Reuters World News - FTC, Paramount, Nvidia and social media ban

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, I'm Sharon Reisch Garson in New Jersey. It's Tuesday, December 9th. Today, the Supreme Court signals it may back Trump's power to fire independent agency heads. The Warner Brothers fight heats up with a $108 billion hostile bid from Paramount. Trump clears the way for NVIDIA to sell some of its AI chips to China, and Australian teens and tweens spend their money. final few hours scrolling social media ahead of a world first ban. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, seven days a week.

Starting point is 00:00:46 The Supreme Court is signaling it may hand Donald Trump a major win and give presidential power a historic boost. Justices are weighing whether presidents should have sweeping authority to fire the heads of independent agencies, a move that could overturn precedent dating back to FDR's presidency. I think is that Humphrey's executor is just a dried husk of whatever people used to think it was. That's Chief Justice John Roberts.

Starting point is 00:01:21 It described the powers of the agency it was talking about, and they're vanishingly insignificant. Conservatives on the court appear to back Trump's removal of FTC Commissioner or Rebecca Slaughter. Reporter John Cruzel spoke to us from the Supreme Court. So what's at stake in this case is how much control a president has over executive agencies that were set up by Congress

Starting point is 00:01:51 to be somewhat insulated from White House control. The Trump administration is arguing that the president is allowed to remove officials that are subordinate to him with him. the executive branch. Opponents of that view say that, well, in fact, Congress is allowed to give removal protections to those who head up these agencies. These typically are headed up by neutral experts and that there's good reason why you would want to shield these experts from political interference so that you can make sure that decisions being made at these agencies are done so not for political reasons, but based on science and fact finding and are done so in a way

Starting point is 00:02:37 that's neutral and in the best interest of the American people. So bottom line, it looks like the Supreme Court is prepared to hand President Trump a lot more power over the federal government's operations. Paramount's $108 billion hostile takeover bid for Warner Brothers is threatening to upend what looked to be a done deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. just last Friday. President Trump weighed in on the regulatory concerns of both deals on Monday. We have to see the Netflix percentage of market, Paramount, the percentage of the market. Over the weekend, Trump said he'd be a part of greenlighting a deal for Warner Brothers. Our entertainment business reporter, Don Schimoleski, says Paramount took this bid straight to shareholder.

Starting point is 00:03:30 after it felt it was being snubbed by the Warner Brothers Board. The argument that Paramount is making to investors is, we're giving you $18 billion more cash. This should be an easy choice for you. It argues that this offer is more likely to win regulatory approval. David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount, he may well be counting on the family's ties with the Trump administration. His father, who is Paramount's single largest investor, Larry Ellison, is a known supporter of President Trump.

Starting point is 00:04:05 He has been an ally of Trump's for years. He's been to the White House. He is backstopping the deal, so ensuring that it can be financed. Perhaps David Ellison is counting on the good graces of the Trump administration. Paramount's $30 per share, all-cash-offer, includes financing from Affinity Partners, which is an investment fund that's run by Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law. It also includes money from the Saudi and Katari sovereign wealth funds and another fund that is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi. In aggregate, it's $24 billion in commitment from three sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf.

Starting point is 00:04:42 Kushner's role in Paramount's bid for Warner Brothers is injecting Trump family interests into one of the biggest media battles in years. And Dawn says that's not the only scrutiny the Paramount deal faces. There's several areas where Warner Brothers and Paramount's businesses overlap. They both have cable networks, which may well become a regulatory issue. They both have film studios. They both have television studios. They both have streaming services. But they are not a dominant player. So they may not trip the 30 percent threshold that would suggest that they control the market. Whereas Netflix combining with HBO Max, that may well become an issue. It depends on. on how regulators view the market.

Starting point is 00:05:29 Netflix's CEO said on Monday, it's still planning to close a deal with Warner Brothers. Two Chinese men are in U.S. custody for allegedly smuggling Nvidia chips to China. Prosecutors say the men independently conspired with employees at a Hong Kong-based and a China-based company to circumvent U.S. export controls. The Justice Department made the announcement

Starting point is 00:05:56 just as President Trump gave the green light for Nvidia to export its H-200 chips to Beijing. Those are their second-best AI chips, and the U.S. will collect a 25% fee on their sales. It's a win for the chipmaker and its CEO who's been lobbying the White House. We're joined now by Amanda Cooper, one of the hosts of our finance podcast MorningBed. So Amanda, I'm guessing investors are watching Nvidia this morning. but what else is on their minds? Hi, Sharon. Well, investors are watching Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Brothers.

Starting point is 00:06:36 This has brought some real Hollywood drama to Wall Street. The company has come in with a bid worth $108 billion, just days after Netflix put in an offer for the company. Warner Brothers shareholders are now going to have to choose between one suitor and another. We're also taking a look at oil prices, which dropped sharply yesterday as fears of oversupply are creeping back into the price, although it's not all bad news for,

Starting point is 00:06:58 consumers who are now paying less for their gas than they have been in some time. And finally, we're taking a look at what's going on within Vyria after President Trump offered the company a bit of a waiver in terms of selling its chips to China, but it comes at a cost. Scrutiny of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth continues to mount. Now Congress is threatening to withhold part of his travel budget unless he provides unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. It's Congress's latest effort to get their hands on more information about President Trump's campaign against Venezuela. The Department of Defense has not yet commented on the request.

Starting point is 00:07:41 The powerful seven and a half magnitude earthquake that struck Northeastern Japan on Monday has triggered evacuations for around 90,000 residents. But initial tsunami advisory's warning of 10-foot-high waves have been downgraded, with only, only minor waves detected. Japan issued what they call a megacquake advisory, warning that more powerful earthquakes could hit the region over the next week. The region was devastated by a massive 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami in 2011 that killed nearly 20,000 people. When Australians aged 15 and under wake up tomorrow morning, they won't have access to most social media. Platforms are implementing the government's new ban in different ways. Meta's been denying young people access to Facebook and Instagram for a few weeks, while Snapchat plans to use an ID verification system. Critics have

Starting point is 00:08:43 described it as unenforceable and some worry that it'll isolate marginalized groups, leaving people without access to support networks. It's going to be worse for, like, queer people and like, people with like niche interests, I guess, because like, that's the only way they can find the community. That's 14-year-old Annie Wang. But for some people, it would like worsen their mental health because you're sending the, they're like isolated alone people back. But parents like Samantha Peterson think it's a positive change. There's so many mental health implications and to take that off my hands and leave it to the government to decide,

Starting point is 00:09:27 give my kids a break from after school, and they can just rest and hang out with a family. I think it's a great initiative. And for today's recommended, read, the Golden Globe nominations are out, and Leonardo DiCaprio's dark comedy, one battle after another, is leading the pack with nine nominations. This year's nominations are notable for a big showing from international films with Norwegian drama sentimental value, Iranian film, it was just an accident,

Starting point is 00:10:04 and the Brazilian movie The Secret Agent, also in the mix. There's a link to our Golden Globes coverage in the pod notes. For more on any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. And if you're listening on a smart speaker, just ask for the latest news from Reuters, seven days a week. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.

Reuters World News - FTC, Paramount, Nvidia and social media ban

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.