Reuters World News - Morocco’s wait for aid, Biden on China’s problems and Armenia angers Russia

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

Moroccans are left sleeping out in the open as aid struggles to reach those hit by the deadliest quake in decades. US President Joe Biden woos Vietnam – and catalogues China’s economic woes. Plus, Armenia angers Russia by holding military drills with the United States as tensions rise over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. 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, Morocco reels after the deadliest earthquake in decades. Russia awaits North Korea's Kim Jong-un. Joe Biden wooes Vietnam and talks tough on China. And Armenia angers Moscow as it embarks on military drills with the United States. It's Monday, September 11th. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London.

The terrifying moment, a wedding, is interrupted by Morocco's worst earthquake in six decades. Survivors are struggling to find food, water and shelter after the quake killed more than 2,000 people on Friday. Hassan Numer said his family were eating dinner when it struck and destroyed their home. Are sleeping like two days outside. No food. No water. We lost also electricity. Our reporter, Alexander Cornwell, has been visiting villages close to the epicentre. Alexander, what does the road ahead look like for people as they search for loved ones and try to rebuild?

I think it's very emotional. We went out to Mulei Brahim, which is closer to the epicentre. We could see it all across the village. He's spoken to people who voiced a lot of frustration that they weren't getting enough aid that they needed and what they wanted was food and shelter and water. Some of the people that we spoke to today spoke about digging out their family, their friends, their neighbors from the rubble, their dead bodies with their bare hands. Now while we were in Malay, Abraham today, an aid delivery did come. But also that's what many people in this community were telling us that so far they'd been relying on friends and family members who lived in cities that weren't damaged or even

Moroccans that lived outside the country who are sending in supplies. Now for the other headlines making news around the world. North Korea's Kim Jong-un appears to be en route to Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin. South Korean broadcaster YTN is reporting that Kim's armored train has departed for Vladivostok. It will be Kim's first trip abroad in more than four years. Iran and the U.S. are on the verge of a prisoner swap under a Qatar media. deal. Sources have told Reuters that as many as five detained US dual nationals will leave Iran, and a similar number of Iranian prisoners held in the US will fly home, when frozen Iranian

funds are transferred to banks in Qatar. The transfer of funds could happen as early as this week. Spanish Football Federation Chief Luis Rubiales has resigned almost a month after he kissed a player on the mouth during World Cup celebrations, triggering a national scandal. Spanish prosecutors had opened a sexual assault case against Rubiales after the player, Jenny Hermoso, filed a criminal complaint against him. Rescuers have moved a trapped American caver halfway to the surface as parts of efforts to free him in Turkey. Mark Dickey has been trapped deep below the surface of the Torres Mountains

after he began suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding. He's expected to be brought out in the coming days. Novak Djokovic has gained a record equaling 24th Grand Slam after winning the US Open. Djokovic's victory against Danil Medvedev capped another remarkable season after wins at the Australian Open and Roland Garros. He'll return to the top of the world rankings

when they're updated later today. It's time now for markets with Carmel Crimmons, What's going on? Well, US inflation data out on Wednesday is the key data point this week. It's expected to shape the Fed's interest rate decisions this year. But it's also a big week for European retailers. They've actually been unlikely stock market stars this year. The stock retailers index is up 25% compared to the broader index, which is only up 7%. Why did they do so well? They defied expectations. Investors expected their margins to take a hit last year, but they surprised by being able to pass costs onto consumers. So investors who built up short positions in the sector, so betting against it, had to unwind those bets.

So part of the stellar run is actually being built on investors unwinding those bearish bets. Now, this year, higher borrowing costs and inflation are starting to bite. So investors are very keen to see what H&M and Indyx, which owns Zara, report this week. President Biden wrapped up his trip to Asia with a stark assessment of the problems facing Chinese President Xi Jinping. He has his hands full right now. He has overwhelming unemployment with his youth. One of the major economic tenets of his plan isn't working at all right now.

I'm not happy from that, but it's not working. Biden said China's economic problems make it less likely Beijing would invade Taiwan. Xi's absence from the G20 summit in India gave the U.S. an opportunity to woo countries China has caught it, such as Vietnam. White House correspondent Trevor Hanuket traveled with Biden to Delhi and Hanoi. Trevor, why is Biden so keen to forge deeper ties with Vietnam in particular? So Vietnam has one of the world's most sought after economies, right, in terms of they're already a major manufacturing powerhouse.

And so for the United States, they want to enhance that relationship. They want to make Vietnam an alternative to China so that if something happens like COVID again or there's military conflict or something like that, there won't be the same kind of economic dependence on China that we've come to see in the past several decades. But the U.S. is not the only major economic player that Vietnam is courting, is it? No, not at all. Vietnam wants to have its eggs in a lot of different baskets, right? They upgraded the United States to the kind of top level of diplomatic arrangements that you can have with them. But that's a big club, right? They have historic ties to Russia going back to the Soviet Union.

We have indications that there are talks going on right now between Vietnam and Russia to buy even more weapons from them. And the United States is eagerly trying to get them to reconsider that and think about doing a deal with the U.S. or a U.S. partner instead. And then, of course, China is the big kind of economic colossus in the region, and they are going to maintain extremely close ties with them. We think that Chinese President Xi Jinping or another senior leader is going to visit Vietnam very shortly to kind of reconnect and make sure that those ties are still as close as they once were. So there's a lot happening. To the Southern Caucasus, where the U.S. is conducting joint military drills in Armenia, this week. The drills reflect Armenia's frustrations with long-time ally Russia and come at a time

of rising tensions with neighbouring Azerbaijan. Andrew Osborne is in London. Andrew, this joint military operation is a significant move by Armenia, right? Yeah, it's a big statement on the part of Armenia because Russia has a defense pact with Armenia under which it promises to defend it against external aggression. And Armenia is also a member of a kind of a Russia-led defense military block, if you like, a kind of equivalent of NATO. So it's clearly not something that Russia likes and they have said as much because it does amount to a slap in the face, really, to Moscow. So why has Armenia decided to do this now? So I think Armenia understands like everyone else that Russia is very distracted now by the war in Ukraine. It only has so many resources. And then, you know, going back,

Back a few years in 2020, there was a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. We've got Russian peacekeepers on the ground now trying to enforce that ceasefire. It was all over in the Gorn and Karabakh, this enclave inside of Azerbaijan, where ethnic Armenians live. Armenia is unhappy with the Russian peacekeepers. It thinks it needs to diversify its defense partners. It wants to team up with the countries to try and ensure its own security. How likely is it that another conflict could break out in that region? Well, the situation right now is unpredictable and dangerous, and we have both sides.

accusing each other of moving troops towards the border and both sides seem to be unhappy with the other, you know, about the state of their peace talks and the rhetoric is ratcheting up. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back with our daily headline show on Tuesday. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday.

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