Reuters World News - Puerto Rican Americans, Michigan's economy and Ukraine on North Korean troops

Episode Date: October 29, 2024

Republican and Democratic leaders and Puerto Rican celebrities have criticized comments made by a comedian at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, as the election candidates target the swing states with a week to go. The U.S. says it will not impose new limits on Ukraine's use of American weapons, if North Korea joins Russia's war. NATO has said North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region in Russia.  Find our recommended read here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to our weekend episode on climate change and volcanoes in Iceland 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, Puerto Rican Americans are outraged by insults that Trump's campaign says don't reflect their views. Harris campaigns in Michigan, where some voters are blaming the Dems for their economic woes. And Ukraine calls for more from the West as NATO confirms North Korean soldiers are in the region. It's Tuesday, October 29. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in just 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. A week from today, voters across the U.S. will be heading to the polls to cast their votes for the next president. Republican Donald Trump on Monday appealed to religious voters in the southern swing state of Georgia,

as his campaign distances itself from racist remarks by supporters that could alienate key voter groups. And then they say, he's a Nazi. I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite of a Nazi. I don't know. The racist insults from a comedian at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally calling Puerto Rico an island of garbage have provoked widespread outrage.

The Trump campaign says the joke does not reflect their views. Americans of Puerto Rican origin or ancestry are an important demographic in some of the swing states that will likely decide the race, including in Pennsylvania. And now he's, you know, bashing us and talking bad about us. We're part of the United States. We are American. That's Dalma Santiago.

She's the owner of Freddie and Tonys, a Puerto Rican restaurant where Harris popped in on Sunday. Both candidates are fighting for the Latino vote, which has trended more Republican in recent years, but still leans Democratic. Tonight, Kamala Harris will give her closing message at a speech on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Yesterday, she was in Michigan, seeking to draw a distinction between her and Trump. We can all see that Donald Trump is even more unstable and more unhinged. And now he wants unchecked power. In Michigan, like in a lot of the U.S., the economy remains a top concern for voters. And while America's post-pandemic economic recovery has been the envy of the developed world, prices are still high.

And voters do care about that sort of thing. A recent Reuters poll found that when asked which candidate had the better approach on the economy, Trump leads Harris by eight points. Political reporter Andrea Shalal has the latest from the ground. So people in Michigan are deeply divided about this election, and what underlines all of that and is sort of the basis is an economy that has not been great for most people in Michigan. I spoke to a woman and Taisha Blackwell, who I met at a J.D. Vance.

rally. And she's 24 years old. She's got a good job at the energy company. And she voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But she's voting for Trump this time because she's really mad. She had rented an apartment that was quite inexpensive in southwest Detroit and her landlord asked her to leave because he had relatives coming in from Mexico, who he said needed the place. So now she's rented a place that costs twice as much, and she's very deeply concerned about illegal immigration and doesn't feel that Harris and the Biden administration have done enough on that front. So what is the economic picture like in Michigan? Given the ups and downs of the auto industry, anything having to do with the economy in Michigan is a big deal. And Michigan's unemployment rate has been consistently

higher than the U.S. number for years, but the state actually hit its highest job level and lowest unemployment in 20 years last year as federal infrastructure money flowed in. Unfortunately for Harris, a lot of that is buried under concern about higher prices for eggs, gas, housing, utilities. And that anger about the higher prices is really a resonant feature of practically everyone I spoke to in Michigan. Police believe three suspected arsums are ballot drop boxes in the northwestern U.S. States of Washington and Oregon are linked. Officials say they've identified what they believe as a suspect vehicle in Oregon.

The Philadelphia DA's office is suing Elon Musk's political action committee to stop it from awarding $1 million to register voters in battleground states. The lawsuit caused a give away an illegal lottery. A spokesperson for Musk's Super PAC didn't comment on the suit. They did, however, send a link to a post on X, identifying the list. latest $1 million prize winner. Israel's parliament has passed a law banning the UN Relief Agency UNRWA from operating inside the country. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says some of the agency's workers were involved in terrorist

activities against Israel and it must be held accountable. The move has alarmed some of Israel's Western allies who fear it will worsen the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. Dozens of Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike. a residential building in northern Gaza earlier today, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service says. There was no immediate Israeli comment. And in Lebanon, armed group Hezbollah have said they've elected deputy head name Kassem

to succeed their slain secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. He was killed in an Israeli airstrike-on-Berut southern suburbs over a month ago. Markets now, and Volkswagen says it plans to shut at least three factories in Germany and lay off tens of thousands of staff. Europe's biggest carmaker has been negotiating for weeks with unions over plans to revamp its business and cut costs, including considering plant closures on home's soil for the first time in a blow to Germany's industrial prowess.

Daniela Cavallo is Volkswagen's Works Council head and addressed workers in Wolfsburg. Calling the information letters they had received from management, embarrassing and rude. Volkswagen says restructuring is needed and that it will make concrete proposals on Wednesday. And all of you Econ World podcast fans, only one more sleep until the next episode.

Tomorrow, it'll be all about carbon trading. NATO calls on Russia and the DPRK to seize these actions immediately. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutter describing the deployment of North Korean troops to the Korsk region of Russia as a dangerous expansion of the war. The Pentagon says Washington will not impose new limits on Ukraine's use of American weapons

if North Korean troops do become involved in the war. Meanwhile, North Korea's foreign minister is on her way to Moscow for her second trip to Russia in six weeks. Max Hunter is in Kiev. Ukraine has already said that they believe up to 12,000 North Korean troops are in Russia and it was not immediately clear where, although the fact that they're in Kourisk region suggests that they possibly could be deployed in Koursk.

That's the small piece of land that is internationally recognized as Russian, that Ukraine captured a couple of months ago. And we're talking about a few hundred square kilometers of land. Ukraine has been quite active in condemning what it says is sort of the imminent entry of North Korean troops into the war. and has called on its West and allies to sanction North Korea. If there are 10 to 20,000 North Korean troops there, would that have an impact? It could potentially be a significant number on a certain level.

Obviously, if you have 10,000 North Korean soldiers come in, and these aren't fresh new recruits, these are people already with military training. They could free up thousands of Russian soldiers who could then be redeployed, to other sections of the front line, especially those in eastern Ukraine where Ukraine is currently struggling. If these troops remain in Kursk, does that lessen the geopolitical impact?

I think in any case, the entry of North Korean troops into any sort of military activity in this war would be seen as a big escalation. But I think that there would be a slight gradation if they were taking part and fighting on Russian soil as opposed to occupied Ukrainian soil. Ukraine's allies would probably maybe react slightly differently to those things.

However, I think either of those things would elicit condemnation and a reaction of some sort, although what that remains to be seen. Also, it's quite interesting that there was a kind of weariness, a sort of gallows humor among ordinary Ukrainians, who are often saying these days, great, now we're at war with two nuclear powers. And now for our recommended read. Today is a Reuters exclusive on how Chinese President Xi Jinping

asked US President Joe Biden to change the language the US users when discussing its position on Taiwanese independence. There's a link to find out more in the pod description. For more, any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. To never miss an episode, follow us on your favourite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.