A.M. Edition for Feb. 25. The U.S. wins backing for a United Nations resolution that doesn’t blame Russia for the Ukraine war. And while President Trump says an agreement to halt the fighting could be reached within weeks, WSJ correspondent Tom Grove says Russia sees an advantage in drawing out negotiations. Plus, Tesla’s sales in Europe fall 45% in the first month of the year, with CEO Elon Musk’s political activism and a refresh of the Model Y among the factors likely at play. And the Trump administration hits Iran with fresh sanctions aimed at blockading its oil exports. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the key issues in the Ukraine peace negotiations?
Für die Russen kommt es vielmehr darauf, die Gespräche zu klinschen, sie zu beginnen und sie so zu fühlen, als ob sie mit den Vereinigten Staaten auf gleichem Fuß sind. Für den Kremlin ist die Zeitung so lang, wie es dauert.
It's Tuesday, February 25th. 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. We begin with the latest efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Yesterday, the US joined Russia and China in backing a Washington-drafted UN Security Council resolution that called for a swift end to the conflict.
Chapter 2: How is the U.S. influencing the Ukraine conflict resolution?
And in comments alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, President Trump made it clear that he's expecting diplomatic progress soon.
Macron sagte, dass die Geschwindigkeit auch seine Priorität war, bemerkend, dass er Trumps Wunsch für Frieden so schnell wie möglich teilt.
However, his comments come as multiple European leaders are trying to steer Trump closer to their position on how to end the war. For instance, five European countries abstained on that UN Security Council resolution about Ukraine yesterday, which didn't blame Moscow for the war.
Und wie Journalist Thomas Grove hier zu diskutieren ist, aufgrund dieser Unterschiede in der Meinung, sind die westlichen Zeitlinien für das Ende der Krieg auf einem Kurs mit dem russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin. Thomas, Sie berichten, dass Putin die Erde für unendliche Gespräche, unendliche Negotiierungen, vorbereitet.
Erzähl uns ein bisschen mehr darüber, wie jeder Seite diese Friedensnegotiierungen sieht.
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Chapter 3: What are Russia's demands in the Ukraine conflict?
Die USA wollen es sicherlich schnell passieren, damit es zu anderen Problemen, größeren Problemen, die ich denke, dass Trump die Vereinigten Staaten befindet, besonders China. Für die Russen kommt es vielmehr darauf hin, die Gespräche zu klinschen, sie zu beginnen und sie fühlen, als ob sie mit den Vereinigten Staaten auf gleichem Fuß sind. Die Zeitung ist, so lange es dauert.
Lavrov sagte, wir werden die Hostilität nicht stoppen, bis wir den Deal bekommen, der uns passt. Und wenn sie über den Deal sprechen, der ihnen passt, haben sie darüber gesprochen, was sie als Grundausgaben des Konflikts nennen. Es geht um die wachsende Beziehung zwischen der Ukraine und NATO. Es geht um die freien Waffen, die jetzt auf ukrainischen Territorien sind. can be used to strike Russia.
And ultimately it comes down to Ukraine's potential entry into NATO. Oddly enough, into the EU they seem to have less of a problem. In Istanbul, the original Istanbul talks in early 2022, not long after the outbreak of the war, Russia seemed to be okay with letting Ukraine join the EU. NATO, however, is a totally different can of worms for them.
Right. And another thing I imagine Russia won't be happy about is some of the reporting we've had in the last few days that the French and British are looking at plans to deploy European peacekeepers to Ukraine once a deal is struck. It's funny.
Chapter 4: How might European military involvement impact peace talks?
I mean, Trump came out and said that Putin was okay with this. But yeah, Russia would certainly have problems with this. NATO-Mitgliederstaaten auf ukrainischem Territorium. Russland will, dass die Ukraine in der Sphäre von Russland beeinflusst wird. Das bedeutet in jeder möglichen Weise, dass sie die Anzahl der Waffen, die sie auf ihrem Territorium hat, die Größe ihres Militärs,
Russia wants an end to the intelligence sharing that exists between the United States and Ukraine. That intelligence sharing has allowed Ukraine to strike very efficiently inside Russia. What's thorny about this though is that it's acknowledged by neither side and creating an end to something that remains unacknowledged is a relatively thorny endeavour.
Just given the potentially long timeline for a peace agreement here and the fact, as you report, Russia plans to use its upper hand on the battlefield to its advantage, do we have a sense of how long it will last? Ukraine might be able to sustain its war effort without further US aid?
Well, it seems as though the Europeans have come forward with increasing kind of, you know, trickles of aid to Ukraine. The Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski earlier this week said that he believes that Ukraine has until about the end of the year to continue fighting without another big arms package. So obviously what we're seeing on the battlefield for the Ukrainians is not great, right?
The Russians are slowly nibbling away at their territory. But it seems like the Ukrainian forces are not crumbling anymore.
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Chapter 5: Can Ukraine sustain its defense without U.S. aid?
And I guess another major question here to wrap things up is that the US has a role to play in all of this, perhaps in speeding talks up, trying to hold Russia to account if they appear to be dragging their feet. According to the folks you've spoken to, what is the assessment of sort of the American leverage that exists here to try to dictate the timetable?
Yeah, so not long after Trump took office, you know, we saw a lot of rhetoric about, you know, the potential use of sanctions, dropping the oil price, potential aid getting sent to Ukraine, using frozen Russian assets to send that aid to Ukraine. And in the last couple of weeks, we've seen that rhetoric being dialed back and we've seen a much kind of...
Wir haben einen stärkeren Wunsch, die US-Leveragen auf die Ukraine zu nutzen. Wir versuchen also, Selenskyj an die Negotiationsstelle zu drücken, insbesondere wenn es um den Mineral-Verein geht, den wir zusammen sehen. Ob sich das ändert, wenn die Negotiationsstelle weitergeht, wissen wir nicht. Aber es ist eine Art Unabhängigkeit da, die bemerkenswert ist.
I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal correspondent Thomas Grove in Warsaw. Thomas, thank you so much. Thank you. Coming up, the rest of the day's news, including new sanctions targeting Iranian oil and a drop in Tesla's sales in Europe. Those stories and more after the break.
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The US is ratcheting up sanctions targeting Iran's oil supply chain, continuing the Trump administration's campaign to effectively blockade the country's petroleum exports. That's according to the Treasury Department, which has announced new sanctions on more than 30 entities, individuals and vessels connected with Iran's so-called shadow fleet.
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Chapter 6: What role does American leverage play in the negotiations?
Dies betrifft Ölverkäufer in den Vereinigten Arabischen Emiraten und Hongkong, Tanker-Operatoren und Managern in China und den Vorsitzenden des iranischen staatlichen Ölverkaufs. Präsident Trumps Policies sind für die Entfernung iranischer Exporten ausgeschlossen, mit einer Memo, die dieses Monat vorgesehen wurde, die Begründung macht, dass Schiffen in China vorgesehen sind.
Iran sagt, dass die US-Maximum-Pressur-Kampagne kohärent ist und internationale Regeln verurteilt. A representative for Iran's mission to the UN in New York didn't respond to a request for comment.
In News that could move markets today, Tesla's sales in Europe fell 45% last month, according to data from the European Carmakers Association, with the EV maker selling fewer than 1,300 new vehicles in Germany, Europe's largest market.
European Autos Reporter Steven Wilmot writes this morning that CEO Elon Musk's support for German far-right party AFD in this weekend's elections could be one reason for the pullback, alongside a hangover from high sales the previous month and a revamp of the Model Y. We'll leave a link to that analysis in our show notes.
We are exclusively reporting that Anthropic, the startup behind AI-Chatbot Claude, is finalizing a new funding round that values the company at $61.5 billion.
According to people familiar with the matter, Anthropic initially set out to raise $2 billion, but was able to increase that to $3.5 billion during talks with investors, showing how eager investors are to back promising AI firms, despite the disruptive arrival of China's DeepSeek. Unilever-CEO Hein Schumacher steigt in weniger als zwei Jahren nach dem Top-Roll am Konsum-Gut-Giant.
Er wird von Finanzchef Fernando Fernandez gewechselt. Die Überraschung kommt in der Mitte eines großen Umgangs, um Kosten zu steigern und Volumen-Große zu steigern, während man Profit-Margen erweitert. US-Dockworkers are expected to ratify a new labor contract that manufacturers hope will avert the prospect of more paralyzing strikes at East and Gulf Coast ports through 2030.
The deal secures a 62% pay increase and full protection against automation for workers, while allowing companies to more quickly modernize American ports and blunt some of the costs of that wage increase. And on deck today, earnings from Home Depot and Keurig Dr. Pepper are due out this morning, with fresh consumer confidence data set for release at 10 a.m. Eastern.
And finally, we've talked here before about the AI race driving huge power demand as data centers scramble for available electricity. And as a result, power stocks and particularly nuclear power stocks emerged as some of Wall Street's biggest winners last year. But after those major run-ups, is that nuclear power trade over? And what do investors need to know about owning nuclear power stocks?
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