Alex Osola (4:07)

That was WSJ reporter Hannah Aaron Lange. Thank you, Hannah.

Hannah Aaron Lange (4:10)

Thank you for having me.

Alex Osola (4:14)

Lumber producers have migrated from Canada to the American South. Now lumber's futures trading is moving south, too. The exchange operator CME Group has said it would launch trading in southern yellow pine on March 31. Ryan Dezember, who covers commodities for the Journal, joins me now. Okay, Ryan, why is this happening?

Ryan Dezember (4:33)

Well, this has been discussed by the exchange operator and traders for a long time as the south has become the sort of top lumber producing region in the continent. And why now? The price of the lumber that's coming from Canada, northern species, the price has risen pretty dramatically. And separated from the price of southern yellow pineapple, it's like 50, 60% higher now. And a lot of that is being driven by the duties that are existing on Canadian wood that is shipped into the US and of course, Trump's tariffs, which he said he's going to put 25% on top of those existing duties.

Alex Osola (5:10)

What will this mean for US Producers?

Ryan Dezember (5:13)

This would give them something to hedge production. Like a corn farmer might buy corn futures to lock in prices. And a, a food company might trade futures to protect their prices of the corn that they're buying. Same thing for lumber. And this would give them a tool to do that that's a lot more relevant to what they're doing than the existing lumber futures, which is a contract that's fulfilled by northern species of wood, predominantly from Canada.

Alex Osola (5:39)

That was WSJ reporter Ryan dezember. Ryan, thank you.

Ryan Dezember (5:43)

Thank.

Alex Osola (5:47)

Utah is set to become the first state to ban fluoride in the public water supply after Governor Spencer Cox said he would sign a bill to do so. The Utah law is set to take effect in early May. That's just one state considering rolling back efforts to add fluoride to water. In 2022, about 63% of Americans had tap water with fluoride in it. But now that number is shrinking. In Florida, at least 23 cities and counties have removed fluoride since September, and eight of 12 states mandating fluoridation face bills ending those requirements. For more, I'm joined by WSJ national affairs reporter Chris Maher. Chris, what is at issue here exactly?

Chris Maher (6:26)

So the opposition to fluoridation really ramped up. Last year there was a report by a group called the National Toxicology Program, which is part of the federal government. And they they took a look at some human health studies involving fluoride. And their conclusion, which they said was with moderate confidence, was that the greater the fluoride exposure, the lower the IQ scores for youth that had been exposed or their mothers had been exposed. And then a month later, a federal judge told the EPA that it had to take some action because of the findings of this study. But for a long time, the mainstream belief was that there were no problems with this whatsoever. It was effective at helping to prevent cavities, tooth decay, a lot of dental groups, the American Dental association, some health organizations, in fact, the EPA and the CDC have always been in favor of fluoridation. And the CDC has considered water fluoridation one of the top health achievements of the 20th century.

Alex Osola (7:23)

And what is the Trump administration saying about this?

Chris Maher (7:26)

Back in the fall when the federal judge told the EPA that they had to take some sort of action, the EPA had said that it was going to be filing an appeal. But that was before the Trump administration came in and Robert F. Kennedy became the top health official in the United States. So it's unclear right now what position the Trump administration is going to take.

Alex Osola (7:45)

That was WSJ reporter Chris Maher. Thank you, Chris.

Chris Maher (7:48)

Thanks so much.

Alex Osola (7:50)

Coming up, could Europe wean itself off American defense companies? That's after the break.

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Alex Osola (8:17)

American defense companies are dominating the global arms trade. According to the think tank Stockholm International Peace research institute, the US accounted for 43% of global weapons exports over the past five years, up from 35% in the previous five year period, Europe has been one of the biggest buyers. As European defense budgets have risen in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the US Arms industry has been the key beneficiary. Now, though, that could change. Alastair McDonald covers Ukraine and the defense industry for the Wall Street Journal and is here to tell us more. So, Alistair, how are US Arms sales expected to be affected after last week's news, which is the Trump administration cutting off deliveries of US Weapons, spare parts and intelligence to Ukraine?

Alastair MacDonald (9:00)

I would describe it as a debate at the moment, European officials looking at what's happening and thinking, if the US Is willing to cut off weapons deliveries so suddenly and cut off all that comes with that, such as maintenance and spare parts, then is it a safe bet for us now? And the thing is, is that US Weapons exports are so huge to Europe now that it's problematic for them. They've more than doubled in five years, basically. And it's around two thirds of imports now come from the US up from just over half in the previous period. This is according to sipri's numbers. So it's a substantial chunk of European buying. But it also comes at a time European nations are saying, well, we should prime our own defense industries anyway. So the Trump administration has talked a lot about Europe being more independent from the US when it comes to defense. And this may be an potentially unwanted consequence because there are some very large, sophisticated defence companies in Europe.

Alex Osola (9:57)

We've been hearing a lot about NATO and how President Trump is pushing member nations to increase their military spending. Where would that money go?

Alastair MacDonald (10:05)

It's going in the US Actually. Lockheed Martin is rubbing its hands as we speak. RTX is over the moon. A lot of the increase has gone the US companies. Everybody actually looks at it and thinks this is a current phenomena. But President Trump said this at the start of his first term and it didn't get a lot of fight back in Europe. So it's been ramping up really for the past 10 years. And then this has given it an extra push. The British, who are traditionally Europe's biggest defense spenders, they've agreed to spend even more. The Danes have, and now the Germans are as well, and I would imagine more will follow. So European defence companies benefit from that and you've seen a massive rally in the shares of European defence makers as a result of that. But a chunk of this is going across the Atlantic to US defence companies.

Alex Osola (10:49)

That was WSJ reporter Alastair MacDonald. Thank you, Alastair.

Alastair MacDonald (10:52)

Thanks, Alex.

Alex Osola (10:57)

In other news, President Trump said immigration officials will be pursuing other student organizers like Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student who helped lead last year's pro Palestinian demonstrations. According to his lawyer, Khalil was detained Saturday night by Department of Homeland Security agents who said they were acting on orders from the State Department to revoke his green card. And finally, cars have gotten a lot more high tech, but not everyone is into it, and many drivers actually say it's too much. Personal finance reporter Joe Pinsker talked to our Tech News Briefing podcast about what exactly people are complaining about.

Joe Pinsker (11:34)

One critique is that some of this is just all too much. They want to be able to just do simple stuff like turn on the AC in their car and not have to tap a touchscreen a few different times while taking their eyes off the road. A lot of this technology is actually quite great when it works really well. And in general, people actually kind of want stuff in their cars. The problem is that a lot of it's just hard to use and often breaks down. There are all these ways in which tech can make things better when they work, but but when they don't, it is a real nuisance to a lot of people.

Alex Osola (12:06)

To hear more from Joe, check out today's episode of Tech News Briefing. And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Banci with supervising producer Michael Kosmides. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening.

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