WSJ What’s News - How Electronic Warfare Spooks Commercial Planes

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

P.M. Edition for Sept. 23. In an exclusive report, The Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Tangel reveals how GPS spoofing attacks cause problems for hundreds of daily flights. And California takes Exxon to court over pollution and plastics recycling claims. Plus, the U.S. is on pace to hit a record high in its homeless population. The Journal’s Jon Kamp on what’s behind the rising numbers. Tracie Hunte hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And hundreds of daily flights around the world are being plagued with GPS spoofing. Pilots might notice some navigation data on their navigation display being off. They might get an alert about GPS problems. They might see a quote-unquote map shift, seeing that their plane supposedly is somewhere where it actually isn't. Plus, the gunman who tried to kill Donald Trump left a note in case his assassination attempt failed. It's Monday, September 23rd. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

California's attorney general filed a lawsuit today against Exxon Mobil, accusing the oil giant of misleading consumers about its ability to recycle plastic and polluting the state. Attorney General Rob Bonta alleges that Exxon violated California's nuisance laws, as well as laws prohibiting state water pollution, false advertising, and unfair competition. Bonta said that Exxon for decades falsely promoted plastic as recyclable, even though only about 8% of its plastic was turned into new plastic. An Exxon spokeswoman said officials in California are casting blame on others for a recycling system that they

have known for decades is not effective, but they have not fixed. Bonta began a probe two years ago into the role of petrochemical companies in plastics pollution, Zipiniang Exxon. The continuing probe is looking into the actions of other fossil fuel companies which haven't been named. Boeing has made a new offer to its striking machinist union in hopes of ending a walkout that is costing the cash-strapped jetmaker hundreds of millions of dollars a week. The proposal comes 11 days after Boeing's biggest union overwhelmingly voted to go on strike after rejecting a deal struck between Boeing and union leaders. It calls for a 30% pay increase over four years, and among other things, it restores annual bonuses and increases company contributions to employee 401k plans. Boeing

said workers have until Friday to accept the deal. The union didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. S&P Global Survey showed that U.S. business activity stayed strong in September but ticked slightly lower. Services remain stronger than manufacturing, which has been weakening. US indexes ticked higher. The S&P 500 added 0.3%. The NASDAQ composite ticked up 0.1%.

And the Dow rose 0.15%. Prosecutors said today that a man who allegedly tried to kill Donald Trump on a Florida golf course had been planning for months to shoot the former president and wrote a note in case the assassination attempt failed. In a handwritten note, gunman Ryan Wesley Ruth said, quote, Dear world, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump and apologized for the failure of his attempt, offering money to whoever could, quote, complete the job. Federal prosecutors included a photo of the note in a new court filing as they urged a judge to detain Ruth while his court case proceeds.

Lebanese authorities said today that Israeli strikes have killed more than 500 people, including dozens of women and children, and wounded more than 1,600. The Israeli military says it attacked Hezbollah's militants and military infrastructure, including cruise missiles, medium and short-range rockets, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Today's attack makes this the deadliest day of conflict there since October. The Pentagon said today that it was sending additional forces to the Middle East, but wouldn't say how many for how long or for what mission. An Israeli military spokesman said the airstrikes would continue in the near term and told residents

to stay away from targeted areas, but did not identify exact locations. According to the Israeli military, Hezbollah has fired some 150 projectiles at northern Israel in the past 24 hours. Coming up, how GPF spoofing attacks used in military conflicts are causing problems for commercial planes. That's after the break.

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location of planes, missiles, or anything that uses the global positioning system. This fake GPS data can confuse navigation and safety systems and tax the attention of pilots. Andrew Tangle is an aviation reporter with the Wall Street Journal. So Andrew, how big of a problem is this? It's growing in frequency and that is concerning more pilots and airlines and aviation safety officials. Spoofing is meant to sort of trick the GPS receivers on primarily drones and guided munitions, but it winds up tricking GPS receivers inside commercial aircraft. So pilots flying through an area that's being spoofed

might not immediately recognize it, but they might notice some navigation data on their navigation display being off and seeing a wider disparity there. They might get an alert about GPS problems. They might see a quote unquote map shift, seeing that their plane supposedly is somewhere where it actually isn't, or it could trick a safety system. It's an alarm, you know, pull up, pull up. There's a mountain you're about to crash into.

But in reality, these pilots are experiencing those false alerts really, really high up far above any mountains. And so they're trying to just figure out how to spot signs of spoofing and how to safely counter them. Yeah, that sounds really scary. Where are these spoofing attacks happening? Primarily in conflict zones, you know, the Ukraine, Russia war around the Black Sea, Gaza, Israel, and in that region. But we're seeing it more and more in other parts of the world, even if they're not in an active conflict. The federal AVH administration said

they don't know of any confirmed spoofing attacks in the US. So far, as we can tell in the people we've talked to, all of the events involving commercial aircraft have just been collateral. They're not targeting commercial jets. Jets, they just happen to have sensitive equipment that gets interfered with. What are airlines and pilots doing about it? They are briefing pilots ahead of flights so that pilots know what to do, they expect

it. They are also working behind the scenes to get the aircraft manufacturers and their suppliers to harden the equipment on board, cockpit sink, and more resilient, but sort of spoofing proof. So they're working on short-term workarounds, longer-term fixes and even longer-term hardware fixes. That was aviation reporter, Andrew Tangel. Thanks, Andrew. Thank you.

The number of homeless people in the U.S. continues to grow, putting the country on pace to hit yet another record high this year. According to preliminary data collected and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, counts from encampments, streets, and shelters are largely higher than they were last year, when roughly 653,000 people were estimated to be homeless. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, collects homeless data every year and expects to issue its report on 2024 in December. My colleague Pierre Bieneme asks Wall Street Journal reporter John Camp, what's behind

this growth in homelessness? Homelessness is a pretty complex issue, and so there's really a whole bunch of factors here. When you speak to advocates for the homeless, they will point to one thing above all others, which is really just the affordability of housing, or rather the lack of affordability. Added to that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were some at least temporary things that helped keep people in their homes. There were moratoriums on evictions that have, of course, expired. There's other factors too, although this is not the majority of homeless people. Certainly mental health issues and the opioid crisis are contributing factors.

And one thing that also stood out as an impact, at least in some cities like Chicago and Denver this year, was the number of migrants who have come to the city. And if they come here and they don't have a home and they end up in city shelters, they'll be included in the counts too. And John, what does homelessness look like in different cities or towns in the US? It looks really different around the country. And that can be based on many different variables, really. Cold weather cities may offer more shelter space and so may have

less visible homelessness outside, for example, in the wintertime. There are some bright spots here. To take one example, Los Angeles, which, you know, has a pretty well-known homelessness challenge, they reported a slight decrease this year. And the Phoenix area saw that as well. Denver also had a decrease in unsheltered homelessness. We don't yet know if unsheltered homelessness declined nationwide or not. But that'll be something to watch for when the HUD report comes out,

to kind of see how that looks nationwide. That was Wall Street Journal reporter, Jon Camp, speaking to my colleague, Pierre Bienemé. Speaking to my colleague, Pierre Bienemay. Americans are having fewer babies and it's become an issue for politicians and policymakers. What questions do you have about America's falling birthrate and what it means for politics and the economy? Send a voice memo to WNPOD at WSJ.com or leave a voicemail with your name and location at 212-416-4328. We might use it on the show.

And finally, you would think that millionaires would own their homes, but a small yet growing number in the U.S. are choosing to rent. According to the Fed survey of consumer finances, among households with net worth in the top 5%, the share of renters has nearly doubled in the past 15 years to about 1 in 20. Wall Street Journal reporter Gina Hebe explains how the calculus around home ownership has changed for the wealthiest folks in the U.S. market. For some of them, it's a big issue with supply.

So the amount of homes that they have available to look at, they're just not able to find anything especially in major metro areas like New York. I spoke to one renter who said that when you think about it in a price to value perspective, there's pretty much no inventory. So for some of these renters, they would rather invest in the stock market or keep their money elsewhere. Building wealth through homeownership is something that a lot of Americans rely on, but when you're in the millionaire range, you do have other avenues to do that.

And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bieneme and Anthony Bansi with supervising producer Michael Kosmitis. I'm Tracy Hunt for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for watching!