March 17 top stories
It is March 17. Here are today’s top stories.
Stalker kills podcast host and her husband
Last week a 38-year-old man named Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, who lived in Texas and worked as a truck driver, broke into a home in Washington state and killed a woman that he was stalking and her husband.
The couple’s names were Zohreh Sadeghi and Mohammed Milad Naseri. Ramin shot and killed the couple before turning the gun on himself, committing suicide.
NBC News explained that Ramin first got to know Zohreh through a podcast that she did. The two then developed a friendship, but Zohreh wanted to end it because Ramin was sending too many messages and was seemingly obsessed with her. It got so bad that Zohreh decided to file a protection order, explaining that Ramin would use different numbers or fake accounts to bombard her with messages, sometimes sending up to 82 messages on a single day. Some of the messages included threats to harm himself if she didn’t respond. Zohreh said Ramin did go to her home in December to drop off flowers.
Law enforcement in Washington state did issue a warrant for Ramin’s arrest on charges of stalking and telephone harassment. A judge ordered Ramin to surrender his weapons, but he did not show up to the hearing and he was never served with the order because he lived out of state and was difficult to find.
Last week, Ramin broke into Zohreh’s home and committed the murders. Zohreh’s mother was at the home and escaped and called 911. When police arrived, they found the couple and Ramin dead. The police chief in Redmond, Washington said this is the worst outcome for a stalking case, that this is every victim’s, every detective’s, every police chief’s worst nightmare.
Banks borrow $164 billion from Fed
Bloomberg reported that banks have borrowed a combined $164.8 billion from two Federal Reserve facilities, which it says is a sign of “escalated funding strains.”
It is the highest amount that banks have borrowed from the Fed. The last time there was a huge amount was during the 2008 financial crisis with $111 billion borrowed.
Bloomberg said this shows that the “banking system… is still fragile and dealing with deposit migration in the wake of the failure of Silicon Valley Bank of California and Signature Bank of New York last week.”
AP News said stocks have been jittery this week on fears that “the banking system may be cracking under the weight of the fastest set of hikes to interest rates in decades.”
AP said “higher rates can help tame inflation by slowing the economy, but they raise a risk of a recession later on… they also hurt prices for stocks, bonds and other investments, which was one of the issues that hurt Silicon Valley Bank.”
This problem with the stability of banks isn’t just happening in the U.S. — there are similar problems internationally.
Mar-a-Lago staff subpoenaed over classified documents
CNN reported that dozens of staff members at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence have been subpoenaed to testify about how Trump handled classified documents.
The subpoenas were ordered by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is working on behalf of the Department of Justice. Staff include those who work on the grounds of Mar-a-Lago, a housekeeper, and restaurant servers.
In separate news, YouTube has restored Donald Trump’s channel. Axios said ahead of the 2024 election, more Big Tech platforms are reviving Donald Trump’s accounts that were frozen after the Jan 6. Capitol riot. But Trump has not posted anything on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, preferring to post on his Truth Social platform.
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Chinese leader Xi to visit Putin
Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to visit Russia next week and meet with Putin. It is the first time that Xi is visiting Russia since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the visit is considered a symbol of China’s support of Russia. Xi recently got his third term as president.
The Chinese government said they plan to bring up Ukraine during the meetings with the goal to urge peace. China and Russia will also discuss other areas where both countries could cooperate and benefit from each other.
CNN explained that Xi has spoken to Putin multiple times since the invasion of Ukraine, both virtually and in person, but Xi has not had a single phone call with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
In separate news, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin, saying he is responsible for the war crime of deporting children from occupied areas of Ukraine and bringing them to Russia. Russia’s government said the warrant is worthless.
Protests in France over raising retirement age
On Thursday, French President Macron used his powers to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. He did it without having the proposal go through parliament first.
AP News said there were massive protests from sanitation workers, university students, factory workers, and other people. Riot police clashed with protesters and arrested over 300 people.
Macron said he decided to raise the retirement age because the pension system is going into deficit and that France faces lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.
That is all the top stories for this week. Have a nice weekend and stay with the light.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/banks-borrow-164-8-billion-203000220.html
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/politics/mar-a-lago-trump-subpoenas/index.html
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/17/trump-youtube-suspension-restored
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/17/china/china-xi-jinping-visits-russia-intl-hnk/index.html