Fresh Iran Strikes Spark Global Concerns

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That's AvocadoGreenMatress.com to get up to 20% off. AvocadoGreenMatress.com It's Wednesday, September 2nd, and the Strait of Hormuz is still a dangerous place to be. We start here. The U.S. hits Iranian coastal positions yet again, and this time, Iran is responding. They're retaliating against U.S. targets or U.S. partners in the region. And yet in the middle of all this, a key Army official has resigned. We'll explain why. The war had already rattled global markets. Now there's a full-blown sell-off. It's really a signal for borrowing costs across the economy. I'm talking about stocks, either the real worries underpinning it all. And these countries aren't at war, but that's not stopping Russia. Hybrid attacks, which have been linked back to the Russian security services. Inside the booming industry of saboteurs for hire. From ABC News, this is Start Here. I'm Brad Milky. For a while, it seemed like the U.S. and Iran were done launching attacks on each other. A potential peace deal was on the table. Well, those days are long gone. Those negotiations fell apart. And now, they're back at it. Yesterday, the U.S. launched attacks on Iran for the third time in four days. Now, Iran is firing back. Let's start today with ABC Senior Pentagon reporter Louis Martinez-Louis. What is the latest on these strikes? Well, Brad, I think what we're seeing here is once again, the United States saying that if they see any provocative action on the part of Iran in the state of war moves, the United States is going to carry out attacks against Iran. And that's what we've seen. We've seen what appear to be sustained attacks against Iranian positions along the state of war moves, that coastline from which they've launched missiles and drones. And what we saw earlier this week was that the United States said that they had targeted the rocket launchers along that coastline they were being prepared. They said to essentially fire sea mines towards the state of war moves. That's when they took action. Now, why is that significant? Well, it's because last week, St. Comon announced that they had de-mined the entire state of war moves. We have successfully cleared sea mines in the straits international shipping lanes that were laid months ago by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. So when they saw this indication that Iran was going to try to do this yet again, that's when we saw the first round of strikes. And then that triggered an Iranian retaliation. Now, that's something that we had definitely grown accustomed to because back in July, when the United States resumed its air strikes, we saw the back and forth, the back and forth, the salvos between the United States, now hitting Iranian targets and then Iran retaliating. And that's what we saw over the weekend. We're retaliating, Louis, by the way, not against like U.S. homeland, right? Like Iran has to retaliate against like things in the Middle East or in the straight there. Exactly. What they're doing is they're retaliating against U.S. targets or U.S. And on Sunday, we had first retaliation was targeted towards U.S. bases in Jordan as well as Jordanian military targets. And what we've seen from the president himself has been very tough language that he's not going to sit by and wait for Iran to target commercial shipping again or to target U.S. forces in the region. Right, Jordan said they were able to intercept some of these missiles. The U.S. said they were intercepting missiles coming near their base. In the middle of all this, Louis, like my mind also goes to the men and women in uniform who are looking to their leaders for orders. But we found out earlier this week that the Army's top official Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned. Do we know why? Well, there have been tensions going on for quite some time with Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth. As we've seen Hexeth has intervened in the promotions of certain senior officers to the general officer level. Some of those promotions were stopped. For too long, we've promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons based on their race, based on gender quotas. We've also seen Hexeth be highly involved in the Army's senior ranks because he fired the Army's top general General Dr. Andy George back in April. We've seen that he sidelined all their senior officers, like General James Mingus, who was slated to be the next commander of Sencom. And when he was the Army's number two officer, and then he went into retirement. And this is a pattern that we've seen where Hexeth has interjected himself into across the military services. I think it's now more than two dozen senior officers that Hexeth has sidelined or fired across all of the military services. And some of the new reporting that we have is that Driscoll actually warned the White House that Hexeth actions were actually not helpful. And we're creating problems within the force for the Army in terms of its readiness. And he wanted to raise awareness to the White House and he did so. So it's actually been a parlor game for quite some time here in Washington. When was Dan Driscoll going to resign? We saw that initially reports all by the end of the year. Oh, it could be weeks. And then it just happened on Monday. But then I guess I'm wondering, how significant is that? Because I don't know what a lot of these, you know, I know the Secretary of Defense, right, but like the Secretary of this and the underacting Secretary of that. I don't always know how practically important they are in the midst of a war effort. How significant would, like, is there a leadership vacuum at the top? And what does that look like? No, that's a really good question, Brad. Because when we say Secretary of the Army, most people don't exactly know what it means. It means that you are the civilian leader of the Army, just like the Navy has a Secretary of the Navy. Their counterparts are the chief of this chief of staff of the Army. When you have the chief of naval operations, those are the senior military people. But they are not the military commanders in the field. So what's going on with the battles with Iran right now? That is being led by the four-star commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, who is the head of U.S. Central Command, Sankham. But the training, the equipping, the readiness levels for all of those forces that are under Cooper's command, those come from the Army and the Navy. And though it is those senior secretaries, it is those military officers who are in charge of those services, their job is to make sure that there are enough sailors, enough soldiers, enough airmen available for the combatant commanders. When you see sustained military operations against Iran, what you see is a strain. You see a strain of deployment of forces, the deployment of equipment. Is there enough equipment? We've all been talking about the lack of air defense missiles, right? Right. And well, that's something that really actually kind of falls under the Army because it's Army soldiers that are firing those Patriot missiles or those sad missiles. So there's a lot of play here. It's not about Driscoll commanding forces. He can't. He's a civilian. It's not about the top military officer in the Army commanding forces. They're not. They're just making sure that everybody's trained and equipped. But when you have these sustained military operations against Iran, that's something that's really important. Yeah, I was going to say also there was the firing of the Army Chief of Staff as well. So again, just big leadership gaps at this moment of a hot war. Louis Martinez covering the Pentagon. Thank you. Thanks, Brad. Next up on Start here, those strikes aren't calming down investors and somehow that could all affect how much you pay for your next house. Let's dive into a murky finance picture. The water's fine after the break. This show is sponsored by Zip Recruiter. Can you think of the last time someone went above and beyond for you? Like the barista, your local coffee shop who mysteriously remembered your birthday or that concierge you met on your last trip who saw you had a bird key chain and made a point to tell you about the local bird sanctuary? Those leading moments may be small, but they really make a difference. It's the kind of positive impression you want to see from everyone in your life. And especially from the candidates that you're hiring. When you're hiring, Zip Recruiter gives great candidates the tools they need to go the extra step and tell you why they're interested in that job. It gives those standout candidates a way to stand out from the others. 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I remember a couple weeks ago, I spent a couple minutes here talking about the bond market and how recent fluctuations have completely rattled economists around the globe about how all the time governments are basically asking people around the world to give them loans. They offer bonds and if your economy looks good, your government can probably get away with offering just tiny amounts of interest. If your economy is shaky or however, you probably got to pay higher interest rates to make up for that risk. Otherwise, no one wants to buy your bonds. The reason I remember this so vividly now is because I had to spend literally all day researching this. For two minutes of words, I had hours of questions for our business team and yet all of them assured me it was worth it because in their words, if you really want to catch an economy, turning, you don't want to watch stocks or employment numbers, you want to watch the bond market. Well over the last 48 hours, the global bond market has been on a roller coaster, one of its most tumultuous periods in years and this stuff has the power to affect every part of your financial future. ABC's Elizabeth Shullsie is here at Elizabeth. You were off the day I was trying to figure out all of this, thank goodness you were here to explain and not me. What is the deal with bonds right now and what happened with him yesterday? We are seeing record moves in the bond market globally right now, Brad. We have seen what is basically a sell off in the global bond market, which means investors are selling government debt, which means that their prices are going down, but their interest rates are going up. The way the bonds work is that prices go down, yields go up, that's sort of this inverse relationship you've got there. What we're seeing because of this global bond market sell off is interest rates are spiking. The rates on government debt that's owned in the US or Japan or other countries are the highest they've been in decades. That is a really big deal because those borrowing costs, those interest rates really ripple throughout the economy, you're absolutely right. That is sort of the number. That is the metric that a lot of investors on Wall Street and policymakers look at when they look at what is the health of the economy. They look at that 10 year treasury note, that bond to say are things looking good or not. Right now, I might tell you, things aren't looking that great. And is that because of what's making the difference in the last 48 hours? Is it Iran or what? Yeah, the biggest catalyst in the past 48 hours has been Iran and the concern that as oil prices have spiked again because we've seen this re-escalation of the Iran war, that that's going to lead to higher inflation, higher prices for longer. So you're seeing this repricing in the bond market on this assumption that inflation could be higher because oil prices are up again. And as we've seen Brad over the past six months, it's not just oil prices. That trickles into prices across the rest of the economy, shipping, transportation, food. And the risk is that this stubbornly high inflation that, frankly, the US has been battling for years now, is going to get worse because of persistently high oil prices going up more. But then that means that you're saying that it's not just like bond prices go, because I don't have bonds, right? And yet when the bond interest rates start going up, that's when what other interest rates on your car, on your mortgages, stuff like that starts going up as well, it's all related. So think about mortgage rates, for example. That's the biggest loan that most people ever take out in their life. We now see mortgage rates at the highest level in more than a year. They're closing in on 7% for the average 30-year fixed mortgage. That is a direct response to this concern that prices are going to be higher, and we're going to have longer-term interest rates higher. You also have credit card rates going up. That's, you know, those interest rates change. They're about 20% on average for a credit card interest rate. That is a huge amount of money you're paying an interest if you're carrying a balance. You're not paying off your balance every month. Plus, you've got the fact that the company's borrow money in order to pay their staff, pay for expenses. So when they're paying more interest, that means less money for those other things. And then the big kind of impact here, and also one of the underlying reasons beyond the inflation concerns, Brad, that we're seeing, especially longer-dated bonds, which bear with me here, kind of those longer-term bond yields, go higher, are concerns about the government's ability to pay off its own debt. So this is why we talk about 30-year bonds or something that would the government actually default on something like that? Is that what they're wondering? That is a growing concern in the market right now. And it's something that we've been simmering for a while, but now that the government's debt is $40 trillion plus, those interest payments, the money that the government is paying its investors, you, if you own a government bond, that's going up because interest rates are going up. And those interest payments are really adding up, and a lot of investors are looking at that. They're saying, wow, the US government is paying more on interest right now than on defense, on the defense budget, on Medicaid. That is really kind of putting into question the ability of the government to ultimately pay back its debts. And it's also why we're seeing this concern among investors to say, if I'm going to actually own government bonds, I need to get higher rates back because it's risky, and I'm more concerned about this than I was, you know, even a few months ago, definitely a couple of years ago. So, how is the US dealing with it? I know that the G20 is going on right now, and yesterday all the finance ministers got together in like Asheville, North Carolina, but how is the Trump administration planning on addressing this? Well, we've heard Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent really play down any concerns about the bond market. He says, everything's fine. The US is in strong shape. The economy is in strong shape. He's dismissed concerns about inflation overall. Here in the United States, we are fortunate to be home to the deepest, most dynamic, and liquid market in the world, including competitive tax environments, business-friendly regulation, lower operating cost, and a skilled workforce. At the same time, the Treasury Secretary has announced pretty extraordinary moves to try to basically lower these rates that we're seeing on government debt. Starting this month, the Treasury plans to buy some of its own bonds back. That's, you know, normal procedure. You kind of have this mechanics in the market where you're constantly buying and selling that's normal, but this move to telegraph, you know, we are intentionally going to buy bonds and what a lot of investors see as a move to try to lower interest rates, because by the way, we know that's something that President Trump likes is lower interest rates. That is put into question, Scott Bessent's credibility a little bit. In fact, well-known investors who are closely tied to Bessent have said, don't do that. Let the market speak. The market, the bond market investors should be the one dictating what these rates are. Not the Treasury Department trying to manipulate them. But you've got a lot of other market forces at play here, Brad. At the same time that some investors are selling government bonds, they're choosing to buy company bonds for tech companies, for example, that are trying to issue debt right now, because they're spending a lot on AI. And some investors are saying, actually, my money is safer with Google paying me back if I lend them money than the U.S. government. So a big picture is that borrowing costs are going up for consumers and for businesses. That has the potential to slow down overall spending in the economy. It is a big overhang on the global economy right now. This is not just happening in the U.S., it's happening in a lot of other countries too. All right. Elizabeth Schultzie, really helpful. Thank you so much. Thank you, Brad. Now, as one war rages on in the Middle East, another rages in Ukraine. And yet there are fronts on that war that extend far beyond Eastern Europe. Yesterday, German leaders announced that Russia has been sneaking around within its borders. The Kremlin, they claim, even sent a drone laden with explosives to one of its busiest airports. ABC's foreign correspondent Tom Souvy Burgess here, Tom. I'm sorry. They were drones with explosives hanging around a German airport. What is going on? This was about a month ago, Brad. Eppsig Airport, Eastern Germany, August the 4th, a major security scare when officials on the airfield discovered a drone packed with explosives. And it was just a few yards away from a Ukrainian cargo aircraft. The airport went into lockdown. All of the runways were closed. Eppsig Airport is used by the U.S. military and other NATO militaries to ship equipment. And a lot of that equipment ends up in Ukraine. Now, the drone was disabled. There was a bomb disposal unit that came onto the airfield. There was even a robot used to disable that device. Well, the German government has now said quite clearly it's pointed the finger of blame very squarely at the Russian government and the Russian security services. So, is that what we're supposed to do? To take in together police investigations, crime patterns and intelligence reveal Russian responsibility for the attempted attack at Leipzig Airport. They said that the components on that explosive drone, I mean, it looked like an off-the-shelf drone that we've seen used a lot in the war in Ukraine. But they said, the Germans, that basically the components on that drone, the type of explosives used, also the modus operandi used in this alleged plot to potentially try and blow up that Ukrainian cargo aircraft or bore the hallmarks of Russian drones and explosives used in previous operations. The dangerous behavior of the Russian Federation just described is part of a long series of attempts to destabilize disinformation, threats, sabotage, and aggression against Europe. And the MOTUS operandi was consistent with previous Russian operations in Europe, these type of sabotage attacks, and also the drones consistent with drones used in the war in Ukraine. And so they're basically saying this is not the first time we've seen something like this because that would be a huge deal if the Russians deployed an explosive drone on an American airport. How widespread is this becoming? Well, it was definitely the first time that a drone packed with explosives was potentially targeting aircraft at an airport in Europe. It is definitely not the first time by any stretch of the imagination that we've had sabotage plots, and what the European government's call hybrid attacks, which have been linked back to the Russian security services. When I say hybrid attacks, hybrid warfare, it can be arson attacks. We've seen multiple arson attacks in European countries. For example, in 2025, arson attacks against a property belonging to the former British Prime Minister. We also saw an arson attack in 2024, which destroyed a shopping center in the Polish capital Warsaw. These attacks have all been linked back to Russia. The hybrid warfare can really be very low-level attacks, expressions of hate speech, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia. We've had incidences like that here in France, which are designed to so hatred destabilize European countries, which are allied to Ukraine, and clearly kind of enemy number one for Moscow these days. That's what I was going to ask you, Tom, is why Russia is doing this? It sounds like it's kind of like playing the long game, but also who is carrying out these attacks? Because unlike the rest of Europe, like Russians can't just walk across the border into these countries. So is it like Russian spies or who's carrying out these sort of weird sabotages? Yeah, this is a new type of operation, which has been, well, which Russia has been employing according to European security services and US intelligence sources as well. But ever since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, and basically what they've been doing is not a question of Russian spies based in Europe actually carrying out these plots themselves. What is believed to happen is that local people, often low-level criminals, vulnerable individuals, are recruited normally on social media, and they are offered a financial award. Sometimes via crypto, currencies, so therefore it's harder to trace. And basically, sometimes in some of the cases which have gone to court in European countries, the individuals who have been convicted or charged effectively, sometimes didn't quite know the full nature of what they were getting into. They were told to go and set fire to a building, but they weren't really told the reason for it. For example, there have been warehouses in certain parts of Europe, which were housing military equipment, set on fire, that type of thing, we're talking about low-level recruits. So this is different from like, do it from other Russia. This is more of like, hey, like you're a gang, you'll get paid a few thousand whatever for this, and like people just do the attack, not knowing who they're doing it for almost. Exactly. And often these individuals come from Eastern European countries, and in some cases they're Ukrainians. Ukrainians that are sympathetic to Russia, and there can be Ukrainians who are against the Ukrainian government and the U-Country today. And in a way, for the Russians, that's ideal because that helps the muddy the narrative. The Russians are experts at doing this, the Soviets were too, creating this confusing narrative. So us in Western countries, when we come to report on these incidents, and for our audiences to understand them, when people hear that, oh, is Ukrainian that carried it out, that's just a bit confusing. So, you know, that is the sort of modus operandi, which we've seen deployed by allegedly deployed by the Russians on multiple occasions. Right. And what usually does not happen here is the Europeans making a huge deal out of it, because it's, let's be honest, like frankly not a good look sometimes to be like, there's a potentially dangerous sabotage thing, we think Russia did it, but we can't prove it. And by the way, like, we don't know necessarily who exactly is carrying them out, so we don't know how to prevent them in the future. But here, you do have Germany making a lot of noise about it, saying by the way that they're going to make it harder for Russians to go into the country, and they will even close some consulates. We'll see if that has any effect. Tom Sufi Burj, though, really interesting story. Thank you. Thanks, Brett. OK, one more quick break. When we come back, unquestibles is hoping to stay undefeated. One last thing is next. I'm surprised how fast civilization can disappear out there. Skewler, be killed. Jika Balordi. There are people out there. They need our help. Josh Brulem. Shoot first. It's an inquire afterwards. Margaret Kuali. OK, tough guy. And Guy Pierce. Arm up. The dog stars directed by Ridley Scott, now playing in theaters. Read it out. Under 17, I'd admit it with our parents. From the dog game to the rat game. A new series from the streets of Snowfall. I can't not do this. Get back to the minute. Ethics presents the drop, a Snowfall saga. The rap game is the new gold rush. Hey, run that back. You can go down this road. You want the kids to feel cute? Drop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. Who got a real chance to do something? Ethics is the drop, a Snowfall saga. New series premieres September 8 on Ethics and Hulu. And one last thing. I thought the kids demanding crossless sandwiches were being traumatic. You know, uncrustables, the prepackaged PB&J sandwiches for kids, they're made presumably to prevent second grade riots without any crusts. Rather, they have circular, crimped edges to hold in all that filling. You buy them frozen, you throw them in the lunchbox, they thaw during the day, and they're ready to eat in a few hours. Uncrustables is a brand from the food giant smucker. With a name like smuckers, it has to be good. And for moms in a hurry, smuckers makes uncrustables PB&J sandwiches. They now have more than 20 varieties, including peanut butter and honey, peanut butter and chocolate. But they also have competition. And yesterday, a judge said smuckers lawsuit against Trader Joe's could continue. You see, last year, Trader Joe's debuted its own rival to this product. They're simply called crossless peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwiches. It's a mouthful, but they've got the white bread, they've got the crimped edges. Their boxes are even the same size, featuring a familiar looking sandwich with a bite taken out of it. Within months, smucker sued claiming TJs had violated their trademark specifically to cannibalize their business. Smucker says it has no issue with selling with others selling pre-packaged, frozen, fawny, crossless sandwiches. But cannot allow Trader Joe's to mimic design and packaging that make uncrustables a nearly billion dollar brand. In court documents, Trader Joe's claims its sandwiches aren't copying anyone. For instance, they say our sandwiches aren't even circular, but to which I said, what? I've seen these things, they look circular to me. Well, if you look closely, those crimped edges resemble a square with very rounded edges. Trader Joe's calls them squircles. The supermarket chain also takes issue with the idea that they're copying the packaging, noting that smucker only redesigned its boxes two years ago. They don't get to claim legacy status. In fact, listen to this line in court documents. Its sandwiches appearance and cartoon avatar are no Nike swoosh or McDonald's golden arches. That is legalese for who do you guys think you are? But remember, Trader Joe's is no stranger to trademark lawsuits, and they're not always on the side of the little guy. More than a decade ago, a Canadian man noticed there were no Trader Joe's in Canada and started hauling TJ's products north of the border where he resold them at a higher price. He called it pirate Joe's. He argued that anyone should have the right to sell something they've already bought for themselves fair and square. Like if Trader Joe's wants to sell them at lower prices and foreign markets, they can, they should. Trader Joe saw this differently and eventually reached a settlement in which this guy shut down his business. TJ's still has no stores in Canada. And it all goes to show the high seas of trademark litigation or no game for the week. Even if you market yourself as the swashbuckling privateer, once your ship starts riding low with all those riches, soon you'll be defending your own treasure trove. (upbeat music) By the way, if you're wondering, I just looked up a wire cutter piece on each of these sandwiches that says, TJ's crustless sandwiches are, quote, dry, dense, and visibly flat compared with the plushness of our pigs. They were talking about uncrustables, remaining the winners, absolutely devastating review for TJ's. I'm Brad Milky, I'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Mysteries unravel and stunning truths are revealed when 2020 investigates. - Follow the clues, the evidence, the breaking new details. - ABC's 2020 means true murder mystery. - Shuck. - If you follow True Crime in 2020, then you've got to listen to this. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus. Add free exclusive True Crime content. Search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts and start your free trial. terms up. Apply.