Reuters World News - Exit Tucker Carlson, enter advertisers?

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Tucker Carlson's incendiary style made his show the top-rated cable news program in America. So will his replacement be any different? Joe Biden won't miss the conservative Fox host during the 2024 campaign - but a new poll shows the president is going to have to convince voters age is just a number. And as the end of the Black Sea grain deal approaches, are we headed to a new food crisis?' 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, Joe Biden launches his 2024 re-election bid with a mission to get out the youth vote. Democrats really need young voters to show up in the next election. They're counting on it. One thing Biden won't have to contend with this time round, Tucker Carlson on Fox News. We'll have the latest on that stunning departure. And a deal to keep Ukrainian grain flowing through the Black Sea risks unraveling in the coming days. How will it impact farmers and consumers? I think you're starting to see a major issue for the global food markets

because it'll effectively mean that we've got a very substantial reduction in supplies. It's Tuesday, April 25th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Christopher Wal Jasper in Chicago. And I'm Kim Vennel in London. We start with a seismic shock to the news world. Fox News gave a tersely worded statement Monday announcing host Tucker Carlson had parted ways with the network. The news comes less than a week after Fox settled a defamation lawsuit by Dominion voting systems for nearly $800 million.

For the latest on this, we're joined by media correspondent Helen Costa. Helen, this is a major change at Fox. Tucker Carlson's departure is a really big deal for Fox News and for Fox News's parent company. He was a rating star. His prime time show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, averaged 3.4 million viewers every night. And so what do we know about why he's leaving? Is it related to Dominion?

So at this point, we don't know yet. We're still doing reporting on that. Dominion alleged in its lawsuit that Tucker Carlton allowed some of those debunked election fraud claims about Dominion to air on his show. And in discovery, Dominion turned up private communication in which he cast doubts about the plausibility of those claims and private messages. He's also key to additional legal battles that Fox is facing. What's the financial impact of Tucker's departure?

It's interesting that even though Carlson was a huge driver of ratings for Fox, blue chip advertisers have historically shied away from his show. And that's because of the incendiary nature of a lot of that content. So Carlson's departure could be a hit to short-term readings, but historically, Fox News has always recovered. And depending on how incendiary the next hosts will be, they could actually court more blue-chip advertisers with Carlson's departure. Helen, thanks so much. And Carlson's not the only departure from a major US network. Don Lemon is leaving CNN after 17 years.

He says he was fired. CNN said Lemon's version of a. events was inaccurate. And now for headlines making news around the globe. A 72-hour ceasefire has come into effect in Sudan, as the capital Khatoum rapidly becomes a ghost town. More than 400 people have died in the fighting since it erupted 10 days ago, and thousands have fled. The death toll from a Kenyan starvation cult keeps rising. So far, 73 bodies have been.

recovered from mass graves. The Kenyan Red Cross said 112 people have been reported missing. Followers of the Christian sect believed they'd go to heaven if they starved themselves. Guatemalan President Alejandro Diomate has pledged his unconditional support to Taiwan on a trip to the island. It comes as China continues to mount pressure on the 13 remaining countries that have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Financial markets, we are only now seeing the full legacy of last month's banking turmoil. Shares in First Republic Bank sank more than 20% after it says it lost $100 billion worth of deposits in the first quarter. It plans to shrink its balance sheet, lay off staff, and cut

executive pay to reduce costs. Over here in Europe, some potentially positive news on the inflation front. French ECB policymaker Francois Velleroi de Gallo said food price inflation will start easing in the second half of this year. Investors are still expecting the ECB to hike rates next week. This is not a time to be complacent. That's why I'm running for re-election. It's official. Joe Biden is going for a second term.

But about half of Democrats don't want him to run. They think he's too old, according to a Reuters ipsoz poll. We spoke to Trevor Honeycutt at the White House. to find out how Biden and his team plan to navigate that. So in 2024, President Biden is not going to be in his basement for the campaign. He's going to be running a full campaign that is not at all affected by the COVID pandemic. And that's going to mean visiting states in person, greeting local politicians, kissing babies, doing all of the things that we expect to see from a politician.

And that is going to be a real test for a man in his 80s. and something that voters are going to be looking at very carefully. And so what they're going to be looking for is voters to show up because of enthusiasm over the issues, at least as much as a candidate and maybe more. And there's also the Trump factor, right? Republicans are very possibly going to be running Donald Trump again. And Democrats expect that that will generate a lot of the enthusiasm that their own candidate sometimes doesn't seem to inspire.

From the White House, I'm Trevor Honeycutt. As for that other presumptive frontrunner in the race, Donald Trump is already the first former president to face criminal charges. On Tuesday, jury selection begins in an unrelated civil case over whether he lied about committing rape. Former Al Magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll says Trump raped her in the mid-90s. Now she's taking him to court for defamation after calling her claim a hoax and a lie. She's also suing for battery. Trump has denied all wrongdoing and is not expected to testify. For nearly a year now, Ukrainian corn, wheat, and sunflower oil has been flowing through the Black Sea,

past Russian blockades and underwater mines. Moscow had hoped that allowing safe passage of Ukrainian crops might mean the West would ease up on sanctions that have hurt Russian wheat and fertilizer sales. But they haven't. An end to the Black Sea Grain Agreement could have ripple effects for both Ukraine's neighbors and the rest of the world. Our European agriculture correspondent Nigel Hunt is here now to walk us through the impacts. Nigel, if this deal falls apart, how does that change things on the ground? If the corridor closes, you will see more pressure for Ukraine to try and export more volumes through Eastern Europe. That's their only option. The Eastern European farmers don't want it

because it will depress their prices. The difficulty will be that the volumes needed to move will be much, much greater if the Black Sea corridor closes. So I think the world could survive and the Ukrainian farmers could cope if this ended up being just for, say, two or three months. But once the harvest start to begin, once the corn starts pouring in, without a Black Sea outlet, it's going to be very, very hard for the Ukrainian farmers. And what effect would that have on global food prices? I think the immediate effect of it closing down will be a spike in prices.

It won't be as big as a spike we saw immediately after Russia's invasion. If it's still in force in October, as I say, when the big crops come, then I think you're starting to see a major issue for the global food markets. Thank you so much for joining us, Nigel. Thank you very much, Chris. Now, Nigel mentioned Eastern European farmers who've taken a real hit from the influx of Ukrainian grain. Our reporter, Gerge Suckech, talked to one Hungarian farmer

who was shoveling the very grain he's been struggling to sell. Andrash Pasterm has told us that he still has a large amount of Nathieu's maize crop sitting in storage as local buyers, including some of his own clients. and decided to purchase some cheaper grains from neighboring Ukraine. If the UN-backed grain deal falls apart in the next few weeks, it's only bound to make the situation of Central European farmers more difficult. Given that large amounts of Ukrainian grains have made their way across Central Europe,

many local buyers ended up purchasing these stocks, which farmers say would have initially been meant to just transit the region. but ended up staying there. It's a sound that strikes fear into the heart of any beachgoer with an ice cream cone in hand. But that isn't actually a seagull. That's 21-year-old Dutchman Yarmou, who just won the crown for Best Seagull imitator in a Belgian competition. Organizers say they want to change the image of seagulls by encouraging human performances. We'll let you be the judge.

That's it for today's edition of Reuters World News. See you tomorrow. Before you go, we would love for you to tell us what you think about the show. There's a survey in the pod's description on the Reuters website or your preferred podcast platform.