Reuters World News - Trump’s bill victory, Putin call, Ukraine and Diogo Jota

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

US President Donald Trump's tax-cut legislation clears its final hurdle in the U.S. Congress – we look at how he persuaded hawks and skeptics. After a “disappointing” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump is set to speak to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Plus, Liverpool and Portugal mourn Diogo Jota. 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's carrot and stick approach to getting his big, beautiful bill through Congress, and what his disappointing call with Russian President Putin means for Ukraine. Plus, the soccer world mourns Dioga Jota. It's Friday, July 4th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Carmel Crimmons in London. U.S. President Donald Trump has boosted his political power. with a win for his tax and spending bill in Congress.

And it's going to make this country into a rocket ship. The 218 to 214 vote is a significant victory. Republican lawmakers have pushed past concerns over health care, re-election, and fears about adding trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt. So how did Trump get the budget hawks and skeptical lawmakers on board? Our White House correspondent Trevor Honeycutt is here with the details. We had Republican lawmakers who came out against this bill publicly. From our reporting, we understand that there were several more privately who expressed concerns.

And so Trump really had to use a combination of threats and encouragement, carrots and sticks, to get this done. I mean, we saw everything from the president inviting senators to his golf course in Sterling, Virginia to be bestowed with gifts and time and, you know, tea time with the president. And then you also had, obviously, this constant threat of the president putting out negative, direct criticism of specific members through his true social account. And between giving certain people access and gifts and time and scaring the daylights, out of others, he was able to get the votes that he needed.

And our polling has shown that American voters don't really love this bill. Will there be any sort of political price at the midterms for passing this? So when we spoke to Republican lawmakers and also Democratic and Republican strategists who are trying to figure out how to deal with these 2026 midterm elections, what they told us is that it is possible that lawmakers will pay some kind of a price for passing legislation. that may not be entirely popular. Now, Republicans on Capitol Hill, you know, the lawmakers, they primarily said that they felt like they were safe here because a lot of the cuts to, like, Medicaid, they kind of take a while to phase in and maybe voters, it won't be top of mind for voters

when those elections come around in about a year's time. So it's kind of a mixed analysis there that Democrats are betting that this is going to be a real loser for Republicans, and Republicans are betting that, for the most part, people will feel the good parts of this bill before they feel the not-so-good ones. But it's not been all joy for President Trump over the last 24 hours. In an hour-long call with Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Trump says he pushed for a quick end to Russia's war in Ukraine and was disappointed. I'm not happy about that.

I'm not happening. No, I didn't make any progress with him today at all. Within hours of concluding the call, Ukrainian officials say an apparent Russian drone attack on Kiev was one of the largest of the war so far. It shows little change in the trajectory of the conflict. Trump plans to speak to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky later today.

Global stocks are falling after President Trump said Washington will start sending letters to countries today, specifying what tariff rates they'll face. The move ratchets up trade tensions and is a shift from an earlier pledge to strike dozens of individual deals. Wall Street is closed for the July 4th holiday, but before they headed off for the long weekend,

traders were on optimistic form after surprisingly strong jobs data, and one stock in particular, Sean Bright, Envidia. The chipmaker rose close to a $4 trillion valuation, putting it close to overtaking Apple's all-time record and becoming the world's most valuable company in history. We nabbed our tech reporter, Noel Randwich, to talk us through it.

The most recent move-up for NVIDIA is really emblematic of the AI trade and the billions of dollars that companies like Amazon and Facebook are spending to build out AI-related data centers has been one of the big themes on Wall Street. It's a theme that turned Nvidia, which was once a great, video gaming chip processor type company into this bohemoth that it is now, that enthusiasm went on old in January when investors started to get worried about President Donald Trump's tariffs, which culminated in early April with his Liberation Day announcement that sent not just

in Vida, but the rest of Wall Street into kind of a tailspin. Since then, Wall Street in general, has recovered, but Nvidia has just shot up in an impressive way and has now outpaced Microsoft and as well as Apple has not just the most valuable company in the world, but the most valuable company ever in the world.

And another win for Trump. The Supreme Court has allowed the government to deport eight men to war-torn South Sudan after a request from the Trump administration. The men have been held on an American military base in Djibouti for more than a month. Neither the United States nor South Sudan

has said what will happen to the men on their arrival. Indonesian rescuers have resumed the search for 30 missing people after a ferry sank near Bali due to visibility issues. 65 people were aboard the boat when the accident occurred. Liverpool fans outside Anfield Soccer Stadium. Singing the team's anthem, you'll never walk alone. A tribute to the club's Portuguese forward

Dioga Jota, who died in a car crash in Spain, along with his brother, Andre Silva. Fernando Callas joins us from the Club World Cup in Philadelphia. It's just devastating. He was a fan favorite. After going to Liverpool, where he became like a superstar, his flexibility and his humble manner made him a favorite of club, and now Argus Lott, his new manager. So he's the blueprint for the high-pressing, high-energy go-getter that are beloved by coaches and by fans because he's a blue-collar player.

It's just a shame. As a young man with 28 years old, he just have won the Nations League with Portugal a few weeks ago, won the Premier League again with Liverpool a few weeks ago, got married two weeks ago with the mother of his three child. And Fernando, you're at the Club World Cup. And now the Portuguese team is going to be heading to the 2026 World Cup in the U.S. Without Dioga Jota.

You have lots of Portugal teammates playing here in the tournament. Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the first people just to voice. They're shocking about the news. He was one of the strongest leaderships inside Portugal locker rooms. They are going to the World Cup as one of the biggest and most talented teams. in the world, one of the favorites. So missing him will be just like devastating. And it's Friday.

And July 4th at that. So we have a recommended listen for you. Tune into a special episode of Reuters World News podcast tomorrow, all about fears in Finland over Russia. We travel to the Finnish-Russian border to speak to residents there. Listen tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts. 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 on Monday with our daily headline show.