Reuters World News - Wagner boss' whereabouts, UN chief climate scientist says it's not too late -- and fears for Niger

Episode Date: July 28, 2023

Photographs of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin appear to show him in St. Petersburg on the sidelines of Putin's summit with African leaders. Niger's turmoil prompts fear in the West of Niger drifting away. Scientists say July will be the hottest month - and we speak to the UN's new chief climate scientist about what can be done. Plus a photographer dealing with deadly wildfires. 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, new charges filed against Donald Trump by US prosecutors. Africa in focus as turmoil in Niger alarms the West. And a possible sighting of Wagner's mercenary boss at a summit in St. Petersburg. Plus, we talk to the UN's new chief climate scientist and a photographer on the front lines of wildfires in Europe, as July is declared the hottest month on record. 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.

We start in St. Petersburg, Russia, where photographs have surfaced of mercenary boss Yvgeny Progogian on the sidelines of a summit attended by President Vladimir Putin. Reuters could not immediately verify the source or date of the photographs. The two photos appear to show the Wagner boss in jeans and a T-T-shirt. shirt shaking hands with African officials. Progosian's whereabouts have been a subject of much speculation after his aborted Moscow mutiny. He said last week that Wagner would, quote, gather our strength and head off to Africa.

Meanwhile, at the summit, Putin promised food aid to Africa and blamed the West for the collapse of a deal that allowed Ukrainian grain to be shipped through the Black Sea. Zimbabwe's president, Emerson Imengagwa, thanked Putin for the new. new offer of grain. This gesture is true testimony of the friendship of the Russian Federation to the people of Zimbabwe. Now to the top stories breaking around the world. Donald Trump faces major new charges in the criminal case over his handling of classified

documents. Prosecutors alleged Donald Trump ordered staff at his Florida resort to delete security videos while he was under investigation. Three new criminal counts have been added to the case against. Trump, bringing the total to 40. Russian and Chinese officials stood shoulder to shoulder with Kim Jong-un at a military parade in North Korea. They reviewed Pyongyang's latest nuclear-capable missiles at a parade in the capital city

to commemorate the end of the Korean War. Mark Zuckerberg has told employees that meta-exexexex are heavily focused on boosting retention on their new Twitter rival threads. The app has lost more than half of its users. following its buzzy launch. The United States has ordered some government personnel and their family members to immediately leave Haiti. It also says non-government citizens

should try and get out of the country as soon as they can. Violent gangs are driving a humanitarian crisis in the country with frequent kidnappings, murder, gang rapes and torture. It's time for markets now with Carmel Crimmons and Carmel plenty of action in Japan. The B.OJ has jolted markets. today, why? Well, it's basically loosening its grip on bond yields. So for years, the bank has kept a cap on them to limit borrowing costs to get the economy moving. Now, the economy is moving.

They're trying to work out how to loosen that grip without causing pandemonium on markets. So what the BOJ or the Bank of Japan did today was, they said that the cap on 10-year bond yields was now a reference point, not a rigid limit. So that's seen by investors as firing the starting gun on an eventual shift away from this massive stimulus program that they have. So the yen has jumped and stocks and bonds dropped in Tokyo. Scientists now believe that July will be Earth's hottest year on record. UN Chief Antonio Guterres responding to the news on Thursday. The era of global warming has ended.

The era of global boiling has arrived. The effects of July's heat have been seen around the world. So what can be done? I asked Jim Skier, the incoming head of the UN Climate Science Agency, known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. So, Jim, is it too late for us to do anything? No, it's never too late to do anything. The message is quite clear.

It's still worthwhile doing things. Unless you want it to get much worse than it is at the moment. So there's a case for action, regardless of where we are. Is the IPCC making any difference? Are people listening to the science? Well, I think they are. Whether they're listening enough to term inaction is a question. If I think about all the countries in the world that have set net zero targets for greenhouse gas emissions, this is underpinned by the kind of reports that IPCC did. And as a result of these net zero targets, governments are starting to put in place policies. They have not put it in place policies. They have not

put in place policies that are ambitious enough to allow the goals of Paris Agreement to be made. That is absolutely for sure. So in a sense, the train is like the station, but we've got a long way to go on the journey into climate action. Our crews have been on the front lines gathering photographs and videos to illustrate the wildfire crisis in Europe. Alcus Constantinidis is our chief producer for visuals in Greece and Cyprus. So Alkaus, One of the really moving sets of photographs you took recently was of a shipyard in Greece completely destroyed by wildfire. What was it like there? We discovered that this man, Mr. Barbarakis, was the owner of this shipyard, who was building

also traditional wooden boats. And he was trying to direct a firefighting vehicle just to help him save whatever he could. He was talking to himself. he was saying, I would really wish I could be inside the building when the fire was here. This was my whole life. He then sat on the burnt ground and he was looking in the void. His son, Thanasis, was next to him trying to give him some courage, some strength. But nobody, I think, that they could really help Mr. Joros to overcome what has happened to him. How does it feel taking photos in these situations?

There are many times that the pictures that are produced from wildfires are really, really impressive. But our task as photographers as journalists is to be there and depict what's happening around us. It can be really burdening to have to see and record the feeling of loss. Then I think we have to treat each one of these situations with the the utmost respect and we will try to be as more silent and more discreet as possible because these people, even in the hardest of their times, they are giving us an access to their pain and grief. Cars and buildings burn in Niger's capital.

The West African country is an important ally for the West, in a region with Islamic insurgencies and fighters from. Russia's Wagner mercenary group. Barte Felix is our West and Central Africa Bureau Chief. A lot of Western powers have invested so much in Niger to help it build up its army. The US was saying they had invested about 500 million. They have a drone base and air base in Niger. France just removed some of its troops from Mali and transferred them into Niger.

And the EU mission just recently announced a training mission. to help build up the Niger army. So increasingly, due to the coups that had happened in Burkina Faso and in Mali, Niger sort of became the base from which most of these troops were stationed and to help kind of like stop the increasing spread of insurgents in the region. That's it for today's episode of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with a special pod in honor of the Women's World Cup. To make sure you know what's going on in the world, listen in Eighty's World.

every weekday. And don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player or download the Reuters app.