欧洲热浪冲击电力与作物，特朗普秘密换机，奔驰在华受挫

[music] Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. This is the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast. Good morning. It's Tuesday, the 11th of August. I'm Steven Carroll in London. Coming up today, Europe's [music] fifth major heatwave of the summer threatens crops, power supplies, and critically low river levels. US President Donald Trump is said to have used a catering truck to secretly switch planes last month in response to an Iranian assassination threat.

Plus, why Germany's auto industry can't seem to find a way to stop its decline in China. Let's start with a roundup of our top stories. Intense heat is again sweeping across Europe, deepening drought and adding to pressure on rivers, crops, and power grids. The Ryan River is at record lows at a key shipping point with water levels expected to fall to just 4 cm by Friday. France is also forecasting its smallest corn harvest since 1980 as a result of the weather.

Professor Marco Springman is a senior researcher at Oxford University covering climate change and food systems. What is more concerning is the price of foods. So when we have any kind of climate related yield shock or any yield shock per se, uh then prices usually go up. So food will be more expensive. At the moment we have fairly high yield shocks up to even 20%.

Professor Marco Springman spoke as it was announced that almost 3/4 of England is now officially in drought. Across the Atlantic, the United States has just recorded the hottest month since records began 132 years ago. The average temperature across the continental US reached 24.9° C in July, narrowly beating the previous record set in 1936. Forecasters expect the extreme heat to persist in parts of the country this week with exports warning that more records could fall this year.

British shoppers are staying at home to avoid soaring temperatures. That's according to new data which shows the hot weather has affected consumer behavior. Boomberg's Tabio has more.

The value of retail sales in July increased at just half the pace of last year. New research from the British Retail Consortium reveals the drop is linked to customers retreating during recent heat waves. The latest figures sparked caution after recent signs of recovery driven by slower inflation, the World Cup, and good weather. Despite the slowdown, retailers reported strong demand for affordable clothing and small indulgences like beauty and fashion jewelry.

But non-food sales fell 0.7%, the first decline since April as shoppers postponed big ticket purchases. In London, TV adap Radio.

US President Donald Trump has made new demands for compensation from Iran, further dimming hopes of a quick deal. Writing on social media, Trump said the tan should pay for people killed or wounded by Iranian actions. The demands came after Iran reiterated its own calls for reparations from the US and Israel, tying the issue directly to reopening the straight of four moves. Over the weekend, Trump signals that he was prepared to let economic stress on Iran build, rather the launch of fresh military strikes.

Jennifer Welch is chief geoeconomics analyst for Bloomberg economics. The administration's trying to take attention off of the war that is not going the way that they want it to and they're running out of good options. And in particular, the president's talking about now just letting economic pressure do the work for it. Well, we've had a blockade in place for months. We've had sanctions on Iran for 46 years. Those haven't forced Tyran to capitulate.

That's Jennifer Welsh from Bloomberg Economics. The renewed tensions helped to push Brent crude up 5% in trading yesterday. The benchmark now holding near $88 a barrel. Reports are emerging of an extraordinary operation to protect President Trump from an Iranian assassination threat last month. The Washington Post says Trump's older Air Force One jet was used as a decoy while he secretly flew from Turkey to Britain on a smaller military aircraft.

Bloomberg's Chris P has the details. Trump had arrived at the NATO summit in Anchora aboard his new Qatar gifted Air Force One. The plane was then sent ahead to Britain for a transatlantic journey home, while Trump was filmed boarding the older Air Force One in Turkey. At the time, Trump denied the change was about security, saying it was simply to show the newer jet to US service members in the UK. The New York Times later reported that a credible Iranian threat had prompted the Secret Service to recommend a change of aircraft.

But the Washington Post now says the security operation went much further with another secret switch. It says Trump was taken off the older Air Force One in an airport catering truck and transferred onto a smaller military plane. The legacy presidential plane then flew to Britain as a decoy carrying journalists and some White House staff who believed the president was still aboard. in London. Chris Pit, Bloomberg Radio.

Nvidia is sourcing 500 billion dollars in new financing for AI infrastructure from Wall Street. Six firms, including KKR, Brookfield, and Goldman Sachs, are providing the capital, which will be used to underwrite projects from Nvidia's clients. Bloomberg senior executive editor for tech, Tom Giles, says it's a way to reassure skeptics concerned about circular financing. The concern is that should demand not materialize as quickly as hoped that that could result in you know some something catastrophic for the industry.

So the more companies you have like Apollo and others Black Rockck Blackstone putting their necks on the line the more that should give the market a bit of a sense of reassurance that they're kind of they're all in this together. Nvidia is not alone. Tom Giles adds that although the headline number is large, there are few details on the timing and structure of the financing, both Nvidia and Wall Street have already poured hundreds of billions of dollars into funding the worldwide AI data center boom.

And the British Prime Minister Andy Bernham plans to crack down on the number of new vaping and betting shops. The government wants councils to be able to take more control of what's on the high street. Bloomberg's James Wilco has more. There are roughly 300,000 retail businesses in the UK. One in five of those sell vapes or ecigarettes according to a government impact assessment. Alongside gambling shops, they're the target of the relatively new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

He's on a mission to win over the public with a series of lowcost voter friendly policies. Now, the rise of online shopping has fundamentally changed how most people experience their high street. The question is if these new plans can help drive a growth agenda or more a puff of smoke in London. James Wilco, Bloomberg Radio. And those are your top stories on the markets. We're watching oil prices holding on to yesterday's gain slightly higher today for Brent crude $8783.

And we're watching natural gas prices in Europe rising as well. Japanese markets are closed today. So the MSEI Pacific index outside of Japan is up by 3/10en of 1%. And European stock futures pointing slightly lower as we're watching the Japanese yen as well, which is at 15920 against the dollar after weakening by 1% yesterday. In a moment, we'll bring you more on how Europe's heat waves are affecting food supplies. Plus, why even Mercedes can't halt the decline of German car makers in China.

But first, another story that we've been reading this morning on how the UK should be preparing for more regular wildfires. As Binberian columnist Laura Williams has been writing about how the increasing number of fires in the UK and also how their severity has increased as well. So at the end of July, fire services in England and Wales had responded to 716 wildfires this season. Slightly lower in number compared to last year, but their severity is much worse.

They're harder to control. And Laura writes that it's time for the UK to grapple