Reuters World News - Hollywood strike, Russia Iran tension and a do-or-die pitch for DeSantis

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Hollywood faces a total shutdown as actors prepare to join screenwriters on the picket line. We give you the latest from Tinseltown. Ron DeSantis’ campaign focuses on Iowa in a bid to close the gap on Trump. Is the gamble going to pay off? Plus, why the Solomon Islands’ closer ties to China have the U.S. and Australia worried and the decades old dispute that’s caused diplomatic tension between Iran and Russia. 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, Hollywood threatened by total shutdown. The NATO summit wraps with harsh words. A Solomon Islands diplomatic visit to China worries Washington and Canberra, while Moscow and Tehran have tense words over three Gulf islands and Rondasantus' do-or-die play in Iowa. This is Reuters' World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. every weekday.

I'm Kim Vinal in London. We start in Hollywood, where Tinsletown's largest union has recommended actors join screenwriters on the picket lines. A-list actors like Matt Damon are insisting on fairer pay for the union members.

It's just got to be a fair deal. We've got to get what we're worth. And there's money being made and it needs to be allocated in a way that takes care of people who are on the margins. Entertainment reporter Lisa Richwine has been up all night in L.A. following negotiations. Lisa, how big a deal is this?

Well, Hollywood has not seen this happen in 63 years, having two major unions on strike, both the actors and the writers. And it's going to shut down any remaining production that was still going on. The writer's strike that began in May, had already put a stop to a lot of filming, especially of TV shows for the fall season. and now anything that was still happening will have to stop without actors to go on set. So what do they want? The actors are looking for better compensation from streaming services.

They say there's been a big streaming boom, but a lot of them have not benefited from it. And also they want protections around artificial intelligence. There's a lot of nervousness around the technology. There are trailers that show up online that show people like Tom Cruise and others that look just like the real actors. and actors are worried that Studio might try to use this and use their likenesses without their permission or without paying them. So what happens next? Well, what happens next is that the board of the actors union has to formally vote to approve the strike. That seems like a foregone conclusion after the negotiating committee recommended it.

The actors will join the picket lines and no talks have taken place between writers since May and there are no talks going on with the actors. So actors and writers will be on the picket lines until one side or the other decides to go back to the table. Now to news around the world. Chinese hackers have infiltrated email accounts at the state and commerce department, according to Microsoft and U.S. officials. China's embassy in London called the accusation disinformation and called the U.S. government the world's biggest hacking empire and global cyber thief. The NATO summit has wrapped up in Lithuania with a scathing message from President Biden for President Putin.

When Putin and his craving lust for land and power unleashed his brutal war on Ukraine, he was betting NATO would break apart. The United States and other NATO allies have offered Ukraine fresh security assurances for its defense against Moscow. The war continues to threaten the global grain supply. The Black Sea grain export deal, which allows Ukrainian grain to be safely exported, is set to expire on Monday. Russia's foreign minister says he hasn't heard any new proposals. From California to South Florida, a heat wave could see temperatures as high as 120 degrees over the coming days.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat advisories, watches and warnings for areas where about 100 million Americans live. And it's not just the US. Southern Europe and North Africa are also bracing for record temperatures. It's time now for markets with Carmel Crimmons. Carmel investors are reacting to some positive news. That's right. Inflation in the US came in lower than expected.

That's good news for stock markets. Now, investors still expect the Fed to raise rates this month, but they've cut their expectations for an. rate hike in September. And in fact, futures are pointing to a rate cut in March. We've also had a smidgen of good news out of the UK. Its economy shrank less than expected in May. So, so far, at least, it's dodged recession. Unfortunately, though, the overall picture there is still one of tepid growth and high inflation. So the BEO is likely to keep on hiking rates. Now to the South Pacific, where the Solomon Islands deepening ties with China, a raising alarm in

Washington and Canberra. In a trip to Beijing this week, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavada signed nine different deals, but a police cooperation pact has attracted the most attention. Christy Needham in Sydney explains why. Over the last 10 years, China has been a significant builder of infrastructure, roads, ports, even parliament houses across the Pacific Islands. But the security deal with the Solomon Islands appears to have sparked a new phase. And from what we're seeing, China appears to be seeking to send police to the same places that it builds infrastructure.

So does this mean that the Solomon Islands is now closer to Beijing than Washington? Before Sogavari left for Honiara last week, he gave a speech where he said that Solomon Islands would remain neutral after images of Sogavari's television appearances in China, where he's been fated by state media on the front. pages of newspapers and television, the opposition politicians back in Solomon Islands are saying, well, this doesn't look like neutral and it really does look like Sogavari has taken sides. Three small islands seized by Iran 52 years ago, a stoking tension between Moscow and Tehran.

The islands are strategically important, but the United Arab Emirates has always laid claim to them. This week, Iran summoned Russia's ambassador. Here to explain this geopolitical spat is Tom Perry. Tom, why have Russia's comments angered Iran so much? So Iran has been forging stronger ties with Russia. This is part of its efforts to tackle or deal with U.S. sanctions. It wants to show that Washington and its European allies have failed to isolate the Islamic Republic. So that relationship has deepened and Iran will have felt very upset.

set by the Russian statement. Is Iran now isolated over this dispute? Not really. In 2022, China's ambassador was also summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry after a similar statement since last year, ties have strengthened between Iran and China. So beyond this summons, this is not really expected to have a negative impact on Tehran's relations with Moscow. Both countries are in confrontation with the West and under sanctions. both countries need each other. Florida governor Ron DeSantis is struggling to chip away at Donald Trump's massive lead

in the Republican presidential primary. But his campaign believes it's found a way to halt Trump's march to the nomination. Alexandra Ulmer explains. So DeSantis launched on May 24th with really high expectations that this was going to turn into a two-man race against Trump. DeSantis has not been able to make this. happen. He is languishing in the polls about 30 percentage points behind President Trump. So now his team is effectively saying that the one path to victory they still have runs through the early nominating

state of Iowa. Iowa, Midwestern state is very religious. It has a big proportion of evangelicals, Lutherans, and Catholics that DeSantis thinks he can make a real play for, given his right-wing conservative agenda on social issues. So essentially his team is staking a lot on an early win in Iowa on January 15th to then give him momentum to undercut Trump. And why Iowa fundamentally is because the other states that follow Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina are less favorable to DeSantis. Is there a risk for DeSantis in tacking too far right to appeal to these primary voters? Absolutely. He might actually also be setting himself up for losses down the line in less religious states like New Hampshire and Nevada.

And of course, Iowa's not a golden ticket to the White House, right? What does history tell us? The last three winners in Iowa, so that's U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the former Senator Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, they lost the party's nomination. They were not the Republican nominee. And part of the reason they lost in subsequent states is because they were so conservative. That's all we have for today's edition of Reuters World News.

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