Reuters World News - Ukraine's troops recount bloody counteroffensive, Mossad veterans protest and Islamic State in Pakistan

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

Troops on the frontline of Ukraine's counteroffensive say they’re facing tougher and bloodier resistance than they expected. Former Mossad agents are joining protests against Israel’s legal reforms. Plus, a pardon for Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar and how the antics of a bear in a China zoo have gone viral. 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, we're on the ground for Ukraine's counter-offensive, where troops describe finding the Russians waiting for them. Israel's protests draw in an unlikely ally, former Mossad spies. Islamic State complicates the deteriorating security situation in Pakistan ahead of elections, and Trump's legal woes reportedly cost him $40 million as he soars in the polls. This is Reuters World News, with everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. Every weekday. I'm Kim Vennel in London. They rode into a kill zone.

The timing was off. Many men were lost. In the end, they recaptured the ruined village of Starromayorsk, claiming Ukraine's biggest advance for weeks. Tales recounted to Reuters. near the front line in southeastern Ukraine, have given an indication of why Kyiv's counter-offensive has proven a slower and bloodier slog than anticipated. In a battle last week along the front in the southeast, they found an enemy that was well-prepared. The Russians were waiting for us, said a 29-year-old soldier using the call sign Bulat.

The Russians have had months to prepare their first. fortifications and sew minefields. The Ukrainian attackers also lack the air superiority that their NATO allies normally expect in their training drills. One 38-year-old Ukrainian soldier using the call sign, Pikachu, said it was scary, but they ultimately advanced, though not everyone made it. Now to the headlines breaking around the world. Myanmar's former leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been pardoned for five offences. The pardons reported by state media mean the Nobel laureate will have six years taken off a 33-year sentence. Suu Kyi was moved from prison to house arrest last week.

She's been in detention since the military seized power in a coup in early 2021. X no longer marks the spot in San Francisco. The big glowing X on top of the company HQ. formerly known as Twitter, has been dismantled after numerous complaints. X said the removal was voluntary. A crowd at China's Hang Zhao Zoo delighted to watch a bear stand on its hind legs and growl at them. But was it a bear at all? Social media has lit up in China over whether the sagging fur and two-legged stance

means it was actually a human dressed up in a bear costume. The zoo responded by reassuring visitors its sun bears are real. The species are the smallest in the world, it said. It also wrote a lighthearted post on WeChat from the perspective of the bear called Angela, in which she says, people think I didn't come to work today. Now to markets, where BP is making headlines with a 70% slump in second quarter profit. The energy giant missed forecasts but said it would, still boost its dividend by 10%. That's the fourth time it's hiked its return to shareholders

since it was forced to halve it during the pandemic. Rivals Chevron, Exxon and Shell have also reported sharp drops in quarterly earnings as energy prices recover from the highs that immediately followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In Israel, divisive protests against Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial reforms have drawn in some unlikely citizens. Reservists and elite special forces units among those threatening not to show up the duty. And now it appears that dissent has spread to Israel's Mossad spies. Jonathan Saul spent time in Herzliah with former Mossad spies who were protesting the government they covertly served.

This is an unprecedented move by what is still the most revered. institution within the whole apparatus of Israel's security services, the Mossad, fame for all kinds of daring and covert operations. The fact that members of its ranks, albeit retired veterans, are coming out in protest, should send alarm bells ringing across Israel. Are there any reports of any current spies? At the moment, what I understood from talking to very senior veteran, and I should stress, retired sources who still have lots of communication with their colleagues and counterparts still inside, is that there isn't any sense of current officials or agents breaking ranks, but they do have the right to actually protest. And there have been members of the Mossad

who have joined the protests for what they deeply feel are very important issues that they need to express as every democracy should allow. But I should say that as far as is known at this stage, there are no indications of any defections or any people breaking ranks within the current Mossad organisation. And what does that do to morale? Certainly morale is starting to drop. That's not to say that it's having any impact upon operational activities. But the mood and sentiments are certainly one of increasing disillusionment, which may start to impact and bite upon the actual activities of the Vera security services. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in Pakistan over the weekend that killed more than 50 people at a political rally. It's another deadly example of the deteriorating security situation in the country.

The blast saw a jihadist suicide bomber targeting a rally for a pro-Taliban party. Asif Shahzad in Islamabad is covering the rising violence ahead of Pakistan's election. Asif, what reason would Islamic State have for attacking a hardline Islamist party? Islamic State group or most of the jihadis group, they have ideological differences. I mean, in most part of the world, including Pakistan and Afghanistan, they just don't go with any democratic or parliamentary system. And the issue here is, I mean, with this Islamist party, that it has been into a parliamentary system and a democratic system.

It does contest elections. It goes into parliament and it believes in a parliamentary system. So that is the basic contradiction or the difference between most of the Islamist group and this Islamist Orland group. That must be prompting a lot of fear ahead of Pakistan's elections slated for the end of the year. Yes. I mean, the most significant part of this attack is that it has attacked. I mean, a political party, a couple of months ahead of the election.

And it has really compounded fears and concerns about holding of the election in a country that has a very poor transition of democratic process in the last several years. Like no prime minister has ever completed a term in Pakistan. And given the political polarization in recent months, there has already been fears that the election could be stretched or delayed for like maybe one year time, or six months time, a 10 months time. It's a busy time for Donald Trump in the courts. A Georgia judge rejected his efforts to end the investigation into whether he illegally interfered with the state's 2020 election. And his Mar-a-Lago property manager appeared in Miami federal court to face charges that he helped the former president

hide secret documents. Joseph Axe is covering Trump's cases. There are reports that Trump's political action committee has spent 40 million in campaign money on legal fees. How is that possible? It's an enormous amount of money. Keep in mind that he's already been indicted twice. And with every investigation, he's added additional staff lawyers to his legal team. The organization is also paying for the legal defense of his two co-defendants in the documents case. And so while it sounds like an awful lot of money, and it is, he's facing criminal investigations on multiple fronts. And in each case, he has to have lawyers who not only may defend him in the event of charges, but are also meeting with prosecutors, preparing potential

defenses, filing motions, things of that nature. So it just underscores, again, how much legal jeopardy Trump is facing at this point. But it's only helping him in the polls, right? As we all know, Trump paints all these investigations as part of a broad democratic conspiracy to get him. And it appears that message is working, at least with Republican voters, because poll after poll shows that far from damaging him, it appears these indictments are actually boosting his standing among base voters. He has always been the frontrunner since he announced that he was going to run again. But in Reuters-Ipstos polling in July, he's actually expanded his lead over the rest of the field since the two indictments in state court and federal

court. So at least in the primary, it doesn't seem to be hurting him at all. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily 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.