Reuters World News - Abortion drug battle and the U.S. government mole hunt

Episode Date: April 11, 2023

We break down the legal tussle over the abortion drug Mifepristone. What happens next now that a federal judge has suspended FDA approval of the drug? What are U.S. security services most concerned about in the leak of intel documents? And why neither Taiwan nor China has it in their best interest for conflict to break out. *This episode was updated to correctly refer to the fact that the Biden administration is seeking to block a Texas judge's ruling on mifepristone (not that they have blocked it). Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices.  You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we untangle the legal battle between the US government and a Texas judge over the approval of a key abortion drug. What's next? And is this as significant as the overturning of Roe v. Wade? The Pentagon moves to calm international concerns over the major intelligence leak. Could there be more to come? And we find out how China's show of strength around Taiwan is impacting the region. His tensions flare up once again.

It's Tuesday, April 11th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vinal in London. We start in Kentucky. This is awful. Governor Andy Bashir on the verge of tears after another US mass shooting. This time it was a 23-year-old armed with a rifle who shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at a bank in Louisville. Bashir knew some of the victims.

I have a very close friend that didn't make it today. And I have another close friend who didn't either. And one who's at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through. The gunman was identified as Connor Sturgeon, who joined the bank as a full-time employee last year. He was shot at the scene, but it's unclear whether he took his own life or was shot by police. Now, to other headlines around the world.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is going to jail. A judge denied her request to remain free on bail while she appeals her fraud conviction. Holmes rose to fame claiming Theranos could run diagnostic tests on just a few drops of blood. She was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for fraud. Holmes says she believed her statements were accurate at the time she made them. She must now report to prison as scheduled later this month. Alibaba's joining the latest tech gold rush by making its move into AI. It's showed off its generative AI model called Tong Yi Chian Wen.

It can be used to summarise meeting notes, write emails, and even advise shoppers on what make-up to buy. The AI model will be initially integrated into Ding Talk, Alibaba's workplace messaging app. Markets are on the rise after a long weekend for many over Easter. Bitcoin grabbing the limelight as it climbs over the key, level of $30,000 for the first time in 10 months. The rise is being fueled by expectations that the Fed and other central banks will start to ease off on rate hikes soon. In China, the economy is still struggling to take off after the long COVID lockdowns, with consumer inflation coming in at an 18-month low of 0.7%. The IMF will publish its forecasts for the global economy later today. Now to the deepening battle

over access to the abortion pill, Mifapristone. For 23 years, doctors across America have given women Miphrastone as one of two pills to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks. But access has turned into a legal quagmire. A judge in Texas suspended FDA approval of the drug. The Biden administration is seeking to block that with an emergency motion. The result? A clash that could go all the way to the Supreme Court. I spoke to legal editor, Alexia Garum Falvi, in New York.

Alexia, has this created illegal quagmire? What's going on here? Yes, it really has. So on Friday evening, a federal judge in Texas essentially suspended the FDA's authorization of Mitha Pristone. And only a few minutes later, a judge in Washington State issued a ruling that really conflicts with that. he issued a ruling essentially ordering the FDA not to change anything about how Miffipristone is authorized. So that puts the federal government in quite a complicated situation because it can't really comply with both orders. So what happens next?

So next step is that the Department of Justice has asked the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stay his ruling until, they have time to go through a full appeal. They've asked the Fifth Circuit to rule on that by this Thursday, saying that if they don't respond, they need time to go then to the U.S. Supreme Court to ask them potentially to jump in. So this would have the Supreme Court once again weighing on abortion like they did on Roe v. Wade. So, I mean, this case is different in a way in that it also involves the authority of the federal government, in this case, the Food and Drug Administration, to regulate

drugs. And so the Dobbs decision last June, when they overturned Roe versus Wade, essentially said to the states, it's up to the states to regulate abortion and to come up with laws state by state. But here, this case involves the federal government's ability to regulate drugs. So there's also, you know, that competing factor involved. Thanks, Alexia. The diplomatic fallout from the leak of highly classified US intelligence documents has spread around the world. Australia has called it a serious incident, while South Korea says information included is untrue and altered. Reuters has not independently verified the document's authenticity, but America's national security community has been left red-faced. Our reporter Idris Ali can give us the latest.

Idris was being the fallout in the US since these documents. were released. Firstly, the Pentagon has referred the matter to the Department of Justice, which is open to criminal probe. And there's a relatively high bar for the Department of Justice to take that action. And they're basically saying, look, we believe something's gone wrong here, and we're going to investigate it and find out what happened. Secondly, we've seen some introspection by the Pentagon. And they're looking at sort of how they share information internally going forward. At any given day, tens of thousands of people have access to highly sensitive information. And this leak is making them go back and say, do these

people need all this detailed information? What's the worst case scenario for the US and its allies as a result of this leak? Yeah, the worst case scenario and the one that my sources of the Pentagon and the intelligence community are really worried about is basically that this leak so far are just the tip of the iceberg, that the 50 documents or so that we've seen are just the start and there could be something deeper. There might be other documents that are even more sensitive. That's really the worst case scenario. And the other thing my sources are really worried about is that there's a deep mold inside the U.S. government and intelligence community. Who could have done this and why? So investigators have a number of theories on the less

nefarious end is potentially an individual or group of individuals who were trying to show off about the access that they have and they sent it to a friend who then put it online. On the other end of the spectrum is real concerned that this could be a spy within the US government who was able to get access to the documents, smuggle them out of secure facilities and then either put them online or give them to adversaries like Russia. All right, Idris, thank you so much. To the waters and airspace around Taiwan, where China has spent three days holding military drills. The exercises began on Saturday, after Taiwan's president, Sai Ying Wen, held talks in L.A. with House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

That meeting was always going to increase tension after China had warned against it happening. President Sai has called China's behavior since irresponsible. Ben Blanchard is our Taiwan Bureau Chief. Hi there, Ben. So how seriously should Taiwan and the world take China's drills? Every time China stages these drills, there's always the rest of, that something goes wrong. There's always the risk that of an unexpected encounter, say a Chinese warplane or a Taiwanese war plane, there's some kind of miscalculation, something happens,

and then that touches off unintentionally a broader conflict. At the moment though, I mean, it really isn't in Taiwan's interests and it certainly isn't in China's interest for there to be any kind of conflict between the two sides. Why is it not in China's interests right now? So it's a balancing act for China, right? So on the one-hand and they have to certainly show to their domestic audience that they're being tough on Taiwan. But at the same time, you know, China, presumably one would hope, does understand the risk that any kind of conflict over Taiwan would entail.

I mean, one of the things that the Communist Party's legitimacy rests upon is being able to, like, continue to make the Chinese people wealthier. Now, any conflict with Taiwan would probably most likely suck in not only neighboring countries, for example, Japan will also the United States. You also run the risk, of course, of destroying Taiwan's semiconductor factories. Now, Chinese companies also rely on semiconductors made in Taiwan or made by Taiwanese companies. So the economic damage would be huge.

They look at what Putin did in Ukraine and say, okay, maybe Putin was a bit in the word people often use here is that he sees it. Oh, crazy and unpredictable. People don't really think that Xi Jinping is like that. Xi Jinping is much more calm and calculating in what he wants. Ben, thanks so much. That's it for today on Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow.

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