Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Europe overcomes some, but not all, divisions in its bid to support Ukraine's war effort, plus a test for open AI as it plans to tap investors for up to $100 billion to fund its growth plans. And attention, American wine buyers, tariffs are about to jack up the price of your favorite old world bottles.
So for the holidays, if you're picking up champagne or cava, just enjoy the prices while you can.
It's Friday, December 19th. I'm Luke Vargas 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. EU leaders have agreed to lend Ukraine around $105 billion to help it continue fighting Russia. It is a vital lifeline. By April, the EU had expected Ukraine to exhaust funds for its budget and weapons purchases.
Now, according to IMF estimates, the loan will cover two-thirds of financing needs for 2026 and 2027. Reaching agreement wasn't easy, though, with leaders notably failing to agree on tapping a massive pot of frozen Russian assets in order to fund Ukraine.
Much of that money is held in Belgium, where Prime Minister Bart De Wever expressed concern about ending up on the hook financially should the loan face successful legal challenge. Failing to tap Russian assets will shift costs to EU taxpayers and deny Europe further resources for future funding. But De Wever said failing to agree on any loan would have been worse.
Had we left Brussels divided today, Europe would have walked away from geopolitical relevance. It would have been a total disaster. And we would have sent a message to the world that Europe can no longer deliver anything. And that would also be a strategic disaster.
The loan could give Ukraine more leverage in its negotiations with the U.S. as Washington tries to end the war. Without additional funding, European officials said Kiev might have had little choice but to accept U.S. demands, including withdrawing from eastern regions that its troops still hold.
The man suspected of killing two Brown University students on Saturday and an MIT professor near Boston on Monday night has been found dead in New Hampshire. Authorities say 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown student Claudio Neves Valenti fatally shot himself inside a storage unit. Posting on X, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said he entered the U.S.
through the DV1 Diversity Lottery immigrant visa program in 2017 and said she'd ordered a pause in the program at President Trump's direction. In a closely watched case that had highlighted tensions around the Trump administration's deportation push, a Wisconsin state judge has been found guilty for her role in helping a defendant in her courtroom avoid immigration agents.
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Chapter 2: What financial support is the EU providing to Ukraine?
They need to pass those costs on.
Coming up, why Japan's interest rate hikes could eventually be felt in the U.S. And why now might be the best time to grab a few extra bottles of your favorite European wine after the break.
So
Let us head to Tokyo now, where the Bank of Japan today raised its benchmark interest rate to three-fourths of one percent. That decision was expected. But as Journal Tokyo Bureau Chief Jason Douglas is here to discuss, it makes the move no less consequential for Japan or perhaps for global markets. Jason, first off, let's just get to the Japanese context here.
This is now the fourth rate hike we've seen in less than two years. But if you zoom out, this is still very new territory for the BOJ.
That's right. So as you mentioned, the Bank of Japan rated its policy rate to 0.75% today. That doesn't sound like much, but that is actually the highest it has been in 30 years. So Japan has had very low rates for really a very long time, right? So they had a big asset price bubble, everything burst. And since 1990, rates have been very low. The Japanese economy was
as everyone will remember, battling deflation for most of that time. But then, like lots of other economies since the pandemic, we started to see inflation in Japan. This has started to stick around, even though the economy is kind of weak. And so the Bank of Japan is now starting very slowly to lift interest rates after all this time.
As you mentioned, inflation, sticky, a novelty for households in Japan. So maybe this move keeps that inflation in check. And from a Japanese standpoint here, there are other potential virtuous behaviors this could unlock among investors.
That's right. One thing people are expecting or people are hoping for is that slightly higher rates in Japan might tempt Japanese investors to bring some money back home. So Japanese pension funds insurers, ordinary mom and pop investors are, you know, big investors in stock markets and bond markets around the world. High rates in Japan might tempt them to bring some of that money back home.
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Chapter 3: How will the EU loan impact Ukraine's negotiations with the U.S.?
Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend and thanks for listening.