Big banks to rescue First Republic Bank, child mortality has surged: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Big banks create rescue package for First Republic
Big banks have created a rescue package worth billions for First Republic Bank. Plus, Poland will send fighter jets to Ukraine, USA TODAY National Correspondent Will Carless looks at a crucial legal test for the Antifa ideology, child mortality has surged and USA TODAY Editor in Chief Nicole Carroll talks about USA TODAY's Women of the Year.
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Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Taylor Wilson:
Good morning and a happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Friday, the 17th of March 2023. Today, big banks create a rescue package to try and keep another bank from collapsing. Plus, Poland will send fighter jets to Ukraine, and a trial centers around the movement known as Antifa.
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Eleven of the biggest US banks announced a $30 billion rescue package yesterday for First Republic Bank. The move came as part of an effort to prevent it from becoming the third bank to collapse in less than a week. First Republic serves a similar clientele to Silicon Valley Bank, which failed last week after depositors withdrew some $40 billion in a matter of hours. And New York's Signature Bank shut down on Sunday.
The group of banks behind the First Republic rescue package confirmed that other unnamed banks have seen large withdrawals of uninsured deposits. The FDIC ensures deposits up to $250,000 for individual accounts. First Republic's shares dropped more than 60% earlier this week.
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Poland will send fighter jets to Ukraine, becoming the first NATO country to do so. The US and NATO have been reluctant to fulfill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's request for the aircraft. Even after the Polish decision, US officials said they still have no plans to follow suit.
Meanwhile, POLITICO reported this week that between June and December of last year, Chinese companies, including a state-owned defense contractor, shipped a thousand assault rifles and other equipment to Russian entities. The US said it has no evidence that Russia has used weapons provided by China in Ukraine. The Biden administration, though, has told China not to supply lethal weapons for Russia to use in its invasion.
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A criminal conspiracy case against a group of activists in San Diego is heading to trial, and it could prove crucial in defining the movement known as Antifa. I spoke with USA TODAY National Correspondent on Extremism and Emerging Issues, Will Carless, to learn more. USA TOAY National Correspondent Will Carless, thanks for hopping on 5 Things today.
Will Carless:
Thanks for having me on.
Taylor Wilson:
So, Will, first off, can you just give us a refresher on who Antifa is?
Will Carless:
It's an interesting question because that's really the core of this case. That's what this case is all about. It's about defining whether Antifa or anti-fascism is a political movement that people can just agree with and kind of be active within, or whether Antifa is a more shadowy organization, more of a structural thing akin to a gang or even something like the Mafia or something like that, like a criminal organization. And that's what this case is really seeking to get to the bottom of and will have at least some sort of a role in defining this very loosely defined and misunderstood concept known as Antifa.
Taylor Wilson:
In this particular case, it sounds like there was really violence on both sides, Will. Why is it that only anti-fascist people are being tried? And what about the white supremacists and the Trump supporters who were involved?
Will Carless:
I mean, it's a really good question. I mean, I don't know. And really, if you watched the videos... And I spent probably too much time watching videos from dozens of different people who filmed the actions on September the 9th in Pacific Beach in San Diego. And really, you see this mob of people, this mob of, in some cases, known white supremacists, of people affiliated with the Proud Boys, sort of marching around Pacific Beach, shouting for anybody that they can get in a fight with, essentially.
They are then met by a group of anti-fascists. And there are clashes on both sides but there is clear video footage of not just anti-fascists, but also these white supremacists and these violent actors on the far right getting into fights with people, beating people up. And none of them have been charged. And so, that is a very good question that I would really love the opportunity to sit down with the San Diego DA and ask her because I don't know.
Taylor Wilson:
And could prosecutors' actions here have repercussions around the country, outside of California?
Will Carless:
Well, absolutely. That's what the experts tell me, is that the way... Because, as I said at the outset, this idea of anti-fascism and Antifa is so loosely defined at the moment, there is a world in which, if this prosecution is successful, then prosecutors, particularly conservative prosecutors all around the country in an election season, that prosecutors could see that case and use it as kind of inspiration to go after, in some cases, violent and left-leaning activists, not just for sort of individual misdemeanors and felonies but to bring conspiracy cases against them, to say, "You are part of this organization called Antifa." And that has serious repercussions in terms of jail time and things like that. So yeah, it's a really important case that people are watching very closely.
Taylor Wilson:
That includes right-wing media watching this case closely. How does right-wing media play into all of this?
Will Carless:
Well, this has really been taken on as a cause célèbre for certain elements of the far-right media in this country. This took a curious turn late last month when one of the defense attorneys filed a motion in court in San Diego seeking to have a certain reporter basically dismissed from the courtroom and not allowed to report on it.
Now, this is a local reporter. This is such a weird situation. It's a local reporter who has written for years under the name Eva Knott for a local magazine. I actually confronted this lady outside the courtroom and said, "Is that your real name?" And she said, "Yes, that's my real name." Well, it turns out that's not her real name. Her name is actually Catherine or Cathy Cranston.
And the problem, as far as the defense attorney is concerned, is that this woman has not only presented herself as somebody who she is not, but she has also filed paperwork in court under her assumed name, under her pen name. Now, the lawyer argues that that's actually a felony, that that's illegal under California law. I spoke with a law professor who said it possibly isn't. It depends really on the sort of spirit of the case and who takes a look at it and who prosecutes it. But certainly, it's a strange situation.
Taylor Wilson:
Will Carless covers extremism and emerging issues for USA TODAY. Thanks, Will.
Will Carless:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Child mortality has surged. According to research in the Journal of the American Medical Association out this week, child and teen deaths increased by 20% between 2019 and 2021, the largest jump in half a century.
That's despite generations of progress. For decades, the overall death rate among Americans aged 19 and younger had been steadily decreasing. That's thanks to breakthroughs and prevention and treatment for conditions like premature births, pediatric cancer, and birth defects, according to lead author Dr. Steven Woolf.
Researchers found that the recent spike was largely driven by an increase in injury-related deaths, things like suicide and overdoses. Those rates began climbing before the COVID-19 pandemic. The new analysis also found some stark disparities. Last year, Black youths aged 10 to 19 were 20 times more likely to die by homicide than white youths and six times more likely than Hispanic youths.
Meanwhile, the rate of women dying in childbirth has also surged. According to CDC data out yesterday, maternal deaths in 2021 increased a staggering 38% from the year before. Experts say COVID likely contributed to the increase but that the numbers also reveal flaws in health systems, like structural racism, implicit bias, and communities losing access to care. Black women saw the highest rates, with around 70 deaths per 100,000 births, compared with 55 the previous year and compared with 33 maternal deaths per 100,000 births overall.
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USA TODAY'S Women of the Year have been decided. This year's honorees have overcome adversity and have some powerful advice for their younger selves. USA TODAY Editor-in-Chief Nicole Carroll explains. Nicole, welcome to 5 Things. So good to have you on the show.
Nicole Carroll:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So first off, can you just tell our listeners a little bit about USA TODAY'S Women of the Year project and what inspired USA TODAY to start this in the first place?
Nicole Carroll:
Each year, we honor extraordinary women on the national stage and at the state level. We have this unique national-to-local reach with USA TODAY and then our more than 200 newspapers and news sites across the country. So USA TODAY will honor national women, The local sites will honor state level women. And the reason we started... It was actually on the hundredth anniversary of the 19th Amendment, and we talked about a hundred years of women having the right to vote and all the extraordinary advances women have made in their careers, in their communities, in their professions, in their families. And so often, that history is not celebrated, and we wanted to change that.
Taylor Wilson:
So let's talk about this year's winners. What did you find that this year's Women of the Year have in common?
Nicole Carroll:
One of my favorite questions that we ask is, "What advice would you give your younger selves?" And it just is astonishing how many of them felt insecure as girls and unsure as girls. And so when I asked what advice they would give themselves, they said things like, "It's okay to fail. That's how you learn." Or, "Don't let fear hold you back."
Former First Lady Michelle Obama was amazing. She said, "Hey, Mich, you are good enough. You can do this." Goldie Hawn said, "Step out of your comfort zone and just do it." So these extraordinary women have in common just this insecurity when they were younger and were vulnerable enough to share that with us.
Taylor Wilson:
Nicole, can you tell us about some of the adversity faced by these women?
Nicole Carroll:
One of our honorees is the entire US women's soccer team, and they just filed a lawsuit demanding equal pay and equal working conditions. It was a three-year slog. It involved condescending depositions, dismissive characterizations of their skills and accomplishments, way too many conferences with attorneys and advisors. But, as usual, the US women's team won, and the ripple effect of their victory is still being felt.
You know, I look at Roberta Cordano, who's the president of Gallaudet University. She always knew that she wanted to be an attorney, but she was born deaf. And she said that back then, that many law schools didn't believe that deaf people could be lawyers. And so she went to a hearing college. She said, "It brought me to where I am today, and that is to be a bridge between the deaf community and the hearing world." So while all these women faced adversity, they credit that adversity for making them into who they are today.
Taylor Wilson:
Nicole, did anything surprise you?
Nicole Carroll:
You know, I guess it's surprising how many firsts there still are. You know, you think of all the progress made, but there's still so many firsts. We interviewed the first Indigenous woman in space, the first woman governor of Massachusetts. We celebrate the entire 118th Congress, which has set a record for the percentage of women in Congress, but it's still just 25%. So while it's fantastic to celebrate the honorees and the accomplishments, we still have a long way to go, and it's good to remind ourselves and our country of that.
Taylor Wilson:
And Nicole, what do you hope that readers will walk away with after reading about some of these fantastic Women of the Year?
Nicole Carroll:
I want them to be inspired through the stories, through the advice, through the adversity. I mean, you get to meet an astronaut. You get to meet an Indigenous woman who is changing representation for her community and bringing pride to her... The children and the elders in her community. You get to meet a cookbook author who became an activist during the pandemic because she saw the impact of the pandemic on Chinatown businesses and wanted to do something about it.
And then, one of my favorites... They're all my favorites, but you get to spend some time with Supreme Court's Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Of course, she's out of the public eye now. She's 93 and living in Arizona. But I was fortunate enough to do an interview with her back in 2009, and so we're going to reprint that entire interview. And it's still so many of the stories that she tells hold true today, and it's really just a special moment.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Nicole Carroll is USA TODAY'S Editor-in-Chief here talking about USA TODAY'S Women of the Year. Thanks, Nicole.
Nicole Carroll:
Thank you.
Taylor Wilson:
You can read more about these remarkable women with a link in today's show notes.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every day of the week right here, wherever you get your audio. I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: First Republic Bank rescue, surge in child mortality: 5 Things podcast
