10 things you need to know today: March 23, 2023

1. Trump lawyer must hand over evidence on Mar-a-Lago documents

A federal appeals court has reportedly ruled that former President Donald Trump's defense attorney Evan Corcoran must hand over notes and other records to prosecutors investigating Trump's handling of classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida months after Trump received a subpoena to return them. A lower court judge, Beryl Howell, ruled in a sealed decision Friday that Special Counsel Jack Smith's team presented convincing evidence that Trump misled his own lawyers about classified material he kept after leaving the White House, siding with prosecutors trying to bypass attorney-client privilege under a "crime fraud exception" and compel Corcoran to testify, The Wall Street Journal reported. The appeals panel rejected Trump's request to block the order.

The Washington Post The Wall Street Journal

2. Fed raises interest rates despite banking crisis

Federal Reserve leaders on Wednesday decided to raise their benchmark short-term interest rate by a quarter-point, matching last month's increase. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said policy makers "considered" pausing their campaign to increase borrowing costs — which is necessary to cool the economy and bring down inflation — because of the need for financial stability as a banking crisis threatens to spread. But he said that strong economic data indicated that the central bank needed to nudge interest rates up again, raising their range to between 4.75 and 5 percent. In their first update since December, Fed officials said they anticipated raising rates to 5.1 percent by the end of 2023, before dropping them to 4.3 percent in 2024.

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The New York Times

3. Manhattan D.A. cancels grand jury meeting on Trump

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg canceled a Wednesday meeting of the grand jury considering charging former President Donald Trump over hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels days before Trump's 2016 election. Bragg reportedly put the jurors on standby to convene Thursday. Trump predicted over the weekend that he would be indicted and arrested as soon as Tuesday in connection with the payment. Trump's former fixer, Michael Cohen, has testified several times about the $130,000 payment he says he made to Daniels on Trump's behalf to get her to stop talking about her claim she had an affair with Trump years earlier, which Trump denies.

The Hill

4. DeSantis moves to expand 'Don't Say Gay' law in Florida schools

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is pushing an expansion of the state's Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics call the "Don't Say Gay" law, to forbid classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, K through 12. The current policy only bans lessons on the subjects for younger students, from kindergarten through third grade. The change is scheduled for an April vote by the state Board of Education. The state says it doesn't require approval by state lawmakers. DeSantis and other Republicans say the legislation lets parents, not teachers, decide how to talk to their children about sexual orientation. Critics say it marginalizes LGBTQ people.

Orlando Sentinel The Associated Press

5. Wyoming judge blocks state abortion ban

A Wyoming judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a state abortion ban that took effect Sunday, saying it violated a constitutional amendment voters approved in 2012 guaranteeing competent adults the right to make their own health-care decisions. Teton County District Court Judge Melissa Owens' decision halts the ban while she considers a lawsuit challenging it. The law prohibits abortion except in cases of rape or incest reported to police or to save a woman's life. Republicans approved it after Owens blocked a previous ban last summer, citing the same constitutional concerns. Republican lawmakers tried to get around the amendment by declaring abortion isn't health care, but Owens wrote that lawmakers "cannot legislate away a constitutional right."

Casper Star-Tribune The New York Times

6. Xi leaves Russia after 3-day trip to boost Putin

Chinese President Xi Jinping left Russia on Wednesday, ending a three-day visit that boosted Russian President Vladimir Putin as his Ukraine invasion stalls and the West steps up its support for Ukrainian forces. Xi stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Putin days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the Russian leader's arrest for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Xi criticized Western nations for supporting Ukraine's effort to fight back, and signed a joint statement with Putin calling for respecting "legitimate security concerns of all countries." Xi used the visit to portray China, which proposed a Ukraine peace plan that doesn't require Russian forces to withdraw, as an alternative to U.S. world leadership.

CBS News

7. Student shoots, injures 2 administrators at Denver high school

A student at Denver's East High School shot two administrators Wednesday during a "security search" that detected a gun, police said. One of the wounded educators was in critical condition. The student was being patted down in a routine safety check due to past behavior issues. The administrators found the gun, and the student allegedly shot them and fled, still armed with the pistol. The suspect, Austin Lyle, 17, was found dead later next to his car. Less than three weeks ago, students at the school participated in a walkout to demand gun safety legislation after a 16-year-old student, soccer player Luis Garcia, was shot in his car outside the school, and died two weeks later.

The Denver Post ABC News

8. Retired soldiers protest economic troubles in Lebanon

Hundreds of protesters in Lebanon, most of them retired soldiers, tried to storm government headquarters in Beirut on Wednesday in an outburst of anger over deteriorating economic conditions in the country. Some of the protesters threw stones and tried to break through a fence in front of the building. Lebanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Organizers called the protest to oppose restrictions the government has imposed on cash withdrawals from banks to prop up the institutions during currency shortages. People with dollar accounts can only withdraw small amounts in Lebanese pounds at an exchange rate far below the black-market rate.

Bloomberg The Associated Press

9. U.N. starts water security conference targeting 'vampiric' consumption

The United Nations on Wednesday started a three-day conference on water security with a warning that governments around the world need to improve how they manage the crucial resource, as a quarter of the global population lacks access to safe drinking water. "We are draining humanity's lifeblood through vampiric overconsumption and unsustainable use, and evaporating it through global heating," said U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The conference is the first the U.N. has held in nearly half a century. Guterres said the meeting must result in "a bold Water Action Agenda," although isn't aiming for the kind of binding agreement that came out of 2015 Paris climate meetings.

Reuters

10. Scientists examine Beethoven's hair for clues about his life, death

Researchers are using locks of Ludwig van Beethoven's hair that friends kept as keepsakes to sequence the great composer's genome and unlock secrets about his health and ancestry. The researchers said in a paper published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology that studying Beethoven's DNA could help explain his progressive hearing loss and the severe liver disease that contributed to his 1827 death at age 56, The Wall Street Journal reported. Scholars previously could only hunt for clues about Beethoven's health problems, like chronic stomach pains, by combing through his journals and letters. The researchers didn't find a genetic culprit for Beethoven's deafness, but they discovered a genetic risk for liver disease.

The Wall Street Journal The New York Times