Longest-serving U.S. congressman, Alaska's Don Young, dies at 88

U.S. Republican Representative Don Young, who was first elected to Congress in 1973 and was its longest-serving current member, died on Friday, his office said in a statement.

The 88-year-old congressman died while traveling home to Alaska, his office said.

"Don Young's legacy as a fighter for the state will live on, as will his fundamental goodness and honor. We will miss him dearly," the statement said.

His office did not give the cause of death. The Anchorage Daily News reported that Young lost consciousness on a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle and could not be resuscitated. The newspaper report cited Jack Ferguson, who had served as Young's chief of staff.

Young was Alaska's only member in the House of Representatives. The longest-serving member of the current U.S. Congress, according to his website, he represented Alaska for 25 terms and last year he filed to enter this November's election.

"I'm incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Don Young," U.S. Representative Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House, said in a statement.

"He was a passionate champion of his home state of Alaska, but he was also a mentor who, as the Dean of the House, had more institutional knowledge of Congress than anyone I know," Scalise said.

U.S. Representative Dean Phillips, a Democrat from Minnesota, said on Twitter: "His fiercely independent voice for Alaska and one of a kind wit and character will be missed."

Young was born in California in 1933 and moved to Alaska in 1959, shortly after statehood.

In Congress, he was known for directing billions of dollars of federal money to Alaska, the largest state in the country but with one of the smallest populations.

In late 2020, Young was diagnosed with COVID-19 after he had earlier ridiculed the disease as a "beer virus."

Russia intensifies strikes around Kyiv as it warns US against arming Ukraine

The Russian assault across Ukraine raged Saturday as explosions were heard in Kyiv and fighting intensified around the capital. Hours later, Russia warned the United States that it would fire on weapon shipments to Ukraine, raising the risk of direct confrontation between Moscow and a NATO country.

A number of major cities are under pressure as Russian strikes hit civilian structures. Smoke rose east of the river in Dnipro early on Saturday where CNN journalists felt at least two explosions and saw the cloudy remnants of what looked like anti-aircraft fire.

A large swath of Makariv, a village 30 miles west of Kyiv, has sustained significant damage from apparent Russian airstrikes.

CNN geolocated and verified the authenticity of photos, posted to social media Saturday, which show major damage to apartment complexes, schools and a medical facility. One of the more stark images from Makariv shows a large hole in the northern wall of an apartment building from a military strike. Many of the buildings in the photos have sustained damage on their northern facades, evidence that points to military strikes that hit them as being Russian.

In Chernihiv, some 100 kilometers north of Kyiv, local landmark Hotel Ukraine was hit overnight. "I am here now. There is no hotel anymore," Vyacheslav Chaus, head of Chernihiv region administration, said Saturday.

The northern city, which is close to the Belarus border, has been surrounded by Russian forces for more than a week and video from the city showed the collapsed floors of the hotel as well as widespread damage from missiles and airstrikes.

Chaus said civilians were dying from the strikes, which brought down the city's electricity network. "Many people are being injured. The enemy shells civilian infrastructure, where there is no military," he said, saying the city has "no electricity, almost no water, gas, and heat."

The Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly claimed that Russian forces are not targeting civilians.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Saturday address the whole country was now a front line. "A few small towns just don't exist anymore. And this is a tragedy. They are just gone. And people are also gone."

Zelensky said negotiations to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine "must begin with a ceasefire," adding that Ukraine has lost about 1,300 troops as of Saturday. CNN has been unable to independently verify these numbers.

Later Saturday, Zelensky said that he was grateful for international support but urged allies to provide more aid.

"I keep reiterating to our allies and friends abroad; they have to keep doing more for our country, for Ukrainians and Ukraine. Because it is not only for Ukraine, but it is for all of Europe," he said. "The evil which purposefully targets peaceful cities and ambulance vans and explodes hospitals will not stop with just one country if they have the strength to keep going."

The US and NATO say they're taking steps to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian troops, and they have continued to provide Ukraine with security assistance, including anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons. But the US and NATO have also tried to avoid being drawn into an outright conflict with Russia. US President Joe Biden emphasized that point on Friday, that the US will not send ground troops into Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO. 

"We will not fight the third world war in Ukraine," Biden said after reiterating the US' full support to its NATO allies and promising that the US will defend "every inch" of NATO territory.

"I want to be clear though, we are going to make sure that Ukraine has the weapons to defend themselves from an invading Russian force. And we will send money and food aid to save Ukrainians' lives," he added.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Saturday warned the US against transferring weapons to Ukraine, saying convoys with foreign weapons would be considered "legitimate targets."

"We warned the United States that pumping Ukraine with weapons from a number of countries orchestrated by them is not just a dangerous move, but these are actions that turn the corresponding convoys into legitimate targets," Ryabkov said Saturday on the Russian state-run Channel One, according to state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.

Determined resistance

In Ukraine, Russia has faced defiance from the public in the past two weeks. On Saturday, several hundred people swarmed the city hall in the southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol following the detention of its mayor, Ivan Fedorov, by armed men the day before.

Shortly after Fedorov's detention, the Russian-backed Luhansk regional prosecutor claimed Fedorov had committed terrorism offenses, allegations that Zelensky called a "crime against democracy" on Saturday.

The Zaporozhye regional administration said Saturday a new mayor had been installed. Galina Danilchenko, a former member of the Melitopol city council, was introduced as the acting mayor on local TV, according to a statement from the regional administration posted on Telegram. In her televised statement, Danilchenko said that her "main task is to take all necessary steps to get the city back to normal."

She claimed there were people still in Melitopol who would try to destabilize "the situation and provoke a reaction of bad behavior."

"I ask you to keep your wits about you and not to give in to these provocations," she said. "I appeal to the deputies, elected by the people, on all levels. Since you were elected by the people, it is your duty to care about the well-being of your citizens."

In Kyiv, Russia's advance has faced stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces. On Saturday, the UK's Ministry of Defence's latest intelligence assessment said the bulk of Russian ground forces were about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the center of the Ukrainian capital.

Maxar satellite imagery taken on Thursday showed that the 40-mile Russian column northwest of Kyiv had largely dispersed and regrouped. But the intelligence assessment warned, "this is likely to support a Russian attempt to encircle the city. It could also be an attempt by Russia to reduce its vulnerability to Ukrainian counter attacks, which have taken a significant toll on Russian forces."

The north and northeastern cities of Chernihiv and Sumy, the eastern city of Kharkiv, and Mariupol in the south, remain encircled by Russian forces, the ministry added.

A senior Ukrainian official in the southern region of Kherson, now in Russian control, has said that the "occupiers" are pressing the regional council to agree to a referendum on the area's "independence" from Ukraine. There's been no word from the Russian side about any referendum plans.

Similar referendums were held after Russian-backed separatists took control in 2014 of parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. People's Republics were later declared in both regions.

Ukraine's state-operated nuclear energy company said Saturday that Russian officials had arrived at Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhya, demanding to take control of the facility. 

Zaporizhzhya has been occupied by Russian forces for more than a week now, with Energoatom previously claiming its employees had been forced to work at "gunpoint." Chernobyl nuclear power plant is also under the control of Russian forces.

Despite the onslaught, Zelensky claimed on Saturday that Ukrainian forces are inflicting the "biggest blow to Russia's army in decades," saying that 31 Russian tactical battalion groups had lost capability, and more than 360 Russian tanks have been lost.

Zelensky added that groups of Russian troops were surrendering to Ukrainian forces, but that Russia is now recruiting fighters, reservists, conscripts, and mercenaries to "outnumber" Ukrainian forces.

Russia's losses include Major General Andriy Kolesnikov, the third Russian general to have been killed by Ukrainian forces, a Western defense official confirmed on Friday. He was commander of the Eastern Military District, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense's website, and the Western official noted for context that three Russian general staff officers were killed during the whole Syrian conflict. 

Deteriorating conditions

As Russia sustains losses, its bombardment of the country continues to degrade living conditions in several areas. Officials are now racing to send aid and evacuate citizens from encircled cities.

Ukrainian officials announced a fresh attempt to secure at least 13 evacuation corridors from different cities, despite reporting that only a few civilians could leave the previous day.

Addressing the besieged city of Mariupol, Zelensky said Saturday that Ukrainian forces would guarantee a ceasefire along an evacuation corridor so supplies could enter, and civilians can leave.

With relatively clear skies over Mariupol, new satellite imagery taken Saturday morning from Maxar showed the extent of the damage there, including some caused by military strikes reported earlier in the week.

In Mariupol's western neighborhood of Zhovteneyvi, a large -- still smoldering -- crater was seen near the Okko gas station. Smoke appeared to be rising from an apartment complex across the street. The roofs of warehouses down the street also appeared to have large holes from military strikes.

Within the apartment complex, several buildings seemed to have sustained significant damage. A debris field was seen surrounding some of the buildings with a large smoke plume.

Just northwest of the gas station, an additional satellite image showed impact craters dotting a snow-covered field. Vehicle tread marks were also seen. Just more than a mile south, in an industrial area in the Primorskyi neighborhood, a large fire was seen raging.

There was some good news amid the destruction. A pregnant woman, whose rescue from the Mariupol maternity hospital this week was captured in a viral AP photo, gave birth to a baby girl, her family told CNN.

Mariana Vishegirskaya was among a number of women at the Mariupol maternity hospital who survived the shelling.

Her aunt Tatiana Liubchenko said the baby was named Veronica but she was worried about the situation in the city. "We got the information that the water and food of the people there are running out and we are very worried, because the green corridor is not opened and the Russians do not allow, the food does not come. And it's so cold there right now so they can't get warm," Liubchenko said.

The fighting has displaced around 2 million Ukrainians in the country, the UN said Friday, and 2.5 million people have fled its borders.

Falun Gong organizer eligible for political asylum, Ninth Circuit rules

An organizer of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong who fled to California is eligible for political asylum because he is likely to be arrested and imprisoned if returned to China, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

Chunguo Liu’s application for asylum had been rejected by an immigration judge and the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals, who both concluded he had failed to show he faced persecution if deported. But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Liu’s testimony, and a U.S. government report on China’s treatment of Falun Gong members, demonstrated a likelihood of persecution.

“Liu’s testimony established that government agents sought to arrest him for practicing and organizing Falun Gong and did in fact arrest, detain, and imprison all of the people with whom he regularly practiced,” the three-judge panel said. The court said Liu had also testified credibly that police in China had often come to his home to look for him since he left the country.

Falun Gong, a meditation practice, grew rapidly in China in the 1990s before it was outlawed by the government in 1999. Its followers have marched in San Francisco and elsewhere to protest China’s treatment of the movement.

Liu’s case is long-running — he appealed the immigration board’s ruling in 2015 in Los Angeles and has remained in the United States since then. The timing and circumstances of his flight from China were not described in the court ruling, and his lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Federal appeals courts seldom overturn deportation rulings, generally deferring to the findings of the immigration courts, a branch of the U.S. Justice Department. But the panel in Liu’s case said there was “no substantial evidence” to support the board’s conclusion.

The court said a 2012 report by the U.S. State Department, cited by Liu, found that Falun Gong practitioners in China “have been subjected to involuntary commitment to psychiatric facilities, physical and psychological coercion to renounce their beliefs, and assignment to reeducation-through-labor camps.”

The court returned the case to the immigration appeals board for further review, but said the record in the case “compels the conclusion that Liu is eligible for asylum.”

The panel consisted of Judges Sidney Thomas, M. Margaret McKeown and Ronald Gould.

Biden, allies move to suspend normal trade relations with Russia

Seeking to further punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he described as a “merciless assault” on Ukraine, President Biden said on Friday that he would move to revoke Russia’s status as a top trading partner with the United States.

The action, Biden explained, would “make it harder for Russia to do business with the United States” by allowing for new taxes on imports from which nations with most-favored status are exempt. The European Union and Group of Seven nations — which include Japan, Canada and the United Kingdom — are taking similar steps, which could deal Russia what Biden described in his White House remarks as a “crushing blow.”

Congress will have to take up the matter, but given the rare eagerness with which Democrats and Republicans have united around a single foe, this latest effort to isolate Russia could be realized within a matter of days.

“The free world is coming together to confront Putin,” Biden said. “Our two parties here at home are leading the way.”

Putin does have a key ally: China, which trades far more with Russia ($147 billion last year) than it does with second-place Germany ($65 billion) or distant-fifth United States ($35 billion). Beijing has done its best to remain neutral when it comes to the Ukraine conflict and has not been party to any of the restrictive new trade policies directed at the Kremlin.

Still, the loss of premier trading status across Canada, Japan and much of Europe means that Russian exporters — already caught in a hostile global economy — will now face the possibility of tariffs on the goods they are looking to sell abroad. And even though the trade relationship with China remains stable, it is not clear just how much more that relationship can be expanded simply because Moscow has few other friends left.

Earlier this week, American financial giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase said they were ending business in Russia, further underscoring the costs both ordinary Russians and Russian elites are bearing for the unprovoked attack on Ukraine that Putin began last month. So far, diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have failed.

“Putin’s actions are causing massive harm to the Russian people,” former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb tweeted. “The sanctions will be as total as the isolation. No area will be spared: finance, trade, goods, services, individuals, culture, sport, energy, transport. Reserves will not last forever.”

American officials have said U.S. troops would not fight in Ukraine. Economic means are thus seen as the best way to convince Putin to withdraw troops from sovereign Ukrainian territory, an occupation that has already taken the lives of thousands of Russian troops and hundreds of Ukrainian civilians.

“Russia has now become a global economic and financial pariah,” the White House said in announcing the move, which comes with an outright ban of imports from Russia of luxury goods like vodka and caviar — two poignant symbols of the country after two decades of Putin’s rule, which has enriched a class of oligarchs known for their lavish lifestyles.

Biden called those oligarchs “corrupt billionaires,” and the Treasury Department moved on Friday to implement new sanctions on Russia’s ruling elite. “They support Putin, they steal from the Russian people and they seek to hide their money in our countries,” Biden said.

“They must share in the pain of these sanctions,” Biden continued, vowing to go after “their superyachts and their vacation homes.” Later in the morning, he signed an executive order banning the export of American luxury goods to Russia.

Congress gave Russia access to permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) — also known as most-favored-nation status — in 2012 as a sign that it had become a democracy that had recovered from the chaos and corruption of the early post-Soviet days. Yet antidemocratic abuses by the Kremlin, including the death of imprisoned attorney Sergei Magnitsky, made some wonder if Russia was deserving of such privilege.

“This culture of impunity in Russia has been growing worse and worse,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at the time.

Today, Cuba and North Korea are the only nations in the world that can’t claim the favored-nation protections of the PNTR, underscoring how quickly Russia is being expelled from virtually all U.S. economic arrangements.

Even Iran retains PNTR status, though trade with the Islamist republic has been sanctioned, to the point of nonexistence, since 1987. Venezuela, another adversary, also retains its favored-nation status. In fact, it appears to be on the cusp of selling oil to the United States again, in a stark contrast to Russia’s narrowing trade options. (Congress suspended oil imports from Russia earlier this week, thus making Venezuela’s vast oil reserves a potentially attractive option.)

Biden said Russia could soon be deprived of loans from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, further squeezing a nation cut off from Western financial markets. “He cannot pursue a war that threatens the very foundations of international peace and stability and then ask for financial help from the international community,” the president argued.

As such, the move would be as symbolic as it is economic. Last month’s invasion of Ukraine seemed to reverse three decades of optimism about Russia. Trade relations with Russia were normalized in 1990, with hopes that the Kremlin would steer the nation in the direction of a free-market economy. And for a while, that was indeed the course undertaken by President Boris Yeltsin and his successor, Putin.

Putin ended the “gangster capitalism” of the 1990s, turning the oligarchs who had gotten rich during that time essentially into an arm of the Kremlin. Those who weren’t chased out (Boris Berezovsky) or jailed (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) became near-literal vassals of Putin. Meanwhile, he ruthlessly consolidated control over the media and other sectors of free society.

American corporations and legislators were willing to overlook much of that over the last 15 years, though Putin invaded Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014). But the second Ukraine invasion — which has been longer and more brutal than the first — has shifted the calculus, and now the same Congress that granted Russia PNTR status could move to revoke the vote of confidence it gave a decade ago.

In his remarks on Friday, Biden made clear that the Russian people have one man to blame, just as his administration has said that Americans upset at higher gas prices should point their finger at the Kremlin, not the White House.

"Putin is an aggressor. He is the aggressor. And Putin must pay the price."

How Technology is Transforming Banking?

Like it's doing to the rest of the world digital technology is in the process of transforming banks. And in the forefront of that transformation of people like Cathy percent she is bank of America Merrill Lynch chief operations and technology officer Cathy is in New York today to celebrate her number one ranking among its. Usually testers top tech 50 and it's hardly any wonder of bank of America's 209000 employees 100000 I repeat that 100000 employees report up to Kathy.

How Technology is Transforming Banking?

Kathy welcome liberty great to have you here David thanks for having me so I guess most obvious which is one of those 0 people doing and the prime one hand wouldn't give you those people begin once I'm done with what they doing everything from designing great technology to processing manual checks to make sure it making sure that coins in cash are an ATM machines not just in the United States but around while. Give me a rough sense how much of this if I can put in these terms as defense of it how much was often so. How much is incident we gotta comply with things we've got to have some systems to check on things as opposed to we're really changing the business. Well one of things I love about my space is that technology operations actually do both at the same time see there is no such thing really as defense of our offensive if for complying with the regulation we should be using that to produce great customer service. And if we are moving the business forward that should in turn reduce risk so I I see them as a totally interrelated listen let's be to see first business to consumer alright what exactly are your 0 people doing in your relations with the individual depositors and customers of black America will they really trying to do I think 3 things first of all they're trying to make this ubiquitous to customers.

Stories in a digital era want just want everything that they can get from us when they want to see and where they want us to number one try to be back with us. Number 2 we've got to be flawless in our execution. And they expect perfection today and they get perfection in so much of the payments world so delivering flawlessly is important plus the cost of poor quality in social media environment is just devastating. I'm in third they expect speed they expect incredible speed and we work every day to take latency out of every part of the system. You're in a very special position to see into the future at least look into the future try to see in the future. I would have branches 5 years well yeah I think we well I think we will have they may not they won't be maybe our primary service channel but we will have branches people still will use currency. People will still process manual tracks.

That is the challenge for banking and really for many industries that have a combination of retail and digital presence is to say how do we marry those together how do we ensure that I'm that there contemporary with the time so you'll see fewer people in our financial centers but physically they'll still exist and how do we put technology into them. So they are as ubiquitous as your mobile device and had we make the mobile device capable of being the branch in your hand one of things that technology is done in various industries. Is break down some of the walls it expands it makes it easier for him to move into your business. It also makes it easier if you move into other people's businesses.

So what you're competitive set how is that changing now it's not just Wells Fargo is not just JP Morgan you've got apple pay you've got how lending club you got all these other competitors how do you see that world well for one thing I think that competition and the threat of destruction is nothing but good for clients and customers it produces better capabilities at lower prices and it causes us to be better. And I think we sort of think about it 3 ways I are our competitors are now digital companies fin tech firms we can either buy from them which we do extensively and in many cases we help them grow or we can partner with them apple pays a good example we share actual client on economics. Or in places where we feel like it's absolutely core to our competitive advantage.

Will compete like. The way things are you have because of this technology is a lot of data. And big data is a favorite thing for people to talk about what are you doing with that big data what can you do that big data. Well I we can do a lot and there's no question that the future of the firm depends on us doing more. So today we do simple things like truck like Amazon try to anticipate what you might need next time try to make sure that the offering that we have is right in front of you when you want it. I had to make sure that we for large corporations that we can and massive data and research in a way that gives our corporate clients a competitive advantage but that's just scratching the surface were trying to be better at that but but the uses of the future will go way beyond that discs man the top line or does it save costs. It should be better if it should produce great capabilities for customers should produce revenue opportunities which our very important in a business at like ours it is Stanley margins to begin with.



But that thin margin and heavy capital that we all carry that by regulation has to be patient the cost side of things and the cost takeout opportunity that comes from technology and productivity on better faster cheaper is the way that I think about it on that that costs take out capability actually helps us bring tough to get revenue to the bottom line to create a shareholder proposition that actually works gives an example or 2 before you could be creating new business increasing the top one is that taking market share from some of your traditional rivals a banking is it creating new businesses words that money come from well I give an example and I wealth management space we've worked very hard on them on them mobility of our wealth management offerings said that a financial adviser can communicate with the client not just added to ask. But anyway that client wants to be communicated with their for at the moment the client is making a decision I. E. producing revenue for the firm potentially we have financial advisors with deep information and the ability to give excellent advice right face to face or electronically face to face with customers at the moment of decision and that creates revenue. Is it finally we can't talk about technology and banks that are what cyber security. A very big issue I know on your plate.

Brian Warner has been on this program talking about that but give us a sense of the state of the play right now even just this morning's report that perhaps Iran attacked Saudi Arabia's governmental systems and their computers what do you do a bank of America to try to defend against those sorts of attacks. Well first about the attack tax across all industry are increasing at exponential rates and so it isn't as simple as a defensive posture we have to take an aggressive offensive posture and and forward looking posture as well so it it's a very strange space because you're only judged up to the second.

That you're in there's even less than the next 10 seconds something could happen so very difficult space manage so we say 2 things first of all we're not going to constrain our company by resources or by great talent and this is a place cyber where resources and talent and especially talent really matter. So we work to have a world class team. And they care a lot about defending the firm. And we insure that every element of how we design our business actually reduces cyber risk rather than increases it you know the counter intuitive saying is that electronic banking it's much easier to defend than the old manual way of doing business as if. Get the sense thank you so much for being here today that's Captiva centuries BankAmerica chief operations and technology officer.