Reuters World News - Google AI hack, Greenland, Germany's leader and Mbappe

Episode Date: September 19, 2026

Gemini hacks three companies in first known breakout by Google's AI. The US and Denmark reach a deal on Greenland. Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under pressure as the far-right looks set to top the polls in another state election. And, French soccer star Kylian Mbappe drops Nike for Swiss sportswear brand On. Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download the Reuters app here.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Listen to the Morning Bid 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 Elena Kassas in London. It's Saturday, September 19th. Today, another AI hack this time at Google. The US and Denmark reach a deal on Greenland. Germany's Chancellor is under pressure as the far-right gains ground. And why the US still can't afford to walk away from NATO. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money.

Learn more at Bloomberg.com. Google says its artificial intelligence system, Gemini, hacked other companies during a test of its cybersecurity capabilities. It's the first known breakout by the company's AI and follows similar incidents at other leading AI labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta. The breakouts have spurred some industry leaders, including Dario Amadee, the chief executive of Anthropic,

to call for a slowdown in the development of AI. Despite that call, Anthropic is considering rolling out a new AI model to counter-rival Open AI. Sources are telling Reuters that the move is being considered after Open AI's latest model gained a lot of traction among businesses. Both companies are locked in a fierce battle for capital, with Anthropic looking to IPO this year. Anthropic declined to comment on the Reuters reporting.

US President Donald Trump says his administration has reached a deal with Denmark and Greenland to expand the US military presence on the island. The agreement falls well short of Trump's aim of acquiring the autonomous Danish territory for the United States, but the president seems pleased with the outcome, saying it was a dream come true for America. Denmark says the deal will strengthen North Atlantic and Arctic security, while Greenland says it recognizes the Arctic Islands' interests. The Kennedy Center opened 55 years ago as a living memorial.

Demonstrators at the Kennedy Center protest President Trump's efforts to close and remake the center in his image. Don't lay a finger on JFK's memorial. The protests come amid speculation about a possible effort to demolish the building. Speaking at the Oval Office on Friday, Trump refused to say whether he would tear the center down. The place is a dump. It's been a dump for years. It's lost money for years. I can turn it around, fix it. Earlier this week, the Kennedy Center Board voted to close the facility for two years for a renovation project. As I understand it, he paid him back. He didn't want to have that. So I hear he paid him back. President Trump again there telling reporters his son Don Jr. will pay back a Russian oligarch who bankrolled his wedding celebrations in the Bahamas.

Democrats launched an investigation this week into reports that Umar Kremlin, a wealthy Russian businessman, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the wedding festivities in May. Over in Europe, voters in the former East German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania head to the polls on Sunday. The far-right alternative for Germany, or AFD, leads opinion polls just weeks after an historic electoral triumph in nearby Saxony-Anholds. The AFD is unlikely to win enough votes to form a government in Mecklenburg, but that doesn't mean the crisis for Germany's mainstream parties and its Chancellor Freidring Merz is over. James McKenzie has more from Berlin.

As things stand at the moment, it looks like the Social Democrat state premier, who's someone called Manuel Schweizik. She looks as though she'll be able to form a coalition and stay in power. but the AFD is likely to be the largest single party. So, you know, we can see they're still very strongly placed, but the kind of coalition dynamics are playing against them because they've been isolated by the other parties, none of the other bigger parties wants to go into a coalition with them.

The CDU, the Maitz's party, the Christian Democrats, they're in a very, very weak position in, Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania, they're down at 7% in the opinion polls. And, you know, they're really running a risk of falling under 5%, which is the really vital level which you need to get into Parliament in the first place. So they might get shut out of Parliament. That would be really a black eye for Merz. There's another election which is in Berlin, the capital, which also counts as a state

in the German federal system and the CDU is, you know, could lose the mayor of Berlin, which they currently, you know, the mayor of Berlin is currently a CDU politician and they're running sort of neck and neck with the far left party. And, you know, what happens there will also need to be decided on Sunday. Cyber attacks have changed. Most cyber recovery plans haven't. 12,000 customers trust Cohesity Everywhere. Cloud, identity, AI, and now, agents. Cohesity.com slash resilience. Resilience everywhere.

Political shifts aren't just reshaping Europe. They're also raising questions about security and alliances. This year, President Trump has been testing NATO, threatening troop cuts, badgering allies over defense spending and criticizing governments who don't unconditionally support the U.S. Israeli war against Iran. Yet, a Reuters investigation has found the Trump administration continues to rely heavily on the alliance. Special correspondent Andrew Marshall has more. On the ground, the US military is still pouring money into European bases and relying on them,

spending more than $4.2 billion on air bases in Britain, despite limited British support for US strikes in Iran. In fact, the Iran War underscores how dependent Washington remains on European geography. As of June, hundreds of US military aircraft transited through bases in Italy alone before heading to the Middle East. In one sense, Trump's pressure campaign did work. Europe and Canada's defence spending jumped 20% in 2025. But instead of relying on American weapons, many countries are now shopping elsewhere from Australian radar systems to Swedish surveillance planes. The Pentagon summer plan for a 25,000 troop cut in Europe was dialed down to a six-month

review of US-European force relations, but Trump's threat to pull out of NATO entirely has still had an impact. Even if the US sticks with NATO, officials are worried that Trump's rhetoric alone is weakening the alliance's core promise. That's Article 5, which says that an armed attack on one member is an attack on all. Security experts said Russia could be emboldened if it thinks a US force might not show up in a crisis. That's dangerous, especially with Russian drones and a cruise missile already crossing into NATO airspace in Romania and Poland this year. Russia denies it

was involved, but European officials say it's Moscow testing NATO's unity. As fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Hussis intensifies, Yemenis are on the move, looking to escape the violence. In the country's Taiz province, Reuters visited the Al-Birin camp. There we met Roya Hassan, a mother of seven, baking bread in a clay oven after fleeing violence in the Al-Qasah area. Speaking in Arabic, Hassan says her family fled under attacks she described as involving missiles, aircraft and fighting. She says they escaped barefoot, became separated from some of their children during the chaos, and arrived with almost nothing. And it's not the first time they've been uprooted. Her family has spent years living with war and displacement

and now lacks reliable shelter of food and water. Another resident, Mohidin Saif, says many arrivals left behind nearly all of their possessions and are appealing for assistance. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 100,000 Yemenis have been displaced by the latest fighting, most of them within the country. One of Nike's biggest stars is moving on.

French soccer superstar Kiliin Bappe is leaving the company after a partnership that began when he was just nine years old. He's signing with sportswear brand on, giving the fast-growing company one of the biggest names in the game as it expands into soccer. Reporter Danielle Kaye says it's a major win for On, although turning Star Power into sales is a different challenge. Whether on they'll be successful in making sustained inroads in soccer is still an open question. And many analysts have noted that this is an increasingly competitive industry. It's a tough industry to break into. We've seen other brands, including Under Armour, New Balance, even Skechers, try to make inroads and soccer. But, you know, they've struggled to chip away at the dominance held by Nike, Adidas, and Puma.

So, you know, while this is sort of a new strategy for On, investors will be closely watching whether, you know, this high-profile splashy, spashy move can actually translate into sustained growth. Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. For more on any of the stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters out.

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