Reuters World News - Dutch government, Iran, tariff best offers and Musk at Tesla

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

The Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders has quit the coalition, toppling the government. A damning IAEA report spells out past secret nuclear activities in Iran. The U.S. pushes countries for their best offers on trade negotiations by Wednesday, as the tariff deadline looms. And how Elon Musk’s departure from government will impact Tesla. 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, the Dutch far-right leader quits the governing coalition. A damning report spells out past secret nuclear activities in Iran. Trump asks countries to provide their best offer on trade negotiations and what to expect at Tesla as Elon Musk returns his focus to his businesses. It's Tuesday, June 3rd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool.

First to some breaking news in the Netherlands, where far-right Dutch leader, Gert Wilders, has decided to leave the coalition, toppling the right-wing government. Wilsers says his coalition partners were not willing to embrace his ideas on halting asylum migration. His surprise move will likely lead to new elections. In Istanbul, Russia has set out punitive terms,

for peace with Ukraine, including Kiev giving up big new chunks of territory and limiting the size of its army. That's according to a memo reported by Russian media. Ukraine has repeatedly rejected these Russian conditions. Both sides have agreed to exchange more prisoners of war. The man charged with tossing gasoline bombs at a pro-Israeli rally in Boulder, Colorado, planned his attack for a year. That's according to prosecutors. Mohammed Sabri Solomon told investigators that he wanted to, quote, kill all Zionist people and used Molotov cocktails instead of a gun

because his non-citizen status blocked him from buying one. The 45-year-old Egyptian National has been charged with a federal hate crime, as well as attempted murder. And in Gaza, dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire near a food distribution site in the southern Gaza Strip. That's according to local health authorities. The Israeli military says its forces opened fire on a group who left the designated access routes near the distribution centre. Iran looks set to reject a US proposal to end their nuclear dispute.

That's according to an Iranian diplomat who says it's a non-starter that doesn't take into account to Iran's interests. It comes on the heels of a damning International Atomic Energy Agency report that spells out past secret nuclear activities in Iran at three locations. The confidential report seen by Reuters paves the way for a push by several Western nations for the board to declare Iran in violation of its non-proliferation obligations. Fronsa Murphy covers the IAEA. This latest report does kind of bring this to a head, particularly by mentioning the fact that there were various activities conducted at different sites involving nuclear material

that Iran should have declared to the IAEA. And the United States, Britain, France and Germany are now planning to propose another resolution against Iran at the board, which would declare Iran in noncompliance with its safeguards obligations, which is something that the board hasn't declared in just under 20 years. So that's a really big step. So what's Tehran saying about the report? They've then asked the report itself, and they said they don't agree with the findings. One senior Iranian official was saying that Iran will accelerate its activities much along the lines of, you know, what's been, what we've seen before. But for now, the big game, the 600-pound gorilla in the room is these talks between the United States and Iran. And everyone's really focused on seeing how those pan out.

By the sound of it, it seems that there's movement towards letting Iran enrich on its soil. But again, it's a complicated picture and we have to see what comes of it. at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have been left baffled after the head of the agency said he had not been aware that the country has a hurricane season. That's according to four sources familiar with the situation. The remark was made during a briefing by David Richardson, who has led FEMA since early May. It was not clear to staff whether he meant it literally, as a joke, or in some other context. And South Koreans are at the polls voting for a new president, as we regard.

The election comes after six months of turmoil in the country, triggered by the shock imposition of martial law by the former leader. And you can follow the latest from the election on Reuters.com and the Reuters app and check out our special pod episode on how gender has proved a big divide in Gen Z voters in South Korea and worldwide. We'll put a link in today's pod description. On to tariffs now and what's your best offer? That's what a letter drafted by the White House shows the Trump administration wants countries to provide and trade negotiations by Wednesday. The document suggests an urgency within the administration to complete deals against its own tight deadline. Jarrett Renshaw has the story.

So, Jarrett, what is this letter asking for exactly? Yeah, it's asking for countries. There's a list of about seven bullet points of what they're asking for. tariff rates, purchases of agricultural, industrial products, how they would resolve some non-tariff measures, and then something called country-specific commitments, which is kind of like, what are you going to do for us? Are you going to make a big purchase of corn? Are you going to make a big purchase of soybeans, something that can really entice the U.S. to agree to the terms? And so what does this tell us about where the White House is in negotiations?

Sure. You can imagine negotiating with dozens of countries at one time could be confusing, unwieldy, and what they're doing is trying to streamline it's saying, hey, listen, we've made some progress. Let's lay our cards on the table. You show us your best offer, and they'll do that with multiple countries all at once. And I think this ultimately shows there's a sense of urgency to get these things done well ahead of this July 8th deadline. Less far, the White House has only inked a deal with United Kingdom. And there's been some critics to say that's more of a framework of a deal than a deal per se. Certainly not 120 deals, 120 days. But I think he'll be judged by what happens after July 8th and what all these deals look like. And if he fails to deliver as promised, I think he'll see a lot of

criticism. As Elon Musk turns his focus back to his business dealings after several months helming Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, it's still unclear how his time cutting government spending might impact the fate of his companies. Our global automotive editor, Brian Teveno, has been looking into what this means for Tesla. So I think a lot of investors will be comforted by the fact that he's spending less time in Washington and more time at Tesla, which is, of course, the source of the vast majority of the wealth of the world's richest man. And the stock value has historically been tied up in the leadership of Musk, although he's got quite a few companies to run, right? He's not only got Tesla, but he's got SpaceX and X, the social media platform,

X-A-I, and Neurrelink, the brain chip company. So his attention remains divided between all these firms. So how is Musk viewed in the business community right now? I think the question of whether Musk is an asset to Tesla is becoming more and more of an intense debate. is historically he certainly has been seen as the unquestioned leader of Tesla, a sort of genius behind, you know, many of its previous accomplishments, including selling the first real mass market EVs. At this point, about 75 or 80 percent of Tesla's soaring stock value as the world's most valuable automakers tied up in promises of products that Musk has been talking about for years but has yet to deliver. At the same time, must increasingly controversial social media

posting has alienated a lot of Tesla's traditional customers who tend to be politically liberal and focused on environmental concerns. So what's in the near-term pipeline for Tesla then? I think that's part of Tesla's big problem is it's unclear what it has in the pipeline. Last year, we exclusively reported that they had ended a project that was highly anticipated to build an all-new $25,000 EV. Instead, they seem to be now planning to produce more affordable Teslas that are essentially stripped down versions of their current cars. So without something exciting on the horizon, it could face some trouble with both sales and with sustaining its very high stock value. And for today's recommended, read, an exclusive out of Syria.

The US has given its blessing to a plan which would fold in thousands of foreign jihadist ex-rebel fighters into Syria's new army. According to Syrian defence officials, the unit is mainly Uyghurs from China and neighbouring countries who will join the new unit. There's a link to the story in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out rotors.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player, and we'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.