Reuters World News - Iran ‘finish line,’ US-NATO rift, birthright citizenship, White House ballroom and 401ks

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. It's Wednesday, April 1st. Today, Trump says the war in Iran could be over in two or three weeks. Frustration with NATO as the U.S. demands more help in the Middle East. Birthright citizenship is in the hot seat at the Supreme Court. And a judge puts the brakes on Trump's White House ballroom. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. I would say that within two weeks, maybe, two weeks, maybe three, we're hitting them very hard. US President Donald Trump says the Iran war finish line is in sight, despite the fact that the Strait of Hormuz remains shut. And Washington is signaling potential for direct talks with Tehran and a winding down of

Starting point is 00:00:56 the war, even without a deal. That contradicts Trump's previous threat to intensify attacks if Iran didn't accept his 15-point plan. According to a Reuters Ipsos poll, two-thirds of Americans want a swift end to the war, even if Trump's goals are not met. The White House says Trump will address the nation this evening to provide an important update on Iran. Meanwhile, tensions between Washington and its NATO allies are growing, as Trump increasingly makes it clear he's not happy with the lack of military support for the war in Iran. France, Italy and Spain have all denied the US use of their airspace or military bases for war, with Spain closing its airspace entirely and Italy blocking American bombers from landing

Starting point is 00:01:41 in Sicily. And Trump is warning the U.S. will remember. On Tuesday, our Pentagon reporter Phil Stewart asked Defense Secretary Pete Heggsett if that was the case. And he, I'd say, still committed to NATO's collective defense. And as far as NATO's concerned, that's a decision that will be left to the president. But I'll just say a lot has been laid bare. A lot has been shown to the world about what our allies. would be willing to do for the United States of America when we undertake an effort of this scope on behalf of the free world. We called up, Phil, after that press conference.

Starting point is 00:02:15 I mean, I've been covering the Pentagon since 2009, so going on 17 years. And I can tell you that it was a striking moment to be there and hear a U.S. Defense Secretary not stand up for the collective defense of NATO because experts warn that vacillation at the DoD level, at the Pentagon level, is something quite different than having the President of the United States make comments as he has for years, kind of denigrating NATO or saying things that make people question in what he thinks.

Starting point is 00:02:50 Trump has consistently criticized allies for not jumping into this war, but Phil says that's not what the alliance is designed for. One is the question about whether NATO, as NATO, could ever get involved in a, in a war like this? And the answer is no. It's a defensive alliance. And unless NATO is attacked, you know, or unless the NATO allies attack, you really can't invoke Article 5. But the other question and the one that is going to be harder for NATO allies to address in a way that might be satisfactory to President Trump is why they will allow things like overflight of their territories. In a post on his social media platform, Trump says countries,

Starting point is 00:03:32 who don't join the US in its strikes on Iran and are concerned about oil shortages due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz should go it alone. And as tensions rise with the US over the war in Iran, Britain is deploying the soft power of the monarchy to smooth things over. Buckingham Palace announcing that King Charles

Starting point is 00:03:51 is set to make a state visit to the US at the end of April. The high-stakes diplomatic mission is aimed at repairing relations with President Trump over the UK's reluctance to join the conflict. Trump has repeatedly blasted Prime Minister Kirstarmer, saying he's no Winston Churchill. The Trump administration is proposing a new rule that would open the door for Americans' 401Ks to invest in alternative assets, like private equity and cryptocurrencies.

Starting point is 00:04:19 Industry experts say the move could boost returns, but critics warned they could expose retirement savings to higher fees and greater risk. With more than $14 trillion in retirement assets potentially affected, the proposal has sparked a fierce debate about what belongs in ordinary Americans' nest eggs. Ila Binney covers finance. Critics of including alternative assets in retirement plans, including, for example, Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, are worried that these markets are too opaque and are not appropriate for the same retirement objectives of savers in 401K accounts. Recently, we've seen a lot of questions. Recently, we've seen a lot of questions. around valuations of these assets because they're not valued in such a transparent way as

Starting point is 00:05:07 public assets, for example. So not being able to have the same level of information about your investments is seen to be a risk. Equally, market volatility is seen to be another risk as far as the critics of these moves are concerned. Now, proponents of the plan say that the needs for retirement savers to meet their own savings goals are so far. that they need access to these markets. Also, other kinds of retirement plans have had access to them for a long time. So the idea is that this is actually, from the supporters' perspective, it is actually more fair to open this up to more everyday savers. While the administration looks at long-term retirement returns, Americans face a more immediate

Starting point is 00:05:54 squeeze at the pump. Here's Mike Dolan from our sister podcast Morningbid. So maybe that jump in the gas pump price above $4 a gallon. yesterday was enough to convince Washington to start to wind down this conflict, because certainly those are the signals that we've seen over the last 24 hours. Wall Street was electrified yesterday. The biggest jump in the S&P 500 in almost a year, almost 3% on Tuesday, and futures prices are up again as we start April trading today. And in Asia, we had extraordinary moves in Japan, 5%, Taiwan, 5%. Korea, 8%. percent. Markets think it's the beginning of the end.

Starting point is 00:06:35 Thanks, Mike. You can find morning bid wherever you get your podcasts. The Supreme Court has struck down a Colorado law banning so-called conversion talk therapy for LGBT minors. In an 8-to-1 ruling, the justices say it violates free speech protections, with only Justice Katanji Brown Jackson dissenting. The decision, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, sided with a Christian counsellor who argued the law didn't just regulate professional conduct, but censored her speech based on a viewpoint. More than two dozen states have similar restrictions. The ruling could undermine the power to restrict a practice which medical groups call harmful. And today, the court is considering President Trump's executive order, ending birthright citizenship for babies born in the US to undocumented or temporary immigrants. It's a move that challenges

Starting point is 00:07:34 128 years of constitutional precedent. The case tests a land. landmark 1898 ruling involving Wang Kim Ark, a San Francisco man born to Chinese immigrants, who the government tried to bar from re-entering the country. His great-grandson, Norman Wong, is watching the case closely. I didn't really appreciate the fact that he won a victory for birthright citizenship. My citizenship, I took for granted since I was a child. Reporter Andrew Chung will be at the court later today. The 14th Amendment Citizenship Clause, has long been understood to grant citizenship to virtually anyone who is born on U.S. soil. So the Trump administration says that has been a mistake and that the government has granted citizenship to people who do not qualify under the 14th Amendment,

Starting point is 00:08:28 namely people who are in the United States illegally or even temporarily, such as those on work visas or who are here as students. A ruling in favor of the Trump administration could have far-reaching implications. By some estimates, there are as many as 250,000 babies born in the United States as part of each of these categories to parents who are either here illegally or temporarily. So the legal status of all of those children would be put up in the air. Parents across the board might have to prove the citizenship of their children as well. The President Trump's executive order is also supposed to be prospective, meaning it only applies to babies born after it goes into effect. However, some legal scholars say that in the future, there could be legal challenges and attempts

Starting point is 00:09:25 to apply the language of the executive order retrospectively or retroactively, meaning that the citizenship of people who were born here and received citizenship could also be threatened. A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump's plans to build a $400 million ballroom on the White House grounds, at least for now. The preliminary injunction holds construction of the massive facility, which Trump launched after demolishing the historic East Wing. The judge says construction must stop unless Congress authorizes the project. The ballroom was meant to be a signature legacy project, for Trump, funded entirely by private donors. He's got 14 days to appeal.

Starting point is 00:10:12 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 favourite podcast player. 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 headline show.

Reuters World News - Iran ‘finish line,’ US-NATO rift, birthright citizenship, White House ballroom and 401ks

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