Reuters World News - Ukraine, Honduras, Dell and Indian app backlash

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

President Vladimir Putin warns Europe that Russia is ready for war after U.S. talks stall on a Ukraine compromise. Trump pardons an ex-Honduran president convicted for drug trafficking. Michael Dell donates more than $6 billion to Trump's savings accounts for American children. And India backpedals on a controversial app mandate after outrage over surveillance concerns. Plus, Trump calls Somalis in Minnesota "garbage".  Listen to Morning Bid podcast ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. 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 Sharon Reich Garson in New Jersey. It's Wednesday, December 3rd. Today, Russia says no Ukraine deal after five hours of talks with Trump's envoys. Outrage as Trump frees a former Honduran president convicted on cocaine charges. A blockbuster donation from the Dell family for 25 million American children. And India's order to preload smartphones with a government. sparks a huge backlash. This is Reuters World News,

bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week. No Ukraine compromise. Talks in Moscow between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's top envoys, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Steve Whitkoff, ended without a breakthrough on a Ukraine peace deal. Putin reacted negatively to some U.S.

and the Kremlin says, quote, compromises have not yet been found, leaving one of Trump's key foreign policy goals still out of reach. They've kind of head of the meeting, Putin dismissed a set of European peace proposals saying they're unacceptable, and warning Europe, it'll face swift defeat if it takes on Russia. ... ...theirchats of the war. The prospects for peace in Ukraine will be on the agenda today at Reuters next, our flagship live journalism event.

Expect big names on stage from U.N. Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez to Sarah Jessica Parker, plus top players from tech and finance. Kim Van Nell is co-hosting and Carmel Crimmons will be recording our first ever live Reuters Econ World podcast. You can follow the action live on the Reuters website and app. There's a link in the show notes. And by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending a U.S. commander's decision to conduct multiple strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug smuggling vessel in September. Critics have questioned the legality of a second strike on survivors.

So you didn't see any survivors to be clear. active at such right? I did not personally see survivors, but I stand because the thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire or smoke. You can't see anything. You got digital. This is called the fog of war. Now, U.S. President Donald Trump has cited the dangers of illicit drug flows from Latin America

as justification for the strikes. But he's also just pardoned former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernandez. He's been serving a 45-year sentence. five-year sentence for conspiring to import tons of cocaine into the United States. Trump's extraordinary move raises alarm bells. It risks weakening U.S. credibility in Latin America and undercuts decades of U.S. efforts to fight drug cartels. Diego Aurek covers Latin American politics.

So he won a second term in 2017, but the election was plagued by regularities. So after that, Honduras took the streets and almost 30 people die in protest. And also in his second term, the US made public that he was investigating him for alleged drug trafficking. Right now, Honduras have not forgiven Hernandez for bending the law to run for a second term and winning the election through fraud. And today, most people disagree with his release from Prishan. They say it's a mockery of Honduras in U.S. justice. Meanwhile, Honduras's current presidential election has turned into a chaotic nail-biter.

Centrist Salvador Nasraja has a razor-thin lead over Trump's conservative pick. Just 68% of the votes are in after major delays and system failures. Viewer than 9,000 votes separate the two men, Nasraya says he's ahead despite efforts to muddy the process. Trump is alleging fraud without evidence and warning of consequences if results change.

Honduras's election authority is urging calm as it scrambles to fix a system failure that's left about 20% of votes uncounted. Now to Markets, and we've got Mike Dolan for morning bed with us. Mike, what do we need to know today? Today we're talking about the latest twist in the saga of who Donald's,

Trump names as the next Fed chair, likely to be Kevin Hassett at this point. And we'll be talking about 10% surge in Boeing's shares on Tuesday night. And also, we're looking at the Ukraine peace talks to what extent they are affecting energy markets and what would happen if there was finally a deal to end the war. So for any of those stories, please tune into the podcast later. Thanks, Mike. Just like you can for Reuters World News, you can also ask your smart speaker for Reuters' Morning bid, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch on Spotify. It is indeed giving Tuesday, one of the biggest days of the year for philanthropy and charitable giving. Dell's CEO Michael Dell and his wife, Susan, are giving $6.25 billion to fund investment accounts

for 25 million American children. The gift is part of Trump's Invest America initiative. It promises every child born between 2025 and 2028, a $1,000 account tied to the stock market. And, you know, we believe the smartest investment that we can make is an investment in children. The money becomes available at 18 for education, housing, or starting a business. Trump has said it gives middle-class kids a shot at the American dream, while financial firms have scrambled to shape the program's rules. We're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country. Ilhan Omar is garbage.

She's garbage. A blistering attack from President Trump on Minnesota's Somali community, calling them garbage who contribute nothing to the U.S. He also targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, accusing her and her friends of ripping off Minnesota for billions of dollars in welfare. Omar took to social media with a response saying his obsession with me is creepy. Minnesota leaders have jumped to the defense of the 80,000 strong Somali population, most of whom are U.S. citizens, saying that they're an economic and cultural asset.

Trump's scathing rhetoric has ramped up since last week's shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington and for which an Afghan national has been charged. And his attack came as the administration says it's paused all immigration applications from 19 non-European countries. After a political firestorm has broken out in India over a plan to preload a state-run cybersecurity app on smartphones, the government is backpedaling. Roiders was the first to report that the Indian government confidentially ordered companies, including Apple and Samsung, to put the app on their devices. Sources told us that Apple does not intend to comply with the directive, and now a softening stance and a willingness to amend the original order.

Reporter Aditya Kala has been covering the story from New Delhi. So the Indian government's app is basically to be installed in various phones which it wants, helps block stolen mobile phones. It uses your IMEI numbers and the government says that you can use these numbers to block your stolen phones so that they cannot be misused. So from the government's perspective, it's a cyber safety app because there's rising incidents of cyber fraud in India, hacking. Where the problem really comes from is that the government is not saying or encouraging users to simply download the app. They are saying that the manufacturers like Apple, Xiaomi, Vivo, Opo, they need to mandatorily put this app onto their phones when they are sold.

And the old phones should kind of get it as a software update. Now, that's really worrying for the smartphone manufacturers and the privacy advocates because they see this kind of an order to mandatorily preload an app as something that is invasion of privacy and could potentially be abused as a surveillance tool. And that's why it has caused a huge uproar in parliament with the opposition parties demanding an immediate rollback of the order. Adity says there's a lot at stake in the world's second biggest smartphone market. We have 735 million smartphones in the country. So the stakes are pretty high, both from the smartphone manufacturers point of view, the privacy advocates, who of course see this as a way to get into the smartphones of all the Indian citizens.

But of course, the government continues to say that this is a cyber safety app intended to save citizens from any potential abuse of their phones in the future. And for today's recommended read, the AI boom and the memory chips supply crunch behind it. Demand is spiked, prices are up, and companies are fighting for chips. There's a link to our 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. If you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the podcast. the latest news for Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headlines show.