Israel and Lebanon Reach a 10-Day Cease-Fire Deal

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0:18President Trump says Israel and Lebanon have agreed to a 10-day ceasefire that starts today. The 10-day ceasefire is meant to pave the way for a longer-lasting peace deal here. What U.S. officials are saying is that Lebanon now has this once-in-a-generation opportunity to break Hezbollah's stranglehold over its government. Plus, the president says the U.S. could have discussions with Iran this weekend. At the same time, the U.S. military is expanding its blockade. And how San Diego went from drought poster child to selling its water. It's Thursday, April 16th. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for The Wall Street Journal, filling in for Alex Osola.

0:54This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

1:03President Trump said Israel and Lebanon have reached a 10-day ceasefire agreement that begins this evening. Trump added that he has invited leaders from both countries for peace talks at the White House. Robbie Grammer, a national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal, joins us now to discuss. So Trump says the ceasefire is going into effect today. What do Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah say about it? Well, this is an agreement that Trump, it sounds like, pushed both Israel and the Lebanese government into. Both the Lebanese government and Israel has said that they abide by the ceasefire.

1:36But, of course, the big question here is Hezbollah. The whole through line of these peace talks against the backdrop of what's going on with Iran is that the Lebanese government isn't strong enough to confront Hezbollah, this Iran-backed militant group that operates a lot both in Beirut and also southern Lebanon near the Israeli border. And so if two sides agree to it, but the third side that is a belligerent, a well-armed belligerent, says no, that's going to blow things up. So far, both Israel and Lebanon are agreeing to the ceasefire. You alluded to this, but what does this mean for the fighting in Lebanon and Hezbollah striking in Israel?

2:13The 10-day ceasefire is meant to pave the way for a longer-lasting peace deal here. What U.S. officials are saying is that Lebanon now has this once-in-a-generation opportunity to break Hezbollah's stranglehold over its government. After the October 7, 2023 attacks that launched Israel's war in Gaza, Israel has launched a wave of military strikes against Hezbollah too, and not fully defeated Hezbollah, but really diminished it and degraded it militarily. And so a lot of American officials, Israeli officials, even some Lebanese officials are cautiously optimistic. It's going to be a long process.

2:47It's unclear if it will be successful, but there is a chance here and a window of opportunity. How could this development affect talks between Iran and the U.S.? The Trump administration has repeatedly over the past few days said that these Israel-Lebanon talks are fully separate from U.S.-Iran talks. That they, of course, would welcome a peace deal. They're facilitating it between Israel and Lebanon here. But on the flip side, we have Iran really digging in its heels with the first round of failed peace talks with the U.S. And they're saying any sort of final peace deal has to include Lebanon.

3:21And so the U.S. is trying to keep these totally separate. But at the same time, Iran, which has a lot of influence and is the main backer over Hezbollah, is saying these two things are completely interrelated. And so therefore, that means that if there is a U.S.-Iran peace deal, it could pave the way for an Israel-Lebanon peace deal and vice versa. That was The Wall Street Journal's Robbie Grammer. Robbie, thank you. Thanks for having me. And President Trump said this afternoon that the U.S. might hold discussions with Iran this weekend. He also said he wasn't sure the current two-week ceasefire would need to be extended.

3:55Earlier today, the U.S. government announced an expansion of its blockade of Iranian ports. General Dan Cain, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this morning that the U.S. military will pursue any ships attempting to provide material support to Iran. This blockade applies to all ships, regardless of nationality, heading into or from Iranian ports. Cain added that U.S. forces will also monitor and intercept ships beyond the Middle East. Enforcement will occur inside Iran's territorial seas and in international waters. Shelby Holliday, the Wall Street Journal's senior video and national security correspondent, has the latest.

4:36Shelby, what's behind this expansion? The U.S. is really upping the economic pressure on Iran. They're actually calling it economic fury, mirroring the language the U.S. used for Operation Epic Fury, which was the huge bombing campaign. And what they're doing is tightening the screws. They're trying to prevent any vessel from visiting an Iranian port, but they are also now going after vessels that have Iranian oil on board or vessels that have been sanctioned in connection with Iran, and really just going after the global dark fleet that helps Iran fund its war and helps Iran's economy. How will the blockade be enforced?

5:09The U.S. has more than 15 warships out in the Gulf of Oman. And any time a ship tries to leave an Iranian port, they approach that ship and they tell the ship, turn around or else we will board you and seize you. And so far, they've been able to do this with more than a dozen ships. They've turned them around, the ships are complying, and the U.S. has not had to board any of these ships. But you can think of that effort as slightly separate from this global dark fleet crackdown, which the U.S. is now implementing, because that could entail more law enforcement authorities. That could be similar to what we saw with Venezuela, where you have the Justice Department issuing seizure warrants and the Coast Guard involved in seizing some of the ships.

5:49And so you can almost start to think of this as two parallel efforts. You have the blockade, and then you have the dark fleet crackdown. That was the Wall Street Journal's Shelby Holiday. Shelby, thank you. Thank you. The Republican-led House of Representatives, meanwhile, narrowly rejected a measure to limit President Trump's ability to take military action against Iran. The vote was largely on party lines and followed the Senate rejecting a similar measure yesterday. In international news, Russia has launched its deadliest attack of the year on Ukraine, killing at least 18 people and injuring over 100 across the country.

6:23It also damaged critical infrastructure. The attack happened after a short pause in long-range strikes over Orthodox Easter. The pause did little to bring the sides closer to peace. And because of the war in the Middle East, limited supplies of missile interceptors have been stretched thinner, leaving Ukraine more exposed to Russian attacks. The Trump administration today signed an agreement with the Philippines for a high-tech industrial hub there. The deal would give U.S. companies access to key resources like critical minerals and circumvent supply chains controlled by China. The hub is largely conceptual at this stage, and details like which American companies would participate are yet to be determined.

7:03Coming up, Netflix says its co-founder Reed Hastings is leaving the board and the company reports its latest earnings. That's after the break.

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7:50We exclusively report that an AI startup that makes coding tools is in talks to raise$150 million at a$1.5 billion valuation. Factory makes autonomous agents that can switch between different AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropics Claude. Its enterprise customers include Morgan Stanley, Ernst & Young, and Palo Alto Networks. Netflix says its chairman and co-founder Reed Hastings will step down from the board after his term expires in June. The company says he wants to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. It's the end of an era for Netflix, which under Hastings transformed from a DVD-by-mill business to a leader in streaming.

8:33Netflix said today that its profit rose more than 80 % to$5.28 billion in its most recent quarter, thanks to a growing number of subscribers, higher prices, and more ad revenue. To hear more about Netflix Quarter, go to wsj.com. Charles Schwab profit climbed 30 % in the first quarter to nearly$2.5 billion. The brokerage's earnings got a lift from a lot of client trading activity and from volatile financial markets. Schwab also says that customers will soon be able to trade Bitcoin and Ether, another cryptocurrency, on its platform. It's the latest traditional financial company trying to cater to investors' desire for crypto.

9:11And PepsiCo says that there are signs that cutting the prices on Lay's potato chips, Doritos and other chips and snacks has helped boost its business. It says revenue rose 8.5 % to$19.44 billion in the latest quarter. That beat Wall Street's forecast. Now the company's focusing on turning around Gatorade, removing artificial colors from the sports drink and launching lower sugar options. And in markets, investors growing confidence that the U.S. and Iran will eventually reach a peace deal, lifted stocks today. The Nasdaq led the gains, closing up 0.4 percent, and both the Nasdaq and the S &P closed at record highs.

9:53An ICE agent has been charged with assault for allegedly pointing his gun at a driver and passenger on a highway in Minnesota in February. It's a rare instance of an attempt to prosecute a federal agent for actions related to their official duties. ICE didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

10:15San Diego was once a place that often suffered from drought, but the California city now produces enough water to help rescue other states in a turnaround that's reshaping the region's future. Arizona and Nevada are pursuing a deal with the San Diego County Water Authority to access desalinated ocean water and help offset their reliance on the collapsing Colorado River. The agreement could supply enough water for some 500 ,000 people. Jim Carlton, a West Coast correspondent at the Wall Street Journal, has the story. Jim, you described San Diego as a former drought poster child. How did that change?

10:50It was really sad. California cities got their water from the snow in the Sierra Nevada, from the Colorado Rockies. Back in the early 1990s, San Diego was at the end of the pipeline for water being down all the way in Mexico almost, they were kind of the runt of the litter. And so they got like 95 % of the water from imported supplies, completely vulnerable. And back in 1991, there was a huge drought and they were gonna cut their water by one third, which is kind of catastrophic for the economy. And so after that, they kind of had a come to Jesus moment. They came up with desalinated water. They're also doing recycled water.

11:25They have so much water, they're selling to Arizona and Nevada now. When they had drought restrictions in California a few years ago, San Diego is one of the only cities, business as usual. Other cities, you know, Los Angeles, up here in San Francisco, you know, two-day-a-week watering on lawns, or one-day-a-week. It was very severe. San Diego, you know, pretty much they used what they wanted. That was the Wall Street Journal's Jim Carlton. Thanks, Jim. You bet. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Danny Lewis and Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Tali Arbel.

11:56I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

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