Reuters World News - Trump-Putin, Liverpool, 'Diddy' trial and Uruguay's phantom cows

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump is considering new sanctions against Russia after a massive aerial attack on Ukraine. Dozens are injured after a car rams into a Liverpool FC victory parade. What to expect in the third week of Sean "Diddy" Combs' trial. Plus, phantom cows and missing millions spark scandal in Uruguay. Recommended read: India and Pakistan's drone battles mark new arms race 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

Today, Trump says Putin has gone absolutely crazy. What to expect this week at the trial of Sean Diddy Combs and the financial scandal of Uruguay's Phantom Cows. It's Tuesday, May 27th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. First, let's stay right here in Liverpool,

where a car plowed into a crowd of three. fans during a parade celebrating Liverpool Soccer Club's Premier League win. 27 people have been hospitalized. Four of them, children. Police were unusually quick to provide a description of the man they'd arrested, describing him around two hours after the incident as a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area. The same police force oversawed the response to the murder of three young girls in nearby Southport last year, An incident which sparked days of rioting fueled initially by speculation online over the identity of the attacker. Jenny Sims is Deputy Chief Constable.

We believe this to be an isolated incident and we are not currently looking for anyone else in relation to it. The incident is not being treated as terrorism. Conflicting messages over a Gaza peace deal. A Palestinian official says that Hamas has agreed to a proposal. by US Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff for a Gaza ceasefire. Only for an Israeli official to deny that the proposal was Washington's and add that no Israeli government could accept it. Wittkoff has also rejected the claim,

telling Reuters that what he had seen was completely unacceptable and the proposal being discussed was not the same as his. And in Gaza itself, a US-backed foundation says it started delivering truckloads of food, to designated distribution sites. The aid plan has been endorsed by Israel, but rejected by the UN. Fierce Israeli attacks on the enclave continue, including on a school building where dozens of Palestinian sheltering inside were killed. You know what the hell happened to Putin.

I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him. But he's sending rockets into cities and killing people. And I don't like it at all. US President Donald Trump reacting to a massive Russian aerial attack on Ukraine over the weekend. Hours later, he said that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had gone absolutely crazy in a post on social media and raised the possibility of imposing new sanctions on Moscow.

Guy Falkenbridge is our Russia bureau chief. Guy, how is the Kremlin taking these comments? I think the Kremlin said quite diplomatically, that they really appreciate Donald Trump's efforts to find peace, and they felt that he might be slightly emotionally overloaded, which is a pretty polite way of responding to such a blunt thing. And I suppose the big picture here is people are trying to work out, is the peace process just falling apart,

or is this just the rhetoric before someone does a deal? Do they think this could lead to US sanctions? Trump has so far refused to join European countries in imposing new sanctions on Russia? I think you've got to take it seriously. when Trump says it, right? He says that he wants peace in Ukraine, right? And I think he's finding it really difficult. And it is obviously very difficult. A lot of people have been killed, a lot of blood's been spilled, a lot of money's been spent. So yeah, I think it's a sign that perhaps he's getting

slightly weary of it all. And where does this lead things on the battlefield? Well, the war is continuing. It's actually intensifying. While all the world leaders talk about peace, the drones are flying, the missiles are flying, civilians are being killed, soldiers are being killed, Russia's advancing. And we're just moving out of spring. Obviously, the snow's melted. And now it's summer, which is prime time, war time. The European Union plans to fast-track trade talks with the US

after President Trump dropped a threat to impose 50% tariffs on EU imports from next month. Carmel Krimmins, Hasmel. Europe got a reprieve after Trump had a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. He's gone back to a July 9. deadline to allow more time for negotiations. But even with those extra weeks, it's unclear how Brussels is going to get what it wants, which is a mutually beneficial trade deal. Talks so far have failed to find a middle ground. Trump wants a quick deal, but his administration is asking for concessions far beyond what the EU is willing or even able to agree on. This is, after all, a 27-member

block with a lot of competing interests. The sex trafficking trial of Sean Diddy Combs begins its third week today. So far, witnesses have accused Combs of everything from breaking into a rival's home to attempting to pay off witnesses. Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Our legal correspondent Jack Queen has been following the case. So Jack, what are we expecting to see this week as the case continues? So what we're expecting to see now is more testimony from Mr. Combs' associates. which is key to the case here. One of the charges is racketeering.

And so prosecutors are trying to show that Mr. Combs' business, music, fashion, liquor, empire, that it was also an inherently criminal organization with him as the kingpin. What's the most important thing then for listeners to keep in mind? So I think a lot of people following this trial are looking at the evidence so far and saying this doesn't really look like sex trafficking or racketeering. It looks more like domestic violence or something like that. And that's certainly the argument that the defense is making is that these charges are improper because this case is really about abuse and so forth. But I think it's important to understand

the way the law works here is that of these alleged, they're called bad acts is the legal term for them. So it's things like intimidating witnesses, bribing witnesses, doing drugs, all sorts of other alleged criminality that on its face doesn't seem relevant, but is allowed in because prosecutors have alleged that he was running this criminal organization. And so that charge brings in a lot more evidence in the case, and it also potentially lands in with a much stiffer penalty. Racketeering charges that carries up to 20 years in prison, which is the highest among the charged offenses. And now to Uruguay and an investment scheme that's embroiling the cattle industry there. That's no small thing in the South American country, where the cattle outnumber

the people. Correspondent Lucinda Elliott has been following one woman, Sandra Palero, on a journey to find her investment and her life savings wrapped up in this case of phantom cows and financial fraud. So Sandra's an accountant who had put her life savings into this livestock investment fund because she liked the idea of owning a tangible asset. She actually owned cows, livestock. And it seemed a safe bet. She started to have concerns late last year when several livestock investment firms announced that they were struggling to meet their obligations to investors. These companies were essentially insolvent, when it appeared that some of the animals might be sold off

as part of these bankruptcy filings. She took matters into her own hands and decided to travel 600 kilometers to the far northern border with Brazil. Sandra started to share how she was feeling and actually at moments got very emotional about it. She wanted to verify where they actually were. So how common are schemes like this?

So similar investment schemes exist like this throughout South America, in Argentina, in Brazil, and many are legitimate. Three of the biggest firms under investigation for fraud in Uruguay managed to persuade 600,000 people to buy into the program by promising some fixed $7 to 10% dollar return. investing millions of dollars. And those three firms fell into a kind of legal grey zone. The ministry didn't actually comment to us to Reuters

because the investigation is ongoing. So getting back to Sandra, where does this leave her and her phantom cows? When we arrived, several farmhands explained that they'd been moving the cows out into the fields shortly. So using her smartphone camera, Sandra, she's zooming in. on the tracking numbers pinned to the animal ears in order to cross-reference right between what was documented

and what was staring at her on the other side of the fence. And it soon became clear that few of the numbers actually matched with what was in the printout from the registry. So she's still unsure whether they exist or whether they don't. And for today's recommended read,

the new drone arms race between India and Pakistan. Both countries are set to invest heavily in drones after recent fighting when the neighbours used large numbers of unmanned aerial vehicles against each other. You can find out more in the story 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 and we'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.