Saudi alert system, IMF outlook and French fridge hack

Hi, I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool. And I'm Christopher Waljasper in Chicago. It's Tuesday, October 13th. Today, 11 sailors are missing in the Black Sea after drone strikes on shipping vessels. The IMF releases its growth outlook. Trump fires his ambassador to Greece. And hackers remotely cranked up refrigeration temperatures at supermarkets across France. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, 7 days a week. This is your home, coach. Home of the Save. Join for just $20 at bjs.com slash mesquite and save 10 cents per gallon for six months. Open soon. Limited time offer, new members only. BJ's, home of the Save. Ukraine says it received no prior warning from its Western partners about a Russian ballistic missile attack on its capital overnight. Typically, Western allies send warning to Ukraine, allowing time to sound alarms. Air raid sirens did ring out in Kiev, but only after blasts could be heard across the city. U.S. officials have threatened to cut off intelligence sharing and weapon sales to Ukraine unless it stops attacking Russian refineries, though Ukraine's foreign minister says they are still receiving U.S. military intelligence. Now, Russia didn't hit Ukrainian energy targets during the strikes for the first time since U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement of an attack on Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement of an attack on Ukraine energy ceasefire on Sunday. Our reporter Graham Slattery says the focus on energy strikes comes on the heels of this controversial diesel fuel deal last week between Russia and the U.S. So we continue to learn more about this meeting on Friday in Miami between the U.S. negotiators and the Ukrainian negotiators and a few other parties present. And this meeting, of course, has set the terms for this sort of illusory energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and this very controversial diesel deal. The U.S. negotiators, which were Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Steve Woodcoff, a close personal friend, they told the Ukrainians, you know, look, the Russians, they're not really interested in negotiating at the moment. So let's throw them some sort of carrot and hope it kind of gets them to the table in earnest. It's interesting for a couple of reasons. One, because Trump in public, he keeps saying the Russians, they really want to make a deal. But in private, the U.S. acknowledges, much like the Europeans, the Russians really aren't that interested in a deal. The Ukrainians received it poorly. They basically said, look, you've tried carrots with the Russians. You keep throwing them carrots, carrots, carrots. You know, one of these days you've got to throw them the stick. And also, just practically speaking, Russia's war economy is really based on their ability to export fuel products. So in the immediate term, of course, it potentially will increase Ukrainian suffering. So they didn't like it for two different reasons. Meanwhile, 11 sailors are missing after a cargo ship was sunk by a drone attack off the coast of Bulgaria. It's the second deadly sinking in the area in a week. Bulgaria stopped short of explicitly accusing Russia. But Prime Minister Ruman Radov says the sinking benefits the Russian Federation and has summoned Moscow's ambassador. Another ship was damaged and its crew was rescued. The Black Sea has become a flashpoint in the war, as Russia and Ukraine, both major grain exporters, continue targeting each other's commercial shipping. Kimberly Guilfoyle is out as U.S. ambassador to Greece. We have asked Ambassador Guilfoyle to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team, and we wish her well. The Trump administration's new press secretary, Katie Zakaria, in her first press conference confirming the move a day after President Trump told reporters he's not. Happy with Guilfoyle's performance. U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns over allegations that she has threatened to use American influence to undermine the Greek government. Greece is a key NATO ally, hosting important military facilities in the eastern Mediterranean and leading an EU mission to protect Red Sea shipping. The events of recent weeks are serious. Our response must be equally serious. Saudi Arabia's energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, urging oil bosses to stay the course in the wake of deadly attacks on the kingdom's airports. An oil conference in Riyadh went ahead on Monday, despite several executives pulling out following the attacks. At least 18 people were killed and more than 300 wounded in four attacks over the past week. Saudi Arabia's public warning system, which had been issuing warnings via cell phones and social media since May, went silent in the days before the attack. The government has not explained why. Officials tell Reuters the silence was an effort to maintain a sense of normalcy. Those alerts have now resumed in Riyadh and elsewhere. The International Monetary Fund has released its latest World Economic Outlook. The headlines? AI investment is keeping global growth afloat, but its risks are mounting. And the war in the Middle East is casting a shadow. David Lauder is at the meeting in Bangkok. AI is kind of both the driver and a major risk to the global economy in this report. It is the reason that global growth is sort of being maintained at around 3.1% this year. This continued strong investment is offsetting the drag from high energy prices because the war in the Gulf is dragging on. But the IMF is also looking at it as a major risk to the economy on a number of fronts. Most significantly, if there is a repricing of assets related to AI, if AI would disappoint. Yeah. There's kind of sky-high valuations right now. There are expectations that it will create massive productivity gains. If those don't materialize, the fund is flagging that it could cause a sudden halt to the investment that we're seeing. So it's a double-edged sword. And if you're in the market for more econ and finance news, then check out our sister podcast, Morning Bed. Available wherever you get your podcasts. We'll see you next time. Soon, limited time offer, new members only. Immigration agents have raided the Washington home of Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Authorities turned up at her house before dawn. This local woman watched on. I was getting ready to go to Zeke's Coffee, and someone said, talking outside, they said, hey, they're out there outside of the Congresswoman's house. I said, what? Omar was born. He was born in Somalia and came to the United States as a child. A person familiar with the investigation says part of the probe concerns immigration paperwork filled out by her late father when she was a child. Omar, a prominent critic of President Trump, says the government is being weaponized against a political opponent. But President Trump says it's nothing to do with him. She comes from a country that is a non-country, and then she comes over here and she complains about our Constitution. I think she's a terrible person, but that's really up to the DOJ. I have no idea. Democrats are raising questions about the timing, with the search coming just weeks before the November 3rd midterm elections. Justice Department policy bars prosecutors from timing actions to affect an election's outcome. And historically, the DOJ has avoided investigations into candidates within 60 days of a vote. Elon Musk has spent a whopping 360 days. He's been in power for more than a decade. And more than three quarters of that, roughly 276 million, has come since July. The money is aimed at helping Republicans keep control of Congress. Musk is backing major Republican super PACs in both the House and the Senate. He's also putting money into his own political group, America PAC. Taken together, these donations likely make Musk the single biggest political donor of this election cycle. Now to France, where a cyber attack has hit supermarkets. markets. Hackers remotely changed refrigeration settings at major chains. Some were set as high as 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The result? Spoiled food, damaged equipment, and in some cases, fires. Director of one store, Julien Fraurier, put out this video statement that the attack on their software caused a total loss of fresh and frozen produce. Retailers expect losses in the tens of millions of euros. Pope Leo keeping a full public schedule yesterday, right up to heading into hospital. The 71-year-old pontiff is expected to have surgery after doctors found a small nodule on his lung during a routine checkup. The Vatican says he'll spend the next few days in a hospital. He'll spend about a week recovering and cancel public events through October 20th. 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