Big Take

President Donald Trump fired Kristi Noem from her role as head of the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday. One of the reasons for Noem’s removal involved her oversight of a $240 million DHS ad campaign, starring herself.
On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg investigative reporters Eric Fan and Irene Casado Sanchez join host Sarah Holder to reveal the inside story of that ad blitz — and the ties between people in Trump’s orbit and the companies that were given millions to spend on it.
Read more: Noem Ad Blitz Benefits Media Firms Linked to Trump Campaigns
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In Episode 5 of The Sixth Bureau, a series from The Big Take, a spy from China’s Ministry of State Security travels to an overseas meeting with a valuable source. He has no idea he is walking into a trap that the FBI has been setting up for months.

The Sixth Bureau from Bloomberg News follows an MSS intelligence officer whose mission was to acquire the crown jewels of American aerospace companies. With aliases, blackmail and the occasional break-in, he targeted corporate giants. That is, until his sloppiness — and a cunning FBI sting — led to a stunning reversal: Xu Yanjun became the first Chinese intelligence officer ever convicted on American soil.

The Sixth Bureau is the story of superpowers, their secrets and how one Chinese spy got caught. Listen to Episodes 1 - 4 here.
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The war in the Middle East is rattling global oil markets, raising the risk of supply disruptions and price shocks for energy‑hungry Asian economies.
On today’s Big Take Asia podcast, host K. Oanh Ha speaks with Bloomberg’s Daniel Ten Kate and Fereidun Fesharaki, founder and chairman of FGE, about how tensions involving Iran are being watched by energy markets — and which Asian economies are most exposed if the crisis escalates.
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How long will hostilities in Iran last? Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken says it will likely depend on “markets and munitions.”
In an interview with the Big Take podcast, Blinken and host David Gura discuss the Obama and Biden administrations’ efforts to avoid conflict with Iran, the unanticipated ways this war puts the US at risk and how the strikes could reshape the region.
Hosted by David Gura; Produced by David Fox; Edited by Jeffrey Grocott.
Fact-checking by Rachael Lewis-Krisky and Julia Press; Engineering by Alex Sugiura.
Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
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As the war with Iran widens in the Middle East, legislators on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration with a lack of advance notice of the strikes and the inconsistencies in the administration’s justifications and goals for the military action.
On today’s Big Take, Bloomberg national political correspondent Nancy Cook and national security reporter Jamie Tarabay join the show to discuss what Trump is trying to accomplish in Iran, what powers Congress has to shape US involvement and whether legislators will support what Trump tries to do next.
Read more: US Congress Unlikely to Limit Trump on Iran War for Now
Hosted by Sarah Holder; Produced by Rachael Lewis-Krisky; Reported by Nancy Cook and Jamie Tarabay; Edited by Tracey Samuelson.
Fact-checking by David Fox, Eleanor Harrison-Dengate and Julia Press; Engineering by Alex Sugiura.
Senior Producer: Naomi Shavin; Deputy Executive Producer: Julia Weaver. Executive Producer: Nicole Beemsterboer.
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