US Attacks Prompt Iranian Retaliation; MA Election Results

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, radio, news.

**Nathan Hager** (0:10)
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager.

**Karen Moskow** (0:11)
And I'm Karen Moskow. Here are the stories we're following today.

**Nathan Hager** (0:15)
Karen, we begin with the latest on the escalating conflict in the Middle East. The US has carried out a fresh wave of attacks on targets tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Iran says the strikes killed four members of the IRGC. It says it has retaliated with missile launches on US bases in Jordan and Bahrain. And it's accusing the US of bombing a wedding ceremony as well, killing five people.
President Trump is downplaying the chances for a deal, writing on Truth Social, quote, I couldn't care less if they sign a worthless-to-them agreement. We get more from Bloomberg Middle East correspondent Abirabu Omar in Dubai.

**Abirabu Omar** (0:51)
Essentially what President Trump had said in his latest remarks was that he doesn't really care if Iran comes back to the negotiating table. He actually said that he thinks that the United States is in a good position right now. The response that that stoked from Iran was in the shape, of course, of a response from the president who was in Kyrgyzstan for a conference. He did say that Iran is willing to go back to the MOU concessions if the US were to go back to diplomacy. And then the foreign minister, of course, Abbas al-Shihad, said that Iran is not taking away the diplomacy route completely. It is willing to go back there. But again, only if the United States were to seize its economic pressure campaign and also the military pressure campaign.

**Nathan Hager** (1:30)
And Bloomberg's Zabir Abou-Almar reports Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is calling Iran's leaders panicked over their country's economic problems. At some point, he says they will be ready to negotiate.

**Karen Moskow** (1:40)
Well, Nathan, Secretary Bessent is hosting a G20 finance minister's summit in Asheville, North Carolina, this week. He says the gathering won't end with a traditional joint communique. And the reason why, he says, is China due to a dispute of the country's trade surplus.

**Scott Bessent** (1:57)
It is clear that the country with the world's largest and unsustainable current account surplus, People's Republic of China, was the dissenter. And I think that we have 19 other voices. And as I said, my chairman's statement will echo that.

**Karen Moskow** (2:18)
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did release a statement saying China descended on paragraphs related to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, creating a task force on trade imbalances and provisions tied to debt restructuring. China released its own statement saying G20 members should safeguard free trade and promote economic globalization. It did not address Bessent's remarks directly.

**Nathan Hager** (2:39)
Now, Karen, let's get to the latest on the race to the midterms. The results are in from last night's primary elections in Massachusetts. In the Democratic Senate race, 80-year-old progressive incumbent Ed Markey beat back a challenge from 47-year-old moderate congressman Seth Moulton 65 to 35 percent. Markey told his supporters last night his victory should be just the beginning.

**Ed Markey** (3:00)
We need to build more than just a Democratic majority in Congress. We need to cement a progressive Democratic majority, one that will use its political capital to take on the Bossens, the billionaires and the wannabe kings.

**Nathan Hager** (3:15)
Senator Ed Markey will now face Republican John Deaton in November, who ran uncontested. In the race to fill Seth Moulton's House seat in the sixth district, Dan Coe, a former White House official and Boston City Hall alum, clinched the Democratic nomination. He got 41 percent of the vote in a five-way race. Coe will now face Micah Jones, an Army veteran who was endorsed by former Republican Governor Charlie Baker. Jones was the sole Republican running in that North Shore Anchored District.

**Karen Moskow** (3:42)
Well Nathan, a couple of veteran Democratic congressmen in Massachusetts also won their primaries, so they faced challenges from the left. 77-year-old Richard Neal beat Jeremy Whelan in the first district, 54 to 46 percent. And in the eighth district, 71-year-old Stephen Lynch defeated Attorney Patrick Roth, 55 to 45 percent. And in the Republican primary for Massachusetts Governor, Michael Minogue will go on to face Democratic incumbent Maura Healey in November. He beat Brian Shortsleeve last night, 76-to-24 percent.

**Nathan Hager** (4:12)
Turning to the nation's capital now, Karen, House lawmakers have passed a stopgap funding measure helping to avert an October 1st government shutdown. Bloomberg's Amy Morris reports from Washington.

**Amy Morris** (4:23)
The bill will keep money flowing to federal agencies until December, preventing a government shutdown before Election Day. House Speaker Mike Johnson.

**Mike Johnson** (4:31)