Reuters World News - Assad in from the cold and Ukraine’s religious war

Episode Date: May 8, 2023

Arab nations welcome Syria back into the fold. But will the diplomatic victory for President Bashar al-Assad make any difference to Syrians reeling from years of conflict? Rural communities in Ukraine are divided as Kyiv cracks down on priests it says are loyal to Russia. Moscow steps up attacks on Ukraine ahead of Victory Day holiday. And after the royal jubilation in Britain, anti-monarchists say the police crackdown on protests will only strengthen their cause. Plus a dire warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.  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, Arab nations welcome Syria's president Bashar al-Assad back into the fold. Rural communities in Ukraine are divided, as Kiev cracks down on priests, it says, are loyal to Russia. And after the royal jubilation in Britain, anti-monicists say a police crackdown on protests will only strengthen their cause. It's Monday May 8th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know. know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vidal in London. Egypt's foreign minister, Zameh Shukh, announcing Syria's readmission to the Arab League. The move is a major step towards ending the country's international isolation, more than a

decade after it was ostracized over a brutal crackdown on street protests that led to civil war. Maya Jabali, Bureau Chief for Lebanon, Syria and Jordan, explains the significance of this step for President Assad. So for President Assad, after 12 years of isolation regionally and internationally, this vote and this consensus decision is basically the kind of final stamp of approval on what he has been wanting to prove to the whole world,

which is that he has emerged from these 12 years of war victorious. So it's a really big deal in terms of his public image. But it remains to be seen how he's, how excited he is, to actually engage diplomatically and collectively with the Arab League. A lot of what we had been hearing from our diplomatic and from our Arab sources was that he was very happy to be engaging one-on-one with these countries, but not necessarily be put under the pressure of collective engagement. So we're going to have to see how this actually develops.

The questions that have yet to be answered are how this changes the very, very difficult economic realities that many Syrians are facing on the ground. Here are some other headlines we're watching this morning. Russia is stepping up its bombardment of Ukraine ahead of its annual Victory Day holiday. A wave of drone, missile and airstrikes hit Kyiv and other cities, sending people running for cover. Victory Day, the celebration of the defeat of Nazi Germany, is a major event for President Putin, a chance to project military strength and boost Russians. sense of patriotism.

But this year's parade comes with particularly tight security after a series of drone attacks, including on the Kremlin that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine. Kiev has denied any responsibility. Migrants are among the dead in a crash in Brownsville, Texas. At least seven people were killed and several others were injured on Sunday when a car ran into pedestrians near a homeless shelter used by migrants. A male suspect is in custody. A Cameron County judge told media it was not clear if the driver had run into the group intentionally or lost control of the vehicle.

The city of Brownsville expects an influx of migrants when COVID-era restrictions under Title 42 expire on Thursday. President Biden is once again calling for stricter gun laws after a gunman opened fire at a Texas mall, killing at least eight people, including children. Police killed the 33-year-old assailant. 20203 is shaping up to be America's deadliest year on record, with at least 199 mass shootings so far. It's Congress's job to do this. If they fail to do it, we will have an economic and financial catastrophe

that will be of our own making. A warning from Treasury Secretary Janet Yankan, Allen as talks over raising the debt ceiling stall. These negotiations which should not take place with a gun really to the head of the American people. It simply is unacceptable for Congress to threaten economic calamity for American households and the global financial system. On Tuesday, President Biden is set to meet with top congressional leaders in both parties to try to find a path forward.

Yallen has said the federal government could run short of cash to pay its bills if the debt ceiling is not raised by early June. On that foreboding note, let's find out what's happening on financial markets. I'm joined by Carmel Crimmons. Hey, Kamel. Hey, Kim. So what's happening this week? So the biggest data this week is around US consumer prices. We're expecting inflation data and that's going to be crucial to see how well the Fed's inflation fight has been going.

markets have priced in no move at the June meeting and there are expectations for a rate cut at some point this year. So if US consumer price is surprised on the upside, that will be a big jolt for markets. Then of course we've got the debt ceiling talks hanging over us like a gloom. Yeah, I mean, how are people trading that? It's really interesting. So obviously investors are avoiding tea bills,

the shorter duration tea bills that would fall are just at that crunch time when we may actually end up in default. That's a big if, but still. But interestingly, some investors are actually buying 10-year U.S. Treasuries, and they're doing that on the basis that if there was an actual default, it would become a global crisis. And so there would be a flight to quality. And longer-term U.S. Treasuries fit that bill. Beyond that, of course, demand for credit default swaps, which are a kind of an insurance against default. They've been popular. And you could see, as this evolves, you could see demand for gold and the yen. Brilliant. Thanks, Kamel.

Tens of thousands of royal fans turned out to catch a glimpse of the newly crowned King Charles and Queen Camilla over the weekend. Dozens of protesters were arrested and detained. I thought it was outrageous. On Sunday, anti-monicists like Ken Ritchie criticised the policing as heavy-handed. Our protests is going to be much more visible because they tend to actually clamp down on what are our lives. rights to actually protest. Across Ukraine, rural communities are being torn apart and a row sparked by a crackdown on a Russia-linked religion.

Priests in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church have been arrested and accused of treason. The church denies links with Moscow. But that's not stopped arguments raging and normally quiet villages over whether local churches should switch to the Kiev-backed orthodox. Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

As Max Handa discovered, when he visited the neighboring villages of Kraschkiv and Rabivzzi, it even means how church choirs sing has to change. We drove about four and a half hours to get these villages. They're about 160 miles south-west of Kiev. They were pretty typical Ukrainian villages. Lots of quite picturesque, really rustic houses with wooden, sash windows. Some of them painted quite interesting, bright colours also. Most of the people who were arguing outside the church were older. It seemed to be an issue that mostly interested the

older population because I think they put the most store in the church and in church affairs. These village churches are a cornerstone of these communities. I think that's what sets them apart and sets this story apart. In big cities, they're just somehow more or less another building, but in villages, they are the most significant building by far. To someone who doesn't understand language, those choirs would sound very similar, but they're actually singing in different languages. The one which switched the Kiev-backed church, their choir is singing in Ukrainian, while the choir of the other church, which has not switched, are singing in Church Slavonic. Some people were quite outraged that in the time

of war with Russia when they saw it as Ukrainians being killed for being Ukrainian and daring to have their own state. The people in this village still weren't singing in Ukrainian at their church services. That rather upset some people. But also like with a lot of rural communities, there's also a resistance to change through tradition because they had sung in church Slavonic for decades. For a lot of people it's really hard to make that change. So in the other village, the one that did switch, I spoke to Olja. She was the only member of the choir who made the switch along with the church. The other ladies in the choir refused to do it. I remember one villager being particularly angry that after Ukraine said it had swapped one

UOC clergyman for 28 Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia to that villager and to a lot of other Ukrainians I've spoken to, that seems to demonstrate the value of that clergyman to Moscow. This is Max Hunter in Kiev for Reuters. And finally, what's a more dire threat to humanity than climate change? Artificial intelligence. That, at least, is according to Geoffrey Hinton, a man known as the godfather of AI. Hinton recently announced he'd quit alphabet after a decade at the firm, he wanted to speak out on the risks of the technology without it affecting his former employer.

That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow. To get our daily shows and new weekend editions in your podcast feed, make sure to follow us on your favourite platform so you never miss a beat.