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From devastating cyclones and floods to an unrelenting drought, African countries are spending between 2% and 9% of their budgets to respond to extreme weather events, according to a report released by the United Nations on Wednesday. A committee of experts shared the findings at the annual U.N. conference of African ministers of finance and economic planning in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “Climate change is having a devastating impact on Africa’s economies, and the situation is expected to worsen in the coming years,” Antonio Pedro, the acting executive secretary of the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa told The Associated Press. Climate...

“Was there regulatory failure? Perhaps. SVB was regulated like a bank but looked more like a money-market fund. Then there’s this: In its proxy statement, SVB notes that besides 91 percent of their board being independent and 45 percent women, they also have ‘1 Black,’ ‘1 LGBTQ+,’ and ‘2 Veterans.’ I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess, but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.”

[AP, so, no excerpt]

On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom praised the Biden administration’s decision to intervene on behalf of Silicon Valley Bank’s clients after the bank was taken over by the FDIC on Friday amid a bank run. The White House “acted swiftly and decisively to protect the American economy and strengthen public confidence in our banking system,” Newsom said in a statement. What Newsom didn’t mention is that it also protected his own companies if they held over $250,000 in deposits. CADE, Odette, and PlumpJack, three wineries owned by Newsom, are listed as clients of SVB on the bank’s website. Newsom also...

Intensification of Swiss lender’s difficulties comes days after two major bank failures in the U.S. Credit Suisse Group AG shares fell more than 25% Wednesday and hit a fresh record low, reflecting increasing concerns that troubles that hit regional U.S. banks have migrated across the Atlantic.

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Woke Silicon Valley Bank donated over $73 million to Black Lives Matter-related social justice groups in the years before it collapsed, while failed Signature Bank gave $850,000, it has been revealed. A database by the conservative Claremont Institute shows that SVB donated around $73,450,000 to the movement and other social-justice related causes as it worked to increase its Environmental, Social and Governance rating. Meanwhile, New York-based Signature Bank donated a total of $850,000 over several years before it failed on Sunday. The money was used to fund Black Lives Matter demonstrations and contributed to the organization's political action committee focused...

Individuals and political action committees associated with defunct financial institution Silicon Valley Bank have donated extensively to leading politicians. Silicon Valley Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the United States, collapsed last week as depositors rushed to withdraw their funds. The firm had sold several long-term government and corporate bonds at a loss to supply the deposits before the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation assumed control of the company. Federal election data compiled by Open Secrets indicates that Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) received $8,300 from Silicon Valley Bank affiliates, including $5,800 from individuals and $2,500 from the company’s political...

Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), are blaming Donald Trump for the sudden collapse of two banks, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. But Barney Frank, a leading sponsor of the Dodd-Frank Act, sharply disagrees. The law, signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, made significant changes to Wall Street regulations and federal financial regulatory agencies in the aftermath of the financial meltdown in 2008. The bill, though controversial, was theoretically designed to protect Americans. Democrats say Trump is responsible because he signed a law rolling back some of the regulations enacted by the Dodd-Frank Act....

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Wednesday said the $250,000 cap on deposit insurance should be reexamined to better suit small business and nonprofit organizations. “I think that we should reexamine, just overall, about why we have limits at $250,000 of protection,” she said on CNBC’s “Squawk Street.” The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures up to $250,000 for each depositor if a bank fails. Warren said this insurance was meant for individuals, and a similar level of protections would help small businesses and nonprofit organizations have more confidence when depositing money into a bank.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, March 15, 2023 Ho Wan Kwok, A/K/A “Miles Guo,” Arrested For Orchestrating Over $1 Billion Dollar Fraud Conspiracy Over $630 Million of Alleged Fraud Proceeds Seized by U.S. Government Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a twelve-count Indictment charging HO WAN KWOK, a/k/a “Miles Guo,” a/k/a “Miles Kwok,” a/k/a “Guo Wengui,” a/k/a “Brother Seven,” a/k/a “The Principal,” and KIN MING JE, a/k/a “William Je,”...

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he is worried that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former President Trump’s “support” for Russian President Vladimir Putin is tied to “broader lack of enthusiasm for democracy” on their part. Murphy said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that people can have “good-faith objections” to U.S. support for Ukraine, but DeSantis’ comments on the war do not appear to be in good faith.

Today is the Ides Of March. Julius Caesar was assassinated on this day in 44 BC. In 1950 Charlton Heston gave a brilliant performance as Marc Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. If Brutus was an honourable man, then so is Joe Biden in his ice cream dreams. Some poeticised thoughts from Heston on freedom follow .....

Diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices are in the crosshairs of ideologically disparate public interest law groups, showing the campaign against institutionalized race essentialism and "neoracism" has legs beyond the political right. The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism, cofounded by black intellectuals including "Woke Racism" author and Columbia University linguist John McWhorter, is representing Tabia Lee, tenure-track faculty director of the Office of Equity, Social Justice, and Multicultural Education at Silicon Valley's De Anza College. The college declined to renew Lee's contract due to her advocacy of "multiple approaches in performing anti-racism work" and refusing to coddle a Black...

An undated video has surfaced of a public school teacher saying that her goal is to confuse kids about gender. The teacher, whom parents have identified as a Mounds View Public Schools teacher, explains in the video that some of her students can’t tell if she’s a boy or a girl.Alpha News reached out to the district multiple times to confirm the identity of the teacher but received no response.In the video, the teacher is wearing a school lanyard reading “Valentine Hills Elementary.”“The students asked the other teacher if I’m a boy or a girl,” she says in the video....

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), now a CNN contributor, said Tuesday on “The Situation Room” that if former President Donald Trump goes head to head with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), “Trump will start wiping the floor with Ron DeSantis.” Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked, “Adam, your fellow Republicans are more interested in a nominee that shares their positions rather than someone that they think will beat Joe Biden. As a Republican, does that concern you?”

Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he is “gravely concerned” that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said the Ukraine war is a “territorial dispute.” Guest host Mike Barnicle asked, “Senator, given the lit fuse that is Ukraine and Russia, and given what happened over the Black Sea, do you have any sense of the communication at the top of the house, each house, secretary of defense here, defense minister in Russia, Putin, the president of the United States, any sense at all of communication that might be going on between the two of them? Then as...

Warning! Warning! Moose are on the loose! And it turns out that a big culprit causing global warming could be none other than Bullwinkle or at least his real life cousins. The Washington Post eagerly issued this warning on Saturday in a story by Erin Blakemore, "Hungry moose fingered as possible factor in climate change." Don’t mess with moose. They’re big, they’re strong — and now researchers say they may be contributing to climate change. Yes, research suggests that moose may factor into a dramatic reduction in the amount of carbon stored in some forests. Wherever they feed, the large...

Unlike the Biden administration, 45th President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump is continuing to care for and protect the “incredible patriots” of East Palestine, Ohio weeks after a train derailment led to a significant release of toxic chemicals in the area.In a one-minute and fifty-six-second video posted to his top-rated social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday, Trump vowed to keep fighting for the people of Ohio and demanded “political leaders” care less about optics and actually help and “do a fantastic job.”“Biden and FEMA said that they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. You...

President Joe Biden issued an executive order that will expand background checks on gun sales, the White House said Tuesday. According to an fact sheet from the White House, Biden traveled to Monterey Park, California, where a mass shooting occurred in January, to announce the order. “The Executive Order will also keep more guns out of dangerous hands by increasing the effective use of ‘red flag’ laws, strengthen efforts to hold the gun industry accountable, and accelerate law enforcement efforts to identify and apprehend the shooters menacing our communities,” the announcement said. “President Biden is also encouraging the Federal Trade...