New Iran Talks Set for Next Week; Netflix Drops Warner Bros. Bid

0:28The news doesn't stop on the weekends. We put the past week's events into context, examining what happened in the markets and the world. Then on Sundays, we speak with journalists, columnists, and key political figures to prepare you for the week ahead. Join us as soon as you wake up and bring us with you wherever your weekend plans take you. Watch us on Bloomberg Television, listen on Bloomberg Radio, stream the show live on the Bloomberg Business app, or listen to the podcast. That's Bloomberg this weekend, Saturdays and Sundays starting at 7 a.m. Eastern on February 28th. Make us part of your weekend routine on Bloomberg Television, Radio, and wherever you get your podcasts.

1:09Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News.

1:17Good morning. I'm John Tucker. And I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today. And Karen, let's start with the latest on Iran. U.S. and Iranian officials have agreed to more nuclear talks as soon as next week after the latest round of discussions in Geneva. Now let's get the latest from Bloomberg Middle East correspondent Jamada Brasenshi. Well, it was a long day of talks and Bloomberg reporting this as well as other outlets that the U.S. side were disappointed with some of the options that Iran had presented. That being said, at the end of the day, the mediator, Oman, the foreign minister there put out a statement saying that talks will reconvene again.

1:54And the Omani mediator also citing, quote, significant progress also echoed by the Iranian foreign ministry as well. That we haven't had formal comments come through from the U.S., but what we do understand from earlier on in the session is that they were not utterly pleased with what the Iranians had presented. Bloomberg's Jumana Basachi says unlike nuclear talks under prior U.S. administrations, the Iranians have taken the lead in crafting written proposals and brought them to the Americans. Well, staying overseas, John, Pakistan's defense minister declared, quote, open war with Afghanistan after both sides carried out cross-border strikes overnight that killed dozens.

2:31The clash marks a major escalation in tensions between the two neighbors. Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have steadily broken down in the years since the return of the Afghan Taliban in 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces. And now to the latest on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Hillary Clinton has denied any association with a convicted sex offender under questioning from congressional investigators. The former Secretary of State spoke to reporters after giving an hours-long deposition. I did not know Jeffrey Epstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his homes.

3:07I never went to his offices. So it's on the record numerous times. Today, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee. Bloomberg's Amy Morris has more from Washington. Bill Clinton's testimony will be the first time a former president has been forced to testify before Congress. He appears in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice, one of many names in politics, academia, and business who have appeared in those files both before and after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges. The documents appear to show that Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was part of the Clinton social and professional circle, including fundraisers and political donor events.

3:48In Washington, Amy Morris, Bloomberg Radio. All right, Amy, thank you. Let's turn to the markets now, and Netflix has dropped out of the fight to buy Warner Brothers Discovery, clearing the way for rival bidder Paramount to clinch a$111 billion deal. The streaming giant said while its offer would have passed muster with regulators and created shareholder value, it didn't want to keep bidding. Lucas Shaw has been covering the takeover battle for Bloomberg. Warner Brothers board's not really concerned about synergies. I think that if they could have chosen between the two buyers, they preferred Netflix.

4:20Netflix is a bigger, stronger, healthier company. But Paramount ultimately offered more money. And a lot of Warner Brothers shareholders preferred Paramount because Paramount's buying the whole company. So they get bought out right now with cash, whereas the Netflix deal was more of a two-step process where Warner Brothers was going to have to spin out its cable networks and then sell the rest of the company to Netflix. And as Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw shares of Netflix up 7 % in early trading. And Karen, several other stocks on the move this morning. Shares of Block, they're surging more than 23%.

4:51Jack Dorsey's company is reducing its workforce by nearly half. They're cutting 4 ,000 employees. The financial technology firm is betting that artificial intelligence is going to change the future of labor productivity. Well, John, Dell shares are up about 12 percent. The company gave an outlook for sales of its artificial intelligence servers that topped estimates. Dell now says it will generate about 50 billion dollars in AI server revenue in the current fiscal year. And on the flip side, you have shares of CoreWeave. They're down more than 11 percent. The company, an operator of AI data centers, reporting a bigger than expected loss.

5:28It's also boosting capital expenditures. Well, elsewhere in the AI space, John, Anthropic is standing its ground when it comes to its artificial intelligence. And Bloomberg's Monica Ricks reports. Anthropic has rejected the Pentagon's latest offer over the use of its artificial intelligence, ahead of a deadline today for the company to drop its safeguards on its AI model or risk losing its government contracts. CEO Dario Amadei says the company remains committed to negotiations and still wants to work with the U.S. military, but can't in good conscience agree to the Pentagon's demands for AI use.

6:04He says new contract language falls short in preventing mass surveillance on Americans or for the use of autonomous lethal strikes without a human in the loop. The Pentagon hasn't commented. Monica Ricks, Bloomberg Radio. We have a programming note. The markets may pause for the weekend, but the world does not. And that's why we're bringing you a new live radio and TV show. Bloomberg this weekend is looking beyond the daily headlines to the bigger themes driving politics, business, and culture. Join David Gura, Christina Ruffini, and Lisa Matteo for smart conversations and in-depth interviews that help make sense of the week that's been and what comes next.

6:41Tomorrow on the show, we'll hear from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York and get the show live Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. Eastern on Bloomberg Radio TV and the Bloomberg Business App.

6:55Time now for a look at some of the other stories making news in New York and around the world. And for that, we're joined by Bloomberg's Michael Barr. Michael, good morning. Good morning, Karen. In an unannounced visit, New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani met President Donald Trump yesterday to urge him to release$21 billion in federal grants to build 12 ,000 affordable housing units and infrastructure. During Mamdani's White House visit, a Columbia University student detained by Homeland Security agents was released after Mamdani said he spoke with President Trump about the student. The school claims the ICE agents made misrepresentations to enter a housing unit to detain Elena Agayeva, acting president of Columbia University, Claire Shipman.

7:40We are all so relieved that our student, Elia Agayeva, has been released from federal custody. Manhattan borough president Brad Hoylman-Segal says community members told him the agents presented themselves as police officers looking for a missing child. The level of deception is astounding, in addition to the fact that, of course, they didn't have a warrant to arrest anyone. Borough president Hoylman-Segal says this should send a chill up the spine of every American. State Department and White House officials say that at least one American citizen was killed and another was hurt in the deadly gun battle between Cuban border guards and a group on a boat off the Cuban coast.

8:26Ricardo Zunica was a senior diplomat at the State Department. It seems that Secretary Rubio and the U.S. government have decided that they need to continue to get information about this and they want to continue conversations with the Cuban authorities in the meantime to try to kind of move things forward and not be caught up in a single incident. A total of four people were killed and six others hurt in the incident. An apparent mistake in the skies around El Paso, Texas, after a military laser was used to shoot down a drone being flown by Customs and Border Patrol. This is the second time in two weeks that has happened in the area.

9:07Global News 24 hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Michael Barr. This is Bloomberg. Karen. Thanks, Michael. Time now for our Bloomberg Sports Update. And for that, we bring in John Stash Hour. Thanks, Darren, out of the scouting combine that's going on in Indianapolis. A trade in the NFL, a swap of defensive linemen in the Jets, sent Jermaine Johnson to Tennessee for Devondre Sweat. Anthony Richardson was the Colts' fourth pick overall in the 2023 draft. Hasn't worked out well for the quarterback, and now Richardson and the Colts mutually agreeing for the quarterback to seek a trade.

9:4211th straight win for San Antonio, 126-110 in Brooklyn. another close loss for the Lakers, beaten by Phoenix by three. That's your Bloomberg Sports Update. Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this. The news doesn't stop on the weekends. Context changes constantly. And now Bloomberg is the place to stay on top of it all. Hi, I'm David Gurra. Join us every Saturday and Sunday for the new Bloomberg This Weekend. I'm Christina Ruffini. We'll bring you the latest headlines, in-depth analysis, and big interviews. All the stories that hit home on your days off. And I'm Lisa Mateo.

10:18Watch and listen to Bloomberg this weekend for thoughtful, enlightening conversations about business, lifestyle, people, and culture. On Saturday mornings, we put the past week's events into context, examining what happened in the markets and the world. Then on Sundays, we speak with journalists, columnists, and key political figures to prepare you for the week ahead. Join us as soon as you wake up and bring us with you wherever your weekend plans take you. Watch us on Bloomberg Television, listen on Bloomberg Radio, stream the show live on the Bloomberg Business app, or listen to the podcast.

10:48That's Bloomberg this weekend, Saturdays and Sundays starting at 7 a.m. Eastern. Make us part of your weekend routine on Bloomberg Television, radio, and wherever you get your podcasts.

11:07Coast to Coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on Sirius XM and around the world on Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg Business App. This is Bloomberg Daybreak. And good morning. I'm John Tucker. Among some of the top stories we are pursuing for you this morning, U.S. and Iranian officials agreeing to reconvene nuclear talks as soon as next week. And former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says she denied any association with Jeffrey Epstein during an hours-long deposition before congressional investigators yesterday. Let's get more on these stories now. We're joined by Laura Davidson, the Deputy Washington Bureau Chief for Bloomberg News.

11:44Happy Friday to you. With respect to the Iran nuclear talks, I guess, Laura, at this point, the progress depends on who you're talking to, because it seems like the U.S. and the Iranian officials have different degrees of the success so far of these talks. Yes, the U.S. and the Iranians left the talks in Geneva sort of striking very different tones. The Iranians came out quite optimistic, saying that there was progress and quite upbeat that these talks would continue and are headed in a positive direction. The U.S., on the other hand, came out kind of deflated. They seemed disappointed with the lack of progress and, you know, did not at all take the optimistic tone that we heard from the Iranians.

12:25This, you know, it has been sort of a dichotomy that we've been seeing for some days now, but has really grown stronger. and it was very apparent as these talks broke up, clearly with no tangible details that came out moving forward here. How firm is the Trump deadline to come to agreement? Well, this is as firm as Trump wants it to be. This is a deadline he set last week saying he is giving Iran 10 to 15 days to make some sort of deal. There is no legal or otherwise forcing reason that he needs to enforce that deadline. But Trump likes to set some of these arbitrary deadlines to try to force parties to come to the table.

13:04You know, the leverage he has is that he's continued to amass military assets in the region. You know, there have been some signs that he's perhaps getting more serious about some sort of limited strike, including his, you know, remarks at the State of the Union the other night where he, you know, said in no uncertain terms that, you know, he wants to find a diplomatic solution, but, you know, could consider, you know, some sort of military action. You know, there's also just some headlines across the terminal here just about an hour ago that a U.S. embassy personnel, non-essential personnel in Israel have been asked to leave the country.

13:35So this is, you know, kind of some of the precursors that we have seen in the past before there have been strikes in the region. Okay, let's get to the testimony of Hillary Clinton yesterday. And I guess today we're going to hear from the former president, Bill Clinton. What exactly are they looking for? Is this intended to be a political embarrassment or what? If you ask Hillary Clinton, that is exactly what she said, that this is just sort of a hunt. They're trying to put herself and her husband, the former president, in this, not public, it's behind closed doors, but sort of in this in-person forum to just go on a hunt to see what they can find.

14:14Clinton came out of this deposition saying that she was asked everything related to, including some very off-topic things, including about aliens, conspiracy theories, UFOs, and said she wasn't exactly certain what the point here was. Her husband, Bill Clinton, will go into this deposition today. He has much closer ties to Jeffrey Epstein than Hillary Clinton did. She has maintained that she never met him, didn't know him, and certainly didn't know anything about his activities regarding underage women. Clinton, however, Bill Clinton has appeared in photos in swimming pools with Jeffrey Epstein and wrote on his plane several times as well.

14:54And the Democrats want President Trump to appear. I suspect that's not going to happen. Got about a minute left. That is highly unlikely to happen, at least while Republicans control both chambers of the House. But this is the kind of thing, and this is why Trump is very worried about the midterms. If Democrats do win the House or the Senate, they suddenly have subpoena power. They're able to investigate more. So this is the kind of thing that we could see Democrats use their leverage going into the next year if they are able to secure a majority. This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast on the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.

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16:12I'm Karen Moscow. I'm John Tucker. Join us again tomorrow morning for all the news you need to start your day right here on Bloomberg Daybreak. Hello, I'm Stephen Carroll. I'm in Brussels, where many of Europe's biggest decisions get made. And I'm Caroline Hepker in London. We're the hosts of the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast. We're up early every weekday keeping an eye on what's happening across Europe and around the world. We do it early so the news is fresh, not recycled, and so you know what actually matters as the day gets going. From Brussels, I'm following the politics, policy and the people shaping the European Union right now.

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