Reuters World News - Mamdani meets Trump, Charlotte, China’s Taiwan rehearsal and vaccines

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be hoping to dodge a Zelenskiy moment at his meeting with President Trump at the White House. The Ukrainian president says he’s ready to work on a US plan to end the war in Ukraine. Democrats see an opportunity in the Charlotte immigration raids. And China uses civilian ships to rehearse an invasion of Taiwan. Plus, the CDC updates its website to reflect RFK Jr’s anti-vaccine views.     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 Sharon Reisch Garson in New Jersey. It's Friday, November 21st. Today, New York City's mayor-elect heads to the White House. Immigration raids in North Carolina could shape one of next year's Senate races and how a Chinese civilian fleet is rehearsing to take Taiwan. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. We start with some movement on the U.S. backed plan for ending the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's ready for, quote, honest work,

with the top U.S. military officials saying Kiev agrees to work toward a deal. Reuters has seen the 28-point plan, which requires Kiev to give up the entire Donbos region and downsize its military. Both of these conditions are seen as major concessions to Russia. New York City's mayor-elect Zorn Mumdani will sit down with President Trump at the White House today. It'll be their first face-to-face meeting after months of acrimonious exchanges. I intend to make it clear to President Trump that I will work with him on any agenda that benefits New Yorkers. If an agenda hurts New Yorkers, I will also be the first to say so.

While running for office, Mimdani made Trump's record on immigration and his support for Israel during the Gaza war, centerpieces of his campaign. The president has called Mumdani a communist and endorsed his rival Andrew Cuomo, who himself has been a Trump critic. But ahead of the visit, the new mayor says he's focused on the two working together

to make New York great again. National Affairs reporter Jonathan Allen is in New York. Trump did not want New Yorkers to elect Mamdani. He essentially told New Yorkers that he will do his dandest to cut down federal funding that goes to New York and New York City to the bare legally required minimum should Mamadani become mayor. He doesn't have the power to unilaterally withhold funds that Congress say must be spent here or must be spent there. But nonetheless, that's essentially what he's threatened to do. Part of this meeting, which Mandani himself asked for, is to ensure that New Yorkers aren't punished, essentially, for who they've voted for as mayor. Trump has called for the death of Democratic lawmakers on his truth's social account, the president responding to Democrats who posted this video, telling members of the U.S. military they must refuse any illegal orders.

Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. Trump labeling them traitors who should be locked up or face execution, calling their comments seditious behavior punishable by death. We need to support our immigrants. We love our immigrants here in Charlotte.

That's 62-year-old Renee Tillette, protesting in front of the beloved Manolo's bakery, whose owner Manolo Bettenker decided to close temporarily to protect his workers and customers after witnessing a raid outside the bakery's door. So that's when I realized they are here. They're attacking us. And even though I'm carrying my American passport and an American citizen,

I felt that this is no longer enough. North Carolina has emerged as a new front in President Trump's immigration crackdown and is poised to shape one of the United States. the most competitive U.S. Senate races next year. Our political correspondent, James Oliphant, is in Washington. This is a true swing state, even though Trump has won it the last three times. He's won it by very close margins. And what this is really offered is sort of a test case for seeing if Trump's aggressive immigration policies can move the needle, you know, one way or the other.

I mean, we'll see if, you know, if it's an issue that lingers into next year's midterms. What these raids we really have done is they've handed each side sort of a potent weapon, and we'll see what they do with it. Republicans are going to argue all through next year that Trump's agenda is the right one and that they are the party of law and order, and they're going to hope to use that to win the Senate race, while Democrats conversely are going to argue that Trump has overreached and the federal government has gone too far in local communities. North Carolina is this sort of test case where we're going to say.

see whether either of these arguments hold sway with voters. China is mobilizing an armada of civilian ships to rehearse an invasion of Taiwan, an operation that could surpass the scale of D-Day. Reuters used ship tracking data and satellite images to monitor Chinese maritime vessels this summer, revealing that civilian cargo vessels are now landing military vehicles directly onto beaches. a capability never been documented before. Data journalist Alison Martel is part of the team

putting the investigation together. So we've known for a few years that China is using some civilian ships and military exercises. We tried to capture an exercise in more detail in the summer to understand more about their strategy, and we found something new. We found cargo ships operating right at the beach

and actually carrying vehicles right into the beach and unloading them. So once we had these images, we showed them to 10 naval wars. experts. And one of the things they told us is that this strategy likely significantly increases China's capacity to carry troops and material across the Taiwan Strait. One of the interesting things about these exercises is that they are so visible. The ships that are involved, they are not turning off transponders that they could turn off. They are visible in satellite images. So one of

the things that we heard is that, you know, these exercises may be a kind of cognitive warfare against Taiwan, that they are deliberately public and they are meant to have a psychological impact on the people of Taiwan. And Allison says that while China may have the world's largest Navy, without this fleet of commercial vessels, it still might not be enough to successfully invade Taiwan. They would need to carry, you know, by some estimates, more than a million troops across the Taiwan Strait, not an easy place to navigate. So they would need to recruit other vessels. And because China has the power to, you know, take control of civilian assets, they have been, you know, very clearly practicing doing this with civilian ships as well.

The interesting thing about those cargo ships is that these are cheap to build, quick to build, and they're very widely available in China. And this is a way that they can use that commercial power potentially for military gain. In response to questions, the foreign ministry in Beijing said that, quote, the Taiwan question is purely an internal affair of China. And how to resolve it is entirely a matter for the Chinese people. Japan has approved a $135 billion economic stimulus package, the first major policy initiative under Prime Minister Sanayatakaichi.

Concerns over the country's worsening fiscal position have sent the Japanese yen to 10-month lows and super-long government bond yields to record highs. Plus, some U.S. market news for you. Paramount Skydance, Comcast, and Netflix have all thrown their hats in the ring with bids for Warner Brothers Discovery. That's according to a source familiar with the matter. These bids set the stage for a consolidation of the media industry, and they'll determine the future of assets like HBO and the Warner Brothers Film Library. The CDC has updated its website and now echoes Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s claim that childhood vaccines may cause autism. That's despite decades of

scientific studies showing they're safe. I spoke earlier with global health editor Michelle Gershberg in New York. What we are seeing is a lot of alarm given the current conversation that has been gathering momentum in the United States over whether or not vaccines are dangerous for children. And we have seen vaccination rates among children drop across the country, particularly since COVID. And so the concern among vaccine experts infectious disease experts, is that this kind of statement appearing on the official website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention feeds into and amplifies the fears of families, even though indeed there is not evidence, and there have been many, many studies that looked for

evidence that vaccines have some kind of relationship to autism. And for today's recommended read, in Paris, the weekend has started a lot of little early. Sautenigat. Get out. People are toasting the first batch of wine from this year's harvest, the Bojolet Nouve. It's an annual tradition which one restaurateur tells us is his very own version of New Year's Eve.

Tradition, it's a bit like the New Zealand. There's a new year, but I'm the Bojolet Nouve. Bojolet is produced in an area north of Lyon and was once side-eyed as lesser, because it hasn't aged. But by the sounds of it, not all wine has to be serious to be seriously good. Plus, a recommended listen. Tune into this weekend's episode of On Assignment, which will dig into why immigration has become a top issue in the UK, the families trying to reach British shores by boat from France, and how Denmark is being held up as a blueprint for immigration crackdowns. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app.

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