Reuters World News - Trump’s sanctions gambit with Putin

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

President Trump is imposing sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies to pressure President Putin to end the war in Ukraine. In a fresh show of force, Russia runs nuclear arms drills. North Korea runs some tests of its own. And Elon Musk uses Tesla’s earnings call to lobby for a $1 trillion pay package. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Find the Recommended Read 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 Kim Vinal in Wanganui, New Zealand. It's Thursday, October 23rd, today. In a stunning reversal, the US sanctions Russian oil as Trump tries to get Putin to negotiate. North Korea tests hypersonic missiles ahead of a gathering of world leaders in the South. And Elon Musk asks for an almost trillion dollar pay packet, despite Tesla's lackluster profits. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. In a dramatic about turn from US President Donald Trump, Washington is slapping sanctions on major Russian oil companies. It's an attempt to get Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine. Trump's oscillated between pressuring Moscow and taking a more consulatory tone,

to try and get Putin on side. A planned meeting between Putin and Trump was put in hold just yesterday. I spoke with White House reporter Jeff Mason about what it all means. I think what happened is President Putin and the Russians did not end up showing progress on ending the war in a way that President Trump wanted. President Trump, whether you like him or not, whether you agree with his approach or not, genuinely wants to end this war. and seems like he has concluded that President Putin wasn't ready to do so.

When asked, President Trump himself didn't seem convinced that these sanctions will make Russia negotiate. I don't know that they will. I think that they'll certainly have an impact. They're massive sanctions. It's sanctions in oil. The two biggest oil companies, among the biggest in the world, but they're Russian. They do a lot of oil. I don't think President Trump cares about saving face. I think he is very happy with where he is in the world and with people's impressions of him, and he doesn't care if people like him or not. He goes back and forth. He held a summit in Alaska with President Putin and walked away from that without any real concrete solutions.

But still gave Putin the gift, really, of having a meeting with the president. the United States and the United States itself. So I say all of that because I think it's important to underscore that President Trump's frustration today and the sanctions that were put in place can also change again if he hears from President Putin or he changes his mind. Russia may be sending its own message back, holding nuclear drills. The Kremlin released video of Putin being briefed as missiles were launched from land, sea and air, including intercontinental

weapons capable of reaching the U.S. Russia's defense ministry also said its long-range bombers flew over the Baltic Sea, shadowed by foreign fighter jets, likely from NATO states. Staying with missiles, North Korea has tested its own new hypersonic missiles, part of Kim Jong-un's plan to evade South Korea's missile defenses. It comes just days before world leaders descend on South Korea, President Trump included, for APEC, a major economic summit. Josh Smith is Reuters Korea's Bureau Chief. So hypersonic weapons are often talked about in terms of their speed going really fast, but typically they don't actually go much faster than regular ballistic missiles. The new capability that they tend to provide is more maneuverability and some other

elements that make them harder to shoot down. And that's obviously of a lot of concern to South Korea, the United States, Japan, those neighbors around North Korea. And so for the past few years, North Korea has been working with several of its variants of the ballistic missiles to tip them with what is usually termed hypersonic glide vehicles. Sometimes they have kind of small wings or other things that help them take kind of irregular or unpredictable trajectories to make them harder to counteract. And so these kind of weapons are basically designed to hit targets in the South before anybody's able to respond. The other thing that is of a lot of concerned people is these are in some cases the type of weapons that can be carrying either conventional bombs or nuclear bombs,

and you don't know which one it is until they go off. It's not just North Korea testing boundaries ahead of the APEC summit. And yet another tit-for-tat in the U.S.-China. power struggle, the Trump administration is considering sweeping curbs on software-powered exports to Beijing, targeting everything from laptops to jet engines. It's in response to Beijing's export curbs on rare earths, which it has a near monopoly over. But President Trump says he still expects to reach a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping when the two meet in South Korea. Pretty long meeting scheduled. We can work out a lot of our equest, and our doubts and our tremendous assets together.

And in China, the closed-door meeting known as the plenum is underway. Take a listen to this week's episode of Reuters Econ World podcast to hear what's going on behind those doors. Here's a snippet from our Greater China Bureau Chief, Kevin Krollic. What the five-year plan is expected to show is that this focus on strategic industries, As a national priority, it's not going to go away. And that takes us into the next decade, really. And so that will be an enduring feature of China's economic model, where capital gets directed.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is warning Israel against annexing parts of the occupied West Bank because of the fragile ceasefire in Gaza. That's not something we'd be supportive of right now and we think are even threatening to the peace deals. Rubio is speaking ahead of a trip to Israel. the latest in a line of US officials sent to try and keep the Gaza ceasefire going and get a comprehensive peace plan over the line. Meanwhile, sick Palestinians in Gaza who need specialist treatment are starting to be taken abroad. Nearly 4,000 children are among those who need treatment. Some have been injured in the war.

Others have chronic conditions like cancer or heart disease. In a significant escalation, the United States. has struck another suspected drug boat, this time, off South America's Pacific coast. President Trump has ordered at least seven similar strikes in the Caribbean that have killed at least 27 people. He's called it a fight against narco-terrorism, blaming Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro. The U.S. has ramped up its military in the region, warships, fighter jets, even a nuclear submarine. And Trump says he's authorized the CIA to run COVID-Ovary. Ops inside Venezuela.

Elon Musk wants Tesla shareholders to back a nearly $1 trillion pay deal for him, the biggest in corporate history. Tesla has just posted record revenue, but profits are slipping and tax credits that boosted sales have now expired, so things are expected to get worse. I spoke to US Auto's correspondent up here at Roy about why Musk could still get a massive payout regardless. The proposed pay packet for Musk is actually tied to a number of milestones set by the board. Those include some valuation milestones all the way from about $2 trillion to $8.5 trillion

and a number of operational milestones. Very interesting ones, right, delivering 20 million vehicles, having one million in robot taxis in operation on the road delivering one million bots. And Musk basically, the pro pay package will give Musk about 12% control in Tesla, more stake in Tesla. And Musk's basic point is he wants to retain enough control before he builds those bots. He wants to ensure he has enough control in Tesla going ahead. So for him, he's saying it's not about wanting almost a trillion dollars.

It's about maintaining control of the company. That's exactly right. It's not about the money. He's saying it's not like I'm going to spend. but I want to be sure that I have enough stake in the company when I build an army of robots going right. What does your analysis show that he gets if he misses some of these goals? Our analysis actually showed that some of these goals, some of the early ones, are pretty simple

to achieve. Some of the valuation goals, if Tesla just emulates the S&B 500, it reaches $2 trillion or $3 trillion, dollars, right? So Musk, without having to do much, actually will end up getting paid over $50 billion. And for today's recommended read, a visit to Dadan Island. Sandwiched in between the Chinese coast and Taiwan, it fought off a People's Liberation Army attack in 1950 and is still a place of security intrigue. And now the Taiwanese government is opening the island up for visitors. There's a link to that story in the podcast 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

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