President Donald Trump’s lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin results in a key step toward peace with Ukraine, while Israel resumes its war with Hamas. The Trump administration releases thousands of files on JFK’s assassination. And a stock market dip raises questions about the future of the American economy.
It’s Wednesday, March 19, and this is news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
A Tale of Two Ceasefires
(Photo by NTCo via Getty Images
Topline: In a major diplomatic breakthrough, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to phase one of a ceasefire in Ukraine following a long phone call with President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, hostilities between Israel and Hamas resumed in Gaza after the end of a two-month truce.
The Best of Times: President Trump campaigned on a promise to bring the war in Ukraine to an end upon taking office, and we’ve now seen by far the most significant steps toward peace since the conflict began. The president and Putin talked for at least 90 minutes; by the end, they agreed to a limited ceasefire to end strikes on Ukrainian energy and infrastructure facilities for the next thirty days. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “civilian infrastructure” was struck by Russian drones after the Trump-Putin phone call. Moscow has used waves of drones and missiles to target Ukrainian energy plants and refineries, knocking out power across the country and cutting electricity production in half. Ukraine has had similar success striking Russian oil refineries, threatening one of the country’s top industries.
The Trump administration insists that yesterday’s agreement was phase one of a broader “movement to peace,” which will begin immediately with further formal negotiations taking place in the Middle East. Going forward, the two sides will work on a broader maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, followed by a full ceasefire across both countries, as the penultimate step to a “permanent peace.” In the meantime, the Kremlin announced they would conduct a prisoner swap with the Ukrainians later today, with 175 prisoners being released from each side.
(Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Worst of Times: On Tuesday, Israel launched a series of airstrikes in Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians. Hamas claims the victims were mostly civilians, including children. Israel says they targeted terrorists. After the strikes, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that it was “only the beginning” and that his country would continue pushing forward until Hamas has been destroyed and all of the hostages are brought home.
The two sides had been abiding by a ceasefire since January, which included promises from Hamas to free all of the remaining hostages in their possession. But in the last two months, the terror group released just 33 hostages — eight of whom were dead — while Israel released nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners, including a number of convicted terrorists. Netanyahu says Hamas failed to abide by the terms of the ceasefire and Israeli intelligence had proof they were regrouping and preparing new attacks on his nation.
“Hamas was actively recruiting, actively rearming, and planning its next attacks across the border,” Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, told Morning Wire. “Israel concluded that the whole situation was untenable, and while the last thing they wanted to do was to endanger the lives of these hostages further, because they’re all in desperate shape, there was no choice but to ratchet up a military pressure on Hamas in the hope that it’ll actually come to the table and strike a deal.”
JFK Files Released
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2017 — Visitors line under a poster of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy to enter the Newseum in Washington D.C., the United States, on Oct. 26, 2017. The U.S. National Archives is set to release on Thursday the previously classified files related to former President John F. Kennedy’s assassination more than half a century ago. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu via Getty Images)
Topline: The Trump administration released tens of thousands of pages of documents on Tuesday related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, President Trump pledged to release all classified documents on the Kennedy assassination, and late on Tuesday afternoon, the documents began to appear on the National Archives website. According to ABC News, DOJ attorneys were up all night sifting through documents, examining sensitive information, and making decisions on potential redactions. Trump said on Monday that about 80,000 pages of yet-to-be-released documents on the JFK assassination would be made public.
“We’ve got a tremendous amount of paper,” President Trump said in a statement on Monday. “You’ve got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”
No bombshells have turned up in the files yet – again, 80,000 pages is a lot to get through – there are handwritten notes, old typewritten reports, and some blurry pages. Daily Wire reporters have found some entertaining nuggets. One document appears to show that John F. Kennedy Jr., before he died in 1999, called then-Sen. Joe Biden a “traitor.” Another showed that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was tracking a set of safes – and knew their combinations – that were purchased for a Soviet embassy in Cuba. Another bit told of how Gary Underhill, a former U.S. Army captain in World War II, suspected a “small clique” in the CIA was behind JFK’s assassination. The document said he was afraid, and that six months later, he was found shot and pronounced dead by suicide.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard wrote in a post after the files were released, quote, “President Trump is ushering in a new era of maximum transparency… Promises made, promises kept.”
Market Volatility
Financial asset investment analysis with volume and candle stick chart
Topline: After a tumultuous month for stocks, and new Trump tariffs, the Fed will meet today to discuss rate changes.
Stock prices have declined significantly over the past month, a downturn many analysts attribute to the Trump administration’s aggressive tariff policies. As of market close on Tuesday:
- The DOW Jones Industrial Average had declined by 6.68% over the last month
- The Nasdaq was down 12.66%
- The S&P 500 was down 8.40%
Some observers, like The Daily Wire’s own Ben Shapiro, have cautioned that tariffs create instability and could cause an economic downturn, which could be politically disastrous for the Trump administration. Others, including members of the Trump administration, are more bullish on the long-term benefits of tariffs and believe that the negative effects on the American economy have been exaggerated in the press.
“The economy in the first quarter is doing better than the media is reporting,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business. “We are seeing some good underlying data from credit card companies, from banks … the underlying economy is healthy.”
“When you look at what’s going on with tariffs, obviously, it’s creating a lot of uncertainty, which is causing a lot of fantastic stocks to pull back or sell off,” Mark Tepper, CEO of Strategic Wealth Partners, told Morning Wire. “That’s presenting good buying opportunities.”
