Reuters World News - Blinken’s Middle East mission, border deal backlash and Hollywood shrinks

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in the Middle East as part of the US’s push for peace. A bipartisan Senate bill on border security faces a Republican backlash in the House of Representatives. Hollywood is cutting costs as the era of ‘peak TV’ ends. Plus, King Charles is treated for cancer and Nikki Haley requests secret service protection.  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, Blinkin's Diplomatic Highwire Act in the Middle East, Donald Trump fuels the Republican backlash to a border deal, a shock cancer diagnosis for King Charles, and The Great Contraction hits Hollywood. It's Tuesday, February 6th. This is Royce's World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday.

I'm Kim Vennel in Wanganui. New Zealand. Anthony Blinken is seeking an enduring end to the conflict in Gaza in his latest tour of the Middle East. Palestinians hope any truce comes before a threatened Israeli assault on the border town of Rafa, where about half of Gaza's entire population is sheltering. People like Hanan Abu Gabal, who says there is nowhere left for her to go. But Blinkin's Peace Mission comes after days of US strikes against pro-Iranian groups across the region. Simon Lewis covers the State Department. Simon, what is Blinken trying to convey to leaders in the region?

I think primarily the message that Blincom wants to bring is that, yes, the US will retaliate when attacked, but it doesn't want this conflict in Gaza to escalate into a broader regional conflagration. So how does he walk that line? So as well as trying to keep a lid on regional conflict, one of the challenges Blinkin faces is that all these issues are piled up in the region and are all closely interconnected. Saudi Arabia and Israel had before the current conflict been discussing a deal that would end decades of Saudi Arabia, not recognizing Israel. And the United States has tried to get that back on track. but the Saudis have basically required that in order to do that, Israel must first end the war in Gaza

and also offer a pathway to statehood for the Palestinians. Katari and Egyptian mediators delivered a ceasefire offer to Hamas last week. How likely is a breakthrough there and could we see the return of Israeli hostages from Gaza? US officials at the moment are downplaying hopes of a deal on hostage release anytime soon because Hamas doesn't really see what's in it for them to release more hostages if they don't get a long-term ceasefire with Israel. A bipartisan border deal that the Senate unveiled last weekend is coming up against stiff opposition in the House.

If the bill were to become law, it would mark the most significant changes in U.S. immigration and border security in decades. It would also provide aid to Ukraine and Israel. But its fate is unclear. Richard Cowan covers Congress. Richard, what would this bill do? The main goal of this legislation is to discourage illegal immigration into the United States, which has been booming in recent years.

It would do that a couple of ways. It would make it much tougher to qualify for asylum. And for those who don't qualify for asylum, a much quicker 180-day process for deporting them. Those are the Republican goals for Democrats. there is a provision that would add 250,000 more visas for people to come into the United States and provide new protections for legal protections for kids who arrive at the border unaccompanied. So it's a bipartisan deal, but it's facing some stiff opposition from Republicans. Why is that?

That's largely because Donald Trump, who's running for president, as a Republican, has said he doesn't want this legislation. and he doesn't want to give Joe Biden the gift of having done a major immigration bill that might just solve the crisis at the border. Democrats also are upset because a lot of progressive Democrats, because this bill provides no protection for dreamers. And those are immigrants who came into the United States as young children and have basically lived most of their lives here and are part of American society,

except they don't have citizenship. What's next? Now that the bill has unveiled, the next step is getting it moved through the Senate. And that could be really tricky. In the next day or so, Republicans hope to know whether they have enough support on their side to let the bill progress in the Senate, where at least 60 out of 100 senators are needed to advance any legislation. Britain's King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer.

The 75-year-old will postpone public-facing duties while he underwent. His younger son, Prince Harry, is returning to the UK from California to visit him. A deadly storm has battered California bringing hurricane force winds, mudslides and nearly a foot of rain to Los Angeles. More rain is expected before it tapers off later this week. Nikki Haley has asked for secret service protection. Haley's been the target of at least two hoax calls that have sent the authorities rushing to her home. Anger boiling over at a vigil in the Turkish city of Hatai. Thousands had gathered to mark one year since devastating earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people.

Demonstrators protesting what they called government negligence in the wake of the deadliest disaster in Turkey's modern history. One of Taiwan's only allies, Guatemala, is considering reaching out to develop formal trade ties with China. Foreign Minister Carlos Romero Martinez made the comments in an interview with Reuters. He said the Central American country would maintain its existing relations with Taiwan. The job culls continue in big tech. Kamukrimmins has more. Snap is cutting over 500 jobs. That's equivalent to about 10% of its workforce.

The company has long struggle to turn its popularity into consistent revenue growth and compete with large arrivals like Facebook. Remote workers seem to be the hardest hit by Snap's move. The company has been pushing employees to come back to the office for four days a week. Amazon and Google have already announced layoffs in January, and overall, nearly 32,000 people have lost their jobs in the tech sector since the start of the year. The town that sells fantasies is confronting some harsh economic realities. The era of peak TV is over.

And as a result, Hollywood is shrinking. Dawn Chimilesky covers the entertainment business. So the industry really has begun. shrinking as it adjusts to the realities of streaming and changing viewing habits. We consulted a number of third-party data sources, and it revealed that the number of a scripted series that are being made and released here in the U.S. actually has declined fairly substantially from a peak of 2022, and there's some signs that it will continue to shrink even for streaming services like Netflix. We're also seeing fewer films in the pipeline for release

this year. That's partly a reflection of the strikes, really interrupting production. And there's been some closer attention to spending and to the sorts of stories that are being told. The analysts tell us that a lot of the movies opening this year will explore new terrain rather than what had been a pattern in recent years of tons of superhero movies and sequels. Audiences are showing that they really are not compelled by those anymore, that they've seen, unless they're really well done, that they've just been too much of the folks in tights and not all executed at the same level of quality. Did the strikes cause this contraction? They're analysts who believe that the strikes created an opportunity for the media companies

to reassess the volume of output and its spending. The studios became much more selective about projects. They're green lighting and putting it into production. They're being very cautious about the money they spend because all of these major media companies are under pressure from Wall Street to deliver profits. And the metrics effectively have changed for media companies. When I was 11, I realized that I was destined to be a tuba player. And that's all I wanted to do in life.

David Ostwald is a professional jazz musician in New York City. But these days, when he's not performing at the Birdland Jazz Club, he's become a fixture at Donald Trump's 370, million dollar civil fraud trial. In fact, you'll often spy him smiling in the background of courtroom photos. I suddenly had this desire to smile and to make sure I got in the photograph. As a retired attorney, Ostwald has loved attending trials since he was a kid. I like the drama of it. A ruling in the case is expected this month. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. To make sure you know,

know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.