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Shumita Basu, Narrating: Good morning! It's Monday, March 20th. I'm Shumita Basu. This is "Apple News Today." On today's show, Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Putin on Russian soil, a weekend of surprising March Madness upsets, and Iran rings in a new year with a somber tone.
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But first, let's start with the big question on everyone's minds coming out of this weekend: What happens if a former president is indicted? It's never happened before.
As we mentioned last week on the show, the New York district attorney's criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump appears to be reaching the finish line. This is the case that's looking into payments made by Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen to porn actor Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, back in the finals weeks of the 2016 election. She claims she had an affair with Trump and that the payment was hush money. Trump denies this. What the Manhattan DA is trying to determine is whether Trump should face charges for falsifying business records when he allegedly reimbursed Cohen for paying her off. Remember, Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to these payments.
Whether an indictment is coming, or when, is not known at the moment. And I want to be clear about that because over the weekend, Trump claimed on his social media network, without evidence, that he believes he will be arrested this coming week. And he called for his supporters to protest.
We'll come back to that last part in just a moment, but to clarify, the District Attorney has not commented on the timing. The grand jury in New York is still talking to witnesses. At least one will testify today.
"TIME" answers the question of what exactly would happen if Trump were to be indicted. The way they describe it, it would likely happen in a discrete way, and would involve Trump getting booked, finger-printed and photographed. He would also most likely be immediately released on bond. Trump's attorney has said that if he's indicted, he would self-surrender. According to "NBC News," the NYPD, Secret Service and the FBI are all already coordinating what to do in this event.
As for Trump asking his supporters to protest, "POLITICO" reports on a private email sent by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg to his employees over the weekend. Bragg said, quote, "We do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York."
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Let’s take a moment now to talk about a few big developments over the weekend that’ll shape this week in news.
Today, Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Russian President Vladimir Putin. It's Xi's first trip to Russia since the war in Ukraine began, and it's being seen as a show of support for Moscow. This comes just days after Putin visited the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol and after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader, alleging that he had committed war crimes by abducting children in Ukraine. The Kremlin dismissed the warrant and called it "outrageous" and ultimately meaningless. President Xi is also expected to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sometime after meeting with Putin, according to sources who spoke with "The Wall Street Journal." They say the moves would reflect an effort by China to offer an alternative to U.S.-led diplomatic relations.
In economic news, Swiss officials have brokered an emergency takeover of the troubled bank Credit Suisse. Under the terms of the agreement, the banking giant UBS will buy Credit Suisse for more than three billion dollars. Credit Suisse has had a series of long-standing issues, widely seen as unrelated to recent bank runs in the U.S., but its fall is adding to concerns about global financial stability. The Fed says it's coordinating with central banks in Switzerland as well as the E.U., England, Japan and Canada to keep markets calm.
All of this is happening in advance of the next Federal Reserve meeting this week, where a decision on interest rates will be watched even more closely than usual.
And finally, turning to March Madness. There were some wild moments in both the men's and women's tournaments over the weekend. Let's start with the men's. No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson managed to topple No. 1 seed Purdue. It was a stunning defeat. This kind of upset has only happened one other time in the history of the men's tournament. Here's how it sounded on "TNT."
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Announcer: The lob! And that will do it.
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Announcer: FDU, believe it! For just the second time ever, a 16 beats a one!
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But FDU went on to get knocked out last night. And in the women's tournament, a major upset too. Top-seeded Stanford fell to No. 8 seed Ole Miss in just the second round. We've got more coverage of the weekend's games and what's coming up in the week ahead in the Apple News app.
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Today, people across Iran celebrate the start of the new year in their calendar. Nowruz, the first day of spring. I just set up my decorations and my Haft-sin table. For my family and others who celebrate, this is usually a time of hope, but many Iranians are wondering how they're supposed to feel optimistic at a time of so much uncertainty.
It's been six months since Mahsa Amini died in the custody of Iran's morality police, sparking an uprising against the government and for women's rights. Since then, the regime has cracked down. According to one human rights group, at least 500 people have been killed in demonstrations. At least four people have been executed in connection to protests. The Iranian government recently announced that over 22,000 people arrested in the recent demonstrations would be pardoned, a move that some have interpreted as meaning the true total of those detained is much higher.
Under circumstances like these, in a country where the government controls the media, it hasn't been easy for journalists to do their jobs and convey to the world what's really happening on the ground. So I want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the excellent journalism that has happened over these past few months. Reporting that stood out to me.
There was "CNN's" special report on detention centers in Iran. They spoke to protestors who say they were violently tortured. "CNN's" Christiane Amanpour referred to this reporting in her interview with Iran's foreign minister earlier this month. If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching. She pressed him on allegations of human rights abuses and stood her ground in calling out every time he deflected her questions.
There was "NPR's" special series "On the ground in Iran," where they sent Mary Louise Kelly and a team to Tehran. They produced several stories that do what public radio is so good at doing, putting the mic in front of people whose lives and livelihoods are at stake. Iranians who say they're angry at their government in an entirely new way, who can't help but feel like something has really changed.
Also, I'll just say, I always think it's worth reading Jason Rezaian at "The Washington Post." Jason was himself unjustly detained by the Iranian government for 544 days. He was released in 2016 and has since done a lot of work calling attention to political prisoners around the world.
Lastly, citizen journalism is an incredibly powerful tool in moments like these. The Iranian people have done the work of documenting, recording on their phones, and sharing on social media to try to get the world's attention. I reached out to "IranWire," which is a network of professional and citizen journalists, and I talked with their reporter, Aida Ghajar. She told me they were the first to report Mahsa Amini's name. And even though protests have cooled, she says public sentiment has moved in a way that can't be undone.
Aida Ghajar: They are really serious for changing this political regime that have nothing for them.
I asked Aida what she expects to see on this New Year's Day and in the days and weeks ahead.
Ghajar: [SIGHS] What I expect or what I feel? [CHUCKLES]
Basu: [CHUCKLES SOFTLY] Maybe a bit of both.
Ghajar: I'm gonna be honest. In past nights, myself, I cried so much. [CHUCKLES] I felt we enter to another year with so many lost. As an Iranian and as an Iranian journalist who tried to document the truth, each year, we lost so many important people. We lost so many things.
Ghajar: Really, really sad New Year. Also, another kind of hope, another kind of hope to seeing that moment that Iranians gonna release from this politic regime. I hope so. I hope with spring, with changing the season, we are gonna have an experience of changing too.
Basu: With the New year does bring new hope. So, I will wish you a happy New Year. Eid-e shoma mobarak, Aida, and thank you for speaking with us.
Ghajar: Thank you. Eid-e ham-e mobarak. Thank you so much. Happy New Year to everyone.
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You can find all the stories we talked about today and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the News app right now, stick around.
We've got a narrated article from "New York Magazine" coming up next, all about the weirdness of Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse. Namely, who is still hanging out there and what exactly are they hoping to find. That's queued up to play for you next. I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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