Reuters World News - Secret intercepts from the Russian frontlines and China’s Xi stays at home

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

Excerpts of Russian soldiers’ calls from the frontlines talk of losses, discontent and disarray. Kim Jong Un may be planning a rare trip outside North Korea to talk to President Putin. China’s President Xi Jinping isn’t travelling much this year – why? Plus, the latest from the Munich motor show and a human trafficking ring stretching from Cuba to Russia’s war in Ukraine. 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. Deepening ties between North Korea and Russia may mean a rare international trip for Kim Jong-un. Excerpts of intercepted Russian calls from the front lines reveal talk of casualties and disarray. President Xi Jinping's absence from this week's G20 summit spotlights his lack of travel this year, and Chinese carmakers are out in force at the Munich Motor Show. It's Tuesday, September 5th. 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.

Kim Jong-un may be planning a rare trip outside North Korea to hold talks in Russia with President Putin. News of a possible visit comes after Russia said it was discussing holding joint military exercises with North Korea. Josh Smith is in Seoul with the latest. U.S. officials believe that there's been ongoing conversations over potential arms deals between North Korea and Russia, and that Kim Jong-un expects those to continue at the leader level in Russia at some point. What can North Korea offer? So some of the types of weapons that have been mentioned by U.S. officials are artillery shells that Russia has been using a lot in the war in Ukraine, as well as anti-tank missiles. These are both types of weapons that North Korea. Korea has produced and is also believed to have in quite large stockpiles. It has a very large conventional military.

However, you know, there is some doubt over how new and how capable some of those artillery shells would be. Now for the other headlines making news around the world. No sign of an immediate breakthrough on a Black Sea grain deal after talks between Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin. The Russian president said Moscow would allow Ukraine. to resume exporting grain through the Black Sea once Western sanctions were relaxed. Turkey had helped broker a previous deal.

Cuba says it's uncovered a human trafficking ring, supplying its citizens to fight for Russia in Ukraine. The foreign ministry said it's working to neutralize and dismantle the network. Russia hasn't commented on the allegations. Donald Trump's former advisor, Peter Navajo, Navarro heads to trial today on two misdemean accounts of contempt of Congress. The charges stem from his refusal to testify or provide documents to a congressional investigation into the capital attack. Navarro has pleaded not guilty.

It's time now for markets with Carmel Crimmons. Carmel, what's going on? Well, the recent rally in Chinese shares has reversed. Weak services data out of China has rekindled fears about the state of the world's second largest economy. So we're seeing shares down this morning. Some good news, though, remember country garden that huge Chinese property developer? It has made late interest payments on US dollar bonds, which averts an immediate default.

Now, failure to pay would have spout markets and raised worries about contagion risk. So that is something to be positive about. Xi Jinping is skipping this week's G20 summit in India. It's the first time the Chinese president has missed a G20 and highlights his lack of overseas travel this year. John Getty is China news editor. John, what reason has Beijing given 4Gy opting out? They gave no answer. And this is obviously fueled reams of speculation from analysts and others. There's something to do with the bilateral relations with India, which are test-day for China because of border disputes. The G20 meetings to date have focused a lot of time and

energy on the Ukraine issue. Obviously, China is a close ally of Russia and has been very careful what it says on that front. So that could obviously be an uncomfortable discussion. But really, I mean, we are in the realms of speculation as into why Xi is not going. But this is something of a trend, right? Xi has barely been outside of China this year. That's correct. Xi's only had two overseas international engagements this year. Shortly after he secured his unprecedented third term as president. He visited Moscow to visit Vladimir Putin. And then last month, he was in Johannesburg for a meeting of the BRIC summit. But if you can period even last year, for instance, he had five international engagements last year, a year that China

was effectively closed off to the rest of the world because of COVID restrictions. And then if you look back pre-pandemic, you would be seeing international trips from G, you know, double digits or more every year. Sticking with that G20 summit in India, when residents of a slum in New Delhi heard that the meeting was going to be held barely 500 metres from their homes, they expected it would benefit them as well. But it didn't work out that way. Instead, their houses were demolished. Destroyed, they say, as part of a clean-up operation ahead of the summit. Kusboudavi and her three children are among scores of people whose houses have been demolished.

She says she lived there for the last 25 or 30 years and now has nowhere to go. Officials from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government deny the demolitions are linked to the G20 summit. They say the houses were built illegally and their removal is a continuous activity. A warning. that this next segment has some language that some listeners may find offensive. In the first two weeks of July, Ukraine's intelligence services intercepted phone calls by Russian soldiers on the front lines. Some of their conversations were shared with Reuters by a Ukrainian intelligence source. Reuters was not able to determine how representative the intercepts are of conditions in Russia's armed forces.

The Ukrainian intelligence source said they illustrated the challenges facing Russian soldiers, but did not elaborate on how the recordings were selected. In the intercepts, the men complain that their units have suffered from heavy losses, a lack of munitions and proper training. One soldier, Andre, tells his wife, that his unit is taking such heavy casualties and now so badly equipped, it feels like the Soviet forces in war. World War II. They're fucking us up,

Andre says. No fucking ammunition, nothing. Shall we use our fingers as bayonets? Russia's defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the recordings. Another soldier, Maxim,

says his detachment has managed to advance, but at a high price. That's it. There is no second battalion left. They fucking turned it to crumbs, he tells his wife on July 3rd. Both Russia and Ukraine treat their losses as a state secret.

Ukraine has acknowledged that its counter-offensive has been hindered by vast Russian minefields and well-prepared defensive lines. It has liberated some villages, but the front line has remained largely static, frustrating Kyiv's Western allies. Europe's top car show kicks off today in Munich. Victoria Valdessee is there for us. So Victoria Chinese car makers are out in force, right? Yes.

So this car show used to be seen as the German industry's opportunity to showcase the best of what it had to the market. This year, 41% of exhibitors are from Asia. The number of Chinese participants has doubled. And we've already had two Chinese EV companies talking about several new model launches in Europe. So the Chinese presence is really notable this time. How are Europe's carmakers responding? So European carmakers also have a lot to offer. BMW has released what's called the Neuer-Classar, which is a new series of electric cars.

Mercedes has also released a new series of compact vehicles, what they call kind of entry-level for the premium segment. Fox Fang is putting forward some new concepts for design. But I think it wouldn't be wrong to say that that's also happening under pressure from the Chinese carmakers showing up on their turf. and we're also seeing that the new vehicles tend to be in a lower price segment, which speaks to the pressure coming from China to just bring these prices down and make EVs more affordable. But things are still tough for Chinese carmakers, right?

They're having to slash costs to compete in a price war with Tesla. There are definitely also challenges in the Chinese car market. There's a general economic slowdown, which of course impacts their sales. There's a rollback of some of the very generous government support, which existed for Chinese EV makers at the very, beginning of the transition towards electrification. And then also there's the challenges that Chinese carmakers will face in building up market share in Europe. It's not necessarily smooth sailing, but it's definitely a force to be reckoned with. That's it for today's episode of Royter's World News.

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