Reuters World News - Canada talks terminated, NBA gambling probe, Binance and Europe in space

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump stops all trade talks with Canada because of a Canadian video ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. The NBA and the Mafia are swept up in a federal gambling investigation. Trump pardons Binance’s founder. And Europe plays catchup in space as it tries to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink. Plus, how one Reuters photographer captured the photos of the White House East Wing demolition.     *The video for this episode has been corrected to remove a black frame. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. 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

Hi, I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. It's Friday, October 24th. Today, Trump hits stop on all trade talks with Canada. NBA stars are arrested in an illegal gambling probe. The founder of Binance gets a pardon from Trump. And Europe tries to play catch-up in space and compete with Elon Musk's Starlink. This is Reuters World News,

bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. U.S. President Donald Trump has ended trade talks with Canada. He's accusing Canada of using a fraudulent ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan criticizing tariffs. Trump took to Truth Social to announce the move, which throws relations with one of America's biggest trading partners back into turmoil. In the ad, Reagan says tariffs on foreign goods cause job losses and trade wars. Ottawa and Washington have been in talks for weeks about a deal for steel and aluminum. President Vladimir Putin is digging his heels in

after Trump lashed out with sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil companies. I decided to remove or to it's going to say that move wouldn't significantly affect the Russian economy, but would push up prices and make life uncomfortable in the US. The sanctions sent global oil prices up 5% and caused a stir among some of Russia's biggest customers. Chinese state oil majors have suspended Russian oil purchases in the short term. That's according to trade sources.

And Indian refiations. are set to cut their crude imports. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multi-year investigation. FBI director Kash Patel announcing the arrest of more than 30 people in a major illegal gambling investigation involving the NBA and organized crime. Among those arrested are Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat Guard Terry Rosier.

Reporter Joseph Axe has the details. There were two separate. schemes here, although there was some overlap. One involved rigging sports betting on NBA games. And so that's the one in which Terry Rosier was charged. What prosecutor said happened is he and a couple of other NBA insiders, people with connections to people in the NBA, who were tipping off their associates about what was going to happen in upcoming games. So players who were hurt, that kind of thing, that would be information that you could use to make profitable bets.

In the case of Chauncey Billups, who's a pretty bold-faced name in NBA circles, he was charged with being part of this nationwide scheme to rig poker games. Billups and a couple of other people were celebrities that kind of helped entice people to join these games, and then they used some pretty sophisticated technology

to rig the game. So they had card shuffling machines that rigged the hands that players were getting. They used X-ray tables so that they could get a very visual. view of what cards people had, and they had someone else who was sending wireless signals to the conspirators that were actually at the table, helping them know when to bet, when to fold. And prosecutors said that organized crime was actually involved in that, in part because,

at least in New York, a couple of those poker games were already being run by some of the crime families in New York. In a statement, the NBA said Rosier and Billups had been placed on leave and that the league would continue to cooperate with authorities. President Trump is continuing his string of pardons for crypto leaders, this time for the founder of Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. Cheng Peng Zhao pled guilty in 2023 to failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. Binance assisted one of the Trump family's crypto ventures earlier this year,

and Zau's pardon could pave the way for him to return to the business. Trump has given legal reprieves to some of crypto's most prominent names, and his family's involvement in the sector have led to criticism. over potential conflicts of interest. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says the administration carefully examines all pardons. Three of Europe's biggest aerospace companies are coming together in an attempt to rival Elon Musk's Starlink. French companies Airbus and Talas, as well as Italy's Leonardo, are combining their satellite operations in an alliance codenamed Project Bromo.

The deal creates a single company with annual revenues of $7.5 billion, and it's a litmus test for Europe's fragmented space industry. Here's space reporter Joey Roulette. This is the latest example of consolidation amid SpaceX's rise as a major satellite operator. Their Starlink network has dominated this kind of new era of satellite communications, and it has totally disrupted the traditional players in the space. And this project, Bromo, as they call it, is probably one of the biggest examples of the industry reaction to the rise. of Starlink. A major reason SpaceX has been so successful with Starlink is because it has

launched its own satellites. No other company in this space has that capability. SpaceX started off as a rocket company. They kind of revolutionized reusable rockets. And once they did that, they hatched this idea to launch thousands of satellites in space using those affordable rockets. They have over 10,000 satellites launched at this point. And a lot of traditional satellite players have been racing to kind of catch up to that. This is not just an example, of companies working together to compete with SpaceX, but it also comes as Europe is trying to increase its autonomy on the international stage in space

and in defense, of course, as a more prominent example. President Trump is demolishing the East Wing of the White House to make way for a $300 million ballroom. The images of bulldozers taking down walls of the historic residents have gone viral and sparked outrage, but capturing them hasn't been easy. To find out why, we turn to pitiful. pictures editor Jessica Kalselyak in Washington, D.C.

So once we heard that the demolition had started, I grabbed my cameras. Our office is about two blocks from the White House. And so I started walking down the street and quickly realized there was like no vantage point. There was sort of wood fencing up that completely obstructs the view of down Pennsylvania Avenue. And the thing is, is there's fencing everywhere. And you just can't get a real vantage point. So in Sherman Park, which is just the park south of Treasury, I could see like a handful of photographers pressing their faces and their cameras against the fencing. A couple people had a ladder that they were sharing.

And you just sort of saw that the opening to just see this area was quite small. And so I made a few frames and started looking. And at the very end of the fencing, there was like a little gap, maybe a little gap, maybe a little. like two or three inches between two fence posts. And so I climbed over some azalea bushes. And I was like ready, certainly ready for the Secret Service to be like, what are you doing? Get out of here.

And I just like press my cameras, my lens up to the fencing. And there you could see, like in the distance, the huge American flag waving in the distance. And you could just see the dust in the air and the light reflecting on the construction and the demolition. It was really surreal because every image taken before today, right, or this week, is now completely historic. The White House will never look the same.

We are bearing witness to history changing right before our very eyes. Trump has shelved plans to send federal agents into San Francisco. It's a surprise move as Trump ramps up the pressure on Democratic-led cities to crack down on crime and illegal immigration. Trump says tech CEOs influenced his decision, as well as a personal appeal from the San Francisco mayor. To the end of prosecution of Soldier F for murder and attempted murder of the innocence in Bloody Sunday.

Michael McKinney, a brother of one of the victims of Northern Ireland's Bloody Sunday, reacts after a British soldier was found not guilty of murdering his brother. Known only as Soldier F, the former paratrooper, was the only member of the British Armed Forces, tried over one of the most notorious incidents of the Northern Ireland conflict. 13 civil rights demonstrators were killed when British soldiers opened fire on marchers in the city of Londonderry in 1972.

The British government in 2010 apologised for the unjustified and unjustifiable killings, but many relatives of victims now believe the chance of a successful prosecution of British Armed Forces is remote. And for today's recommended read, a weekend listen. Jonah Green takes you on assignment to Syria, where you'll hear how our journalists discovered a mass grave and the vast Assad government operation

to move thousands of bodies across the desert to cover up years of atrocities. That pod drops on Saturday. For more in any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week.

We'll be back tomorrow with our daily health. headline show.