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>> This is the Bloomberg Dayb podcast. Good

morning. It's Monday the 16th of

February. I'm Caroline Hepka in London

>> and I'm Steven Carol in Brussels. Coming

up today, the US Secretary of State

Marco Rubio delivers a double-edged

message to Europe on the transatlantic

relationship while the EU's top diplomat

says the block will stand by its

principles. Warner Brothers Discovery

considers reopening sale talks with

Paramount Sky Dance.

>> Plus, money talk. An uncertain world

triggers a shift in Sweden's thinking on

joining the euro 23 years after the

country voted against it.

>> Let's start with a roundup of our top

stories.

>> One year after US President JD Vance

issued a warning to Europe at the Munich

Security Conference, the message from

America has been softened slightly. US

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the

same event, "Europe and America's

destinies are intertwined." In an

interview with Bloomberg, Rubio

stressed, "The ties between the allies."

>> When we come off as urgent or even

critical about decisions that Europe has

failed to make or made, it is because we

care. It is because we understand that

ultimately our own fate will be

intertwined with what happens with

Europe. We want Europe to survive. We

want Europe to prosper because we're in

we're interconnected in so many

different ways. and because our alliance

is so critical, but it has to be an

alliance of allies that are capable and

willing.

>> The US Secretary of State speaking to

Bloomberg's editor and chief John

Mikweight at the Munich Security

Conference. But Rubio also doubled down

on parts of Vance's message from a year

earlier, attacking green spending, high

migration, and cultural values. Europe

has become increasingly wary of Trump's

America, which has threatened to annex

Greenland and attempted to cut NATO

leaders out of talks with Russia to end

the Ukraine war. While the European

Union's top diplomat, Kaya Kalas,

rejected the picture of the blocks

decline painted by the Trump

administration. Kalas noted that press

freedom is greater in the EU than in the

US, and she talked about European

enlargement. You know, it's very hard

for me to believe these accusations. You

know, coming from a country that is uh

uh number two in in the press freedom

index, hearing criticism regarding press

freedom, coming from a country that is

58 on this list. It's interesting.

>> Callus added that the EU can work with

the US even if they don't see quote eye

to eye. Callus is among top European

officials who have started talking about

a European nuclear strategy as the

continent considers defense autonomy

from the United States.

>> The UK's Prime Minister K Starmer says

Britain is no longer the country that

voted for Brexit. Starmer effectively

called time on Britain distancing itself

from the EU in his speech at the Munich

Security Conference.

>> We're 10 years on from Brexit. Um, we

are not the Britain of the Brexit years.

Um, we're a Britain that wants to work

with the EU even more closely.

>> Starmer was speaking sitting opposite

the EU Commission Chief Ursula

Vanderline. He called for closer work on

defense financing among European

countries and talked up nuclear

cooperation plans with France. The

attempt to rebuild ties comes as Starmer

talked of the need to replace US

capabilities.

Now on to deals news. Warner Brothers is

considering reopening sale talks with

Paramount Sky Dance after receiving its

amended offer. Blueig understands that

members of the Hollywood Studios board

are discussing whether Paramount could

offer a path to a superior deal. It's a

move that could ignite a second bidding

war with Netflix. According to those

familiar with the firm's thinking,

Bloomberg's Tony Tutska says the

situation is evidence of Paramount's

confidence amidst the battle.

>> What it demonstrates is certainly that

Paramount thinks it has staying power in

this battle and can yet turn the tide.

Members of the Warner Brothers board

said to be considering this, the

possibility now that the Paramount Sky

Dance offer could actually be the better

one. Our Washingtonbased editor Tony

Chuchka speaking after the latest office

submission. Sources tell Bloomberg the

board hasn't decided how to respond and

still has a binding agreement with

Netflix. Paramount's amended terms

address several concerns, including a

promise to cover the $2.8 billion fee

owed to Netflix if Warner Brothers

terminates their agreement as well.

The Trump administration's top sanctions

official John Hurley is set to leave his

post after friction with Treasury

Secretary Scott Bessant. Sources have

told Bloomberg he plans to step down

after months of tensions over the

tactics and targets of US sanctions

policy. It's part of a wider Treasury

shakeup that has raised questions among

officials about the department's

stability.

>> To the Winter Olympics now in Italy,

where team GB took their record gold

medal tally to three over the weekend.

Matt Weston followed up his success in

the men's skeleton by taking the mixed

team title alongside Tabby Stoker. Uh

Charlotte Banks and Hugh Nightingale

also combined to claim victory in the

mixed team snowboard cross. Danny

Chambers is Nightingale's former coach.

>> They're in the history books now, aren't

they? They're they're there. They've

made it. As long as long long as it

continues and they keep performing, I'm

sure they'll I'm sure they'll be happy

as long as they're in the sport.

the new champions former coach there as

team GB enjoyed their first ever gold on

snow.

>> On the markets, we're looking at

European stock futures pointing slightly

higher this morning, up a tenth of 1%

for Euro stocks 50 and Footsie 100

futures this morning. Uh we do have

Chinese markets are closed for the Lunar

New Year's holiday. US markets also

closed uh for President's Day. The

Bloomberg dollar spot index up a tenth

of 1%, gold prices down 1.1% this

morning, $4,989

an ounce. Well, in a moment, should

European leaders be reassured by Marco

Rubio's comments about their fates being

intertwined with the US? Plus, why

Sweden is rethinking its stance on

joining the euro. But first, another

story caught our eye today on the magic

returning to the world of magic tricks.

Stephen,

>> Phil Salman's been writing about this

for Bloomberg Pursuits. It is apparently

a craze in New York and I'm sure in

plenty of other places as well. small

venue magic show. So he writes about

Spanish magician Danny Deortis's sellout

run in the Brooklyn Magic Venue 69

Atlantic. There's only 26 seats, but

because of this kind of performance,

close-up magic, you need to be close, as

the name suggests, to the action. And

Felix says this is part of a golden age

of magic where sophisticated audience is

willing to pay real money to see the

great practitioners of this craft up

close and in person. He talks about the

joy of being in the room and being

astonished, the gasps that people have

when the tricks are performed. And he

says when close-up magic is done well,

it just makes people happy. Uh which,

you know, is is kind of difficult thing

to quant quantify, but it's also perhaps

a question of something that we're all,

you know, you gather to pay attention to

something. You have a shared reaction to

something. It doesn't involve looking at

your phone. I mean, you can make the

argument for theater as well, but Felix

also points out it's quite a lot cheaper

than going to the theater in New York.

>> I love that. Uh, I've been to the Magic

Circle here in London, which I love.

It's got a really wacky building, which

is fantastic. I I get that. The thing

is, Magic has to be done really well,

and it's very, very difficult to do

close up. But I love this idea that yes,

the kind of attention economy means that

actually in-person events are the thing

to do. We'll put a link to Felix Felix's

piece on our podcast show notes. Well,

let's discuss more now of what we heard

from the Security Conference over the

weekend. The US Secretary of State Marco

Rubio offering a different tone from

last year's speech by JD Vance, but

remaining critical of America's European

allies. This ahead of Rubio's meeting

with the Hungarian Prime Minister Victor

Orban later today. Our chief Asia

correspondent Rosa Matson is with us for

more on this story this morning. Ros,

the chair of the conference called Marco

Rubio's speech a message of reassurance.

Was there much in his comments though,

both in his speech and his interview

with Bloomberg that should reassure

European leaders?

>> Well, as you were saying, it was

essentially a politer version of what

they heard previously from Vice

President J. D. Vance, who really tore

into Europe over a bunch of things. And

Rubio did talk about a common fate, you

know, a shared civilization between

Europe and the US, something that binds

them together, one they can be proud of,

even a few jokes about cultural ties,

including the Beatles. But he also

accused Europe of drifting away from

those shared values. And Europe was to

blame in essence for a variety of things

it wasn't tackling very well. Migration,

criticizing its limits on free speech,

uh its policies on dealing with climate

change, and he said the alliance has to

change. So perhaps peddling a slightly

softer note on that, but certainly

delivering a similar message to Europe

that you've been getting from a variety

of leaders in the US under the Trump

administration. The risk of course is

Europe still doesn't hear it. They want

to latch on to anything at all to feel

reassured the relationship is solid. As

you were saying, the chairman uh of

Munich talking about a sigh of relief

that went through the hall over Rubio's

speech um that they want a sense that

everything is okay. Perhaps the midterm

elections will deliver the Democrats

back into Congress and it all be all

something of a bad fever dream. Um but

clearly there are underlying structural

issues here and every US official is

pointing that out even if they're using

slightly nicer words to do so.

>> Yeah, that seemed to be the message also

from the California Governor Gavin

Newsome who was also at the Munich

Security Conference that you know it was

going to be shortlived the Trump

administration. What do you think that

all of this means though when it comes

to the future of Ukraine?

>> Well, Riio made it clear in his comments

that the war will end with negotiation,

not because someone wins or loses on the

battlefield. It's not an outcome where

some one simply beats the other, you

know, and he's repeated that line again

that if Donald Trump had been president,

this war would never have happened to

begin with. Um he acknowledged the US

doesn't know if Russia is serious about

ending its war with Ukraine. Again, he's

talking about trying to, you know, have

a role for the US as a key negotiator,

perhaps the only mediator that can bring

this war to a close according to Rivio.

But they don't really know what's going

on in Russia's thinking. Um and they

don't know how serious Russia is. And

certainly there's every every evidence

that President Vladimir Putin has been

dragging the chain for as long as

possible getting to a negotiated

settlement. Um and it does suggest that

Russia continues to hold some cards

there. You know, does Russia need to

sign off um on all the terms for

Ukraine, including Ukraine's own future

security arrangements with Europe, for

example? This talk of a reassurance

force in Ukraine? Does Russia get to

veto veto that in the interest of

getting to a deal? Is the US going to be

okay with Ukraine seeding territory? So

even though the US talks about, you

know, this is a horrific war and they

want it to end, in their eagerness to

have that do, so is there a risk again

that they, you know, allow Russia to to

come over with come away with something

that really benefits Russia?

>> Ros, looking at all of this from your

vantage point in Asia as well, you've

seen a host of European leaders travel

to China in recent weeks trying to build

ties there. Is this an opportunity for

China to take advantage of the weakness

in the transatlantic relationship? Well,

China does like to take advantage of all

of that. They like to play countries off

against each other. So, they take

advantage of disputes, for example, the

tension that we've been seeing between

the US and Europe over trade. Um, can it

make the most of all of that? But it is

a reflection of what everyone is is

seeing, and that's the need to diversify

your partners for trade and investment,

not have all your eggs in the US basket.

And even China sees that for itself. So

possibly a mutual opportunity here for

China to crack open a bit more access to

the European market. Of course the

Europeans in response want to crack open

more of the China market and their

visits to China are all about achieving

that as well and they are getting some

deals out of this. A few signs that

China's willing to do that but only to a

point. Um and certainly there are lots

of industries in China that you know in

Europe you'd say would be protected um

species as a result. And so does this

end up being a bit lopsided and do you

keep all those other tensions out of the

relationship because there are still

concerns around China, you know,

companies dumping in Europe, national

security concerns, control of

technology. So a lot of suspicion in

that relationship at the same time. So

it's a balancing act. Um but clearly

there's a recognition that you have to

diversify and for Europe and the UK, you

know, China's clearly a part of that.

>> Okay, Ros, thank you so much for being

with us. That is our chief Asia

correspondent Roslin Mat talking through

what the events of the weekend at the

Munich Security Conference.

Stay with us. More from Bloomberg Dayb

coming up after this.

A Swedish voters rejected the idea of

joining the euro in a referendum 23

years ago. But Donald Trump's America

first foreign policy has triggered a

shift in Sweden's views on adopting the

single currency. Our Stockholm reporter

Charlie Duxbury joins us now for more on

this story. Charlie, why is this debate

being reopened now?

>> I think the new element here is the the

geopolitics of it all. I mean, you've

got lawmakers in in Sweden looking at

the rise of China, looking at nearby

Russia, but most recently and probably

most significantly the US claims on on

Greenland and they're thinking this

might be a good time to kind of bind

themselves more closely to to a big

economic block in the form of of um the

Euro area. And so what are the key

arguments then for and against joining

the euro? Now

>> I think there's a sort of live debate

about the economic arguments for and

against I mean when when Sweden rejected

the euro it did so because I think

people here felt that having their own

currency having their own monetary

policy was well suited for an export

dependent economy like Sweden. And I

think now a very interesting new report

came out in December that sort of

relooked at these issues and found that

the advantages of being inside the Euro

area were actually greater for those

states that that had joined than

expected and also sort of looking ahead

maybe the advantages of having um its

own currency and monetary policy for

Sweden were probably not as marked um

looking ahead as as as previously

thought. So you know you've got an

interesting economic debate there.

So I mean the key thing is is that if

this were to be come up as a question

there would be another referendum.

That's what we've heard from

politicians. Can the Swedish public be

convinced to support a change?

>> Yeah, that will absolutely be key. Um

there is still a lot of caution when you

speak to people here about the euro.

People are still hesitant. um fresh in

the memory of the the Euro zone crisis

um where worries about the public the

sort of state debts of places like

Greece were um high on the agenda here

and the big challenge for lawmakers if

they decide to go ahead with a a

currency shift and they decide to back

it will be convincing voters that it's

not 2010 anymore and that things are

different and that the Euro zone is a a

more stable place than it was then. This

is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your

morning brief on the stories making news

from London to Wall Street and beyond.

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I'm Caroline Hepka

>> and I'm Steven Carroll. Join us again

tomorrow morning for all the news you

need to start your day right here on

Bloomberg Daybreak Europe.