Reuters World News - Tariff block, Russia sanctions, immigration spending and Sinwar

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

A U.S. trade court has ruled that President Donald Trump overstepped his authority by imposing import taxes on international trading partners. Trump expresses frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin over the intensifying Ukraine conflict but stops short of new sanctions. How the president's "big, beautiful bill" would devote an unprecedented $150 billion to Trump’s immigration goals. And Israel says it’s killed Hamas' Gaza chief Mohammad Sinwar.  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

Today, a U.S. Court blocks most Trump tariffs, saying the president has exceeded his authority. What Trump's spending bill does for his immigration and deportation goals? Republicans are increasing pressure to slap sanctions on Moscow. And who was Mohamed Sinwar? The Hamas chief Israel says it killed. It's Thursday, May 29th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaksin Liverpool. And I'm Sharon Reich Garson in New Jersey. A U.S. Trade Court has blocked most of President Donald Trump's tariffs. The sweeping ruling

finds that Trump overstepped his authority by imposing across-the-board import taxes on its trading partners. The Court of International Trade says the Constitution gives Congress the exclusive authority to regulate commerce with other countries. minutes after the ruling landed, the Trump administration filed a notice of appeal and questioned the authority of the court. Financial markets have cheered the ruling. Carmel Crimmons has more. The dollar is climbing on this decision and so are shares around the world. It eases concerns, at least for now, about the economic outlook.

So is the short-term pop. Over the longer term, what we have is more uncertainty. Some market analysts are warning that questions over what happens next, will take a toll on companies and markets as businesses put off investment decisions. The U.S. will start revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party. Marco Rubio says student visa criteria will also be revised on future visa applications from China and Hong Kong. China has the second highest number of international students pursuing higher education in the United States. the Chinese embassy in Washington has not responded to a request for comment.

Elon Musk is leaving the Trump administration. His four-month tenure saw him upend several federal agencies, but ultimately failed to deliver the savings he had promised through the Department of Government Efficiency. According to a White House official, his off-boarding began Wednesday night. Musk thanked Trump on his social media platform, X. A retired French surgeon who sexually abused hundreds of young patients received a 20-year jail sentence. Jo Le Scoignex stood accused of aggravated rape or sexual assault of 299 victims,

including some children who were under anesthetic. He told the court he had committed despicable acts over a 25-year period while working as a doctor in Western France. And in Switzerland, the army has been deployed to search for a man still missing, after a huge chunk of glacier crashed down a mountain, burying much of a picturesque alpine village. Blatton had otherwise been largely evacuated more than a week earlier when part of the mountain behind the birch glacier began to crumble. Republican senators Lindsay Graham and Chuck Grassley

are pushing Donald Trump to impose new sanctions on Russia. While Trump has said that sanctions are ineffective, AIDS say he's seriously considering the penalties now. Trump himself says he's growing frustrated with Putin. He'll find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently, but it'll take about a week and a half, two weeks. His comments come as Russia proposes another round of peace talks with Ukraine

in Istanbul at the start of next week. Kiev hasn't yet responded. reporter Steve Holland is at the White House. The president is, he's been fixated on this idea for a long time that he can get things done with Vladimir Putin. He's now sort of running into the reality that it's a little bit more difficult than he may have thought. And I think Republicans are so tired of the war continuing

and the Russian attacks on Ukraine at a time when they're trying to get some sort of ceasefire going that they're pretty much fed up. and they're like, we're going to try the sanction route and approve some sanctions and then get the president to sign them. But still, the White House officials tell us that he's considering these sanctions, but he hasn't signed off on it yet. He's not there yet. Why has he been holding off? The Russians and the Ukrainians agreed to work on a peace proposal, and the Russians are coming up with their own draft of this. That's what Trump is giving time to play out.

If it's a lot of non-starters that are included in the Russian proposal, like no more NATO enlargement, then it might get Trump to change his mind. But so far, he seems to want to give it a little bit more time. And his reference to two weeks, this is a very frequent time span for the president. Things are always two weeks away. So whether that holds up, we'll see. Before Elon Musk confirmed his Doge exit, he argued that President, Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill would detract from efforts to reduce the U.S. budget deficit.

Trump himself has said that he plans to negotiate aspects of a tax bill, which still has to pass the Senate. As it stands, it sets aside an enormous amount of funding to help realize the president's ambitious immigration goals. Immigration reporter Ted Heson has the details. We're talking about an estimated $150 billion towards things like the wall on the U.S. Mexico border, adding 10,000 more U.S. immigration and customs enforcement officers. There's currently about 20,000 total, so it would be a very big increase. And then it would also take steps to toughen the asylum system in some ways. It would impose steep fees on humanitarian applications, including for the first time. It would impose a fee on applying for asylum, and that would start at a minimum of $1,000 and potentially could be set higher. So overall, it looks to really cement President Trump's tough immigration agenda, and it's something that if it's passed into law, could have effects for years or even beyond.

And there's some dissent, at least among deficit hawks, right, that this is just still too much money. Even among Republicans, there are some voices who are saying that this is devoting too much to immigration enforcement. One of the lead voices is Senator Rand Paul, who's known as a fiscal conservative, just citing that since President Trump has taken office, the number of migrants crossing illegally has dropped to record lows. And to him, it's raised questions about whether it's prudent to spend so much money right now on border barriers. Israel says it's killed the Hamas chief in Gaza, Mohamed Sinwa. Sinwa was targeted earlier this month during an airstrike on a hospital in southern Gaza

that killed at least 30 people, according to Palestinian health authorities. Nidal al-Mugrabi is our senior correspondent in Cairo. Nadal, who exactly was Mohamed Sinwar? We know that Muhammad Sinwar is a veteran Hamas military commander, according to Hamas sources we have spoken to, he has become at the top of the pyramid of the military wing of the movement, especially after the assassination of his brother, Yahya Asinwar, who was the Hamas chief. He has been in the military wing for decades, and according to Hamas sources, has worked to develop the Hamas arsenal and the like tunnel network,

which the group has been using for years to launch. rocket attacks or infiltration cross-border attacks into Israel. So then how does his death potentially affect Hamas? Let's say first that the Hamas movement has not confirmed nor denied his death. And it's still unclear whether his killing would impact the movement, whether it would bolster the exile leaders of the group or diminish their grip on things in the Gaza Strip. but Hamas has lost several of its top military commanders and political leaders during this war, whether in Gaza or outside in Gaza.

But we know that he's been one of a few of the top leaders who remained in the Gaza Streb. Hamas sources say that if Sinwar is killed, there is another top military commander who might succeed. His name is Edin al-Hadad. Israel also puts him on the top wanted list for being one of the masterminds behind the October 7 cross-border attack into Israel. And for today's recommended read, Mexico's cartels and how they recruit children and groom them into killers. We'll drop a link to the story in the pod description. It includes first-hand accounts of children who have killed for the cartels.

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 tomorrow with our daily headline show.