Reuters World News - Trump-Zelenskiy, Prince Andrew and Hollywood tariffs

Episode Date: October 18, 2025

In talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, U.S. President Donald Trump appears to press pause on upgrading Ukraine's weapons arsenal. The EU unveils a plan for a drone defence wall. Prince Andrew relinquishes the "Duke of York" title after the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. A U.S. Navy warship holds two survivors from a Caribbean drug submarine strike. And movie studios continue filming abroad despite Trump's 100 percent tariff threat. Listen to our latest On Assignment episode on Viktor Orban's political future here. Recommended Read: ⁠⁠Exclusive: Assad government secretly moved mass grave to cover up killings, Reuters investigation finds⁠⁠ 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 Sharon Reisch Garson in New Jersey. It's Saturday, October 18th. Today. Ukraine asks for Tomahawk missiles, but Trump wants to broker peace instead. The EU unveils a drone defense plan. The U.S. holds two survivors from a strike on a drug-carrying submarine. John Bolton pleads not guilty to charges of mishandling classified information. Prince Andrew drops his Duke of York title

and Hollywood shrugs off Trump's tariff threats. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. President Trump, sir, do you believe you can convince Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine? Ukraine's President Volodemir Zelensky has met with President Trump in Washington.

He's asked for Tomahawk missiles and air defense support. But Trump says he'd rather focus on ending the war than sending more weapons. We want tomahawks also. We don't want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country. We have a very strong country right now. We have a strong military. We have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world.

I want to get this war over. Zolinsky says, he had a productive meeting with Trump at the White House and that he still trusts in the United States. We trust the United States. We trust the president that he wants to finish this war. And it's difficult. It's a very tough solution.

It's understandable why. Just before the meeting, Trump announced a surprise summit with Vladimir Putin in Budapash. No one knows what Putin has said. to Trump, but analysts say it could be a stalling tactic. I spoke to White House reporter Jeff Mason as he waited for Trump at Andrews Air Force Base. There's a lot of open questions there. The fact that President Trump is going to sit down with President Putin again alone means we're going to have to see what comes from that. There's also a question mark over whether President Zelensky would attend that summit

and either hold a trilateral meeting between the three of them, or separate meanings between himself and President Trump and President Trump with President Putin. President Trump seemed to sort of dangle that as a possibility, too, and we don't know if that's going to happen. So there are a lot of open-ended questions, but what I do think it's important for listeners to know is the facts on the ground show that Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine

despite whatever President Putin may have said in his phone call with President Trump. As Budapash prepares for a possible Trump-Puton summit, its prime minister, Victor Orban, is fighting for re-election. On our latest podcast of On Assignment, we head to Hungary to find out what's at stake for the leader, known as Europe's strong man. And while his anti-immigration policies fueled his rise, Hungary's weak economy may prove to be his undoing. But now there are no longer lines of people walking across the country or thousands of people at border checkpoints. Public attention has shifted. Now it's the economy that's seen as the number one issue.

We'll put a link to the episode in today's description. While Zelensky and Trump sat down in Washington, over in Europe, countries are scrambling to build a wall to prevent against drone attacks. The European Commission is rolled out a new defense roadmap, and drones are at the center of it. Reuters European Affairs editor Andrew Gray is in Brussels. They have put forward this idea. At first they called it a drone wall. It would be a mixture of systems. So sensors to detect them, possible different ways of intercepting them. That could be electronic jamming.

It could be interceptors like rockets or even anti-aircraft guns. or it could be drones which would fly close to the incoming drones and explode next to them or crash into them, kind of kamikaze drones. So a range of possible options, depending on the scenario, the European Commission's idea would be to have some kind of initial operating capacity for this system by the end of next year and then to have it fully operational in 2027. But it's not yet clear that everybody is signed up to this particular proposal.

some countries are reluctant to see the European Union, especially the European Commission, playing a more prominent role here. They think it's a matter for their governments or for NATO. Turning to other breaking news around the world, Prince Andrews says he's giving up the title of Duke of York after years of scandal tied to Jeffrey Epstein and backlash from the public. In a statement, Andrews says continued accusations against him are, distracting from royal duties. He still denies all accusations. John Bolton has pleaded not guilty to 18 counts of mishandling national defense information. This is the strongest case yet among recent indictments of Trump's critics. Legal experts say Bolton could argue selective

or vindictive prosecution, but the detailed indictment may make that harder. Two people are being held aboard a U.S. Navy ship. They were rescued from a suspected drug submarine in the Caribbean that was hit by an American strike. The survivors could be the first prisoners of war in a conflict Trump has declared against narco-terrorists from Venezuela. These are the first known survivors from recent U.S. attacks, and sources tell Reuters the strike killed two others. The Pentagon has to have hasn't responded to a request for comment. Hollywood is sticking to its guns. While Trump is threatened a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the U.S.,

film studios are still shooting in places that offer tax incentives like the UK and Hungary. And they're turning to production houses in Australia and New Zealand for special effects. Don Shemaleski covers the business of entertainment, and she says that for now, Now, it's business as usual for filmmakers. When President Trump renewed his call for 100% tariff, it really caught folks by surprise. And we conducted a series of interviews for those who are involved in film production.

And what we learned is that really, this time around, it was met by a bit of a shrug. So if you pause production this late in the year, that will affect film slates going forward and also the television production schedules, So at this point, the industry is assuming nothing will happen, at least not immediately, and continuing kind of full speed ahead. Film studios, just in a nutshell, what are they asking?

What are they looking to do to soften the blow? The message from the film industry is, please don't kill the golden goose here. Like, there are other ways to respond to the very legitimate question of production. of production flight. And while actors can travel around the globe to go shoot in Sardinia, for example, that's not true of the makeup artists and the set builders and others

who really do rely on a vibrant production economy here in Hollywood and in other places around the U.S. Let's talk sports. One of the world's biggest F1 is in Austin this weekend for the U.S. Grand Prix. It's the second of the third of three rounds taking place stateside, and F-1's becoming more and more popular in the U.S.

Sticking with sports in America, it seems like NFL season just kicked off, but we're already a third of the way through. On Monday, Tampa takes on the Detroit Lions in what promises to be a blockbuster clash. Until then, though, you'll want to keep your eyes on the other side of the pond. Two huge events are making headlines. Reuter Sports Editor Ocean Shine is here to tell us more. England's Premier League is back and back with a bang. This weekend we're treated to one of the sports's most iconic rivalries, Liverpool versus Manchester United.

Forget the form, forget the league positions, those don't matter. It's all about pride, passion and fire when these two are involved. And if you're anything like me, you won't want to miss this next one. It's a sport I've always wanted to see. This weekend, the Royal Albert Hall. Hall swaps opera for oof as 150 kilos of pure sumo muscle crashed down where Pavarotti once soared. London's most operatic room is about to echo not with Arias, but with Shiko stomps and salt tosses when some 40 rikishi at sumo wrestlers to you and me will turn Kensington's ground old hall

into a coliseum of clash and ceremony. And for today's recommended read, a deep dive into how Reuters discovered Bashar al-Assad's government had conspired to move a mass grave to a hidden location in Syria's desert. We'll drop a link to that story 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 favorite podcast player. And 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.

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