Reuters World News - Syrian mass grave, U.S. data darkness and French pensions

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Bashar al-Assad's government secretly relocated a mass grave to cover up evidence of tens of thousands of killings in Syria, a Reuters investigation has found. The U.S. government shutdown has switched off the flow of economic data and that spells trouble for the countries which depend on it. And the newly-reinstated French prime minister hopes that putting pension reform on the backburner will help him live to fight another day.   Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read 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

Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Wednesday, October 15th. Today, Reuters exclusive uncovers a clandestine operation in Syria, where the former Assad government moved thousands of bodies to a remote mass grave. Donald Trump threatens Hamas with military force if it doesn't disarm, as the group hands over more bodies. And France's new Prime Minister scraps plans to raise the retirement. age. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. A Reuters investigation has uncovered the Assad government in Syria secretly relocated thousands of bodies from a mass grave near Damascus to a remote desert site. Between 2019 and 2021, trucks moved remains from Ktajafa to Dumaire in what military insiders called

Operation Move Earth. Witnesses say the goal was to erase evidence of atrocities under former President Bashar al-Assad. They say the dead are soldiers and prisoners who died in the dictator's prisons and military hospitals. The new gravesite spans at least 34 trenches with a total length of two kilometers and may hold tens of thousands of bodies. Assad, who is now in Russia, and several ministry officials identified by witnesses as playing key roles in the operation couldn't be reached for comment. Reuters informed the current government of President Ahmed al-Shara of its findings, but they did not immediately respond to questions. Hamas has returned more bodies of dead hostages after Israel threatened to cut aid to the enclave.

So far, nine coffins have been handed over, leaving at least 19 hostages presumed dead, and one unaccounted for still in the Gaza Strip. It's just one of several challenges to President Donald Trump's peace plan. In another potential flashpoint, Hamas is refusing to disarm and President Trump is threatening them with military strikes. President Trump says he's told Hamas to disarm or the U.S. will force them to. And they will disarm. And if they don't disarm, we will disarm them. And it'll happen quickly and perhaps violently.

Hamas has never publicly committed to downing its weapons. Hamas fighters have instead re-emerged, deploying hundreds of security forces and executing several people they accuse of collaborating with Israel. Bulldozers have begun clearing rubble from the streets of Gaza City. The local municipality is trying to reopen roads destroyed in the war so people can continue to return to what's left of their homes.

But as access and important, proves evidence is mounting of the destruction left behind. The UN Children's Agency UNICEF says equipment crucial for saving children's lives, like neonatal ventilators, have been destroyed at Gaza's Al-Ranthizi Children's Hospital. President Trump says continued support for Argentina depends on President Javier Melle's party winning this month's elections. And if he does win, we're going to be very helpful. And if he does win, we're not going to waste it.

The comments came just days after the US announced a $20 billion currency swap to stabilize Argentina's economy. Markets in Buenos Aires dipped on Trump's remarks, rattling investor confidence. Meanwhile, investors in the US are facing a different kind of uncertainty. The government shutdown has halted the official flow of economic data, a key tool not just for Americans, but for global policy makers trying to steer decisions on currency, trade and inflation. Fed reporter Howard Schneider says because the U.S. economy still accounts for a quarter of the whole world's economic output, countries which have deep financial relationships with

the U.S. take note, like Japan. The U.S. economy accounts still for 25% of world economic output and has tremendously deep trade and financial relationships with countries like Japan. So if you're sitting at the back of Japan, you need to know what's happening in the U.S. to really have a full picture, a fully nuanced picture of what's happening or what's going to happen in coming months inside Japan. And the same can be said for Canada, certainly where 20% of GDP depends on U.S. exports to the U.S., Mexico, certainly Bank of England where they're tight financial ties, and not having up-to-date information on this. It's going to become increasingly important to them to have some lens on what's happening in the U.S.

Howard says private data and the Fed can fill some gaps for now, but if the shutdown drags on, it could be problematic for central banks. Even with all of this massive amount of data that's out there right now, and be it from cell phones or credit card, I mean millions and millions of data points of information, that none of these are considered yet has a good substitute for the 60,000 people, BLS polls every month about whether they have a job or not. not. That remains the touchstone that people want to know to have a sense of whether the labor market's doing okay or doing worse. Over in France, new Prime Minister Sebastian Leconiou

is promising to suspend plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 until after the 27 election. The controversial pension reforms were a big part of the reason why Leconiue quit after only a few weeks in his job, only to be reinstated. by President Emmanuel Macron four days later. Here's Reuters France Deputy Bureau Chief, Gabriel Staggarder. The pension reform is arguably Macron's singular economic legacy. It was pushed through despite weeks of street protests. It was rammed through Parliament, which many whose opponents never really appreciated,

particularly on the left. It was one of the things that Macron had been holding on too dearly. He didn't want to sacrifice it. And I think that by sacrificing it or by offering it up until after the 2027, financial election, he has realized that that was really the only way to kind of keep the government on track and stave off a real deterioration of France's political crisis. People on the right in France believe that moving the retirement age up is just a recognition of reality. People on the left view the pension and retirement age issues as sort of fundamental, and they don't

believe that French people should be asked to work longer years after years of toiling away. At least 30 news organisations, including Reuters, have declined to sign a new Pentagon access policy for journalists, warning of the potential for less comprehensive coverage of the world's most powerful military ahead of a Tuesday deadline to accept new restrictions. The policy requires journalists to acknowledge rules that could see them branded security risks and have their Pentagon press badges revoked if they ask department employees to disclose classified and some types of unclassified information. Reuters is among the outlets that have refused to sign, citing the threat posed to press freedoms.

Other outlets refusing to sign include the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the New York Times, CNN and Fox News. Chief Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement on Monday, The policy does not ask for them to agree, just to acknowledge that they understand what our policy is, adding that they stand by the policy and believe it's what's best for national security. The US has launched another strike on a boat off Venezuela's coast, killing six suspected drug traffickers. In a post on Truth Social, Trump says the strike was carried out against a designated terrorist organization, but he did not provide any details. The Pentagon is calling it an armed conflict with drug cartels.

But some former military lawyers have raised questions about the legal basis for these attacks. The US military is ramping up its presence in the Caribbean, with warships, F-35s, and even a nuclear submarine. The US Supreme Court has rejected conspiracy theorist Alex Jones appeal of a $1.4 billion defamation judgment over his false claims that the Sandy Hooks school shooting, was a hoax. That leaves in place a Connecticut ruling in favour of families, of victims and an FBI agent who responded to the 2012 massacre. Jones still faces more lawsuits and is appealing a separate verdict in Texas. And for today's recommended read, after President Trump scored the high-profile diplomatic win of brokering a ceasefire in Gaza, the question remains of whether he can keep Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on side to keep it afloat. Our report is done. Our report is done.

into just that and explore the key differences that remain in getting Trump's full peace plan over the line. 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. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.