United States Financial

The Trump administration is intensifying economic pressure on Iran through sanctions and a blockade, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying Tehran has about 30 million barrels of crude left for potential Chinese buyers. Bloomberg News Middle East Reporter Dan Williams joins Christina Ruffini and Jeff Mason on Bloomberg This Weekend and says the strategy also amounts to a test of endurance, as Washington seeks to outlast Tehran while managing its relationship with China and domestic political pressures.

President Trump's decision to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America is making waves on both sides of the border. Bloomberg News Shaquille Omari looks at how Canada and tech companies are responding.

On Bloomberg This Weekend, Seaport Research Partner Managing Director & Chief Equity Strategist Jonathan Golub says a stronger-than-expected US jobs report reinforces the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, despite President Donald Trump's calls for lower borrowing costs. Golub also says to hosts Christina Ruffini and Jeff Mason that his bigger concern is longer-term bond yields as heavy AI investment and government borrowing compete for capital.

In her new book The Time Tax, Atlantic staff writer Annie Lowrey examines how paperwork, delays and administrative hurdles consume Americans' time and can make government benefits and services harder to access. Joining Christina Ruffini and Jeff Mason on Bloomberg This Weekend, Lowrey argues those burdens fall disproportionately on lower-income Americans and says simpler applications, better data sharing and streamlined tax filing could help reduce the cost.

Bloomberg This Weekend has breaking news that US forces struck three Iranian crude carriers after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles toward two US Navy warships, according to US Central Command. The renewed fighting around the Strait of Hormuz adds pressure to shipping and energy markets as President Donald Trump continues to downplay the conflict as something short of war.

On Bloomberg This Weekend Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper calls the Pentagon's polygraph testing of roughly 50 Joint Staff members unprecedented in scale as officials investigate leaks about US munitions stocks. Esper tells hosts Christina Ruffini and Jeff Mason that he is less concerned about immediate combat readiness than the institutional impact of leadership turnover and its potential effect on the military's tradition of an apolitical officer corps.

EU Ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė joins Bloomberg This Weekend and discusses with hosts Christina Ruffini and Jeff Mason that Europe must keep supporting Ukraine while applying "maximum pressure" on Moscow because Russia has not changed its war aims. The comments come as US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visit Moscow before heading to Kyiv in an effort to revive stalled peace negotiations.

US oil executives say they were blindsided by the Trump administration's Venezuela deal, which gives North American Blue Energy Partners access to fields that other companies had been pursuing. Bloomberg News White House Reporter Jennifer Dlouhy and Wall Street Journal National Security Reporter Vera Bergengruen are on Bloomberg This Weekend and say industry figures are also questioning whether the company can quickly develop new production and whether the arrangement can deliver lower gasoline prices before the midterm elections.

Researchers are using AI to analyze vast collections of animal vocalizations, looking for patterns that could help humans better understand how species such as crows communicate. Bloomberg Weekend Senior Writer Morgan Meaker is on Bloomberg This Weekend and says the technology could reshape humans' relationship with animals, but researchers warn it also raises ethical questions about privacy, exploitation and how those discoveries might be used.

Apple CEO John Ternus is preparing for his first major product event since succeeding Tim Cook, with a foldable iPhone expected to headline the September 9 launch. Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Hardware Analyst Woo Jin Ho joins Christina Ruffini and Jeff Mason on Bloomberg This Weekend and says Ternus' engineering background could bring renewed focus to hardware and expanding Apple's ecosystem as smartphone upgrades become increasingly incremental.

Renewed US-Iran fighting and uncertainty over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz are adding pressure to global energy markets, while the threat of mines continues to deter some traffic. Ukraine's attacks on Russian refineries are compounding tight diesel supplies, creating what Bloomberg News Oil Products Reporter Will Kubzansky describes as a distillates crisis heading into peak demand season. Also joining Bloomberg This Weekend to discuss the situation is Bloomberg News Middle East Correspondent Abeer Abu Omar.

Ayako Yoshioka, a Senior Investment Strategist at Wealth Enhancement Group, joins the show to discuss technology's role in the inflation outlook. The segment frames a client conversation around whether technology could help stoke inflation in the near term or, alternatively, contribute to lower prices and cost relief for the broader economy over time. She speaks with Scarlet Fu & Kristine Aquino on "The Close."