WSJ What’s News - Panama’s President Denies Granting Free Passage to American Ships

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

P.M. Edition for Feb. 6. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said that a U.S. State Department claim that American ships could use the Panama Canal for free was “lies and falsehoods.” Plus, at a moment when many companies and organizations are rolling back their diversity efforts, the National Football League is standing by its initiatives. WSJ reporter Andrew Beaton explains why the NFL isn’t being swayed by changing political winds. And a federal judge extends the deadline by which federal workers can accept government buyouts. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Panama's president denies that he agreed to allow American ships to pass through the Panama Canal for free. Plus, at a moment when lots of organizations are pulling back their diversity efforts, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is sticking to them. What Roger Goodell made clear was that they weren't going to be just going with the tide again this time and that they were going to stick with where they've been. And a judge extends today's deadline by which federal workers could take the Trump administration's buyout offer.

It's Thursday, February 6th. I'm Alex Osela 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. that move the world today. Panama's president has denied the State Department's claim that his country had agreed to allow U.S. government vessels to transit the Panama Canal for free. In a news conference this morning,

Panamanian President José Raúl Molino said that he was surprised by the U.S.'s announcement and that he wouldn't continue to manage the relationship with the U.S. based on, quote, lies and falsehoods. The announcement comes three days after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited the country to meet with Molino and tour the canal. Molino said he and President Trump would speak tomorrow. The Panamanian president said the canal fees were a drop in the bucket for the U.S. and

reiterated that China doesn't have influence over the canal. Asked about Molino's statement today during a visit to the Dominican Republic, Rubio told reporters that he held talks with Molino about passage for American ships and reiterated the U.S. expectation that U.S. ships would have fees waived. The United States has a treaty obligation to protect the Panama Canal if it comes under attack. That treaty obligation would have to be enforced by the armed forces of the United States, particularly the U.S. Navy. I find it absurd that we would have to pay fees to transit a zone that we are obligated to protect

in a time of conflict. Canal officials said giving free passage to some ships is unprecedented and could bring about scores of lawsuits by other canal users claiming preferential treatment for US ships. As the dust settles from last month's deadly fires in Los Angeles, people are still making sense of what happened there. Now a Wall Street Journal investigation has found that the county botched evacuation notices, sending them too late in some areas, which in hard-hit places like Altadena, failed to protect the lives and property they were intended to. The Los Angeles County Coordinated Joint Information Center said in a statement it

couldn't immediately comment, quote, on all factors leading to the tragic loss of life. Those fires are also a key point for investors who are following insurance companies' earnings this week. We'll be digging into how the big insurers are talking about the fires in a special episode of What's News in Earnings. That'll be in the What's News feed midday tomorrow. And speaking of earnings, Amazon reported higher earnings in the fourth quarter. Revenue for the quarter was about $188 billion, slightly above analysts' expectations. The company also provided a first-quarter sales outlook of $151 billion to $155.5 billion. Another batch of strong corporate earnings reports pushed the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq stock indexes toward record highs today.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent and the NASDAQ ticked up approximately half a percent. But plans to break up one of America's last big industrial conglomerates, Honeywell, pulled down the Dow about 0.3 percent. And the Bank of England cut its key interest rate today by a quarter percentage point to 4.5 percent. It's the third time since August. It also lowered its forecasts for UK economic growth, which is already trailing far behind the US.

Britain faces a slew of uncertainties, including the possibility that trade conflicts initiated by the US will chill global growth and demand for UK exports, even if the country escapes direct tariffs itself. Coming up, why America's most popular sport is standing its ground on diversity efforts, despite political headwinds, that's after the break. The Super Bowl is this weekend, and President Trump is planning to be there. At the start of his term, the president has moved quickly to unravel diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the federal government. And many companies, from Google to Target, have followed suit, rolling

back their own diversity practices. But one organization that hasn't done so? The National Football League. Andrew Beaton covers the NFL for the Journal and joins me now from New Orleans, where he's also preparing to attend the Super Bowl. Andrew, this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he's staying firm on the league Super Bowl. Andrew, this week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said he's staying firm on the league's diversity initiatives and said they won't change just because the political climate has shifted. Who's supporting him in this?

When Roger Goodell says something like that, it has to have the backing of team owners because at the end of the day, he works for them. And even Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt has said that the league still stands by its diversity initiatives, which over the last several years have also become a lot more public facing. And racism has been stentful in the back of the end zone.

The league has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to social justice initiatives, and that is just part of a number of efforts the league has made to become a leading voice in this space. And that's become a lot more complicated in recent weeks, ever since Donald Trump took office again. The federal government has been dismantling DEI initiatives. And that sort of left the NFL in a difficult position of, are they going to stick with it?

Right. And it's interesting that you mention that, because what I remember was in 2016, when Colin Kaepernick was protesting racial injustice. The NFL had a series of reactions, but ultimately let him protest, and President Trump took issue with it.

What is different, maybe, for the NFL this time? When the whole kneeling during the anthem situation arose, the NFL was really the target of a lot of ire from the president. And at that point, the NFL, which is America's most popular sport, ended up in a bizarre situation where it was in a feud with America's sitting president in 2017. And so the NFL felt the pressure and they at one point even tried to put under a rule that would have ended the kneeling during the anthem.

But then the pendulum really swung back in 2020 when in the wake of George Floyd's killing, there were national protests against police brutality. And that's when Roger Goodell made a rather stunning admission that the league was wrong. And that's really the genesis of when the NFL really started amplifying these initiatives. And so now there's this question of that pendulum swing back again, now that maybe the political climate has changed. And what Roger Goodell made clear was that they weren't going to be just going with the tide again this time and that they were going to stick with where they've been. That fact alone is kind of surprising, especially since as you mentioned before a number of Fortune 500 companies are sort of

falling in line behind the perspectives and initiatives from the Trump administration. So why isn't the NFL maybe subject to some of the same dynamics or able to hold steady in this political wind at this moment? In some ways, the NFL is like other businesses. It prints money. This is an industry that's over $20 billion a year of the NFL. But unlike a public company, they don't have to answer to shareholders. They don't have to see how their stock price is doing in the morning.

And at the end of the day, the people who control the business are the owners of the 32 teams and they're the ones who really control everything. And so the decision making is really rooted in them, in the commissioner's office, in the owners. And the NFL is also different in that while they are trying to appeal to the hundreds of millions of people that watch NFL games, they also have to be sensitive to the fact that this is a workforce of players who are predominantly Black. And those are the same players who had called out the league in 2020 for not having their backs more on these issues.

And so they have a lot of needles that are pretty sensitive to thread in this whole situation. All right. Guess we'll have to watch how it all plays out on Sunday. That was WSJ reporter Andrew Beaton. Andrew, thank you so much. Thank you so much. A federal judge has extended a deadline for federal employees to decide whether to accept a buyout offer from the Trump administration.

U.S. District Judge George O'Toole in Massachusetts ordered the deadline, which was initially today, to be paused until at least February 10th while litigation continues. The American Federation of Government Employees and other unions sued to block the buyout offer, which said employees would be paid for eight months if they left willingly. More than 40,000 federal workers had already agreed to resign ahead of the deadline. Trump administration lawyers and court documents called attempts to block the program a last-minute maneuver. And we're exclusively reporting that the White House is preparing an executive order to cut thousands of workers in the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services. That's according to people familiar with the matter. Under the order, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other health agencies would have to cut a certain percentage of employees. The order could come as soon as next week, the people said. The White House denied that there is an executive order related to HHS coming. And finally, when you're looking to use an AI assistant, choosing the right one for you isn't just about picking the smartest model. It also comes down to the tools and features that help you get things done. WSJ's senior personal technology columnist, Joanna Stern, told our tech news briefing podcast what to look for when you're choosing between OpenAI's chat GPT, Anthropix Cloud,

or the new kid on the block, DeepSeq. You want to think about, am I getting the best model? And of course, that is the race that is happening in the industry. And lots of them right now are talking about reasoning models. This is the idea that the model takes a little bit more time to think about its answer. And in the case of DeepSeq, it even gives you kind of a play-by-play of how the model is thinking. It's kind of a self-aware, quirky bot that's like,

hmm, maybe I should answer with this, maybe I should answer with that, and you see that. But actually, OpenAI has had a reasoning model and it doesn't do that, but it just says thinking. And that's where I think these all are really going to become more about features, because you're only gonna require so much of that smarts if you're just a basic worker.

We're not all trying to find the cure to cancer or solve the world's biggest issues at work. We're all trying to just kind of get some of our basic stuff done, whether that be writing or research or creating spreadsheets, managing email. And so that's where I think the features now come into play in a big way.

And you want to look at what those features are. To hear more from Joanna, check out tomorrow's Tech News Briefing podcast. And that's what's news for this Thursday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Anthony Bansi, who is supervising producer Michael Kosmitis. Additional sound today, courtesy of Reuters. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal.

We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. [♪upbeat music playing on the radio and radio