Reuters World News - Ukraine’s defense reshuffle, rare protests in Syria and Erdogan’s Russia push

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

President Volodymyr Zelensky replaces his defense minister – will the move change things for Ukraine on the battlefront? Russia attacks Ukrainian ports near the border with NATO member Romania. The attacks come hours before Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to push for the restoration of a grains deal. Anger over economic hardship in Syria triggers protests against President Bashar al-Assad. Plus revellers are stuck in the mud at the Burning Man festival in Nevada. 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, Russia attacks Ukrainian ports near the NATO border. Ukraine replaces its defense minister. Economic hardship sparks anti-Assad protests in Syria. And Italy gets protective about its Parmesan. It's Monday, Labor Day, September 4th. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. I'm Kim Vinal in London.

We start in Kiev, where Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is replacing his defense minister in the biggest shake-up of the country's defense establishment since Russia's invasion began. In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky said the ministry needed new approaches after more than 18 months of war. Max Handa is in Kiev. Max, why is Zelenskyy letting go of his defense minister in the middle of a counter-offensive? Alexei Reznikov has been in his post since October 2021 throughout the entire full-scale war, but over the course of this year, his ministry, not he himself, has faced two fairly big procurement scandals.

Reznikov rejects all the allegations that his ministry has been involved in wrongdoing, but nevertheless, he's quite an unpopular figure in Ukraine by now. Tell me about Rostem Emrov, the man who is replacing Reznikov. Are we expecting to see much of a change in strategy? I don't think we'll see a change in strategy. I think he will leave that to the generals. His background is as a head of the state property fund, the organization which runs lots and lots of big state-owned assets in Ukraine.

You spoke about war fatigue. How is Ukraine's counteroffensive going? Ukraine's military command has now said that Ukraine has reached and breached the first major, strong fortified line of Russian defences. The breach itself is quite a narrow one. And given that there are so many other Russian fortifications, it's just very easy for them to mine as they retreat in the area where Ukraine has breached that line. line of defence. I think that progress, even though it might pick up a bit, won't become a huge avalanche any time soon. Now let's take a look at other news making headlines around the world. Russia has attacked Ukrainian ports near the border with NATO member Romania. Romania said the drone

strikes did not pose a direct military threat, but condemned the attacks. The strikes come hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts Turkey's president Tayyip Erdogan in the Black Sea Resort City of Sochi. Erdogan is using the summit to try and persuade Moscow to restore a deal allowing Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea. The United States expects to elevate its diplomatic relations with former foe Vietnam to the top level as President Joe Biden travels to Hanoi in a week. The upgrade of relations is expected to be.

boost US firms' plans in Vietnam, but may irk China. Flooding has closed subway lines and torn down bridges in the Spanish capital, Madrid. Two men are missing in the centre of the country after the torrential rains. Now, if you're struggling to get moving this Monday, Sparer thought for attendees of the Burning Man Festival in the Nevada Desert. They are stuck in the mud, literally. Tens of thousands of festival goers, known as burners, have been told to shelter in place and conserve food and water after a rainstorm

swamped the event. The rain has made the route too wet and muddy to drive on. It's time now for markets with Carmel Crimmons and Carmel, there have been some size of relief in China. Yes, shares are rising in Asia. There's a lot of relief out there that Country Garden, which is a major property developer, won approval from its creditors to extend payments on a bond. And there's also hope that the drip feed of policy stimulus that we've seen from Beijing will be enough to at least stabilize the Chinese economy. In general, markets are in a positive mood because there's a sense that the Fed is done raising rates. We had data out on Friday showing that the employment rate in the US had risen to 3.8 percent and wage gains had moderated. So there's almost

certainty on markets that the Fed won't raise rates this month. And futures markets are suggesting that there's a near 70 percent chance the Fed is done tightening altogether. Hundreds gathered in the southern Syrian city of Sweda, calling for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. It's a rare protest in a government-controlled area. Hey, Bashar, we don't want you, they chant. Maya Jabali is in Beirut. So, Maya, what's bringing people onto the streets? Well, in two words, it's economic hardship.

It's been 12 years since conflict broke out in Syria, and while front lines have, died down, the country sinking into deep economic decline. There had been building criticism in the past couple of months that we hadn't really seen before on Facebook pages, in some circles, even in some newspapers, and it basically burst out into the streets last month when fuel subsidies got lifted. How widespread are these protests? We've seen them primarily in a southern Syrian province called Swayda, which is home to a religious minority, the Druze. But that's where they have been the most public and have brought the most number of people out into the streets. At the same time, we've seen some smaller moves, kind of little marches or even small protest banners like flash protests in

some other government health parts. How much of a threat do these protests represent to Assad? That is the million dollar question. In some ways, it does feel like we've seen this movie before in that 12 years ago, unprecedented protests broke out in Syria. There had never been that level of criticism of Assad at the time as well. So a lot of people are really wary of how much we can expect these to spiral out into causing possible regime change. We can definitely say they're significant. I wouldn't yet say that they are game changing because the government, since the regime has been through this before, the government has a toolbox that it can use different sources of pressure, ways to get protest leaders to either rescind their demands, whether it's arresting protest leaders,

or it's putting pressure on them. So everyone is kind of wary, week by week, to see what kind of tools they're going to use to try to put an end to this round of protests. Canada shut its land border to asylum seekers earlier this year. Five months later, the number of people filing refugee claims is rising. They're flying in or sneaking across the border, hiding out until they can apply for asylum without fear of being sent back.

The unexpected increase means hundreds are sleeping on the streets of Toronto as they struggle to find shelter. 35-year-old Hannah Bukhet from Sudan has been sleeping in a mosque and in a church, calling Toronto's centre shelter intake daily for a bed, only to be told there are none available. I arrived to Canada. I didn't know where to go. I had no place to stay. I wasn't aware about the crisis of the shelters, of course. From all what we heard and all people heard about the opportunities for the refugees here in Canada, nobody even me expected that this will be the exact situation. I thought I will find a place to stay.

I didn't expect for a second that I will end up on streets, literally on streets. Canada's immigration minister was not available for an interview. Now, in the EU, the very name Parmesan is protected and can only be applied to Parmigiano Reggiano cheese made in Italy. But US brands like Kraft can market their cheese as Parmesan. Mamma Mia, if you're a cheese snob, how then to guarantee impeccable Italian origin? Well, Italian producers are fighting fakes with the help of tiny microchips attached to the crust of the cheese wheels. Smaller than a grain of salt, the embedded chip can be read with a special scanner to guarantee its origin,

supplementing the information printed old style on the cheeses casing, which can become damaged over time. For real buffs, there's also a scannable QR code that contains all the traceability data. Ricardo Deserti, the general manager of the Parmigiano Regiano-Condon, consortium said it was a trial step to combat the many fake versions of the cheese out there. Buyer beware. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. For those of you in the United States, we hope you're enjoying the Labor Day holiday. We'll be back with our daily headline show on Tuesday.

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