Top Stories — Tuesday, April 21, 2026
What is trending in the USA today? Here is Breaking News:
- Japan scraps ban on lethal weapons exports in major shift of pacifist policy — CNBC
- Oil falls as investors assess mixed messaging on Iran peace talks ahead of ceasefire deadline — CNBC
- JPMorgan expands $1.5 trillion economic security splurge into Europe — CNBC
Japan scraps ban on lethal weapons exports in major shift of pacifist policy
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/21/2026, 1:27:42 PM
The Japanese government has announced plans to lift a ban on lethal weapons exports, marking the latest shift away from the country's post-war pacifist policy.
In a statement on social media on Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said "no single country can now protect its own peace and security alone," according to a Google translation.
She added that it was essential that partner countries support each other with defense equipment "in an increasingly severe security environment."
The policy change paves the way for the country to export warships, missiles, and other weapons.
Japan, which has been ramping up defense spending in recent years, is seeking to counter regional security threats and support partner countries during wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Japan and Australia recently signed a $7.15 billion deal for Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to build three warships for Australia's navy.
Opponents to the rule change have said that the policy shift could exacerbate global tensions, with protesters waving flags saying "No War" and voicing their support for the country's Article 9 provision during demonstrations in recent weeks.
Japan renounced war under Article 9 of its post-World War II pacifist constitution. In 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration reinterpreted Article 9 to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to more actively contribute to international peacekeeping efforts and defend allies.
"There is absolutely no change in our commitment to upholding the path and fundamental principles we have followed as a peace-loving nation for over 80 years since the war," Takaichi said Tuesday via X.
"Under the new system, we will strategically promote equipment transfers while making even more rigorous and cautious judgments on whether transfers are permissible," she added.
Oil falls as investors assess mixed messaging on Iran peace talks ahead of ceasefire deadline
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/21/2026, 1:27:28 PM
Oil prices declined Tuesday amid uncertainty over the fate of the second round of peace talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Reports suggest that Vice President JD Vance would lead the U.S. delegation to Pakistan, while Iran's rhetoric so far indicates it is not ready for further negotiations.
"We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the past two weeks, we have prepared to reveal new cards on the battlefield," Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliamentary speaker, said Tuesday in a post on X.
U.S. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has renewed threats of overwhelming military action against Iran, warning that "lots of bombs [will] start going off" if no agreement was reached before a fragile ceasefire expires Tuesday evening.
West Texas Intermediate futures for May delivery lost 1.06% to $88.66 per barrel as of 4:00 a.m. ET, while international benchmark Brent crude futures for June delivery slid 0.81% to $94.71 per barrel. WTI and Brent had settled 7% and 5% higher on Monday.
Trump has reverted to more aggressive rhetoric in recent days, oscillating between escalation and references to negotiations, with tensions spiraling after U.S. forces seized an Iranian ship on Sunday as Trump sticks with his blockade of Iranian ports.
Rystad Energy said in a note on Tuesday that the Hormuz disruption has already driven a major upgrade to its 2026 oil price outlook, and warned that if oil prices push through to and sustain $100, it could unlock as much as 2.1 million barrels a day of new supply from South America.
"South America is now positioned as the world's most consequential source of incremental supply," said Radhika Bansal, senior vice president at Rystad Energy.
"The Middle East conflict has done more than spike oil prices — it has exposed how dangerously concentrated global supply chains are around the Strait of Hormuz," she added.
JPMorgan expands $1.5 trillion economic security splurge into Europe
Source: CNBC • Published: 4/21/2026, 1:19:06 PM
JPMorgan Chase will extend a $1.5 trillion investment program designed to bolster U.S. economic resilience across Europe, the Wall Street giant said on Tuesday.
The 10-year Security and Resiliency Initiative (SRI) was launched in the U.S. last October with the aim of facilitating, financing and investing in industries deemed critical to American economic security and resilience.
It was announced in November that the U.K. would be brought into the plan, which is focused on several key areas, including supply chains and manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy independence, healthcare, and strategic technologies like AI.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said in a statement Tuesday that the U.S. and Europe have for too long relied on "unpredictable sources for things like critical minerals that are essential to collective security and prosperity."
"Now, it is in our best interest to address these challenges together — because our security, freedom and economic growth depend on it," he said.
The SRI's key pillars are divided into around 30 subsectors, ranging from shipbuilding to spacecraft, nuclear energy, cybersecurity and the production of high-speed projectiles.
European aerospace and defense has seen an investment boom in recent years, with regional leaders and the NATO military alliance committing to ramping up spending on security.
The pledges are widely expected to boost European firms' bottom lines, with regionally headquartered companies already reporting record order backlogs and huge upswings in income over the past year.
In 2025, the Stoxx Europe Aerospace and Defense index — home to the continent's biggest defense companies, including Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Rheinmetall — surged 56.5%, with some regional defense players more than doubling in value.
So far this year, the index has gained 4.3%.
Chuka Umunna, a former British member of parliament who will be leading JPMorgan's SRI initiative in the U.K., told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday that the bank's strength is "built on the strength of the U.S."
"The strength of the U.S. has three pillars to it: military might, economic prowess and the strength of its alliances," he said. "And one thing that has become very clear is that the U.S. and the West have become too reliant on unreliable and unpredictable supply chains and sources for those things that are critical to its national economic security and resilience."
Umunna said in Europe, there will be five key countries that the SRI will focus on — the U.K., France, Germany, Poland and Italy. But, he added, all EU and NATO member states will be included in the strategy.
In his 2026 letter to JPMorgan Chase shareholders, sent earlier this month, Dimon said the U.S. had allowed itself to become too dependent on unreliable sources for materials essential to national security, such as critical minerals, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing output.
"This is us putting our money where our mouth is, so to speak," Umunna said of the bank's SRI plan. "Unless you start to invest and seek to develop our capabilities here in the West in these particular markets, we're going to continue to have the exposure we have."
He pointed to energy, where the U.K. imports more than 40% of its energy needs, and semiconductors, where Umunna said the West was too reliant on East Asian economies for procurement.
"These are all things we are going to need to scale up and build capacity in," he told CNBC. "We're delivering this through the usual global banking products that we would use, but where you've got an SRI-aligned company, we will seek to lean in more. For example, from a credit point of view, you will potentially see JPMorgan doing smaller size deals, if they are in this space, than you would otherwise expect."
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