitution.
“Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Parker said.
Justice Greg Cook, who filed the only full dissent to the majority opinion, said the 1872 law did not define “minor child” and was being stretched from the original intent to cover frozen embryos.
“No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches,” he wrote, adding the ruling “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”
The Alabama Supreme Court decision partly hinged on anti-abortion language added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018, stating it is the “policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.”
Supporters at the time said it would have no impact unless states gained more control over abortion access. States gained control of abortion access in 2022.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Alabama decision reflected the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed Republican elected officials from blocking access to reproductive and emergency care to women.
“This president and this vice president will continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.
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The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision critics said could have sweeping implications for fertility treatment in the state.
The decision was issued in a pair of wrongful death cases brought by three couples who had frozen embryos destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. Justices, citing anti-abortion language in the Alabama Constitution, ruled that an 1872 state law allowing parents to sue over the death of a minor child “applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.”
“Unborn children are ‘children’ … without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.
Mitchell said the court had previously ruled that fetuses killed while a woman is pregnant are covered under Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and nothing excludes “extrauterine children from the Act’s coverage.”
The ruling brought a rush of warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos, which had previously been considered property by the courts.
“This ruling is stating that a fertilized egg, which is a clump of cells, is now a person. It really puts into question, the practice of IVF,” Barbara Collura, CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, told The Associated Press Tuesday. The group called the decision a “terrifying development for the 1-in-6 people impacted by infertility” who need in-vitro fertilization.
She said it raises questions for providers and patients, including if they can freeze future embryos created during fertility treatment or if patients could ever donate or destroy unused embryos.
Sean Tipton, a spokesman with the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said at least one Alabama fertility clinic has been instructed by their affiliated hospital to pause IVF treatment in the immediate wake of the decision.
Dr. Paula Amato, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said a decision to treat frozen fertilized egg as the legal equivalent of a child or gestating fetus could limit the availability of modern health care.
“By insisting that these very different biological entities are legally equivalent, the best state-of-the-art fertility care will be made unavailable to the people of Alabama. No health care provider will be willing to provide treatments if those treatments may lead to civil or criminal charges,” Amato said.
Gabby Goidel, 26, who is pursuing IVF treatment in Alabama after three miscarriages, said the court ruling came down on the same day she began daily injections ahead of egg retrieval.
“It just kind of took me by by storm. It was like all I could think about and it was just a very stressful thing to hear. I immediately messaged my clinic and asked if this could potentially halt us. They said we have to take it one day at a time,” Goidel said.
She said her clinic is continuing to provide treatment for now, but said it will let her know if they have to change course.
Goidel said she turned to IVF and preimplantation genetic testing after the multiple miscarriages related to genetic issues.
“Without IVF, I would have to probably go through several more miscarriages before I even had an option of having a baby that is my own,” she said.
The plaintiffs in the Alabama case had undergone IVF treatments that led to the creation of several embryos, some of which were implanted and resulted in healthy births. The couples paid to keep others frozen in a storage facility at the Mobile Infirmary Medical Center. A patient in 2020 wandered into the area and removed several embryos, dropping them on the floor and “killing them,” the ruling said.
The justices ruled that wrongful death lawsuits by the couples could proceed. The clinic and hospital that are defendants in the case could ask the court to reconsider its decision.
Michael Upchurch, a lawyer for the fertility clinic in the lawsuit, Center for Reproductive Medicine, said they are “evaluating the consequences of the decision and have no further comment at this time.”
An anti-abortion group cheered the decision. “Each person, from the tiniest embryo to an elder nearing the end of his life, has incalculable value that deserves and is guaranteed legal protection,” Lila Rose, president and founder of Live Action said in a statement.
Chief Justice Tom Parker issued a concurring opinion in which he quoted the Bible in discussing the meaning of the phrase “the sanctity of unborn life” in the Alabama Constitution.
“Even before birth, all human beings bear the image of God, and their lives cannot be destroyed without effacing his glory,” Parker said.
Justice Greg Cook, who filed the only full dissent to the majority opinion, said the 1872 law did not define “minor child” and was being stretched from the original intent to cover frozen embryos.
“No court — anywhere in the country — has reached the conclusion the main opinion reaches,” he wrote, adding the ruling “almost certainly ends the creation of frozen embryos through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in Alabama.”
The Alabama Supreme Court decision partly hinged on anti-abortion language added to the Alabama Constitution in 2018, stating it is the “policy of this state to ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.”
Supporters at the time said it would have no impact unless states gained more control over abortion access. States gained control of abortion access in 2022.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Alabama decision reflected the consequences of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and blamed Republican elected officials from blocking access to reproductive and emergency care to women.
“This president and this vice president will continue to fight to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state,” Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One.
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The field for the 12-team College Football Playoff will comprise five conference champions and seven at-large selections after the university presidents who oversee the CFP voted unanimously Tuesday to tweak the format.
The move to decrease the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five was prompted by realignment and the disassembling of the Pac-12 and has been anticipated for several months. An expected vote last month was delayed at the Pac-12’s request.
The original plan for the 12-team format was to have the six highest-ranked conference champions, with the top four receiving first-round byes, and six at-large selections. But with one fewer power conference after the Pac-12’s demise, the commissioners who manage the CFP recommended to make the change from a 6-6 format to a 5-7.
No conference will have automatic access. Those five slots will go to the highest-ranked conference champs as determined by the CFP selection committee, ensuring at least one team from outside the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern Conference will make the 12-team field.
The selection committee’s rankings also will determine the seven at-large bids. There will be no limit to how many teams can come from the same league.
“This is a very logical adjustment for the College Football Playoff based on the evolution of our conference structures since the board first adopted this new format in September 2022,” said Mark Keenum, president of Mississippi State University and chair of the CFP Board of Managers. “I know this change will also be well-received by student-athletes, coaches and fans. We all will be pleased to see this new format come to life on the field this postseason.”
The 2024 season will be the first with a 12-team playoff after 10 years of it being a four-team event.
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President Joe Biden is heading to California for a fundraising blitz as he looks to shore up support ahead of a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump in November.
As he takes off for the Golden State, he’ll do so with the wind at his back in terms of fundraising: His campaign on Tuesday announced a more than $42 million fundraising haul in January.
The president’s reelection campaign is also boasting a $130 million war chest, which they called the highest ever amassed by a Democratic candidate at this point in the election cycle in U.S. history.
Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said that January was the campaign’s strongest grassroots month since the campaign launched. The first month of the year saw 422,000 unique donors making 502,000 donations to the campaign.
“January’s fundraising haul – driven by a powerhouse grassroots fundraising program that continues to grow month by month – is an indisputable show of strength to start the election year,” she said in a statement. “While Team Biden-Harris continues to build on its fundraising machine, Republicans are divided – either spending money fighting Donald Trump, or spending money in support of Donald Trump’s extreme and losing agenda. Either way, judging from their weak fundraising, they’re already paying the political price.
“In an election that will determine the fate of our democracy and our freedoms, President Biden’s campaign is using its resources to build a winning operation that will meet voters where they are about the stakes of this election,” she continued.
Biden’s third visit to California in a little over two months will take him to Los Angeles and the Bay Area. He’ll first take part in a fundraiser in Los Angeles before making stops later in the week San Francisco and Los Altos Hills. He is also set to hold an official policy event on Wednesday in Los Angeles.
The Democratic incumbent’s reelection campaign also hailed the fact that it added more than 1 million emails to its distribution list in the first month of the year, and its total of more than 158,000 sustaining monthly donors.
They also noted that they raised $1 million per day in the three days following Iowa’s Republican presidential caucuses, which Trump won decisively over the rest of the GOP presidential field.
“We are particularly proud that January shattered our grassroots fundraising record for a third straight month. This haul will go directly to reaching the voters who will decide this election,” said Senior Communications Advisor TJ Ducklo, before seemingly adding a reference to the verdict in Trump’s New York civil fraud trial. “That’s reason number 355 million that we are confident President Biden and Vice President Harris will win this November.”
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In honor of Black History Month, we are taking the opportunity to look back on and celebrate the life and work of meteorologist June Bacon-Bercey.
A woman of many “firsts,” Bacon-Bercey broke many barriers and paved the way for others, particularly for women and African Americans in meteorology.
Noted as the first African American and first female degreed broadcast meteorologist, Bacon-Bercey is considered a pioneer in the field of meteorology. Born in 1928 in Wichita, Kansas, ever since she was a kid, she knew she wanted to follow a path of math and science.
In 1954, she became the first African American female in the United States to earn a bachelor of science degree in meteorology from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).
According to her official biography provided by her daughter, Dail St. Claire, when she arrived at UCLA, a counselor suggested she major in home economics instead of meteorology.
Bacon-Bercey once said, “when I earned an ‘A’ in thermodynamics and a ‘B’ in home economics, I knew my decision was the right one.”
Her biography also states that her career extended well beyond television weather. Before retiring from a position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1993, she held positions as a weather forecaster, weather analyst, radar meteorologist, aviation meteorologist, broadcast journalist, public administrator and educator.
She had a lasting impact on the field of broadcast meteorology, especially during a time when weather broadcasts within local newscasts were considered more entertainment-based than science-focused.
June-Bacon Bercey on set at WGR-TV in Buffalo, N.Y. (Courtesy: Dail St. Claire)
In 1972, she became the first African American and first female to earn the AMS Seal of Approval for Excellence in Television Weathercasting.
Her daughter recalled the day that her mother got the news of this accomplishment. “She was beaming. We sat down over tea, as she often did with me to discuss life matters. Upon sharing the significance of the Seal, she said, ‘no greater honor can come to me than earning the respect of my colleagues.’”
This came after joining WGR-TV in Buffalo, New York, in 1970, where she became the chief meteorologist after just four months at the station. This was a remarkable feat for the era.
Nearly five decades later, a 2018 study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society revealed that only 8% of chief meteorologists are female.
Bacon-Bercey became a role model to many African American aspiring meteorologists, including Janice Huff, Chief Meteorologist at WNBC in New York.
“When I was a child, I never saw anyone who looked like me delivering the forecast on television, so I never thought of broadcasting as an option for a future career. I wanted to be a scientist and work behind the scenes, and I was on my way to doing just that. Then I learned of June Bacon-Bercey, and I was certain that any and all things were possible,” said Huff.
Alan Sealls, Chief Meteorologist at WPMI-TV in Mobile, Alabama also has been moved by the life of Bacon-Bercey. He described her as “a woman who likely opened doors for women, African-Americans, and degreed meteorologists in broadcast meteorology.”
Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, Director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia who served as the second African American president of the American Meteorological Society, shared his appreciation for Bacon-Bercey. “I cannot imagine the struggles that Mrs. Bacon-Bercey faced as she trailblazed on behalf of women and people of color,” he said.
Women’s issues and racial equality were of the highest importance to Bacon-Bercey. She helped launch the AMS Board on Women and Minorities in 1975, which continues to operate to this day. It was renamed the Board on Representation, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity (BRAID) in 2020.
In 1977, it wasn’t weather, but her music knowledge that awarded her $64,000 on the game show “The $128,000 Question.” She used her earnings to launch the June Bacon-Bercey Scholarship through the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for women pursuing careers in meteorology and atmospheric sciences.
She felt the scholarship could help women become meteorologists. “I was discouraged from becoming a meteorologist. If women feel they have some money behind them, it might be better,” she stated according to her official biography.
AGU offered this scholarship from 1978 to 1990. It became reestablished in 2021 through the generosity of her daughter, Dail St. Claire, and other family and friends.
June Bacon-Bercey speaking at a luncheon. (Photo Courtesy: Dail St. Claire)
Bacon-Bercey also funded the meteorology lab at Mississippi’s Jackson State University (JSU) in 1980. At the time, JSU was the only historically black university or college with a meteorology program in the United States.
Janice Huff remarked on her achievements. “She showed great strength and determination to study in a field where there were so few who looked like her. She persevered despite the odds against her, and for that, I am eternally grateful.”
Bacon-Bercey passed away in July 2019 at the age of 90. Her legacy will live on for generations to come through the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) June Bacon-Bercey Award for Broadcast Meteorology.
The AMS renamed the Award for Broadcast Meteorology in her honor. Since 1977, this award has annually recognized broadcast meteorologists “for sustained long-term contributions to the community through the broadcast media, or for outstanding work during a specific weather event.”
Since its inception, three Award for Broadcast Meteorology recipients have been female. By honoring Mrs. Bacon-Bercey’s legacy, women and minorities might be encouraged to strive for this award and submit future nominations.
Her daughter, Dail St. Claire, reflected on this honor. “My family and I are grateful to the AMS for honoring my mother, June Bacon-Bercey. There is no greater honor for an on-air meteorologist to serve the public. The field of meteorology will one day fully represent the rich diversity of all people.”
Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.
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Meteorologist Maureen McCann
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At about 2 a.m. last Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stood on the Senate floor and explained why he opposed sending more aid to help Ukraine fend off the invasion launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t like this reality,” Johnson said. “Vladimir Putin is an evil war criminal.” But he quickly added: “Vladimir Putin will not lose this war.”
That argument — that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there’s no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him — marks a new stage in the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump.
The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents. There are several reasons for the shift. Among them, Putin is holding himself out as an international champion of conservative Christian values and the GOP is growing increasingly skeptical of overseas entanglements. Then there’s Trump’s personal embrace of the Russian leader.
Now the GOP’s ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine at a pivotal time in the war.
The Senate last week passed a foreign aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine on a 70-29 vote, but Johnson was one of a majority of the Republicans to vote against the bill after their late-night stand to block it. In the Republican-controlled House, Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber will not be “rushed” to pass the measure, even as Ukraine’s military warns of dire shortages of ammunition and artillery.
Many Republicans are openly frustrated that their colleagues don’t see the benefits of helping Ukraine. Putin and his allies have banked on democracies wearying of aiding Kyiv, and Putin’s GOP critics warn that NATO countries in eastern Europe could become targets of an emboldened Russia that believes the U.S. won’t counter it.
“Putin is losing,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said on the floor before Johnson’s speech. “This is not a stalemate.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was one of 22 Republican senators to back the package, while 26 opposed it.
The divide within the party was on stark display Friday with the prison death of Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption advocate Alexei Navalny, which President Joe Biden and other world leaders blamed on Putin. Trump notably stood aside from that chorus Monday in his first public comment on the matter that referred to Navalny by name.
Offering no sympathy or attempt to affix blame, Trump posted on Truth Social that the “sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”
Nikki Haley, his Republican presidential primary rival, said Monday that Trump is “siding with a thug” in his embrace of Putin.
Tillis responded to Navalny’s death by saying in a post, “History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy.”
Johnson, the House speaker, issued a statement calling Putin a “vicious dictator” and pledging that he “will be met with united opposition,” but he did not offer any way forward for passing the aid to Ukraine.
Within the Republican Party, skeptics of confronting Russia seem to be gaining ground.
“Nearly every Republican Senator under the age of 55 voted NO on this America Last bill,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, elected in 2022, posted on the social media site X after the vote last week. “15 out of 17 elected since 2018 voted NO. Things are changing just not fast enough.”
Those who oppose additional Ukraine aid bristle at charges that they are doing Putin’s handiwork. They contend they are taking a hard-headed look at whether it’s worth spending money to help the country.
“If you oppose a blank check to another country, I guess that makes you a Russian,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said on the Senate floor, after posting that conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s recent controversial interview of Putin shows that “Russia wants peace” in contrast to “DC warmongers.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a leading opponent of Ukraine aid in the House, described the movement as “a generational shift in my party away from neoconservatism toward foreign policy realism.”
In interviews with voters waiting to see Trump speak Saturday night in Waterford Township, Michigan, none praised Putin. But none wanted to spend more money confronting him, trusting Trump to handle the Russian leader.
Even before Trump, Republican voters were signaling discontent with overseas conflicts, said Douglas Kriner, a political scientist at Cornell University. That’s one reason Trump’s 2016 promise to avoid “stupid wars” resonated.
“Some of it may be a bottom-up change in a key part of the Republican base,” Kriner said, “and part of it reflects Trump’s hold on that base and his ability to sway its opinions and policy preferences in dramatic ways.”
Trump has long praised Putin, calling his invasion of Ukraine “smart” and “savvy,” and recalling this month that he had told NATO members who didn’t spend enough on defense that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to them. He reiterated that threat days later.
Despite the reluctance within the GOP to continue supporting Ukraine, Russia remains deeply unpopular in the U.S. A July 2023 Gallup poll found that just 5% had a favorable view of Putin, including 7% of Republicans.
But Putin has positioned his country as a symbol of Christian conservatism and resistance to LGBTQ rights, while portraying himself as an embodiment of masculine strength. The combination has appealed to populist conservatives across the Western world. Putin’s appeal in some sectors of the right is demonstrated by Carlson’s recent tour of Russia, after which the conservative host posted videos admiring the Moscow subway and a supermarket that he says “would radicalize you against our leaders.”
“The goal of the Soviet Union was to be the beacon of left ideas,” said Olga Kamenchuk, a professor at Northwestern University. “Russia is now the beacon of conservative ideas.”
Kamenchuk said this is most visible not in Putin’s U.S. poll numbers, but in fading Republican support for Ukraine. About half of Republicans said the U.S. is providing “too much” support to Ukraine when it comes to Russia’s invasion, according to a Pew Research poll in December. That’s up from 9% in a Pew poll taken in March 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded.
When Putin attacked Ukraine, there was bipartisan condemnation. Even a year ago, most Republicans in Congress pledged support. But around the same time, Trump was lamenting that U.S. leaders were “suckers” for sending aid.
By the fall, the party was divided. Republicans refused to include another round of Ukraine funding in the government spending bill, insisting that Democrats needed to include a border security measure to earn their support.
After Trump condemned the compromise border proposal, Republicans sank the bill, leaving Ukraine backers no option but to push the assistance as part of a foreign aid package with additional money for Israel and Taiwan.
Several experts on Russia note that the rhetoric the GOP uses against Ukraine aid can mirror Putin’s own — that Ukraine is corrupt and will waste the money, that the U.S. can’t afford to look beyond its borders and that Russia’s victory is inevitable.
“He’s trying to create the perception that he’s never going to be beaten, so don’t even try,” Henry Hale, a George Washington University political scientist, said of Putin.
Skeptics of Ukraine aid argue the war has already decimated the Russian military and that Putin won’t be able to target other European countries.
“Russia has shown in the last two years that they do not have the ability to march through Western Europe,” said Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget who is now president of the Center for Renewing America, which opposes additional Ukraine funding.
But several experts noted that Putin has alluded to plans to retake much of the former Soviet Union’s territory, which could include NATO countries such as Lithuania and Estonia that the U.S is obligated under its treaty to defend militarily.
Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, noted that Russia for decades has hoped the U.S would lose interest in protecting Europe: “This was Stalin’s dream, that the U.S. would just retreat to the Western hemisphere.”
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At about 2 a.m. last Tuesday, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin stood on the Senate floor and explained why he opposed sending more aid to help Ukraine fend off the invasion launched in 2022 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t like this reality,” Johnson said. “Vladimir Putin is an evil war criminal.” But he quickly added: “Vladimir Putin will not lose this war.”
That argument — that the Russian president cannot be stopped so there’s no point in using American taxpayer dollars against him — marks a new stage in the Republican Party’s growing acceptance of Russian expansionism in the age of Donald Trump.
The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents. There are several reasons for the shift. Among them, Putin is holding himself out as an international champion of conservative Christian values and the GOP is growing increasingly skeptical of overseas entanglements. Then there’s Trump’s personal embrace of the Russian leader.
Now the GOP’s ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine at a pivotal time in the war.
The Senate last week passed a foreign aid package that included $61 billion for Ukraine on a 70-29 vote, but Johnson was one of a majority of the Republicans to vote against the bill after their late-night stand to block it. In the Republican-controlled House, Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber will not be “rushed” to pass the measure, even as Ukraine’s military warns of dire shortages of ammunition and artillery.
Many Republicans are openly frustrated that their colleagues don’t see the benefits of helping Ukraine. Putin and his allies have banked on democracies wearying of aiding Kyiv, and Putin’s GOP critics warn that NATO countries in eastern Europe could become targets of an emboldened Russia that believes the U.S. won’t counter it.
“Putin is losing,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said on the floor before Johnson’s speech. “This is not a stalemate.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was one of 22 Republican senators to back the package, while 26 opposed it.
The divide within the party was on stark display Friday with the prison death of Russian opposition figure and anti-corruption advocate Alexei Navalny, which President Joe Biden and other world leaders blamed on Putin. Trump notably stood aside from that chorus Monday in his first public comment on the matter that referred to Navalny by name.
Offering no sympathy or attempt to affix blame, Trump posted on Truth Social that the “sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.”
Nikki Haley, his Republican presidential primary rival, said Monday that Trump is “siding with a thug” in his embrace of Putin.
Tillis responded to Navalny’s death by saying in a post, “History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy.”
Johnson, the House speaker, issued a statement calling Putin a “vicious dictator” and pledging that he “will be met with united opposition,” but he did not offer any way forward for passing the aid to Ukraine.
Within the Republican Party, skeptics of confronting Russia seem to be gaining ground.
“Nearly every Republican Senator under the age of 55 voted NO on this America Last bill,” Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, elected in 2022, posted on the social media site X after the vote last week. “15 out of 17 elected since 2018 voted NO. Things are changing just not fast enough.”
Those who oppose additional Ukraine aid bristle at charges that they are doing Putin’s handiwork. They contend they are taking a hard-headed look at whether it’s worth spending money to help the country.
“If you oppose a blank check to another country, I guess that makes you a Russian,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said on the Senate floor, after posting that conservative commentator Tucker Carlson’s recent controversial interview of Putin shows that “Russia wants peace” in contrast to “DC warmongers.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, a leading opponent of Ukraine aid in the House, described the movement as “a generational shift in my party away from neoconservatism toward foreign policy realism.”
In interviews with voters waiting to see Trump speak Saturday night in Waterford Township, Michigan, none praised Putin. But none wanted to spend more money confronting him, trusting Trump to handle the Russian leader.
Even before Trump, Republican voters were signaling discontent with overseas conflicts, said Douglas Kriner, a political scientist at Cornell University. That’s one reason Trump’s 2016 promise to avoid “stupid wars” resonated.
“Some of it may be a bottom-up change in a key part of the Republican base,” Kriner said, “and part of it reflects Trump’s hold on that base and his ability to sway its opinions and policy preferences in dramatic ways.”
Trump has long praised Putin, calling his invasion of Ukraine “smart” and “savvy,” and recalling this month that he had told NATO members who didn’t spend enough on defense that he would “encourage” Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to them. He reiterated that threat days later.
Despite the reluctance within the GOP to continue supporting Ukraine, Russia remains deeply unpopular in the U.S. A July 2023 Gallup poll found that just 5% had a favorable view of Putin, including 7% of Republicans.
But Putin has positioned his country as a symbol of Christian conservatism and resistance to LGBTQ rights, while portraying himself as an embodiment of masculine strength. The combination has appealed to populist conservatives across the Western world. Putin’s appeal in some sectors of the right is demonstrated by Carlson’s recent tour of Russia, after which the conservative host posted videos admiring the Moscow subway and a supermarket that he says “would radicalize you against our leaders.”
“The goal of the Soviet Union was to be the beacon of left ideas,” said Olga Kamenchuk, a professor at Northwestern University. “Russia is now the beacon of conservative ideas.”
Kamenchuk said this is most visible not in Putin’s U.S. poll numbers, but in fading Republican support for Ukraine. About half of Republicans said the U.S. is providing “too much” support to Ukraine when it comes to Russia’s invasion, according to a Pew Research poll in December. That’s up from 9% in a Pew poll taken in March 2022, just weeks after Russia invaded.
When Putin attacked Ukraine, there was bipartisan condemnation. Even a year ago, most Republicans in Congress pledged support. But around the same time, Trump was lamenting that U.S. leaders were “suckers” for sending aid.
By the fall, the party was divided. Republicans refused to include another round of Ukraine funding in the government spending bill, insisting that Democrats needed to include a border security measure to earn their support.
After Trump condemned the compromise border proposal, Republicans sank the bill, leaving Ukraine backers no option but to push the assistance as part of a foreign aid package with additional money for Israel and Taiwan.
Several experts on Russia note that the rhetoric the GOP uses against Ukraine aid can mirror Putin’s own — that Ukraine is corrupt and will waste the money, that the U.S. can’t afford to look beyond its borders and that Russia’s victory is inevitable.
“He’s trying to create the perception that he’s never going to be beaten, so don’t even try,” Henry Hale, a George Washington University political scientist, said of Putin.
Skeptics of Ukraine aid argue the war has already decimated the Russian military and that Putin won’t be able to target other European countries.
“Russia has shown in the last two years that they do not have the ability to march through Western Europe,” said Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget who is now president of the Center for Renewing America, which opposes additional Ukraine funding.
But several experts noted that Putin has alluded to plans to retake much of the former Soviet Union’s territory, which could include NATO countries such as Lithuania and Estonia that the U.S is obligated under its treaty to defend militarily.
Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, noted that Russia for decades has hoped the U.S would lose interest in protecting Europe: “This was Stalin’s dream, that the U.S. would just retreat to the Western hemisphere.”
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Associated Press
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Donald Trump made his first public comment Monday about the death of Alexei Navalny, although the former president said substantively little about the Russian opposition leader or the Kremlin.
In a post on his Truth Social site, Trump wrote: “The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction. Open Borders, Rigged Elections, and Grossly Unfair Courtroom Decisions are DESTROYING AMERICA. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION!”
Trump, who is running for president again, repeats the same grievances about border security, his legal troubles and the direction of the country, as well as his baseless claims of election fraud, on a near-daily basis on his social media site, in interviews and on the campaign trail.
Trump’s remarks came three days after Navalny died in a Russian prison and follows repeated calls from Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley for Trump to comment on his death.
Prior to Monday, Trump’s only mention of Navalny since he died was when he shared a post on Truth Social on Sunday that seemed to suggest he is being persecuted in the United States much like Navalny was in Russia. The headline of the post was “Biden:Trump::Putin:Navalny.”
When asked Friday about whether Trump had a comment on Navalny’s death, his campaign directed reporters to another Trump Truth Social post, which made no mention of Navalny or Russia, instead saying, “America is no longer respected because we have an incompetent president who is weak and doesn’t understand what the World is thinking.”
According to the Russian federal prison service, Navalny died in prison near the Arctic Circle after losing consciousness following a walk.
An outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Navalny blamed the Kremlin for poisoning him with a nerve agent in 2020. After recovering in Germany for more than a year, he was arrested upon returning to Russia and later sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges he and his supporters said were bogus and politically motivated.
Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, accused Putin on Monday on refusing to hand over Navalny’s body to his mother as part of a cover-up. Russian authorities have said that the cause of Navalny’s death is still unknown.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday quickly blamed Russia for Navalny’s death, although he stopped short of calling it an assassination.
“What has happened to Navalny is yet more proof of Putin’s brutality,” he said. “No one should be fooled — not in Russia, not at home, not anywhere in the world. Putin does not only target his [sic] citizens of other countries, as we’ve seen what’s going on in Ukraine right now, he also inflicts terrible crimes on his own people.”
Haley spent the weekend calling out Trump over his silence on Navalny.
“Putin has done to him what Putin does to all of his opponents — he kills them,” the former United Nations ambassador told reporters Saturday in Irmo, South Carolina. “And Trump needs to answer to that. Does he think Putin killed him? Does he think Putin was right to kill him? And does he think Navalny was a hero?”
Haley, Trump’s only remaining major competition for the Republican presidential nomination, has tied the former president’s evasiveness on Navalny to his comments earlier this month that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies that had not met their financial obligations. In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, Haley said she found it “amazing” that Trump would not only encourage Putin to invade NATO countries but not acknowledge “anything with Navalny.”
“Either he sides with Putin and thinks it’s cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents or he just doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Haley said. “Either one of those is concerning. Either one of those is a problem.”
According to The Washington Post, Trump appears to never have mentioned Navalny by name during his presidency.
Trump did not condemn the poisoning of Navalny in 2020. When asked about it then, he said there was no proof of Russia’s involvement at the time and then argued that people should be more concerned about China than Russia.
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Ryan Chatelain
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