Four U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Plane Crash

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0:32Luke Vargas:Iran and the U.S. intensify their war rhetoric yet again. Plus, TikTok's parent company gets access to NVIDIA's top AI chips as it pushes a global expansion.

0:44Jennifer Williams:They've struggled to acquire the amount of compute they need in order to push at the frontiers of AI. And NVIDIA's Blackwells are top chips and they're after them.

0:54Luke Vargas:And U.S. employers stare down the biggest annual jump in health insurance costs in a decade and a half. We'll look at how they plan to cope. It's Friday, March 13th. 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.

1:16The U.S.

1:17Luke Vargas:is easing sanctions on Russian oil. In a move that's designed to boost supply and ease price pressures, countries will be allowed to purchase Russian oil that's already at sea until April 11th. I asked journal correspondent Thomas Grove what to make of the policy shift.

1:33Jennifer Williams:Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said in a post on X that the sanctions exemption is a narrowly tailored short-term measure. And he says that it shouldn't provide a lot of economic benefit to Russia in the long term. This certainly shows us that the priority in Washington is to make sure that there's enough oil on the market to keep prices low. And that's more important, I think, to Washington right now than preventing Russia from gaining additional revenues that are feeding its war right now in Ukraine. But with that in mind, of course, there is a whole universe of sanctions on Russia and Russian oil.

2:03Jennifer Williams:And that goes from the banks to the companies involved to the people as well. And those aren't being lifted. But of course, if the war drags on, prices continue to rise, we have to look at those as well and see if those could be lifted too.

2:16Luke Vargas:Four U.S. service members have been confirmed dead after a U.S. Air Force refueling plane crashed in Iraq yesterday. Initial reports suggest that the KC-135 strato tanker was involved in a midair collision with a second plane that landed safely. The fatalities mark the first U.S. Air Force losses during the war. Meanwhile, as the war approaches the two-week mark, President Trump and Iranian officials are continuing to dial up their rhetoric. Posting on Truth Social, Trump warned that the U.S. has, quote, unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time. And speaking of the Iranian regime, Trump added, Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today.

2:59Luke Vargas:For their part, officials in Iran believe that Trump is feeling the heat from global markets and say their leaders aren't interested in surrendering. National security official Ali Larajani said yesterday that, quote, starting a war is easy, but ending it won't happen with a few tweets. We will not let off you until you accept your mistake and pay the price for it, end quote. Well, as the U.S. and Iran appear to be sticking to their war goals, the journal's Anat Pellet told us that Israel is for the first time publicly acknowledging that regime change in Iran may be unlikely.

3:33Jennifer Williams:So President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began this conflict, calling on Iranians to take control of their country in speeches on the very first day. But since then, we've seen changing messaging. We've seen that in the U.S. when U.S. officials have increasingly focused on narrower goals of destroying the country's military capabilities. Now we're seeing a shifting tone in Israel. I think that was most clear in a speech that Netanyahu gave yesterday. It was his first press conference where he took questions since the start of the war. And he basically said that he couldn't commit to the idea that Iranians would be able to topple the regime.

4:06Jennifer Williams:And what we understand now is that Israeli officials basically think that the conditions are not ripe on the ground yet for regime change. We understand also that people are very scared in Iran. The security forces are present on the streets. There's threats. There's just a lot of fear. So it doesn't seem like this is the moment to go for that.

4:26Luke Vargas:Anat, if Israel is sort of backing off of that immediate regime change goal and protesters aren't flooding the streets just yet, is there a risk that Israel and the U.S. kind of begin to break rank in their desire to press the fight here?

4:40Jennifer Williams:We are seeing differences that are emerging between the two countries. So we saw this very clearly in a set of strikes on oil depots that Israel conducted. And even though the U.S. was notified in advance, it told Israel not to do this again unless it was approved by Washington. And that made it very clear that there are differences despite very close military coordination. However, what I'm being told from Israeli officials is that it's very likely that Trump could end this war at any moment. He can be unpredictable, as we know. And Israel is fighting as if every day is the last. And yeah, they do have plans, at least on the Israeli side, to continue to kind of go and degrade the regime even after the war is over through other means, such as economic means and covert operations.

5:24Luke Vargas:Anat, thank you as always for the update.

5:26Jennifer Williams:Thanks for having me.

5:30Luke Vargas:In markets news today, investors looking for safety have driven the U.S. dollar to a more than three-month high, and analysts are expecting further strengthening. The euro, meanwhile, is at a seven-month low. The UK economy stalled unexpectedly in January, a worrying sign as the global energy crisis threatens to strain household budgets. The country's budget watchdog earlier this month forecast yearly growth of just 1.1 percent, a slowdown from 2025. Apple is lowering the fees for digital sales in its Chinese app store from 30 to 25 percent, a move designed to diffuse a regulatory showdown in its top overseas market.

6:09Luke Vargas:Despite the change, China remains one of Apple's priciest jurisdictions for consumers and developers. And TikTok's Chinese parent ByteDance is assembling computing power with high-end NVIDIA chips outside of China, circumventing U.S. export restrictions. We've learned that ByteDance is working with a Southeast Asian company called Eolani Cloud on plans to use NVIDIA's Blackwell chips in Malaysia at a likely cost of more than$2.5 billion. The journal's John Emott says the computing power would be used to fuel ByteDance's AI research and development.

6:45Jennifer Williams:Central to the American and Chinese geopolitical competition is this contest over AI and who's going to dominate AI in more fields and sectors. And the challenge that ByteDance has is that the best chips, these super powerful NVIDIA chips, cannot be sold directly to China. So in order to have the best chance of competing, ByteDance and the other Chinese AI leaders do need to find a way to get this computational power that American export controls make difficult, but I think, as we are showing this article, not impossible.

7:21Luke Vargas:ByteDance currently operates five of the world's 50 most popular AI consumer apps by monthly active users, according to a recent ranking by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Coming up, rising health insurance costs are forcing companies to get creative as they try to dull the pain for workers. And we'll take a look at the films competing for Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards. That's after the break.

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8:20Luke Vargas:One month into the DHS shutdown and there's still no deal in sight. Funding remains stalled over Democratic demands for new restrictions on ICE operations, and lawmakers have now left Washington for the weekend, making no progress toward resolving the standoff. U.S. companies are facing a roughly 9.5 % surge in health insurance costs this year, the biggest rise in at least 15 years.

8:45Jennifer Williams:So there are a couple things that are pushing health care costs up for companies. There are just higher prices for care. There's expanding use of services and then pricey prescriptions, including GLP-1s used for both weight loss and diabetes.

9:02Luke Vargas:That's Journal reporter Jennifer Williams, who says that higher costs could result in reduced coverage, companies covering costs themselves instead of using an insurance provider or asking their employees to pay more out of pocket.

9:16Jennifer Williams:Typical tactics used to lower health care costs for employers include like changing plan designs, negotiating lower costs with vendors and pushing some of those costs on to employees. But right now, given how high the costs are and that it's expected to stay that way, experts are saying that executives are considering more significant action like self-insurance or more aggressively managing their prescription costs. And that's particularly where the GLP-1 consideration comes in.

9:48Luke Vargas:While health care costs typically rise annually, Jennifer reports that CFOs are now noting an intense shift in how those expenses are appearing.

9:56Jennifer Williams:What I first heard from Costco last December is that their costs had increased more significantly and at a faster pace than sales, which was not something they tend to see. I spoke with someone who works at a nonprofit consumer health care advocacy organization about the tradeoffs that employees are also having to make, which is as extreme as do I buy my groceries or do I go see a doctor or buy prescriptions for my kids?

10:30Luke Vargas:And finally, the Academy Awards are this Sunday. And to preview the biggest night in film, I'm joined by our producer and film buff, Hattie Moyer. Hi, Hattie.

10:39Jennifer Williams:Hi, Luke. It's funny to be on this side of the microphone.

10:41Luke Vargas:Yeah, I haven't seen you in 10 seconds. It's good to be reunited. Let's talk about movies. I'm embarrassed to admit that for the first time since 2012, I haven't watched a single award-nominated film. My wife and I used to make a tradition of this. We watched them all, but we have a baby now. Maybe people can relate. And we got halfway through one battle after another. It was great, but we had to hit pause for the night. That was a month ago. We haven't picked it up.

11:04Jennifer Williams:So you have a lot more to come in one battle after another. My name is Bob Ferguson. I don't know if you've ever heard of me. This is director Paul Thomas Anderson's biggest budget film that he's ever made. Ghetto Pat, Rocket Man, stuff like that. Sinners is a wild ride. It's a film where Michael B. Jordan plays twins, and it's also broken records with 16 Oscar nominations. So that alone is an excuse to go and give it a watch. It causes me. Open the door. I thought you said he was dead. He was. I checked his pulse.

11:37Luke Vargas:Okay, so if I have, let's say, tonight and Saturday night to watch two films, maybe these are good ones to start with. But let's say we somehow find a little time Sunday afternoon. Where is my time best spent?

11:48Jennifer Williams:You've just had a kid, so I'm going to say...

11:50Luke Vargas:Not Hamnet.

11:51Jennifer Williams:Not Hamnet, because that is the saddest film in the world.

11:54Luke Vargas:That's a trigger warning avoid if you're a young parent.

11:57Jennifer Williams:Yes. So I would recommend The Secret Agent, amazing Brazilian film, lowest budget film in the best picture category. One more, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Three parts, it follows the book. So you can stop and start and feed the baby in the middle. This much we have established. That is my name. My name is Victor. Is there anything else that you can say?

12:18Luke Vargas:Patty, thank you very much. Thanks so much for having me. And to read what journal critics had to say about this year's 10 Best Picture nominees, check out the link we've left in our show notes. And to convince me and fellow listeners to watch your favorite film of the year, sound off in our Spotify comments. I'll see you there. And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Patty Moyer and Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer is Sandra Killhoff. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise, have a great weekend.

12:49Luke Vargas:Enjoy your movies, and thanks for listening.

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