US-Iran Tension, Clinton Deposition, Paramount Wins Warner Bros. Bid

0:02Ayesha Rascoe:President Trump seems to be closer than ever to ordering strikes on Iran.

0:06Rachel Martin:He says he prefers diplomacy, but negotiations are stalled and the U.S. military is already in place. How soon could the president decide to strike?

0:13Ayesha Rascoe:I'm Michelle Martin. That's A. Martinez. And this is Up First from NPR News.

0:20Ayesha Rascoe:Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent six hours on Thursday in a closed-door deposition tied to Congress's Epstein investigation. I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Hepstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his home. I never went to his offices. Today, former President Bill Clinton answers questions. What are lawmakers trying to accomplish?

0:43Rachel Martin:And Paramount wins the bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery beating out Netflix. Stay with us. We got the news you need to start your day.

0:56Rachel Martin:President Trump continues to hold open the possibility of military strikes on Iran. My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.

1:15Ayesha Rascoe:That was the president at his State of the Union address earlier this week. Talks between the two are supposed to continue next week.

1:22Rachel Martin:NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez has been following the president's rhetoric about Iran. So, Franco, what has to happen from Iran's point of view in order for the U.S. not to attack it?

1:33David Greene:You know, the thing, A, is Trump hasn't really explained what his objectives are. I mean, what does success look like? He also hasn't asked Congress for authorization or taken the opportunity to thoroughly explain to the American people his reasoning.

1:46Rachel Martin:OK, so what has he said?

1:48David Greene:Well, in his speech, President Trump touched on a few different reasons. I mean, first was stopping the nuclear program. Second is helping protesters who he promised to back if more were killed. Well, tens of thousands more have been killed. You know, then there is the stopping of the ballistic missile program that he claims are almost able to reach the U.S. What about regime change? Yeah, I mean, that's another possible reason. And, you know, I mean, we should be clear that Trump is not the first president to deal with this Iran issue. I mean, former President Obama was widely criticized for the nuclear deal that he reached.

2:25David Greene:Many saw it as weak and actually empowering of Iran economically. During the George W. Bush years, Iran accelerated its nuclear program. Bush, of course, labeled Iran part of its axis of evil. You know, this has really been an issue since the revolution in 1979. I mean, Iran had been a modern society, and the government was actually an ally to the U.S. The regime, though, that took over was largely built in opposition to the U.S. and to Israel.

2:53Rachel Martin:All right, so then what exactly are the options? And actually, what kind of timeline are we talking about now?

2:58David Greene:I mean, it seems focused on two likely sets of targets. One would be, you know, limited strikes, perhaps against Iran's ballistic missile program or nuclear targets or leadership, maybe. A second could be something bigger, a longer campaign aimed at destabilizing or possibly overthrowing the regime. Matthew Kroenig, who worked on the Iranian file at the Pentagon, he told me the administration will want to consider Iran's response, noting that Iran's response last time was limited because they knew or probably knew that the U.S. had limited aims.

3:31Rachel Martin:If I were advising the president and he were determined to follow through on the red line and use force, I would advocate for a more limited strike and communicate to the regime that this is just a limited strike to try to induce them to engage in token retaliation and hope that the conflict can de-escalate. All right. So how soon could all of this happen?

3:52David Greene:Yeah, it could be very soon. The U.S. now has a massive military presence in the Middle East, the largest since the run-up to the Iraq War. The U.S. held a third round of negotiations with Iranian officials in Geneva Thursday, as you noted, and what observers say may be the last chance to prevent a war. I mean, clearly those meetings are very important. Now, U.S. officials are not saying these meetings are decisive, but they're also expressing a lot of frustration about progress on nuclear talks or lack of progress, but also over the fact that Iran refuses to negotiate on ballistic missiles. And they say that's a, quote, big, big problem.

4:27Rachel Martin:That's White House correspondent Franco Ordonez. Thanks a lot.

4:30David Greene:Thanks, A.

4:31Rachel Martin:And for the latest developments between the U.S. and Iran, hit the follow button so you'll get up first delivered straight to your phone.

4:46Rachel Martin:former secretary of state hillary clinton spent more than six hours in a closed door deposition in front of the house oversight committee on thursday the republican-led committee subpoenaed

4:56Ayesha Rascoe:hillary clinton and former president bill clinton as part of their investigation into the convicted sex offender jeffrey epstein the clintons initially resisted testifying then agreed after being threatened with contempt of Congress. Hillary Clinton has said she did not know Epstein and repeated that to the committee. Former President Bill Clinton, who was friends with Epstein, appeared in the files a number of times, including in photos with Epstein. He is set to answer questions today.

5:20Rachel Martin:NPR's Sage Miller joins us to break this all down. So Sage, I mentioned how the meeting was behind closed doors, yet there's a lot of information about it that's out in the open. Yeah, there definitely is. And I will say the Clintons pushed for public depositions, but the committee ultimately rejected that request. Hillary Clinton and the committee did say that they want the video and the transcript shared as soon as possible, though. Until then, we only have what they told us. So I'll start with what Clinton had to say. Afterwards, speaking to the press, she reiterated that the hearing should have been open from the get-go.

5:55Rachel Martin:It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing, so I wouldn't have to be out here characterizing it for you. You could have seen it for yourself. But Clinton said she wouldn't do this again, even if it was public. She described the line of questioning as repetitive. I don't know how many times I had to say I did not know Jeffrey Hepstein. I never went to his island. I never went to his home. I never went to his offices. By the end of the deposition, Clinton said the committee members started asking off-topic questions about UFOs and the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which falsely claimed some high-profile Democrats were involved in a child sex trafficking ring.

6:39Rachel Martin:And Sage, not to belabor the point, but was there supposed to be a picture showing what was happening behind those closed doors? Well, the agreed-upon rules said no photos. But at one point, soon after it started, the committee paused the deposition. That's because a conservative commentator, Benny Johnson, posted a photo on social media of Clinton inside the room where the hearing was taking place, sent by Republican committee member Lauren Boebert. The hearing resumed shortly after, but Clinton did say it was very upsetting that one of the members violated the rules. Reporters later asked Boebert why she sent the photo.

7:15Rachel Martin:She answered, why not? Okay, so how did the members of the committee feel that the deposition went? So we only heard from Republicans after the hearing. While committee chair Republican James Comer of Kentucky said it was a productive hearing, he did have some gripes. Here's what he told reporters.

7:32David Greene:There were a lot of questions that we asked that we weren't satisfied with the answers that we got, but we will continue to move forward.

7:40Rachel Martin:Comer did say Clinton answered nearly every question the committee asked, even when the answer was this. The number of times that

7:48David Greene:she said, I don't know, you'll have to ask my husband was more than a dozen.

7:53Rachel Martin:All right, so then to that point, did Hillary Clinton or the committee give any insight into what her husband Bill Clinton's testimony will sound like. Just a little bit. Hillary Clinton said her husband will likely talk about how his relationship with Epstein ended several years before Epstein's criminal history came to light. And Comer said the committee has a lot of questions for Bill Clinton, and he's sure today's deposition will last even longer than Hillary's. All right, that's NPR's Sage Miller. Sage, thanks a lot. Thank you.

8:29Rachel Martin:There is a winner in the epic Hollywood bidding war for Warner Brothers Discovery, and that winner is David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount.

8:37Ayesha Rascoe:In a stunning turnaround, Warner Brothers Discovery dropped a deal it had already struck with the streaming giant Netflix for an improved offer from Paramount, and Netflix walked away.

8:47Rachel Martin:NPR media correspondent David Folken Flick is reporting on this. David, Warner Brothers rejected a lot of offers for Paramount, and what happened?

8:54David Greene:Well, Warner Brothers originally didn't want Paramount to be bid at all. Paramount triggered all of this by saying, we want to take you guys over. And that opened this up. And it struck a deal with Netflix, which the Warner Brothers board, the Warner Brothers leadership vastly preferred, at least initially. Netflix had said, we'll give you a deal valued at$83 billion and take over your streaming assets, your studios, your intellectual property like DC Studios, Harry Potter and the like. And we'll spin off your cable channels. Paramount wanted the whole enchilada, the whole Megillah. and ultimately sweetened its deal to a value in excess of about$111 billion.

9:29David Greene:And yesterday, Warner Brothers Discovery's board said, you know what, that's a better deal. Netflix had four business days to try to top it. Instead, it walked away. It was spooking investors and said, we don't really need it that badly. We're a giant streamer. We'll do fine.

9:42Rachel Martin:$111 billion. That is one meaty enchilada. So what would Paramount look like now after swallowing Warner Brothers Discovery?

9:49David Greene:Well, think about it. This would be Hollywood behemoth. You'd have Warner Brothers Studios and Paramount Studios under the same roof. You'd have Paramount Plus, the streaming property, which is a bit on the smaller side, paired with HBO Max, one of the dominant streamers coming from Hollywood. You'd have CBS and CBS News with CNN and Comedy Central and Discovery and TBS and a bunch of other properties showing a lot of entertainment and sports. This is going to be a major player in Hollywood intended to take on the streamers, not just Netflix, but also Amazon Prime and Apple to have a major force to walk into the future of streaming.

10:29Rachel Martin:Yeah. Now, this still has to go through review by antitrust regulators. So what happens with that?

10:35David Greene:Well, it's got to go through review from the U.S. Justice Department, given its combination of enormous media and entertainment assets. but it's also got to go through regulation in Europe. And, you know, those are not the only ones involved. The state attorney general of California said he intends not only to review this, but potentially to sue to block this. And there are other interested parties that could weigh in here. So this is usually a very intense and significant scrutiny going on here. And at the same time, you know, we live in a slightly different age.

11:04Rachel Martin:So, David, you mentioned that if this deal closes, Paramount gets to add CNN to what it's getting. It was pretty wild to watch Jake Tapper, break this news Thursday on his show on CNN. So we have some breaking news internationally that affects everybody I'm looking at right now in the studio. Moments ago, Netflix. Yeah, so David, what changes might David Ellison make to CNN?

11:29David Greene:Well, look, the Ellisons, David Ellison, his father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, are very close to President Trump. President Trump has made clear he cares very much about what happens to CNN. then. You've seen the owners of the LA Times, the Washington Post and the Ellisons themselves at CBS alter and reconfigure their news properties to placate Trump and his allies in the current moment. And Trump has shown he's willing to interfere with corporate maneuvering like the one we're seeing play out right now.