WSJ What’s News - Russia Redeploys Troops After Ukraine’s Surprise Offensive

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

A.M. Edition for Aug. 14. The WSJ’s Isabel Coles, reporting from near Ukraine’s frontline, says Kyiv’s calculation to push further into Russia’s Kursk region might be paying off, as Moscow begins to divert forces fighting in Ukraine. Plus, activist Elliott Investment Management says it plans to launch a proxy fight at Southwest Airlines. And WSJ Africa bureau chief Gabriele Steinhauser details the human cost of a largely forgotten war in Sudan. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? You can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered. Sunshine? No. Some wine? Yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol in select markets. See app for details. Russia pulls troops back from Ukraine after Kiev's surprise cross-border push.

back from Ukraine after Kiev's surprise cross-border push. Plus inflation updates from both sides of the pond and a look inside Sudan's forgotten war. The human suffering is enormous. And now we are reaching another breaking point with earlier this month the declaration of the world's first famine since 2017 in a displacement camp in Dafur. It's Wednesday, August 14th. I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal and here is the AM edition of What's News,

the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. More than a week after Ukraine launched a daring offensive into Russian territory, we are beginning to see now how both Kiev and Moscow are adjusting their strategies. Journal reporter Isabel Coles is near Ukraine's front line and sent us this report on how the fight in Russia's Kursk region is unfolding. It does appear that Ukraine is committed to pushing forward in this pocket it's taken control of. In Kursk, we were on the main road from the neighboring Sumy region leading to Russia

yesterday and there were tanks, armored vehicles and other vehicles with logs, which are typically used for fortifications, all heading towards the border. So these are kind of indications that Ukraine is sending in more troops to hold on to the territory that it's got. Part of Ukraine's calculation appears to be to divert resources from other parts of the front line, where Russia is applying significant pressure on Ukrainian forces. And my colleague Michael Gordon was told by U.S. officials that they have noticed some movement of Russian troops from other parts of the battlefield to the Kursk region, which suggests that at least to some degree this may be working. Now to Japan, where Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says he won't seek re-election as the head

of his party, clearing the way for the country to get a new leader this fall. Kishida had seen his popularity hit by a political fund scandal and said his decision to step down was a way of taking responsibility for the issue. In his three years in office, Kishida bolstered relations with the U.S. and South Korea and oversaw a near doubling of Japan's military spending to counter the growing threat from China, policies that none of the leading candidates to succeed him are likely to drastically change.

And back in the U.S., Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, a member of the progressive house group known as the Squad, held onto her seat in a Democratic primary yesterday, despite facing pushback from her opponent over her criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza. Omar avoided the fate of two fellow Squad members, Missouri's Cory Bush and New York's Jamal Bowman, both of whom lost their primaries amid multi-million dollar efforts from pro-Israel groups to unseat them. Activist Elliott Investment Management is preparing to start a proxy fight at Southwest Airlines.

It said yesterday that it plans to nominate ten director candidates to Southwest's fifteen-member board, including former Virgin America CEO David Cush and former Air Canada CEO Robert Milton. According to our reporting, Elliott plans to call a special meeting where shareholders would vote on its proposed picks. The activist investor, which owns roughly 8% of Southwest, revealed its stake in the airline earlier this summer and has been calling for leadership changes. Several other companies where Elliott has built stakes

have recently moved to replace their CEOs, including Starbucks, just yesterday. We are getting fresh inflation readings on both sides of the Atlantic this morning, and on days like this we turn to friend of the pod, Dow Jones NewsWires economics editor Paul Hannan to tell us what is worth paying attention to. Paul, the UK numbers are in at this point while the US CPI will follow at 8.30am Eastern time. What do we know at this point and what are we expecting? Paul Hannan Well, what we know from the UK side is that headline inflation picked up in July a little bit above the Bank of England's target,

but nothing terribly worrying and that was expected. From the U.S. later today, what economists expect to see is another kind of small rise in prices on the month, about 0.2%, but that would leave the annual rate unchanged at 3%. Paul, it doesn't sound like on either of these fronts we're expecting the Bank of England or the Fed to be knocked off their respective rate-cutting courses, are we? No, I mean, there's, you know, there is a lot of noise in this process of disinflation. It's slow and it's likely to take a while, but figures we saw from the UK this morning will not change the Bank of England's expectations that it's on track to reach its target and

stay there sometime towards the end of next year. And it doesn't mean they're going to cut rates in September necessarily, but investors its target and stay there sometime towards the end of next year. It doesn't mean they're going to cut rates in September necessarily, but investors expect to see another rate cut later in the year. Similarly in the US, reading roughly in line with where we are now on the annual rate of inflation is expected to prompt the Federal Reserve to lower its borrowing costs. And the reason for that is that, you know, it does take time for softness in the jobs market to feed through to the rest of the economy, inflation in particular. So if you're seeing that softening now, you're expecting the disinflation process to continue

in the months ahead, and you're supposed to be setting interest rates looking to the future, not so much to the past. And in other news moving markets, we are reporting that candy and food giant Mars is expected to announce a nearly $30 billion deal to buy Kelenova later today. Shares in Kelenova, whose brands include Pop Tarts, Pringles and Cheez-It, have jumped in pre-market trading. Coming up, Sudan is facing the world's biggest humanitarian crisis,

as a 16-month war there rages on largely out of view of the global media. Our colleague just back from the country will bring us the latest after the break. TD and your small business go together like... TD Small Business Account Managers have in-depth business banking expertise so they can give you the advice and resources you need to make your day-to-day easier. So if you're ready to meet your Small Business Match, we're ready for you. Visit td.com slash Small Business Match to book an appointment with one of our advisors. Earlier this summer, Journal Senior Video Correspondent Ben Solomon and

Africa Bureau Chief Gabrielle Steinhauser traveled to Sudan to witness firsthand the suffering caused by a war largely overlooked by the international media that's ripping apart Africa's third largest country. UNICEF's chief of nutrition in Sudan spoke to Ben at the Port Sudan Pediatric Hospital. This is the last line of defense before children die. We have about 730,000 severely-managed children. And we are quite concerned that the situation is really getting worse and worse as we go. What is needed now and what we are able to provide is not really matching. Today, U.S.-backed peace talks to try and end the 16-month civil war in Sudan are set to kick off in Switzerland, but with the Sudanese military not participating, expectations are low of ending a

conflict that by some estimates has claimed up to 150,000 lives and sparked a man-made famine threatening the lives of many more. And Gabrielle joins me now. Gabrielle, tell us about the impetus for going to Sudan. This is a conflict that, while it ranks among the world's deadliest, has received precious little attention. Gabrielle Dyer This conflict definitely has not gotten the same attention as other conflicts in, say, Ukraine or in Gaza. But we have been writing about it a lot. And even with the very limited access that we've had, we've been talking to people on the ground and written, you know, very heartbreaking stories that really tell what's happening to Sudanese people

with the hunger, with the fighting, with the atrocities that have been going on. And while, yes, the media probably hasn't given it enough attention, I also feel that people are tired of reading about war and suffering. And it's posed an enormous challenge for us as journalists to find ways of getting people to care, frankly. Nat. Gabriel, we've sort of been talking around this conflict. Remind us, what is at its core? Gabriel. At its core, this is a fight between Sudan's two most powerful men, each commander of a massive force of armed men that are ultimately battling for who comes out on top. But we have seen other countries pile in.

So on the military side, they have bought drones from Iran, they have received support from Egypt. On the side of the RSF, we have the UAE, we have reported extensively on their supply of weapons and other materials. I should add that the UAE has denied providing weapons to the RSF. They also in the early days of the conflict, received some support from the Russian Wagner group. So there's definitely an international dimension that has allowed these two sides to keep fighting. Nat. And as they do, as you report, civilians are getting caught up in the midst of all of this.

Tell us about the human situation amid the fighting. Anna. The human suffering is enormous and now we are reaching another breaking point with earlier this month the declaration of the world's first famine since 2017 in a displacement camp in Darfur and children, pregnant women, elderly people are already dying every single day. elderly people are already dying every single day. And what the US government and the UN are saying is that this famine is entirely manmade. And yes, it's brought on by the conflict which has displaced more than 10 million Sudanese. But it is made worse by the two parties not respecting international law, which requires warring parties to allow in humanitarian aid.

And what we're seeing is that both sides are restricting the aid coming in. There seems to be a deliberate effort to use hunger as a weapon of war. And we could see hundreds of thousands of deaths in the next few months. Nat. Given those dynamics, Gabrielle, and especially that one of the parties won't even be at these peace talks that are kicking off today, how should we be looking at this diplomatic process? Gabriella Kahn I think there's definitely appreciation for the U.S. making the effort. The U.S. is hoping that by convening some of the other regional

players, there can still be some progress. And maybe one can lean on countries like Egypt and the UAE, so at least make it harder for the two sides in the war to continue fighting. Nat. Gabriel Steinhauser is The Wall Street Journal's Africa Bureau Chief. Gabriel, thank you and thank you so much to your colleagues as well for bringing us this story. Gabriel Steinhauser. Thanks so much. Nat. And that's it for What's News for Wednesday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Bulevent and Daniel Bach with supervising producer

Christina Rocca. And I'm Luke Fargus for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.