On today's podcast:
1) Henry Kissinger, the child refugee who rose to become US secretary of state and defined American foreign policy during the 1970s with his strategies to end the Vietnam War and contain communist countries, has died. He was 100.
2) Israel and Hamas agreed to lengthen their truce for at least another day, allowing for the release of more hostages held by the militant group in Gaza.
3) Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, says the advertisers that have stopped spending on the platform due to his endorsement of an antisemitic post can “f——” themselves.
Full transcript:
Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. We begin with the passing of a man who defined foreign policy in the nineteen seventies and worked to shape it for decades. After Henry Kissinger has died, Bloomberg political contributor Rick Davis says Kissinger's influence was unmatched. It's quite a career that lasted my entire life. I would say that we've not seen much of the likes of him, somebody who has never been elected to office, but wielded as much power as any powerful president or prime minister in the world. Kissinger was credited with opening the door to China and achieving detente with the Soviet Union, but he courted controversy for supporting massive bombing campaigns in Vietnam and Cambodia. Bloomberg's Ian Marlow says Kissinger leaves a complicated legacy around the world, in Asia in the Middle East. Could be a polarizing figure, but I think that was in part because he embodied that sort of American power. He was one of the people at the center of American power, and over a long period of time when the US role in the world was also changing, and it is to some extent and end of an era, and that era continued right to the end. This past July. In fact, Henry Kissinger met with Chinese President Shi Jinping in Beijing to discuss US China relations. Henry Kissinger died yesterday at his home in Connecticut. He was one hundred years old, and Nathan we turn out to breaking developments in the Middle East, Israel and Hamas have agreed to extend their truce for at least another day. The two sides announced the extension just minutes before their ceasefire was due to end. Head of the announcement, Secretary of State Anthony BLNCN explained what he hopes to achieve during his visit to the region. We'll discuss with Israel how it can achieve its objective of ensuring that the terrorist attacks of October seventh never happen again, while sustaining an increasing amount of train assistance and minimizing further suffering and casualties among Palestine civilians and Secretary of State Blincoln is currently in Tel Aviv for his third visit since the attacks. He will also visit the West Bank, the visit comes as more captives were exchange yesterday evening, with ten hostages released by Hamas in exchange for thirty Palestinians held by Israel. And back here in the US, Karen House Speaker Mike Johnson says he has real reservations about expelling Congressman George Santos. We get that story from Bloomberg's At Baxter, the resolution says the vote needs to happen today, but Speaker Johnson says, for him, there are some real problems here. I personally have real reservations about doing this. I'm concerned about a president than may be set for that. So where everybody's working through that and we'll see how they vote. Sados will be the first expulsion without a conviction on charges. Johnson at one point yesterday said the vote would come Friday, but the resolution does say today, so we'll see how it works out. At Baxter Bloomberg Radio, All right, ed, Thanks well. Elon Musk is talking about the future of ex following and advertising boy and we get the latest from Bloomberg's John Tucker. John what the boycott is going to do mus says is kill the company, and who does he blame? Well, not himself, but the advertisers he herald in an expletive their way, saying they can go bleep themselves. Those advertisers include Walt Disney and Apple. Earlier this month, Musk agreed with a post that said Jewish people hold a dialectical hatred of white people. Well, that message has since drawn widespread criticism. On stage at the New York Times Deal Book conference, must did say the post was the worst and dumbest he's ever done. Mustourage people to judge him by his actions rather than his words. He brought up his electric car company, Tesla, saying he's done more for the environment than any human. I'm John Tucker, Bloomberg Radio. All right, John, thank you. Now, let's take a look at some stocks on the move this morning. Shares of Salesforce are up nearly nine percent. The San Francisco based software company gave a profit forecast for the current quarter. The top D analyst estamates Salesforce is benefiting from its cost cutting program. Meanwhile, Nathan Snowflake is up about eight and a half percent. The company gave a product sales outlook for the current quarter that beat expectations. That's fueling hope that revenue is stabilized after the software and maker experienced a dramatic slowdown in growth during the past year. Turning to the economy, differing views on inflation from two Federal Reserve Regional Bank presidents. Atlanta FED president Rafael Bostik says he's growing increasingly confident that inflation is firmly on a downward path. On the other hand, Richmond FED chief Thomas Barkins tell CNBC he's not yet convinced. There's no precision that anyone can point to at exactly what is the level of rates that exactly handles inflation and exactly the way you want to handle it, and so you're constantly trying to adjust on the flot. Both Thomas Barkin and Rafael Bostik will be voting members of the FOMC next year. Well. In corporate news, Nathan Online, a job search company, Indeed is canceling the monthly mental health days it introduced during the pandemic. Can we get this story from Bloomberg's Ellie Pellett. It joins a growing group of firms pairing back benefits they rushed to provide during the COVID nineteen crisis. Indeed initiated so called you Days in June of twenty twenty, giving all employees the same day off each month out of time when exhausted staff were taking fewer vacation days because of travel restrictions. Three years later, employees are once again booking time off at a similar rate to before the pandemic, so the company said quote. As a result, we have agreed that the global need for you days has passed. In New York, Charlie Pellett, Bloomberg Radio and Charlie, we just got inflation data from the Eurozone. It cooled more than expected. Consumer prices rose two point four percent from a year ago in November. That was down from two point nine percent the previous month and less than all estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Sorry, Nathan, Thanks, It's time now for a look at some of the other stories making news around the world. For that, we're joal by Bloomberg's Amy Morris Say good morning, Good morning, Karen Ultra. Conservatives in the House of Representatives have now softened their demands for deep spending cuts to domestic programs, heightening the odds that two parties can reach a spending agreement and avert of partial government shutdown in January. The shift came after the House failed to pass bills at the lower spending levels demanded by the House random Caucus. They've been pushing for one hundred twenty billion dollars in cuts. This softer stance gives House Speaker Johnson Moore a room to negotiate a bipartisan spending bill, as senators from both parties want to add fourteen billion dollars in spending by designating it an emergency not subject to that cap. As lawmakers consider an aid package to Israel, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is issuing a warning. Bloomberg's at Nancy Lyons has that part of the story. Senator Schumer, who is the highest ranking Jewish elected official in the country, spent forty five minutes on the Senate floor to crying the rise in anti Semitism at a level not seen in decades. The normalization and excusation of this rise and hate is the danger many Jewish people fear most. The Anti Defamation League says anti Semitic incidents of nearly quadrupled since the onset of the Israel Hamas War. Schumer says It's time for a clear throated denouncement of the hate in Washington, Nancy lyons Bloomberg Radio and that new poll shows the number of college students experiencing or witnessing anti semitism is also up this academic year. That poll by the Jewish led Anti Defamation League and Hillel International found that nearly three in four Jewish students and forty four percent of non Jewish students saw or experienced anti Jewish ideas since the start of the twenty three to twenty four school year. A very special holiday display. Now at sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue, the White House South Lawn has an ice skating rink to celebrate the holidays. First Lady Jill Biden unveiled the rink with skating performances from figure skaters and Peanuts characters. What's more magical and wonderful and joyful then, you know, being on an ice rink in the South one of the White House. Who knew right A, Military, families, first responders, and other special invited guests can enjoy the White House skating rink in December. It will not be open to the public. Global News twenty four hours a day, and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Amy Morrison. This is Bloomberg Karen right, Amy, Thank you well. We bring you news throughout the day right here on Bloomberg Radio. But now you can get the latest news on demand whenever you want it. Subscribe to Bloomberg News Now to get the latest headlines at the click of a button. Get informed on your schedule. You can listen and subscribe to Bloomberg News Now on the Bloomberg Business app, Bloomberg dot Com plus apples, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Time now for the Bloomberg Sports Update. Here's John stash Hour John Daron upset in college basketball. They stormed the court in Fayetteville after Arkansas and opt off seventh rank Duke eighty to seventy five North Carolina ranked seventeen, put up sixty one points in the first half in Chapel Hill and beat tenth thrank Tennessee one hundred and ninety two. So they split fourteen games in the acc SEC Challenge over the previous two nights. They both won seven times. A couple of bad teams at the NBA's Eastern Conference, the Pistons the Wizards. They played the other night. Washington won, but the Wizards lost in Orlando, won thirty nine to one twenty. The Magic thirteen and five on the year. The Wizards are three and fifteen. The Pistons are two and seventeen. They bought fifteen games in a row. Blown out at home, Lakers won one thirty three to one oh seventy. Angelo Russell scored thirty five. Seahawks and Cowboys ticking off Week thirteen tonight in Dallas. They both played last Thursday. Cowboys won easily and Seattle lost to the forty nine Ers. These two teams are in second place in the NFC East and West. The teams that are in first place in those divisions the Eagles and forty nine Ers, and they play Sunday. That's the big game of Week thirteen. It's a rematch of last year's in at Championship. Joe Flacco now with the Cleveland Browns. They brought him in when the Shawn Watson went down. He's gone from third string QB to second and Dorian Thompson Robinson is in concussion protocol, so Flaco may start Sunday against the Rams. Patriots not saying anything official as usual for them, but it sounds like mac Jones goes to the bench. Bailey ZAPPI expected to start on Sunday. John stashed were Bloomberg Sports from coast to coast, from New York to San Francisco, Boston to Washington, DC, nationwide on Syrias exam the Bloomberg Business app in Bloomberg dot com. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. We want to reflect more on the life and legacy of Henry Kissinger, who died yesterday at his home in Connecticut at the age of one hundred. Kissinger was born in nineteen twenty three in the German state of Bavaria. He moved to the US in nineteen thirty eight to escape Nazi persecution. The son of a Jewish school teacher. At age nineteen, while a student at the City College of New York, Kissinger was drafted into the army in the US, serving as an interpreter during World War II, and after the war he helped round up Gestapo officers as a member of the nine hundred and seventieth Counter Intelligence Corps. Kissinger spoke earlier this year with Bloomberg's editor in chief John Micklethwaite, and said he saw the first hand impact of authoritarianism and totalitarianism in his youth. It was an experience which it's so elemental then it becomes part of you. Kissinger brought that experience back with him to the United States. He resumed his studies at Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation there focused on balances of power in nineteenth century Europe. As a tenured professor at Harvard, Kissinger honed of the conservative real politic worldview that would dominate his thinking on foreign policy for more than a half century. Kissinger also cultivated relationships with policymakers in Washington that led him to the White House in nineteen sixty nine as National Security Advisor to President Richard Nixon. Kissinger's secret trips to China in nineteen seventy one paved the way for arguably the greatest foreign policy achievement of the Nixon presidency. His own visit the following year. Knowing of President Nixon's express desire to visit the People's Republic of China, Premier Cho and lie On behalf of the government of the People's Republic of China has extended an invitation to President Nixon to visit China. The opening of China and an anti ballistic missile treaty hammered out with the Soviet Union achieved what would become known as Kissinger's triangular diplomacy, but his penchate for secrecy would lead to controversy. Kissinger was the first person to serve as both National Security Advisor and Secretary of State at the same time. That allowed Nixon to run foreign policy more or less directly from the White House. The president summed up his attitude in a taped conversation with Kissinger about the Christmas Day bombing in Vietnam in nineteen seventy two. Kissinger fed into that paranoia about enemies and the press by ordering wiretaps of reporters and White House aids looking for leaks. That expanded use of surveillance led to Nixon's resignation under the weight of Watergate, but the weight of one major foreign policy decision would cloud Kissinger's legacy for the rest of his long life. The Secret War in Cambodia. Kissinger orchestrated the operation that dropped more than one hundred thousand tons of bombs on North Vietnamese positions in the country. It helped lead to the rise of a genocidal Khmer Rouge regime after the war, but Kissinger would never stop defending his conduct in Vietnam, even against critics who labeled him a war criminal. Would say a better way At any one point, we didn't think so. I still don't think so. But I'm open into that argument. But what is meant by better that pragmatic approach to the world as it is rather than how policymakers might like it to be what informed Kissinger's view long after he left public office and sought to wield influence as a private citizen. At the age of eighty eight, Kissinger wrote the book on China, about the country he helped to bring back to the world stage. In a twenty twenty interview at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, Kissinger warned of the risks of confrontation between the world's two biggest economies. Let's say, at some basis for some cooperative action to wills, Bill Slide hid a catastrophe. Comfortable do will do a one And Henry Kissinger worked to head off that catastrophe. After reaching his hundredth birthday this year, when President Biden sent cabinet secretaries to Beijing to try to stabilize relations, the one US diplomat that Chinese President Shi Jinping met face to face this summer was the man who he called an old friend to China, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. And for more, we are joined from Singapore by Bloomberg News Managing editor Derek Wallbank. A mixed legacy, Derek, but an undeniable legacy at the same time. I think that's exactly right. An. I think you did a brilliant job setting this up and there when when we're talking about the reaction, especially out here, I think the the polarity of feedback has been striking today. You know, Kissinger was a sort of person that in some corners of the world was a lionized statesman, and some other corners in the world, uh, they considered him an absolute scoundrel. And and and there's not really a giant a mix of those right now, certainly through Asia hours and you're you're talking about somebody who in Singapore was was somebody that that foreign ministers would would make pilgrimage to his apartment in New York City. Every time that there was a UN General Assembly meeting China. You saw that you mentioned the reaction from Xi jianpingg He's Uh. Kissinger was described as an old friend of the Chinese people's there's a mournful reaction from from China at the same time. Uh. This is somebody who throughout parts of Southeast Asia, UH, particularly Cambodia, allows Vietnam, et cetera. You know, Indonesia, parts of team or less. It's like it is not held in anywhere the same sort of thing. It's a very polarizing person, but certainly somebody who had I think it is unanimous to say a titanic effect on the world in which he lived, no doubt, and to you put it into the context of where US China relations stand now. I think it'd gotten a little bit better since the low that we saw after the alleged spy balloon incident back in February. But talk a little bit more about the impact that Henry Kissinger tried to wield even up to the end, as President Biden was trying to put US China relations sort of back on the rails. I think one of the most notable things sitting here as as we closely have tracked the decline in relationships between the two superpowers, is how Henry Kissinger always seemed to be the one American who could get a meeting with anyone he wanted in China. I mean anybody he wanted. I saw in Chinese state media today retrospectives of here was Henry Kissinger visiting it this year, and then two years later, and then three years later, and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Gotten down the line, he met with anybody he wanted, He met any time he wanted, and senior, senior Chinese folks would would go to him, would would want to talk to him to get a sense of where the things were in the United States, and vice versa. You know, he was a counselor to presidents of his party or not, people who agreed with him or not. He was seen as this respected voice that when he was in the room, people felt like they needed to listen to on both sides of this relationship, because as they say, he was so respected in China, and in these days you find somebody who who is you know, who is American, who has deeptised in the American state, who who is that respected in China is It's a very very small list, right, and Henry Kissingtram might have been right at the top of that list. Well, we think about the passing of a former Secretary of State who saw the world as it is. We have a current Secretary of State, Anthony Blincoln, who is back in a part of the world that is as restive as anywhere else in the Middle East. Let's talk a little bit about the latest that's happening in the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the influence the Secretary of State Blincoln is trying to have as this tenuous ceasefire continues. Yeah, and the thing that I think everybody's waiting for is to see how long this ceasefire will go. It was supposed to expire at seven am local time Thursday. It got extended for another day. I mean the announcement here just minutes before that ceasefire was due to end. There had been reports of small violations here and there of things. We have seen a steady drip drip of hostage releases. But it's a very very tenuous. I don't even want to use the word piece. It's a very it's a very tenuous pause. Let's go with pause, because a pause implies that the play button is back. It is also on the table that the restart could be coming soon. So I think that's the question. How much progress are we getting here? You do see the United States trying to play in here. I think I think the Biden administration is politically finding itself in a in a in a tough spot. They are trying to have some guardrails that they're trying to communicate to the Israelis. At the same time, you know, the the US is permissioning I if I can use that word, they're they're certainly you know, they're they're they're certainly Israel's biggest friend on the world stage. Right. So so that's a little bit of a difficult position that the Biden administration is trying to tread a little bit carefully. But they are trying to influence, uh, what's what's going on in that in that part of the world, and they have a lot of place to play. At the same time, you see countries like Egypt, countries like Cats are trying to you know, trying to influence Maybe they might be more simply sympathetic to other sides than the US administration might be, but all sort of trying to find and feel a way out of this so that it doesn't conflagrate more. All the while, also, it should be said, trying to keep nation states that are currently mostly on the side on the side. And I'm thinking here of countries like Iran to prevent this from escalating into something even more than it is right now. It's certainly a touch and go sort of thing right now. And I do as I say, I think, I think it carries some political risk. I mean, look, we're we're we're less than twelve months out from the US presidential election, and a lot of the people who are protesting in the streets in the United States are people who you would find in a normal Democratic coalition who are deeply upset with the president right now and vowing not to vote for him in any circumstance. Right that's a part, that's a group of people he needs to come out for him next year, and so it's a very very delicate ballot. This is Bloomberg Daybreak Today, your morning brief on the stories 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 sixty one in Boston, and Bloomberg ninety 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, seriusxmb iHeartRadio app, and on Bloomberg dot Com. I'm Nathan Hager 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
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