Reuters World News - China’s economy, deportation, Pentagon, French prisons and millennial saint

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

China Q1 GDP has outstripped expectations, but analysts fear momentum could shift sharply lower as U.S. tariffs hit. One of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leading advisers has been escorted from the Pentagon as part of an investigation into leaks. A judge has demanded officials provide answers under oath about the return of a man wrongly deported from the U.S. to El Salvador. Prisons in France have been targeted with arson and gun attacks. And the boy about to be proclaimed the Catholic Church's first saint of the millennial generation. Find our recommended read on the smugglers caught trying to transport thousands of live ants out of Kenya here. Find our weekend special episode on higher education in the U.S. here and Trump's battles with the courts here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Find the latest podcast episode here. Reuters Econ World has also been nominated for a Webby Award in two categories for our "Swiftonomics" episode. If you like what you hear please vote for us here and 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

Today, surprise growth figures from China, that the tariff shock is yet to hit. A U.S. judge demands that the Trump administration show proof they've tried to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador. A top advisor to the Secretary of Defense is under investigation for leaking sensitive information. A series of arson and gun attacks have hit France's prisons. Plus, we hear from the mother of a team. set to be the Catholic Church's first millennial saint. It's Wednesday, April 16th. This is Reuters World News,

bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. And I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. Starting with markets today, and China's first quarter economic growth has outstripped expectations, underpinned by solid consumption and industrial output.

data shows that China's GDP grew 5.4% for the quarter, but investors know it predates the US hike in tariffs on China to a staggering 145%. Growth momentum is expected to cool sharply in the next few quarters, as Washington's tariffs heap pressure on Chinese leaders to roll out more support measures to keep the world's second-largest economy on an even keel. A new threat from US President Donald Trump towards Harvard as a row between the White House and the institution continues.

He's threatened to strip the university of its tax-exempt status. Harvard has rejected what it called unlawful demands to overhaul academic programs or lose federal grants. The White House says Trump wants to see Harvard apologize for what it calls anti-Semitism that took place on their college campus against Jewish-American students. Canadian universities are reporting a jump in U.S. applicants. Canada's immigration ministry says it expects learning institutions to only accept the number of students they can support. The European Union and Britain have pled to increase aid for Sudan.

At a conference, two years after the start of a conflict, that has displaced millions and devastated the country. But Sudan's government has criticized a gathering because no representative from either side of a conflict was invited. There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding. That was the warning on Tuesday from U.S. District Judge Paula Zinnis, who's presiding over the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That's the man mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration last month. Our legal reporter, Luke Cohen, is covering the court's response.

The judge has said that the administration has defied a previous order to provide her with updates. But she said at the outset of Tuesday's hearing that she would not be holding any officials in contempt of court just yet. Instead, she wants the administration to provide her with documents and she wants officials to sit

for depositions or sworn testimony by April 23rd to discuss the steps they'd taken to get Abrago Garcia back from El Salvador so she can determine whether the administration defied her order. or not. But there's been some debate over the definition of that word facilitate. Yeah. So in hearing Drew Ensign, a lawyer for the government, said that the government's

interpretation of that word facilitate was that they just had to remove any barriers on the U.S. side. So basically their interpretation is that the word facilitate doesn't mean they have to ask El Salvador to do anything. The judge said that interpretation was, quote, contrary to the plain meaning of the word. If you want to hear more about this case and the challenge it presents to the U.S. system of checks and balances, check out a recent weekend episode all about Trump's clashes with the courts. There will be a link to the episode in the podcast description.

An advisor to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth has been escorted from the Pentagon. After being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense, Dan Caldwell has been placed on administrative leave for, quote, an unauthorized disclosure. That's according to a U.S. official who says the investigation remains ongoing. Phil Stewart covers the Pentagon for us. He has been the first person implicated in a investigation that was launched on March 21st. And this investigation authorized the use of polygraphs against senior defense department officials, which obviously signaled that Hegsseth and the Trump administration were quite concerned about

something going on at the Pentagon related to leaks of classified information. And now we have Dan Caldwell who has been escorted out, but we're hearing that he may not be the last person to be implicated in this investigation. Now, who is Dan Caldwell? So Dan Caldwell had been one of the most influential people in the Pentagon that nobody had ever heard of. He, was first named, kind of came out into the public view when the Atlantic published the transcript from a signal chat that involved planning for the U.S. launch of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen. And when the U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had the name his point person for this coordination on this major U.S. offensive, he named Dan Colwell. Now, Dan Colwell and Pete Hegseth go way back.

They've known each other for a long time. He had tremendous influence, and it shows that this leak investigation is no joke and that Hegsef is willing to let key allies go if it means purging the Pentagon from leakers. At least six French prisons housing some of the nation's most hardened crime kingpins have been targeted with gun and arson attacks. Justice Minister Jehald D'Ald Slaman says it's unclear if the attacks are linked to a government clampdown on the drug trade. Our Deputy Bureau Chief in France, Gabriel Stargata, is following this story.

I think a lot remains unknown at this stage. Nobody has made any claim to have been behind the attacks. On several of the prisons that were attacked, there was this mysterious graffiti, which is DDPF, which is the rights of French prisoners. but if this is indeed a move by France's drug kingpins to kind of lash out at the state for cracking down on their businesses, then this is a really significant step up in where France's drug battle is at the moment and really underlines just how bad things have got in France, where there have been just a series of record-breaking cocaine imports,

which have really just turbocharged, organized crime, not just in France, but across the continent. And how is the government responding at this point? France has definitely come back hard against these attacks. Darwin has suggested that it was a terror attack. Anti-terror prosecutors have taken charge of the probe, which is a surprising development. So there's certainly a feeling that France wants to really put its best foot forward in the fight against rising drug crime and really show that the state is not going to shy away from tackling this surge in crime. The Roman Catholic Church will soon have its first ever millennial saint.

Carlo Acudis will be canonized later this month in St. Peter's Square, elevating him to the same level as Mother Teresa and Francis of Assisi. Akutis died when he was 15 in 2006 from leukemia. His mother, Antonio Salzana Akutis, says he was a typical young man, but his path to sainthood was extraordinary. We had so many miracles each day. And of course, the church chose one for the validation, one for the canonization. Our Vatican reporter Joshua McElwee has visited Assisi, where Akutis's body is entombed.

There were young people visiting that day, young Italians, who said they saw a model in Carlo Acutis, someone who kind of could help them understand how to live their faith in the day-to-day, how to kind of stay connected to deeper meaning in a very difficult world where, especially for young people, you know, there's social media, there's pressures to fit in at school, there's all sorts of things, and they see this Carlo Acutus, this young boy as kind of someone who kind of found a way to stay devoted to his faith. And I think the church is hoping that this young man who will be a saint will be an inspiration for other young people who are looking for a way of understanding how to be Catholic in a kind of a difficult time and how to continue to live out what the church teaches in terms of

how you should live your life. And for today's recommended read, we're in Kenya, where wildlife services say they busted a plot to smuggle giant ants out of the country. The thousands of insects were concealed in syringes and intended for say, on exotic pet markets in Europe and Asia. Follow the link in the description for more if pictures of ants in syringes doesn't creep you out. For more on any of the stories from today, check out roiders.com or the Reuters app.

Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.