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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
President Trump weighs ending the Iran war without forcing a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Plus, Washington state moves to tax millionaires as the blue state, red state tax divide widens.
While Washington, D.C. is taking us backwards, the good news is here in Washington state, we're moving forward, everybody.
And new diet advice from the American Heart Association contradicts the government's recommendations on red meat and dairy. It's Tuesday, March 31st. 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. U.S.
gasoline prices have crossed the $4 a gallon mark, according to AAA, and are now up more than a dollar compared to a month ago. That's after a Kuwaiti oil tanker was struck by a drone near Dubai overnight, an attack that market analysts say highlights the growing threats to key shipping routes.
It also comes as we report that President Trump has told aides that he's willing to end the war against Iran without reopening the Strait of Hormuz. a mission that he and his aides have assessed would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks. Such an outcome could extend Tehran's grip on the waterway and leave the complex task of reopening it for a later date.
Our Lindsay Ellis asked White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt how the strait fits into President Trump's plans.
I'm trying to square the four objectives laid out by the administration with the goal of reopening fully the Strait of Hormuz. Would President Trump declare victory and wind down military operations if the four objectives are met but still passage remains quite slow through the Strait?
Look, as I've said repeatedly and as the president has laid out, the objectives of Operation Epic Fury are as follows. Destroying the Iranian Navy, destroying their ballistic missiles, dismantling their defense industrial infrastructure that produces those weapons that have long threatened the United States and our allies. And then, of course, preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The full reopening of the Strait is something the administration is working towards. But the core objectives of the operation have been clearly defined for the American people by the commander in chief.
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Chapter 2: Why have U.S. gas prices crossed the $4 a gallon mark?
Construction of the complex will be partly funded by millions of dollars that Trump collected from lawsuits involving Disney's ABC News, Meta Platforms, and Paramount, and he also directed his followers on Truth Social to a website soliciting donations.
The new tower would be built on a parcel of land originally owned by Miami-Dade College and sit next to the city's Freedom Tower, the site where thousands of Cuban refugees were processed in the 1960s. A poll conducted in October found that about three-quarters of Miami voters said they were opposed to the land, which is valued at around $67 million, being used for the library.
The project reveal comes as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis yesterday signed a bill allowing Palm Beach International Airport to be renamed after Trump, a move that'll be finalized in July. Coming up, why bonds aren't proving to be the safe haven that many investors hope for, and Netflix looks to go big on its NFL coverage. Those stories and more after the break.
2026 was shaping up to be a banner year for Wall Street. Just ahead of the new year, economic growth was accelerating. The Federal Reserve appeared set to make further interest rate cuts, and markets had moved past fears of international trade disputes.
And even when concerns set in that the AI boom could drag down software stocks and cracks started to show in the private credit market, stocks kept on moving higher. But so much for that. Investors are now just hoping to avoid a global recession triggered by a historic run-up in energy prices, with U.S. stocks on track to deliver their worst quarter in nearly four years.
So where can investors find safety amid the war in Iran? As the journal's Sam Goldfarb is here to discuss, the answer, lately at least, has been not very many places. Sam, your latest reporting revolves around bonds. Tell us what's going on in bond markets.
So for about 20 minutes after the Iran war started, bonds were a place where you could seek safety. They rallied in a kind of traditional flight to safety move. But ever since then, they've been basically selling off. Yields on treasuries rise when bond prices fall. So this sell-off has pushed yields higher.
The yield on the 10-year treasury note, which is the most closely watched one, has risen significantly. close to 4.5% from being just a little bit under 4% right before the war started. It was kind of this milestone that that yield had fallen below 4%. And then just like that, the war started and they started rising.
And it's important because treasury yields kind of set a floor on interest rates across the economy. And the 10-year treasury yield is... very important for setting mortgage rates. So as yields go up, mortgage rates go up. Mortgage rates had also fallen to multi-year low right before the war. Now they're back up to around 6.3% on average.
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