Inside the blockbuster Hollywood deal that could upend streaming

Good morning. It's Monday, December 8th. I'm Shemitah Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show... The Supreme Court hears a major case on presidential power, what the Netflix Warner Brothers merger means for Hollywood and your streaming services, and why Trump is already regretting one of his pardons from last week.

But first, President Trump has unveiled his vision for America's role in the world. On Friday, the administration dropped its National Security Strategy, an official document that's normally delivered once a term. It offered a window into the thinking behind the administration's evolving foreign policy.

On Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth celebrated the four priorities laid out in the document at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California. First, defending the U.S. homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength. not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for U.S. allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the U.S. defense industrial base.

Hexeth presented Trump's thinking as a follow to the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th century policy that declared the Western Hemisphere as part of the U.S. sphere of influence, which in turn gave it the right to assert itself in the region. After years of neglect, the United States will restore US military dominance in the Western Hemisphere. We will use it to protect our homeland and access to key terrain throughout the region.

Some observers say this approach is becoming most visible in the military buildup in the Caribbean and the recent strikes on alleged drug boats, something that Hegseth defended again in his speech. The strategy document also took a scolding view of European partners, who have by now become used to criticism over their military spending and approach to Russia. But this document went far beyond that and took aim at Europe's domestic policies.

It said the continent faced what it called civilization erasure thanks to mass migration, policies on free speech, and loss of self-confidence. The administration urged Europe to change course and questioned whether certain European countries could remain reliable allies if it didn't. Some critics told NBC they regarded those comments to be echoing the Great Replacement Theory, a debunked racist conspiracy that says majority white populations are being replaced by non-white immigrants.

The White House rejected that comparison. But some elements of the strategy document are an echo of comments made recently by Vice President J.D. Vance. The Atlantic Council's Matthew Kroenig worked on strategy papers like this one for past Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, and he said the European section was a consequence of the changing GOP.

I do think that's something of an extension of domestic politics for the so-called new right in the Republican Party. I think they see their enemies as liberals and progressives. That's in the United States, but also in Europe. And so I think taking some of their domestic political positions and exporting those to Europe is what accounts for those passages. Germany's foreign minister has since pushed back, remarking that they did not need quote outside advice in organizing its society.

Speaking to the BBC, Trump's former Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said the document still stressed the importance of U.S. partnership with Europe and rejected non-interventionism outright. but it was clear in sounding an alarm to its allies. Europe cannot have a seat at the world table if it does not have hard power. And in fact, in addition to the hard power, the study points out...

that just in the last 20 years, Europe's economic power has decreased from 25% of the global market to 14%. And that is, I think, very important for all of us, that Europe regain its footing. As the paper shows a hardening on Europe, there's also a softening on China. In President Biden's strategy paper, the country was framed as a threat to the international order, and it directly addressed its, quote, authoritarian model.

In Trump's paper, China is referenced only a handful of times, and it's mainly framed as an economic challenge. As for Russia, the document said it sought to reestablish strategic stability and end the perception of NATO as a, quote, perpetually expanding alliance. Yesterday, the Kremlin praised the paper, saying it was quote, largely consistent with our vision.

Ukraine continues to negotiate on its future. In the past week, they've held talks with U.S. officials at a Florida golf resort. Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in London to speak directly with European leaders.

Now to the blockbuster Hollywood merger that could upend the cinema industry and transform what you're going to get on your streaming services. On Friday, Netflix announced it would acquire Warner Brothers. If the regulators approve, it would gain control of Warner's historic film and TV studio, as well as HBO, for an eye-catching $83 billion.

The reason why Netflix wanted Warner Brothers is because this was an unperiled and rare opportunity. Meg James is a senior entertainment industry writer for the Los Angeles Times. Think about Warner Brothers. I mean, the film studio goes back 102 years. This is the studio behind Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Dirty Harry. Think about the television studio, Friends, The Big Bang Theory.

James said one of the secrets of the streaming services is that so much of its viewers are watching what's called library content, stuff from the old back catalog. More than three quarters of the viewership on services like Netflix goes to older content. Think Batman, the Harry Potter franchise, shows like The Sopranos. Ultimately, Warner Brothers has a century's worth of content to pick from. Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

At least that's what Netflix hopes. But not everyone from within the industry agrees. Some fear Netflix will ultimately neglect big screen releases. The Cinema United Trade Group opposed the deal, suggesting Netflix's business model is dependent on eyes turning to their platforms at home. For its part, Netflix has pledged to honor Warner Brothers' commitment to theatrical releases.

But Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos hasn't always sounded convinced by the experience. He once said there's no reason to believe certain movies are universally worth watching on the big screen and talked enthusiastically about his son watching Lawrence. Arabia on his phone. Critics have also questioned whether this could end up becoming a monopoly.

Democratic Congresswoman Laura Friedman is a former film executive, and her district holds both the Warner Brothers Studio lot and Netflix studios. She shared her concerns with Los Angeles' ABC7. I'm worried that there will be consolidation with any of these mergers leading to job losses. Certainly worried about consumers having less choices in terms of what they stream, about a decrease in competition leading to higher streaming costs and less variety of energy.

Netflix said the acquisition would increase their ability to invest in original content, which would in turn strengthen the industry and create jobs. The company's emergence as the winning bidder took a lot of people by surprise. Only a couple of months ago, executives were downplaying Netflix's interest. Many had assumed Paramount was the favorite.

David Ellison, whose company Skydance Media closed a massive deal to buy Paramount over the summer, was one of the losing bidders, and he doesn't seem happy about it. Ellison kickstarted the entire process by making unsolicited bids for Warner Brothers before Netflix and others had jumped in. Now that he's lost, he's accused Warner of tilting the field. Warner denies that claim.

Many of my sources and so many people in Hollywood have thought, how in the heck could Paramount, which everyone thought that Warner's was theirs for the taking, not come away with a prize? And what our reporting has shown that... Paramount, the Ellison family, continued to put forth low bids, not recognizing how truly interested Netflix was. The deal still needs to pass major U.S. and European regulatory hurdles.

The Trump administration, which is close to Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, has told CNBC it views the agreement with heavy skepticism.

The Supreme Court hears a case today that could have big implications for the federal workforce and decide whether President Trump can fire certain bureaucrats at will. It's also likely the first time the high court will hand down a final decision regarding Trump's cutbacks to federal agencies. The case focuses on Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat on the Federal Trade Commission.

In March, she and the only other Democrat on the FTC were fired by President Trump. Justin Juvenal covers the Supreme Court for The Washington Post. The main question before the court is whether the president has the authority to fire her. The Federal Trade Commission was created under a law that says The president can only remove a commissioner for neglect of duty in office, malfeasance or some other serious wrongdoing.

And when Donald Trump fired Rebecca Slaughter back in March, he did not give any kind of reason for her firing. The administration said Slaughter and fellow Democrat Alvaro Bedoya's work was not aligned with the White House. They subsequently sued, but Bedoya dropped out of the case, citing the difficulties of taking on the president in court.

Slaughter kept up her fight, but despite some success in lower courts who ruled in her favor, Juvenal says the Supreme Court might not be so sympathetic. Trump has fired a series. of members of independent agencies like the FTC in the opening months of his second term. And in a series of emergency rulings that are temporary, the Supreme Court has allowed Donald Trump to go forward with those firings.

So that's a pretty strong indication that they support the idea that the president has the authority to fire Rebecca Slaughter. At the heart of the administration's argument is the idea that the president should have the ultimate authority to hire and fire anyone in the executive branch, although the FTC and many other departments were set up to be independent of the president.

The idea was it was carrying out sort of nonpartisan regulatory functions that should be based on expertise and technical knowledge rather than political influence from the president. Donald Trump disagrees with that, and he's made it one of the major goals of his second term to assert more authority over the federal bureaucracy.

That independence, Juvenal says, is what's at stake and the basis for Slaughter's defense. Slaughter spoke to CNBC about her concerns for the future of the FTC. I can tell you from my experience. I felt and continue to feel really, really worried for the institution that I served for seven years and the people that it serves. That is what is really animating and incredibly distressing.

Continue to love my job at the FTC, and it is an incredible honor to get to serve, but it's most importantly a duty, a privilege to try to... help make the economy more fair, more equitable, provide more opportunities for people and the inability to do that work is incredibly frustrating. The court will hear a similar case in January when it takes up the attempted firing of Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board. Cook has so far been allowed to keep her job.

Juvenal notes that case may not get the same treatment. As the court indicated, the Fed is structured differently than the FTC and other independent agencies.

Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. An opposition leader in Venezuela died in government custody over the weekend. The BBC reports that he suffered signs of a heart attack in his cell before dying at a hospital. Alfredo Diaz was detained in 2024 for being one of many figures that voiced opposition to the country's election results, declaring Maduro the winner, an outcome widely dismissed internationally as fraudulent.

Diaz had been arrested on charges of incitement to hatred and terrorism for questioning the election results. The U.S. claimed he was arbitrarily detained and called his death a reminder of the, quote, vile nature of the Maduro regime. Just days after granting clemency to Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar,

President Trump appears to be getting a case of pardoner's remorse. He posted on social media that Cuellar had displayed a lack of loyalty by choosing to stick with Democrats and not switch parties after his pardon. Cuellar was charged in a $600,000 bribery scheme along with his wife. Trump pardoned them both, saying they were victims of DOJ weaponization by the Biden administration.

There was speculation that Queer would switch to the GOP, or at least retire and open up a tight seat, but he immediately announced his re-election bid for his old party. And finally, in what's being described as the most dramatic college football playoff bracket reveal in the tournament's history, the 12-team field is set. Indiana is the No. 1 seed, followed by Ohio State at 2, Georgia at 3, and Texas Tech. in the fourth slot. Indiana earned the top spot after beating Ohio State on Saturday.

Observers were closely watching who might be the teams left out, and in a hotly debated decision, Alabama, who were blown out in their final regular season game, squeaked into the ninth slot, edging out Notre Dame. Now, Notre Dame did not take that decision lightly. The school's athletic director called Alabama's selection a stolen birth.

Notre Dame on Sunday also announced they will withdraw their name from consideration for a bowl game and say they've played for the last time this season. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Steroids, which were once taboo in sports, are being embraced by organizers of what are known as the Enhanced Games.

Men's health dives into the competition, its billionaire backers, and why some are calling it a threat to sports everywhere. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.