U.S. appeals court says Trump criminal probe can resume classified records review

Thursday, September 22, 2022

by Linda Noakes

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Here's what you need to know.

Russia begins its massive war call-up, Iranian protesters torch police stations, and Japan intervenes to stem the yen's falls

Today's biggest stories

Russian police officers detain men during an unsanctioned rally, after opposition activists called for street protests against the mobilization of reservists ordered by President Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, September 21, 2022

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

Russia pushed ahead with its biggest conscription since World War Two while Ukraine demanded "just punishment" for a seven-month-old invasion sending shock waves around the world.

Security forces detained more than 1,300 people in Russia at protests denouncing mobilization, while some Russian men rushed for the exits. Traffic at border crossings with Finland and Georgia surged and prices for air tickets from Moscow rocketed.

Russia and Ukraine carried out an unexpected prisoner swap, the largest since the war began and involving almost 300 people, including 10 foreigners and the commanders who led a prolonged Ukrainian defense of Mariupol earlier this year.

European Union foreign ministers agreed to prepare new sanctions on Russia and increase weapons deliveries to Kyiv.

Xi Jinping is unlikely to abandon his "old friend" Vladimir Putin, even as the Russian leader's decision to send thousands more troops to Ukraine and his nuclear threats strain Beijing's "no limits" partnership with Moscow, experts said.

Here's what you need to know about the conflict right now.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, September 17, 2022


U.S.

The U.S. Justice Department can resume reviewing classified records seized by the FBI from former President Donald Trump's Florida home pending appeal, a federal appellate court ruled, giving a boost to the criminal investigation into whether the records were mishandled or compromised.

Trump and his adult children were sued for what New York state's attorney general called numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation, accused of misstating the values of real estate properties to obtain favorable loans and tax benefits. We explain what New York's lawsuit means for Trump and his family company.

Mike Lindell, the My Pillow chief executive and Trump ally, is under federal investigation for identity theft and for conspiring to damage a protected computer connected to a suspected voting equipment security breach in Colorado.

Fundraising groups tied to Republican Party leaders are sharply increasing spending on campaign ads to help the party win control of Congress in the November 8 general elections. But not Trump's Save America, a PAC fundraising group that under U.S. election law can fund the Republican former president's political allies and his frequent rallies but not any election campaign of his own.

A Georgia county has validated 15,000 to 20,000 registered voters whose status was challenged ahead of the midterms, officials said, leaving another 16,000 pending cases to resolve, according to the group leading the challenge.


WORLD

Protesters in Tehran and several other Iranian cities torched police stations and vehicles as unrest triggered by the death of a woman detained by the Islamic Republic's morality police intensified for a sixth day. The United States and Iran clashed on security and human rights, with Iran's president demanding U.S. guarantees to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the U.S. president vowing Tehran would never get an atomic bomb.

Hurricane Fiona strengthened to a powerful Category 4 storm as it headed toward Bermuda after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where the storm left most people without power and up to eight dead.

Demonstrators took to the streets in Ecuador to protest the death of a woman the government says was killed by her police officer husband, while union workers demanded the government pay what it owes the state social security system, threatening to escalate protests if there was no agreement.

Northern Ireland has more Catholics than Protestants for the first time, census results showed, a historic shift that some see as likely to help drive support for the region to split from Britain and join a united Ireland.

On the run from authorities after forcing a bank to release her family savings at gunpoint to treat her cancer-stricken sister, 28-year-old Lebanese interior designer Sali Hafiz insists she is not the criminal. "We are in the country of mafias. If you are not a wolf, the wolves will eat you," she told Reuters.

A staff member of the foreign exchange trading company Gaitame.com stands next to monitors displaying the Japanese yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar in Tokyo, September 22, 2022

MARKETS

World stocks were close to a two-year low and Japan unilaterally intervened in foreign exchange markets for the first time since 1998 as the Federal Reserve's aggressive U.S. rate hike signals put markets on the run. We look at the history of Japan's intervention in currency markets, and what will happen next.

Futures tied to Wall Street's fear gauge sent a signal that has historically marked intense selling pressure in markets, but has sometimes preceded stock market rebounds.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell vowed that he and his fellow policymakers would "keep at" their battle to beat down inflation, as the U.S. central bank hiked interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point for a third straight time and signaled that borrowing costs would keep rising this year.

The Bank of England looks set to raise interest rates by at least half a percentage point today in a bid to tame inflation that is just off a 40-year high, against a backdrop of a tumbling currency and a free-spending government. Britain's manufacturers association slashed its forecast for growth in factory output next year, citing huge uncertainty around demand and energy prices.

Europe's decade-long experiment with negative interest rates, which ended today with the Swiss National Bank's return to positive territory, showed one thing: they can exist beyond the realms of economic science fiction.

Quote of the day

"They need to put the brakes on demand and put that back in line with supply. This is their Paul Volcker moment."

Peter Baden

CIO of Genoa Asset Management

No relief for bruised markets as Fed signals higher rates for longer

Video of the day

Look inside an ancient Holy Land shipwreck

The wreck found off the shore of Israel and loaded with cargo from all over the Mediterranean shows that traders from the West still came to port even after the Islamic conquest of the Holy Land.

And finally…

Meet Japan's cyborg cockroach, coming to a disaster area near you

If an earthquake strikes in the not too distant future and survivors are trapped under tons of rubble, the first responders to locate them could be swarms of cyborg cockroaches.

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