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This is the Bloomberg Daybreaker at podcast available every morning on Apple's Spotify or wherever you listen. It's Friday the 3rd of January in London. I'm Stephen Carroll coming up today. The FBI is treating the New Year's attack in New Orleans as an act of terrorism but says the suspect acted alone.
South Korean investigators fail to arrest impeached President Yun Suk-Yul after a standoff with his security team. Plus, Nick Clegg is being replaced as head of global affairs at Meta as the company seeks to boost its ties to the Republican Party in the U.S. Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
The FBI has found no evidence linking two deadly attacks in New Orleans and Las Vegas in the early hours of New Year's Day. The New Orleans assault, which left 15 people dead and more than 30 injured, is being investigated as an act of terror. FBI Assistant Deputy Director Christopher Reyes says the suspect was a supporter of ISIS.
This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act. At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas. Ryan, making those comments, despite similarities between the two events, that both of the suspects used rented vehicles in the attacks through the Turo car sharing app. And both had a background in the US Army.
The events have unsettled to the U.S. less than three weeks before Donald Trump is set to take over as president. President Joe Biden says he stands with the people of New Orleans. People in New Orleans are sending a unmistakable message. They will not let this attack or the attack attackers, this is a deluded ideology, overcome us. None of us should fear that it will overcome us.
Biden also told journalists that he has directed the FBI to continue looking for any possible link to foreign terrorism on social media. President-elect Donald Trump sought to draw links between the attacks and border policy under Joe Biden, despite the suspects being U.S. citizens.
South Korean investigators have tried and failed to arrest impeached President Yun Sukh Yul. Anti-corruption investigators headed to the former leaders' residence this morning. Bloomberg's Chief North Asia TV correspondent Stephen Engle says they were blocked by Yun's security detail.
They faced resistance from his own security apparatus. We're getting statements essentially saying they've called off that attempt to serve him the papers, the arrest warrant, and they say that they deemed that it would be impossible to do so because of the security apparatus. They also expressed deep regret over President Yun's stance.
Bloomberg's Stephen Engel there. The attempt to arrest Eun followed his shocking martial law declaration in December. Eun's representative called the arrest attempt illegal and vowed to take legal action. They had previously sought a court injunction to block the warrant.
Sources have told Bloomberg that US President Joe Biden will block the sale of US steel to nip on steel. The decisions expected to be announced later today. The president had previously indicated his opposition to the $14.1 billion takeover. The deal first announced in December 2023 became a political issue during the presidential campaign. After fierce opposition arose in the United Steelworkers Union, a review had centered on whether the sale of the company would amount to a national security risk.
Meta is replacing Nick Clegg as its president of global affairs. The former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister will be succeeded by his deputy, Joel Kaplan, a longtime executive with strong ties to the Republican Party. Kaplan has been an advocate for allowing more speech from across the political spectrum on Meta's platforms. The personnel changes come as the company works to repair its relationship with President-elect Trump, who has accused the company of censoring conservative speech.
China is planning to restrict exports of technology used to make battery components and the processing of two crucial metals. If implemented, the moves will be the latest in a series of bands targeting critical minerals and their processing technology. Currently, China controls nearly 85 percent of global batteries sell production capacity. The Xinhua News Agency says the proposal is currently open to consultation until the beginning of February.
and taxes on minimum wage jobs in the UK are set to hit double what they were a decade ago. That's according to new research by a conservative think tank. Bloomberg's Tia Adebayo has more.
The combined amount of tax paid by employees and employers will rise to more than 21% of salary for minimum wage workers. That's after the government's increased payroll levy comes into effect in April. It's a figure that's up 11% from 2015, say the Centre for Policy Studies, whose research finds that it will cost £2,367 more to employ one of the UK's lowest paid full-time workers compared to last year.
The increase in employers' national insurance contributions has triggered a backlash from businesses who warn they will need to pass on the costs, potentially through job cuts, lower wage growth or price hikes. In London, two at a buyer, Bloomberg Radio.
Those are your top stories on the markets. Wall Street started the trading year in a sour note. The S&P 500 closing down two-tenths of 1%. The dollar had been stronger, though. The euro fell by 0.9% yesterday to below the 103 handle. It's still there today, 102.72 against the dollar, although a tenth of 1% stronger. Tesla shares sank by 6% after their annual EV sales dropped for the first time in more than a decade.
Meanwhile, Apple share is split by as much as 2.5% on reports of discounted iPhones in China. In Asia today, we have Chinese stocks trading lower again on the CSI 300 by 1% and the Hang Seng and Hong Kong is up by 4.10%. That's after the major sell-off we saw yesterday.
In a moment, we'll update you on the investigations into those attacks in the United States. Plus, get the latest from South Korea, where attempts to arrest the impeached president have been halted after that standoff between police and protesters in Seoul. But another story that I wanted to mention this morning from our opinion columnist, Andy Mukherjee, looking at why crypto bros need to temper their hopes
For 2025, now, of course, we've seen this huge rally in bitcoins since Donald Trump was elected. It rose over 100% in fact in value last year, although it's off the peak. It's still trading at nearly $97,000 a token today. But Andy writes that, although we shouldn't be surprised if the hopes of big pro-crypto policies from Donald Trump don't turn out to be as much of a boom for the industry,
as had been hoped and he points to the widely differing approaches to these assets being taken in different parts of the world. More regulation requiring bigger reserves for stablecoin coming into force at the end of last year in the European Union. China, meanwhile, wanting to employ crypto assets to resist the dollar's dominance and also Silicon Valley's utopian idea
of decentralized finance. And it includes that 2025 could be a potentially tumultuous year for firms who are out this intersection of money banking and technology. He's got five key trends to watch in this area, including an East West split. And the fads and crypto that may disappear this year, you can read us full piece at blimberg.com forward slash opinion.
Let's get the latest now on the investigations into those attacks in the US and New Orleans and in Las Vegas. Our senior editor, Derek Wollbank, joins us now for more. Derek, starting with the events in New Orleans, investigators now say they believe the suspect, Shamsa Dunjapar, was working alone. What is the latest that we've heard about this investigation?
Yeah, that's the most significant thing that we've heard about it recently is that there do not appear to be necessarily links between that event in New Orleans and the explosion in a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas. The FBI did say that they believe that the suspect in New Orleans was acting alone, that there's not a further threat to the public.
But I do think that, you know, now a little bit further on from when we were discussing this yesterday, you know, there's still a lot of disquiet about how these attacks could have happened, what caused them to happen and how things like that can be prevented.
That's what we've heard in terms of the events in New Orleans, but when it comes to Las Vegas, the investigation, of course, proceeding there as well, and the suspect has been identified, the person who blew themselves up in that cyber truck.
Yes, that's right. The driver was listed as a Matthew Allen Livelsberger, 37 on leave from the US Army from his post in Germany. You know, apparently rented the cyber truck in Denver, drove to Las Vegas. But
That's sort of how did something happen. The why is, I think, a big question that people are going to have going forward. As I say, the operative thing that law enforcement are looking at at this moment, I think, that is very, very high of mind, is how do you secure big events and big places going forward? Certainly,
if you're thinking about New Orleans, if you're thinking about Las Vegas, both very, very tourist heavy places, and there are certainly any number of very large events upcoming, not least of which Donald Trump's inauguration, that traditionally a presidential inauguration is one of the most tightly secured events, but it's also an outdoor event
on the side of the U.S. Capitol, and that has a lot of security challenges anyway. It's a giant multi-agency response that happens every four years, but you would imagine at this point that every single part of that plan will be gone over with a fine-tooth comb trying to figure out how to make sure that that is
completely secure, especially, you know, shouldn't have to be mentioned, but especially after the events in Butler, Pennsylvania last year with the shooting that targeted now president-elect Donald Trump.
Yeah, indeed. And we've been hearing from both Joe Biden and Donald Trump on these events over the past couple of days as well. I mean, how should we be perceiving, I suppose, Donald Trump's commentary about this given that we are, as you say, only just over two weeks away from his inauguration.
Well, Donald Trump has made comments about this event and also immigration. I think the person involved in the New Orleans incident, I should say, according to the FBI, was an American
But Trump has said repeatedly that there is a problem with immigration letting people in who are not who you'd want in the United States. His advisors have sought to clarify those remarks a little bit. One of them said that it was in reference an ideology that was imported, a dangerous ideology that was imported.
But I do think that the idea broadly of linking crime and problematic things that happen with attempts to secure, restrict, however, whatever word you want to use, their immigration,
I think that is something that Trump and his allies have been doing or going to continue to do in support of policy goals to that effect.
Yeah, this is kind of a very interesting time to be thinking about these sorts of conversations given that we are now in this time when the, of course, we're at the end of one presidency and the start of another as well. I mean, this is something that we should expect really to be a key theme of Donald Trump's presidency, given how this has been set up with these events right before the inauguration.
Yeah, I think, I mean, look, anybody who was paying attention in the first term knows how much of a play immigration was and how much of a focus it was for Donald Trump in his first term, right? And so I don't think that there should be any surprise that that will be a major focus of
his second term. I think that he has an awful lot of people who are looking for action there, some people who have been concerned that he was prevented from going as far as he would have wanted on those counts in the first term and who are who are minded to make sure that doesn't happen again. At the same time,
I do think that it's important to note that Trump will have voices in his ear and Elon Musk is one of them who are talking about wanting to have what they might refer to as the right kind of folks come into the US. You've even seen commentary on that side of the argument and Trump has been one of those people who are saying we should make it easier for people who graduate from US universities
to be able to get green cards and permanent immigration status, things of that nature. So that is going to be, I think, even as you're looking at a higher security posture as more border defenses, border barriers, et cetera, like that, at the other hand, there will be a debate about what to do with sort of high-skilled visas.
targeting tech workers. There will be a big debate about what one does with immigration as relates to farm labor and as well as professional degrees requiring collegiate educations because the US does take in a lot of people who are looking to study but does also give a lot of them back
to their home countries after they get their degrees. And, you know, as you say, the Republicans do have a coalition that stretches from chambers of commerce to people who very much want to see borders tightly controlled, and figuring out how to get legislation through that coalition is going to be a very large challenge for the Trump administration. Okay, Dirk Wellbancar, Senior Editor, thank you very much for joining us.
Capital ideas, conversations with Mike Gitlin from Capital Group features our top investment professionals sharing what drives them in today's market. Get stories and actionable insights. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Capital Client Group, Inc.
There are two kinds of people in the world. People who think about climate change and people who are doing something about it. On the Zero Podcast, we talk to both kinds of people. People you've heard of, like Bill Gates, I'm looking at what the world has to do to get to zero, not using climate as a moral crusade.
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In South Korea, anti-corrupting investigations have stopped efforts to arrest President Yoon Suk-Yol after thousands of police faced off with his supporters and sole. The development comes after talks between Yoon's lawyers and representatives from the country's corruption investigation office. Bloomberg's Kathie Admitraver joins us now with the latest. Kathie, what has happened then to this arrest warrant issued on insurrection charges after the president's declaration of martial law last month?
The latest chapter, really, in this political turmoil, it began at dawn today and it ended about an hour and a half ago. And as you mentioned there, the CIO had to pull back. So special investigators had to pull back as well as police because they were met with this wall of President Eun or former President Eun supporters.
as well as his security. Now, the question is sort of what do they do next? And we're waiting to hear from them later this afternoon in Seoul about next steps. They're going to sort of pull back, go back to the table and figure out what they do now. The warrant for his arrest is still valid until January 6. So they still
have three days to decide. But given what happened this morning and sort of the mayhem and the sheer number of civilians who were there as well, it would be pretty tough. And I imagine it would be pretty tough to sort of do around two of that exact thing. Yeah. I mean, talk us through exactly what happened in Seoul this morning because they were pretty extraordinary scenes around the residents of the impeached president.
It really was and quite different from the past few weeks. We've gotten used to seeing a lot of the video and photos of scenes from Seoul with people chanting and they have their light sticks out and there's kpop music and food. It was a very different scene this morning. It started at dawn. There was already a line of supporters of you and his residents and buses of police.
pulling up, you know, this wasn't just, you know, SWAT team or a couple, a couple investigators, this was an entire effort, likely because they foresaw that they would be met with, with at least some resistance. And so they arrived at the compound, they tried to make their way in as we found out just a couple of minutes ago, about 10 minutes ago, that the CIO didn't even meet you in terms
during the arrest attempt, so they didn't even see him during that process. And they just had to pull back pretty much immediately after a few hours. So you can still see a few people outside of the residence. They're holding posters and signs that sort of accuse the opposition.
of master planning all of this, you know, the supporters of the former president. So, about 1,200 people, I believe in total, was the count. A lot of them are still there. Reminders County of the background of this case as well. Why is Yoon Sukhil refusing to appear for questioning on these charges?
This is so important to remember because there has been so much happening in the past few weeks in South Korea. So how we got here is that the investigators, so a month ago, exactly a month ago on December 3rd, the president at the time, President Yoon imposed martial law. It was about six hours.
And following that, there was obviously a lot of public pushback that were protests and also pushback from the opposition party who immediately held a vote, several votes, and he was, the president was eventually impeached. Now, the investigators are probing
about declaring martial law. They've asked him in for questioning several times and he has declined. And so this is kind of what prompted this step. It was calling him in for questioning several times and him failing to appear. Now, you and his camp and his, you know, his lawyers
have repeatedly refused, and they've said that this is not valid, it's not warranted. And in fact, they have called it illegal, and they're trying to get a court injunction. And so they're sort of at this loggerheads that culminated in today, and of course, this stunning, really unprecedented. I know we've been saying that a lot lately in South Korea, but really unprecedented move today. What should we be watching for in terms of next developments?
So this afternoon, the CIO will be hosting another press conference. We should get some more details then. So, um, hearing about next steps, whether they're going to try to arrest him again or maybe call him in for questioning again. Um, again, the, the warrant is there. It's legal. It's available until January 6th. Um, and that's sort of where we're at. And then just watching, um, markets, which aren't doing too bad on the news. Um, and that's sort of where we're at so far.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond. Look for us on your podcast feed every morning on Apple, Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts. You can also listen live each morning on London DAB Radio, the Bloomberg Business App and Bloomberg.com.
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