Reuters World News - Thailand’s political drama, Zimbabwe election hopes and ‘General Armageddon’ removed

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been moved from prison to hospital, just hours after his return to the country from a 15-year exile. Cash-strapped Zimbabwe heads to the polls. BRICS divisions re-emerge ahead of critical expansion debate. Plus, the man known as “General Armageddon” is replaced as head of the Russian air force and a dramatic high wire rescue in Pakistan. 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, political intrigue in Thailand after former Prime Minister, Taksin Chinojotra, is moved from prison to hospital just hours after returning to the country. In Russia, General Armageddon is removed from his post. Old divisions reemerge at a brick summit in Johannesburg, as China and Russia seek to take on Western dominance. And Zimbabweans vote in a high-stake selection. It's Wednesday, August 23rd. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

I'm Kim Vennel in London. First, the headlines making news around the world. Celebrations in Pakistan, as the last of eight people trapped in a cable car are pulled to safety. The high-risk operation was completed in the dark of night, after a snag left the cable car hanging precariously over a remote, Ravine. Those on board were mainly children en route to school. A Russian general who hasn't been seen in public since an aborted mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group has been removed from his post.

Sergei Sorovican, known as General Armageddon, has been replaced as head of the Air Force, according to the RIA State News Agency. No reason was given for his removal, and there's been no official confirmation of it. rescuers have found 18 burned bodies in a wildfire hit region of northern Greece, all believed to be migrants. The bodies were found on a popular route for migrants from the Middle East and Asia, crossing into the European Union. The first Republican primary debate kicks off tonight, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis set for the hot seat in the absence of Donald Trump. The Republican frontrunner is not participating in the Milwaukee debate. Without him, candidates are expected to focus their attacks on DeSantis to try and displace

him as Trump's top challenger. FDX crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried is subsisting on bread and water in jail, say his lawyers. That's because the federal jail where he's being held ahead of his fraud trial hasn't provided him with a vegan diet. The one-time billionaire was led into court on Monday wearing leg restraints and a beige uniform for his first appearance since a judge revoked his bail, saying he'd tampered with witnesses. It's time now for markets with Carmel Crimmons. She's back. We're all very happy about it.

Carmel, today we are talking about Navidia. That's right. Investors are counting on a bullish earnings report from Navidia to rejuvenate a stocks rally. The last time this company reported results back in May, it lifted the whole S&P tech index. And investors want to see this time around confirmation that the AI story is real. Navidia has obviously been a huge beneficiary of chat GBT and other genitive AI apps, which rely on its chips. So investors are expecting Navidia to forecast quarterly revenue above estimates. The question is by how much.

They don't actually have that much room to disappoint. Its shares have tripled in value this year, and they closed up 8.5% on Monday. That was their biggest jump in nearly three months. So anything other than a higher-than-expected forecast could trigger a route in this stock. Political high drama in Thailand. Former Premier Taksin Shinawatra has been hospitalized hours after returning to the country from a 15-year exile. He was transferred to hospital from a prison in Bangkok, where he was meant to be serving a sentence for corruption. The switch from jail cell to hospital bed comes shortly after a candidate from Taksin's

Putei Party, Sretta Tavisen, was voted the next Thai PM in Parliament after weeks of deadlock. Southeast Asia Bureau Chief K. Johnson is in Bangkok. Houthai Party's most famous politician has returned from exile, and then that party's candidate won the prime ministership just hours after. Are these two things related? Well, officially, they are not. Taksin's daughter has said publicly that there has been no deal to allow her father

to come back to the country after 15 years. but the timing obviously has got a lot of people talking that, in fact, there was a political deal to allow her father to come back from self-imposed exile after he was overthrown by the military in 2006. They have not admitted this, but there are many people who are assuming that, yes, these things are related, but that is not being admitted publicly. Putai's decision to go into coalition with military-aligned parties has pushed the party that won the most votes into opposition. How a vote is taking that?

Well, even as toxins, many supporters are celebrating his return and the formation of a government, many people are very upset at what they see as Poitai Party's betrayal of what they see as the democratic movement and the anti-military movement. So there is a lot of anger amid some of the celebrations. And some of these progressive activists say they will fight on. Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, a meeting to plot the future course of their block, known as bricks. But old divisions have re-emerged. China and Russia are seeking to strengthen the club as a counterweight to the West,

but other members have mixed views about letting more countries in. Tim Cox is following the meeting in Johannesburg. So Tim, what is this Brick Summit hoping to achieve? Is there any uniting vision beyond resisting the West? Not really. The whole format has really been all about providing a kind of what they call a new kind of multilateralism, something where particularly global South nations can have a voice without feeling that they're sort of being overpowered or dominated by the kind of Western institutions.

And yet it's not even totally clear that they agree on that because we had some quite pointed remarks from Brazil's Lula de Silva yesterday saying that actually they weren't looking to try and set themselves up in competition with the West or with Western-dominated multilateral institutions. There are other countries that want to join Bricks. How likely is it that they'll choose to expand the block? Well, again, this is something that they're debating in which there seems to be scant agreement on. China is very keen to expand the block partly as a projection of its own power

and it's sort of sensing that it's becoming the next big superpower and wants to sort of take these countries along with it and also sees itself as a kind of champion of the global south. Russia is obviously very keen to expand because the more friends it has, the less isolated it looks. And it's been very much pushing this message that it's not isolated, that it's not been violating international norms in Ukraine,

but that it's the victim of a kind of NATO-led Western conspiracy. And so Russia and China clearly do want to expand India's kind of on the fence. South Africa has sort of made noises about wanting to expand. I think they're quite keen on the idea. And then Brazil, again, is just not for it. Brazil fears that it's going to dilute the bloc's voice if they have too many countries joining.

So I don't think we're going to be seeing a very clear move on expansion during this summit. Zimbabweans head to the polls today. And while many hope that a change in government could end the country's lengthy economic crisis, it seems unlikely. Instead, the election is expected to skew in favour of a party that's been in power for four decades. Reporter Nelson Banja is in Harari for the vote. Nelson, give us a sense of what life is like for Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwe has been in the grip of a deep economic crisis for over two decades now. And it currently is one of the highest inflation. rates in the world, 77%, it was in triple digits just last month. The high levels of unemployment, the public services, health and education have all but collapsed. Nelson, will this election be fair? Not by most independent accounts, as well as the opposition itself. This is because of allegations of voter intimidation, especially in the rural areas, which is where most voters reside.

And it is also because of the electoral commission, the police and state media, which are widely seen as biased towards the ruling party, charges which the ruling party denies. Can the opposition get people out to vote? That's one of the key questions of this election. Young voters have tended to stay away because they are largely disillusioned by an electoral process, which many consider to be unfair and will not likely to result in change. So it's really important that the opposition gets people to vote. Whether they have the organizational capacity to get voters to come out is a big question

because of the internal weaknesses within the opposition itself. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back with our daily headlines show on Thursday. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player, or download the Reuters app.