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when it seen say, seen weeee to z:— ie us and 1.9,ny us and its weee—e: s. �* ' , ' . the us and its european partners especially the uk, we 7 the z. have weathered bumpy roads in the past, but this seems to be particularly difficult, especially coming in the wake ofjd vance a's speech, so it will notjust involve questions of the margin of defence spending but there will be issues of trust to deal with as well. . , ., ., issues of trust to deal with as well. ., , ., ., ., issues of trust to deal with as well. ., , ., ., ~ ., well. really good to talk to ou. well. really good to talk to yom we — well. really good to talk to you. we will _ well. really good to talk to you. we will talk _ well. really good to talk to you. we will talk again, - well. really good to talk to | you. we will talk again, i'm sure. benjamin, thanks for joining us. shows in european defence stocks had a second strong day of trade on the back

of these talks. we can get the latest on market reaction with our north american business correspondent in new york. there is a lot of nervousness but many businesses say this could be good for business. yes. you see there twofold, in terms of the market reaction from the us, it is quite muted, opening after the holiday, but we are trading around record highs for the s&p 500 and a lot of the optimism stems from last week when we heard the reciprocal tariffs plan, and investors are worried he could be more stringent when it comes to the tariffs, and today, this focus on geopolitics and the russia us talks on ukraine with ukraine notably absent. that is pushing european stocks higher especially the defence stocks. the action in the us is a bit more muted, and while us and russia have said the talks will

continue, marco rubio said it is the first step. i spoke to the ceo of advisor share about what the impact would be for the us markets and he said overall it will be very positive, especially he sees gains in the us defence industry continuing to make gains, actually, notjust over war but in the rearming purpose so you are seeing the shares of some companies upjust some companies up just slightly, some companies upjust slightly, but you have to remember, the mixed signals because it comes in the face of trump also making comments about cutting spending and cutting pentagon spending in half. . ~' cutting pentagon spending in half. . ~ ., ., half. talk to me about intel, re orts half. talk to me about intel, reports suggest _ half. talk to me about intel, reports suggest the - half. talk to me about intel, | reports suggest the business could be split?— could be split? yes, their shares are _ could be split? yes, their shares are getting - could be split? yes, their shares are getting a - could be split? yes, their shares are getting a big l could be split? yes, their- shares are getting a big boost

from the back of the news that some companies are mulling a deal that could split the company in two. one is interested in the chip design business but another is interested in its factories and those company shares are down on the news but intel are rising although the companies have not submitted any formal offer, and these are very informal preliminary talks. intel stock has been on a tear after signals from the us may be about to provide support for its domestic chip industry but the stock has struggled in recent times with the ceo saying he has the big turnaround but it has not been so successful so far and they have not been able to get outside customers and they have been bleeding cash and you look at 2024, the stock was down 60%. so a bit more positive news for them today. for now, thanks for _ news for them today. for now, thanks forjoining _ news for them today. for now, thanks forjoining us. - meta, facebook s parent

company, says it plans to build the world s longest undersea cable, to bring industry—leading connectivity to five continents. the tech giant said project waterworth would connect the us, india, south africa, brazil, and other regions with a 50,000 kilometre cable. meta, which also owns instagram and whatsapp, wants to expand its technology presence beyond social media, including in artificial intelligence. ranulf scarbrough talked to us earlier. he explained why tech companies are taking greater steps to make sure companies have their own tech around the world. we have seen this trend over the last five years, the hyper scale of the people like meta saying we have enough traffic, we want to control our user experience and we are going to

build these systems ourselves. a lot of that has been going on and this latest investment by meta is the biggest one yet. probably the biggest cable system ever, i think. 50,000 kilometres encircling the globe. a huge investment. why do they need to focus on this, is it to make sure the ai investment can get to the places they need it? there's a few drivers. when you have the traffic itself you may as well build the system rather than getting somebody else to do it and relying on them. you can control the cost better and time scales better and the new system also avoids the pinch points around the world. there is a lot of cables clustered in the red sea and there was a ship hit by houthi rebels that dragged its anchor and damaged cables. so they're avoiding some of these pinch points.

certainly, ai, we have heard the huge investments being made by these companies in al, they're all trillion dollar valuations now and they're laying down the infrastructure that can ensure they can maximise the investments over the years ahead. thames water has won a crucial high court battle to secure a rescue loan, that would stave off the prospect of a debt—laden company coming under government control. uk's largest water and waste company it would the end of march and it would likely have been placed into a temporary likely have been placed into a tempora earlier few: w , likely have been placed into a tempora earlier i eer w , likely have been placed into a tempora earlier i spoke .— , likely have been placed into a tempora earlier i spoke to ,. ,

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