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Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager and I'm Karen Moscow. Here are the stories we're following today and Karen.
Oil is trading in near a six month high this morning on concerns the US is moving closer to a war with Iran. The military build up continues in the Middle East, and President Trump says Iran has days to agree to a deal over its nuclear program.
Now we may have to take it a step further, or we maybe we're gonna make a deal. You're gonna be finding out over the next probably ten days.
The US now has more forces in the Middle East than at any point since the Iraq War.
As far as his domestic agenda, Nathan, President Trump is declaring victory in the fight over cost of living concerns. He paid a visit yesterday to the crucial battleground state of Georgia.
What word have you not heard over the last two weeks affordability? Because I've won, I've won affordability.
This signals a new approach by the President. He denied problems with his economic agenda while touting stock market gains to insist that is tariff playans have been a success.
Turning to the UK now, Karen, former Prince Andrew has been released after he was detained on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Let's go to London and get the very latest from Bloomberg's Tiwa out of Bio.
Good morning Tia, Good morning Nathan, Karen. While the fallout is continuing here in the UK after the unprecedented arrest of former Prince Andrew mount Batton Windsor yesterday, the latest is that he has now been released from police custody under investigation. That was yesterday evening, Thames Valley Police confirming the release of a man in his sixties in Norfolk, not naming him as his per the national guidance here
in the UK. This arrest coming, of course, after revelations about mister mount Batton Windsor's ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He has denied all wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. Just in terms of the latest from the rest of the royal family, Whilst this news was breaking yesterday, the King was taking part in a public engagement at London
Fashion Week. He also released an official statement in which he said the law must take its course in London to you, added by Bloomberg Radio.
All right, Tiva, thank you. There is more fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein case right here in the US. The late sex offender's estate has agreed to pay up to thirty five million dollars to resolve all outstanding legal claims from women who have not already reached settlements. This proposed settlement covers at least forty women who say they were sexually abused or trafficked by Epstein between nineteen ninety five and August tenth, twenty nineteen, the day he was found
dead in his jail cell. Their lawsuit was originally filed in twenty twenty four against the Epstein estates two co executors as longtime lawyer Darren Indike and accounted Richard Kahan. Both men have not been accused of abusing women or witnessing abuse. They've denied all liability to Epstein's victims and agreed to the settlement terms without admitting fault.
A federal judge still has to approve Karen. Let's turn now to the latest in the search for Nancy Guthrie. Tomorrow will be three weeks since the mother of today's show host Savannah Guthrie was seen at her home near Tucson. The FBI has received more than twenty thousand tips, and p mccounty Sheriff Chris Nano says every lead helps.
When those tips dry up, this case goes cold.
We believe somebody out there knows who did this.
We need that person to call us.
P mccunty Sheriff Chris Nano spoke to the ABC station in Tucson. He says DNA evidence found at Guthrie's home is still going through lab analysis and several hundred personnel from multiple law enforcement agencies are assigned to the case. Investigators have also identified an Ozark brand backpack the suspect was seen wearing in surveillance footage. They're working to determine
where he bought other items. The FBI reward for information that leads to Nancy Guthrie's return is up to one hundred thousand dollars.
Let's turn to the markets now, Nathan, and futures are higher as we close out the trading week and company news. Netflix said it's proposed acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery will lead to more films in movie theaters is a key concern from Hollywood. In an interview with Bloomberg, Netflix co CEO Ted Sorrandos says he is highly confident he will win the battle against Paramount sky Dance for Warner Brothers.
I think in the Alternative East, guy has gone, you know, missed every deadline. They've been taking nine runs of this bid and they was you know, they're not seeing their bom except the outcome.
And Netflix's Ted Sorrandos made the comments earlier in an interview with Bloomberg, and you can catch that interview as well as live streaming news, all our Bloomberg TV shows, documentaries, and more all in one place at Bloomberg dot com Forward Slash videos. For the first time in decades, the
US imported more from Taiwan than China. In fact, US purchases of goods from China plunged almost forty four percent in December from a year earlier, while shipments from Taiwan more than doubled during the same period to twenty four point seven billion dollars. This Sirene Taiwanese shipments to the US reflects the huge expand and supplies of chips and servers for ai companies.
And US and Chinese fighter jeds briefly faced off Karen above waters near the Korean Peninsula, marking a rare confrontation in that area. Yon Hop News is reporting that the US planes did not enter China's air defense identification zone, but Beijing scrambled planes as they neared that region.
Time now for 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 bar Michael, good morning.
Good morning, Karen. Forecasters are keeping an eye on a developing coastal storm that will move up the eastern seaboard Sunday into Monday. How much snow depends on its truck. Bloomberg Media religis Rob Carolyn has the latest.
Michael.
We're still watching the potential for a coastal storm Sunday into early Monday. The models are still in disagreement. The US model brings the storm closest to the coast and has the most accumulation. European models further to the south and just kind of brushes the tristed area with a little bit of light snow. For late Sunday and on into Monday, we'll continue to monitor situation over the upcoming weekend. Hopefully, by tomorrow the models will start to get an idea
exactly where the system is headed. I'm Rob, Carolyn Bloomberg Radio.
Thank you, Rob. President Donald Trump is directing federal agencies to release government documents related to extraterrestrial life and unexplained aerial phenomenons. President Trump accused former President Barack Obama of giving away classified information when he discussed the idea of
extraterrestrial life during a recent podcast appearance. The US intelligence community released a report in twenty twenty one detailing what it knew about unidentified flying objects spotted by military pilots over the past several decades. The National Governor's Association is pulling out of an annual meeting at the White House after President Trump declined to invite two Democratic governors. President Trump is still expected to meet with the governors at
the White House today. Police Idaho are searching for a suspect who stole an ambulance and then rammed it into a Homeland Security office near Boise. Meridian Police Chief Tracy Bastercha says then the suspect tried to set a fire, but fled after being scared off by first responders.
There is no doubt this building would have been burned, putting the lives of first responders and others.
For Chris, no one was injured. Actor Eric Dane has died. Dane rose to fame as doctor Mark Sloan on TV's Gray's Anatomy mcsteeny.
So what you call me now?
Mc steene?
Yeah, but I don't think.
You're supposed to know that.
He later starred on Euphoria. Last April, Dane shared his diagnosis of als or lou Gerrig's disease. Eric Dane was fifty three Global News twenty four hours a day and whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now Michael Barr and this is Bloomberg Hery. Thanks Michael.
Time now for our Bloomberg Sports update, and for that you bring John Stashauer.
Thanks Darren. US Olympic drama and all of it from women. First, it was the hockey team who had been so dominant, and then in the gold medal game against Canada, shut out for fifty eight minutes. Finally Hillary Knight, the Camptain scored sent the game to overtime, where Megan Keller scored the US with a two to one victory over Canada
and the gold medal. Then it was the figure skating, the free skate performance by Alyssa lou nearly three points better than anyone first US women's goal since two thousand and two. That's your Bloomberg Sports Update.
Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak coming up after this.
Coast to coast on Bloomberg Radio, nationwide on Sirius XM, and around the world on Bloomberg dot Com and the Bloomberg Business out This is Bloomberg Daybreak.
Good morning, I'm Nathan Hager. Ten to fifteen days. That's how long President Trump says Iran has to strike a nuclear deal. As the US assembles a vast array of military fours in the Middle East.
Now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we're doing. And if they join us, that'll be great. If they don't join us, that'll be great too, but it'll be a very different path.
I was President Trump speaking at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington. Joining us from Dubai this morning is Stuart Livingstone Wallace, head of Middle East coverage for Bloomberg News Stuart, what does the path look.
Like at this moment?
Good morning, Good morning, Nathan. So it's a little bit uncertain, other than we know that the time frame that we were anticipating has been brought forward pretty significantly, and now we have this sort of what looks like a hard deadline of ten to fifteen days, which is a tall order. I remember the last time it was a new cale deal with Iran, it took roughly two years, So to try and do it in ten to fifteen days is
going to be very difficult. But what underpins at this time, as you mentioned, was this Bass military build up that you've seen pretty much the biggest that we've seen in
about a quarter century since two thousand and three. So the clock is ticking, and really what we're waiting for is proposals to come from Iran for a potential third round of negotiations that's supposed to arrive in the next ten days or so, and I guess we're going to see what's in those and whether that's going to be enough to satisfy the US administration.
That is one of the ultimate questions, isn't it Whether it is going to be enough When we've heard from Israel, the Prime Minister Natan Yahoo suggesting that the US should go for regime change potentially in Iran.
That's quite right. What we don't know, and what's not clear at the moment is what exactly Trump's ambitions are in in this regard. Does he want to go for a short strike to try and wring some more concessions out of Iran, certainly to expand the negotiations to things like ballistic missiles and the regional proxies like ha Mass has bollowed, the Hooties and so on, on top of the nuclear file. You know, these are all very big
questions regime change. That is really up for debate about whether you can achieve that with the amount of military hardware that he has in the region, because you would presume, not necessarily, but you would presume that it would require boots on the ground, and that feels like a step too far at the moment.
Let's talk about the build up that we have seen at this point. You mentioned that it's the kind of build up that we haven't seen in nearly a quarter century. What kind of firepower is in the region at this moment.
You've got one carrier strike group that's already here, along with a whole array of ships. You've got a second
one that's currently coming up to the Mediterranean. We're not quite certainly where it's going to end up, but it may well end up off the coast of Israel from which it can launch attacks obviously, but also will play a defensive role, because the assumption is that if it escalates and escalates and escalates, it does have the potential to become a regional war, and Israel would obviously be a target, as it was in that twelve day more
than June last year. So on top of that, it's been moving air defenses into the region that is specifically Patriot and FAD missile systems. Again we presume of being stationed around the numerous US military bases. But on top of that, we have to think about the infrastructure that's in the region and how critical that is for the world's economy, specifically the oil fields as well as the
export ports. And we're all looking very careful at the Persian Gulf, which carries something alike between a quarter and a fifth of the world seaborne seaborne oil. So that is the focus ready for us in the next several days.
With that kind of firepower a massed in the region, and after the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities last summer in our last minute Stewart, what kind of defense could Iran potentially mount against the US?
I mean, the short answer is that it's massively out gone. It has no aircraft carries, it has no helicopter carries, and no destroyers. It has a handful of frigates and corvettes, so from that point of view, not a great deal. It does have a significant stockpile of ballistic missiles and they are a genuine concern as well as the so called asymmetric warfare that you find with drones and that
there's an unknown to your bos. So it really depends on what in the eventuality of attackling the role, and what it decides to do in terms of retaliation. Does it go for the symbolic or no retaliation that we saw largely last year, what does it try and escalate the situation. So that's really something that we're looking. Our assumption is if it's going to go for serious retaliation, it will target shipping that seems to be potentially the
easiest targets for it. You saw that playbook with the Hoosi's in the Red Sea for the last several years, and that can be incredibly disrupted.
This is Bloomberg Daybreak, your morning podcast and the stories making news from Wall Street to Washington and beyond.
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