Domestic abuse specialists placed in 999 control rooms after women’s murders

Published

9 months ago

February 21, 2025

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The first domestic violence specialists have been placed in 999 control rooms in memory of a woman who was murdered by her ex-husband despite ringing police on the night she died.

Raneem’s Law has been launched in five pilot areas – West Midlands, Northumbria, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire and Humberside.

The legislation – promised in Labour’s manifesto – is named after 22-year-old Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, 49, who were murdered by Ms Oudeh’s ex-husband in August 2018.

Ms Oudeh had called 999 more than a dozen times in the months leading up to her death, including to report threats to kill her, but police did not log the reports correctly, did not follow up and did not assess them correctly.

On the night she was killed, she rang 999 four times but the police did not respond in time.

The new domestic abuse specialists will ensure that calls for help are properly assessed, managed and responded to, the government said.

Their duties will include advising on risk assessments, making referrals to specialist services and identifying missed opportunities to safeguard victims.

The first phase will inform plans for a national rollout across 43 police forces in England and Wales and will be underpinned by £2.2m funding over the next financial year.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Every 30 seconds, someone calls the police about domestic abuse – over 100 people every hour seeking urgent help.

“That’s why we are determined to overhaul the police emergency response to domestic abuse, making sure that victims get the specialist support and protection they need. That must be Raneem and Khaola’s legacy.”

On the night she died, Ms Oudeh was told to go to her mother’s house and officers would visit her the next day. She was on the phone to West Midlands Police when she was stabbed by Janbaz Tarin, her estranged husband, one of the many calls she had made about him that night.

Ms Oudeh had broken up with her husband in the weeks before the attack after discovering he had three children and a secret wife who was pregnant with a fourth child in Afghanistan.

Tarin admitted the murders and was jailed for life with a minimum of 32 years in December 2018.

An inquest found the police force “materially contributed” to their deaths. Five officers were disciplined over the failures.

Nour Norris, Ms Oudeh’s aunt and Mrs Saleem’s sister who has been campaigning to improve outcomes for domestic abuse victims, said today’s announcement would help save lives.

“Raneem called for help, and today, the system finally answered,” she said.

“I can’t express enough how deeply emotional and significant this moment is.”

Politics

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Published

2 hours ago

December 1, 2025

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Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi view Kevin Hassett, US President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director, as the favorite to replace Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair.

The odds of Hassett filling the seat have spiked to 66% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi at the time of writing. Hassett is widely viewed as crypto‑friendly thanks to his past role on Coinbase’s advisory council, a disclosed seven‑figure stake in the exchange and his leadership of the White House digital asset working group.

Founder and CEO of Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, and a prominent advocate for crypto-friendly regulations, Caitlin Long, commented on X:

“If this comes true & Hassett does become Fed chairman, anti-#crypto people at the Fed who still hold positions of power will finally be out (well, most of them anyway). BIG changes will be coming to the Fed.”

Kevin Hassett’s crypto credentials

Hassett is a long-time Republican policy economist who returned to Washington as Trump’s top economic adviser and has now emerged as the market-implied frontrunner to lead the Fed.

His financial disclosure reveals at least a seven‑figure Coinbase stake and compensation for serving on the exchange’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, placing him unusually close to the crypto industry for a potential Fed chair.

Still, crypto has been burned before by reading too much into “crypto‑literate” resumes. Gary Gensler arrived at the Securities and Exchange Commission with MIT blockchain courses under his belt, but went on to preside over a wave of high‑profile enforcement actions, some of which critics branded as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

A Hassett-led Fed might be more open to experimentation and less reflexively hostile to bank‑crypto activity. Still, the institution’s mandate on financial stability means markets should not assume a one‑way bet on deregulation.

Supervision pushback inside the Fed

The Hassett odds have jumped just as the Fed’s own approach to bank supervision has received pushback from veterans like Fed Governor Michael Barr, who earned his reputation as one of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’s key architects.

According to Caitlin Long, while he Barr “was Vice Chairman of Supervision & Regulation he did Warren’s bidding,” and he “has made it clear he will oppose changes made by Trump & his appointees.”

On Nov. 18, the Fed released new Supervisory Operating Principles that shift examiners toward a “risk‑first” framework, directing staff to focus on material safety‑and‑soundness risks rather than procedural or documentation issues.

In a speech the same day, Barr warned that narrowing oversight, weakening ratings frameworks and making it harder to issue enforcement actions or matters requiring attention could leave supervisors slower to act on emerging risks, arguing that gutting those tools may repeat pre‑crisis mistakes.

Days later, in Consumer Affairs Letter 25‑1, the Fed clarified that the new Supervisory Operating Principles do not apply to its Consumer Affairs supervision program (an area under Barr’s committee as a governor).

If prediction markets are right and a crypto‑friendly Hassett inherits this landscape, his Fed would not be writing on a blank slate but stepping into an institution already mid‑pivot on how hard (and where) it leans on banks.