July 20 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Private equity firm Truelink Capital is nearing a deal to acquire fruit-based ingredients and beverage maker Lyons Magnus for about $1 billion, with an announcement expected to come as soon as Monday.

-Boeing BA.N Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the company has started working on a new airplane design, while focusing more on having the technology and its finances in place first.

-Irish-American multinational financial services platform Stripe and American private equity firm Advent International made a joint takeover bid for online payment company PayPal PYPL.O valued at about $53 billion.

-U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is boosting Pentagon spending on defense-tech startups with a $1.5 trillion budget request to Congress, with spending on the 15 highest-valued defense startups having tripled from 2022.

-The U.S. Central Command reported that a servicemember passed away in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian attack drone, amidst a week of escalating exchange of fire between the U.S. and Iran.

-Taylor Farms said that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has apologized after the agency walked back an earlier statement that the parasite cyclospora had been detected on a sample of its lettuce.