China’s Carmakers Bet Big on (Electric) SUVs

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Luke Vargas (0:33)

After an attack outside the White House Correspondence Association dinner, we'll look at how simple security flaws expose the president to another gunman. Plus, budget airlines team up to appeal for government assistance, and Chinese carmakers copied Detroit's big SUV playbook with an EV twist.

Stephen Wilmot (0:52)

The manufacturers have been looking for ways to, in this intensely competitive market, to stand out and to actually make higher profit, and larger vehicles tend to be more profitable. That's one of the reasons why Detroit focuses on these larger vehicles.

Luke Vargas (1:06)

It's Monday, April 27th. 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.

The suspected gunman behind Saturday's shooting at the White House Correspondence dinner, which left a law enforcement officer wounded, is set to appear in court today. 31-year-old tutor Cole Allen had a shotgun, a handgun, and knives on him when he ran at a Secret Service checkpoint inside the Washington Hilton Hotel, and according to a document that authorities have tied to him, was targeting President Trump and administration officials. Allen had also outlined security breaches that he said made getting firearms into the hotel, where he checked in the prior night, easier than he expected. Our Washington Coverage Chief, Damian Paletta, who attended the Correspondents' Dinner, said those security vulnerabilities at the same hotel where then President Ronald Reagan was shot 45 years ago, weren't hard to spot.

Damian Paletta (2:02)

Everyone's kind of funneled through these smaller choke points into magnometers and security. So, you know, it's actually not that hard to get into the Hilton, to get quite close to the ballroom without having gone through security. And it's kind of a wild scene because, you know, you might be right next to a cabinet member. As we got through, I could see the Treasury Secretary talking to the Transportation Secretary and others.

Obviously, the event could have been a terrible, terrible tragedy, given how many people were there and how tightly packed that room was and how there was really no way to get out in the event of a mass shooting. The president has also said that this reinforces his call for why he needs a ballroom at the White House that can be controlled much better in terms of the security. There's been a lot of questions about the lax outside perimeter of the Washington Hilton, especially it felt like there was a way to figuratively climb in the side window by checking in as a guest at the hotel the day before, allowing you to bring in whatever you might want to before the security stuff is in place. And there's a lot of questions again about political violence and how to make the country safer and how to make situations like this safe, if they even ever can be safe, and if not, or events like this, possible relics of the past.

Luke Vargas (3:27)

President Trump says that future peace talks with Iran can be held over the phone after he declined to send negotiators to Pakistan over the weekend. Our Benoit Foucault left Islamabad this morning and says the move away from in-person diplomacy comes as the sides remain far apart on key issues, including maritime trade and Iran's nuclear program.

SPEAKER_5 (3:47)

There is no prospect of immediate agreement. They're on the same page on almost. There is no agreement on nuclear file. But most crucially, the US continues to blockade Iranian ports and Iran continues to blockade the threat of over. So in terms of just the conflict itself, it's not resolved, not to mention still the an attack by Israel in Lebanon. But one crucial point the Iranians sort of keep on highlighting is that Trump continues to do severe threats on Iran, of existential threats or threats to bomb infrastructure.

And that makes it very difficult for the Iranian to sell any conversation at home when it looks like they would be talking under the rest, under threats, under almost death threats.

Luke Vargas (4:28)

Oil futures and US gasoline prices are once again moving higher today amid rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz after Iran's Revolutionary Guard boarded a pair of container ships yesterday.