More U.S. Troops Arrive in Middle East

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0:21As more U.S. troops arrive in the Middle East, we'll look at how the Iran war escalated over the weekend and check in on Pakistan's bid to negotiate an end to fighting. I do see a deal in Iran, yeah? Mr. President. Could be soon. Plus, Europe hunts for sources of gas beyond the Middle East. And as checks start arriving for some TSA workers, it could still take days for airports to return to normal. It's Monday, March 30th. 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. A new unit of more than 2 ,000 U.S.

0:59troops has arrived in the Middle East. National security correspondent Shelby Holliday says that the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit puts a number of options on the table for President Trump as he weighs whether to intensify the U.S. war effort. A Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MU, consists of about 2 ,200 marines and sailors that operate out of three warships. They're often referred to as the military's Swiss army knife, and they are in high demand around the world. For one, the MU could be used to raid or seize islands that have been militarized by Tehran, like those that sit in the Strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping lane that Iran has essentially shut down.

1:36The unit could also be part of an effort to seize Karg Island, which is a launch point for 90 % of Iran's oil exports. It's also possible the Marines could play a role in a convoy effort to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Alternatively, strategists say Marines could play a role in seizing ships that are carrying Iranian oil, similar to what we saw with Venezuela. But there's another thing to consider here. The MU could be used as military deception, and basically draw Iran's attention to the Marines while some other operation is launched. One such mission that Trump is considering would involve seizing almost 1 ,000 pounds of uranium from Iran, a complex task that could put American forces inside the country for days or longer.

2:17We report that Trump hasn't made a decision on whether to give the order, but remains open to the idea since it could prevent Iran from making a nuclear weapon in the future. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said it was the Pentagon's job to draft a range of options for the president, and that it didn't mean he had made a decision. The Pentagon didn't comment on the potential operation, and a spokesman for U.S. Central Command declined to comment. Meanwhile, the war escalated on several fronts over the weekend, with Yemen's Houthi rebels attacking Israel for the first time on Saturday, following through on a threat to intervene unless the U.S.

2:51and Israel ended fighting. Israel said that it intercepted a pair of drones from Yemen overnight as it continues to face missile and rocket fire from Iran and Hezbollah. The Houthi attacks come as Israel has begun rationing its high-end missile interceptors, hoping to preserve supplies of its most capable defensive weapons after four weeks of fighting. And aluminum prices are soaring after Iran struck a pair of key producers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Aluminum Bahrain said it's assessing damage to its facility, while the owner of the Emirati plant said it had sustained significant damage.

3:28Excluding Iran, the Gulf smelted about 8 % of the world's aluminum last year. While hoping to end the war, Pakistan is pushing to get the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table. Its offer to host potential talks comes after it helped Washington to pass a U.S. peace plan on to Iran last week and marks a return to prominence for a country once isolated by Washington for harboring Osama bin Laden and which was dismissed by Trump in his first term as being a bad-faith actor. Pakistan's foreign minister yesterday described the relationship as being on more solid ground. Pakistan will be honored to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in coming days for a comprehensive and lasting settlement of the ongoing conflict.

4:12Speaking to reporters last night, President Trump didn't specifically mention the Pakistan talks, but said the U.S. was negotiating both directly and indirectly with Iran.

4:25Well, closer to America's shores, President Trump has eased his stance on the Cuba oil blockade, telling reporters that he has no problem with countries, including Russia, shipping oil to the island amid ongoing blackouts. It's not going to have an impact. Cuba's finished. They have a bad regime. They have very bad and corrupt leadership. And whether or not they get a boat of oil, it's not going to matter. I'd prefer letting it in, whether it's Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling. The move comes as a sanctioned Russian tanker carrying almost three-quarters of a million barrels of oil prepares to dock in Cuba tomorrow.

5:04Experts say the shipment could produce enough diesel to meet demand in Cuba for nine or ten days. And back in the U.S., long lines remained a fixture at airports across the country over the weekend, despite President Trump's executive order directing officials to pay TSA workers, many of whom continue not to show up to work. The Department of Homeland Security said that some workers could get paid today amid the ongoing standoff in Congress on funding the department. Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation, meanwhile, White House boarder czar Tom Homan said that ICE agents will remain at airports. ICE is there to help our brothers and sisters in TSA.

5:41We'll be there as long as they need us until they get back to normal operations and feel like those airports are secure. Coming up with its energy links to the Gulf disrupted, Europe looks for new sources of gas, and Eli Lilly bets on AI's potential to discover new drugs. Those stories and more after the break. This episode is sponsored by Morgan Stanley's Thoughts on the Market. Today's financial markets move fast. Morgan Stanley moves faster with their daily podcast, Thoughts on the Market. Thoughts on the Market covers daily trends across the global investment landscape with actionable insights from Morgan Stanley's leading economists and strategists.

6:21And with most episodes under five minutes long, staying informed has never been easier. Listen and subscribe to Thoughts on the Market wherever you get your podcasts.

6:35First, it was the Ukraine war and now Iran. Journal energy security reporter Matthew Dalton reports that Europe is back in a familiar pickle as conflict sends it, scrambling yet again to track down reliable and affordable energy sources. Matt, we're talking here about natural gas, something we've discussed in the context a little bit more for Asia than we have for Europe. So give us the latest for Europe. Well, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europe decided to cut back dramatically on buying Russian gas via pipelines that connect Russia to the European Union. And they largely replaced that gas with liquefied natural gas from the United States and a few other places.

7:17This is gas that is put into pressurized vessels that can cool it into a liquid and transfer it across the ocean. And so the Iran war has knocked off all of Qatar's LNG production, which is about 20 % of all global supply. Most of U.S. LNG exports go to Europe in normal times. However, without Qatari LNG, Asian economy started bidding for those cargoes. And so there were cargoes that were bound for different places in Europe and suddenly turned around and headed to Asia. So now the entire continent has a problem because they must now pay a lot more for LNG than they were doing before the war. So how are European countries reacting?

8:01Well, Italy is looking to its biggest supplier of gas, which is Algeria, just across the Mediterranean. It is North Africa's biggest gas producer. And there is a possibility for some more supply to go through the pipeline to Italy, but it's not a huge amount. It's definitely not going to offset what Europe was getting or what the global economy was getting from Qatar. So Algeria can only do so much. And it does have two major economies that are partially depending on it. You know, one thing that separates Spain from Italy, interestingly, is that Spain has done a lot to build out renewables and so relies less on gas.

8:35And Italy has been quite slow to do so. And so they're much more dependent on gas than most other economies in Europe. So Italy is really feeling the pinch in particular. But the gas is out there. The U.S. has enough gas to export to Europe. There's Algeria, there's Norway. Norway is the European Union's biggest gas supplier. It's also a big supplier to the U.K. So it's not like in 2022 when Europe didn't have the capacity to import a lot of LMG. They built LMG import terminals all over the continent in a relatively short amount of time. Now the question is not so much availability, it's at what price and what impact that will have on European consumers, on European companies that rely on gas.

9:20It's another blow to a region that's trying to remain competitive with the rest of the world and not doing a great job of it. All right. So it sounds like the renewables push, if anything, is going to intensify as a result of all of this. separately. I'm curious, is the continent going to go back to the Gulf when the fighting is over? And what about the U.S.? Can it be a reliable partner here? During the Biden administration, when Europe was trying to figure out where to get its gas, if not from Russia, U.S. LNG was seen as very reliable. Now, with the Trump administration and with all the problems that have appeared in the transatlantic alliance with Trump's threats of tariffs and threats to seize Greenland, Europe is having some doubts about whether the U.S.

10:02is in fact a reliable supplier. And last week, the U.S. ambassador to the EU said that Europe should quickly sign a trade deal that's under consideration with the U.S. or risk losing favorable access to U.S. LNG. Now, it's a question whether actually Europe does have favorable access. In fact, they probably just pay for it and they're willing to pay more than anybody else for U.S. LNG under normal conditions. But it was a comment that some lawmakers in the European Parliament said it amounted to blackmail. So the U.S. reliability as an energy supplier is not viewed as it once was just a few years ago.

10:39I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal energy security reporter Matthew Dalton. Matt, thanks so much. Thank you, Luke. Meanwhile, concerns about a protracted disruption to energy supplies are sending global equities lower and oil higher today. Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's KOSPI index both fell more than 4 % on fears that the war could slow global growth. Futures for international benchmark crude are up, trading around$108 a barrel. U.S. gasoline prices are continuing their upward climb, sitting just shy of$4 a gallon. And Australia's government responded to higher prices today by cutting its fuel tax in half for three months.

11:18Here was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announcing the move. While Australia's fuel supply outlook remains secure in the near term, we need to be very clear as well with Australians that the longer this war goes on, the worse the impacts will be.

11:40In other market news, we are exclusively reporting that food distribution giant Cisco is nearing a deal to buy family-owned Restaurant Depot for roughly$29 billion. Cisco is the biggest U.S. food distributor to restaurants, hospitals, and schools, and the deal could help it to expand into the high-margin and growing cash-and-carry distribution model in which restaurant owners can pick up food supplies on the same day as they need them. Restaurant Depot operates more than 160 large-format warehouse stores across 35 states and is expected to continue operating as a standalone business unit within Cisco after the deal closes.

12:19And Eli Lilly has signed a drug discovery deal with Hong Kong-listed InSilico worth as much as$2.75 billion as the drugmaker continues to tap China's vast pharmaceutical research base. As part of the deal, Eli Lilly will obtain exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture and sell a number of drugs discovered using InSilico's artificial intelligence model Pharma.ai. The deal is part of Eli Lilly's plans to expand its supply chain capacity in the country and follow several high-profile deals with Chinese drug makers. And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning. Additional sound in this episode was from Reuters.

12:58Today's show was produced by Hattie Moyer. Our supervising producer was Daniel Bach. And I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.

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