Reuters World News - Pope Leo, Bill Gates and US-China talks

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

Pope Leo offers clues about his papacy in his first appearance, while Chicagoans celebrate his election. Bill Gates says he plans to give away $200 billion to the world’s poor. The U.S. and China meet in Switzerland this weekend for talks that could be the first off-ramp from an escalating trade war. Plus, Pakistan launches multiple attacks along India’s western border. 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

Today. There's a new Pope, what we know about the Chicago-born man who's taken over as leader of the global Catholic Church. Bill Gates is rumping up charitable spending, but is it enough to offset cuts to U.S. international aid? And we'll look at how China's approaching trade talks with the U.S. over the weekend. It's Friday, May 9th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, every weekday. I'm Tara Oaksin, Liverpool. And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. First, the latest from the intensifying conflict between Pakistan and India. Pakistan's armed forces

launched multiple attacks using drones and other munitions along India's entire Western border overnight, the Indian Army says. Pakistan says the Indian Army statement is baseless and misleading. Habemus Pappam. white smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney, signaling that the world's Catholics have a new leader. Newly elected Pope Leo the 14th, offering his first words to the faithful on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica. Joshua McElwe is here to tell us about the world's first American pope,

formerly U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost. His first words were, Peace be with you, to the thousands of people gathered in the square below. and the image we got was of the first American pope, clearly choosing to be the pope, the bishop of Rome, speaking in the language of the church Italian. Was he a surprise choice? It seemed the cardinals were looking for a mix of Pope Francis,

and then someone who also had administrative experience and was known here in Rome and might now know better how to handle some of the complex issues facing the Vatican. And what's in her name? Why Leo? The last Pope Leo the 13th was known as the Pope of the workers. Pope Leo the 13th advocated for fair pay for workers' rights to join unions and a lot of kind of the nuts and bolts items of the labor movement

that many Catholics and people around the world will know. Now, when news broke that the next pope was born and raised right here in Chicago, I grabbed my microphone and headed downtown to hear how people were reacting to the news. Pope Leo the 13th was the Pope of the working man. So I think he's kind of following that idea. That's John, a lifelong Chicagoan and Catholic, outside St. Peter's Church in the Chicago Loop. Now, when Pope Leo the 14th was still known as Robert Prevost,

he lived on Chicago's south side before spending much of his career as a missionary in Peru. While Chicagoans celebrate Prevost becoming Pope, memes about deep dish pizza infiltrating the Vatican, and questions about whether his baseball allegiances are to the Cubs or to the White Sox have flooded social media. And to be clear, he's a White Sox fan. The acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been abruptly fired after telling lawmakers he did not support eliminating his agency. The leadership change comes weeks before hurricane season. is set to begin. It's a very special day.

With this deal, the UK joins the United States in affirming that reciprocity and fairness is an essential and vital principle of international trade. President Trump and British Prime Minister, Kier Starmor, have announced a limited bilateral trade deal. Trump's 10% tariffs on British exports remain in place,

but prohibitive U.S. duties on British car exports are lower. And in Moscow, a military parade on Red Square marking World War II Victory Day. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend. The Kremlin says Russia is doing everything necessary to protect the event from Ukrainian drone strikes. Diplomats from the US and China will meet this weekend in Switzerland

to begin working through trade differences between the two economic powerhouses. President Trump says he's optimistic there will be substantive negotiations. and the 145% tariffs will likely come down. Anthony Swadkowski is reporting on how China's approaching the talks from Beijing. I think a week ago, we still had this imagery in China where they were putting out videos from the Korean War showing Chinese fighter jets shooting down American airplanes, saying we will never yield.

But what a difference we've made? There are a couple of different things that have been sort of playing. out behind the scenes that have induced both sides to the negotiating table. For the Chinese, it was being increasingly clear for the officials here that companies are really struggling to replace the US consumer and the US market and quickly trying to shift, you know, your export market. Things might be a little bit more complicated. So how is that economic strain informing China's approach to these talks in Switzerland. I think the number one sort of effect of that is that they are actually willing to talk.

And I think they're seeing the urgency with which it's important for their economy to have the tariffs lowered down by the Americans. We've had brokerages come out predicting, I think, 60 million job losses if tariffs remain where they are. And, you know, that would potentially create a lot of social instability, which is the last thing that the Chinese Communist Party wants here. Sources are telling us China has watched how its big trading partners, starting with Vietnam, India, Japan, how those trading partners have gone to the U.S. and started talking

to them. And they're feeling like they're being left outside of those negotiations. And they have both privately and publicly put a lot of pressure on these economies. but it's not just a bilateral game. It's actually a multilateral game, and they need to be involved, was the feeling in Beijing. Bill Gates is planning to give away $200 billion through his charitable foundation

to offset cuts to international aid. He warns that in just four to six years, decades of progress in lowering the child mortality rate could be reversed. Deaths will start going up for the first time. You know, they went down. from around 10 million to less than 5 million, and now, you know, it's going to be millions of more deaths. And Gates is calling out Elon Musk, the world's richest man, accusing him of, quote, killing the world's poorest children by slashing U.S. foreign aid budgets.

Our global health editor, Michelle Gershberg, is following the story. What he's telling the world is, you know, I see an opportunity now if I accelerate the spending to, really push ahead with eradicating big diseases like polio or malaria and helping fight poverty. Perhaps others will too. And we can take care of some of the greatest scourges affecting human society. So can billionaires like Gates and others plug this hole that's been left by the Trump administration's cuts? Certainly the work of Gates and other billionaires have changed the equation. But they work hand in hand with governments, with the United Nations agencies, and they can't replicate the work that's being done by the United States on their own. U.S.A.S.A. spent in 2023,

spent something like $44 billion, while the Gates Foundation, their annual budget is supposed to hit $9 billion next year. So, you know, even just in terms of the amounts, as well as the infrastructure, and the know-how, they're complementary. There's an extent to which the Gates Foundation can help support programs that get pulled back. That's going to be a big question going forward with this acceleration of the spending, but they can't replace it. Now, Gates and Musk once agreed over the role of the wealthy in giving away money to help others, but have since clashed several times.

In a reply to a tweet on his ex-social media platform that featured an interview with Gates, warning about US aid cuts, Musk said, Gates is a huge liar. Musk's spokespeople were not immediately available for comment. And for today's recommended read, tune in to our weekend special tomorrow, where we dive into everything that's happening at the Pentagon as US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseff shakes up the US military. 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 favourite podcast player

and we'll be back on Monday with our daily headline show.