Reuters World News - Catastrophe in Libya, Kim Jong Un in Russia and Apple’s China challenge

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

Thousands are feared dead after devastating floods in Libya. North Korea’s leader arrives in Russia with Washington warning Kim Jong Un and Putin against an arms deal. Apple prepares to unveil its latest iPhone as problems brew for the company in China. Plus, auto workers brace for strike action in Detroit and Morocco’s desperate search for survivors. 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, thousands fear dead in Libya after catastrophic floods. Kim Jong-un arrives in Russia for a meeting with Vladimir Putin. Apple launches its latest iPhone amid tensions with China, and auto workers prepare to strike in Detroit. It's Tuesday, September 12th. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London. We start in eastern Libya, where authorities say at least 2,000 people have been killed

and thousands more are missing after deadly floods ripped through the city of Dürna. Ahmed Mismari, the spokesperson for the Libyan National Army, told a news conference that dams above Dernah had collapsed, sweeping whole neighborhoods into the sea. Reuters could not immediately verify, the casualty figure. Angus McDowell is our North Africa bureau chief. Angus, how bad could this be? We don't yet know how bad it could be in Durner. We've seen some really horrendous images that appear to show the whole centre of the town washed away and authorities are saying now that they've

recovered at least a thousand bodies but many, many more people are missing. And And given that there are whole neighbourhoods that seem to have just vanished, the death toll could still go up significantly. And why is it proving so hard to get a handle on this? Communications into Dernot were entirely cut yesterday, so information was only filtering through very gradually. In addition, eastern Libya, which is under the control of Khalifa Hafta's Libyan National Army, is a place that has traditionally been quite difficult for journalists to access. And of course, because Libya, although it's been in conflict for many, many years, is not a poor country. And there wasn't already a significant presence of aid organisations on the ground.

Now for the other headlines making news around the world. Rescuers in Morocco call for quiet as they dig for survivors. But hopes are fading fast. The death toll from Friday's devastating earthquake has risen to more than 2,800, with the government defending itself against criticism that its initial response was slow. Unrelenting rain has caused scores of landslides and trapped hundreds of residents in floodwaters in southern China. Typhoon Haikui has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but its incessant rains are triggering flash flooding. The Biden administration is close to approving the shipment of longer-range missiles packed with cluster bombs to Ukraine, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

The U.S. already supplies Ukraine with cluster munitions, which are banned by many countries. It is amazing to be above ground again. I was underground for far longer than ever expected with an unexpected medical issue. American caver Mark Dickey, after being pulled. from a cave more than 3,000 feet underground in southern Turkey. A team of more than 150 rescuers worked for nine days to rescue him after he suffered gastrointestinal bleeding while underground. It's time now for markets with Carmel Crimmons. Carmel, what's going on? More relief out of China, property developer Country Garden got another reprieve from bondholders. Its creditors have agreed to

extend repayments on six onshore bonds. That's helping it to avoid default. That news sent its shares up 10% and help lift Chinese stocks generally. But it's not out of the woods yet. It also needs to get approval to extend repayments onto other bonds. And voting there has been delayed. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived in Russia for what the Kremlin said would be a comprehensive discussion with President Vladimir Putin. Washington has warned the two countries that they should not agree on an arms deal. Josh Smith in Seoul has been keeping one eye on the progress of Kim's bulletproof train from afar. So Josh, if Russia gets arms to replenish the stockpile of weapons it's been using in Ukraine, what would North Korea get? That's also a kind of

an open question at the moment. U.S. officials have raised the prospect that they could also get some kind of military aid, perhaps more likely would be just straight up cash or food aid that the country also badly needs. There may also be arrangements on, for example, allowing North Korean workers into Russia, which is something that is technically banned by United Nations Security Council resolutions, but which have in the past been a major source of revenue for North Korea and a major source of workforce for Russia. Yeah, tell us about that. Why would North Korea be sending men into Russia? Is that because Russians are drafted into the war? That is perhaps something that's making it more of a pressing concern for Russia at the moment. But before 2019, when these

United Nations security resolutions kicked in, there were tens of thousands of North Korean workers estimated to be in Russia. The reason this was so controversial and became a target of the UN Security Council is the claims that a lot of these workers were almost slave labor and that basically they would do the work, but then their wages that they were paid in Russia would be garnished by the government back home that would then use it to fund all kinds of programs, including potentially its weapon programs. Apple is expected to unveil the latest iPhone and it's California HQ today. And this year, the tech giant has more than usual riding on the high stakes launch.

Stephen Nellis is in Capitino. Stephen, does this event risk being overshadowed by problems in China, in particular fears of a backlash against Apple products? So China is Apple's third largest market. This is a company that makes almost $400 billion of revenue in a year, and almost a fifth of that comes from China. There's an expansion of a ban on using the iPhone in some government's offices. That's significant because of the signal it sends, and the real question is, will that spill over into the decisions that consumers actually make in China? Okay, so China is an important part of Apple's sales strategy, but it's also a major source of production.

How does a cooler relationship impact how Apple products are actually made? The most interesting aspect of the current kerfuffle with China is the question of which side has more leverage. The iPhone employs more than a million Chinese people in various steps in its production. Now, Apple has been moving some of that production to other places to diversify its footprint. And part of what analysts are wondering is if this is a bit of a shot across the bow from the Chinese government saying, you might need to think about your diversification. So let's get to today's event. What do we expect Apple to announce

and will it do anything to a sage investor fears about China? So the biggest thing that consumers are going to notice out of the launch is they're going to need new charging cables. Apple's probably going to switch over most of the iPhone to a charging cable called USBC. This is being forced on Apple by regulations from Europe, but most people expect they'll talk about how the faster speeds of these cables are actually going to work really well for the high quality

videos that the iPhone can create. But the question is if this can offset China. And, you know, I think it'll take some time to be able to tell. People usually only buy a new phone now every three or four years. And so we're going to need to wait a few years before we know the impact. We're potentially days away from a massive auto workers strike in the U.S. The president of the United Auto Workers Union, or UAW, has said his members will walk off the job at midnight on Thursday if a deal can't be thrashed out with General Motors, Ford and Chrysler parent Stalantis North America. To talk about what's at stake, we're now joined by Joe White from Detroit. Joe, first off, what are the UAW's complaints?

The UAW has a lengthy list of demands, and their basic point is that the Detroit automakers have had about a decade of really strong or record profitability. And their view is, look, we have not participated in a fair way in this prosperity. So what happens if they strike? What does it mean for the economy? A lot depends on how long the strike goes on. There's one estimate that I think it's a two-week strike could cost the economy $5 billion. Well, that's not really that much. I think things get dicey after about 30 days. That's when you start to get a real hit to the company's bottom lines. And what about prices? We're already at record prices for vehicles, and you've got especially pickup trucks going for

$100,000 a piece. The union president, Sean Fane, is clearly concerned that he'll be blamed if prices go up because inventories are reduced. He's put out a video saying this is baloney, that union wages have very little to do with the cost of a vehicle, and that if the prices are going up, that's because the companies are pushing them up in order to maximize their profits. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back with our daily headline show on Wednesday. To make sure you 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.