China's president visits Russia today. We also have a new study on long COVID. That's

some of what we'll get to on the 7th from the Washington Post. I'm Jeff Pierre. It's Monday, March 20th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories.

Chinese President Xi Jing Ping is visiting Russia today. He's expected to hold

talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. It's his first trip to Moscow since

Russia invaded Ukraine last year. There are a lot of people watching this trip.

It sets the stage for a global confrontation with China, Russia, and Iran on one side and

the US, Britain, and other NATO allies on the other.

Two other things to note from this weekend, Putin visited the occupied city of Mary

Opal in Ukraine on Saturday, a day before that the International Criminal

Court issued a warrant for his arrest. Number two, two Swiss banking giants are combining.

Officials announced yesterday that Credit Suisse is being taken over by Switzerland's largest bank, UBS.

Credit Suisse has gotten into financial trouble, so this move is supposed to calm fears of a banking

crisis.

In a news conference yesterday, UBS chair, calm Kellerher spoke about the emergency deal. We have agreed a framework of support with the Swiss regulators,

which ensures a successful integration in the best interests of Switzerland

and protects our shareholders.

In the US, the recent banking turmoil has raised the stakes for a meeting of the Federal Reserve this week.

The Fed will decide whether or not to raise interest rates again to fight rising prices.

It's a big deal because the sudden collapse of two regional banks over the past weeks were

an unintended consequence of those higher interest rates.

The Fed needs to decide now if the US banking system is able to

handle more. Number three, Donald Trump asked his supporters to turn out and protest tomorrow.

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