Reuters World News - Trump and Maduro, Netanyahu's pardon request and data center backlash

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

President Donald Trump confirms he’s spoken by phone to Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks for a pardon in his multi-year corruption trial. And keeping AI data centers cool is a challenge as the political rhetoric around them heats up.   Listen to Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. 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 Tara Oaks in Liverpool. It's Monday, December 1st. Today, Trump confirms he's had a conversation with Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro. Netanyahu seeks a pardon in his years-long corruption trial, and AI data centers draw anger from both sides at the political aisle. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that he spoke with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, but did not provide details on what the two leaders discussed.

It went well or badly. It was a phone call. Yeah. You think so? On Saturday, Trump said the airspace above and surrounding Venezuela should be considered closed in its entirety, but gave no further details. Julia Simmskopf is our Andean Bureau Chief. This is the second weekend in a row that we've had press coverage coming out about or comments from people in the United States that sort of imply that something else is going to happen. There's a ton of different theories depending on who you talk to about what Trump's next steps could be in Venezuela. The government has continued to sort of repeat this narrative about this being a violation of Venezuela sovereignty and this being encountered.

law and their promises, of course, to bring people home who are stuck because of flight cancellations. But we're not sure what could happen next. And that's been the sort of ongoing theme of the last few weeks in this escalating feud between the United States and Venezuela is that we're not sure what action Trump is willing to take. Julia says Trump's airspace comments could have an impact on migrant flights from the U.S. Venezuela had been accepting migrant flights from the United States twice a week or so. And about 15,000 Venezuelans have returned. turned on those flights during the Trump administration. And in their statement yesterday, they said that Trump had, through his comments, had unilaterally canceled these flights. So it also remains to be seen

if there's going to be some kind of behind the scenes conversations that let those flights resume. If they did, that I think would be a sign that tensions have eased a little bit. But if those flights don't resume, obviously we know that migration is a big issue for Donald Trump. And certainly with the midterms coming, I imagine he's going to want to be able to talk about wins on that front. And if he's not able to deport Venezuelans because the government won't be accepting those flights, maybe that will have some sort of effect on his next steps. Protesters rallying outside the Israeli president's private residence, angry that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked for a pardon in his long-running corruption trial.

Netanyahu has denied charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust since 2019. The request comes a few weeks. after President Trump wrote to the Israeli president, urging him to hand down a pardon. Netanyahu is due in court today, and Alex Cornwell has more. To a degree, we're in uncharted territory. Previously, those who have been given pardons in Israel have typically gone through the judicial process, have been convicted or found guilty, and then requested a pardon. The prime minister is still in the court process. As you mentioned, he isn't due in court today. Alex says the reactions of

spans the political spectrum in Israel. So a number of key figures in the opposition have said that the Prime Minister must admit guilt and must resign if he is to receive a pardon. Other key members have also said that he shouldn't receive pardon at all and have urged the President not to follow through on this request. And there are also segments of Israeli society who support this move. They see that the Prime Minister's legal cases, which have carried on for many years, have divided society.

some see them as more of an infraction rather than criminal. And so we'll have to wait and see what comes next. Pope Leo on board a flight from Turkey to Lebanon, advocating for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. While in Gaza, the health ministry says the death toll in the strip has now topped 70,000. And in Lebanon, crowds gathered along the road from the Beirut airport to the presidential palace, waving Lebanese and Vatican flags. The Pope urged political leaders to make peace their top priority

in a country that remains a target for Israeli strikes. We don't just want to end the war. We also want to help Ukraine be safe forever. So never again will they face another invasion? The U.S. Secretary of State touting progress on talks for a peace deal with Russia. Marco Rubio met with a Ukrainian delegation led by a new chief negotiator in Florida. Jared Kushner and Steve Wittkoff were also at the talks, and Wittkoff heads to Moscow today, to meet with the Russians. Now to markets, and we've got Mike Dolan from Morning Dead with us.

Mike, what have you got for us today? Today we're talking about Black Friday, the year's busiest shopping day and how that's panned out and how the markets might react to it. We're also looking at the Bank of Japan, which set a pretty downbeat market tone for Monday. It's indicating an interest rate rise later this month. And we're also looking at the OPEC plus decision on Sunday to leave an output for early 2026 unchanged. That's also nudged up crude prices. So for those stories, tune into the podcast later. Just like you can for Reuters World News, you can also ask your smart speaker for Reuters MorningBit. Or listen, wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch on Spotify. Bloodwater rushes past the last remaining stretch of war from 41-year-old

Afriante's home. A whole neighborhood is swept away by a flood that devastated the island of Sumatra in the west of Indonesia. Now her family of nine are huddled underneath a blue tarp on one side of the wall, hoping that aid will come and they can rebuild their home from scratch. Standing near the remains of where they lived, she says they have nothing left except the clothes on their backs after fleeing the rising waters. The death toll currently is over 700 from floods and landslides across three countries in Southeast Asia after a rare tropical storm.

Rescue services are still trying to get access to many flood hit areas. Over 4 million people have been affected across the region as a whole. And in Sri Lanka, Cyclone Dittwa has killed over 350 people, with hundreds more still missing. Rescue operations continue for the fourth day after heavy rains and floods swept across the island. Data centers have become an unlikely unifier in America. Both parties in Washington have been pushing data center expansion as critical to America's AI future. But from Georgia to California, people across the political spectrum are asking at what cost. At a recent planning meeting in rural Montaour County, Pennsylvania, more than 300 residents,

most of them Trump voters, turned out to fight a massive data centre proposal. They're worried about losing farmland, straining water supplies and watching their electricity bills saw. We spoke with White House reporter Jarrett Renshaw, who was at that meeting. And he says that if people see a 20 to 30% increase in utility bills, as is being predicted, this could be an issue that voters rally around in 2026. The buzzword right now is affordability. I think this time we're going to start seeing some spillover effect of all this local opposition. State officials are going to have to respond in some way, put guardrails here.

And that requires some political debate. And I think you'll start seeing some separation between the two parties. I mean, both parties right now have been pretty aligned on the issue of data centers and AI, meaning they've both been heavily supportive. I think if you saw the room I was in, and if you look at places across the country, the politics is going to have to respond. And I think one party will try to seek to kind of harness that opposition and that frustration into some leverage in 2026. Yesterday, our recommended read was the Reuters' news pictures of 2025.

Today, we'd like to point you in the direction of our sports photos from the year, capturing season stars and fearless newcomers across a year of sporting drama. You can see our favourites by following the link in the pod description. 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 favourite 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 headlined show.