ECM WORLD WATCH: NATIONAL AND GLOBAL NEWS

March 22, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) - East County Magazine's World Watch helps you be an informed citizen on important issues globally and nationally. As part of our commitment to reflect all voices and views, we include links to a variety of news sources representing a broad spectrum of political, religious, and social views. Top world and U.S. headlines include:

U.S.

• Everything you should know about potential Trump indictment (Politico)
• Feds spend $2.4 million on cloud seeding for Colorado River (AP)
• Fed raises rates by a quarter point (CNN)
• Special education clash: Supreme Court sides unanimously for student with disability (USA Today)
• Takeaways from America’s second-largest bank failure (CNN)
• Biden Wants to Expand a Federal Agency’s Power to Go After Failed Bank Execs (GovExec)
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warns inflation fight will be long and bumpy  (NPR)
• Trump attorney ordered to testify before grand jury investigating former president (CNN)
• Is DeSantis darkening Florida's sunny open-records laws?  (AP)
• Some Wells Fargo Customers Report Missing Deposits — Here's What We Know (NBC San Diego)

WORLD

• War crimes court seeks Putin arrest over deportation of Ukraine's children (Reuters)  
• Mexico kidnapping: A twisted moral code explains cartel's apology (BBC)
• Russia turns to high-tech hypersonic missiles in latest attack on Ukraine (CBS)
• Deadly Matamoros kidnapping has sparked fear among Black migrants, aid workers say (Dallas News)
• Civil society curbs in Russia, China a concern -UN rights chief  (Reuters)

For excerpts and full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.

U.S.

Everything you should know about potential Trump indictment (Politico)

With Donald Trump expected to be indicted in the coming days, his supporters, critics, New York law enforcement officials and a variety of other constituencies await the history-making spectacle of seeing criminal charges brought against a former president for the first time. In many ways, the mechanics of indicting Trump are likely to be the same as they would be for any other defendant charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In other ways, they may be quite different largely due to the fact that Trump enjoys the protection of the U.S. Secret Service and draws supporters who’ve resorted to violence in the past.

Feds spend $2.4 million on cloud seeding for Colorado River (AP)

The Southern Nevada Water Authority on Thursday voted to accept a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to fund cloud seeding in other Western states whose rivers feed the parched desert region.

Fed raises rates by a quarter point (CNN)

Stocks plunged on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve reaffirmed its dedication to tamping down inflation.

Special education clash: Supreme Court sides unanimously for student with disability (USA Today)

The Supreme Court sided unanimously Tuesday with a student who is deaf and who sought to sue his school for damages over profound lapses in his education, a case that experts say could give parents of students with disabilities more leverage as they negotiate for the education of their children. Central to the case was the story of Miguel Perez…months before graduation, Perez's parents learned that he would not receive a diploma and that aides the school assigned to him did not know sign language. 

Takeaways from America’s second-largest bank failure (CNN)

Silicon Valley Bank’s 48-hour collapse led to the second-largest failure of a financial institution in US history. Here’s everything we know so far.

Biden Wants to Expand a Federal Agency’s Power to Go After Failed Bank Execs (GovExec)

President Biden on Friday called on Congress to increase the enforcement authorities of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation…Silicon Valley and Signature banks are both under FDIC receivership and the public corporation has removed their leadership teams, but Biden said the government needs to expand its capacity to hold bad actors accountable. The proposals include steps to allow FDIC to force executives at failed banks to forfeit previous compensation, levy civil penalties and ban those responsible from working in the industry. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warns inflation fight will be long and bumpy  (NPR)

The warning, in testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, comes after a series of economic indicators that indicate the economy is running hotter than expected despite aggressive action from the Fed.  "Although inflation has been moderating in recent months, the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go and is likely to be bumpy," Powell told senators.

Trump attorney ordered to testify before grand jury investigating former president (CNN)

…a federal judge ordered Donald Trump attorney Evan Corcoran to provide additional testimony as part of an investigation into the former president’s handling of classified documents…. District Judge Beryl Howell said in an order under seal that Justice Department prosecutors have met the threshold for the crime-fraud exception for Corcoran….

Is DeSantis darkening Florida's sunny open-records laws?  (AP)

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, weighing a presidential bid, is pursuing a home-state agenda that could make it harder for people to learn what public officials are doing or to speak out against them. In an unprecedented move for the Sunshine State, DeSantis has claimed an executive right to keep key government records secret. He’s also seeking to weaken a nearly 60-year-old national legal precedent protecting journalists and others who publish critical comments about public figures.

Some Wells Fargo Customers Report Missing Deposits — Here's What We Know (NBC San Diego)

Upset customers began reaching out to the bank on social media overnight Thursday to report recent deposits that had been listed in their account were now missing, or deposits expected Friday were not there.

WORLD

War crimes court seeks Putin arrest over deportation of Ukraine's children (Reuters)  

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Russian President Vladimir Putin….Putin is only the third serving president to have been issued an ICC arrest warrant, after Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.  The ICC issued the warrant on suspicion of the unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation…. While it is unlikely that Putin will end up in court any time soon, the warrant means that he could be arrested and sent to The Hague if travelling to any ICC member states.

Mexico kidnapping: A twisted moral code explains cartel's apology (BBC)

Four Americans were kidnapped by a drug cartel, and two of them were murdered, when they visited the town of Matamoros, Mexico. So why would the cartel apologise for the incident and hand over its own gunmen to the police?

Russia turns to high-tech hypersonic missiles in latest attack on Ukraine (CBS)

Across Ukraine, people were left Friday to pick up the pieces of Russia's latest blistering coordinated assault, a barrage of missiles the previous day that left at least six people dead and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands more. The attack saw Moscow turn some of its most sophisticated weapons to elude Ukraine's potent, Western-supplied air defense systems. Among the more than 80 missiles unleashed on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure Thursday were six "Kinzhal" [Dagger] hypersonic cruise missiles…

Deadly Matamoros kidnapping has sparked fear among Black migrants, aid workers say (Dallas News)

Black asylum-seekers have been targeted by cartels with rape, extortion and kidnapping, advocates say.

Civil society curbs in Russia, China a concern -UN rights chief  (Reuters)

The U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday criticised governments, including China and Russia, for restrictions on civil society in a speech that also took some Western states to task for their records on poverty and police violence.