Reuters World News - What we know about the explosion over the Kremlin

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

Moscow claims Ukraine tried to kill President Putin with a drone attack on the Kremlin. Kyiv denies it. We unpack what we know so far. In Serbia, a school shooting prompts calls for instant reform. And one of the biggest raids in mafia history – will it make a dent in Italy’s biggest crime clan? 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

Did Ukraine send a drone to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin? Today, what we know and don't know about Moscow's claims of a surprise Kremlin attack. Plus, Italy's Andranger Mafia is dealt a major blow with raids across Europe. A rare school shooting in Serbia prompts immediate calls for gun reform. Investors react to the Fed rate rise and gamblers get ready for the Triple Crown. It's Thursday, May 4th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vinal in London. A pair of small floating objects descend on one of the Kremlin's iconic onion domes. A moment later, an explosion lights up the skies. If you haven't seen the footage yet, this is the moment that supposedly shows a drone attack meant to kill Putin.

It's the most serious allegation Moscow has levelled at Kiev over the 14 months of the war. One Ukraine vehemently denies. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says the US can't validate it. Mark Travalian, our chief Russian correspondent, is here to help us make sense of what we know so far. Mark, are we any closer to knowing who is behind this? It's going to be very, very hard actually to establish the truth of who did this.

Some people have a theory this was a Russian false flag operation, that Russia staged it in order to implicate Ukraine and pave the way for some sort of retaliation. Others are saying, well, that seems unlikely because the optics are very bad for Russia. It looks embarrassing when the centre and seat of Russian power can be struck with impunity by enemy drones. So a real lack of clarity around what happened, and we may not know for some time or ever. So what does this mean for the war? Well, the Kremlin released a statement quite promptly yesterday where it created the expectation of some kind of major response. However, it's not clear how Russia escalates this war. It's possible that what we could see now is some sort of reframing of what Russia has called its special military operation,

acknowledging now that this is a bigger conflict, it could also be used as a pretext for a further wave of mobilization in Russia. Mark, thanks so much. Now, markets are still absorbing everything. Fed chair Jerome Powell had to say after pushing interest rates up again yesterday. Carmel Crimmons, what's it looking like this morning? Global markets are pretty subdued this morning. Two things are keeping a lid on the mood. One, comments from Powell at the Fed press conference yesterday,

him saying that it was too early to say for certain that the rate height cycle was over. And second, another regional lender, Pac-West, has tumbled on concerns about a deepening banking crisis. in Europe, we're expecting the European Central Bank to raise rates for a seventh time later today, so European stock markets are flat ahead of that. Howard Schneider was in the room with Powell, as he spoke about the economy. Here's his takeaway. I think people in the markets are betting on a recession and a fast climb down in prices and that the Fed will blank once unemployment really starts to ratchet up.

The thing is, the data lately have continued to sort of hold out hope for this Fed narrative that inflation can come down without steep job loss, that it can come out through a reduction in job openings, that the steam in the labor market can be let out that way. They're still holding out hope for that. And Powell, in fact, today said he does not have a recession in his baseline forecast, even though the Fed staff does. If you haven't already listened, you can hear all of Howard's analysis

in yesterday's special update of the Reuters World News podcast. A mother in Serbia fights back tears, describing the weight to hear if her daughter was safe after a seventh grader shot dead eight pupils and a security guard in a school in Belgrade. The shooter, not yet 14, headed to class with two handguns that belonged to his father and a couple of petrol bombs.

Police said he had a list of children he wanted to kill. Mass shootings are a rarity in Europe, school shootings even more so. Our Balkans reporter Alexander Vosovic is in Belgrade for the aftermath. This is so far unheard of in Serbia, a school shooting of this magnitude. Serbs do have very developed gun culture, and after the Yugoslav wars, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of pieces of weapons that are in private hands, all of them stashed somewhere and so on. However, Serbia does have very strict gun laws.

You can obtain permit, but you have to undergo fairly rigorous medical checkup, including the one with the suicide psychologist, psychiatrist, everything included, very much like the health testing you undergo for driver's license, even more rigorous. Then police makes the background check. even minor altercations with neighbours are sufficient for police to decline your gun permit. Alexander, shootings like these are all too familiar in the US, but often with little political response.

What will the likely outcome be on gun control in Serbia? Serbian President Alexander Wuchich has already announced some measures which would include a revision of all gun ownership permits, a renewed control of how people keep and store their weapons and also the Interior Ministry is asked to introduce an increased number of policemen to control schools. Alexander, thanks. A quick look at the headlines now, making news around the world. Police have arrested a former US Coast Guardsman

suspected of killing a woman and wounding four others in an Atlanta shooting. Dionne Patterson was found by an undercover of. officer north of the city several hours after the shooting at a medical facility. Global health experts are set to meet to decide if COVID-19 is still an emergency under the World Health Organization's rules. There's no consensus yet on which way the panel may rule, but WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Aetanom Gabriasis has said he hopes to end the international emergency this year. Iran has seized another oil tanker in Gulf War the second in a week.

The U.S. State Department has called for the release of the Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi. It's among the biggest mafia raids ever. Police across Europe arrested over 100 suspects and a massive drug crackdown spanning Spain to Slovenia. In Germany, cocaine profits were allegedly being laundered through a car wash and even an ice cream parlor. But who are the Andranger clan accused of trappes? from South America to the world. Italy bureau chief Gisela Vagnone is in Rome. Hi, Gisela.

Hi. Who exactly are this mafia, the Andrangera? Drangeta is Italy's most powerful mafia organization that has spread across Europe and the rest of the world. The Andrangeta originates from Calabria, a poor southern region at the tip of Italy's boot. It expanded from the 70s onwards when it reinvested ransom money from kidnappings into public projects and drug trafficking. And they are accused of weapons, trafficking and money laundering.

In 2008, Italian Research Group Erispis valued its annual turnover at a staggering 44 billion euros, about 3% of its gross domestic output at the time. How serious a blow is this raid for them? Because I know a lot of their members are already in prison. Well, this is still to be seen, actually. However, the German Interior Ministry said that the raids are one of the largest operation carried out so far in the fight against the Italian organized crime. And they also said that it was a serious blow to the Andrangata.

Giselda, thanks so much. Thank you. The first race of America's prestigious Triple Crown starts this weekend. With me is Amy Tennery with all the dates. Amy, let's talk about the Kentucky Derby. Last year's winner was an 80 to 1. Could there be another surprise this year? One horse that I'm keeping an eye on is not necessarily a long shot,

but he's not one of the favorites either, and that is verifying. He was actually sired by the most recent Triple Crown winner, justify. Justify won this prestigious horse racing triumvirate in 2018, just an extraordinary pedigree, so certainly one that everybody's going to want to keep an eye on. What's the weather looking like in Louisville this weekend? Well, as of right now, it's looking like scattered showers, which could throw a wrench in some jockey's plans. All of the horses that are running this are three years old. So some of them may have some experience with tough, muddy, wet conditions

and some might not. There's a term for a horse that really thrives in these kind of wet conditions of the mudder. So if you are maybe planning to place a bet on the race, you might want to look out for some horses that are known as mudders because they could have the upper hoof on Saturday. The upper hoof. I cannot top that. So we'll leave it there. Thanks so much, Amy. That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow with an in-depth look at this weekend's coronation in Britain. To get our daily shows and new weekend editions in your podcast feed, make sure to follow us on your favourite podcast platform so you never miss a beat.