Reuters World News - EU-Russia, Epstein photos and a slightly drier holiday

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

The EU agrees to indefinitely freeze Russian assets, removing obstacles for a loan to Ukraine. The admiral leading U.S. troops in Latin America steps down. Trump appears in newly released Epstein��photos. Plus, Americans say they’re drinking less, but new data shows the drop is only about one drink per week. Recommended Read: Pictures of the year: Animals Listen to Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to On Assignment podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.  Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠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

Hi, I'm Sharon Reisch Garson in New Jersey. It's Saturday, December 13th. Today, the EU freezes 210 billion euros in Russian assets to back Ukraine. A look behind the scenes as a photographer follows torrential floods in the Pacific Northwest. Plus, will the U.S. have its holiday cheer without the hangover this year? This is Reuters World News, bringing you every day. everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. The European Union is freezing 210 billion euros in Russian central bank assets to provide

a massive loan to Ukraine for its fight against Russia. The move ensures no member state can block the freeze. Russia's calling the move illegal and saying it's suing Euroclear, which holds most of those funds. I haven't seen it, but I mean, everybody knew this man. He was all over Palm Beach. President Donald Trump shrugging off 19 newly released photos of Jeffrey Epstein, some showing him, as Democrats drop a trove of files. And it's not over.

The Justice Department is set to release more next week. Oil tanker movements in and out of Venezuela have come to a near standstill after the U.S. seized an oil tanker and nearly two million barrels of crude oil near the coast this week. And on Friday, Admiral Alvin Holsey stepped down two years early as head of U.S. Southern Command. Sources tell Reuters he was pushed out by Defense Secretary Pete Hanksah, who's been driving a harder military stance in the region. Holsey hasn't said why he's leaving. Rain is finally eased in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada,

after an atmospheric river brought several days of torrential rain. But floodwater is still a major concern. Tens of thousands of people are under evacuation orders after a warning to residents across Washington State and Western Canada to brace for life-threatening floods. We spoke to photographer David Ryder on Friday from a flooded park in Burlington where National Guard crews were working on evacuations and rescues.

The waters have completely spilled over the edge of this Gadget River. The pictures of this boat rescue, this was in Burlington, Washington. They started to load up this inflatable raft into one of the military vehicles. I was talking to one of the National Guard guys, and even they were kind of surprised at what they were doing because you don't see a river raft going into a military vehicle like that too often. Some of the crews were on foot, and I was on foot following them. kind of wading through the water.

They paddled the raft, picked up a guy and two dogs, and then floated back over to the vehicle to give a ride to the guy and his two dogs. The past week has been a big one for markets, fresh worries about an AI bubble and talk of Fed rate cuts have dominated. Host of our sister podcast Morning Bid Dara Rana Singh

is here to share what to watch in the week ahead. Hi, Dara. It's actually been a really busy week, Sharon. So let's start with Oracle. It shares suffered their worst day since January as a company released its latest earnings. And in that report, they raise their forecast for capital expenditure. So you have these kinds of renewed concerns about an AI bubble and high valuations in the sector. We also had the US Federal Reserve.

So the Fed cut interest rates it's expected and signalled that it's in no hurry. to cut interest rates again. So that's one. The markets will be watching closely next year. And, you know, it's also just worth noting what's going on in Japan. There we saw huge pressure in the government bond market. Short-dated yields are at their highest since a global financial crisis, which is saying something. And what's going on there?

The Bank of Japan is meeting next week, and it's expected to deliver a rating increase, and that explains some of that pressure. The U.S. Army has unveiled plans. to build portable refineries for critical minerals to cut reliance on China. They're starting a six-month trial using a mini-refinery focusing on antimony trisulfide, a key ingredient for the explosive cap at a bullet's base. Mining correspondent Erdus Scheider has more. The problem from the commercial industry's perspective is that it's just not economical

to make large volumes of antimony trisulfide when you're basically only going to have one customer that is the US Army. So the military realized pretty quickly that it would have to come up with its own solution. And working with the Idaho National Laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy, as well as perpetual resources, which is building an antimony and gold mine in Idaho, the U.S. Army has basically built its own mini refinery. This produces between seven to 10 metric tons annually of that antimony trisulfide. That's a really small amount. from commercial volumes perspectives, but it's enough antimony tricylphide for the army

to make all of the bullets it would need in peacetime. And if there were an armed conflict to break out, the army could then basically use two or three or four or more to rapidly increase production. If all this works out, then they're going to start to look at other critical minerals as well, including tungsten, which is used as a hardening agent for steel, as well as rare earths,

which has been in the headlines a lot this year, because China has blocked exports at various times. And they also might look at boron, which is used in bulletproof vests and other types of weaponries. I was speaking with somebody at the US Army who painted this really, I think, stark but interesting picture. He said, without antimony tri-sulfide, you can't make primers. Without primers, you can't make bullets.

And an army without bullets is just a parade. Phase one, we're almost there. We have one more hostage, deceased, Hanig Vili, a hero of Israel. Over to Israel now, where Hamas and the International Red Cross continues searching for Israel's last hostage. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

is getting ready to turn his attention to the next phase of a U.S.-backed ceasefire plant. But for Rod Gavili's family, it's a moment filled with fear and anticipation. Tali Kavili has been clinging to the fate, hope that Ron, a 24-year-old police officer, may still be alive. His absence has left what she describes as the largest possible hole in her heart. Posters of Ronnie, as his family and friends call him, line the streets of his hometown

Meitare in southern Israel. The families say they're waiting for Gavili's return and that Israel can't begin the next phase of peace talks before he does. Americans say they're drinking less than ever. Non-alcoholic beers, mocktails, health-conscious trends on social media, paint a picture of a nation turning away from booze. But the numbers tell a different story. Reporter Emma Rumney says that the amount U.S. adults drink each week hasn't shifted nearly as much as it seems. Americans report that they are drinking less or even drinking at record lows.

But when it comes to data on actual consumption, This data shows that the picture is a little bit more complicated. So while there has indeed been a drop in the average number of drinks per adult in the US since 2021, that drop is only about one drink per person per week, and the rate of weekly drinking has hovered between 10 and 12 drinks per week for decades, and this drop isn't outside of that range. One of the big concerns has been around whether young people specifically are drinking less. And again, that comes from survey data, which in recent years has suggested that they are,

as well as kind of anecdotal evidence, which is people knowing family members or, you know, the children are friends who say they aren't drinking or aren't drinking as much as they did before. And also there's been a kind of rise in young people prioritising health or prioritising wellness. And all of this together is kind of fed into this debate around whether alcohol sales could go into decline in the long term. Some sources point to the fact that economic pressures are really weighing on a lot of, people at the moment. People just simply do not have as much money in their wallet as they did previously. And that's particularly acute for Gen Z, who some of them especially are in their early 20s. They don't have stable employment yet. They haven't sort of properly started climbing

the career ladder. And that could mean that those economic pressures affect their drinking and weigh on how much they drink more so than for older generations. And for today's recommendation, a collection of our pictures of the year, this time focusing on the animal kingdom, Follow the link in the pod description for polar bears taking over an abandoned research station, fireflies lighting up the night skies in Chile, and more. 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. And if you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters, seven days a week.

We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.