Reuters World News - The spy network under the sea, Poland halts weapons for Ukraine and Assad in China

Episode Date: September 21, 2023

The United States and China are overhauling their espionage systems, out of sight and deep underwater, as cheaper new technology changes the game. Poland stops sending weapons to Ukraine. Assad visits China in search of funding and deeper ties. Plus, Budweiser won’t cut off the tails of its famous Clydesdale horses. *This podcast was corrected. An earlier version incorrectly described Edi Rama as the president of Albania. He is the prime minister. 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, Poland stops supplying weapons to Ukraine as a grain row escalates. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad visits China in search of money and ties. The US allows hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants to work, and Washington and Beijing ramp up their spying operations under the ocean. It's Thursday, September 21st. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need. need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London.

As Russia launches its biggest missile attack in weeks on Kyiv and across Ukraine, key ally Poland has said it is no longer arming its neighbor. It's a big shift in Warsaw's stance and comes as the two countries have fallen out over a ban on Ukrainian grain, introduced to protect Polish farmers. Justina Pavlach is in Warsaw. Justina, how major is this announcement? From Ukraine's perspective, it's an illustration of the fact that the West is already struggling to gather enough weapons and ammunition to send to support this war effort.

From the Polish perspective, it essentially amounts to the Prime Minister saying, we've sent everything that we've had from the Soviet era, which is what we've been sending all along, and now we're buying new stuff for ourselves for our own defense. Having said that, the government could have said it a little bit differently to underline continued support and it didn't. Why is Poland doing this then? So it would seem that it's part of its election campaign. That's what analysts are saying and that's what the opposition is accusing the government of doing. The government is facing an election in three and a half weeks.

There is a sense that some of its far right or some of its more conservative voters are tired with Ukraine. Mostly it's part of a refugee fatigue. and it would seem that the government is trying to speak to those voters in a last ditch efforts to command more support. Now for the other news making headlines around the world. Russian ambassador Vasily Nbenzir objected to Ukrainian president Volody Mezzolensky speaking at the UN Security Council. But Albania's Prime Minister, Neri Rama, had a sassy retort.

There is a solution for this if you agree. You stop the war and President Zelensky will not take the floor. Zelensky heads to Washington today, where he'll meet with Joe Biden, lawmakers and military leaders. The Biden administration will allow nearly half a million Venezuelans already in the U.S. to live and work legally in the country for 18 months. The move follows warnings from New York Democrats that the city's resources would be overwhelmed unless newly arrived migrants were allowed to work. Talks between Azerbaijan and an Armenian delegation from Nagorno-Karabakh have begun

after 24 hours of Azeri strikes forced the breakaway region into a ceasefire. In Yerevan, it stoked calls for the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Protester Harout's disappointment in the deal was palpable. It's something that we've been fighting for. 30 years. And now it all went for nothing. Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch says it will no longer cut off the tails of its famous Clydesdale horses after months of pressure from animal rights activists. Docking a horse's tail traditionally involves cutting off the end of the tailbone to prevent the tail from interfering with harness and carriage equipment. It's banned in some states and countries.

The process of getting inflation sustainably down to 2% has a long way to go. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell toughening his stance on inflation, even as the central bank left interest rates unchanged. So what does that mean for future borrowing costs? Howard Schneider is here to tell us in under 30 seconds. Well, the Fed, as expected, held interest rates steady. But the surprise was they see keeping policy quite a bit tighter for quite a bit longer than anyone unexpected. Next year, they see making fewer cuts. Now, if you push that together with what they see about inflation, with inflation falling, it's quite the soft landing. They're anticipating now,

but the consequence of that is tighter monetary policy next year and into 2025 with fewer cuts along the way. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is in China for a meeting with President Xi Jinping. He's seeking funds and more progress in ending Syria's international Lorry Chen is in Beijing. So Laurie, Assad obviously wants to come out of diplomatic isolation. What's in this for China? So I think China is trying to shore up relations with Arab and Gulf states, since it's in a contest for influence with the US in the region.

So earlier this year, it broke it a very surprised deal between Iran and Saudi, who are massive regional rivals, and it convinced them to restore diplomatic ties, which was viewed by a lot of international observers as a huge coup that the US couldn't pull. of. Syria is in ruins after its devastating war. Financially, what does China see as the opportunity here? I think the focus of Assad's trip is basically convincing the Chinese to pledge more aid towards Syria's recovery. But China hasn't really made any sort of super concrete pledges in this regard. It pledged, I think, $2 billion dollars a few years ago, but none of these funds have yet to materialize. And also, China's sort of quite wary of the sort of unstable situation in the

country. Is there any significance to the timing of this visit? Yeah, I think it's significant that the timing of the visit not only occurs during the UNGA, but also during sort of protests in southern Syria against the regime. I think Assad wants to build a picture of international support and also Chinese leaders are becoming more selective of who they engage with and having a lot more leaders visit China from abroad instead of sending Xi Jinping everywhere. out of sight and deep underwater a secret battle between the US and China is reviving a Cold War submarine spy program. Reporter Joe Brock has been digging into America's overhaul of its top secret surveillance system. Joe, can you start with describing what the surveillance network looks like?

It looks to start with like undersea cables which have on them microphones that listen and out for noises and submarines and any movement underneath the sea. Those cables are laid in top secret locations. On top of that, there are ships which carry similar underwater microphones. And then there's a bunch of new technology, which has only come onto the market recently, which is now being used to enhance those sort of legacy systems. What kind of new technology? These can operate above the surface or below the surface.

They can be fitted with infrared cameras, satellite uplinks to the Starlink constellation so they can transfer any data, undersea sonar detectors to listen for submarines. And this fleet can then be deployed in sensitive areas where you may not want to send a manned submarine to listen for enemy craft or to carry out covert operations. What about the Chinese? What are they up to? Well, they are unsurprisingly looking at exactly the same technology and exactly the same risks, hence why there's this arms race going on.

And the Chinese are building what is known as the undersea wall, which is its own network of submarine spy cables, which military analysts believe are laid in strategic locations around the South China Sea and Taiwan in order to try and listen for enemy submarines and other vessels. Why the urgency on both sides? A good question. I think two main factors. The war in Ukraine has shown military generals, both in the US and in China, what modern warfare looks like. We're talking about Ukraine using fairly inexpensive sea drones packed with explosives to attack targets. The US Navy has become aware of the threat that now poses to warships and traditional assets, which cost billions and billions of dollars. Also, the situation. with Taiwan, the increased aggression from China towards Taiwan has the US worried over a potential

conflict there. Capabilities will be really important because surface warfare is becoming so much more dangerous as we've seen in Ukraine. The US Pacific Fleet said it could not discuss its undersea surveillance system for security reasons. It added that its systems will grow and be invested in as subsea technologies advance. China's Ministry of Defence and Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back on Friday with our daily news show. 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 favourite podcast player or download the Reuters app.