WSJ What’s News - Musk and Putin’s Secret Talks Have Sparked Security Concerns

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

P.M. Edition for Oct. 25. WSJ national security reporter Warren Strobel on how Elon Musk and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been in regular contact since late 2022. And Boeing is considering selling its space business. Plus, federal prosecutors are investigating the cryptocurrency firm Tether. Tracie Hunte hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Secret conversations Elon Musk had with Russian President Vladimir Putin have raised security concerns. There is concern that Putin is very good at manipulating Western leaders and businessmen

and that this could represent an attempt to get his propaganda across to somebody who owns X, has millions of followers on X, and is very close to presidential nominee Donald Trump. And Boeing once helped the U.S. put men on the moon. Now it's thinking about selling its space business. nominee Donald Trump. And Boeing once helped the U.S. put men on the moon. Now it's thinking about selling its space business. Plus federal prosecutors are investigating the cryptocurrency firm Tether. It's Friday, October 25th. I'm Tracy Hunt 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. Let's start with our top story. We exclusively report that Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a linchpin for U.S. space efforts, has been in regular contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin since late 2022. Several current and former U.S., European, and Russian officials have confirmed the discussions. Musk didn't deny details in the journal's reporting, but alluded to the story in multiple posts on his social media platform X.

White House officials said that they are aware of the journal's story. And a Kremlin spokesman said Musk and Putin have only spoken once on the phone and that neither the Russian president nor Kremlin officials were holding regular conversations with Musk. The SpaceX founder's contacts with the Russian president have raised potential national security concerns among some in the Biden administration, given Putin's status as one of America's chief adversaries. Joining us now is our national security reporter, Warren Strobel. So Warren, what do we know about these conversations between Musk and Putin?

Elon Musk has only acknowledged one conversation, which he said happened in 2021 and was about space matters. Our reporting demonstrates that he's had continued conversations with Putin and other high ranking Kremlin officials. The topics that we understand have been pretty wide ranging from geopolitical matters to business matters to personal matters. They've talked about the war in Ukraine and they've talked about Taiwan, which is not a huge issue for Vladimir Putin, but it's a huge issue for his sort of ally, Chinese President Xi Jinping. Does the Biden administration have concerns about these conversations?

It took us a long time to do this story, quite frankly, and one of the reasons why is that information knowledge of these conversations, these contacts, is very highly sort of compartmentalized and restricted within the administration. So I want to be very clear here. We were told by one very good source that there is not concern that Elon Musk is leaking classified information to Russia. He does have a security clearance. Our article and our reporting does not accuse him of doing anything wrong or illegal in that regard.

But there is concern that Putin is very good at manipulating Western leaders and businessmen and that this could represent an attempt by him to kind of get his propaganda and get his view of the Ukraine war across to somebody who owns X, has millions of followers on X, and is very close to presidential nominee Donald Trump. Vladimir Putin isn't the only foreign leader Musk has had contact with, though. He's also spoken with Javier Millet of Argentina and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. What do these conversations that he's had with these leaders, what do

they say about his ambitions? Well, that's a good question. I guess it says that he views himself as a, he's the world's richest man. He has amazing technologies, whether it's SpaceX or Tesla or some of the artificial intelligence, Neuralink things that he's doing. And he views himself as a player on the world stage who has every right to engage with world leaders. I've covered diplomacy and national skitter for a long time. It's a very nuanced business

where people are always looking for advantage, to take advantage of one another. There's long histories of relations between countries. And Elon Musk is a very smart guy, but does he understand that background when he's engaging in this sort of entrepreneurial diplomacy, for lack of another word? Warren Strobel is a national security reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Thank you so much, Warren. Thank you.

In response to our story, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson today called for an investigation. He said it would be concerning if multiple conversations between Musk and Putin had occurred, particularly for NASA, the Defense Department, and some intelligence agencies. NASA increasingly relies on SpaceX to carry out key missions. A SpaceX spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Coming up, why Boeing wants to get out of the space business and what voters in Wisconsin think about the economy and the presidential candidates. That's after the break. Boeing helped build rockets that launched men to the moon, helped oversee NASA's space

shuttle operations, and was the prime contractor for the International Space Station. But now we're exclusively reporting that the beleaguered jet maker is exploring the sale of its space business, including the troubled Starliner space vehicle and operations that support the ISS. That's according to people familiar with the matter. The effort, part of Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg's strategy to streamline the company and stem its financial losses, is at an early stage and might not result in a deal. Boeing faces a deepening financial crisis

as its largest labor union continues a strike that has halted most of its airplane production. Meanwhile, Boeing's space and defense projects have been hobbled by delays and cost overruns. In US markets, the NASDAQ rose 0.6%, the S&P 500 edged less than 0.1% lower, and the Dow shed 0.6%. Only the NASDAQ finished a week higher, up 0.2%. As we've often discussed on our show, the development of artificial intelligence requires

enormous amounts of electricity. Our reporter, Catherine Blunt, told our tech news briefing podcast how many of the tech companies are investing billions of dollars in nuclear power to help curb surging carbon emissions tied to their data centers. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have each made significant nuclear announcements in the last few weeks. Google and Amazon in particular have been targeting the development of what are known as small modular reactors or SMRs, which are basically tinier versions of

the big nuclear power plants that we have built historically. The idea is to scale down the size of the plants and other things. They become easier and less expensive to build. None have yet been commercially deployed in the US, so there's a lot of hurdles that need to be overcome in order to get to that place. But to have the tech companies backing some of these sort of prospective projects is a really big deal for the SMR companies. And Microsoft made an agreement with the owner of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant to restart the undamaged reactor that was shut down several years ago.

And you can hear more about this in today's Tech News Briefing podcast. We're exclusively reporting that the federal government is investigating the cryptocurrency company Tether, for possible sanctions and money laundering violations. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Prosecutors at the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office are investigating whether the cryptocurrency has been used to fund illegal activities such as the drug trade, terrorism and hacking, or to launder the proceeds generated by them. The U.S. Treasury Department, meanwhile, is considering sanctioning Tether because of its widespread use by individuals and groups sanctioned by the U.S., including the terrorist

group Hamas and Russian arms dealers. Tether's cryptocurrency, also called Tether, is the world's most traded one, with as much as $190 billion changing hands daily. Unlike more volatile cryptocurrencies, Tether's value is pegged to the dollar, making it an ideal substitute in places where the use of U.S. currency has been banned by regulators. For our multi-part series Chasing the Vote, Wall Street Journal reporter Jimmy Villekind has been traveling to the states that will decide the presidential election to find out what matters to the voters there.

For this week's episode, he went to Racine County, Wisconsin, where the unemployment rate is below the national average, but voters there say they still feel the sting of higher prices for groceries and other goods. And Jamie joins us now. So how are the voters you spoke with in Wisconsin talking about the economy? Well, Tracy, it's really just sort of this tension between jobs and prices. This is a part of Wisconsin, which is not unlike other states in the upper Midwest, the so-called Rust Belt, where there was a big industrial base that really boomed after World War II and then in the 1980s

and 90s some of those jobs went overseas, factories closed, and there has been a struggle to try and reinvent the local economy. Now, as you said, the unemployment rate now is lower than the national average in Racine, but people are focused on either struggling to get by because of high prices or lower quality jobs than they used to have. And the overwhelming sentiment I heard talking from voters about the economy was really one of struggle.

Donald Trump has a huge lead compared to Kamala Harris sentiment I heard talking from voters about the economy was really one of struggle. Donald Trump has a huge lead compared to Kamala Harris when it comes to the economy, according to nationwide polls. So what are voters they're saying about both candidates' economic plans? Well, I found a lot of supporters of both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in our travels. And the Trump supporters really pointed to how they just felt that the economy was better, that they had more money in their pocket when he was president from 2017 into 2021. Now that was before the pandemic.

It was before higher inflation and it was relatively prosperous. Voters also pointed to tax cuts that Donald Trump proposed and signed in 2017, which cut rates for a majority of US households as well as for big corporations. Democrats talked about other reasons for their support for Kamala Harris. Generally, people didn't know much about her plans for the economy, which include a $25,000 grant for first-time home buyers, or they were not particularly impressed. Voters I talked to who supported Harris said that they did so because they felt Trump was unstable and because they believed Harris would protect abortion rights, which was a

major issue, particularly for female voters. Jimmy Vielkine is a political reporter for The Wall Street Journal. You can listen to his report from Wisconsin and our Chasing the Vote podcast this Sunday. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow, you can look out for our weekly markets wrap up, What's News in Markets. Then on Sunday, as we just mentioned, Jimmy Villekind finds out how voters in Wisconsin weigh the presidential candidates' economic plans in our Chasing the Vote special series. And we'll be back with our regular show Monday morning.

Today's show was produced by PRB Anime with supervising producer Michael Kosmitis. Michael Laval wrote our theme music, Aishal Muslim is our development producer, Scott Salloway and Chris Zinsley are our deputy editors. And Falana Patterson is the Wall Street Journal's head of news audio. I'm Tracy Hunt. Thanks for listening.