Reuters World News - Istanbul mayor, US-Russia talks and veterans

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

A Turkish court has jailed Istanbul’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival – triggering huge protests. U.S. and Russian officials begin talks in Saudi Arabia aiming for a Black Sea deal ahead of a broad Ukraine ceasefire. And as the shrinking of the federal workforce hits the VA, we look at the impact on mental healthcare for veterans. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read 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

Today, Turkey jails President Tayyap Erdogan's biggest rival, sparking mass protests. The U.S. mediates ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia. And Trump layoffs at the VA hit mental health services for veterans. It's Monday, March 24th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Sharon Resh Garson in New Jersey, and I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. The biggest protests in Turkey in more than a decade. Hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets.

Police pepper spraying some as they try to push the crowd back in Istanbul. They're here to protest the arrest of the city's mayor. President Tayyip Erdogan's biggest rival. A court put him behind bars on the day he received his party's vote to run for president. Ekram Imamolu is in jail on corruption charges. Joining us with the latest is Turkey Bureau Chief Jonathan Spicer. Jonathan, who is Ekram Imammolu? Ekram Imamolu is Istanbul's mayor.

So he heads up, the country's largest city. And he is a star candidate, really, within the main opposition party. Virtually everyone thinks that he will be the eventual challenger, presidential challenger to Erdogan. And his troubles appear to be galvanizing opposition. against Erdogan's government? Well, it's a challenge for Erdogan's government. It creates a challenge, I guess, on two fronts.

Number one, you have to confront this very real, this reality, that Imammolu, the president's chief rival, the one who leads in polls, many polls, and who would and could defeat him ultimately after 22 years, has now been locked up. Secondly, what to do about these protests? 2013 during the Gezi Park protests, which prompted a very violent crackdown from the state,

That was the state's answer, violence, and shut it down. Now we've had five days of these protests, and they have been majority peaceful. But if they continue, the government sort of has to contend how does it deal with that? What are we expecting to happen next? Well, the opposition has a window here to maintain some momentum that they probably haven't seen in some time. How do you keep that momentum? How do you keep people out in the streets? Who takes the mantle in sort of facing down the president as we're heading toward, presumably, some sort of presidential election in the years to come. So that's one question. I think another critical question here is the economic question. Right. The lira currency crashed dramatically on Wednesday last week when the mayor

was detained. It fell as much as 12%. It was in a free fall until it came back and until the central bank started spending. What reports suggest are billions of dollars in foreign currency to stabilize the currency. Stocks have fallen. And this is now a challenge for the government and for the country in terms of this does potentially throw up a problem or a roadblock to inflation that was coming down, to an economy that was finally trying to get back on track after years in the doldrums. He wants to break us so America can own us. We will not let that happen. Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney is calling for a snap general election on April 28th. He's asking for a strong mandate from Canadians to take on US President Donald Trump.

A US delegation heads to Greenland this week to visit an American military base and take in a dog sled race. The trip comes as Trump pushes forward his idea of annexing the Arctic island. The delegation will be led by Vice President J.D. Vance's wife, Ushah Vassie. Pope Francis receives a roaring welcome at the Vatican after his release from a hospital in Rome. Doctors say that the 88-year-old will need to rest for two months after surviving his five-week battle with double pneumonia. Markets are starting off the week in good form on hopes that Trump's tariffs will be more measured than previously thought. Trump hinted on Friday that there could be some flexibility and said he planned to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping. So that's helped

push up U.S. equity futures. Trump is expected to unleash a wave of tariffs on trading partners on April 2nd. And while his signal on flexibility has been welcomed, traders are wary of betting just yet that he's going to cut deals with trading partners after a roller coaster first two months in power. U.S. negotiators and a Russian delegation meet today in Saudi Arabia with the hopes of hammering out details of a partial ceasefire in the war with Ukraine. Moscow launched a large-scale drone attack on Kiev just hours before Ukrainian and American delegations met on Sunday. Speaking to Fox News Sunday about the talks, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff played down concerns from European allies that Putin could be emboldened by a deal to invade other neighbors.

Reporter Steve Holland is following the developments. The Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia are aimed at trying to to reach a what's called a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea to open up free training routes, shipments of grain, fuel, and so forth. I don't think grain has been a big issue lately in this war, but it is a starting point, a thing that they can accomplish now and hopefully propel them into more progress on deeper issues going forward. They're also going to talk about the broader contours of a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia to try to end the fighting and along there. But they're very far apart.

Russia still wants to control large sections of Ukraine. Ukraine wants to hold onto their own territory, plus Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. So some major concessions will have to be made to make an agreement. Donald Trump doesn't want to keep sending weapons to Ukraine. He wants to stop the killing, as he says. So he's going to do whatever he can to try to bring the parties to some sort of ceasefire agreement. Whether that would hold or not, we're a long way from that. But this is the beginning of the possibility of a peaceful settlement.

Now, you mentioned that Donald Trump wants to end this war. Steve Whitkoff says he's pretty optimistic going into these talks. Steve Whitkoff has been a main conduit between the United States and the Kremlin. Whitkoff is getting the impression from talking to Putin that peace is possible. We don't know if Putin is playing him along or not. Whitkoff is a very successful businessman, but not a deeply skilled diplomat. So we'll see how this plays out and whether there really is a possibility for peace. In the last month, the Department of Veteran Affairs has cut 2,400 jobs

as part of the president's effort to shrink the federal workforce. And there are potentially more job cuts coming. More than 80,000 staff could be let go in the coming months. Our healthcare reporter, Robin Respo, has been looking at how the cuts might be impacting healthcare for some of the country's 9.3 million veterans. We spoke with eight current and former VA employees, five mental health professionals and three people in leadership positions. They described abrupt cancellations of some in-person

and telehealth appointments, they said there was some confusion over the staffing of the Veterans Crisis Hotline. And they said that some mental health professionals who were doing telehealth or remote work as part of the back-to-the-office mandate were trying to convert spaces within VA buildings and basically make makeshift meeting rooms in order to conduct their telehealth visits. What are you hearing from the VA? So a spokesperson there told us that the agency is working to improve care access and wait times. He said mental health professionals such as psychologists and social workers were not included in the February staffing cuts and that the agency is working to recruit mental health providers. He said the VA will make accommodations as needed to ensure

that employees have enough space to work and that veterans access to benefits and services remain uninterrupted as employees return to VA facilities. And how are veterans responding? So we spoke with the veterans of foreign wars, which represents Americans who have fought overseas. And that organization said it would welcome efforts to improve the VA's mental health services. A representative there said there are complex problems that have persisted at the VA despite increased funding over the years. And the VFW supports a thorough review of the VA's mental health services. but he added that it needs to be done carefully

and as he said, not with a chainsaw. And for today's recommended read, a library which straddles the US-Canada border has become a symbol of the two countries' strained relations. The US has blocked Canadian access to the Haskell-free library and opera house. Canadians who used to be able to use the American entrance will now have to go through a formal border crossing point.

Find out more by phone. following the link to our story in the pod description. 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. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.