Transcript
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Foreignshakes and smiles in Washington, more question marks remain over how to achieve peace in Ukraine. Plus, Softbank says it's investing $2 billion in chipmaker intel and the cost of being a parent. We kick off our series looking at the financial challenges of having a family.
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There absolutely is a sense of trade offs in a number of the families that I've spoken to, but at the same time many of these are people who are committed to the idea of having a big family and loving kids.
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It's Tuesday, August 19th. I'm Azhar Sucri for the Wall Street Journal. Here is the AM edition of what's news, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The path toward peace in Ukraine remains uncertain today, with President Trump now calling for a summit between the leaders of Russia and Ukraine as part of the U. S led push to end the war. At the White House, Ukrainian President VL Vladimir Zelenskyy and a host of European leaders pushed Trump to drive a hard bargain with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Just three days after the two leaders held a friendly meeting in Alaska, the Kremlin said only that a meeting between senior Ukrainian and Russian negotiators had been discussed. The details of how Ukraine's allies would protect the country from any future Russian aggression following a halt in fighting are also up in the air. Speaking on Fox News, the Ingram Angle NATO Secretary General Mark Rutter said one proposal is for the US And European nations to provide Ukraine a guarantee that they would intervene effectively, a version of NATO's Article 5 on collective security. What we are discussing here is not NATO membership. What we are discussing Here is Article 5 Type of Security guarantees for Ukraine and what they exactly will entail will now be more specifically discussed, according to our reporting. Trump and European leaders agreed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a task force of national security advisers and NATO officials to draft security assurances for Ukraine. The White House declined to comment, while a spokesman for Rubio didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Also in Washington, German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz underlined the importance of a ceasefire before any future summit. A real negotiation can only take place at a summit in which Ukraine itself also participates. Such a summit is only conceivable if the weapons fall silent. I reiterated this demand today. According to European officials, Zelenskyy made a series of proposals to Trump, including the purchase of about $100 billion worth of American weapons and equipment with financing help from European partners, the official said. Trump responded favorably, but emphasized NATO members would have to foot the bill. Japanese tech investment giant Softbank has agreed to invest $2 billion in chip maker intel, amounting to a roughly 2% stake. It comes as the Trump administration is also discussing the possibility of taking its own 10% financial stake to revive the company's fortunes and help Bolst semiconductor manufacturing in the us. Investors in intel expressed confidence in the move, with the chipmaker's shares popping more than 5% in off hours trading. SoftBank shares fell 4% in Tokyo. S and P Global Ratings has affirmed its credit ratings for the us, saying it expects revenue from President Trump's tariffs to offset the expected fiscal hit from his recent tax and spending bill. The credit ratings company maintained the US's AA long credit rating and kept the outlook stable. It comes despite concerns that tariffs could put a brake on business confidence and economic growth while spurring inflation and slowing hiring. Now add this to the list of tariffed products knives, electrical transformers, and hundreds of other finished goods that had evaded Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum but are now subject to the 50% import levy. The change represents a significant escalation of Trump's metal tariffs and would apply to about $138 billion worth of imported goods. That's according to estimates from Michigan State University. Professor Jason Miller, the president of the aluminum association trade group, called the expansion a win for U.S. aluminum makers. And coming up today, the first of the big box retail earnings, with Home Depot reporting results before the opening bell. Later this week, we'll hear from Target, Walmart and Lowes. The Trump administration has restored a public website that tracks federal spending, a victory for lawmakers who complained that the White House was using the blackout to freeze funding without public disclosure. The restoration follows a decision by a U.S. court of Appeals judge who denied the administration's motion to postpone the website's release. The website was taken down in March by the White House Office of Management and Budget, prompting a lawsuit suit by an advocacy group and complaints by lawmakers that the OMB was making it difficult to tell if funds passed by Congress were being spent. OMB didn't immediately comment on the website. Being restored, coming up with more Americans than ever putting off having children or deciding to have none at all, we'll hear about families bucking this trend despite the mounting economic hurdles. That's after the break. Raising a child is a gift, a headache, and everything in between. It also takes a whole lot of money. This week, we're breaking down all the tricky financial decisions parents face in 2025. And while those costs have meant some people are having children. Much later, economics reporter TPing Chen writes that other couples are bucking the trend, forging ahead with parenth even when their finances are still rocky, assuming that they'll figure out a way to make it work. She spoke to our supervising producer and mother of two, Sandra Kilhoff. Take a listen.