Reuters World News - DOJ departures, Air India, trade war windfall and Club World Cup

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Large numbers of staff are leaving the DOJ department that is leading the fight in U.S. courts for President Donald Trump’s controversial policies. The fuel switch locks are now the focus of the investigation into last month's Air India Dreamliner crash, but the full investigation could take a year. Trump plans a 30 percent tariff on most imports from Mexico and the EU, as figures show how much the trade war is bringing into the U.S. economy. And Chelsea lift soccer’s Club World Cup in New Jersey, but what has the U.S. learned from the tournament ahead of hosting games at the 2026 World Cup?  Find the recommended read here. Our weekend episode is on rising tensions on the border between Finland and Russia. Find it here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast on stablecoins 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, an exodus from the DOJ unit defending Trump's policies in court. The Air India crash report says fuel to engines was cut off. Trump's tariffs trigger confusion and billions of dollars in revenue. And soccer's glittering dry run for next year's World Cup concludes. It's Monday, July the 14th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm David Spencer in London. We start today in the DOJ and the Justice Department Unit in charge of defending President Trump's

policies in court has lost nearly two-thirds of its staff. That's according to a list seen by Reuters. Sixty-nine of the roughly 110 lawyers in the Federal Programs branch have voluntarily left the unit since Trump's election or have announced plans. plans to leave. Reuters spoke to four former lawyers in the unit and three other people familiar with the departures who said some staffers had grown demoralised and exhausted defending an onslaught of lawsuits. Some of the policies in the legal firing line have included restrictions on birthright citizenship and slashing funding to Harvard University. The Trump administration has broadly defended its actions as within the legal bounds of presidential power

and has won several early victories at the Supreme Court. A White House spokesman told Reuters that Trump's actions were legal and declined to comments on the departures. Donald Trump says he will send Patriot Air Defense missiles to Ukraine, saying they're necessary for Keeves' protection. Because they do need protection, but the European Union is paying for it. We're not paying anything for it. Trump didn't give the number of patriots he plans to send,

but says the US will be reimbursed for their cost by the European Union. And NATO Chief Mark Rutter heads to D.C. today, where he'll meet with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth. NATO hasn't provided a reason for the visit, but Trump recently suggested the US would be willing to supply weapons to Ukraine via NATO and that he'd be making a major statement about Russia today. South Korea is preparing to order all airlines there to examine fuel switches in its Boeing aircraft. The fuel switch locks are now the focus of the investigation into last month's Air India Dreamliner crash. A preliminary report found that moments before the plane came down, the fuel was cut off to both engines.

A document seen by Reuters shows the USFAA and Boeing saying that the locks are safe. Abhijit, Ganapavaram, is in New Delhi and following this story. The biggest question that is being asked is whether the switches were moved intentionally by mistake or if it was an electrical failure. There has been a lot of speculation on social media among pilots, among experts as well. But a lot of aviation safety experts are stating that it is impossible to move the switches accidentally. and no pilot in his right mind would move the switches deliberately because at such a crucial stage of the flight when the plane is just taking off, if the fuel supply to the engines is cut off,

it would be very, very hard to recover from there. How long will it take to fully understand what happened then? So the report has pointed to the movement of engine switches and said that is likely what led to the loss of thrust. Now, there are no other plausible theories. that have come out from the report, we'll have to wait for the final investigation to see what actually led to the crash. President Trump is threatening to impose a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico and the European Union.

The EU says it will extend its suspension of countermeasures to those US tariffs until early August and push for a deal. It's another escalation in a trade war that is angering US allies and rattling investors. But it's also bringing in much-needed revenue for the U.S. government, more than $27 billion in June alone. Our economics reporter, David Lauder,

is digging into what all this means for the U.S. economy. There's more money coming in. It's roughly about four times the $7 billion that we saw a year prior. So, you know, it's a significant increase In terms of the grand scheme of revenues, this is still a fairly small component, but it's grown, you know, from like 2% of revenue historically to about 5% of revenue. And economists think it can grow further.

That's $30 billion a month. That translates to $360 billion a year. Over 10 years, that's $3.5 to $4 trillion. That's kind of the territory of what the one-billion. beautiful bill cost in terms of increasing the deficit for all those tax cuts. And this is, this is really the Republican argument for those tariffs because it helps to compensate for the added costs of that bill. The House of Representatives has dubbed this week, Crypto Week. Carmel Crimmons is here to explain why. So the House is set to pass a series of bills this week

that will bring the crypto industry a step closer to the mainstream. And investors are betting that these policy wins will mean more investment dollars, propelling Bitcoin to record highs. The most notable bill is one that would establish a regulatory framework for stable coins. That's a huge win for the crypto industry, which has been pushing for federal legislation for years and poured lots of money into last year's elections to get pro-crypto candidates elected. You can hear all about that bill in a recent episode of my podcast,

Reuters Econ World. We'll put a link in the description of today's podcast, In Gaza, at least eight Palestinians, most of them children, have been killed as they collected water. The Israeli military says the missile had intended to hit a militant, but that a malfunction caused it to fall dozens of meters from the target. And Yanik Sinner says it's the realization of a dream after becoming the first Italian Wimbledon Singles Men's Champion. He beat defending champion Carlos Alcaraz five weeks after losing to him in the longest French open final ever. Soccer's Club World Cup has finished with a shock result in the final

Chelsea winning 3-0 against Paris Saint-German. Donald Trump was on stage to lift the trophy with the Chelsea players, surprising some of them by staying for the initial celebrations. The final took place at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, concluding a tournament seen as a dry run for next year's Soccer World Cup. That will be co-hosted by the US as well as Mexico and Canada. To find out what FIFA has learned from this tournament, let's chat to Fernando Kallas, who's been covering the games.

Fernando, how did it all go? I think it was like a glittering dress rehearsal to the tournament. The biggest issues are the weather and the pitch. The afternoon and the noon games, they were relentless with the heat, and the players, they complained a lot. And we needed a break. It was clear that you cannot play a 3 p.m. game in New York or Philadelphia during summer. And I think that what FIFA can learn about it is for next year, they will have four dome stadiums. You know, stadiums that are covered in Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, and the

Atlanta. So they probably are going to use those cover stadiums to host this early afternoon games. Anything that we saw in this Club World Cup that we might see elsewhere or at the World Cup next year? Yeah, I think that the referee cam was something brilliant. It was amazing because we had the access immediately. And you see the angle from the referee, not only for a a debatable or a controversial decision, but actually watching from the eyes of the referee a brilliant goal. And for today's recommended read, Italy's abortion taboos. On the island of Sicily, more than 80% of gynecologists refused to perform abortions,

despite the fact that the procedure has been a legal right for Italian women for almost half a century. The local government in Sicily recently passed a law in a secret ballot requiring all public hospitals to create dedicated abortion wards and hire staff willing to provide the service. We'll drop a link to that story in the 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 favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headlines. show.