Reuters World News - US deportation threats, EU beauty tariffs and AI voice rules

Episode Date: August 3, 2025

The Trump administration threatens some migrants with third country deportation - then sends them home. European fashion brands scramble to navigate steep U.S. tariffs without burdening consumers. And new AI rules don't go far enough for voice actors across Europe fearing job loss. This podcast has been corrected to remove an erroneous extra use of the word 'but'. Find our new On Assignment podcast ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠here⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠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

Today, the Trump administration threatens some migrants with third country deportation, then sends them home. EU brands are turning to an obscure customs clause to beat tariffs, and the voice actors pushing back as AI threatens the dubbing industry. It's Sunday, August 3rd. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. First to the headlines from around the world. India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite US President Donald Trump's threat of penalties. That's according to Indian government sources,

who say long-term oil contracts cannot simply be stopped overnight. On top of a new 25% tariff on India's exports for US, Trump has indicated on truth's social that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil. Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Whitkoff, says he's working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza. Whitkoff was speaking to families of hostages being held by Palestinian militant group, Hamas. Hamas has released its second video in two days of Israeli hostage Eviatta David. An extremely thin David is shown digging a hole, which he says,

is for his own grave. Reuters was not able to confirm the location or date when the video was recorded. Now to Los Angeles. Firefighters, y'all hear me? When marchers headed to City Hall as part of a national protest, they called rage against the regime. The Federal Appeals Court in L.A. has affirmed a lower court's decision temporarily barring U.S. government agents

from making immigration-related arrests without probable cause. The Trump administration is saying it must deport some serious criminals to third countries. The reason? They claim that these individuals are so dangerous that their home countries won't take them back. Reuters has reviewed recent cases and found that at least five men were threatened with being deported to Libya. But weeks later, they were sent back to their home countries, Vietnam, Lao, and Mexico. Immigration reporter Ted Heson is in Washington. So Ted, why are these third countries involved? President Trump has tried to ramp up deportations,

or he wants to ramp up deportations to record levels. And part of that involves using the machinery that was already there and deporting people to their home countries, as has been done previously. And it seems like their intent is not only to use it for a practical matter of being able to quickly remove people from the U.S., but also to essentially send people to far away countries where maybe they have no relation, and there's a fear factor associated with that as well. The Homeland Security Department has been clear that this is a potential consequence of coming to

the U.S. illegally, and if you're here, you may end up like one of the migrants who've been deported to these countries. It is part of a broader campaign to encourage people to self-deport or to nash. not come illegally, and to enter the U.S. legally and follow the immigration rules. And in addition to the cases of these five individuals, we know that earlier this month, there was a Mexican man sent to South Sudan, although Mexico's president has said they were never asked to take him back. What are other governments saying on this? There have been leaders from some of these nations speaking out and saying they weren't asked

to take back their nationals, and that they would and were actively working. to do that now. And for a deep dive into U.S. immigration policy, check out our new long-form podcast on assignment. I know that we have lost a lot of our workers because of their hearing about these raids. Our first ever episode examines the impact of ice raids across the country, from California to a New York courthouse. I don't know if anybody had his emergency information.

And that's happening all over the place every day. You can catch it wherever you get your podcasts. European fashion and cosmetics companies are searching for ways to handle the new US tariffs without passing costs onto US consumers. Tariffs now stand at 15% for many EU goods. That's 10 times higher than before. And that has brands like L'Oreal and Golden Goose worried. They're exploring using a special US customs rule called First Sale to try and pay lower duties.

Mamosa Spencer is in Paris. So Mimosa, how does First Sale work? So what first sale does for a company is it allows a company to declare a smaller amount for a good. They have to have, the good has to go through several processes. and instead of declaring the amount that a company would normally declare when it's being imported, they're able to declare the amount of how much it's sold for to a middleman before it's sold to the import company. It's kind of a long process and not many companies can do this because it calls for such a precise understanding and explanation of where the goods are coming from.

When the goods are in the factory being produced, they have to be destined for the U.S. So it's hard to qualify for this. One U.S.-based lawyer said it's really for some of the bigger players who can afford it. Now, we spoke to the L'Oreal CEO this week, and he said it was one of the things that they're looking into. And how vital is the U.S. market for these companies? China has traditionally been quite a big growth market for cosmetics and luxury companies. and that market has been stuck in a slump for a while. So given, you know, the lack of appetite in China,

everyone is really focused on the United States this year. And the U.S. is France's biggest market for cosmetics exports. So they're really concerned. And the French cosmetics industry is especially concerned because they didn't have any tariffs before. That might sound much like a real voice. But it's not. It's an artificially generated sound based on real humans.

New AI rules have come into force this weekend in the European Union. But for some, they don't go far enough. Fearing job losses, voice actors from across Europe are asking for even tighter EU legislation. Miranda Murray is our Germany-breaking news correspondent. So, Miranda, what are the concerns of European voice actors? What they're afraid of is they're going to lose their job. They're afraid that the technology is going to just replace them so that if you had the voice of Brad Pitt, for instance, they'll just take it, run it through a machine, and he will magically speak French or Italian. And then these people, they're not just going to be needed anymore.

And, but their argument is that what they offer is a cultural good, it's artistic, where they're not only just translating, but they're also matching the lip movement and also culturally translating things for foreign audience. So what's been the response so far from streaming services and AI tech firms? The streaming services and AI tech firms, what they say is that they're always going to need humans so the AI won't be able to replace emotion in voice, but they will probably be able to work with fewer people. And for a lot of studios, this is great because they struggle to make money and they say, oh, well, you know, we can cut costs where we can and then we can do even more productions and we can dub even more things and get our content to even more audiences, even without taking a look at like the effects of AI, the dubbing industry, is expected to grow.

So this year it's going to be about $4.3 billion. And by 2030, it's expected to reach $7.6 billion. So there's obviously, they're expecting huge appetite for dubbed content. And as we've heard, the voice actor industry associations are calling on the EU to tighten regulations. Do we have any indication at this point whether the EU is planning to review its policy? The EU's AI Act, so the part that's going to affect generative AI, this requires companies to adhere to EU copyright law and also share where they're like training their systems off of. And they've said quite clearly this month that they do not plan to push back the deadlines

or consider any changes right now. And for today's recommended read, potato, potato. Don't call the whole thing off. I promise you British people don't actually say potato. Our story focuses on an analysis that's revealed the evolutionary origins of the potato and how a tomato plant was involved or tomato if you insist. You can find out more by clicking on the link 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.

And if you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.