WSJ What’s News - Trump Says It's Okay to Put Pensions In Crypto

Episode Date: August 8, 2025

A.M. Edition for Aug 8. Wall Street is finally getting what it’s long hoped for - the ability to invest pension funds in assets like real-estate, crypto and private equity. But as WSJ deputy editor Quentin Webb explains, that doesn’t come without its risks. Plus, Israel’s cabinet approves Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial plan to take over Gaza City. And, why using old-school ways to land a job might be more effective than using AI to spray your resume all over the net. Azhar Sukri hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Israel's security cabinet approves Prime Minister Netanyahu's controversial plan to take over Gaza City. Plus, President Trump orders illegal immigrants to be excluded from the next US census. And a shake-up to 401k investing would allow Americans to put their pensions in private assets such as crypto. One obvious concern is that these assets by definition are less liquid than public markets. so it can be hard to sell them in a timely fashion. Of course, crypto is a new and rather untested boom and bust industry. It's Friday, August the 8th. I'm Azhar Sukri for the Wall Street Journal.

Here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. In a potentially risky and controversial move, Israel's security cabinet has approved a plan for the military to take control of Gaza City. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that Israel doesn't plan to hold Gaza permanently, but will enact a five-step plan to end the war,

as Middle East correspondent Feliz Solomon explains. To start with, Israel's military will take control of Gaza City, which is a very densely populated area. And to this point in the war, the military has so far avoided ground operations in these densely populated areas over fears that it could endanger hostages who are held there. Ultimately, this plan will entail Israel taking control of the entire Gaza Strip.

This idea has been floated for a while now, and it has already proven controversial. It's had some pushback from within the military itself. The families of hostages, as well as large swathes of the Israeli public, reject the plan. In Gaza, Hamas has warned against an Israeli takeover of the enclave, calling on the international community to condemn it. It comes amid widespread pressure on Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Feliz says the Israeli military plans to distribute aid to civilians outside of combat zones, though questions remain.

It's unclear how that's actually going to be achieved because so far Israel has had a lot of difficulty getting this done. There is a worsening humanitarian crisis on the ground in Gaza right now. Hunger is widespread and malnuch. nutrition is rising. Israel has recently taken some steps to further facilitate humanitarian aid, but to date, humanitarian agencies say that it simply is not enough. And we will, of course, be following this developing story throughout the day on WSJ.com. Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky, has defended his country's right to take part in possible peace talks between Russia and the U.S. in the coming days.

obviously knows for sure that the key decisions in Russia are made by one person, and that this person is afraid of sanctions from the United States of America, and that it is right for Ukraine to be a participant in the negotiations. Russia's war is against Ukraine, against our independence as the embodiment of the independence of every European nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday he hoped to meet with President Trump, possibly in the United Arab Emirates. A White House official later cast doubt on the summit taking place, unless the Russian leader also agreed to a meeting with Zelensky. President Trump has ordered the next US census to exclude illegal immigrants. The census is used in a formula to reallocate house seats to reflect population shifts among states, a process done once in a

decade. State legislatures would receive detailed census data by spring 2013 to redraw congressional and legislative districts. Until now, immigrants living in the U.S. illegally are included in the census. According to the Pew Research Center, more of those immigrants live in democratic-leaning states. The next census is scheduled for 2030. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is planning to house immigrant detainees in the notorious Louisiana state. Penitentiary at Angola, the largest maximum security facility in the US, and once known as the bloodiest prison in the country. Supporters say using the prison could save the cost of building a new facility like Florida's new Alligator Alcatraz. However, critics say the arrangement

would put people facing allegations of civil violations near those convicted of violent crimes. And following a busy day of executive orders, President Trump has also also announced plans to make it easier for everyday Americans to invest their retirement savings. Controversially, it means investing in assets that lie outside of public markets, such as private equity, cryptocurrency and private real estate. And as Deputy Finance editor Quentin Webb explains, that doesn't come without its risks. So one obvious concern is that these assets by definition are less liquid than public markets. So it can be hard to sell them in a timely fashion.

the fees are much higher than those associated with public market investments. And of course, crypto is a new and rather untested boom and bust industry. And we know that some in the private equity industry weren't keen on crypto being included in the 401k executive order as well, for example. And remember as well that many institutional investors are maxed out on private equity. You know, they're not interested in putting more money in at the moment. So for some people, some skeptics would say, okay, well, it's a bit worrying that they're kind of smart money. the big investors aren't looking to put more into private equity, and so now the industry is turning to retail investors,

to small and less sophisticated investors to tap them instead. Coming up, AI might be ruining your chances of finding a job, but there are ways to circumvent the technology. Find out how, after the break. Why just survive back to school when you can thrive by creating a space that does it all for you, no matter the size. Whether you're taking over your parents' basement or moving to campus, IKEA has hundreds of design ideas and affordable options to complement any budget.

After all, you're in your small space era. It's time to own it. Shop now at IKEA.ca. The Trump administration is looking to cast doubt on decades of scientific findings about, climate change. As we reported last week, it's asked a group of five climate-sceptic researchers to write a report challenging accepted wisdom about global warming. And the administration is using the findings to make a case that environmental regulations should be tossed out. Journal Climate reporter Eric Neela has been looking into what this move means in the bigger picture. And he joins me now. Eric explained to us exactly what the environmental protection agency is trying to achieve here. So what's happening here is the current leaders of the Environmental

Protection Agency are really looking to overturn a key legal tool that's been used since 2009 to justify climate regulations on a host of industries from vehicles, from power plants, and from the oil and gas industry, all of which emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say are warming the planet. And how significant is the divergence from the more established thinking about climate change? So in previous years, what's occurred is that the U.S. government has adopted almost a scientific method at assessing what the effects of climate change are and the causes of it. The national climate assessment, there have been five of them since 2000.

Congress has mandated this report. this report has been put together by 14 federal agencies. It's taken several years and several layers of review to put together, and it basically gives sort of an overview of the science and what scientists know now, what we know now about climate change. What this administration has done is really an end around the national climate assessment and ask some skeptics of climate change science. Some of them believe that the future warming is being exaggerated. Some of them have written that the scientific climate models are inaccurate and not working. Some of the authors of this report have said that the current climate warming is within the natural variability that we see, and there may be other causes for climate warming, whether it's a brighter sun or volcanoes or other natural sources of carbon dioxide, so forth. So what we've seen here is an end run around sort of the established climate science, but also the government process for using that science to devise regulations on a host of industries. And they're also questioning the process by which these findings are implemented.

So what the report has done is taken bits of uncertainty from whether it's climate models or other reports to sort of sow doubt into the established climate science. the globe and in the United States. So again, selectively choosing facts to fit the argument, which is a certainly legal way to do it, but the scientists that I've talked to saying that they're missing the big picture and they're missing really what's happening on planet Earth. So, Eric, if the recommendations of the report are implemented, how would that affect how polluting industries are regulated? Right. So this report basically backs up the endangerment finding, which is a legal tool, if that endangerment finding is reversed as the EPA would like, what they can then do is basically eliminate the climate regulations on industries. So, for example,

cars would still be regulated for polluting chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and some of these other things that contribute to smog, but not for CO2, which contributes to climate warming. You also would see the technologies for capturing carbon from power plants and so forth and other industrial facilities. Those would be eliminated. You would see tightening up of things like methane from refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline or natural gas refineries, for example, where right now the rules are really to tighten the leaks and the valves and the pipelines. those regulations would be eliminated. So it would really have quite a big impact on industries across the board in the United States.

Journal Climate Reporter Eric Neeler, thank you so much. You're welcome. And finally, clicking Apply for an online job posting these days can feel a little bit like tossing your resume into a digital abyss, with companies using artificial intelligence to search. sift through CVs and even interview candidates. Many job hunters feel they are being wrongly ruled out by bots. But at the same time, with applicants using AI tools to overly polish their CVs and apply en masse, journal columnist Callum Bortchers says some companies are rethinking online job applications seeking quality over quantity. So that can mean posting an open role on

some lesser-known job board instead of LinkedIn or indeed. Some companies are going back to very thorough personal references. I even talked to one CEO who made his online application portal a decoy. You actually have to read the job description to find a link to the real application. Only about 10% of people actually follow these directions, which is exactly what the company wants. And Callum says if you're looking for a new role, you might want to start using some old school strategies. Go to the convenience store, pick up a hard copy newspaper, and flip to the classified page. Yes, this is. is still a thing. Anita Jenkey, executive director of the Career Transition Center in Chicago,

calls classified ads a gold mine because they often include the name and email address of a recruiter or hiring manager. I tried this recently, and sure enough, I found a bunch of six-figure jobs listed with real human contacts. Whether you use a classified ad or something else, a personal touch really is the differentiator. I mean, you can use AI to spray your resume all over the internet and pray for an offer. But recruiters consistently tell me that you're more likely to have luck with a smaller number of applications that you actually write yourself. Good luck with your job hunt. And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning. Today's show was produced by Kate Bullivant and Daniel Bark. Our supervising producer is Sandra Kilhoff. I'm Azhar Sukhri

for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back tonight with a new show. Until then, have a great weekend and thanks for listening. Thank you.