Reuters World News - The U.S. weapons at the top of Europe's shopping list

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

We’re in Munich as security chiefs gather to talk arms and conflict. Who will score in the Manchester United bidding war? And the Japanese rocket that failed to take off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Europe's demand for weapons is soaring. Today, we're on the ground in Munich for a security conference that could determine who gets the upper hand in the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is looking for more air defenses. They're looking for more drones. And I think that there may be more of an appetite now to provide those than there was, say, a month ago. And will it go to extra time? Bids are coming in ahead of the weekend for Manchester United. It's Friday, February 17th.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vinal in London. As I've said since the beginning of my administration, we seek competition, not conflict with China. We're not looking for a new Cold War. Joe Biden seeks to dial down tensions with Beijing after the shooting down of what Washington says was a Chinese spy balloon in U.S. airspace. I expect to be speaking with President Xi, and I hope we have, we're going to get to the bottom of this. But I make no apologies for taking down that balloon. US military jets shot down a further three unidentified flying objects.

Biden says they likely didn't come from China, and were most likely balloons used for recreation or research. Beijing has denied it was involved in aerial spying and says the Chinese balloon shot down was used for monitoring the weather. Now to Iran, where protests have rocked numerous cities overnight. After a seeming slowdown in recent weeks, people are on the streets again, calling for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. The marches mark 40 days since two protesters were hanged. Reuters is verifying the footage of the marches, and you can follow this developing story on Reuters.com. Tanigashima, we have a problem.

That's the sound of Japan halting the launch of its H3 rocket just moments before takeoff. A secondary booster engine failed to ignite. The H3 is Japan's first new medium-lift rocket in three decades. It's meant to secure Japan a bigger slice of the commercial space market. US Democratic Senator John Fetterman has checked himself into a Washington area hospital seeking treatment for clinical depression. The Pennsylvania lawmaker flipped a Republican-held seat in last November's elections

just six months after suffering a stroke. Research suggests that one in three stroke survivors will eventually develop post-stroke depression. French protest is promising to keep going until a controversial pension reform is withdrawn. Reuters Richard Locke is in Paris to unpack what the crowds on the street means for President Macron. President Emmanuel Macron and his government insist they won't back down over the reform, which sees an increase in the retirement age to 64 from 62. The question is, at what cost to the president?

Already he's had to water down his plans just to get this far. Now he's busy having to offer sweeteners to win the support of conservatives whose votes he needs in a parliament where he lost his working majority in last year's election. That support looks likely, but it's still not guaranteed. Leaving Macron the option should he fail of forcing it through Parliament by decree. The optics of that would look bad for a president

early in his second term, and that's before he even thinks about a response to the public anger that has unfold in the streets these past weeks. I'm Richard Locke in Paris. The Ukraine War is, spurring demand for U.S. arms. A Reuters analysis of weapon sales has found international shopping lists are focused less on jets and tanks and more on artillery rounds, air defenses, shoulder-fired javelin missiles and drones, the basic tools of war. It reflects how the conflict in

Ukraine has reshaped Europe's strategy for future wars. That strategy will be a hot topic at the Munich Security Conference this weekend. It's the biggest event on the global security calendar. Kamala Harris will be there for the US, joining world leaders including Emmanuel Macon and Olaf Schultz. Royter's Jonathan Lande is there for us with the US Congressional Delegation, the biggest America has ever sent. Hi Jonathan. Hi. So obviously there is a war going on and this is the biggest international security conference. You're there with the U.S. U.S. delegation, what is the U.S. most concerned about right now? Well, I think, again, this is the platform that the Allies will use to reaffirm their support for Ukraine, particularly at this time,

where you have what appear to be the beginning of a new Russian offensive. Usually the Russians attend this conclave, I don't believe they're going to be there this year. And at a time when some of these high-end weapons systems that the West is providing to Ukraine are just starting to make it into the theater. You've had the first appearance of German-made leopard tanks on the Ukrainian side. It's kind of like this leading edge of this surge in high-end Western weaponry that will be going into Ukraine. I remember early on in the conflict, there was a lot of concern about providing direct weaponry to Ukraine because people were scared that that would spark World War III. Is that no longer a concern? I think there is some. I think there is some.

some concern, but it's definitely dissipated. And it's dissipated because as the United States and its allies have provided increasingly more powerful and more sophisticated weapon systems, there's really been no major reaction from the Russians. And it appears that President Putin remains intent on keeping this conflict within the borders of Ukraine. Thank you so much, Jonathan Landy. Any time. On markets, rate hike worries are back. Are they ever really very far away?

A drop in jobless claims data and a jump in producer prices have investors worried that the Fed will keep tightening. The dollar is surged to a six-week high. As we head into the weekend, global sports spectators are focusing on a business story. Just who will pay the big bucks for Manchester United? The deadline for bidders to declare their interest is fast approaching. Here's our resident sports guru, Amy Tennery, with company's breaking news editor Matt Scuffin to break it all down. Hi there, Matt. How you doing? Very well, thanks. Amy. How are you?

Doing great. I am extremely excited about this potential deal coming through, potentially the largest sports deal ever. I think one of the most fascinating bidders, of course, is this consortium of Qatari investors. And it's a little bit controversial. Can you unpack that for us? Yeah, the Qatari bid faces a problem because Kats, Qatar already owns Paris San Jermain, which is the leading French team, and they compete in the Champions League Europe's elite club competition against Manchester United. Now, ERAFA's rules say that owners cannot own more than one club that competes in the same competition. That on the face of it would appear to make the Qatari bid unviable, but what the Qatariis are trying to do is to show Uyafa that the entity that is proposed. to buy Manchester United is entirely separate from the entity that owns PSG.

Of course. And, you know, we had some interesting reporting actually last month about the impact of the Chelsea sale and kind of how it gave that impetus to sell Manchester United. Can you talk about what this Chelsea sale, this $5.2 billion sale, what kind of impact that had for sports business and how motivating it was to start maybe putting some of these teams up for sale? Yeah, I think that was really important in this whole process because the Chelsea sale, which was obviously instructed by the UK government after they seized the assets of Romano Bramovich, the then Chelsea owner after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, it really then set a flaw on likely valuations of the elite clubs going forward. Matt, thank you so much. You have educated this American across the pond and I'm excited to follow our reporting in the coming weeks. Thanks, Amy. It was a pleasure. Thank you.

Happy birthday to Kosovo. It's 15 years since the Albanian majority country declared independence from Serbia. But the anniversary has been overshadowed by increasing violence between Kosovan police and minority Serb protesters. Intense Western diplomacy has managed to hold off a slide back into armed conflict for now. Reuters Fatos Patutsi told me that unresolved grievances still, threat and peace. If the situation continues like this, there may be a conflict

because the local suburbs in the north, they don't accept police and there is tensions after tension, so there is a risk. Foreign diplomats say that there is a risk of a potential conflict in that part, and they just don't, they can't handle

conflicts at the same time in the continent of Europe. And that's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back again on Monday. In the meantime, you can find more trusted news at Reuters.com.