Reuters World News - What’s at stake for Pakistan with the arrest of Imran Khan

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

A worsening political crisis in Pakistan after the arrest of Imran Khan. What danger does the popular politician’s detention pose to the government and the all-important military? Sudan’s conflict couldn’t come at a worse time for Africa as aid flags. The UAE sets its priorities for COP28 and all the latest on the Trump sex abuse verdict and the debt ceiling talks.   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, a growing political crisis in Pakistan after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. What's at stake for the government and the military as violence sweeps the nation? Sudan's disintegration into chaos comes at the worst possible time for Africa. The continent is under strain. A support from the US and other Western donors drops off. And the UAE makes its case for reducing emissions, not ending fossil fuels, ahead of COP 28. It's Wednesday, May 10th.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vennel in Liverpool. And I'm Carmel Crimmons in Dublin. We start with breaking news headlines. A Manhattan jury took three hours to find former President Donald Trump

liable for sexually abusing a magazine writer in the 1990s. The nine-member jury awarded E. Jean Carroll, $5 million in damages, saying Trump also defamed her by calling her a liar. The jury did not find that Carol had proved Trump raped her. Trump called the verdict a disgrace, and his lawyer said he would appeal. George Santos will face federal criminal charges, according to media reports. The exact nature of the charges remains unclear,

but Santos could appear at New York's Eastern District Court as early as Wednesday. The embattled Republican congressman has admitted to lying about where he went to school, where he worked, and being Jewish. Fresh from being axed by Fox News, Tucker Carlson says he's going to relaunch his show on Twitter. The conservative news host posted a video saying he'd soon be bringing the show he's hosted for six and a half years to the platform. Pleased but not surprised to hear Republican minority leader of the United States Senate saying that the United States is not going to be. and a default never has and it never will. Joe Biden had a positive spin after talks with Kevin McCarthy over raising the debt ceiling. There was no signs of any progress in negotiations,

but both sides committed to daily talks ahead of the looming default date on June 1st. It's bringing Carmel Crimmons. How are markets reacting this morning, Carmel? Investors are playing it safe. They're avoiding government debt that matures around the X date when a default could occur. So that's early June. Most market watchers expect an 11th hour resolution will be found. That's what's happened in the past, but nerves are starting to fray.

The caution is keeping a lid on stocks as well. In general, the market is treading water ahead of US inflation data out later. An unexpected jump there could cause eructions, because the market is betting that interest rates will start falling this year. Violence on the streets of Pakistan in the hours after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. That's the dramatic moment at the High Court in Islamabad, when dozens of paramilitary troops dressed in combat. combat gear arrested Khan.

Violent clashes between his supporters and police continued even after bans on gatherings in most of the country. Websites have been shut down and communications networks restricted since the violence erupted. Gibran Peshimam is in Islamabad. Gibran, what was the charge Khan was arrested on? The government accuses him and his wife of receiving land from Pakistan's largest land developer

in exchange for returning some confiscated funds from him. These are significant protests. Is the government under threat? It is, at least, for the moment, something that the government has not been able to control fully. Khan's party has called for calm and asked its supporters not to resort to violence. So for the moment, it does not seem that the government will be brought down. But certainly this will ratchet up pressure on the government to meet Khan's demand of early elections, which he wants held straight away. What about the military and its role here?

It's an interesting time for the military because given Khan's huge popularity, it's not been as easy to repress him or his supporters. The anger of Khan's supporters was directed mostly towards the military. A lot of the most violent images that were shared on social media and by Khan's party himself pertain to buildings in which military officials either reside or have offices in. We've not seen anything like this in at least the last 15th. years and it makes the situation very unpredictable at the moment.

The crisis in Sudan has led to warnings of a wider humanitarian disaster. One Africa can ill afford. Neighboring countries already struggling with huge numbers of refugees are facing an influx of thousands more from Sudan. The UN predicts five million more people will need emergency aid. But that demand comes as a very number. vital international funding drops off. Richer nations are being hit by global economic challenges,

and in the US, there's a fight over debt limits. Emma Fahd reports on how this lack of money is impacting those most in need. Obviously for the region, it just means that desperate people are going to get even more desperate. So I like the example of Chad. Chad hosts over 500,000 refugees already itself. And its funding program this year is 4% funded. We spoke to WFP official on the ground, Pierre Honoa, and he told us that right now, in order to give provisions to the Sudanese refugees that are arriving,

they're actually having to take it from the stocks, the food stocks that they actually were planning to give to poor, starving, chatty and people. Reuters met with a group of women who were. We're sitting in a small patch of shade in a border village called Gunggur of Chad. And we spoke to Halimi Yaqqqqqizak, who is one of these refugees who arrived recently from the Darfur region of Sudan. And she told us that she'd been there with her five children for several days and she was worried about them starving. Basically, they're depending on the generosity of Chadian families to share. their food with them. They haven't been able to get any official aid from UN programs or other humanitarian programs yet. The UN Refugee Agency is looking at 860,000 people going to Sudan's neighbors over the

next five months, and they have revised their budget up to ask for an extra half billion dollars in order to support them. A lot of those people are going back to places that they already fled from. That's the case with Eritrea. That's the case with South Sudan. So that's how desperate they are. They're going back to places they already escaped from. You've got to remember that Sudan is not top of priorities for many of the big donors. It doesn't resonate necessarily with voters in the same way that a crisis like Ukraine does, especially for European countries. That's why these programs are underfunded. And that's why it's going to be a tough sell for governments to persuade their voters that it's worth giving hundreds of millions more

dollars to these countries, which many voters couldn't even put on a map. I'm M. Fage, reporting for Reuters from Geneva. Deep divisions over how to save the planet are showing ahead of December's UN Climate Conference in Dubai. The COP 28 hosts, the UAE, says countries should agree to phase out fuel emissions, not the production of oil and gas. The UAE is one of the resource-rich countries that wants to keep drilling, while wealthy Western states and climate-afflicted island nations push for a fossil fuel ban. Valerie Volkovici caught up with the UAE's Minister of Climate Change and Environment,

Mariam Al-Mhiiri, at a conference in D.C. So Val, how is Al-Mhii squaring criticism of an oil-producing nation, hosting the climate change conference? Well, I think it kind of boils down to a theme that we'll hear a lot about, which is innovation or technology. They will point to the fact that they have decarbonized their oil and gas operations using renewable energy to kind of power the actual operations for oil and gas production. They point to their investments in carbon capture and storage technology

as a way to kind of reduce emissions as they produce emissions as they produce. them, even though there's a lot of pressure for the climate talks to talk about phasing out fossil fuels, at least right now, they feel that should be focused on fossil fuel emissions. So that means focusing on technology while continuing to produce oil and gas. They believe it needs to be part of the picture, and in a way part of the solution to climate change. To Spain, where the drought is so bad, the police arrested dozens of people for using illegal water wells to grow tropical fruit. More than 250 illegal wells, boreholes and ponds were discovered during a crackdown on water use in Andalusia. Spain is Europe's biggest producer

of tropical fruits, but they need lots of water to grow, and the country is experiencing one of its worst droughts on record. Nearby Catalans are also feeling the heat. As of this week, they won't be able to refill their swimming pools. New water restrictions will hit homes in Barcelona and surrounding areas where backyard swing pools are a common defense against a sweltering heat. That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow. To get all our shows in your podcast feed, make sure to follow us on your favorite platform or download the Reuters app so you never miss a beat.