US, Israel Clash Over Lebanon, Threatening Iran Negotiations

0:28Small businesses are the pulse of every community. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., member FDIC. Copyright 2026, JPMorgan Chase and Company. When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering, and claims experience.

1:08Learn more at thehartford.com slash risk mitigation. Policies provided by Hartford Fire Insurance Company and its property and casualty affiliates, Hartford, Connecticut. This dog salon, operational excellence. Thanks to genius from Global Payments. Scheduling, personalized. Checkouts, instant. Absolutely genius. Big League reliability for any business. That's genius. Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. Karen, we begin with the latest on the war with Iran. Efforts to keep a peace deal on track have turned complicated thanks to fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.

1:58Iran has said it's suspending talks with the U.S. due to the clashes, but President Trump posted on social media that Israel turned its troops around after he asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to conduct a major raid in Beirut. Later, Netanyahu posted that Israel will strike if Hezbollah doesn't stop firing on his country. We get more from Bloomberg's Zabir Abu Omar in Dubai. Lebanon has emerged as a sticking point in the wider negotiations between Iran and the United States. So what we know is that Axios reported earlier an expletive-laden call between President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday.

2:37And President Trump came after and said that Israel had agreed to not raid the capital of Lebanon, Beirut. This is after Benjamin Netanyahu said that there were plans to send troops or to attack the suburbs in Beirut. Bloomberg's Abir Abu Amr reports President Trump's also saying talks with Iran are continuing at a rapid pace. But Tehran disputes that. The semi-official mayor's news agency is reporting Iran's discussing its final text of an interim peace deal, but no response has been sent yet. The report says Iran is being strict due to past breaches of trust by the U.S. Well, in the U.S., Nathan, President Trump is looking to address rising costs for farmers and manufacturers.

3:17The White House says it's cutting tariffs on agricultural equipment from 25 to 15 percent. The proclamation says foreign companies could qualify for a lower 10 % rate if their equipment contains at least 85 % American steel or aluminum. The tariff changes take effect on Sunday and run through the end of next year. Also on the trade front, Karen, European Union lawmakers have given preliminary approval to their trade deal with the U.S. This clears a path for final ratification for President Trump's threatened higher tariff deadline. The full European Parliament is now scheduled to vote on ratification two weeks from today.

3:53EU member states are expected to give their final assent shortly after that. Nathan, bipartisan backlash has pushed the Trump administration to draw plans to pursue a controversial anti-weaponization fund. Bloomberg's Monica Ricks has the details. The Trump administration says it's scrapping a$1.8 billion legal fund for victims of alleged government weaponization, including January 6 rioters. The move followed backlash from both Democrats and Republicans, who called this a slush fund for Trump's allies. Now, it's still unclear whether this will affect the president's settlement with the IRS, which banned the agency from looking into his tax returns.

4:31But several GOP senators had recently threatened to hold up an immigration enforcement package and funding for Trump's ballroom if this fund wasn't dropped. Monica Ricks, Bloomberg Radio. OK, Monica, thank you. Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House, but they face a tough midterm environment and we're in the heart of primary season. Bloomberg's Amy Morris reports from Washington. New Jersey voters are set to nominate candidates for both chambers in a state primary, including the 7th Congressional District. That could decide control of the U.S. House. In California, the primary season is ending as voters decide who will run for governor and mayor of L.A.

5:08Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton says he's honored to have Trump's endorsement. When I'm governor, we'll have a cooperative relationship with the administration. And Democratic gubernatorial candidate and former California Attorney General Javier Becerra rallied supporters in West Hollywood. As governor, my job is to ensure that I am protecting your rights. Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota are also holding primaries. In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Amy, thank you on the race for New Jersey's 7th District, which includes suburban towns, rolling farmland, and one of President Trump's golf clubs is the state's highest profile primary.

5:46Four Democrats are competing to take on Republican incumbent Tom Cain Jr., who's been absent from Congress for months as he deals with an unspecified medical issue. Also being watched is a Republican Senate primary, and voters face four-way race between Attorney Justin Murphy, Surgeon Robert Lebovix, Army veteran Richard Tabor, and former TV reporter Alex Zidane. The winner will face Democratic Senator Cory Booker, who is running for a full third term. Karen-famed short seller Andrew Left faces the possibility of decades behind bars he's been found guilty of securities fraud. Bloomberg's John Tucker joins us with the latest.

6:23John. And Nathan, prosecutors say Left used explosive tweets about dozens of companies to illegally influence their shares and make a quick profit. They say he earned more than$20 million from such trades. Olaf gained a huge online following with his blunt commentary about major U.S. companies, as well as the smaller stocks popular with retail traders. The federal jury found him guilty on 13 of 17 counts. He'll be sentenced August 31st and faces more than 20 years. The conviction may have a chilling impact on short sellers. In New York, I'm John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio. All right, John, thank you.

6:58And Company News Alphabet is putting together one of the largest equity deals of all time to fund its new AI spending plans. Google's parent company plans to raise$80 billion through selling shares both to the market and to Berkshire Hathaway. Bloomberg Intelligence's Mandeep Singh says the economics of the AI business have pushed Alphabet to raise more cash. Unlike a Microsoft or a Meta that have to buy those chips from NVIDIA and pay those 75 % gross margins, Alphabet is all using its own chips, and even Enthropic has trained its model and uses TPUs even for inferencing. So from that perspective, Alphabet is a competitor to an open AI on Enthropic.

7:41It is also a competitor to NVIDIA on the chip side. Bloomberg Intelligence's Mandeep Singh says the Alphabet transactions include a$10 billion deal with Berkshire, and shares of Alphabet are down 2.7 % this morning. While futures overall care under lower, following eight straight days of gains on Wall Street, but shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise are soaring more than 24%. HPE is one of the largest makers of computing equipment. Its outlook for annual sales topped estimates. The company cited massive growth in AI-fueled demand for its servers and networking. Woo Jin-ho covers HPE for Bloomberg Intelligence.

8:17It's the acceleration of growth. If I look at what the implied guidance is going into the fiscal third quarter, You know, it looks like revenues are going to grow at 29 percent. And then going into the fiscal fourth quarter, sales are going to grow roughly about 30 percent. So, you know, it's just getting faster. Woojin Ho of Bloomberg Intelligence says HPE's earnings follow blowout results last week from competitor Dell Technologies. Well, on the flip side, Nathan, in Europe, shares of Ababax, they're plunging almost 30 percent. The French biotech company reported cancer cases in a crucial clinical trial for its experimental inflammatory bowel disease drug.

9:01Time now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. And for that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Michael, good morning. Good morning, Karen. Hundreds of demonstrators in central Kenya marched Monday in protest of the U.S. Ebola quarantine center near the Lycopia airbase. It comes as the number of Ebola cases continues to grow. This woman says no one, including the president of Kenya, even took into account a nearby primary school when quarantining any potentially infected persons. Didn't even consider or ask around what about how hot happens and what goes around the Batouk area or the Reiki-Pahib's compound.

9:37Reported cases in the affected areas are believed to be more than a thousand. But Doctors Without Borders says the reality is that nobody knows the true scale and severity of the outbreak. Authorities in Muscatine, Iowa, say six people were killed in shootings at three separate locations, all by the same gunman. Police say the suspect, 52-year-old Ryan Willis McFarlane, died by suicide. Muscatine Police Chief Tony Kyes. Our community is mourning the family and the friends of the McFarlane family, the Whitlow family, and the Harris families. Chief Kai says the shooting apparently stemmed from a domestic dispute and all victims are believed to be family members of the deceased.

10:21Ukrainian authorities say Russia attacked the country with a barrage of missiles and drones overnight, killing at least 11 people, injuring dozens and trapping others. The head of Kiev's military administration says at least four people were killed and 58 were injured in Kiev alone. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that recently the Russian preparing to renewed attacks have pressed allies for more air defense missiles to counter Russia's missile attacks. Global News 24 hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr and this is Bloomberg, Karen. Thanks, Michael.

10:56Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And for that, we bring in John Stashauer. Thanks, Karen. Big news in the NFL. Still none bigger than the Cleveland Browns trading Miles Garrett to the L.A. Rams. All Garrett did last season was set the NFL record for sacks of the season with 23. The Browns in return get linebacker Jared Vers in three draft picks. As expected, wide receiver A.J. Brown goes from Philadelphia to New England for two draft picks. 44-year-old Serena Williams coming out of a four-year-long retirement. She'll play doubles at the upcoming grass court tournament in England. It may lead to her playing at Wimbledon.

11:30That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this.

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14:19Whatever your goal, 4imprint makes it easy to find your perfect promo match. Explore the possibilities today at 4imprint.com. 4imprint. 4certain. Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio. Nationwide on Sirius XM. And around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. The fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon has emerged as a key sticking point in peace negotiations between the U.S. and Iran. And now differing accounts of a call between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are adding to the complications.

14:58Joining us for more on this is Mark Champion, who covers the Middle East for Bloomberg Opinion. Mark, we saw a post from President Trump saying he convinced Israel to turn its troops around after his call with Netanyahu. But Netanyahu is saying that Israel will continue with attacks if Hezbollah keeps going after his country. How should we read all this this morning? Good morning. Good morning. Well, I mean, in essence, you know, this is the third time when Israel, which sees it in its national interests to continue the war against Iran, has intervened in Lebanon at a moment when the U.S. and Iran appeared to be approaching some kind of deal.

15:43In one case, a ceasefire. In two cases, now, some, you know, sort of wider deal. So this is now the third time. Each time they've hit Beirut, which the Iranians have made clear is a red line for them. And again, the Iranians have said that they are, you know, cutting off their kind of back channel talks with the United States. and we're basically in a three-way negotiation in which it's clear that President Trump and the U.S. want a way out of the war. The Iranians are looking for the best deal they can get and Israel is very uncertain that that would be in its interest. And I'm sure you saw the report this morning as well from one of the semi-official news agencies in Iran that it's reviewing a final text of a memorandum of understanding.

16:36How should we take this? Is it a final offer from Iran? Is there room for further talks? Yeah, we've been through this before. The U.S. submits proposals. The Iranians send them back. On this occasion, President Trump on Friday made some amendments that he wanted to the texts that had been given to him. That went back to the Iranians. The Iranians are now looking at theirs. In the meantime, another report on an Iranian state agency said that they're cutting off talks. I mean, this is a dance that we've been around several times before. President Trump says, you know, sit back, relax, it'll all end well.

17:21Markets seem to believe that, that ultimately the only way for this to end is in some kind of a deal. But, you know, there's a lot of noise that comes in between. And you mentioned three-way talks. Does Israel need to be more directly involved in the discussions between the U.S. and Iran? Is that something that could happen? I think that's unlikely. It's unlikely that the Iranians or the Israelis would be willing to get into direct talks, sort of publicly acknowledged direct talks. So I think that's somewhat unlikely. But what we are likely to see is, you know, what we have throughout, which is that, you know, the Iranians and the Americans trying to come to some kind of deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, end the fighting, and get back on track for some, you know, negotiation of the various files, nuclear file in particular, that the U.S.

18:19wants to see, you know, changed. and in the meantime the Israelis are very concerned that they will end up with a bad deal, one that leaves the Iranians in power and able to continue their various uses of pressure on Israel, either through Lebanon and Hezbollah or through Hamas in Gaza or directly. This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed by 6 a.m. Eastern each morning on Apple, Spotify or anywhere else you listen. You can also listen live each morning starting at 5 a.m. Wall Street time on Bloomberg 1130 in New York, Bloomberg 99.1 in Washington, Bloomberg 92.9 in Boston and nationwide on Sirius XM Channel 121.

19:19Plus, listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app, now with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto interfaces. And don't forget to subscribe to Bloomberg News Now. It's the latest news whenever you want it, in five minutes or less. Search Bloomberg News Now on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed all day long. I'm Karen Moscow. And I'm Nathan Hager. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak.

20:17We'll be right back. Big League Reliability for any business. That's genius. When you're running a business, the best days are the ones where priorities stay on track. For midsize and large companies, risk can affect multiple parts of the organization at once, from property and liability to cyber and regulatory challenges. At that level, managing risk becomes an ongoing discipline. At the Hartford, the focus is on helping businesses manage risk before it turns into something more disruptive. And when losses do happen, that work is paired with insurance coverage shaped by years of underwriting, risk engineering, and claims experience.

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