Reuters World News - Clinging to life in Hawaii, what the US has to lose in Niger, Russia's moonshot and Iran prisoners

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

A father of five describes clinging on to a floating board with his wife and kids in the water. He's one of the lucky ones as the death toll in Hawaii continues to rise. West African nations say they've put a force on standby - but what does the coup mean for the United States forces currently stationed there? Plus, Russia launches a lunar mission and Iran takes steps to free prisoners. 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, Hawaii's death toll rises after an inferno so bad, officials say it will cost billions and take years to recover. The assassination in Ecuador brings crime into focus ahead of the election. West Africa readies a standby force as the coup in Niger forces the US to rethink its military presence. It's Friday, August 11th. This is Reuters World News, bringing. you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London. What we saw was likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii's state history. Hawaii's governor, Josh Green, speaking in the wake of the inferno in Maui. The out-of-control flames fanned by hurricane winds

killing scores of people, the death toll already above 50 and expected to rise. Much of the town of Lahaina lies in smoldering ruins. Rebuilding will take many years and will cost billions. Vigshe-Linkham and his wife and five kids are now in an emergency shelter. They were the lucky ones. They tried to escape the fast-moving flames by car but got stuck in traffic. He then made a split second decision. They jumped into the ocean. We found a floating board that we hung on to. Everything we're out there floating. And there's so surreal.

Everything was burning around, explosions, cars blowing up. Like, embers flying, we couldn't breathe. Making their way to the sea wall, they clung on for hours, fighting with powerful waves. My kids were amazing. They were really good. I have a few points, my daughter, my little girl, is like, Daddy, you're okay, Daddy? My other ones, my wife, we could be okay. So, I just the ocean almost shut my kids away a few times.

But, yeah, we stuck together. We held on. We're not going to die this way. No. And we're here. We're alive. Now to the headlines making news around the world. Russia launched its first moon landing spacecraft in 47 years,

in a race to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar South Pole. The region is believed to hold coveted pockets of water ice, and India, China and the USA all have lunar exploration programs targeting it. Five American prisoners have been released from Iran's notorious Evan Prison, and moved to home detention. It's the start of a complex set of maneuvers that could end in their return, says U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken. But this is just the beginning of a process that I hope and expect will lead to their return home to the United States.

My belief is that this is the beginning of the end of their nightmare and the nightmare that their families have experienced. President Joe Biden has described China's economy as a ticking time bomb, saying the country is in trouble because of weak growth. Biden's remarks were reminiscent of comments he made in June when he referred to President Xi Jinping as a dictator. China calls the remarks a provocation. The Supreme Court has halted a settlement with the maker of OxyContin that shielded the wealthy Sackler family from opioid-related lawsuits. The justices agreed to hear a challenge by the Biden administration. They will hear oral arguments in December.

Investors are still interpreting what to make of the latest U.S. inflation numbers and what July's CPI does to interest rates. Federal Reserve reporter Howard Schneider is in Washington, D.C. with his take, and he's going to do it in 30 seconds. So the headline number ticked up a little bit from 3% in June to 3.2% in July. largely had to do with calendar effects related to last year's spike in inflation. The underlying trend did come down a little bit from 4.8% last month of 4.7 this month. And some of the other measures that the Fed looks at got it coming in even lower than that. So on the main, this appears

to keep them on track to probably hold rate steady in September. West African leaders have ordered the deployment of a standby force that they say is ready to go into Niger. The threat of invasion against the junta is not specific. But already, last month's coup has raised questions over the United States' military presence in the country. Currently, the US has 1,100 personnel stationed there, who officials and analysts say have been key to fighting Islamist militants in the Sahel region. National security reporter Idris Ali is in Washington, D.C. Idris, what will the US troops do if the members of the West African regional block ECOWAS decide to intervene militarily? If it appears that there is a threat to US troops and personnel on the basis, the expectation

is that they will leave. I think a lot of officials I've spoken with have pointed out that ICAAS has made ultimatums in the past, including this past weekend, and they've just gone by without any repercussion. So I think the expectation is that as long as US troops are safe, they're not threatened by these moves, and the Nigerians continue to allow. the U.S. to stay, that they're going to stay put given how important this base is. Idris, why is this base so important to the U.S.? This is probably one of the most, if not, the most important base the U.S. has in Africa and definitely the most important one that it has in the Sahel region.

It's where the U.S. operates armed drones for, which go after Islamic State and al-Qaeda-affiliated militants. It's really the only base that they have in the region. They used to partner with Burkina Faso and Mali, but both those countries have had their coup, so it's not something they can depend on anymore. There were thousands of French troops in Mali. They have left, so it's another avenue that's closed. And so it's a really key and vital way the U.S. can target militants in their camps and the growing networks that the U.S. has become increasingly concerned about.

It's also where the United States operates ISR, which is intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance flights from. So, you know, these planes that can loiter over militant bases for hours and hours and really allows intel and policymakers in Washington to see what's going on in this region, which otherwise doesn't have much coverage when it comes to U.S. intelligence agencies. And so then what might the U.S. lose if they're forced to vacate the base? Yeah. If the base ends up closing or U.S. troops having to leave, the first thing that goes is the ability for the United States to see in-depth what's happening in the region, you know, that border region around. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, once the base closes, there won't be any close base for these ISR drones to operate from, hence not-allying policymakers and intel officials, really this ability to stay over our targets, see what they're doing, watching the networks grow, they won't have that ability to see that in the depth that they do now.

The second thing that's going to go away is the ability to target them, you know, the drones have become tool of first choice in many cases because they're much safer than sending ground troops in there. And so the ability to send drones from this base will go away, which will really hinder the ability to target and in some cases kill militants. The assassination of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, less than two weeks before the election, has sent shockwaves through the South American country. It's also brought the issue of rising violence to the foreground. Julia Sims Cobb is our Andean bureau chief. Julia, Villavicencio was a vocal critic of organized crime.

How bad is the situation there? Violent crime in Ecuador has risen precipitously over the last couple of years, especially post-pandemic when the economy has really suffered. And the government has struggled to push back against that, despite a lot of emergency declarations and putting the military on the street to help security. So Via Vicencio is one of many people in Ecuador who has criticized the current security situation. The prison system also is incredibly violent. There's been at least 400 inmates who have died over the last couple of years in prison riots and other sorts of violence.

And the government has blamed this rising violence on drug trafficking gangs that are moving drugs like cocaine through Ecuador. What does this do not only to the election, but to the country? A lot of Ecuadorians were really shy. by this assassination, historically, it's been safer country. And so to have a candidate of this notoriety killed in such a public way has been really shocking for people. And what we're hearing from some voters ahead of the vote on the 20th of August is that some of them are fearful about going out to the polls because they're anxious about potential other attacks. And that's even in a scenario where voting is mandatory. So anyone who doesn't go vote in Ecuador who's between the ages of

18 and 65 has to then pay a fine of $45, which is about 10% of the monthly minimum wage. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back with our daily headline show on Monday. 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.