Reuters World News - Hunting the U.S. leak and Italy's blow for LGBTQ parents

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

The latest on the scramble to find the source of highly classified U.S. leaks. We speak to Italian LGBT couples fearful that a new anti-surrogacy law will bar them from parenthood. And how President Biden is counting on the luck of the Irish to help calm tensions on a post-Brexit trade deal. 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, US officials scramble to identify the source of a highly classified Intel leak. LGBT families in Italy say new surrogacy laws target them. Our reporter speaks to families affected. And how President Biden hopes to channel his ancestry to break political deadlock in Northern Ireland. It's Monday, April 10th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vinal in London. We start with news making headlines around the world.

It's a whodunit of epic proportions and national significance. A leak of classified US intelligence documents has official scrambling to uncover the source, with some experts saying it could be an American. It's seen as the most serious security breach since WikiLeaks in 2013, with details ranging from the depletion of Ukrainian air defense missile, to Israel's Mossad spy agency. US officials said the investigation is in its early stages. Those running it have not ruled out the possibility

that pro-Russian elements were behind the leak. Reuters has not independently verified the authenticity of the documents. Stay across Reuters.com and our app for the latest as this story develops. The Republican-Land's supermajority of the Tennessee General Assembly sought to have a political lynching of three of its members because we spoke out of turn against the status quo of the government

after the tragic deaths of six people in the shooting at the Coveney School in Nashville. That's ousted lawmaker, Justin Pearson, speaking at an Easter service in Memphis, Tennessee on Sunday. He and fellow expelled representative, Justin Jones, say they hope to reclaim their seats soon in a special election. The expulsion of the two black representatives from the Republican-dominated Tennessee House of Representatives has drawn national outcry from Democrats.

Republicans accused them of engaging in disorderly behavior after shouting through a bullhorn on the House floor during a protest demanding stricter gun laws. China's military have carried out a third day of drills simulating strikes against Taiwan. China's state broadcaster aired videos of the exercises, including what it said was a nuclear-capable H-6 bomber flying north of Taiwan.

Beijing announced the drills over the weekend after Taiwan's president, Tsying Wen, returned to the island after meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. China views democratically govern Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under Beijing's control. Japan is considering government adoption of artificial intelligence technology, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.

Chief Cabinet Secretary, Herokazu Matsunu, said, Japan would evaluate possibilities of introducing AI to lessen government workers' workload if cybersecurity concerns are resolved. His remarks came after Sam Altman, Open AI's chief, paid a visit to the country and said they want to open an office there. In Ukraine. Tears of joy and bursts of laughter as families embrace after months apart. More than 30 children were reunited with their families after a complex rescue mission to bring

them back from Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea. The children had been taken from areas occupied by Russian forces during the war. 13-year-old Dasha said once in Crimea Russian officials told the children that'd be adopted. Moscow denies abducting children and says they were transported for their own safety. U.S. President Joe Biden heads to Ireland this week for a four-day trip, marking the anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which brought peace to Northern Ireland. But 25 years later, political deadlock over post-Brexit trade rules is threatening stability. Biden wants to boost support for the deal, but the trip is not all business, as White House correspondent Trevor Hannigate explains.

President Biden is making this trip to Ireland first and foremost because he wants to, because he's a big fan of his Irish ancestry. As long as I can remember, it's been sort of part of my side. And it's been a goal to make this trip as president. And then he's also got some serious national security reasons. And that is ensuring that the very delicate political balance that has existed and kept Northern Ireland secure for the past 25 years is maintained. And that is very much in question at this point. Why is that in question? Basically, the agreement that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom reached with the European Union.

Union to basically allow Ireland to still have a customs arrangement. That deal is not sitting right with all of the factions within Northern Ireland. And so that has raised the risk that there may be violence again. And that is something that the Biden administration really does not want to see. So what does Biden see his role then? How does he hope to achieve this? So one thing Biden is going to do is he's going to celebrate essentially the, political compromises that led to the deal 25 years ago in the hopes that he can encourage political factions to come to that sort of deal once again. And he's also going to float the possibility of greater U.S. Northern Ireland ties, including trade and investment relationships,

that he hopes will encourage a peaceful resolution to the dispute. Thank you, Trevor. In Italy, a clamp down on same-sex parents is causing both anger and confusion. Right-wing Prime Minister Georgia Maloney came to power last year, vowing to combat what she calls the LGBT lobby. In recent weeks, lawmakers have proposed an anti-surrogacy law, widely seen as targeting gay couples. That's led to protests in Rome and Milan. Our reporter, Alvizé Armalini, has been to one of them and told me the latest.

It was a peaceful event of people who, however, are angry at the recent government decisions, which they feel antagonise and discriminate against the LGBT community and particularly against same-sex parents. You spoke to one couple out there who were campaigning about this. Tell us about that family. It was a lesbian couple. They went to Spain to have artificial insemination, and then they had twin children born in Rome about 10 months ago, and they were there at the rally with their kids,

and I spoke to the biological mother of the twins, Julia. She felt the need to come down and protest in the street because in the current situation, her partner cannot pick up the children from school or cannot take them to hospital, or cannot authorise medical treatment on them unless she has a written authorization from her. What happens next in terms of the politics of all of this and the legislation? You have this bill in Parliament which proposes to extend the ban on surrogacy to procedures done abroad. It's been introduced at committee stage.

After the committee stage, it has to go to the floor of the lower house and then get approval also in the upper house. technically the ruling coalition has the numbers to get it approved, but it's a question of political will. At the moment, there is no sign that the government is backing down. As for the other government action that people are protesting against, which is this order to mayors to stop registering the children of same-sex couples, that stands unless someone takes legal action against it or tries to have it overruled, but at the moment this seems unlikely. All right. Alvizay, thank you so much. much.

Pope Francis presiding at a solemn Easter day mass in St. Peter's Square on Sunday. The 86-year-old had been hospitalized for bronchitis at the end of March, but was mostly able to keep up with the busy holiday week. We checked in with Vatican correspondent Philip Pulele to see how the pontiff is sparing. There were some fears that he could not complete all the things that he had to do, but he In fact, he did most of all the Holy Week activities, with the exception of going to the Coliseum on Friday evening. His doctors asked him not to go to an outdoor service at the Coliseum because it was unusually cold in Rome that night. And so he skipped that, but specifically because it was cold.

And obviously, for your doctor advising, an 86-year-old person who has just come out of the hospital for bronchitis. You wouldn't want him catching a cold. But apart from that, he attended every ceremony on Easter week and seemed to be doing very well. That's it for today on Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow. Remember, you can follow us on your favorite podcast platform or download the Reuters app.