Reuters World News - Trump’s Michigan trip, a Black Sea commander mystery and Amazon’s antitrust fight

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

A New York judge finds Donald Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud. The ruling comes ahead of the former president’s trip to Detroit to woo striking autoworkers. Did Ukraine really kill the head of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet? The mystery deepens. A fire at a wedding hall in Iraq kills more than 100 people. Plus, we look at why the federal trade commission is suing Amazon and how investors are preparing for a possible U.S. shutdown. 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 heads to Michigan to meet with auto workers after a New York judge finds him liable for fraud. Amazon faces a landmark antitrust lawsuit by the U.S. government. Global investors get ready for a U.S. shutdown. And what we know about the fate of a Russian admiral declared dead by Ukraine after a missile strike. It's Wednesday, September 27th. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Wal Jasper in Chicago. And I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin.

Donald Trump is set to speak to auto workers in suburban Detroit later today. His visit comes after Joe Biden made history yesterday by being the first sitting president to join a picket line. So let's keep going. You deserve what you've earned, and you've earned a hell of a lot more than you're getting paid now. Standing next to UAW president, Sean Fane, Biden told auto workers they deserve to get everything back they lost. after the 2008 financial crisis. Gave up a lot, and the companies were in trouble. But now they're doing incredibly well.

And guess what? You should be doing incredibly well, too. Asked in front of reporters if he supported the 40% wage increase the union wants, Biden simply said, yes. Both Biden and Trump's Michigan appearances highlight the importance of workers' support in the 2024 race, even if unions represent a tiny fraction. of U.S. labor. A source said the UAW is not involved with Trump's event and Fane does not plan to attend. As Trump heads to Detroit, a New York judge has ruled that the former president and his family

are liable for fraud. The decision is a near total defeat for Trump and his family businesses in defending a lawsuit by state attorney general Letitia James. An October 2nd trial will now largely focus on how much the defendants should pay in damages. A fact of the defendant's, A fire at a wedding hall in northern Iraq has killed more than 100 people and injured around 150 more. State TV said the blaze ripped through the hall after flares were lit during celebrations. A federal judge has struck down a Texas law limiting public drag performances. District Judge David Hittner said drag performances were not inherently obscene, and the law was an unconstitutional restriction on speech.

The number of people killed in an explosion at a fuel depot in Nagorno-Karabakh has risen. We now know at least 60. eight people have died and dozens are missing. The blast occurred as ethnic Armenians rushing to leave the region waited to refuel their cars. Ratings agency Moody's has warned that a U.S. shutdown would harm the country's credit. Lewis Krauskopf in New York has been talking to analysts and investors about what to expect on markets as a shutdown looms. Lewis, what are you hearing? Yeah, I mean, although this sounds like a pretty dramatic event, historically, the stock market has overall weathered shutdowns fairly well.

Truest advisory services looked at 20 shutdowns since the mid-1970s and found that the S&P 500 has had an average flat performance and actually risen half the time. And it's also estimated that any economic impact, any hit to growth, would be recouped after the government reopens. What about the impact on the bond market? Treasuries, which are, you know, typically a safe haven out. asset have tended to benefit from previous episodes of government shutdowns. Now, there's obviously sort of some new risk factors this time around, in particular related

to concerns that are ongoing about political dysfunction rippling into markets already after the debt ceiling crisis earlier this year. It's also a very sensitive time for markets given the interest rate environment. So markets are on edge right now because of the rate and yield environment, and so it's unclear what impact the shutdown may have. Intrigue in Russia, after the commander of the Black Sea Fleet is shown on video, a day after Ukraine says they killed him. The release of the footage by Russia's Ministry of Defense sent international media scrambling, including this podcast.

Ukrainian officials say they're clarifying their information. Mark Trevelyan is our breaking news lead writer for Russia. Mark, Moscow declined to comment on Ukraine's claim they'd killed Admiral Victor Sokoloff. Then this footage appeared on state television. Why take this approach? So Russia is reluctant to get into a situation where it's having to respond constantly

to battlefield claims that Ukraine is making. And the Kremlin in particular doesn't want to play that game because the Kremlin is trying to maintain the impression that all of these questions are questions for the Defence Ministry to answer. So when the question came up yesterday on the daily briefing by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, that was his response, talked to the defence ministry. And then within actually a few minutes of that, we saw the footage from a big meeting of

Defence Minister Sergo Shogu with defence officials in which this Admiral Sokolov appeared to be participating remotely. So has this cleared things up or is there still speculation about Sokhov? So we saw a couple of glimpses of Sokolov, but we didn't see him speaking or actively participating in the meeting. So that has left some doubt in the air. And I think for some experts and analysts, the jury is still out here. Russia is very untransparent about its losses in combat. And even the appointment of Sokolov, which took place about a year ago, wasn't officially announced. So it's not surprising that they would refuse. to get into the game of the losses that they're taking. The Federal Trade Commission is suing Amazon, alleging that it violated antitrust laws. It's the most recent in several lawsuits as the government tries to rein in the dominance of tech giants in our lives. Diane Bartz covers antitrust in Washington, D.C.

So, Diane, what is the Federal Trade Commission saying that Amazon did? So basically they have two main allegations. One, they say that Amazon has illegal practices that they use to maintain their monopoly in online sales. Now, Amazon has its own products that it sells, and it also allows what they call third-party sellers, other companies, some of them very small, to sell on the platform. And the FTC says that Amazon does unfair things like punishing sellers that try to offer prices that are lower than Amazon's, and that they preference or they make it hard to find these other sellers' products that kind of bury them in search results. Also, for some sellers, Amazon requires them to use Amazon fulfillment, which means, you know, Amazon trucks and Amazon's warehouses and delivery services.

And the FTC says that this drives up prices for consumers and cost sellers money. So if the FTC wins this suit, what do they want? In the lawsuit, they basically just said that they wanted the illegal behavior to stop. FTC chair, Alina Kahn, was asked a couple of times today exactly what that meant. And what she said was, you know, she kind of got into the weeds. of how the first stage of any trial would establish whether or not the law was broken. And if the law was broken, then they would address, like, how to fix it. So what's Amazon's response to this filing?

Basically, what they've said is what they've said all along, which is that they strive to give consumers, you know, greater selection, lowers prices, that one of the reasons they want their fulfillment by Amazon to be used is because it's faster and more reliable. And basically they consider the lawsuit to be wrongheaded. A picket line outside the Netflix building in L.A., where protests have resumed for the first time since the Writers' Union reached a tentative deal to end their strike.

Today is about Sagafra. Marching for a fair deal, actors, you will get the fair deal you deserve. The mood was upbeat after the writer's agreement. But actors know a while and Justine Bateman had a message for colleagues who weren't at the picket. I don't think I'm speaking just for myself when I say I'm a little underwhelmed at the turnout today. Get on the picket line. If you're a sag actor, get on the picket line.

It's no joke. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back on Thursday with our daily news show. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in for 10 minutes every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.