WSJ What’s News - Trump Claims Progress in India Trade Talks

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

A.M. Edition for May 15. President Trump claims India has offered to charge no tariffs on U.S. goods as trade talks between the European Union and Washington also speed up. WSJ reporter Joe Wallace says those signs of progress in negotiations come as transpacific trade begins to roar back to life. Plus, the Supreme Court prepares to hold a hearing on Trump’s bid to abolish birthright citizenship. And hopes for Ukraine-Russia peace talks crumble as Vladimir Putin turns down a face-to-face meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer, so download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy zero dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver.

Hopes for a Ukraine-Russia peace talks crumble as Vladimir Putin turns down a face-to-face meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky. Plus, the Supreme Court prepares to hear its first oral arguments over President Trump's second term agenda and Trans-Pacific trade roars back to life. After the onset of the trade war, trade between the U.S. and China started in some ways to grind to a halt. But the thaw in recent days has pretty swiftly fed through into a resumption in activity. It's Thursday, May 15th. 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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is unlikely to get the face-to-face meeting in Turkey with Vladimir Putin that he'd been calling for this week, with the Russian president instead sending a junior team of officials to Istanbul, further diminishing prospects for direct negotiations, let alone an agreement to end the war. James Marson is the journal's Ukraine bureau chief. James, what can we read into this move by Putin? We had played a clip of President Zelensky earlier in the week in which he seemed to be pressing Putin into attending, basically saying that's what President Trump wanted to see happen and yet evidently Putin didn't feel pressure here.

Well Putin had actually proposed these talks himself. Both sides are trying to demonstrate, I think, to the Trump administration that they are the ones that are trying to make peace. And so what happened is Zelensky called Putin's bluff. He not only said, absolutely happy to do talks, but I want to do talks only with President Putin. And we want to discuss the ceasefire that Ukraine has already agreed to.

This is a ceasefire proposed in March by President Trump. 30-day ceasefire, unconditional ceasefire. Russia has sort of kicked the can down the road. And then late last night, we found out that the Russian delegation that was going to go was going to be led by a former culture minister and an aide to Putin called Vladimir Medinsky, somebody who in the early days of the war

had been dispatched to negotiate Ukraine's surrender when, if you remember back in early 2022, there were Russian tanks just outside Kiev. Those negotiations drew up a draft that really weakened Ukraine. And the idea was to essentially end Ukraine's existence as a sovereign state that's able to defend itself. So what we're seeing here is that President Putin sees these talks in Turkey today as a continuation of those talks. He wants to see what is essentially a Ukrainian capitulation. That is the only path to peace that he sees.

Those don't seem like officials Zelensky is going to be very keen to meet with, given the history that you've just described there. Does he risk being seen as too eager to talk, being the one flying out in advance before knowing who he's even going to be meeting with? Well, Zelensky has been very clear. Zelensky is not going to meet with anybody other than President Putin. So today we'll see President Zelensky meet with Turkish President Erdogan in Ankara,

Turkey's capital. And then after that, there is a possibility that negotiators from the Ukrainian side of a similar level to the Russian delegation will meet, but there's no guarantee of that. I mean, not to preempt what happens today, but it doesn't sound like things are really heading in a very productive direction here. And maybe we could just write this off as another unsuccessful attempt to end the war. And yet the X factor here, right, is that it's the US that's threatening to walk away if there's not any progress

Would you say we are now a step closer to seeing really whether Washington is gonna follow through with that? We certainly are and I think there's been growing frustration on the side of the Trump administration That there isn't progress in terms of reaching a peace deal which he's made the foreign policy priority of his administration We're not seeing that. They've repeatedly warned that they will walk away from these peace talks. But I think the key question here is, what does that mean walk away? Because there are two different ways they could play this. President Trump has threatened to impose sanctions on Russia that would severely curtail their

ability to export oil and therefore do damage to their economy? Or does walking away mean walking away from the war entirely, leaving Ukraine without the backing of its main backer, the US, in terms of military support, in terms of financial support, and therefore leaving Ukraine with only the backing of its European allies to face off against the Russians with all the consequences that come from that. So that's the big question about the decision that Trump is going to soon face. James Marsent leads the Wall Street Journal's Ukraine coverage.

James, thank you as always. Pleasure. In trade news, it appears that President Trump is turning his attention to another major emerging economy, India. Speaking in Qatar, Trump called India one of the highest tariff nations in the world but also claimed that the Indian government had offered the U.S. a deal where they're willing to charge no tariffs. At the same time, trade talks between the US and European Union are speeding up.

Economics editor Paul Hannan says that trade officials from across the block are meeting this morning. They're on day 37 of this 90-day pause. And from the EU's perspective, the kind of deal that the UK and China settle for is not something that they would be happy with. In both cases, tariffs have been left significantly higher than they were before Trump came in. And the EU seems sort of determined to get a sort of rollback. So eliminating all tariffs on goods moving between these two huge economies.

And some EU officials are even saying that, you know, if the final US offer was a 10% tariff, which is where we are now, that they you know, if the final US offer was a 10% tariff, which is where we are now, that they would have to retaliate. Well, those trade talks come after a thaw in US-China relations earlier in the week. That's proving to be a welcome relief for American companies, which journal reporter Joe Wallace told us are resuming orders from Asia. One bellwether company that a lot of investors follow when trying to figure out what's going on in world trade is Hapak Lloyd, a huge shipping company.

And the CEO said yesterday that container ship bookings from China to the U.S. have shot up more than 50% this week. He also expects that to be sustained. He thinks there'll be a surge in volumes over the next two to three months as importers try to get ahead of the potential end of the deal after 90 days. And just another sign that normal business is resuming to some extent. Hapak Lloyd itself is reversing its decision to use smaller ships on some trans-Pacific routes. It had been doing that to avoid cancelling sailings outright, but now larger ships, the big, big container ships, will be returning in the next week

or soon after. And we are exclusively reporting that Dick's Sporting Goods is nearing a deal to buy Footlocker for roughly $2.3 billion, which could be finalised as soon as today, barring any last-minute snags. People familiar with the matter say the sides have discussed a deal at $24 per share, which would be a nearly 90% premium to Footlocker's share price at the time of offer. Footlocker's stock surged almost 70% in off-hours trading following the journal report. Coming up, the Justice Department is investigating United Health Group for possible criminal Medicare fraud.

And we've got the unlikely story of how a cheap historical replica purchased by Harvard turned out to be anything but. That and more after the break. From early morning workouts that need a boost to late night drives that need vibes, a good playlist can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC optimum points everywhere you shop. With the best playlists, you never miss a good song.

With this card, you never miss out on getting the most points on everyday purchases. The PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard. The card for living unlimited. Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. We are exclusively reporting that the Justice Department is investigating Insurer United Health Group for possible criminal fraud, with people familiar with the probe saying it's focused on the company's Medicare Advantage business practices. The company said in a statement it hadn't been notified of the criminal investigation by the DOJ, adding that it stands by the integrity of its Medicare Advantage program.

A DOJ spokesman declined to comment. The criminal investigation comes as the Trump administration and Congress look to cut federal health spending, a key source of UnitedHealth's success, and as the company contends with a deficit of trust among shareholders, regulators, and customers. President Trump's bid to abolish birthright citizenship heads to the Supreme Court today, where justices will weigh whether to set aside three federal court orders blocking implementation of his decree. Trump on Inauguration Day declared that the provision of the Fourteenth Amendment conferring

citizenship to children born on American soil applies only to those with at least one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident, a reinterpretation that lower courts found unconstitutional. According to the Migration Policy Institute, that shift would deny citizenship to around a quarter million babies born in the U.S. each year to unauthorized immigrants or temporary visa holders. And Republican state lawmakers in Missouri are putting a referendum banning most abortions on the ballot just six months after voters backed a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights.

The measure could go before voters during next year's midterm elections. And finally, British researchers have discovered that a copy of the Magna Carta held for years at Harvard Law School is in fact an original. Experts were able to verify the document after a professor noticed key details online confirming it as one of the 25 known Magna Cartas, with the version in question potentially dating back to 1300. WSJ reporter Joseph Pizzani explains why the discovery is so remarkable. Harvard Law School bought it about 80 years ago for like $27 and it was always sold to them as a copy.

But now it's probably very valuable. The last time one was sold in auction, it went for $21.5 million. The researchers say that it's such a big deal to find a real one because the language in the Magna Carta inspired constitutions around the world, including the U.S. A seminal document in legal history, the Magna Carta asserts that the king is subject to the law and recognizes limits in his power. And that's it for What's News for this Thursday morning.

Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach and Kate Bullivant. Our supervising producer is Sondra Kilhoff and I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.