Reuters World News - Trump defends MBS, Epstein files and crypto

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

President Donald Trump defends the Saudi Crown Prince over the Khashoggi murder and threatens to pull ABC’s broadcast licenses. Congress approves the release of the Epstein files, sending the bill to the Oval Office. Trump’s approval rating falls to its lowest ever. And Bitcoin slides as the crypto market takes a battering.   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 Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Wednesday, November 19th. Today, In a White House meeting, Trump defends the Saudi Crown Prince over the murder of Jamal Kashoggi, and in the same meeting, threatens ABC News. The bill approving the release of the Epstein files is on its way to the president's desk, and more than $1 trillion has been wiped off the crypto market on fears of a tech. bubble. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, receiving a lavish red carpet welcome from President Donald Trump at the White House. It's the crown prince's

first visit to the U.S. in more than seven years since the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi made the Saudi leader an international parade. But in a stunning response to a journalist's question, President Trump said the Crown Prince did nothing wrong. But he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that. You don't have to embarrass our guests by asking a question like that. It's just to ask Mr. President. Koshchji, who was based in the US, was killed and then dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

US intelligence found the Crown Prince himself had approved the journalists' capture or killing. Trump says Kashokji had enemies. You're mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. The visit marks a high point for Saudi U.S. ties, with Trump designating Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally, granting military and economic privileges. Muhammad bin Salman was effusive in his praise of the president.

We believe in the future of America. we believe what you're doing, Mr. President, really creating a lot of good things and good foundation to create more economic growth, more business in America. Later, Trump hosted an elaborate dinner for the Crown Prince. With high-profile guests, including CEOs from Chevron, Qualcomm and Pfizer,

footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, and Elon Musk, who returned to the White House for the first time since his falling out with Trump. And in terms of deals, Trump and Mohammed bin Salman agreed on arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence and critical minerals. Deputy Foreign Policy editor Humirip Hamuk has more. Aside from Koshugji, the conversation focused on a lot of investments.

We have seen President Trump visibly excited when MBS increased his country's pledge of investment right there in the Oval Office. I believe, Mr. President, today and tomorrow we're going to announce that we are going to increase that $600 billion to almost $1 trillion of investment, real investment and real opportunity by details in many areas. But probably the most important deliverable

from this meeting is the sale of F-35 jets to Saudi Arabia, something the kingdom has been seeking for quite a long time. Now, the tricky thing there is whether or not Washington sells the same aircraft that it sold to Israel, because that's going to be really important in terms of preserving Israel's qualitative military edge in the Middle East. And President Trump indicated that indeed,

the kingdom was probably going to get the same F-35s that Israel was getting. So we're going to have to see how that turns out. President Trump also gave details on the plan for Gaza, saying the Board of Peace, which will oversee a transitional government, will include heads of, quote, all the major countries. He also says the Saudi crown prince gave a positive response to joining the Abraham Accords. That's Trump's effort to get Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel.

But Mohammed bin Salman didn't completely commit. And we want to be part of the Abraham Accord, but we want also to be sure that we secure a clear path of two-state solution. A two-state solution, recognising both Israel and a Palestinian state, is something Israel remains vehemently against. As Trump and Mohammed bin Salman dined at the White House, a bill forcing the release of the Epstein files made its way to President Trump's desk. He could sign off on it as soon as today. But it's not clear how soon after that the files will be released.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly pushed the, bill through in a 427-1 vote, sending it to the Senate, which swiftly approved it too. It's an extraordinary turn of events and an outcome President Trump had fought for months before U-turning. According to two sources, the White House has caught off guard by how quickly the measure moved through the Senate. Trump called for ABC News broadcast licenses to be pulled after taking issue with a question a network reporter asked him about the Epstein-Fine. during that Oval Office meeting with MBS. Why wait for Congress to release the Epstein files?

Why not just do it now? You know, it's not the question that I mind. It's your attitude. Before the vote, about two dozen survivors of Epstein's alleged abuse joined lawmakers to urge the release of the records, including Jenna Lisa Jones, who says Epstein sexually abused her when she was 14.

I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue issue has been a national embarrassment. The Epstein files have become a serious political liability for Trump, taking a toll on his ratings. The latest Reuters Ipsos poll finds his approval rating has sunk to the lowest of his second term at 38%. Politics editor Scott Malone is in Washington, D.C. So what we're seeing is that Americans are very concerned about the high cost of living

and don't think that Trump is solving it for. Just one in four respondents to the poll said they approved of how Trump is handling the issue. The other thing that's weighing on Trump is the Jeffrey Epstein situation. The poll found that about 70% of Americans think that the federal government is hiding Epstein client information. And this is a bit of a problem that Trump has dug himself into. He campaigned on a promise to release the Epstein files. He has long said, you know, when he was out of power, that the government was hiding information

about him. And now that he's back in it, he's under a lot of pressure to act. We find that just four and ten Republicans support the way that Trump's been handling the situation. A court ruling has handed a major win to tech giant Meta ruling it does not hold a monopoly in social networking. The Federal Trade Commission wanted Meta to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp, saying it shouldn't have been allowed to buy them in the first place. But a U.S. district judge found the FTC had incorrect excluded YouTube and TikTok from the market, adding that including TikTok alone defeats the FTC's case. The floor has fallen out from under Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency has fallen below $90,000 for the first time in seven months, wiping out all of this year's gains. The whole crypto market has taken a hit,

with more than a trillion dollars taken out over the last six weeks. Analysts blamed doubts over US rate cuts and say investors are more cautious about risk. Here's FinTech reporter Hannah Lang. The concerns around Bitcoin and the crypto market as a whole have really been impacted by broader market jitters around AI that have really impacted risk assets like tech stocks and cryptocurrencies. Despite a really successful year for digital assets broadly, which have risen on the backs of the Trump administration coming into office and pledging to overall a lot of existing cryptocurrency regulation. Crypto and Bitcoin in particular are very volatile and new assets, and they're not really predictable in the way that they move. There are a lot of large investors

here whose actions can really impact the rest of the market. And that's not really something that's super common in a lot of other assets out there. So I think people have to be worried about, how enduring this trend is right now and whether there's ultimately too much leverage in the system. We've seen a couple of different trends this year where traders have really piled up on leverage and if that implodes it really could impact prices even further. And for today's recommended read, China's travel boycott on Japan, one that could cost Tokyo $14 billion a year. And the small Japanese tourist companies that cater to Chinese clients are at the very sharp

upend of the backlash. The travel warning was triggered by the new Japanese prime minister's comments about Taiwan, saying a Chinese attack on the island could trigger a military response. There's a link to that story in today's 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 favorite 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 headline show.