Four U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq Plane Crash

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Searching for a home? The Real Commute Tool from realtor.com lets you find homes right where you need to be. Find a home 10 minutes from work, 15 from school, and 20 from grandma's. With over half a million new listings every month, you're just minutes from finding your perfect home on realtor.com. Trust the number one site, Real Estate Professionals Trust. Search now on realtor.com. Based on average new for sale and rental listings, July 2024 through June 2025 Number one trusted based on August 2025 proprietary survey among Real Estate Professionals.

Luke Vargas (0:33)

Iran and the US intensify their war rhetoric yet again. Plus, TikTok's parent company gets access to NVIDIA's top AI chips as it pushes a global expansion.

John Emond (0:44)

They've struggled to acquire the amount of compute they need in order to push at the frontiers of AI. And NVIDIA's Blackwells are top chips and they're after them.

Luke Vargas (0:54)

And US employers stare down the biggest annual jump in health insurance costs in a decade and a half. We'll look at how they plan to cope. It's Friday, March 13th. 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 US is easing sanctions on Russian oil. In a move that's designed to boost supply and ease price pressures, countries will be allowed to purchase Russian oil that's already at sea until April 11th. I asked journal correspondent Thomas Grove what to make of the policy shift.

Thomas Grove (1:33)

Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said in a post on X that the sanctions exemption is an early tailored short-term measure. And he says that it shouldn't provide a lot of economic benefit to Russia in the long term. This certainly shows us that the priority in Washington is to make sure that there's enough oil on the market to keep prices low. And that's more important, I think, to Washington right now than preventing Russia from gaining additional revenues that are feeding its war right now in Ukraine. But with that in mind, of course, there is a whole universe of sanctions on Russia and Russian oil. And that goes from the banks to the companies involved to the people as well. And those aren't being lifted. But of course, if the war drags on, prices continue to rise, we have to look at those as well and see if those could be lifted too.

Luke Vargas (2:16)

Four US service members have been confirmed dead after a US. Air Force refueling plane crashed in Iraq yesterday. Initial reports suggest that the KC-135 Stratotanker was involved in a mid-air collision with a second plane that landed safely. The fatalities mark the first US. Air Force losses during the war. Meanwhile, as the war approaches the two-week mark, President Trump and Iranian officials are continuing to dial up their rhetoric. Posting on Truth Social, Trump warned that the US has unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition and plenty of time. And speaking of the Iranian regime, Trump added, watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today. For their part, officials in Iran believe that Trump is feeling the heat from global markets and say their leaders aren't interested in surrendering. National Security official Ali Larajani said yesterday that quote, starting a war is easy, but ending it won't happen with a few tweets. We will not let off you until you accept your mistake and pay the price for it. End quote. Well, as the US and Iran appear to be sticking to their war goals, the journals Anat Pellad told us that Israel is for the first time publicly acknowledging that regime change in Iran may be unlikely.

Anat Pellad (3:34)

So President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began this conflict calling on Iranians to take control of their country in speeches on the very first day. But since then, we've seen changing messaging. We've seen that in the US when US officials have increasingly focused on narrow goals of destroying the country's military capabilities. Now we're seeing a shifting tone in Israel. I think that was most clear in a speech that Netanyahu gave yesterday. It was his first press conference where he took questions since the start of the war. When he basically said that he couldn't commit to the idea that Iranians would be able to topple the regime, and what we understand now is that Israeli officials basically think that the conditions are not ripe on the ground yet for regime change. We understand also that people are very scared in Iran. The security forces are present on the streets. There's threats. There's just a lot of fear. So it doesn't seem like this is the moment to go for that.