Reuters World News - Trump-Obama video, Russia-Ukraine and Winter Olympics

Episode Date: February 7, 2026

U.S. President Donald Trump condemns a racist video of former President Barack Obama posted on his social media account, but refuses to apologize. Russia launches a massive air assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as temperatures drop. U.S. stocks rebound, with the Dow Jones topping 50,000 as investors return to AI chipmakers. Plus, ski mountaineering, the oldest winter sport, finally joins the Games.  *The video for this podcast has been updated to correct the location noted from Tyrol, Australia to Tyrol, Austria Listen to the latest On Assignment podcast: Super Bowl LX: Can the NFL go global? Listen to the Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.  Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠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 your weekend host Sharon Reich Garson. It's Saturday, February 7th, today. President Trump condemns video depicting the Obamas as apes, but won't apologize. Wall Street rebounds with the Dow topping 50,000 for the first time on Friday. Plus, ski mountaineering is the newest sport to debut at this year's Winter Games. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you know. need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. President Donald Trump is condemning a racist video posted to his truth social account depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

But he's not apologizing for it. Here he is speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday night. Please, do you condemn the racist parts of the video? Of course I do. Trump says he didn't watch the entire video, which also pushed false claims. about voter fraud in the 2020 election. Asked if he plans to apologize, Trump says he doesn't think he needs to.

No, I didn't make a mistake. I mean, I'd look at a lot of thousands of things. And I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine. The White House initially defended the post as an internet meme, then deleted it 12 hours later. Backlash to the video was swift and bipartisan, Republican Senator Tim Scott, a close Trump ally, saying in a post on X that he was, quote, praying it was fake and describing

it as the most racist thing he'd seen out of this White House. Reporter Jarrett Renshaw is traveling with the president. I spoke to him earlier and he says there's no talk of anyone being fired, but this does raise questions about how the president's social media content is vetted. We know there's just about a handful of people, for people, we believe, that have access to Trump's truth social account, including Trump himself. We know that he dictates posts sometimes, and then a staffer will upload him. We know that he vets some videos, or at least partially some of the videos. But he's a volume player, right? So he's he post 15, 20 posts in a road sometimes

at night and sometimes at two in the morning. So how much he vets every single one? He probably gets a lot of incoming suggestions, these memes, these videos. Does he look at every single second of them before he goes up, evidently not. So I think news organizations like us and others are going to look at that process more closely and see who has access, what is the approval process? We've got a better understanding of how something like this happened. But there's no indication right now that anybody's going to face any punishment for what happened. Russia has launched a massive overnight air attack on Ukraine, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying more than 400 drones and 40, missiles of hammered energy infrastructure as temperatures plunge towards six degrees Fahrenheit.

In a post on X, Zelensky's accused Russia of using the cold as leverage against Ukraine, saying Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes. Moscow hasn't immediately commented on the attacks. The strikes come just days after U.S. brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi, where Washington's been pushing for a deal by summer. And Zelensky's confirmed that a new round of talks is set to take place in Miami in one week. Over to markets now, and Wall Street has snapped back with the Dow closing above 50,000 for the first time ever on Friday as investors piled into the companies making the chips, the power artificial intelligence. Monies flowed back into Nvidia and the other

big chip makers after a shaky week. That's despite worries growing about how much big tech is spending to stay ahead. But for now, investors are betting the AI boom is still very much alive, even if it makes markets a little jumpier. For a closer look at how it all played out, check out today's episode of our sister podcast, Reuters Morning Bid. The link is in the show notes. The search for 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie is entering its sixth day, and investigators in Arizona are examining a newly surfaced message in the presumed kidnapping. The FBI and the Pima County Sheriff's Department say they're working to determine the message's authenticity. A Tucson TV station says it received the communication and turned it over along with the IP address. The note follows a purported ransom

letter sent earlier this week, whose first deadline passed Thursday evening. Authorities say Guthrie's blood was found on her porch and her doorbell camera and pacemaker app were disabled. Talking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump suggested that developments in the case could emerge soon. I think we're doing very well, very well meeting. We have some clues, I think, that are very strong. And I think we could have some answers coming up fairly soon. The Super Bowl goes down Sunday night in Santa Clara, drawing a historic headliner and an unprecedented security footprint. Bad Bunny will become the first artist to headline a Super Bowl halftime show while singing primarily in Spanish. To hear more about the Super Bowl and how the NFL is trying to grow its global audience and the politics swirling around America's biggest game.

game. Check out our sister podcast on assignment. We'll drop a link in the pod description. Over to Thailand now, where the cannabis industry could be about to go up in smoke. The country heads to the polls this weekend in whichever way the election goes, the country's short-lived experiment with legal weed looks likely to be rolled back. Roider's senior correspondent, Panu Wangcham, is in Bangkok. Well, the proponent to decriminalized cannabis in 2022 was hoping for several things. First, that it could lead to the development of a world-class medical cannabis industry and they hope that it would enhance the country tourism sector.

And, of course, on a more popular front, they were really promoting it to be an economic win to farmers and growers of cannabis and so on. But then over a short period of time, there was realization that, you know, small-scale farmers weren't actually benefiting immediately after decriminalization because of the lack of regulation that comes with it. We've seen a huge oversupply of Canada's shops, cannabis farms and so on. And so it wasn't really a big economic windfall. The political parties were selling the public at the time.

And of course, it also raises concerns from parents' group, from conservative groups, or concerns about how the lack of regulation led to a lot of abuses. especially by young people. So there are many negative views. Thailand's political parties have taken note. The upcoming election, there are three parties. First, the ruling Phrmjai Party. Second, Pueh Thai, populist party that was in power before Fumtai.

And lastly, the opposition progressive people's party. All these parties have different stands. But by the look of things, it looks like most political parties kind of backing away and proposing something stronger to replace. decriminalization. Moving on now to the Milano Cortina Games, which are officially underway. And this year, there's something new with the games, ski mountaineering. It's the oldest form of skiing born for military training in the Alps, and it's finally making its Olympic debut in Milano Cortina. Now, I'm a big winter sports fan, but I had no idea what Schemo is. So I called up reporter Marlene

Casabeyer, who'll be reporting from the slopes. Marlene, for those of us who don't know, can you explain what is schemo? How does this work? In a way, it's kind of the original form of skiing. So if you think back to when people used to hunt on skis and trek through mountains, but also recreationally, before there were ski lifts, you had to get up the mountain before you could ski down. And ski mountaineering as a sport kind of combines those elements. They start off on skis with so-called skins, which serve as traction, so you don't slip back down. and then they transition into what's called bootpacking where they track up on boots, they have to transition again, and then ultimately they ski down where they have to rip off these skins. So all of these parts are timed,

and these transitions really have to be really smooth for them as well. Some people consider the heart of ski mode to really be these longer individual events, which can last around two hours. But it's only the sprint events, which take around three minutes per heat that are making it to the Milano Cortino. winter games. I think part of choosing to only add these sprint events is also in hopes that,

you know, you have people come in who don't know Schemo, who are more willing to sit down and watch maybe a three-minute race than they are down to watch a two-hour long race. It's considered a bit more TV-friendly as well and just spectator-friendly as a whole. And I'm sure, you know, there will be some new fans. 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. And if you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news for Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.