Fears of Spillover in Israel-Hamas War; Trumps Claims Absolute Immunity

On today's podcast: 1) The US military launched strikes on three installations in Iraq targeting what it said is a terrorist group backed by Iran that Washington has accused of a series of attacks on American personnel, including one Monday which left three people injured. 2) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined three prerequisites to achieving peace in its war with Hamas : the destruction of the group, the demilitarization of Gaza and for Palestinian society to be “deradicalized.” 3) Former President Donald Trump told a federal appeals panel on Saturday that he should be granted immunity from prosecution with regard to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election because he was acting within the bounds of his official duties when he took the actions. 4) OpenAI is in early discussions to raise a fresh round of funding at a valuation at or above $100 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said, a deal that would cement the ChatGPT maker as one of the world’s most valuable startups. Full Transcript: Good morning. I'm John Tucker and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. We begin with developments in the Mid East. The US military launched strikes on three installations in Iraq over the weekend, targeting what it says is a terrorist group backed by Iran. Washington's accusing the group of engaging in a series of attacks that injured American personnel. Late Monday, US Central Command released a statement saying the air strikes appeared to kill a number of Hensblah militants and Irans as a member of its armed forces was also killed. Meanwhile, Iran saying an Israeli airstrike in Syria killed a senior commander of its Revolutionary Guard, and Iran's president promising Israel will pay a price for the action. The Lebanese militant group HESBLA is calling the strike an assassination that crosses a line. Well in Israel, John pressure is growing on Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu to shift his nation's approach, and it's more with Hamas off and published in the Wall Street Journal Yesday, Natanya, Who's said, in order to achieve peace, Hamas must be destroyed. In Palestinian society must be deradicalized. It comes on the heels of the Biden administration continuing to back Israel's right to defend itself, but it's calling on Israel to scale back a large attacks and engage in more precise operations to reduce the toll on Palestinian civilians. Allies of Israel on Capitol Hill, like South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, says he blames civilian deaths on Hamas. Israel is trying to mitigate casualties. We need more humanitarian aid as long as it doesn't go on to the hand of the hands of a mosque. Republican Senator Lindsay Graham was speaking on ABC's This Week and the Hamas run Health Ministry says more than twenty thousand people have been killed in Gaza since the wars started in response to the October seventh terror attack in Israel, Atlanta Councils Senior Fellow Carmel abittells Bloomberg. The pressure is also growing on the Biden administration to encourage Israel to change its policy. The atrocities as we've seen them in Gaza are just agonizing, and with that public opinion in the United States and around the world is shifting, and pressure on Israel is growing to, if not entirely end the war through a permanency is fire, to at least pursue a temporary ceasefire, and to move to the next phase of this war. Carmiel Arvid with the Atlantic Council was speaking with our Kaylee Lines on Bloomberg's Balance of Power. You can hear the full analysis the Balance of Power podcast, available wherever you download your podcasts. Well back here in the US, john pressure continues to mount on universities following testimony from earlier this month in which the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania struggle to respond to questioning about how calling for the genocide of Jews violates school policy. In the wake of calls for the resignation of Harvard's president, Claudine Gay, a growing number of faculty members are turning their focus to the other eleven members of the powerful governing board that runs a school. Some faculty are calling for members of the Harvard Corporation, the university's board, to resign or apologize. One professor even floated an idea to the Governor of Massachusetts a new school governance structure that would give lawmakers the chance to appoint a board member to represent the public interest. And we're also following Karen the geopolitical developments in Russia's war with Ukraine. Russia says a warship that an eastern Crimean port had been damaged in a Ukrainian missile strike, and Ukraine wasn't just engaging in naval attacks. The New York Times reported this weekend that the Ukrainian military claiming it shot down five Russian fighter jets in three days, one of the biggest weekly losses for the Russian air force since that war began. Man John The New York Times is also reporting Russia President Vladimir Putin could be thinking about a ceasefire. In a recent address to his generals, he said Ukraine was so belieaguered that Russia's invading troops were doing what we want quote an unquote, But behind the scenes, sources tell The Times Putin's signal through intermediary since at least September that he's open to a ceasefire that would freeze fighting along current lines. And turning to politics here in the States, former President Trump says he has absolute immunity having served as a former president. Trump telling a federal appeals panel that he should be granted immediately from prosecution with regard to his efforts to overturn the twenty twenty election because he was acting within the bounds of his official duties when he took the actions. The appeals panel has said it will hear the arguments. January eighth, Let's go to markets now. John wall Street's returning to a holiday shortened training week, and Bloomberg's Charlie Pellett joins us with a preview. After eight weeks of gains for the S and P five hundred index, there are questions as to whether the holiday chare will continue into twenty twenty four. Sarah Hunt is chief market strategist at Alpine Woods Capital Investments. I think that the biggest problems we're going to see next next year are going to be around whether or not earnings and growth can really increase to the extent that the market is expecting it to, because if it can't, we're priced really well. We had a lot of multiple expansion this year and not a lot of earnings growth. We're pricing that in for next year. There are no scheduled S and P five hundred earnings this week. Bank earnings with the likes of JP Morgan, Chase, City Group and Wells Fargo kickoff January twelfth in New York Charlie Bloomberg Radio, all right, thanks Charlie. In corporate news this morning, sources tell Bloomberg open Ais in early discussions to raise a fresh round of funding at evaluation at or above one hundred billion dollars, and Bloomberg's Dennis Pelagreeny joins US with that story. Sources say investors potentially involved in the fundraising round have already been included in preliminary discussions, and if the funding round happens is planned, the creator of chet GPT would be the second most valuable startup in the US, behind only Elon Musk's SpaceX. Sources also say open Ai has held discussions to raise funding for a new chip bench with Abu Dhabi based G forty two, and has discussed raising up to ten billion dollars for that. It's unclear whether the chips venture and the wider possible company funding efforts were now hearing about our related Denise Pelygrindy Bloomberg Radio. All right, Denise. Thanks. Elsewhere on the corporate front, the Sole Economic Dailies reporting Samsung has delayed mass production plans at its new hiplant in Texas. Sources tell the South Korea newspaper mass production would begin in twenty twenty five. Samsung previously said the factory would star production in the second half of twenty twenty four. Is another blow to the Biden administration's ambition to increase domestic semiconductor supplies. All right, thanks Karen, and 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 Scott car Scott. Good morning, Thanks John, Good morning. Following a weekend of reportedly intense fighting between Israel and Hamas, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israeli forced to say now they've largely taken control, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahoo paid a visit to IDF troops in the region Monday and estimated seventy people were said to have been killed and one Israeli strike in central Gaza. The Israeli military says fifteen of its troops lost their lives over the weekend. Federal officials are now calling for the opioid reversal drug nalaksoone to be stocked in all government buildings. Recently, the Department of Health and two Human Services has proposed all federal buildings should be stocked with the drug, alongside automated external defibrillators. It marks the first change in federal building safety guidelines in nearly fifteen years. The US now has new plans in place to target banks that facilitate payments for Russia's military industrial complex. Bloomberg's Amy Morris has more from Washington. President Biden is amending two executive orders that will for the first time, allow the US to impose so called secondary sanctions over the Ukraine War. US officials tell Bloomberg that means banks could face severe financial penalties for doing business with firms already sanctioned, whether they know it or not. While many international banks no longer do business directly with Russia, they can act as correspondent banks for financial institutions in third countries that still do. In Washington, Amymoor as Bloomberg Radio, a wearable AI device developed by former Apple employees, is set to ship in March it's called the Humane AI Pin, and for about seven hundred dollars you can attach it to your clothes and interact with it. Former Apple worker Imanchadris part of the team behind the creation of the new AI device. There are no wakewords, so it's not always listening or always recording. In fact, it doesn't do anything until you engage with it, and your engagement comes through your touch, voice, gesture, or the laser ink display. The pins projectors designed to be able to send information onto a user's hand. We were able to pack a law of technology into something really small. It runs a Qualcom snap Dragon chipset, and that means it's really fast, which is crucial for AI. A recent demo of the pin shows it doing everything from real time language translation to making calls and playing music, Global news twenty four hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News. Now, I'm Scott Carr, and this is Bloomberg John. All right, Thanks God. That burns us to five eleven on Wall Street Time. Now offer the Bloomberg Sports Update PIM for that. Here's Dan Schwartzman. It was a Christmas Day tripleheader in the NFL and a Christmas miracle in Kansas City as Las Vegas Raiders knock off the Chiefs twenty to fourteen. Zameir White twenty two carries one hundred and forty five yards on the ground for Vegas. She's falled to nine and six on the season. Raiders are now seven and eight. Meanwhile, he was ugly in Philadelphia despite the Giants making it close to the second half, Swift makes the move zone Scott Eagles. That's courtesy of Fox Sports. Giants lose at Philly thirty three to twenty five, as Eagles are now eleven and four. Giants fault of five and ten on the season. Afterwards, head coach Brian Davill didn't have much to say, give them credit. Came down to the you know, to the end and just it's quite done to get the June that's courtesy off Giants dot Com. And in the finale, the Ravens now twelve and three, winners of five in a row. They dominate the forty nine Ers in San Francisco thirty three to nineteen as Brock Purty throws four interceptions for the forty nine Ers five games on the NBA docket, Nick surprise the Bucks in New York won twenty nine to one twenty two. Jalen Brunson thirty eight points, Nuggets knocking off the Warriors one twenty to one fourteen. Celtics a road went over the Lakers in Los Angeles one twenty six to one point fifteen. Christaps Porzingis twenty eight points, eleven rebounds, while the seventy six ers fall to the Heat in Miami won nineteen to one thirteen and Luka Doncic with fifty points for the Mavericks in a one twenty eight to one fourteen went on the road in Phoenix. That's your Bloomberg Sports update on Dan Schwartzman from coast to coast, from New York to San Francisco, Boston to Washington, DC, nationwide on Syrias Exam, the Bloomberg Business app and Bloomberg dot Com. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning, I'm John Tucker. As you just heard the US military launching Christmas Day strikes three installations in Iraq, targeting what it said is a terrorist group backed by Iran. Here to discuss that and what else is going on on the Mideast, joining us from Dubai this morning Bloomberg News Henry Meyer. Henry, thanks for being with us this morning. What do we know about this US air strike and the reasons behind it? Good morning, John, Yes, I mean what we understand is that the US military attacked three installations in Iraq yesterday, targeting this group which is linked to Iran, and this was in retaliation for an attack on a US base in Iraq that wounded three servicemen. So, you know, I think that this is a pattern which we've seen in the past. Obviously, there have been in a series of attacks in recent weeks on US military installations in both Syria and Iraq which have met with American retaliation. But you know what's interesting is that this happened on at the same time as Israel is reported to have carried out an airstrike in Syria which assassinated the top Iranian revolutionary regards military advisor in the country. So, you know, we see a sort of certain escalation which is taking place, obviously in the context of the war in Gaza, and this is sort of fanning concerns that there will be other fronts that will open up in this war. Yeah, with respect to the US Christmas Day strikes in Iraq is that directly tied to the war between Israel and Hamas. It's not directly tied. But what we've seen since October seventh, which is when you know, the war began in a Gaza, that the number of attacks have increased on US basis in the region. So definitely there has been you know, a link between the two. So you know, I think obviously what happened in Syria, I would argue, is much more serious actually because we've seen this pattern of attacks in Iraq and Syria on US basis and with you know, retaliation that has been going on for several weeks. But I would argue that the you know, the reporter at Israeli operation to target this senior reigning commander in Syria that could lead to a much bigger spiral of confrontation in Iran has avowed to take revenge. Henry, the Israeli Prime Minister Nittanya, who he was out with an op ed piece. In it he delivers what he says are prerequisites for peace with Hamas. What are those conditions? Well there, Primarily what he says is the demilitarization of Gaza, and he said the the radicalization Palestinian society. I mean, Israelis have been you know, quite very critical of the Palatinian authority. What they say has been the refusal to condemn the attacks October seventh on southern Israel, so you know event and then the final condition is the establishment of a buffer zone, which would be a sort of security cordon to prevent such attacks taking place in the future. You know, what that tells you is that the Israeli war goals are still very ambitious, and you know, they're not close to fulfilling them. And despite all the American pressure which has been increasing to at least scale back the operation, if not to end it in Gaza, we can see from Nata Naho's statement here that you know, they are determined to continue. The Biden administration has pressed Israel to change the approach. Is there any sign that is going to change just about twenty seconds. We don't know if that's going to happen, and we know that there are talks that are going to take place this week in Washington with a key advisor of Nittanyahu. He will be discussing whether that can happen. But as I said, the signals coming from Israel are still very much that they will continue at the current rate of offensive. You're listening to Bloomberg Daybreak today your morning brief. The story is making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed at six am Eastern each morning, on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also listen live each morning, starting at five am Wall Street time on Bloomberg eleven three to zero in New York, Bloomberg ninety nine to one in Washington, Bloomberg one oh six one in Boston, and Bloomberg nine sixty in San Francisco. Our flagship New York station is also available on your Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa play Bloomberg eleven thirty plus. Listen coast to coast on the Bloomberg Business app, serious xmb iHeartRadio app, and on Bloomberg dot Com. I'm John Tucker and I'm Karen Moscow. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.