Reuters World News - Navalny’s mystery illness, abortion pill ruling and Detroit’s EV test

Episode Date: April 13, 2023

We take a look at new EPA regulations that hope to boost electric vehicle adoption in the U.S. in the next decade. In Russia, opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seriously ill in jail. And a Federal court keeps limited access to abortion drug Mifepristone.  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, it's back to court and back to New York for Donald Trump as his various legal battles continue. Motor City gears up for strict emission standards. But, yes, Macon meant what he said. The French president digs in as the world wonders about a China blunder. And join us on a trip to New Mexico for the taxidermists turning dead birds into drones. It's Thursday, April 13th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vinal in London.

First to the latest legal challenges of the abortion pill, Mifiphrostone. Late last night, a New Orleans federal appeals court ruled the drug can remain available while anti-abortion groups look to ban it. But there will be significant restrictions. That includes having to see a doctor in person to get the drug. and its use will be limited to the first seven weeks of pregnancy, down from 10 now. The emergency stay should hold while the court hears a wider appeal by the Biden administration. But the case could yet go to the Supreme Court.

To other stories making news across the U.S., Donald Trump is back in Manhattan for another lawsuit. This time it's for a civil case over whether he misstated real estate values to get cheap, loans and tax benefits. And keeping his lawyers busy, Trump is also suing his former lawyer for not keeping attorney-client privilege. Trump says Michael Cohen profited from spreading what he said were falsehoods about him. He's seeking $500 million in damages. Fox News has been sanctioned for withholding evidence in the defamation suit brought by Dominion voting systems. Dominion has accused Fox of airing Trump Trump's false claims that its voting machines were rigged in favour of Joe Biden. Foxes said its coverage is protected by press freedom.

Jury selection for the case begins today, and Rupert Murdoch could be called to testify next week. Fed minutes are out, and so is the latest CPI. Confused about where we go from here? To explain, we caught up with our resident Fed watcher Howard Schneider at an airport on route to an assignment. Hey, look, bottom line is there's probably at least one more rate height coming from the Fed. Their minutes from the last meeting showed that they really were taken aback a little bit, thrown off a bit by the failures of Silicon Valley Bank, but that wasn't enough to stop them then. CPI today, the latest consumer price index did show inflation falling.

Quite a bit, actually, 6% in February to 5% in March. But a lot of it was gas prices, which wobble around a lot. The underlying inflation numbers remained a strong 5.6% annual. that's also going to keep them on track for another rate hike. Thanks, Howard. Safe travels. You are always welcome, my friend. Now to other breaking news from around the world. The airy sound of sirens across Hokkaido in northern Japan.

The take-cover warning for residents was issued after the latest test of a ballistic missile by North Korea. Japan later retracted the alert once they knew the missile's path. South Korea called the launch grave provocation. In Russia, opposition leader Alexei Navalny is seriously ill in jail. According to his spokeswoman, he's lost eight kilos in two weeks. She says it could be caused by a slow acting poison. The will-they, won't they, questions over Prince Harry and his wife Megan,

going to the coronation of King Charles, have been answered. We now know Harry will be there on May 6th, but Megan's staying in California. She'll be in charge of birthday celebrations for their son Archie, who turns four on the same day. Germany's foreign minister heads to China today with the chief goal of repairing damage caused by Emmanuel McConaughn's visit last week. The French president upset the US and his European neighbours

by saying Europe should depend less on the United States and by comments on Taiwan, which didn't flat out criticise China. Reuters Michel Rose traveled with Macon. Firstly, Michelle, does the French president have any plans to back down? Well, we've just talked to one of his advisors who said Macron was making no apology for these comments. That's very unlike Macron to backtrack. But it's true that even his own advisors think that he misspoke on this. And so even though Macron is not going to backtrack publicly on this,

I think French diplomacy will have to do a lot of calls. correction in different governments in Europe and the US. Did he mean to take such a strong stance against the US? Probably why there was a big backlash is what Macron didn't say. And there's certainly the fact that he failed to mention Taiwan during the public statements with the Chinese leader while in Beijing made him look soft and made him look like he was hindering to China. and in the interview criticizing the US while and not criticizing China in China was kind of a really bad optics.

Did he mean it? Macron doesn't mean to be hostile to the US, but he wants Europe to rely on its own feet. And on a defense, particularly, he doesn't like the fact that the US is basically in charge of Europe's security. I think the problem with Macron is that he's thinking out loud. I don't think he specifically meant these comments to provoke. One of his advisors told me that one of the problems was also that after a long trip, he was tired, exhausted and he speaks on the plane after having done these high-octane talks with the Chinese leader and he kind of lets rip.

And of course, in diplomacy you should never let rip. Michel rose for us in Paris. Two out of three cars sold in the US will live. be electric within a decade. That's if new regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency have their intended effect. But can Detroit keep up? For that, we turn to our global auto correspondent in the Motor City, Joe White. Hi, Joe. Hi, Kim. So what do these new rules mean for automakers? They mean a really profound change in what they're selling in the United States market and a profound change in what consumers are going to see when they go to showrooms over the next several

years. In 2022, 7% of the vehicles sold in the United States were electric vehicles. By 2032, the Biden administration wants 67% of vehicles to be electric. That is a huge, massive transformation that's going to affect everything from the factory floor to the showroom. Is there actual demand then for this? Well, that is the $64 billion question here. Certainly, there seems to be demand for electric vehicles that would take the share in the United States above 7%. There's waiting lists for some of the most popular electric vehicles, the Tesla Cyber Truck, the Ford F-150, Lightning, and so on. Whether you get to two-thirds of the U.S. market in basically less than 10 years is a really open question at the auto industry's main lobby raised a number

of concerns about that, starting with whether or not there's going to be adequate electric vehicle charging. But even environmental groups and climate action groups are concerned that these proposals don't go far enough. So you've got a lot of tension in the system here. How close are car companies to agreeing to this? I would say they're not actually that close. The car companies are making huge investments in electric vehicles. They absolutely intend to sell more. But they had signed on to a 50% target. This is a 67% target. And the difference when you apply that percentage to the United States auto industry is over 2 million vehicles or basically eight factories worth.

I want to try and get my head around what this would actually look like. What kind of cars do people still drive now and what would they need to be driving in the future? Well, 93% of the vehicles sold in the United States are fueled by petroleum in one way or another. It's not like Europe or not like China. It's a unique market. So you're talking about a change not just in sort of the technology under the hood, but also sort of the culture of the United States and what people drive. All right, Joe White, thanks so much.

You're welcome. Now to some flighty innovation in New Mexico, where scientists are giving new life to dead birds. A team at the Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro are turning taxidermy birds into drones. This unconventional approach is all about studying the flights of large birds. So we are currently in a drone cage at New Mexico. Project lead, Dr. Mawesi,

Staffa Hassan-Lyane showing off the lab where they're developing the drones. He says the results of the research could help the aviation industry save fuel, but he admits the technology could one day become weaponized. This is a new research that we have introduced to the research communities. We cannot deny the application of this for other types of military types of application, but what we have in focus is mainly civil application and specifically to understand the wildlife and monitor the birds. That's it for today on Reuters World News.

We'll be back tomorrow. Remember, you can follow us on your favorite podcast platform or download the Reuters app.