Name: Russia plane crash, Epstein files, EU-China, Tesla and Big 3
Uploaded: 2025-07-25T17:21:06.000Z
Duration: 10 min 23 s
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Today, the controversy over President Trump and the Epstein files deepens, EU leaders meet with China in the shadow of trade deals with the US, and Tesla says cheaper cars are coming after a dismal earnings report.

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This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in ten minutes, every weekday.

I'm Kim Fennell in Wanganui, New Zealand.

Russian authorities say they've found the debris of a plane that crashed in the far east of the country.

Air traffic controllers lost contact on Thursday with a passenger plane carrying around 50 people.

According to Russian news agency TASS, there are no survivors.

Columbia University will pay more than $200 million to end the Trump administration's probe and restore federal research funding.

Trump cancelled $400 million in funding to Columbia over its handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

The administration accused the university of insufficient response to alleged anti-Semitism.

Columbia also agreed to scrutinize Middle East departments and end diversity programs.

In a surprise move, President Trump will visit the Central Bank later today in the wake of his fierce criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

Trump has called Powell a numbskull, among other things, and has mused publicly about firing him.

He's angry at Powell over interest rates and the economy, and about the costly renovation of the Fed headquarters.

It's not clear whether President Trump will meet with Powell directly.

President Donald Trump knows his name is in the Epstein files.

That's according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report, and the White House is responding with mixed signals.

At first, it called the report fake news.

But when Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason followed up, the administration had a different response.

Well, what we know is that he is in the Epstein files.

And that's something that a White House official acknowledged to me today when I asked about that.

The Epstein files are a broad, heavy set of documents.

And it is public knowledge that Trump was friendly with Jeffrey Epstein at one time in his life, and that he appeared at events with him.

So it's not really a big surprise that he is in there, that his name is mentioned in there.

What could this whole thing mean for President Trump?

Number one, it could mean a loss of political support that will be damaging to him in the midterms, which are next year.

Now, that's still a ways away, but he needs his base.

And the fact that he is facing criticism by allies such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, of all people, someone who is a huge, huge MAGA supporter and President Trump supporter, is very significant because it suggests that she is worried and others perhaps are worried about their own political futures or President Trump's political future.

What is interesting is that this is not a story that is being driven by his opponents.

And it's being driven by the voters who put him into office.

Reuters has discovered Chinese-made engines are being covertly shipped to Russia to power war with Ukraine.

The engines are being labelled as industrial refrigeration to avoid detection in the wake of Western sanctions.

Russia has not responded to a request for comment.

China's foreign ministry says it's unaware of the export of parts for Russia's Agarpia long-range drone and controls foreign sales of dual-use goods in line with Chinese law and international obligations.

US President Donald Trump announcing that Washington is nearing a trade deal with both Beijing and the EU.

The almost-done deals will impact an EU-China summit happening in Beijing.

Their relationship is under strain, and the summit, cut short at China's request, is likely to be tense.

So at today's summit in Beijing, EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa are to raise a bunch of very difficult issues with the Chinese, including China's support for Russia in the Ukraine war, the huge trade imbalance which ballooned to over 305 million euros last year, and also issues of market access and the rare-earth export controls which China launched in April that have caused worldwide turmoil in supply chains.

How is the US tariff deadline likely to play into things?

I think the EU had hoped coming into the summit that they would have already had like a sort of pre-emptive trade deal lockdown.

But it seems like negotiations between the EU and the US are still going into the 11th hour.

But it seems like both sides will reach some kind of pre-emptive trade deal that will cut tariffs down to about 15%.

I think they kind of want that to sort of give them leverage, more leverage in their negotiations with China.

Tesla is promising a new, cheaper vehicle as it posts its worst quarterly sales decline in more than a decade.

And Elon Musk says things could get worse before they get better.

So Tesla has been dealing with rising competition from cheaper and newer electric vehicles, especially in China, and a severe backlash against Elon Musk's far-right political views.

To add to those challenges, the US government is set to remove major tax credits that have been helping boost sales.

And recent legislation is also set to remove certain fines for traditional automakers.

And that means Tesla loses revenue from selling credits to those automakers to avoid those fines, right?

And of course, major tariff being announced by Donald Trump has been a problem for all automakers and Tesla, which imports a lot of its parts.

What are the plans to get out of this rut?

So Tesla has been working on an affordable vehicle.

It said that it made a few of those units in June, but that it will make those vehicles available to everyone in the fourth quarter.

But Elon Musk's major focus has been on rolling out robotaxis and making personal vehicles drive themselves.

Both of these propositions face major hurdles, but much of Tesla's trillion-dollar valuation actually hangs on that bet.

As Abhirup mentioned, all carmakers are bracing for tariffs to take effect.

In the wake of the US-Japan trade deal, which puts a modest levy on Japanese auto imports to the US, the Detroit-based Big Three say they are going to suffer, as much of their parts and production comes from Canada and Mexico.

There are some real concerns there about, you know, General Motors the other day took a $1 billion charge on its earnings for the tariff effects and still sees a hit between $4 and $5 billion.

And so they see an overall 15% rate, including for Japanese cars, as a little bit of a sting.

They think that it will end hurting domestic auto production.

How might this deal be perceived politically?

So there are a few wrinkles to it that probably have not really shown their true face right now.

If this causes some sort of real permanent damage with those who work in the auto industry, that could pose some risks for Congress people and senators who are in the states that are associated with auto production up in the industrial Midwest, who may vent their anger on this one.

The United Nations highest court has ruled rich nations must meet climate change commitments or risk paying compensation to poorer nations impacted by the warming planet.

Small island nations are hailing the ruling as a way to make big polluters accountable.

Thailand has bombed Cambodia, its F-16 fighter jets hitting one military target, according to the Thai army.

It follows armed clashes along the disputed border this week.

Both sides blamed the other for firing first.

Thailand recalled its ambassador earlier this week after one of its soldiers was injured in a landmine explosion.

Thailand and Cambodia have contested sovereignty at various points along their border for more than a century.

And for today's recommended read, waters in the Mediterranean are rising.

And with it, coastal erosion is sending parts of Egypt's Alexandria crumbling towards the sea.

We'll put a link to that 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 favourite podcast player.

We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.