--:-- Kate Bullivant: Progress doesn't wait for permission. It's forged in steel, data, and relentless belief. Kodiak is demonstrating AI-powered transportation isn't a someday promise. It's here, it works, and it's changing how the world moves. Learn more at kodiak.ai. Proudly listed on NASDAQ.
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--:-- Kate Bullivant: President Trump's unorthodox diplomatic style helps broker a foreign policy victory between Israel and Hamas. So both sides were under immense pressure to get this done, despite deep disagreements. And so what ended up happening is that as they were kind of trying to work this out, Trump declares victory.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Plus, a federal judge blocks the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago. And Americans defaulting on car loans signals economic stress for lower-income families. It's Friday, October 10th. I'm Kate Bullivant for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News. The top headlines and business stories moving your world today.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: We start in the Middle East, where Israel has approved an agreement brokered by President Trump, which puts the wheels in motion to free the remaining hostages held by Hamas and establish a ceasefire in Gaza. In a brief statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the approval of the deal while thanking the president.
--:-- Benjamin Netanyahu: We fought during these two years to achieve our war aims. The central one of these war aims is to return the hostages, all of the hostages, the living and the dead. And we're about to achieve that goal. We couldn't have achieved it without the extraordinary help of President Trump and his team, Steve Whitcock and Jared Kushner.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: The hostage deal, which Trump announced earlier this week, seals a diplomatic breakthrough after months of failed talks and brings the first significant pause in fighting since March. Joining us now with the latest is journal reporter Anat Pallad, who's in Tel Aviv.
--:-- Anat Pallad: Anat, this is just one stage of many when looking at President Trump's 20-step peace plan. So can you tell us what happens now?
--:-- Kate Bullivant: The Israeli government voted on this deal last night, Israel time. It went till quite late into the night. And once they voted, we're starting now the ceasefire process. So we have Israeli forces right now withdrawing from parts of Gaza. They're expected to finish that process tonight, according to an Israeli official. Then we have the ceasefire going into effect. The next stage we have then is going to be either Monday or Tuesday. We're going to see an exchange of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons for Israeli hostages.
--:-- Anat Pallad: So that's going to include 20 hostages who are believed to be alive and also some of the bodies of the deceased hostages. So we have a total of 48. We understand that it's not going to include all of the deceased hostage bodies because Hamas does not know where all of them are. So that may take more time.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: So that's the immediate step. And then basically what happened with these negotiations is that they were very rushed. And so basically what ended up happening is that a lot of the more tricky issues were not even touched. For example, the second stage of this deal, which is about demilitarization of Gaza and international governance of Gaza.
--:-- Anat Pallad: So that all of those things are kind of explosive issues that we going to have to see how they get resolved moving forward. And in your reporting you have said that U forces are already arriving in Israel. What's the kind of reason for that?
--:-- Kate Bullivant: U.S. Central Command is going to be leading an international stabilization force. And they're going to set up kind of a civil military coordination center. So the troops are going to help monitor the implementation of the ceasefire and also the eventual transition to a civilian government. according to a US official. They're also going to help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza that has been agreed upon in the deal.
--:-- Anat Pallad: So this was a deal brokered by President Trump and his team, but he isn't the first president to try and bring peace to the Middle East. Why has Trump been able to get this phase of the deal over the line and make the progress that he has?
--:-- Kate Bullivant: So one of the things that Trump did is he really turned kind of classic diplomacy on its head. And he went with this clever approach where he basically declared victory first. He announced the deal. First, he announced it in the Oval Office alongside Netanyahu, declaring that that was the deal and kind of daring, like, say no to me after he had announced it.
--:-- Anat Pallad: And then Hamas, you know, gave its answer. A lot of people saw that as a yes, but, but Trump immediately said it was a yes. Then the two sides went to Egypt to hammer out the details. And so what happened is when they got into the negotiating room, it was not so smooth. There's still a lot of disagreements. But they had this constant pressure from Trump.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: So he basically pressured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had been reluctant to end the war, according to people who are taking part in the talks, and pushed him to get this done. And on the other hand, he also put pressure on Hamas through Arab and Muslim countries. So that includes Qatar and Egypt and also Turkey.
--:-- Anat Pallad: And so they pushed Hamas to get this done. And so what ended up happening is that as they were kind of trying to work this out, Trump declares victory and they haven't worked out all the details. It's still being worked out right now. But basically, nobody can really say no to Trump. And that was the bet.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: It's looking at the big picture business deal and then having, you know, the professionals work out the little nitty gritty. But there's a lot of explosive issues that have been left for, you know, the second stage of the deal. That includes the demilitarization of Gaza.
--:-- Anat Pallad: So, you know, the deal says that Hamas is going to have to disarm. We're going to see how is this governance going to work. There's an idea that there's going to be some sort of board of peace chaired by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. And so there's a lot of elements here that we're going to have to work out.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: So we need to see if Trump will continue pushing both sides to reach the agreement for the second stage, or is it possible that he will lose interest.
--:-- Anat Pallad: Journal reporter Anat Pallet. Anat, thanks so much for bringing us this update.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: A federal judge has blocked President Trump from deploying National Guard members to Illinois for two weeks, citing the potential for civil unrest. At least 500 troops, including some from Texas and California, have been sent to the Chicago area. The White House didn't respond to an email-seeking comment, while Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker quickly praised the Chicago ruling.
--:-- J.B. Pritzker: National Guard troops were expected to begin patrolling in Memphis today, a move supported by Republican Governor Bill Lee
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Back in Washington Republican and Democratic senators are trading ideas on health care funding in a bid to end the government shutdown. Informal discussions have centred on temporarily extending enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies but with new guardrails meant to trim aid for higher income families.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Democrats have discussed limiting the subsidies to households at or below $200,000 of income, rather than leaving the benefit uncapped. The Senate wrapped up late Thursday and won't return until Tuesday. It isn't clear when the House will come back in session, meaning the shutdown is almost certain to stretch through a second weekend.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: The Bureau of Labour Statistics says it's bringing back some workers to publish the Consumer Price Index for September. An administration official didn't specify how many staff would be recalled, but said the department would promptly resume work on the key economic data point, relied on by investors, businesses and policymakers, including the Federal Reserve.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: The CPI is also crucial for calculating Social Security payments and was originally due to be published next week. It's unclear when the report will be published.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: And the Justice Department has indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. The felony indictments follow an investigation into mortgage fraud allegations against James and mark an escalation in the Trump administration's campaign to bring criminal cases against officials who pursued the president before his return to the White House
--:-- Letitia James: The case was presented by the president's former personal lawyer who last month also secured the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey. James called the charges against her baseless. Her first court appearance is set for the 24th of October.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Coming up, Americans are falling behind on their car payments, signalling economic pain for lower-income consumers as unemployment ticks up and wages stagnate. That's after the break.
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--:-- Kate Bullivant: One of the cylinders in the U.S. economy is sputtering. Subprime auto loan delinquencies have climbed to record highs as more lower-income Americans fall behind on car payments. An estimated 1.73 million vehicles were repossessed last year, the most since 2009, according to Cox Automotive.
--:-- Ben Glickman: Generally, what we're seeing among people who tend to be lower income borrowers and who have less access to credit the portion of subprime auto loans that are 60 days or more hit a record high earlier this year. That according to Fitch Ratings which is a credit rating agency.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: So in most of America you need a car to get to work. It's not a discretionary purchase. You need one for all the basic functions of life. And for that reason, economists and analysts generally consider auto loans to be among the last things to falter among borrowers.
--:-- Ben Glickman: So people might not pay back, you know, a loan on like a TV that you bought or something like that if you bought that on credit. But you'll continue to pay your car loan because you need your car. So it is a specific sign of distress that we're seeing higher delinquencies among those borrowers.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Let's go now to Iowa, one of the places where President Trump's disdain for renewables is creating some awkward politics. Together with Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, it's one of the country's top wind power producers. And though all four states backed Trump in the polls last year, that hasn't kept the president's administration from taking actions that threaten jobs and tens of billions of dollars in new investment, as the journal's Jennifer Hiller reports.
--:-- Jennifer Hiller: There is a lot of uncertainty across the wind industry right now. There are some offshore projects that are under construction that have been halted by the administration before they were able to restart again. But even on land, the Trump administration has promised to make permitting more difficult for projects that are on federal land.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: It's just not yet clear the extent to which federal agencies are going to work with them. Politicians in Iowa have tried to persuade President Trump that wind is a good thing for their state's economy. And so far, he is with them on biofuels, which is their other local energy resource, but he is not with them on wind.
--:-- Jennifer Hiller: Electricity demand is soaring, thanks partly to the AI frenzy, and wind covers more than 10% of the US's needs. In Iowa, though, that share is much higher, 59% in 2023. According to state governor Kim Reynolds, a Republican, it has helped keep electricity prices low.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: Trump, meanwhile, said this summer that, quote, anytime you see a windmill, you'll say they have bad energy costs, end quote.
--:-- Jennifer Hiller: And finally, this year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for her work promoting democracy and fighting dictatorship in the country. Announcing the prize, the Nobel Committee chairman described Machado as a brave and committed champion of peace who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.
--:-- Kate Bullivant: And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bark. Our supervising producer was Pierce Lynch. And I'm Kate Bullivant for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, have a great weekend and thanks for listening.
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