Reuters World News - Damascus, Powell, immigration and a Mars rock

Episode Date: July 18, 2025

A U.S.-brokered ceasefire takes hold in Syria as the interim president promises to protect the rights of the Druze minority. Trump says he's not planning to fire Fed chair Jerome Powell. Trump's approval rating on immigration drops to its lowest point. And  the biggest piece of Mars ever to make it to earth sells for a record $5.3 million. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read 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, Israel attacks Syria's capital as the US calls for peace. Trump says he's not going to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for now. A majority of Americans disagree with the way immigration rates are being carried out. And the biggest piece of Mars on Earth sells at auction. It's Thursday, July 17th. 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 Wanganui, New Zealand.

A Syrian state TV broadcast captures the moment Israeli air strikes hit Damascus, blowing up part of Syria's defense ministry. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says Washington is attempting to calm the situation. So we've been engaged with them all morning long and all night long with both sides, and we think we're on our way towards a real de-escalation.

Drew's leaders say a ceasefire has been reached with government forces. It follows several Israeli attacks on the city of Sweda this week. Reuters reporter Timor Azari is in Damascus. I was sitting at our office in Damascus just working on a story when I heard, and you really feel this in your core, a war plane swooping low over the capital, and then sure enough there was the screech and then the crash of an explosion. When that happened, we all ran up to the roof and when we got to the roof,

we saw that there was a plume of smoke. Soon afterwards, again, warplanes swooping low, and then the sound of incoming missiles. We saw several huge explosions in the center of the city, really right in the center, the Umayad Square, which you can sort of compare to Times Square in New York or Oxford Circle in London. Why is Israel doing this? What Israel is doing here is they are acting on their stated goal of protecting Syria's

Druze minority. This is a religious minority that has adherents in Lebanon, in Syria, and in Israel. It all began a few days back when there were clashes in the southern region of Swayda in Syria, which is home to the Druze minority, and it quickly evolved into fighting between. government security forces who have struggled to impose their authority in Suida and one particular militia led by a Druze leader who is allied with Israel. You know, we reported in the months after Assad fell that what Israel was seeking was a fragmented and weak Syria where they could essentially act at their will.

That only changed with a push from Washington after Trump met with Syria's leader in May in a massive reversal of US policy and really has pushed the Israelis to engage with Syria. And that in fact led to indirect contacts and indirect contacts that were focused on joint security. But I can tell you that the feeling in Damascus is that a lot of that has been reversed. In some breaking news, the US Senate has approved President Trump's plan to slash billions in foreign aid and eliminate 1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting. Most cuts target aid for countries facing crises like disease, war and natural disasters. Trump and many Republicans argue public broadcasting is an unnecessary expense and accuse it of

anti-conservative bias. He's doing a lousy job, but no, I'm not talking about that. President Trump talking about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell saying he is not planning on firing him. Earlier reports that it was on the cards sparked a chaotic half-hour. the markets, but Wall Street closed modestly higher after Trump's comments. Trump is fiercely critical of Powell and of cost overruns in the $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank's headquarters, which the Fed is defending.

Our U.S. economics editor, Dan Burns, is in New York. Dan, we know Trump can't simply remove Powell, but is there groundwork being laid for him to remove him for cause? We don't know really how serious the Trump administration. is in trying to pursue this case of establishing this as a case for removal by cause. It's certainly, you know, a risk, it seems, a growing one, but it's not something that would go unchallenged by Powell himself. He would have standing to seek an injunction to stop any effort to remove him. And the fact is that for all of the conversation in the last week,

around these building cost overruns as potentially a grounds for a removal for cause, for fraud. Trump doesn't complete any thought about Powell and the Fed without circling back to his central complaint, which is about policy, which is about he does not like the fact that Powell is not lowered interest rates. If you want to learn more about the Fed's succession drama, have a listen to our shadow Fed chair episode of Reuters Econ World. You can find a link to that in the pod description.

President Trump is trying to contain the fallout after criticism from some of his most loyal followers about his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is. But a new Reuters-Ipsos poll shows that 54% of Americans don't approve of how he's.

Trump has handled the case files of the convicted sex offender. And another poll shows President Trump's approval rating on immigration has dropped to its lowest point since he returned to the White House. Just 41% of Americans now support his handling of the issue. Politics editor Scott Malone has more. So one of the things that the poll found is that Americans do not approve of what they see as somewhat heavy-handed tactics that the administration has taken on immigration enforcement. One thing we asked respondents was whether they agreed with a statement that immigration arrests at places of work are good for the country. And a majority of respondents to the poll said no.

Another question that we asked respondents is whether they thought that immigration arrest should be carried out like military operations. And that's bearing in mind some of the images that we've seen out of California, for instance, of agents kind of, you know, fully armored and helmeted and dressed like soldiers going into combat. and the majority of respondents to the poll said no. They don't think that's how immigration enforcement should work. And some division within Trump's party with basically one in four Republicans saying, no, that's not the way they think that you should be carried out. George Reitz, a U.S. citizen and army veteran, agrees with that sentiment, having been wrongly arrested in a raid on a cannabis farm in California.

More chemical menace says officers approached him and smashed his car window. It was almost instantaneously the moment they broke my glass. They sprayed me with OC and they just dragged me out of the vehicle. OC spray, by the way, is a type of pepper spray. It's like two officers to nail on my back and then one on my neck to arrest me, even though my hands were already behind my back. I told them everything. I was a citizen.

I worked there and they didn't care. Reitz says he was held in detention for three days and put on suicide watch. He says he plans to sue the federal government. Here are some other stories we're keeping an eye on this morning. A judge has failed to rule on the legal status of Kilma Abrego Garcia, the migrant returned to the US after being wrongly deported to El Salvador. Prosecutors are trying to overturn an order, allowing Abrego to be released on bail while he awaits trial. Abrego has pleaded not guilty to migrant smuggling charges.

Nearly 500 tonnes of US emergency food rations meant for starving populations abroad are being destroyed, sent to landfills and incinerators. Another 600 plus tonnes will finally be used, but only after concerns over wasted taxpayer money pushed a top US official to act. Efforts to get a ceasefire in Gaza continue, with President Trump hosting Qatar's Prime Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Altani, for dinner at the Winehouse. Israeli and Hamas negotiators have been talking in Doha for weeks, discussing a US-backed proposal for a 60-day ceasefire. And finally today,

the biggest piece of Mars ever to make it to Earth has just been sold at auction. It weighs 54 pounds. and was sold for $5.3 million a record for any meteorite. It was found by a meteorite hunter in Niger's remote Agadez region in 2023. The three main types of meteorite, which come from Mars, were created when an asteroid or comet slammed into the red planet about 5 million years ago. And for today's recommended read, some news for those of us with a sweet tooth. Trump says Coca-Cola has a great-a-reve.

agreed to use real cane sugar in its drinks in the US after discussions with the company. That will replace the high fructose corn syrup currently used. We'll drop a link to that story in today's pod description. For more on 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.