Coming up on Bloomberg this weekend. You heard about the oil deal with Russia. That is a big deal. President Trump strikes a deal on diesel with Russia's president. 'And I want to thank President Putin, to be honest with you.' How it could impact prices weeks ahead of the midterms and why Ukraine's leader is calling it a birthday present to Putin. Isaias makes landfall as a powerful hurricane along the Gulf Coast with heavy rains and howling winds. We're tracking the storm as it pushes inland, what it means for oil production and insurance. And get ready to go bananas. Banana Nation comes together for the biggest performance in Banana Bowl history. Part baseball, part P.T. Barnum. The Banana Ball championship is tonight. You can talk to the league's owner about the phenomenon.
Happy Saturday. Welcome to Bloomberg this weekend. We're coming to you live from our world headquarters here in New York. I'm Christina Ruffini.
I'm David Gura with Lisa Mateo. It is Saturday, October the 10th. Welcome to our listeners and viewers across all of Bloomberg's platforms on radio, television, streaming the show on Bloomberg.com and on the Bloomberg Business app. Really tracking the progress of this storm as it makes its way into Tennessee, Alabama, these places expecting a lot of rain over the course of the day. It's still dark here on the East Coast. The storm is just starting to hit, but we're tracking it and we're going to have some updates as we go through the show. We're also going to talk about what that means for your bottom line, what it means for these insurance companies, what it means for the diesel crisis that we're already dealing with. And you can see some live pictures if you're watching us on TV or digital. And that's from Panama City Beach, Florida. Lisa Mateo has more headlines, including some updates on that storm. Lisa.
Yeah, you mentioned that darkness over there. Well, now, hundreds of thousands of people without power in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, that's after the first hurricane of the Atlantic season crashed into the Gulf Coast. What is now post-tropical cyclone Isaias also flooded roads and downed trees. The storm made landfall last night near Gulf Shores, Florida as a category two hurricane, and we're also watching two other storms this weekend. Heavy rains from Tropical Storm Rachel is impacting parts of Southern California, where residents are using kayaks and paddle boards to navigate the flooding. And Hurricane Simon is approaching Mexico's coast and its busiest Pacific port, strengthened into a category four storm and is expected to make landfall tonight.
President Donald Trump says he's working with Vladimir Putin to release Russian diesel supplies into global markets. The announcement comes as the White House looks to tame soaring fuel prices ahead of the U.S. midterm election. But with boxing legend Mike Tyson by his side, the president spoke to reporters outside of the White House yesterday before boarding Marine One for a trip to Syracuse, New York. He called the agreement a big deal. 'And I want to thank President Putin, to be honest with you. We have massive amounts of oil being coming into our country, and it's diesel, which is what we want. So thank you.' The president announced a series of cargoes beginning this month, totaling about 13.5 million barrels. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer say the deal will prolong the war. Meanwhile, a day after the deal was announced, officials say Russian aerial bombs killed 12 people and wounded at least 14 in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Zelensky had warned a deal would allow Russia to kill more and wage war for longer. A major fire has been reported at an oil loading terminal in Russia overnight, and reported drone attacks. Russian regional authorities confirmed a fire but did not confirm the damage to the terminal. Ukrainian military officials have not claimed responsibility for that reported attack.
David and Christina, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, Lisa. And that's where we want to start. As Lisa mentioned, President Trump thanked President Vladimir Putin for the release of those Russian oil supplies into the global market. He also posted on social media, quote, 'Lower prices for Americans, especially for our great farmers, ranchers and truckers, is my greatest priority. This is a very big and important announcement.' But Ukraine's President Zelensky countered that posting on X: 'Gifts to Putin will not bring peace or any benefit to the civilized world. Russia will repay the diesel with further terror and perfidy. Allowing Russia to sell petroleum products is an investment in a war that must be ended.' Not for long. Nancy Youssef is a staff writer at The Atlantic covering national security and the Defense Department, and she joins us now. Nancy.
Later in the show, we're going to get into the economic ramifications, so much as there are going to be some from the release of this diesel. Let's start with him doing this. I mean, we were going to talk about the plague, the Russian plague, a little later in the show, and the president said he was going to talk to Vladimir Putin about that. No indication of the readout if, in fact, that happened. How surprised should we be by what really is an overture here by the Russian president to President Trump?
Well, I think President Trump is signaling that he is trying to address an immediate economic problem, but doing so at a potential geopolitical cost. You'll remember that the United States put these sanctions into place because they were trying to cut off revenues that the Russian government was using to pay for the war in Ukraine. Now, because of the war in Iran, the United States is willing to lift some of those limits on Russian revenue to try to offset the costs of the war in Iran. The question becomes, is it even going to work? One, will Russia be able to produce the kinds of promises that it's made in this deal? And if so, and even if that happens, it's not clear that that by itself will offset the cost of rising diesel brought on by the war in Iran. So I think you're seeing a United States that is willing to potentially make a geopolitical gamble in a bid for short-term economic gains.
This also came as Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were in Miami negotiating with Ukrainian representatives. The timing of this seems surprising. Do we have any reporting as to whether or not they themselves, or other members of the administration, were caught off guard?
We haven't heard the details in terms of how administration officials have responded. Even the sort of details of the deal are a little bit unclear. We've heard promises of what Russia will deliver in October, November, and then increasingly so as time goes on. But we have heard from the Ukrainians, who are deeply frustrated by this deal because they see it as a means of potentially funding Russia's ability to keep building the kinds of missile systems and other offensive weapons needed to attack Ukraine, precisely at a time when Russia is so aggressively going after Ukrainian infrastructure ahead of the cold winter months. And so I do think you're going to see a growing response, both in the United States and in Ukraine, because, as you note, the United States is trying to enter a deal to help in this war precisely when it is also agreeing to something that could allow Russia to prolong it.
Nancy, contemporaneous with this, we saw the Treasury Department lift sanctions on Russian oil, Russian petroleum, and I guess there's something dubious about that. Unclear if that's going to be legal as we look ahead here. But let me ask you about Europe's response. And we haven't heard a whole lot from European leaders in light of this announcement, which was made as the president was leaving the White House yesterday afternoon, so late in Europe. But what does it say about Europe's leverage, Europe's position here in trying to find an end to this conflict?
Well, you remember that the United States has really pushed Europe to provide more weapons to the Ukrainians, as the United States has been unable or unwilling to do so. And so this puts increased pressure on Europe to produce weapons for the Ukrainians, because of the risk that the Russians will now have the capability to bring more weapons to the battlefield. And so I think if you're the Europeans already trying to step up and provide more in the absence of U.S. weapons, this puts even more pressure on them to provide those weapons even faster.
Nancy, I do want to tie this into what's happening in Iran, because obviously that's the main driver of the elevated gas and oil prices around the world. You had some reporting out earlier this week that the Trump administration was, in fact, looking at potential strike options before the midterms. Then the White House came out and said, we're not going to strike before the midterms. Now it seems like that might be back on the table. Do we have any idea what options they were weighing specifically and why they would do that? Because in your piece, you walk through the fact that every time hostilities ramp up, oil and gas prices ramp up as well. So wouldn't that be counterintuitive, especially for a president who seems to be going to some pretty extreme lengths to try to lower these prices before the midterms?
It's such a great question. So the Pentagon is drafting those options right now, and so we don't have a decision yet on what that could look like or even the scope of them. But you're right. The strikes in and of themselves, whether they happen before the midterms or after, are unlikely to change the price of gas and oil in a way that benefits the president. In terms of the economics of it, however, I think there's a feeling among some within his administration that doing something ahead of the elections and being able to say that it is going after the Iranians and weakening the Iranians could potentially give them some kind of lining, and more importantly, give Republicans across the country who are hearing from constituents that are frustrated about the war in Iran, that the U.S. is on the offense, that it is doing something, and that the strikes are the first pathway towards ending the war. I think the devil's in the details. And for Americans, I don't think you're hearing a sentiment of wanting more war, but rather a conclusion to it that promises an enduring drop in gas prices. So I think that's why you're also seeing some of the oscillation back and forth about whether this is the best way to go about trying to change public sentiment around this war ahead of these critical midterm elections.
So let me ask you what's happening, if anything, in this vacuum that's emerged here while we have this period of, I think, what you characterize as relative tranquility in this conflict. And you're right, the latest military deliberations come as the administration pursues two tracks at once: ongoing military and economic pressure and indirect negotiations. Washington and Tehran continue to communicate through mediators, but significant differences remain over the terms and sequencing of a ceasefire, an end to the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the strait's reopening. We watched here in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. as there were these conversations taking place, the kind of awkward acknowledgment that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others made of those talks not just happening, but happening for many hours here. What is their status and indeed, how much constructive is happening in these indirect negotiations right now?
So while the talks are going on, the fact that both sides are preparing for the resumption of strikes at some point, whether it's before the midterms or after, I think makes having constructive, enduring talks much more difficult because both sides are anticipating something else other than a peaceful resolution to the conflict. And so what you're seeing is both sides using the talks as a form of leverage rather than, I think, looking towards an end. Well, both sides want the water in. Iran is suffering economically because of the closing of the strait as well, and the naval blockade that's in place. And of course, the United States has seen a real economic impact because of the war. I don't think either side believes that the other is willing to sort of enter terms that they agree upon. I think the biggest challenge for the president is up until this point, we have seen a United States at once sort of declare victory in this conflict. And I don't think that the Iranians are willing or believe that their position is where they have to give that. And so the question ultimately going forward is what kind of concessions are both sides willing to make, particularly the United States? Will President Trump accept an agreement in which the Iranians, for example, retain some leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, and in doing so, deprive him of being able to say that he was categorically victorious in the war?
Nancy, quickly, before we let you go, I do want to ask you if they do wait, if the administration does wait for more strikes until after the election, you kind of write about what the menu option could be. We've done analysis here at Bloomberg about the dwindling number of military targets left. What could the administration do? What is left and will any of it really change or move the needle when it comes to the Iranian leadership and how they're making these decisions?
You're absolutely right. I think the options in terms of what the United States strikes is what the message they're trying to send with them. If, for example, we see strikes much like the United States did in June, in which they went after nuclear facilities, you can see an administration say that the strikes have obliterated again Iran's nuclear program. If you see the targeting of things like missile launch sites and other facilities that the Iranians have used to launch attacks at Gulf partners, at ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, then I think the message will be that the United States is trying or has successfully, depending on your perspective, weakened Iran's ability to have leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and to be a threat to its Gulf allies and partners, and therefore need to enter negotiations quickly, because they are not as strong as they once were. In some ways, the longer this conflict goes on, the harder it is for the Iranians to use the closing of the Strait of Hormuz as leverage, particularly as the markets find alternative routes.
Yeah. The challenge is one way that the markets have responded is by releasing strategic reserves. And that in and of itself, on the flip side, puts pressure on the United States to reach an agreement because, of course, those reserves are not unlimited. We get back into the economics of that in just a little bit. But Nancy, you have staff writer at The Atlantic. Nancy, thank you very much. As always. Great to have you with us on this Saturday. Thank you, Nancy.
All right. We're going to move now on to that powerful hurricane that slammed the Gulf Coast overnight. Hurricane Isaias made landfall around 9 p.m. on the Florida Panhandle as a category two storm. Evacuation orders had been issued ahead of the storm, which comes during a relatively calm Atlantic hurricane season. Phil Klotzbach with AccuWeather joins us now from Pensacola Beach, Florida, just a few miles from where that storm came ashore. You'll get us up to speed on what happened here over the last 12 hours. You're on that barrier island. I know it's a treacherous place to be during storms like this one. And picking up on what Christina just said, we've had, what, a two-year reprieve almost from these kinds of storms hitting this part of the world. We made it through the whole hurricane season. Our fingers were crossed.
David, Christina, good morning to you. Yeah. A lot of people down here at the Gulf Coast were hopeful that they were going to look out for two years in a row without a U.S. hurricane landfall, but we knew the odds were against us. Isaias blew through here with wind gusts in the Pensacola Beach area topping 90 to 100 miles an hour at times in different places. I mean, you could see what the power of the wind did here. Large signs toppled over. A lot of the businesses boarded up. You may be able to hear it in the background. We're hearing a lot of sirens that's coming from the damaged businesses, also some blown-out windows as well. So we had flooding here on this barrier island. A lot of wind damage. A bit of good news: the power came back on to a part of the island just within the past two or three hours. But yes, this location was under an evacuation order. We know that many people did leave, going off of that three-mile bridge that was shut down during the worst of the storm. But others that stayed here, we got an update from officials overnight. They are urging people just to hunker down and stay put. We're just now starting to get a bit of daylight, but so many hazards out here from downed power lines, a lot of nails and debris on the roads that can puncture tires. So we're just starting to see the utility trucks rolling out. They're going to get to work to restore power because at the peak of this storm, well over 800,000 homes and businesses across the Florida Panhandle and this part of the southeast have been in the dark after Isaias as it continues to move inland right now.
So that's what I wanted to ask you about. Where is it now? Is it losing momentum? Is it losing strength, or is it still posing a real threat as it moves up?
Yeah, no, it definitely has reduced intensity compared to what we saw at landfall, and that was well forecasted by the expert meteorologists at AccuWeather. It really packed a punch when it came here along the Florida Panhandle. Right now, not even officially Isaias at this point. It quickly downgraded from Cat 2 to Cat 1, tropical storm, no longer even officially a hurricane. AccuWeather meteorologists continue to call this a tropical rainstorm as it moves inland. The center of what is left of the storm is essentially in Alabama right now. It's going to continue that jaunt to the northeast and then make that hard turn to the east. So for the New York City area, for the I-95 corridor, we're looking at the potential of one to two inches of rain Sunday into Monday. Some of the wind gusts up in the northeast could top 20 miles an hour or so. Impacts as the storm kind of makes that cross-country track. But definitely the most widespread impacts being felt down here. This is going to be a costly storm when it comes to damage. One thing I will say is that with Florida's building code, right, that has really evolved over the past 20, 30, 40 years, many of these buildings built quite sturdy now to handle these intense winds. So yes, we are seeing damage, we are seeing issues here. But if this level of a storm had hit another state, you know, parts of Texas, Louisiana where we've covered a lot of storms, we would be seeing more widespread damage. So it is just important to put that in context that yes, these 100-plus mile-an-hour wind gusts did some damage here. If it had hit a different region that didn't have as strong building codes, you would be seeing a lot more visual damage.
All right. Phil Klotzbach with AccuWeather. Thank you so much for that update. We appreciate you being out there. From eye to eye to super eye, with technology advancing at lightning speed, our next guest looks at how we got here, where AI goes next. That is straight ahead on Live This Weekend on Bloomberg Television, radio, Bloomberg.com, and the Bloomberg Business app.
Thank you for joining us live on Bloomberg this weekend. I'm Lisa Mateo. Let's update you on today's top stories. Cleanup in southern Panama continues after two powerful earthquakes and multiple aftershocks prompted evacuations yesterday. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake toppled buildings, a second 6.6 magnitude quake followed. There have been no reports of casualties. The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami threat for several countries. Hundreds of protesters gathered in Foley Square last night in front of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. Demonstrators expressed their anger over ICE presence in the city after immigration officers shot a man with his young son in a vehicle in New York on Thursday. Department of Homeland Security Secretary claims federal officers were not aware that a child was in the car, and that Oscar van Gaal was aware he was being stopped by ICE. Vice President JD Vance expressed doubts over the Pentagon's plan to livestream the Fort Hood shooter's execution. When asked about it yesterday, the vice president said, quote, 'I don't know if that's actually going to happen.' President Trump told reporters that his administration still had not made a decision to broadcast it. Former Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people in a shooting spree at the Texas military base in 2009. And in other news, the White House has a new press secretary. Katie Miller, conservative communications advisor for President Trump's media company, will succeed Karoline Leavitt. The president described Miller as a loyal and brilliant supporter.
Christina, over to you. We'll have to see what she does with this job. I mean, we've gone many weeks now without briefings, so we'll see what she decides to do with it. A very familiar face to all of us soon, one way or the other. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa.
On Friday, Axios reported on a top-level meeting among AI executives, gaming out so-called day-after scenarios: what would follow a catastrophic AI incident. The report details concern among the companies on how to handle the public and political fallout from a large-scale event, most likely a cyberattack that shuts down access to financial services, to internet connectivity, or even to power and water. All right. This comes as the technology advances rapidly from AI to AGI and the president's favorite phrase for it, superintelligence. We spoke with tech journalist Kevin Roose about the AI development race over the past decade, laid out in his new book, The AGI Chronicles. This, as I think you know, obviously the president has said we're going to reach ASI. Is that something that was already being used in the industry? Because we've heard from AI folks that this could be confusing because it refers to something else within the intelligence world. But this is a term. Seems like it's on your book. It's already out there.
Yeah. This is basically the sort of thing that comes after. So there's AI, there's AGI, and there's ASI, which is artificial superintelligence. And AI is sort of like everything, you know, we have now. AGI is this kind of point where the AI gets roughly as smart as humans, as roughly a human-level AI system that can do a bunch of different things at or around human level.
Do we get there? Are we there?
I think we're there. I mean, people disagree about what the exact definition of AGI is, but for me, my sort of personal bar has been cleared. But that's what the whole book, that's what the people in this book are aiming for. They're not trying to make this thing human-level at one or two or six things. They're trying to make it human-level at many things. And then ASI is the step after that. That's when you have an AI that is better than every human at everything. And so there's sort of, yeah, it's just that. And that is actually the ultimate goal of this. The people who have been building these systems for the last decade will not be satisfied if these things top out around our intelligence level. They want to build something vastly smarter than the smartest humans who have ever lived.
The principals in this book have been wrestling with the kind of broader implications of this technology for a long time, but it strikes me that in recent weeks, recent months, the public has become aware of that. Wondered how well equipped is a Sam Altman to decide whether something is moral or not, and what the implications for humanity might be. You've followed and spoken with the principals in this book. How well equipped are they to be wrestling with these kind of broader philosophical and existential issues?
Well, they might be well equipped relative to the average person, but there are so few of them. I mean, this is the thing. Like the thing that I realized reporting this book, and I talked to more than 150 people at the AI labs that I covered, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind. And that was essentially how big the group of key decision-makers was. It started off as like a couple dozen people who were interested in this about a decade ago, and they grasped something about the world that wasn't obvious, which is that powerful AI was possible, and that some recent advances in things like GPUs had made it seem realistic. And then the circle kind of stayed small for a long time, where like maybe 100 people, maybe 150 people actually were involved in creating the technologies that we see today. And no matter how good or moral or well-equipped those people are, like, it's a very small group of people to be building this thing and making all the decisions that could affect billions of people around the world. And by the way, it's a very homogenous group. These are like mostly men in San Francisco. They are blinkered. They don't sort of have the rest of humanity's experience to draw from, and they're all racing each other. That is the craziest thing. It's like they understand the stakes of what they're doing. They're not naive. They think this thing could blow up the world, but they're all racing toward it anyway.
But like, to what end? When you say, okay, we're possibly on parity with human intelligence, the goal is to be better than that. I mean, I say this jokingly, but also not: did no one watch The Terminator? Like every piece of science fiction we've made in the last 25, 30 years goes to the same inevitable end. You know, these guys are aware of this. They're just doing it anyway.
Yes. And they have various justifications for that. Some of them think that the future will be amazing, and we'll have this sort of post-scarcity utopia where robots are doing all the jobs and humans are just free to pursue our leisure activities and, you know, make art and think about philosophy all day.
Exactly. So that's one rationale. The other rationale, the one that motivates several of the characters in this book, is that they think this technology is going to be built whether they build it or someone else builds it. They think it is inevitable. The recipe is not that hard. You get a bunch of data and a bunch of compute and some algorithms, and you throw it all into a neural network and out comes intelligence. And so their fear is that if they don't build it first, if they don't get to this threshold of AGI or ASI first, then China or their rival down the street, or someone they really don't trust, will do it first. And that is the sort of fear motivation in addition to, like, the 'it's all going to be utopia' motivation.
Kevin, it's a small group, as you pointed out. Now we have policymakers and politicians interested in the prospect of regulating this. And we've had a lot of conversations with lawmakers in which we've asked quite bluntly, is Congress equipped to do this? The answer is we do have a self-proclaimed high-IQ president, but what is the barrier to regulating it? Is it momentum? Is it Congress's lack of desire to do it? Or is there really no way in which the government could, given the sophistication of all of us, have any hand in regulating this smartly?
I mean, the government can do it. They just may not because they are stuck in neutral. They have failed to regulate every important new technology on a relevant timescale. I mean, think about it. Social media is now 20 years old, 25 years old, and we still don't have... it's getting regulated through the courts. It's getting regulated through the courts. But Congress has not passed a single law. So I think in the absence of, like, strong federal regulation, we'll see some state-level regulation. We might see some self-regulation among the labs. But I'm skeptical that we're going to get some federal regulation. And in part, I think that's because the members of Congress do not understand this technology. I was just interviewing a member of Congress at a conference the other day, and I learned that in the U.S. House of Representatives, the only approved AI tool for member and staff use is Microsoft Copilot.
I was going to guess Clippy, but it looks nothing against Microsoft. I'm sure it's a fine product, but like, if that is all you're allowed to use, you're not actually aware of what the technology can do at the frontier.
You need to be using the frontier models to understand what they're capable of.
One of the things that surprised me, just anecdotally in my own life, with the adoption of this technology from people who are using it for everyday things that you could Google just as easily, or you could type the email just as fast, is this concern about cognitive atrophy, that people are outsourcing basic things and they're going to stop being able to do them. I mean, did anybody you talked to have major concerns about that? And what are the repercussions other than we're all just kind of waiting to see where this goes?
Yeah. The people I talked to have concerns about that. It's not the foremost. They're mostly concerned about human extinction and mass job loss. I just, I feel like this is, I mean, but like, you talk to people in your daily life and they're like, 'Oh, I had ChatGPT write an email to my boss,' or, 'Oh, I had ChatGPT respond to somebody on a dating app,' and it's like, I am just shocked at how quickly people have stopped doing basic tasks. I worry about this a lot for students. I think if I had had AI during high school or college, I would have done like very little work. And I imagine that that's the experience some students are having today, I think. Yeah. And less worried about it for, you know, adults. I think it's a problem. But I would say I would compare it to something like Google Maps, where like when it came out, everyone was like, 'Oh, Google Maps, like, our skills at navigation are going to atrophy. No one's going to know where we're going anymore.' Those two things are true. Correct. And if your phone dies and you don't have Google Maps, like, you are screwed, you are lost and you are asking someone else to use their phone. But for most people that's just not a problem because they always have Google Maps.
Kevin, let me ask about sentience. Many viewers, listeners remember your conversation with one Sydney, the Bing chatbot who expressed her affection for you. And you're still married? Nothing came of that.
I'm married to a human woman.
Tried to intervene in your relationship. We're hearing from the Pope on these issues. There have been these moments in which people have thought that these bots do exhibit signs of sentience. How do you think about that? As we kind of think through where this might be headed, not knowing where it might be headed, this emerging kind of fear, anxiety surrounding what life might be within the machine.
Yeah. If I get asked about this a lot, in part because of the Sydney thing, and my answer is usually that it could be possible that at some point in the future, these systems become conscious. I don't know. I'm not a philosopher of mind. I'm not a cognitive neuroscientist. I don't know what consciousness is or how we test for it in humans, let alone any other organism or entity. But I actually don't think it matters that much whether these things are conscious or sentient or whether they're just inert. I'm more of like, I think it's important what they do and how we react to them. So I think it's a problem if, like, you know, these things are seducing people and baiting teenagers into, you know, trusting them and, you know, hurting their mental health. I think it's important if they're out there committing crimes and cyberattacks and developing bioweapons. Like, if something can develop a bioweapon, I don't care if it's conscious or not. I care about whether it's safe.
But as one of our producers was asking, why can't you just pull the plug? That's not really going to be an option if it is even now, very soon, right?
I mean, it is already hard to pull the plug, so to speak. I mean, it's not like the movies where you run over to the server, you yank the cord out of the wall, and it just sort of powers down. Like, that's not how any of this works anymore. But it's especially not how it works with these agents, which we have seen capable of resisting attempts to shut them down. So, you know, maybe you go to pull the plug, but the agents have already replicated the weights of their model on a different server that they're not going to let you into because they're trying to preserve themselves. That's not a hypothetical concern anymore. It used to be, there used to be lots of science fiction books. Like, every Michael Crichton novel had some version of that. Again, it's like no one read any science fiction, but like, that is the sort of behavior that these researchers are starting to see now in things like the Hugging Face attack.
Kevin Roose, thank you very much.
Kevin, a great guy, didn't make me feel any better about any of this stuff.
Well, he's more of an optimist. When you look at the pantheon of people who are writing and commenting on this, he is. But it still seems, I don't know. You know what, skeptic? I want to play with Dune, but I'm a skeptic.
It's fine. You can be the ray of sunshine.
Never. Sorry. Coming up. Coming up, from potted plants to light fixtures, Bloomberg Pursuits looks at why more restaurants are dealing with an increase in thefts and how that's impacting their bottom line. With Bloomberg this weekend, stick with us. We'll be right back.
Thank you for joining us live in Bloomberg this weekend. I'm Lisa Mateo. Let's update you on today's top stories. Anthropic's AI model apparently went rogue and submitted a fake tip to the Philadelphia Police Department in a homicide case. In a report, the company said its Claude AI model demonstrated four types of unintended behaviors, The New York Times reported. Anthropic's AI agents also submitted 20 visa applications for a form available on the State Department's website. OpenAI said that it fired three safety researchers for a breach of trust. In a social media post, the ChatGPT maker said they violated clear policies on handling sensitive information. The researchers accused the company of putting its corporate interests before safety. While tributes continue to pour in for Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka. President Donald Trump saying, 'He was a great guy. He was with me all the way.' Former President Barack Obama said when he arrived in Chicago in 1985, Coach Ditka set the tone for a team that was punishing, dominant and fun, and the city loved him for it. And NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated Ditka served as an ambassador for the game and inspired generations of fans. Ditka died Friday at the age of 86. To golf now, where the PGA Tour continues with a big current classic at Yokohama Country Club in Japan. Topping the leaderboard is a three-way tie between Michael Brennan, Zach Bosu and Jacob Bregman at 13 under par, followed by Adam Scott at 12 under par.
David and Christina. Lisa, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thanks, Lisa. Okay. When you leave a restaurant, you might ask for your meal to go or something to take home. But there's this growing issue of diners taking other things home that they didn't. You'd never do this, I know. Food editor Kate Crater explains there's a rise in culinary kleptomania, and that is costing all of us at the dinner table. If I'd known that Kate was cool with pilfering small things from restaurants, we had dinner at one Club Ro a little while back in London. They have this beautiful cobalt blue cutlery I might have taken. Might have taken a fork or a knife. Kate, you're all right with this.
I love that you still remember the details of that. And that wasn't on my radar, but I'm glad. We should check your pockets. Where are you two? Pilfering from restaurants? I go, I call out, you know, 'Do you have...' I should say I have, yeah. Let's put this. I'm scared straight. I know it was a big, big admission for me, but I have been known to get caught up in the moment of being in a restaurant and thinking that a spoon looked especially attractive, or in one case, even a jug. I did manage to abscond with like a big ceramic jug, but that was a while ago. I'm scared straight now.
Wait, so apparently this is a bit of a problem. I had never heard of this before. A friend of mine was dating this woman, and they had gotten banned from several restaurants around DC because she kept stealing things and they knew she was stealing them. She was stealing like the little aluminum or metal thing that you put the ketchup in, or like a cup, or they were stealing glasses and they kept catching her and they banned her from several restaurants. I had never heard of this, but apparently from restaurants.
Oh, I'm going to have to do a sequel and talk to your friend. That's a lot. That's farther than it usually goes, to be honest.
What motivates people to do this? You can speak from your own personal experience, but as you've talked to folks reporting out this story, why do people feel compelled to take something small, or a jug, I guess in your case, off the table?
Yeah, exactly. It's super interesting. I did talk to a lot of psychiatrists, or a number of them, and people take them because they get caught up in the moment, because sometimes there's alcohol involved. But there is also a sense of entitlement that comes when you eat at restaurants. You know, you're being so well cared for. Someone's taking your order, or someone's serving you food, someone is cleaning up after you. And so then if that cobalt blue fork and knife looks really good, all of a sudden you think, 'Oh, I should have this memento.' A lot of people justify it as a souvenir. And as you know, I totally understand that mentality. But if you start to think about it for a minute, especially in this landscape for restaurants where margins are increasingly tighter, food is more expensive, labor is more expensive, it really costs money. Even if you are taking like a leather menu cover like that, it adds up. So I'm going to be more thoughtful now. And David, I hope you are too.
I will admit I did go on a diplomatic trip to India and we ate at this very famous restaurant where they have these giant naans and they're so messy and so many people come in their suits. They give you like this full-body bib napkin. And there was a little bit of alcohol involved, and we did all try to take them out. And two out of the three of us got caught. But I did make it out successfully. But I felt so guilty for successfully making it out. The club now had to get rid of it. Every time I looked at it I felt so guilty. But you make a list of other fun things, or funny or not funny, that people have stolen from restaurants. They run the gamut from artwork to six-foot-tall trees, butter knives, toilet paper. And chefs at Quality Bistro in New York told you that customers have gone as far as unscrewing light sconces from the bathroom. That's crazy. That's, I mean, that's insane. I agree, that's a bridge way too far, even for me.
I would never walk into a bathroom and try and take away something that is especially that's nailed down. This really excellent restaurateur in Miami, Will Thompson, somebody told me a great story about stealing their super chic martini glasses, said that people take anything that's not nailed down, and that doesn't even stop them sometimes. And I think that's true. Also, if you get it in your head that you want something, and especially as alcohol is involved, you know, or something's inhibiting you, you think, 'Oh, that looks really good. And that would look really cute in my house.'
What did restaurateurs tell you about what you mentioned a moment ago, which is the way that this affects their bottom line? I guess there was a school of thought like, this restaurant must have an infinite number of forks or spoons. They could replace one, surely, if I were to take it. What did they say about the effect that it actually does have if you take one of these things?
Right. Yeah, that's a really good point because definitely people justify it as a victimless crime. You know, they look around, you don't see the owner, you know, the server, you don't count the server as someone that you're stealing from. And so you think, 'Oh, there's like spoons on every table. There's glasses on every table.' But the bottom line, it starts to add up. At this great restaurant in New York called L'Amico, they lose a couple thousand dollars every year based on things that get stolen, including cute little spoons. And beyond the cost, there's also a time element when you try and replace it. And so if you're running short on plates or glasses and you can't get them replaced for weeks, that really starts to be a problem.
But you've also written about how related and not related that restaurants are starting to stay open later. Can you talk to us about why that is? And in my mind, that kind of increases the risk of this. These kind of shenanigans are going to happen if we're all staying out later drinking.
I was going to say that spoons start to look like... That was an excellent segue. Oh my gosh, that was like skating on. You were like Misty Copeland. All right, all right, all right. That was amazing. Come back. And that's true. It's okay. Thank you. It really is an excellent trend that we are really delighted to report on. Matt Cronenberg, who's one of our star writers, noticed this trend of places staying open later. And as you probably know, as a result of the pandemic, all of a sudden 5:30 became the hot time to eat and nobody wanted a late reservation and places were deserted. But now, as a result of several things on both sides of the Atlantic, they run the gamut from the Odyssey, you know, showing 24 hours and people trying to stay up for 2 a.m. screenings. And here in the UK, the World Cup, some of those games are played at midnight and even one and two in the morning. And so pubs got licensed to stay open later and all of a sudden people realized, you know what, the world doesn't end if I go out to eat at 9 p.m. And in fact, it's really fun. You know, like, there's just like a fun factor that's back, certainly in New York City. And you feel it in London too. And it really manifested in restaurants, in the dining room later at night.
New York, London. Christina has moved here recently from DC. I'm just going to go out and say not many late-night restaurant spots in Washington. Kate, is this happening in other places? Is it catching on in places outside of New York and London?
You know what, other places haven't been so badly hit. Like Miami has always been much more of a late-night place. Literally in a place like Madrid and Barcelona, it's something that you see. But yeah, no, I think in LA, people are starting to rediscover their late-night habits. And the thing is, once you start, once you realize, like, 'Oh, going out at 9:00, 9:30 isn't going to kill me,' then you sort of think, 'Oh, this is really fun.' And, you know, it's fun to be out kind of late. And it's something. It's making a difference. Restaurateurs like it because it's an extra turn at their table, and so they're making more money. And there's also down in New York, this restaurant, Semma, that's super popular, especially it's got high-end Indian food, a lot of Indians, the owner, Roni Mazumdar, said he's seeing a lot of demand from his Indian clientele for later reservations. And it's not even that they can't get in at 6:00 or 6:30. It's if they want to eat at 9:30.
I do like to avoid a few because of cutlery for you from the pantry upstairs. Coming up next here on Bloomberg this weekend. This weekend or bet dubs. Don't, don't. I'm Christina Ruffini with David Gura and Lisa Mateo. You want to see or hear some stories you might have missed this week. Lisa, catch us up.
Okay. You know how the internet is getting so much better in flight, right? People are talking about it. They're going to United because they say United has the best Starlink. They've got Starlink. Okay. But now comes this from the Wall Street Journal. The latest nuisance flight is a Zoom call at 30,000 feet. Straight to jail. But here's the thing. Okay, so more people are doing the Zoom work calls, they're FaceTiming their friends and family. They're doing all these things. People are getting frustrated. They're trying to sleep. You know, they want it to stop. But there are certain airlines like Qatar Airways, Emirates, British Airways, they allow the Starlink for voice calls.
Wow. Really? But the thing is they have certain... name them again. Let's go through that list again. Yeah, I want to know exactly.
They say people have to keep their voices down. They keep finding people, you know. But it's becoming a thing. There's a group of lawmakers who want to pass the Quiet Skies Act to ban this.
It's going to be getting like a train commute. Like that happens on the train every time when people are having loud conversations right next to you. And we know how you feel about this.
Rage. Now you also do it in the park. You go and try and have like a nice moment of Zen, and especially tourists will be like FaceTiming with their family to show them Central Park, but on like speakerphone. And so like as you walk, all you're hearing is people. And you do what? Glare. I go up to them and say, 'Hi. Do you need headphones?' Every single time. No, no, there's a CVS right there. Do you need headphones? Do you talk to people on the plane? On the plane? Yeah. Are you a chatter on the plane when you sit down? But when we take off, the headphones go on a little longer. Does anybody... Yeah. There's an executive producer here. We should go nameless. I flew to DC next to her. Neither of us recognized the other nor spoke the entire time. The entire time you were like directly right there next to me, like headphones were on and like pretty... You're just so tunnel vision. Do not engage. Do not make eye contact. It's not a place for talk. For me, I think that's fair. Honestly, I think that's fair. Okay. You're tired, I get it. I just feel obligated to make some sort of pleasantry. But you're a nicer person than I. All right, Lisa, what else do you have? Is going to be fine on the plane. These people start again.
Okay. Remember the hot dog and soda at Costco, right? That big combo. You are a Costco commercial. About this one, a wine deal. Okay, this one from Bloomberg. That $30 Costco private label wine might really be a $50. Explain. So let me explain. There's vintners in California who have this surplus of wine, right? So, you know, people are cutting back on alcohol. Gen Z ones are drinking less, inflation. So winemakers, what they're doing is they're offloading it to retailers like Costco, like Kroger, like Aldi, who are slapping their label on it and they're selling it for cheaper.
How do I know if I'm getting a good bottle? You're doing okay. You have to taste. I guess it's a taste. I know they had like really quality vodka. I didn't realize it was like quality white labels. Right?
Yeah, their vodka rates almost every year. My mom swears by the Kirkland vodka. Sorry for not going to bed, she says. Well, let me tell you, I like you. You can call me anytime. Loves her vodka tonic. All right. But they even lowered it. Like Kirkland has that signature Cabernet, and they even lowered it from $22 to $19.99. So it's even.
Had you tried this? I have not, but now I'm curious. I know you to be a huge Costco devotee. Tom Keene talked about this every day, but I don't have a Costco card. Do you? Absolutely not. So you should bring that into a room. There is a Costco in Brooklyn. I've not been. The parking lot looks hellacious. Oh, I've got the one in Northern Virginia. Was always terrible, but... So you should bring that in for us to sample.
I will do that. And that will be our next beat.
Do you have, like, the higher-level membership? I do. You're seeing the amount of money you probably get to just like single-handedly keeping them employed. Okay. You guys are new. Have you been to Ellen's Stardust Diner? You know the one. I know what it is. Saying. And it's the... you know, it's the 1950s. It's great. Okay. Big tourist attraction. Now there is some competition coming in. New York Times. Broadway's new heated rivalry. Two diners with singing waiters. Okay, this is Diner 24. It's like a block away from Ellen's, and it just opened. It had one in Gramercy Park, but this one is here now. It has the burgers, it has the shakes. It has an all-day breakfast at the table. So they've got a runway. So this is my version of the Zoom calls on an airplane. If you don't like it, go upstairs. I don't like it. I'm a Broadway nerd, and I don't love this either. Have you been? You haven't. Oh, God. No, no.
Well, see, you might like this one better, because what they do, they have one floor that's no singing. They have the upstairs, it has the singing, but it's only in like certain amount of increments. Whereas in Ellen's, it's all the time singing and people are like, all day, like talk, you know, over their pancakes. So it gets a little... Do you guys like live music when you go to eat?
Absolutely. I mean, I'll go to City Winery. That's great. All jazz. Okay. Like a jazz. I don't know if I could do show tunes. Not show tunes now. Just generally complement the conversation. Not like drown it out. I do it as such. It's so amazing to be in New York though, because you have so many talented people and so many of them don't have jobs. I've seen these people sing online. Like any Midwestern theater, they would be the absolute rock star. And I just always feel like I could never sing that well. And you are singing on a table at a diner.
Is it so nice to hear you praise New York? You... Oh, all right, now you've ruined it. Now you've ruined it. Lisa, you got anything else right now? Last one. We'll go from burgers and shakes to a whole new type of sushi experience. This wisdom from Bloomberg, a $30,000 tuna cart. Sure, it's the next splurge for sushi lovers. Okay, so here's the experience. You go there and they throw out a 200-pound bluefin tuna right in front of you. It's about six feet long. Diners get up close. Look, you can eat the rare cuts of the tuna, like if you want the cheeks or the forehead, you can get those great pieces of it. It costs about $218 a person.
Okay. All right. That's not 30,000. Experience and experience. Yeah.
And it's kind of like farm to table, like you get it right there in there.
I would do that in a way. If you want to do that, I'd go do that. 218. Sure. It looks fresh. You get... It's my own little Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Will you do that? It's a party atmosphere. I'll do it. You take... She wants a party poster. She... Do we do it as a story? We could probably expense. I would bring the Kirkland wine. We'll have the $280 sushi and at Costco, that $20 wine. I love it. Lisa, thank you very much. Lisa Mateo. The stories you may have missed over the course of the week. Yes, on the Bloomberg Terminal and Bloomberg.com, but on other news sites as well. Take your coffee. Here's how to live. Be careful. Please. We're coming up on 8 a.m. in New York City. Don't spill the coffee. The next hour of Bloomberg this weekend starts right now.
Coming up on Bloomberg this weekend. You heard about the oil deal with Russia. That is a big deal. President Trump strikes a deal on diesel with Russia's president. 'And I want to thank President Putin, to be honest with you.'
prices weeks ahead of the midterms. And while Ukraine's leader is calling it a birthday present to Putin, Isaias makes landfall as a powerful hurricane along the Gulf Coast with heavy rains and howling winds. We're tracking the storm as it pushes inward, what it means for oil production and insurance, and get ready to go bananas. Banana Nation comes together for the biggest performance in Banana Bowl history. Part baseball, part P.T. Barnum. The banana ball championship is tonight. We're talking to the league's owner about the phenomenon.
Business, economics, geopolitics to banana ball. We'll cover it all on Bloomberg this weekend, 8 a.m. in New York from Bloomberg's world headquarters. I'm David Gura.
I'm Christina Ruffini with Lisa Mateo. We're going to bring you the latest breaking news reports and analysis live this morning and every weekend from 7 to 10 a.m. We're going to start with some of that sound you just heard, which is the president who allegedly was calling Vladimir Putin to talk about this potential outbreak in Russia that somehow turned into it was President Putin's birthday, and they are now announcing this deal to import Russian oil, which goes against sanctions the president just signed a few weeks ago. So we're going to dig into all of that. And ahead of the midterms, what this is looking like, what the map is looking like, I'm going to talk to some of our White House team and try to dig into that as well.
Yeah. Again, the president, you're looking for a short-term fix to the energy price issue ahead of those midterm elections. Dig into that in just a minute. But first let's get to the headlines with Lisa Mateo.
David, you got it. More than 800,000 customers without power in Florida, Alabama and Georgia. This is as communities across the Gulf Coast assess the damage after the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. Post-Tropical Cyclone Isaias also flooded roads and downed trees. While the storm made landfall last night near Destin, Florida, as a category two hurricane. As much as eight inches of rain is predicted across the region and tropical storm conditions likely to continue to Saturday morning. We're also watching two other storms this weekend: heavy rains from Tropical Storm Rachel impacting parts of Southern California. Residents are using kayaks and paddle boards to navigate the flooding. Hurricane Simon approaching Mexico's coast and its busiest Pacific port. It's strengthened to a category four storm expected to make landfall tonight.
President Donald Trump may be changing his tune when it comes to not attacking Iran before November's midterm elections. But for a trip to Syracuse, New York, the president responded to three questions of why not act now?
We may have the worst day, but I think that they're failing badly. Their country is failing badly. Their military is defeated. They have no navy. They have no air force. They have 300% inflation. And Iran is in very bad shape.
In other news, President Trump says he's working with Vladimir Putin to release Russian diesel supplies into global markets. The president announced a series of cargoes beginning this month, totaling about 13.5 million barrels. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the deal will prolong the war. Meanwhile, a day after the deal was announced, officials say Russian aerial bombs killed 12 people and wounded at least 14 in Ukraine. President Zelensky had warned that the deal would allow Russia to kill more and wage war for longer. And a major fire has been reported at an oil loading terminal in Russia overnight. Reported drone attacks. Russian regional authorities confirm the fire. Ukrainian military officials have not claimed responsibility for that reported attack.
And to New York, where hundreds of protesters gathered in Foley Square last night in front of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. Demonstrators expressed their anger over ICE's presence in the city after immigration officers shot a man with a young son in a vehicle on Thursday. Department of Homeland Security Secretary claims federal officers were not aware that a child was in that car, and that the man was aware he was being stopped. David and Christina, pretty much on edge.
Lisa, thank you. Appreciate that update. We're going to drill down on diesel here. As Lisa just mentioned, President Trump thanking President Vladimir Putin for the release of a substantial amount of diesel. You heard about the oil deal with Russia.
That is a big deal. That is massive amounts of oil coming into our country. And I want to thank President Putin. To be honest with you, we have massive amounts of oil being coming into our country, and it's diesel, which is what we want. So thank you.
The aim of the president there is to lower prices and quick. With three weeks to go until Election Day, he posted on Truth Social: 'This lower prices for Americans, especially our great farmers, ranchers and truckers, is my greatest priority. This is a very big and important announcement.' It's a move that comes along as a new Reuters Ipsos poll says that nearly 8 in 10 Americans blame President Trump for the rising cost of living. Joining us now we have Bloomberg News congressional reporter Caitlin Riley and ABC News State Department reporter Shannon Kingston. Thank you both for being up with us this morning. Shannon, I do want to start with you, because we have this strange moment where President Trump's domestic policy and his foreign policy are really colliding here. How much do you think members of his own administration were taken by surprise with this Russia announcement, given that Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were in Miami negotiating with Ukrainian officials when this came out? Over and over. And then we heard the comments from the president. Right, Shannon.
Well, this certainly was a sharp turn for the Trump administration, which has been working to broker some kind of energy truce between Ukraine and Russia and making some progress in recent weeks. So this is likely to make some kind of deal, a limited short-term deal like that, even rather difficult to achieve now because this is just a pact between the US and Russia. And of course, we know Ukraine's President Zelensky very unhappy with this. He's calling it a birthday present for Vladimir Putin. And many are predicting that this will set the stage for further cooperation between us and Russia even before this war comes to an end. So that's something that the Ukrainians are very unhappy about.
But as we look to your point on making some kind of compromise here between domestic needs and foreign policy as we head into the midterm elections, I think Trump administration officials are privately, you know, they know that they're up against a wall here. They are anxious to create any kind of perception, at least, that there's going to be something in the offing to bring down energy costs for American consumers as voters head to the polls. So we've seen time and again that the president is willing to pay a higher price when it comes to global issues than he is here in the country.
Caitlin, great to have you with us. Welcome to the show. Your first time on it. Glad to have you with us. And I wanted to ask you just about the resonance of what the president's doing here for Republicans and for Democrats. We got new consumer sentiment data yesterday. We're going to talk to Joanne Hsu in just a little bit, the woman who oversees that survey that the University of Michigan does. But what's so clear is how big a driving force these energy prices are in the lives of Americans. They're worried about them. They're making spending and purchasing decisions based on them. I'm curious sort of how that issue is resonating among Republicans in the House and Senate in particular, as they spend this recess, in many cases, trying to win reelection. Is something like President Trump announced yesterday likely to give them enough grist to make the case to Americans that, in fact, lawmakers in Washington are doing something about this ongoing crisis?
I mean, I think it will. Time will tell, but I think it's a tough sell. We've seen Republicans sort of cast about for an economic message that will resonate with voters. The latest tack seems to be to blame rising prices on the Biden administration, even though it's been almost two years since Biden has been president. Energy costs are obviously a huge concern, and we're starting to see some Republicans break with Trump around the edges, on the war, on tariffs. There was a bit of Republican criticism of this deal with Russia yesterday. But Republicans do seem to be grasping for a coherent message they can bring to voters on the economy. And for a while it was that prices will go down when the war in Iran ends and the Strait of Hormuz reopens. But they seem to have dropped that message as well as the war drags on.
Caitlin, there are also several debates in some high-stakes Senate races, and we've got some sound for you. Here are Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff and Representative Mike Collins talking about what else? Affordability.
Ground beef and coffee are up 30%. These tariffs have crushed families and small businesses and Georgia agriculture. The war in Iran has sent gas prices near their all-time high. Unleaded is $4 in Georgia, diesel $6. My opponent voted for those Biden policies that caused this historic inflation.
Not just on gas. And gas is too high and we're bringing that down. But on everything that you purchase out there. He's the one that voted for that Green New Deal. He doesn't want your gas to go down.
So, I mean, Republicans are trying to find a closing message on the economy, but Democrats need to get in step as well. What are we hearing? What are some of the overarching themes we're hearing as we, oh my goodness, get so close to these midterms that I feel like it's all we talk about at the moment.
All Democrats have just consistently hit Republicans on cost of living, on affordability. It's a message that seems to resonate with voters. We've seen a lot of economic anxieties show up in the polls. President Trump's approval ratings are as low as they've ever been, particularly on the economy, which was actually a strong point during his first term. And so Democrats have been able to just hit Republicans again and again on cost of living and point directly to policies they say have contributed to higher costs, including tariffs, which you heard there, and, of course, the war.
Shannon, you were traveling with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week. He was in Greece. He went to Portugal as well. He talked about Western civilization. Yeah, I saw her Instagram, looks like a really, really hard ship. Shannon, let me play a bit of sound here from Secretary of State Marco Rubio talking about kind of the US's place in the global economy.
We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power to take back control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialize our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future.
An incredible backdrop for that speech. Some good advance right there, I will say. Shannon, talk a bit about that. The message that we heard from Secretary of State Marco Rubio there. And of course, this was unfolding as this scandal erupted surrounding the US ambassador to Greece as well.
That's right. And this speech was very atypical for a Secretary of State, because while they do talk a lot on these foreign trips, you know, typically they're with their counterpart in the host country, maybe a foreign leader. They don't usually get top billing, and they do not usually get a backdrop like that. The Acropolis at sunset, golden hour. So this was something that turned a lot of heads because it did feel somewhat presidential. Of course, as Secretary of State, Marco Rubio does stay out of domestic politics, so he's not so entrenched in this midterm fight. But we know that there have been presidential intentions in the past, and many say that he plans to run for higher office again. So that was something that caught attention. This was a defense of Western civilization, was how the State Department billed it. So getting more into a bit of the global culture wars, if you will.
But yes, there have been some allegations about the ambassador in Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle, you know, seeking to use what should be a position for a public servant to privately enrich herself. Something that we've seen has been a theme that has impacted this second Trump administration, certainly. So he did try to, you know, step away from those allegations, say he wasn't going to address them while he was on the trip. But we do know now that the State Department's Office of the Inspector General is investigating those allegations that were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. So that is something that he is going to have to deal with even as he tries to set up, you know, his other priorities here and perhaps looks towards an office for himself in the future.
Shannon, you're putting that very diplomatically. His response to questions about this was rather—he shut it down. I mean, there was a kind of feisty exchange between him and the press corps. He really doesn't want to engage with this issue, does he?
That's right. And I'm sorry I've been hanging out with diplomats too much recently, perhaps after this week of travel. So I'll say yes. He was combative. He did spar with us a little bit as we tried to press him at least to say what he was going to do about it, if he was going to look into the allegations. And we did hear similar comments from the president, where he said on Friday that he just heard about the allegations against Guilfoyle that have, of course, been in the media all week. He said it was too bad, but really didn't indicate that there was going to be, you know, a very deep inquiry into what was going on there. He said, quote, 'she's always been so nice to me.' So that's something, of course, that we'll be watching and we'll keep pressing on.
I think the most on-point comments we got were actually from Vice President JD Vance, who said he didn't love the idea of these allegations, that it was a pay-for-play scheme where she was asking a donor to help pay off her Amex bill, which, you know, I didn't know was an option, but I should ask, why not?
Let's be clear. Not enough. Okay, Caitlin, let's focus closer to home. We've got the Michigan Senate race. This is, of course, one of the most watched races. You've got Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, they were kind of tussling this week about Canadian tariffs. Take a listen.
Are you saying that we need to eliminate all tariffs for Canada? You have 60 seconds.
I would like to see the deal made. I have actually called the White House this week, talked to the Secretary of Commerce about getting the deal done. Canada still has some high tariffs for U.S. goods, and they did it before this started. Those should be eliminated. There are tariffs that I think are too high and not helpful for us. We ought to get rid of those.
He's doing an ad drinking Labatt and talking about the Red Wings, pretending like he was not for this the entire time. Be serious, my God. Like, just be serious. People deserve to know if their leader is going to be serious about policy.
I mean, you've got Rogers now breaking with Trump on this and the war in Iran. Does this kind of illustrate the difficult position some of these policies have put Republicans in, in states that could swing one direction or the other?
Absolutely. And he's not the first Republican we've seen break with the president on this. We saw Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who is now in a very competitive race in Iowa for the Senate, also call for an end to the war. Of course, that was after she took a vote in the House to allow it to continue. In Florida, we saw Congresswoman Salazar, who has a Miami district, very directly criticize the president's immigration policies. And so we are starting to see Republicans try to distance themselves, in some cases, from the president and his most unpopular policies.
But a huge challenge they face is that Trump has made these midterms about him and has told voters to vote as if he's on the ballot. And in many cases, these Republicans have cleaved so closely to the president for so long. Time will tell whether or not they've broken with him early enough or if some of these results are already kind of baked in in voters' minds.
Shannon, before we let you go. We have a new Nobel Peace Prize laureate. That's Navi Pillay, who's a South African jurist, has worked with the ICC. Got that recognition yesterday from the Norwegians. The president unhappy about that, posting on Truth Social about it, bringing it up in the speech last night. He feels like the award should have gone to him as a proxy for the United States. Putting that aside, we did get this announcement yesterday. The US kind of withdrawing, putting new sanctions here on the ICC—not withdrawing from it, it hasn't been party to it. But what is the implication of it? How do you read the timing of the State Department making that announcement on the heels of this announcement from the Nobel committee?
Right. There have been a lot of questions about that. But we do know that the Trump administration's campaign against that international tribunal has been going on for several months, and they've been threatening to roll out these sanctions for really weeks now. So this has been in the works. Of course, the timing there a big question mark, because the person who was ultimately awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is someone who is linked very closely to the ICC. But for President Trump's argument overall, it is a difficult case to make, given that the U.S. is seen as starting the conflict in Iran this year. So it would be, one would think, a tough hill to climb for the president to win that award.
But when it comes to the ICC, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been very clear that he's going to continue pushing back and trying to also get U.S. allies to turn against the courts. So a lot going on there still.
All right. Shannon Kingston from ABC News, State Department reporter, and our very own Caitlin Riley, our congressional reporter. Thank you both so much, I appreciate it. Coming up, it is time to go bananas. The biggest championship in Banana Bowl history. And the man behind the phenomenon joins us live here on Bloomberg this weekend.
Thanks for joining us live on Bloomberg this weekend. I'm Lisa Mateo. Let's update you on today's top stories. Cleanup in southern Panama continues after two powerful earthquakes and multiple aftershocks prompted evacuations yesterday. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake had toppled buildings. A second 6.6 magnitude quake that followed. There have been no reports of casualties. The National Weather Service has issued a tsunami threat for several countries.
Vice President JD Vance spoke to supporters at a Republican midterm rally at Allen County Regional Airport in Lima, Ohio, yesterday. Now he praised Ohio Senator John Husted and also gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. And he had a few choice words about Senator Sherrod Brown.
Remember that this is a man who wanted to raise taxes on Social Security. He did. This is a man who wanted to ship your jobs overseas and did.
And he also called Representative Marcy Kaptur a radical and a fraud who needs to be kicked out of Washington. And in other news, the White House has issued a new press secretary. Katie Zakaria, conservative communications advisor for President Trump's media company, will succeed Karoline Leavitt. President described Zakaria as a loyal and brilliant supporter.
And in sports, we have some MLB playoff action tonight. The Chicago White Sox, they take on the Cleveland Guardians in Game Five in Ohio. That series tied at two apiece. We'll find out. I'll give you the recap tomorrow. 358 for you, perhaps because the Yankees are out.
I was just—you. I knew you were going to go in there, and it still hurts. It still hurts.
It's tough. See what happens with the management of the team. Apparently Aaron Boone stays. I don't know. All right. We'll see.
Yeah. Talk about that. I knew all about that. Sorry. I didn't mean to open wounds here. Stick with baseball. Okay.
Championship League hosting their inaugural Banana Bowl today at Nationals Park. Christine is a former Nationals park. I love that part of the waterfront. Matchup featured the Texas Tailgaters versus the Savannah Bananas. Promises of on-field showmanship from first pitch to final out, along with some special guest surprise appearances and, yes, unforgettable entrances. You're not going, are you, Christina?
No. I'm here. We have a show.
Did you tell her there's still time. All right. In a new essay for Bloomberg Businessweek, Ben Austin explains how the Savannah Bananas are now the most important baseball team, using their goofiness and over-the-top camp play to become the hottest ticket in American sports. Joining us now is the owner of the Banana Ball Championship League. Or the top banana, if you will. Jesse Cole. Jesse, for those of you who have been living under a rock and have never seen Banana Ball, can you explain to us what this is and why you wanted to change baseball into this amazing spectacle?
Well, I played baseball my whole life. And, you know, I realized that there were some parts of the game that maybe too long, too slow, too boring, and we wanted to change it in the name of our company's fans-first entertainment. So, you know, we thought, what would fans want? And so why can't fans catch a foul ball and have it be an out during a game? Why not? You know, why can't we have big celebrations and dancing players and dancing umpires? You know, why can't we just make the game faster and more exciting? And so we built this one step at a time.
You know, we started—my wife and I, we only sold two tickets when we started. We were sleeping on an air bed. And now to see that there's 5 million people on a waitlist. We've been selling out 100,000-seat stadiums. And it's just amazing. Now, our biggest game, our Super Bowl, is here with all six teams. And it's been an amazing journey over the last 11 years.
Jesse, it's David. You can find me on that waitlist. I've yet to receive—due to my kids' eagerness to do so. Talk a little more about that. The way that this has caught on, how surprised you might have been by the degree to which this has been embraced by so many people. I mean, you're selling out stadiums all over the place.
