Reuters World News - ICE shooting, winter storm and Japan's panda send-off

Episode Date: January 25, 2026

ICE agents shoot and kill Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, sparking protests. A major storm hammers the southern U.S., causing outages and flight chaos. President Trump threatens a 100% tariff on Canada over its China deal. Plus, Tokyo says goodbye to pandas Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, who are heading back to China. Listen to the latest episode of On Assignment Trump's second year. 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 your weekend host Sharon Reichgarson. It's Sunday, January 25th. Today, federal agents kill a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis, sparking fierce protests. A monster winter storm cripples the southern U.S. with widespread outages. Plus, Japan says goodbye to its last two pandas as the Ueno-Zuz twins depart for China. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Before we begin a quick note, this first story includes graphic images and strong language that some may find disturbing. Listener and viewer discretion is advised. U.S. immigration agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis on Saturday, sparking fierce protests and condemnation from local leaders.

A Reuters verified video from Minneapolis shows federal agents pepper spraying and tackling 37-year-old Alex Preddy during an immigration sweep before gunfire erupt as he lies pinned on the ground. Homeland Security says an agent fired in self-defense, but the bystander video shows Prattie holding a phone as agents spray him, take him down, and struggle over a gun before officers fire multiple shots into his. his back. Minnesota's Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar points to multiple shootings. This is completely out of whack, completely out of balance, and now three people have been shot, two resulting in death. Urging the Trump administration and Republicans to step in and end the deployment. Our message is really clear and straightforward. We need ice. out of Minnesota. A monster winter storm is slamming the U.S., grounding more than 4,000 flights,

and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people from Texas to Tennessee. Forecasters are warning of crippling to catastrophic ice throughout the week. President Trump is calling the storm historic. He's approved disaster declarations and on truth social, he's urging Americans to stay safe. In Tennessee, families grabbed a brief window to enjoy the first snowfall, children playing outside before the weather turned dangerous again. And down in Georgia, the cold snap is putting pressure on animal shelters. Many are pushing short-term fostering to get dogs through the freeze. At the Fulton County Animal Shelter at Atlanta, foster parent Callie Franklin told us it can ease overcrowding.

helps the staff out. It gives a dog a nice warm home for the storm and you know, you get to make a dog feel a little bit better. Be sure to check reuters.com for updates and stay safe. President Trump threatens a 100% tariff on Canada if it follows through on a trade deal with China. In a post-on-truth social, Trump warns Beijing would eat Canada alive. Prime Minister Mark Carney hasn't addressed the threat directly. but in a video posted Saturday, he urged Canadians to buy domestic. Trump also warns China could use Canada as a drop-off port. The Chinese embassy in Canada told Reuters in a statement that it's ready to work with Ottawa on a trade deal.

And while that plays out between Washington and Ottawa, let's find out what's coming up for markets and the Fed this week. Our sister podcast Morning Bids Mike Dolan has more. Hi, Mike. Hi Sharon. Yeah, the big event of the week will be the Fed meeting. We get a decision on that on Wednesday. So much going on that affects that meeting, although we don't expect a change in policy, not yet this year. Certainly the battle for Fed independence, which has already been top of the news so far in January will be fascinating to watch how Chair Powell deals with all of that. He certainly is pushing back. We also get some very big earnings from the big US mega caps like Apple. and meta. We'll have a link in the show notes. Now to Ukraine. In a small theater in Kiev

under bright neon lights and the thud of prosthetic feet on wood, a group of Ukrainian veterans is finding healing somewhere unexpected. Their newest cast member, 31-year-old Andrei Onoprienko,

says he never imagined acting could be part of his future. Onoprienko lost his sight in 2023 when two Russian anti-tank rounds struck his position in Avtivka. Onoprienko had to learn every word of his script by ear. He told Reuters he first turned down the offer because he didn't see how someone who couldn't see could stand on stage. But he pushed through and says now the theater's helping. him rehabilitate and socialize. Veterans Theater was formed to help wounded soldiers find confidence and community as society tries to reabsorb tens of thousands of trauma survivors. One of his

fellow actors, 53-year-old Taras Kozou, lost his left arm in battle. A lifelong folk music fan, he plays a hurdy-gurdy now, using a specially designed prosthetic attached directly to the instrument. Kuzub says on stage you can't hide anything. He describes it as standing there naked, exposed. Together, they stomp and shuffle across the stage, carving out a life that doesn't stop after injury. It just moves in a different direction. Now we've got a Reuters exclusive.

Amazon is preparing another major round of corporate layoffs, About 14,000 jobs this time as the company pushes ahead with plans to shrink its white-collar workforce by 30,000. The cuts are expected across Amazon Web Services, Retail, Prime, and HR. I spoke to our tech correspondent Greg Ben Singer earlier about what the cuts could mean for the broader tech industry. Amazon has been looking for ways to find efficiencies. There's a lot of hope here that AI, will replace a lot of these functions. There's a lot of hope here that workforce can be replaced with lower cost overseas employees,

particularly when you look at the political environment, where things like H-1B workers, the costs to acquire them are going up significantly. So Amazon and other tech companies, for that matter, are going to be looking for a workforce that is more nimble and is lower cost all over the world. And the United States is an expensive place to employ people. SpaceX's Starlink is still the giant in the sky, by far the largest operator out there, with more than 9,000 satellites circling Earth as of 2026. But real competition from another tech billionaire is coming into view.

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origins says it's gearing up to launch its own constellation, a fleet of 5,400 satellites starting in 27. Space correspondent Joey Roulette has more. Blue Origin has decided to build this satellite network. And while it is kind of a launching into the megacostulation business that also includes Starlink and these other Chinese actors, it seems focused on data processing, targeting customers that seem to be government and big business and enterprise rather than the individual consumer. So what that tells us is that this is less of an internet constellation similar to Starlink and more so. kind of like a data back end for all these types of AI projects that the world is kind of expanding

right now. But this threatens to dilute SpaceX's global market share in a way that could, you know, alter the power dynamic over how these systems are used. But the speed of it is really key because Starlink is growing. China is launching a lot of its own satellites. So in order to grasp a good chunk of market share here, Blue Origin is going to have to build this system out quickly. And whether they can do that at the pace that they are hoping, starting in late 2027, you know, remains to be seen. Crowds in Tokyo are saying a final goodbye to Ueno Zoo's twin pandas, Showshao and Lely, before they return to China at the end of the month. Their exit leaves Japan without pandas for the first time in 50 years. And for fans, it's emotional. Some showing up just to be around the beloved

bears one last time. The move to China's been planned for sometime. But the panda's absence is landing at a sensitive moment as relations between China and Japan have cooled in recent months. 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 headlines show.