US Seizes Iranian Ship, Energy Price Crisis Talks, Banks Emerge From Scandal
4/20/202620 min
Your morning briefing. All the news you need to start your day.
On today's podcast:
(1) President Donald Trump and Iranian officials offered disparate views on the next stage of the war, casting uncertainty over whether the two sides would meet for peace talks with a ceasefire set to expire in the coming days.
(2) Oil and natural gas prices soared after the US Navy seized an Iranian ship during a chaotic weekend that saw Tehran firing at vessels and reimposing controls in the Strait of Hormuz.
(3) The United Arab Emirates has begun talks with the US about a financial backstop in case the Iran war plunges the country into further crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials it didn’t identify.
(4) Keir Starmer is preparing for a showdown with the senior official he fired over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, as calls for the prime minister to resign grow.
(5) Former President Rumen Radev, who opposes sanctions on Russia and military aid for Ukraine, claimed an overwhelming victory in Bulgaria’s election and pledged to turn the page on years of political gridlock and corruption.
(6) Hungary’s outgoing government signaled it’s ready to unblock the European Union’s €90 billion ($106 billion) loan to Ukraine as soon as this week just as the new leadership in Budapest kicked off intensive talks with Brussels to tap its own stalled funding.
(7) Nearly a decade since the first investigations began, Nordic banks are only now emerging from the shadow of a $230 billion money-laundering scandal linked to Russia.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsEbrahim Azizi· Soundbite0:00
[ on-hold music] Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News.
Caroline Hepker· Host0:07
[upbeat music] This is the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe Podcast. Good morning. It's Monday the twentieth of April. I'm Caroline Hepker in London.
Stephen Carroll· Host0:15
And I'm Stephen Carroll in Brussels. Coming up today, tensions in the Middle East soar as the United States seizes an Iranian ship and Tehran casts doubt on possible peace talks.
Caroline Hepker· Host0:26
Oil and gas prices spike once again as European governments scramble to blunt the economic fallout.
Stephen Carroll· Host0:32
Plus, after nearly a decade of probes and billions of dollars in fines, banks in Sweden, Finland, and Denmark finally emerge from a money laundering scandal.
Caroline Hepker· Host0:42
Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
Stephen Carroll· Host0:45
Tensions in the Middle East are ratcheting up once again this morning, with oil prices heading back towards one hundred dollars a barrel. The US Navy fired on and boarded an Iranian-flagged cargo ship yesterday in the first seizure linked to the American blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The escalation follows a chaotic period when President Trump and Iran's foreign minister said the strait was completely open. However, Tehran abruptly halted traffic through the waterway less than twenty-four hours later as the US maintained its containment of the shipping channel. Speaking to the BBC over the weekend, senior Iranian politician, Ebrahim Azizi, said the country will never cede control of the waterway.
Ebrahim Azizi· Soundbite1:25
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