Reuters World News - Trump's labor firing, Fed resignation, Russia-US and Witkoff in Gaza

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump fires a Labor Department official over jobs data he disputes. Fed Governor Adriana Kugler has unexpectedly resigned, giving Trump an early chance to reshape the Federal Reserve. Trump orders U.S. nuclear submarines to be repositioned after a war of words with former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. And envoy Steve Witkoff visits a controversial U.S.-backed aid site in Gaza.  This episode has been corrected to refer to Adriana Kugler as Fed Governor, not Federal Governor. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠here⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠here⁠. Find the Recommended Listen, our new On Assignment 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 fires a US labor official over data and gets an earlier than expected chance to reshape the Fed. Two US nuclear subs are moved after what Trump calls provocative statements from Russia. And we look back at a big week in US earnings, particularly in the tech sector. It's Saturday, August 2nd. 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. US President Donald Trump has ordered the firing of a top Labor Department official after a weak scorecard for the US jobs market. He's accused Erica McIntarfer without evidence

of manipulating the latest US jobs data figures. It adds to the growing concerns about the quality of economic data published by the federal government. Meanwhile, Fed Governor, Adriana Kugler has unexpectedly resigned, opening the door for a new appointment. to the Fed. Michael Darby, based in New York, covers the Fed for us. So this cuckler resignation comes in the context of what's been a pretty rough battle between President Trump and the Federal Reserve, basically since Trump has returned to office. Trump has been pressuring the Fed pretty aggressively to cut interest rates. He's called the Fed chairman names. He's speculated about firing him multiple times. And throughout all of this,

the Fed has been pretty resistant to the president's rhetoric. and has instead what they would say, they're focusing on the economic data. So what does this potential replacement mean for any interest rate decisions the Fed might make in the near term? So we obviously don't know who he's going to put in there and how quickly it will happen, but it potentially gives the president a chance to put in a person who would back his hopes for low interest rates. So you might get another official on the Federal Reserve who might push aggressively for rate cuts, which would put them at odds where most fit officials are at this point in time. And on the international stage, President Trump says he's ordered two nuclear submarines

to be positioned in the appropriate regions. That's after former Russian president, Dmitri Medvedev, said Trump should remember Moscow's Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort. Trump has grown frustrated with what he sees as President Vladimir Putin's failure to negotiate, an end to the war in Ukraine, saying Russia has until August 8th to agree to a ceasefire or be hit with tariffs. Alex Marrow is here to help us unpack it. So Alex, what's been the reaction in Russia so far to this submarine announcement? Actually, there's not been any substantive reaction at the time of recording.

I think it's safe to say that Russia will view this as a provocative step by the US administration. It's not quite clear exactly where they have been moved to. And security analysts that Reuters spoke to made clear that the United States already has nuclear-powered submarines that are deployed and capable of striking Russia. So the reaction is not yet clear, but we have seen somewhat a war of words this week between Trump and Medvedev, which has escalated to this point. So my expectation would be that Medvedev may want to respond to this in due course. And what about that deadline for a ceasefire? What are we hearing from Russia about that? So again, reaction has been fairly muted. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Russia had taken note of Trump's shortened deadline, but said that Russia's what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine will continue.

And I think generally on this threat from Trump, Russia feels quite insulated from Western sanctions now. There was certainly a hit in 2022, but Russia has managed to develop what it calls a feeling of immunity in some regards. And Russia is also expecting a visit from US Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff, right? What can we expect from that? Wittkoff has met Putin a few times since President Trump returned to the White House. The two seem to have quite a good working relationship, but ultimately there's been no significant breakthrough. There's been no ceasefire.

We would expect Wittkoff to be pressing home Trump's message and that there is this deadline that has been brought forward. But I think it's unlikely that Russia will be prepared to make any concessions at the moment, especially as Putin particularly believes that the momentum is really in his favor. I spoke to Steve Wittkoff. We had a great meeting with a lot of people. and the primary meeting was on food. President Trump there, after Whitkoff,

visited a U.S.-backed aid operation in Gaza that the United Nations says is unsafe. The sites run by the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Many foreign governments and humanitarian organizations have been strongly critical of the GHF. The UN says more than a thousand people have been killed trying to receive aid in Gaza since the GHF began operating. most of them shot by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military has acknowledged that its forces have killed some Palestinians seeking aid and says it's given its troops new orders to improve their response. The GHF itself says nobody has been killed at its distribution points and that it's doing a better job of protecting aid deliveries than the UN. Galane Maxwell has been transferred from a Florida prison to a lower security facility in Texas. in Texas. She's been serving a 20-year sentence for helping late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse

underage girls. The move comes a week after she met with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said he wanted to speak with her about others who may have been involved in Epstein's crimes. Maxwell was found guilty in a 2021 trial. She's asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her conviction. Asked by Newsmax about the possibility of pardoning Max, Maxwell, President Trump has said, I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it, adding, I know nothing about the case.

Lawyers for Maxwell Epstein and their alleged victims are due to share their positions on the potential unsealing with the judges in filings on Tuesday. A Bureau of Prison Spokesperson says they cannot comment on an individual's prison assignment. It's been a busy week in company earnings, with tech bayamoths like Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and meta reporting results, as well as household staples like Procter & Gamble. And as President Trump's tariff agenda rolls on, the added cost to companies is in focus. David Gaffin is our U.S. companies editor. This was a huge week for the big tech bellwethers that have been leading the market for a good

long period of time. And we had results from across the number of other sectors. We had the big oil companies. We had some of the big consumer names, the auto makers. And the thing is that About 81% of companies so far have beaten their expectations. That's more than the average. There are some sectors that are doing better than others. But of course, the market has been pretty much steadily hovering at the highs, despite all of the concerns that people have over the ever-shifting tariff policy, a weaker than expected jobs report and some hotter than expected inflation figures. So break it down. How are some of those industries that reported earnings this week fairing? I'll start with technology.

We had meta, the Facebook parent, we had Apple, we had Amazon, and we had Microsoft. Three out of four of those did very, very well surpassing expectations. I will note, however, that in this so-called Magnificent Seven, that include the ones I've mentioned already, along with the Google parent, Alphabet, Tesla, and Invidia, the big chipmaker. There's been some notable bifurcation in performance this year. For instance, Apple is down quite a bit this year. Invidia is, of course, up a lot. Microsoft is up a lot. Amazon is kind of flat to down a little bit this year and some of the issues

involving Tesla and car sales. So they are, of course, an underpool firmware too. So it's not as if they're all going gangbusters. And what about the companies that sell more everyday essential items? Some big consumer companies are also talking about combination of a couple of things. They're seeing lower income consumers are pulling back more on spending. Their spending is basically barely keeping up with inflation or slightly behind it. This has been something that has been mentioned by Bellwether's like Procter & Gamble, which reported results this week. They came out and said that they were going to raise the prices on some products in the United States.

Convierte your passion in a business with Shopify and bathe records of ventas with the form of pay with a better conversion of the world. Has you heard of the best. The incredible system of Pago of Shopify facilitates the purchases in your site web, in the networks and in whatever that's

music for your ears no let's more your business will be your business will be a

per year for a euro at month on Shopify dotes bar records We hope you enjoyed

our first Saturday edition of Reuters World News headline show now on to some more big news

from us especially if you've missed our long form episodes today's recommended

listen is the first episode of our On Assignment podcast. We'll be doing deep dives behind the headlines. And today's is on Immigration Enforcement in the US, exploring the impact of stepped up raids on workers, industries, and asylum seekers across the country. You can listen to On Assignment wherever you get your podcasts. For more on any of today's stories, visit routers.com or the Reuters app.

Don't forget to follow us on your favourite 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 show.