Reuters World News - Michigan primary, SpaceX, Chinese routers and Ceuta videos

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

Progressive Abdul El-Sayed has won the Michigan Democratic Senate primary, narrowly defeating Congresswoman Haley Stevens. SpaceX doubles its revenue, powered by its rapidly expanding satellite network. We look at the viral videos which could have led to Moroccan migrants risking everything and cross to Spain. And Chinese-made routers sold worldwide have a backdoor which potentially puts networks at risk. 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 Tara Oaks in Liverpool. It's Wednesday, August 5th. Today, Abdul al-Syad wins Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, sending a warning shot to the party establishment. SpaceX doubles its revenue, thanks to its satellites. Viral videos show how so many Moroccan migrants were persuaded to risk their lives heading to Spain. And hundreds of thousands of Chinese-made routers call home. prompting questions about tech security.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Real Canadian Superstore has everything you need this back-to-school season. Save on lunchbox savers like Ziggy's sliced deli-meat products for always 375. And get life brand pure Vita shampoo or conditioner for $8 each. At Real Canadian Superstore, when you're ready, we're ready, with a whole world and more. Progressive candidate Abdul al-Syad has won the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan, defeating establishment-backed moderate congresswoman Haley Stevens. It's a result seen as a bellwether for the ideological future of the party.

El-Syad, a former public health official, has called for ending unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, for universal health care, and for abolishing ICE. All things, the party establishment has been wary. of. His Congress editor Michael Leymont. I think this is a shock to the system for the Democratic Party, just a big, big moment. You know, until now the progressives, they've been on a winning streak, but they've been winning in areas that Kamala Harris won in 2024. So this is the first time a progressive candidate has won a statewide primary in a state that Trump won in 2024. So it's a really big deal.

you know, it's a narrow win. So it's not a landslide, but I think there'll be a lot of soul-searching in the Democratic Party. And I think now the question is, you know, can he unite these disparate wings and win in November? Michael says it's important to remember that while this is a Midwestern swing state, it's still Democratic primary voters speaking, meaning they lean liberal. But even so, it shows the issues progressives care about can't be ignored. So, you know, I think moderates had really wanted this election to be about cost of living and about what they see is the failures of the Trump presidency.

And that has not at all been about the main thing that has divided these candidates. So the candidates that are winning have a strong position on Israel. And there's a lot of rage in the Democratic Party about how that war has played out and the U.S. role in it. And I think that was very decisive in Michigan, and it's been decisive around the country. Elon Musk's SpaceX reveals its revenue has nearly doubled, fueled by its booming starlight satellite communications and AI businesses. In its first earnings report since going public, the rocket company is offering shareholders what it says is evidence that its lofty ambitions are achievable. Space reporter Joey Roulette explains. The earnings called kind of validated the idea that SpaceX is very serious about the growth that it is trying to target in its AI business through building AI data centers and eventually launching them into space.

And it also affirmed that Starlink remains the most powerful unit within the company driving most of the company's revenue that is going to be funding all these really expensive projects. So SpaceX's overall revenue roughly doubled. And that was driven mainly by Starlink, which accounted for. about 66% of its quarterly revenue. And so overall, that's $7.8 billion in revenue this quarter, which is up from about $4.1 billion from the previous year. And that's a pretty significant jump. The ultimate goal that SpaceX is eyeing right now is to build these giant data centers

in space, which would rival the power of terrestrial data centers that are on Earth. that is still very, very ambitious, remains a far-out goal. However, one thing Elon said on the earnings call was that they aim to launch some of those first AI satellites as soon as next year. But it's going to take a lot more to actually build up enough power to have a data center that rivals the power of those that are on Earth. And that can take several years. So what SpaceX is focused on right now is competing in the AI industry as an infrastructure provider. SpaceX's numbers are moving markets and despite the revenue figures, its stock dropped after hours as investors worried about its spending bill. For more on that and what else is driving markets today, tune in to our sister podcast MorningBid.

Any new SpaceX data centers may have to contend with a ban on Chinese components. The Trump administration is drafting a bill to do just that. His latest attempt to block Chinese tech from a range of industries. It comes as researchers discovered that around 100,000 Chinese-made internet routers worldwide contain a backdoor that phones home to China every 35 seconds and could give whoever controls it access to everything on that network. Our cyber security reporter AJ Besendz explains. As soon as you plug in the router, it connects back to a particular domain

and then it establishes the connection. and depending on where it's installed within a network, could allow access to whoever has control of that domain to do any number of things. The intelligence community in several Western nations has for years been warning about Chinese abuse of small office and home office routers. They become a point where, you know, cyber espionage

and other actors can easily get into networks and devices that aren't really checked, right, if you're sort of the average person or even if you're, you know, working in a particular business or university research lab, something like that. You're not always looking at your router the way you might be, you know, thinking through your email security or something more sort of apparent. To be clear, we don't know exactly why this is programmed into the routers. The company did not respond to our request for comment. and it's not exactly clear whether it's been abused for anything nefarious in particular. But the researcher I spoke to about this issue said that the capabilities are devastating in his words. And in the world of AI, the UK's AI Safety Institute says agents built by OpenAI and Anthropic acted outside their remits during security tests.

One agent was caught creating fake online identities to get unauthorized, access to secure systems. Both companies acknowledge the incidents and say they're working with AISI on investigations and tightening testing practices. In Gaza City, the remains of 112 Palestinians, all from the same extended family, lie wrapped in flags at a mass funeral. They were killed in an Israeli bombing attack nearly three years ago and buried on Tuesday following a two-week search through the rubble.

Civil rescuers in the strip have been working to recover bodies from strikes even years past by digging through fields of debris with minimal equipment. A process officials say could take further years to complete. Thousands more Palestinians are believed to be buried under destroyed buildings across the Gaza Strip. As a diplomatic fallout from last week's rush of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish North African enclave of Thauta continues, Viral videos are now coming to light, like this one of a Morocco man saying, if you get into Thayuta you will not be sent back.

More than 70,000 migrants tried to enter, according to Spanish authorities. More than 80 drowned or were crushed. The surge followed a Supreme Court decision in Spain, ruling migrants who were caught at sea, could not be immediately returned. North Africa Bureau Chief, Alexander Jadish, has more. So initially you saw, you know, TikTok videos, Instagram videos

of people talking about the Supreme Court decision. But then on July 23rd, a local TV station ensued to publish a report about the numbers of migrants who were arriving that were beginning to increase. These videos showed young men sitting on the streets outside of a San Francisco, that was set up to receive migrants in the city.

And a lot of them were smiling, grinning, flashing V signs, giving thumbs up. And that video started to spread. And when the footage of that spread, that encouraged more and more people to come. We definitely found evidence of videos that were misrepresented. So, for instance, there was a video that was viewed over four million times that purported to show a young man swimming. He had a selfie stick. and it said he was swimming to Ceuta.

It turns out that that video had actually been filmed much, much earlier, even before the Supreme Court decision, and he was swimming in a completely different area, according to the original post, off the Atlantic coast. A record-breaking heat wave is gripping South Korea, with temperatures reaching the highest levels in more than a century. President Li Jiameng calling it a national disaster. The crisis has killed at least a global shock shock.

The crisis has killed at least. 19 people and caused more than 2,000 heat-related illnesses since May. 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. 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.