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- [00:00]
Narrator/Advertiser
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Alex Osola
The Nasdaq falls into correction territory and US Mortgage rates rise for the fourth week in a row and a bad sign for the spring home buying season. Plus, officials think Iran is behind a series of attacks targeting Jews across Europe.
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Bojan Panchevsky
Essentially, it can turn anyone into a sort of executor of Iran's agenda. Quite often they don't even know who they're working for. It basically means that a lot of people from all walks of life can be recruited to be part of this kind of criminal Network.
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Alex Osola
It's Thursday, March 26th. I'm Alex Osola for the Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of what's news, the top headlines and business stories that move the world. Today, Several Senate Republicans are pressing the White House to declare a national emergency to free up money to pay TSA agents and help millions of Americans who are traveling for spring break and holidays and facing long lines at airports. Democrats have blocked funding for the Department of Homeland Security because they want new rules on immigration enforcement and there's no agreement yet. President Trump said at a Cabinet meeting today that if the standoff doesn't end soon, quote, we'll have to take some very drastic measures in the Middle East. Iran has allowed several Pakistan flagged oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump called the gesture a present to the US that shows Iran's leaders are serious about negotiating and said the US would pause strikes on Iran's energy sectors for 10 more days. His previous deadline was tomorrow. Pakistan said Tehran was considering Washington's proposals today. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that U.S. allies need to step up to do more on Iran and securing the Strait of Hormuz. Throughout the war, some of those allies have been more outspoken than others. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a 54 year old socialist, has been one of Europe's fiercest critics of the conflict in Iran. The Wall Street Journal's Gordon Fairclough sat down with Sanchez to discuss the division between Spain and Trump.
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Pedro Sanchez
You've been quite blunt in your Criticism of the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran. Why have you chosen to be so outspoken on this issue? Well, as I said, there is a moral dimension of this war or these wars, I would say because I think all of them are interconnected. The Gaza war, of course, what is happening in Lebanon and of course in Iran. I do believe that there is a clear strategy for from Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government to shift geopolitics in the Middle east and to create a new geopolitical reality in the Middle East. I don't know if the US Administration is aligned with that vision or not.
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Alex Osola
Sanchez called for diplomacy and de escalation.
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Pedro Sanchez
Good allies are like good friends. We tell each other the truth no matter what. And in my view, this war in Iran is a big mistake for the world and Therefore for the U.S. as
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Alex Osola
for U.S. ally Israel, it has shifted from trying to destabilize Iran's regime to destroying its military industrial base. The Journal has learned that Israeli officials think President Trump could soon try to end the war. So Israel is now focused on wearing down Iran's ability to rebuild its military before the war ends. It's another sign that Israel has given up on hopes of bringing down Iran's regime via attacks from the air. Since the US And Israel launched their campaign against Iran, there have been nearly a dozen attacks on Jewish sites across Western Europe. No one has been killed, but officials fear that it's only a matter of time. Now authorities are investigating if Iran is involved. The they suspect Iranian agents recruited individuals online to carry out attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues and companies linked to Israel and set up a bogus group to claim responsibility for them. Bojan Panchevsky, the Journal's chief European political correspondent, joins me now. Bojan, why do European officials think Iran is involved in these attacks?
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Bojan Panchevsky
Well, basically it's based on leads they've got in their investigations in several European countries, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and others. They've also detected these announcements from an alleged group that claims all these attacks. And they've come to the conclusion that this group is linked to known Iranian social media propaganda channels. In some cases, the attacks were filmed or even streamed, and they were immediately linked to these channels that are known to belong to government agencies from Iran who so they basically believe the group doesn't exist as a group. It's just a sort of a cover, an online presence for what is being, they believe, organized by Tehran.
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Alex Osola
What do authorities say is Iran's motivation for these attacks?
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Bojan Panchevsky
Iran has been plotting or executing attacks on opponents, on critics, on dissidents, on Western journalists, writers or politicians for many years now. So this is not something that's unknown to European law enforcement. They foiled many such attempts. Iran in the past two, three years, they've been recruiting organized crime figures from motorcycle gangs, racketeering gangs, and also people from the refugee community. Now it seems like they've amplified the use of this method. They're using people who are not necessarily Iranians, who are not spies or saboteurs, but rather they are criminals or just random people who were hired to do something for money. And Russia, Iran's greatest ally, has perfected that playbook since its full scale invasion of Ukraine. We've seen a lot of attacks by random people paid by Russia in Europe. And it seems like now Iran is basically picking up on that way of doing things.
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Alex Osola
So if this is a known playbook, how does that help authorities who are looking to foil some of these attacks or get a sense of what's coming next?
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Bojan Panchevsky
The playbook is pretty scary for law enforcement people I talk to. Essentially it can turn anyone into a sort of executor of Iran's agenda. You've got refugees who are strung out for cash and they are on a telegram channel and then someone will say, here's thousand euros. If you go to this bus stop and set this bus on fire, quite often they don't even know who they're working for. It basically means that a lot of people from all walks of life can be recruited to be part of this kind of criminal network. These things are relatively easy to do. So they are definitely on real alert in many Western European countries and they are expecting further developments of that kind.
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Alex Osola
That was WSJ chief European political correspondent Bojan Panchevsky. Thanks, Bojan.
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Bojan Panchevsky
Thanks for having me on.
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Alex Osola
Coming up, a feminist nonprofit's pivot to fight the manosphere and Wall Street's record breaking bonuses may not be enough to bridge New York City's budget shortfall. That's after the break.
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Narrator/Advertiser
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Alex Osola
Markets dove today. The Nasdaq fell 2.4%, closing in a correction meaning it's lost more than 10%. The index peaked in October and has been sliding since then. Investors are worried about the impact of AI on software companies as well as the economic fallout from the Iran war. The OECD today warned of a large setback to growth and a jump in inflation if an energy crisis worsens and drags on because of the conflict. The Dow and S and P also slid today, while Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, rose almost 5% to nearly $102 a barrel. In housing, Freddie Mac said today that the average rate for a 30 year mortgage was 6.38%. It's the fourth straight week that rates have risen and the highest level since September. Climbing rates threatened to chill the start of the key spring home buying season. The residential real estate industry was optimistic heading into 2026 that the housing market could thaw this spring. It's been stuck in low gear for three years, and mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae will soon allow home buyers to pledge their crypto holdings to back their mortgage. In the past, crypto holders would have had to sell their digital currencies to make a cash down payment. Crypto backed mortgages are a niche product, but Fannie's involvement could help take them mainstream. Foreign Sheryl Sandberg's 2013 bestseller Lean in made women's professional advancement a boardroom topic. Well, the feminist nonprofit that spun out of that is now undergoing a transformation. The organization has shed about a quarter of its staff, and Sandberg now wants it to push back against the tradwife and manosphere movements that prioritize women's roles as housewives. Earlier this week, Sandberg announced that 25 year old Bridget Griswold was taking over as chief executive of Lean in, pointing to her background in AI. Sandberg declined an interview request. We're exclusively reporting that Anduril and Palantir are part of the group of defense and tech companies developing software to run President Trump's planned Golden Dome anti missile shield. The firms hope to have the software ready for testing this summer. If it works, it could become the Cornerstone of the $185 billion defense system. WSJ Aerospace and Defense reporter Drew Fitzgerald says that could be key to the company's business.
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Drew Fitzgerald
This would not be the largest contract that either company has with the US Government, but what it could offer them is space on the ground floor of this massive defensive system that will likely cost billions of dollars to upgrade and to maintain, not just over the next 10 years, but over the next few decades to come. So it's a good position to be in. And it shows a lot of the administration's preference for picking new technology companies like Anduril and Palantir over some of the more traditional defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and RTX that have built these sorts of systems in the past.
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Alex Osola
Drew says Golden Dome is a closely watched project for defending against air attacks
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Drew Fitzgerald
on the U.S. the military has kept the details of what it would do very close to the vest because they don't want adversaries to know about how it would work. But what the Golden Dome project is supposed to be is this integration of new systems and existing ones that includes things like radars throughout the U.S. canada, Alaska that NORAD uses to track missiles that might come in from Russia. It includes all sorts of missile interceptor arrays stationed in Guam, other US Bases and in the Middle east, so that commanders can see all threats at once, follow them from start to finish, and decide how to respond so that they don't have to lose time talking among each other and coordinating in response to threats that could only give them minutes or fewer to act on, as opposed to the way that these systems have worked in the past, where different services like the army and the Navy and the Air Force all have different defensive systems and they have to coordinate ad hoc.
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Alex Osola
And finally, if you work on Wall street, you may have gotten a really great bonus for last year, the average Wall street bonus rose to a record high of nearly $250,000. The New York State Comptroller estimates that's up 6% from the year before. And while that might sound like nice money, it's less than the 15% increase that new York City expected. Those bonuses are a key source of tax revenue. Mayor Zoran Mamdani has been counting on Wall street taxes. He faces more than $5 billion budget shortfall to close by July. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Pierre Biennium with supervising producer Tali Arbel. 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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Drew Fitzgerald
Data is everywhere.
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Alex Osola
When orchestrated properly, it sings. At Morningstar, we analyze and enrich data,
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Pedro Sanchez
making it actionable and powerful for you.
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Alex Osola
Morningstar, where data speaks.