Reuters World News - Qatar jet, Mexico influencer murder, Walmart and Eurovision

Episode Date: May 16, 2025

The Boeing 747 jet offer to U.S President Donald Trump by Qatar would need to be stripped back for a security overhaul. Walmart shoppers won’t be able to dodge price hikes as Trump’s tariffs hit the shelves. Mexico is investigating the murder of an influencer during her livestream on TikTok. And get those sequins out for Europe’s biggest party – it’s Eurovision weekend. 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, security concerns about Qatar's luxury jet offer as Trump wraps up his Middle East tour. Police in Mexico investigate a beauty influencer's murder streamed live on TikTok. Price hikes will hit Walmart shoppers as tariff effects begin to trickle in. And it's time for Europe's biggest party. It's the Eurovision song contest. It's Friday, May 16th. 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 Walgesper in Chicago. I don't believe anything's going to happen whether you like it or not until he and I get together. US President Donald Trump says there won't be a peace breakthrough between Russia and Ukraine until he and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet face to face. Delegations from the two countries will meet for the first direct talks

since March 2022. Neither Putin nor Ukraine's president, Volodymy Zelensky, will be part of the delegations conducting the direct talks. Elon Musk's Political Action Committee is being sued for failing to pay a promised $100 to registered swing state voters who signed a petition. Musk's America PAC helped Republican President Donald Trump beat Democratic Challenger Vice President Kamala Harris last November. President Trump seems insistent. that he will accept a $400 million luxury jumbo jet from Qatar to use as Air Force One. The gift raises a lot of questions. Is it legal for him to do so?

Is it constitutional? But our reporting has shown there are also some real security concerns about accepting. Mike Stone covers the defense industry and has been looking into what it would take to transform this jet into Air Force One. The complaint by the president is that Boeing is taking a long time and it's very expensive. to create two Air Force One's in his first term he purchased. Now, in order to make a true Air Force One, it takes a lot of time and a lot of money. Do we know any of the supposed luxuries that it has, that maybe the real Air Force One doesn't?

I don't foresee a world where the Katari jet and all of its luxuries on board of it now survive. I think that in order for there to be a decent amount of safety, security. They're going to need to rip the whole thing out to the studs. They're going to have to put in wiring that can withstand the electromagnetic pulse of a nuclear weapon going off, and they still won't get to the exact capabilities of an Air Force One. But in the end, what our sources have told us is that the jet's going to have to fly with a fighter jet escort or several, potentially a tanking aircraft to fuel those fighter jet escorts. because those fighter jet escorts will have the electronic warfare suite

that the Qatari refurbished jet will not have, because when the president is aloft in the plane, that person needs to have all manner of nuclear command and control. U.S. shoppers will start seeing price hikes at Walmart later this month. Company executives say, despite a deal to lower tariffs on goods from China, the levies are still too high to absorb the costs. Our business editor, David Gaffin, breaks down how the tariffs are starting to trickle down through the U.S. economy.

No matter how much you can do when it comes to reducing your expenses, leaning on suppliers, and finding ways to crunch costs, there is a limit to that. And a 30% tariff that exists right now on imports of Chinese goods is still going to affect Walmart quite a bit. And so they said very explicitly that while they were glad to see the trade truce that's been, you know, agreed to, the tariffs are still too high and they will have to push those costs on to consumers. Now, a warning, this next story involves descriptions of violence against women that might be hard for some listeners. A Mexican beauty influence

is dead after a man shot her during a live stream on TikTok. Authorities are investigating 23-year-old Valeria Marquez's murder as a femicide. Our reporter Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City is following the case. I think it's important to remember that while Mexico doesn't have the highest rate of femicide in Latin America or the world, it does continue to be an extremely dangerous place to be a woman. And no amount of fame can insulate. a woman from deadly violence against her, as we saw with Valeria Marquez. This is a young social media

influencer extremely popular, extremely well known, even streaming live. And it just goes to show that it could happen at any time, at any moment. And it's just extremely shocking to bear witness to something like that. You can hear somebody's voice in the background asking her if she's Valeria. she responds yes, and moments later, her followers watched her lose her life in the most brutal way. And there really still doesn't exist the right protections for these crimes and the right resources are still a struggle. So what's been the reaction in Mexico? Obviously, this incident is incredibly shocking and Mexicans are horrified by what happened, even though this country is very used to gender-related violence, when it's something,

like this happening in public or live, it really does create a whole other layer of shock and terror among people, especially among young women. So I think the fact that the Halisco state prosecutor immediately responded that they were investigating this case under Femicide protocol was something that was well received by people. But so far, the authorities have not named any suspect in particular and assist that it's still under investigation. Glitter, wind machine. A dance party inside a sauna. It can only mean one thing.

The Eurovision Song Contest Final is tomorrow. Johnny Cotton is there. What survived there, Johnny? What can we expect from the final? So, if people haven't watched a Eurovision Final before, I'm kind of surprised. But also, bright lights, big music, an absolutely massive show. 26 countries are going to be presenting at the show on Saturday, including big European ones who have the right to go through to the final, whatever happens,

and some that have won that right over the last few days in a series of pre-cursor competitions. Lots of exciting, brightly sequined costumes. And yeah, a big party, for the most part, is certainly what the organisers are going to be hoping it's going to look like, and that does tend to be the Eurovision way. And the organisers always say that this is politically neutral, but there have been some protests on the sidelines or even in the arena. The Israeli Act was disrupted during rehearsals, right? So yes, there were some protests in the stadium yesterday afternoon during the rehearsal. I wasn't actually in the room, but according to organisers, an oversized flag was produced.

And according to photos, it was a Palestinian flag and some whistles. And that interrupted her performance. Yuval Rafael, the Israeli entry, is an October the 7th survivor. And there have been calls from various different groups to have Israel excluded from the competition because of the war in Gaza. The organisers say this is a politically neutral competition and it's organised by the broadcasters themselves and they don't want to be getting involved in that sort of thing.

So, Johnny, who's hot tip to win? So hot tip to win is the right way of framing it, Tara, because according to the organisers, Sweden's entry, which is actually a group from the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, Kai, is hot-tipped to win with a song which is inspired by Saunas. and there have been a number of saunas which have been set up in Basin,

including one that's been dragged all the way from Finland, especially in their honour. So they are certainly the bookie's favourite, and it's entirely possible we might see others. But certainly if Sweden does win, it would be quite exciting for them because it would mean that they were top of the Eurovision leaderboard and they would have won the contest the most times out of any other country in the organisation's history, with most famously it being Aver, of course, in 1970. which was Sweden's entry. And it's time for a recommended listen for your weekend.

We're heading into space. We'll be talking to our space reporter, Joey Roulette, and getting up to speed on SpaceX's ninth test launch of a Starship Mega Rocket next week. That pod takes off on Saturday morning. 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.

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