officer. from's -- a calls for swift calls from legislation at the federal level. >> we had a school resource officer training to save lives. we don't know what the motivation was. of the shooter. we are just speculating. but, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. moments of silence are not enough. action is demanded and required. mark: maryland democratic senator ben cardin said at a minimum, universal background checks and a ban on assault style weapons are needed. president trump welcomed saudi arabia's crown prince mohammad bin salman to the white house. the president praised the kingdom as a "big purchaser of u.s. armaments." keyng saudi arabia is a partner in the fight against islamic state, and containing iran's influence in the middle

east. pres. trump: the relationship was a very, very strange. during the obama administration. as relationship is probably good as it has ever been. i think we will probably only tremendous investments made in our country. that means jobs for our workers. jobs for our people. for: this fight calls advocacy calls for -- to contend saudi arabia's poor human rights records. the president has signaled the u.s. will not seek to impose its values on countries that support american foreign-policy and economic objectives. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says the palestinians are "losing it" and "their real face is expose, they do not want peace." comments were an apparent response to a speech by the palestinian authority in which

he berated the american ambassador to israel. in an address to palestinian officials, he preemptively rejected the white house peace proposal which is still being developed. the former french president, nicolas argosy a has been detained by police for questioning over suspected illegal campaign finances. that is according to a person familiar with the matter. has beenfirst time he questioned whether his 2007 campaign received millions in donations from libya. the investigation began in 2013. global news, 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. i'm mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. ♪ julia: live from bloomberg world

headquarters in new york, i'm julia chatterley. scarlet: i'm scarlet fu. joe: i'm joe weisenthal. julia: stocks edging higher attempting to shake up in yesterday's tech route. the 10 year yield is up. joe: the question is, "what'd you miss?" scarlet: facebook's data leak has attracted attention from elected officials. a are probing the social media companies handling of personal data. meanwhile, cambridge analytica suspended ceo in the wake of the followed. g20d leaders used the summit to ring the alarm on the dangers of potential trade wars. the trump administration stands firm. at&t will square off in a courtroom tomorrow, where they government will make its case of the $85 billion purchase of time warner will lead to higher prices for consumers. britain's channel four news has released a third part in their undercover

investigation into cambridge analytica. in the video, an undercover reporter obtains that they suspended alexander nix. it is shown for taken credit for the for -- for trump's election win. boasting they did the research, data, and targeting for the campaign. it comes after cambridge analytica announced that alexander nix was suspended as ceo, pending an independent investigation. sarah frier inis san francisco. ford and who leaves the influence coverage in washington. sarah frier, talk us through the details. this new spin we get on this don't --, does it help with tackling this going forward? issuesi think there are -- there are different versions of the story coming from every angle right now. these undercover investigations that channel four news has done has marketed up the details on

this facebook situation. it is a completely separate issue, almost. it may be hard for readers to keep track of the fact that that is not what we are talking about when we talk about this data leak to facebook. is not the most specific term. there was a researcher who obtained information on facebook users and went and share that information with cambridge analytica. facebook asked them to delete it. they didn't. that is why we are talking about it. cambridge analytica said they did delete it. there are so many different sides of this developing story. facebook is in the middle of the firestorm, trying to figure out how to make their side clear without having all the details. and what is not true but cambridge analytica. julia: one of the comments i comes in, there is no evidence, no paper trail, nothing from the comments that the suspended ceo

made. some suggestion that there were emailed that automatically delete it. was, shallgest there we say, horseplay going on as far as cambridge analytica. asked who to delete what. could have been misled. it goes to the broader story of who is responsible here. sarah: right. the data forensics team that facebook has hired to look into cambridge analytica servers. cambridge analytica said they would allow facebook to come in as well as the researcher at cambridge. data sweep was halted because the u.k. wants to do its own on the ground investigation. theyone is trying to get bottom of what actually happened. cambridge analytica is denying they did anything wrong. these reports raises questions about whether that can be trusted. it is up in the air right now. joe: sara ford and, i want to go

to you in d.c. newsmorning, breaking the about the sec looking into violations of a 2011 consent degree related to user data. can you explain what is this? incident under1 which facebook may have violated its obligations? sara: the important thing to know is we have no federal data privacy law. our agencies have their hands tied in how they look at these issues -- these issues. underc did put facebook degree in 2011 because it had previously allowed user data to be shared without getting consent from the users. beforey are required they share any data with third parties to make sure that people are able to give what they call a explicit informed consent or you have to be aware of what data they will be sharing. you have to be able to say you are ok with it or not ok with it.

because they have facebook under that, they can now look at cambridge analytica situation and ask questions. what happened? did facebook violate terms of those previous agreements? did users consent to and what did they know about how their data was being used? that is going to take a little while. we understand that facebook has received a letter from the ftc. formal,s short of a full-fledged investigation. they are starting to look into this matter. and ask the questions about what happened. enforcementf any, does the ftc have in a situation like this? if facebook were found to be in violation of that degree. now, if they find violations, they can find them up to $40,000 a day per violation. maybe it does not sound like much for a company that makes billions of dollars.

if you start violations and days, it could quickly run into the millions. if they find a violation. $40,000 per day per violation. especially given facebook's user days. that could be hefty. cisco, overintimate to you. you had written a story about how facebook was holding a town hall today. a legal counsel was briefing the employees. tell us what you learned from that. thus far, at least from the outside, we haven't heard from mark zuckerberg or charles samberg. i'm curious to hear what the employees got from senior management. sarah: right. the employees themselves also did not hear from mark zuckerberg or sheryl sandberg in this meeting. it was the facebook legal executive who wrote about blog post on friday saying they were suspending cambridge analytica. he went and did a meeting at facebook's headquarters, which was broadcasted to all employees via facebook live on an internal

channel that explains what when, this is a very important constituency for facebook to manage messaging with. even more important say than lawmakers of the public that work for facebook, this company runs a very tight culture ship. their employees are not frequently goes, we have really seen over the past year that a lot of former employees are speaking out saying, we have created a monster. we regret what we belt. facebook needs to keep its employees informed and happy. that is what they tried to do today. we keep throwing around the prospect of future regulation on facebook. how long between these discussions and any form of regulation in the future, just as a approximate time, are we talking? sara: this is an unanswerable question.

this is all about how concerned lawmakers are in congress. what did they are hearing from their constituents. seen issue is we have people flocking to put all of their most personal, infinite in -- intimate details on facebook. the question is whether we will see a shift in the tide of public opinion on how we want our personal information managed. we know that facebook is briefing six committees on the hill in both houses of congress. starting tomorrow. they will be answering questions. lawmakers will be hearing from their constituents. the next step to watch is the -- is to see if we will see new bills, new proposed legislation that tries to tackle the issues. previously, they have not been a priority in washington. joe: sarah frier, big picture. facebook scandals happen every three weeks, it seems like. there is something new. this one seems to be pretty week. think wee -- do you will see something major come out of this and terms of company operations, culture, something

that there has to be a real shakeup? sarah: facebook also historically has had a very sturdy past executive team. they have not lost a lot of top executives in recent years. even since this crisis began. we have heard alex stamens, the chief information security officer, is planning to leave later this year around august. that was news broken by the new york times yesterday. the company will have to work on its public perception. the worst thing that can happen to facebook now is if people decide to stop using it over these concerns. even if they stop using it little bit. in the first quarter, facebook said that time spent on its page declined for the first time ever. own said that was by their design. i wonder if they can really keep up the narrative that this is something that they are doing users, good of their

making them watch less viral videos, less misleading news, cleaning up their platform. a decrease in time spent will speak -- will be seen as a positive for facebook or if it will be seen as people deciding on their own to spend less time there because they do not find value. they are spooked by the news. that will be a major transition for the company, trying to figure out how to get those users to continue coming to the site and loving it. scarlet: that is a really good point. in the last day, i remember i have seen a couple of people on my news feed it they are considering dropping facebook. sarah frier from san francisco washington.d and in i'm sure we will be speaking with you again in the coming days. julia: how many didn't say they were? [laughter] scarlet: most of them did. did and that a couple they got a lot of likes. kind of notable. julia: they are liking while they continue on facebook.

coming up, policymakers finishing talks in buenos aires tuesday with little -- little to parefrom their efforts to back protectionist steps. including those new metal tariffs from new york, this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ leaders world financial wrapped up their summit in blend is there is. trade took center stage in the debate after president trump slapped tariffs on aluminum and steel. steven mnuchin addressed policymakers last hour saying the u.s. is not afraid of a trade war. the highlights is bloomberg's international economic and policy correspondent, michael mckee who joins us live from minus areas.

tell us about what steve mnuchin said and how much push back there was from the attendees. know there was a lot of pushback because the attendees all told us that they did not sign on to the administration's trade agenda. the idea that turning inward would hurt the global economy was paramount at these meetings. thehe press conference, pressure -- the treasury secretary was defined and said the u.s. will go its own way regardless of what the rest of the g20 feels. listen to how defiant steve mnuchin was. to myary mnuchin: i speak counterparts regularly. although we haven't seen the progress that we want on trade, we have had directed discussions. the treasury secretary said the u.s. would go it alone because it is a trading nations that should be treated fairly and the administration is going to ensure that. he said that was the message the g20 heard it last year, and

again this year. if they have to act alone on china, they will act alone on china. he did pushback on the idea that it was all about trade, suggesting there was progress on things like cryptocurrencies, digital taxation. he talked about trying to get the latin american allies to sign on to additional sanctions on venezuela. joe: in terms of the exemptions, ,e know that presuming nafta canada and mexico will remain from the tariffs, talking about other allies or countries being able to be exempt from the tariffs for various regions. -- reasons. are there any indications on who might be able to avoid the tariffs? australia has been granted an exemption. the question is, what do you have to do to get one? south korea and argentina have both applied. the eu will be applying as a block. they have to under treaty rules tomorrow when trade ministers cecelia millstone is an washington, d.c. suggestedstration has

you need to sign onto the idea that the u.s. is right to use trade sanctions. and maybe support them in the sanctions they may be announce that in they may announce for china. it will be hard for these countries to get exemptions. the process, a little marquee. it will take some time for most of them, unless the president cuts some deal with their leaders. at this point, we have the three. julia: i was think what happens at the g20 is more interesting on the sidelines of versus what they say and public. to what extent do we know whether or not steve mnuchin actually spoke to those in the chinese delegation, and whether or not progress was made -- made, even if you didn't talk about it in the press conference? michael: we know he did speak to the head of the people's bank of china, the outgoing people. here. there was not a representative from the finance ministry at the secretarial level. there were lower level

officials. the bankuchin met with and told him that the u.s. and china needs to work together to solve the trade problems according to a u.s. readout. he emphasized as he did with others that they needed to work with the u.s. to solve the north korea problem. no details on what they asked of the chinese. it was prominent in the statement. scarlet: great context to michael, bloomberg's economic and policy organizer joining us at the g20 meeting. facebook is not the only social media company feeling the heat. shares of twitter following the most in almost eight months. off by 12%. twitter is our stock of the hour, next. this is bloomberg. ♪

♪ the bloombergr business flash. a look at the biggest business stories in the news. sam zell expects the u.s. retail

market to fall even further. he spoke today to bloomberg tv. when you talk about retail in the united states, we have three or four times the amount of retail per population of any country in the world. julia: they will scale back plans to replace members of the -- toand want to make consider a review. the pivot by the activist fund comes one day after they struck , the third-largest shareholder. have pledged to speed up its transformation plan. software integration company kneels off says 20% -- fell 20%. it could be announce as early as this week. -- it helpsrding to corporate pilot -- clients by

connecting data to customer service or shares are up 76% year to date. that is a look at your business flash. scarlet: we have been talking about facebook all day. it might be the primary focus. our stock of the hour getting scrutiny from regulators. shares of twitter tumbling the most in almost eight months. julie hyman is here. this is not necessarily spillover from facebook. julie: part of it is likely spillover from facebook. the issue is israel. saidustice minister there the government is considering taking legal action against the company. it has to do with a legend terrorist tweets or inciting to violence the at twitter. which is something that has been under scrutiny in israel for several years. the focus there has been on facebook as well. it now it appears to be shifting to twitter. it -- there,elage

too, it is hanging over twitter as well. that is what the trigger is for the decline we are seeing in the shares today. joe: it is interesting. it's not really about what is going on with facebook. in a broad sense, it is. all of these companies are dealing with things that they just don't really seem to have the bandwidth to police on their own platforms. that is a common denominator with this. the question is what will be the cost in the end? there is question about whether this will affect margins at twitter just as it would at facebook. what will be the cost of regulation if they even can figure out a way to get their arms around it and police this in some way. is there going to be a cost to that? will there have to be more human eyeballs who are scrutinizing tweets from allegedly hamas related accounts? that is a big question right now. we don't have any idea what the

cost of that could be. scarlet: i'm looking at the bloomberg news story. apparently the israeli government submitted 12,350 one requests to take down posts in 2017. that is six times more than the previous year. that is an issue that has gotten more heated. julie: as we are seeing here in israeli government is taking unconventional measures just as the trump administration is. it seems there is less compunction to make these kinds past.uests than in the an interesting chart we have on the bloomberg is looking at mentions of twitter on twitter to what is the social media sentiment like on twitter right now? pricee on top, the stock in white which has gone down. you see the twitter publication count. on the bottom is the negative and positive sentiment. because of thes, selloff in technology, you saw negative mentions of the stock. scarlet: i love that.

twitter on twitter. julie hyman, thank you for our stock of the hour. the market close is u.s. stocks hanging in there in the green. it has been back-and-forth before the fed decision tomorrow. this is bloomberg. ♪ . . mom, dad, can we talk?

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stocks in the green today after a day of choppy trading ahead of the fed rate decision tomorrow. 10 year yield at 2.88%. liveif you are tuning in on twitter, we want to welcome you to closing bell coverage, every weekday from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. eastern. scarlet: we begin with our market minute. a look at u.s. stocks, closing in the green, not by very much. at one point the nasdaq was lagging, but we do finish higher ahead of the fed decision tomorrow. a little bit of a drift taking place, with people not quite ready to commit because they are not sure what jay powell will say. joe: of course, the facebook stuff, which we might have guessed would spillover more into other markets, not having much of an effect. scarlet: energy and consumer discretionary companies leading the gains. six groups of 11 higher.

telecom the laggard here. tech doesn't really show up as a leader, which is unusual given that it has been leading the rally for so long. julia: despite the fact facebook is still off more than 3% today, it has bounced significantly off the low since midsession. plenty of headlines to follow on that story. joe: some of the other moves, 10 year yields inching up. all about the fed tomorrow. dollar up modestly ahead of that decision, and some gains for oil. julia: the ramp-up we have seen in two-year yields, preparing for a hawkish tilt from jay powell in his first meeting tomorrow. scarlet: a little bit of tightening there. for more on today's market moves ahead of the fomc news conference, let's bring in bill lee, chief economist at the milliken institute. great to speak with you, as

always. jay powell's debut press conference before the world tomorrow. where is the tension going to be in not just -- his news conference? bill colin powell has to show -- bill: powell has to show he's his own man. the market is betting he will be market is betting he will be much more hawkish, maybe hinting at a fourth rate increase, but he doesn't have a lot of economic support for that. inflation really isn't there, and with retail sales collapsing, it might be growth isn't there, because growth estimates have been revised down rapidly, talking below 2% for the first quarter. joe: if you got to ask a question at the press conference, what would you ask? bill: i would ask mr. powell, how is it that you will be able to raise rates at the same pace you projected before when you thought the economy was doing a lot better, in light of the fact the economy seems to be slowing? julia: and how should he respond? bill: well, everything is

subject to the data. [laughter] i am sure the response will be, we will move our policy as the data warrants. right now, there is no promise of anything. we will see inflation rising in the interim. let's face it, that is right out of the briefing book for the last six months. [laughter] joe: talking about the economy slowing down. for the most part, i don't hear that many economists talking about that yet. the story of strong growth, with tailwinds from fiscal stimulus and global growth. so what are you seeing that is causing you to say, maybe there's a little downshifting here? bill: well, a lot of people are writing off the first quarter, because we had the residual seasonality of slow growth in the first quarter, but i am much more concerned about the underlying structural problems of the consumer not having enough income growth to support

a more rapid pace of consumption. we saw the savings rate go down to 2.5% before the tax cut, and with the tax cut they have only been able to restore it to 2.2%, whereas it was, 5% in 2016. with the aging population, there will be more savings needed, but the savings just is not there. the other thing, investment incentives. we have a lot of temporary investments put in place, and i hope the structural incentives by the tax plan to disincentivize debt will make managers more willing to take longer bets and have a longer horizon instead of investing intangibles. that will take time, and the market right now is saying, there's a lot of inflation out there, and the fed will choke off the recovery. ask any economist how much did you add to your gdp forecast because of the fiscal booth? .5%.

.5% will not get you runaway inflation. it might bring it up to 2%, but not causing the fed to accelerate increases for the next two years. scarlet: i hear what you are saying. but as we noted, we had seasonal first half weakness for a number of years. couldn't the drop in retail sales, housing, be part of that narrative where we come back in the second half as we have for the last few years? bill: roaring back to 2.5%, right? [laughter] or possibly 3%. now, the roaring back scenario, unless it really causes firms to start marking up prices, that will not cause inflation. one thing i have been talking about, the level of hiring that firms are engaging in, despite that they have more job openings, has been the lowest pace relative to job openings in the history of data. as long as firms are willing to wait to get the right person,

and there's a lot of shortages out there, a lot of sectors looking for skilled labor, it is not causing them to want to rage ways is -- wage raises at a faster pace. most economists will tell you, wages are lagging inflation. it helps boost inflation expectations. right now, inflation expectations are well anchored. powell will have to give a very strong case for why inflation will take off for him to start shifting monetary policy. even hinting that i see more confidently that the economies doing better cannot be enough. my colleagues at the trading desk are all looking for the inflation trade. everyone is banking on the inflation trade, and i think they are premature at best. julia: if we look at the inflation trade, coming back to the million-dollar question. showing you a chart to illustrate your point about the hiring relative to openings there, and companies simply are not willing to pay more wages to bring, to fill those openings

arising. at what point does that change, bill? bill: when firms are convinced they will see stuff flying out the door and they say, we are behind the curve, we better higher -- hire and make more stuff, that's when things will shift. right now you have slow, steady growth, maybe 3%, and that's not the precondition you need to really incentivize firms to get excited to have to pay up faster than they have already. julia: and that is the strange thing, because that relies on the consumer as well. looking at the data, high consumer confidence, the impact of the tax cuts, at some point we assume feeding into consumer behavior as well, yet retail sales have been declining? bill: well, julia, i am confident i want to be rich and thin, and also confident i am not going to be exercising. [laughter] confidence can only go so far. really when you go to the store, do i have the money in my

checkbook, am i going to get it in my wages? if all the job growth has been in health care, hospitality, retail, those are the low to wage sectors that will not give you the burst of consumption you would expect. the tax incentives, they hope, will shift firms in business services, manufacturing to say, i am willing to invest more in people, in intangibles to bring people here, and that will create income growth that will give you the stronger growth in the future, but several years in the future. joe: that is the ticket. bill, earlier you were talking about the challenge for jay powell to establish that this is his fed now. besides the questions of how he can justify rate hikes, given what we see in the economy, where do you see the biggest opportunity for him to say, we are doing something different fed?the yellen said -- bill: he will emphasize the need

to revise policy. if he really wants to set a new image for himself, he will say, from now on we need more press conferences, opening up a new image for the new powell fed. we are more into communicating to the markets what we are doing. wesay, are more into providing guidance. we are much more into providing the information as we get it and assessments as we make them. if he wanted to do that, it would go a long way to breaking the image that he is going to be just another yellen. he will be his own man if he leads the medication starch. scarlet: increasing transparency might be something he takes action on. when you talk to fed watchers, they say under the yellen fed, there was too much information, much of it not very helpful. as he looks to reshape the way the fed to indicates with investors, with the markets, with fed watchers, what should

he keep, what should he get rid of? bill: he should get rid of the term "data dependent." he should put in the term, we are guided by principles that cause us to change policy in reaction to the policy, and here are our principles. we care a lot about inflation and the timing of inflation. whatever it is, he should set out the principles or make clear what the rule is under which they revise policy given the changing data. that would be a remarkable change, and i think that is something absolutely needed in the world where there is so much data, information overload, but the key thing missing, how will the fed and fomc process information? julia: what is the biggest mistake jay powell could make here? whether it is the revisions to the outlook -- what is the big risk for the fed? bill: the big risk is that he says something that the markets will suddenly say, my god, he is more of a hawk than i thought he was.

that would be disastrous. he almost stepped into that during his first testimony with the house. he kind of hinted, i am much more confident about the recovery, and he had to walk that back the next time. if you were to repeat that mistake again, people would say, he really is much more hawkish than we thought, and that would be disastrous. julia: always great to chat to you. bill lee, thank you so much for that. you can join us for fed chairman powell's first-ever rate decision and news conference. we will be speaking with former fed officials, and jeffrey rosenberg of blackrock. that begins at 1:00 p.m. eastern, with scarlet and joe. joe: can't wait. scarlet: we have some breaking news now. amazon has apparently vaulted past alphabet as the second-most valuable publicly traded company. it briefly overtook off of it in market value for the first time, certainly a sign of investment optimism for amazon as it reaches into new markets,

whether it is groceries, health insurance, or consumer devices. alphabet shares were little changed. you can see that movement there, pretty significant for jeff bezos. joe: pretty extraordinary. scarlet: coming up, we will be speaking to citigroup managing director tina ford on for her woes andacebook's data what it means for the global political landscape. this is bloomberg. ♪

mark: i am mark crumpton with first word news. authorities have confirmed the suspect in this morning's shooting at a maryland high school is dead. st. mary's county sheriff timothy cameron says the shooter

and school resource officer both fired. it was not immediately known if the officer's bullet killed the suspect. a female student and a male student were wounded by the gunmen. >> this is what we train for. this is what we prepare for. this is what we pray we never have to do. and on this day, we realized our worst nightmare, that our greatest asset, our children, were attacked in one of our bastions of safety and security, one of our schools. so obviously that's what we are talking about right now across the country. mark: meantime, the principal at great mills high school reportedly told parents last month the school investigated threats of a possible shooting and found they were "not substantiated." leaders of the senate intelligence committee are releasing recommendations on efforts they say are needed to protect u.s. elections in response to russia's election meddling during the 2016 presidential campaign. >> let me say this with a great

deal of confidence. it is clear the russian government was looking for the vulnerabilities in our election system, highlighting some of the key gaps. there's no evidence that any vote was changed. russia attempted to penetrate 21 states. mark: on wednesday, the committee will hold a hearing examining attempted hacks on state election systems in 2016. republican lawmakers in ohio have proposed banning all abortions, even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to a woman's life. cleveland.com reports the proposal would also allow for criminal charges against pregnant women seeking abortions. a mississippi judge is temporarily blocking a new state law banning abortion after 15 weeks, which would be the most restrictive law of its kind in the nation. the european union says the number of people applying for asylum in europe has dropped to

levels similar to those recorded before the wave of migrant arrivals in 2015. eurostate, the eu statistics agency, said nearly 650,000 people applied for asylum in eu half the number of applicants in 2015. almost one in three sought asylum in germany. global news 24 hours a day, powered by 2700 journalists and over 120in countries. i am mark crumpton. this is bloomberg. scarlet: fedex reporting results, fiscal third-quarter numbers. revenue beating analyst estimates, $16.5 billion, topping the consensus estimate of $15.17 billion. adjusted eps, $3.72, compared to the estimate of $3.11, but we night but -- might not be

comparing like with like given the tax change. as for outlook, fedex sees full-year adjusted eps of $15 to $15.40 a share. the stock up 2% in after-hours trading. ofia: after 83 days detention, the chairman of saudi arabia's kingdom holdings is speaking out for the first time. he sat down with erik schatzker in riyadh, who asked why he felt the need to clear his name. >> i need to clear my name, number one, and two clear a lot of the lies. when they said i was tortured, i was sent to a prison during my the ritz-carlton hotel. these were lies. i was never tortured. was given the best service, to be honest with you, by the saudi government. we had the best food, best

everything. so it hurts me to hear all these rumors and innuendoes and heresies. >> your royal highness, this whole ordeal has affected your reputation. people will still believe, no matter what you tell me today, that because you were in the ritz-carlton, you must be guilty of something, or crooked perhaps. surely you must realize that. >> sure. sure, you are detained, for some of the business community, the banking community, they will have one iota of doubt, for sure. that's my job now. to interact with them, individually or jointly, or through a good reporter like you, and say my story. it's not going to be easy at all, because some banks, some people in the business community

will be doubtful, say, what's going on? however, i assure them that everything is normal, back to normal, and that we are functioning as we were before, and we welcome them to come here to see what we are doing in saudi arabia. life is back to normal. >> how will you know if it is or is not affecting your business and investment opportunities? a lotnow, because i meet of businessmen in touch with us, and the banking community. the banking community is a very important barometer. we that most of them, are still needing some of them, and they all reiterated their position and said, we are ready to continue with you, as was the case before. >> it would surely help if the alwaleed didid, nothing wrong, it was a misunderstanding, he paid nothing to leave and remains a

saudi citizen in good standing. that has not happened. >> all these points were covered in the confirmed understanding agreement with the government. at, andt dwell into th the government will not well into that. >> i understand. but you have to agree surely, if the government, if prince mohammed or some other government official were to affirm everything we have discussed today, that would help ? >> look. the fact that i am speaking to you right now, saying everything honestly, and the fact the government approves what i'm saying, correct? there's no difference. >> the crown prince, prince mohammed, is touring the west, meeting president trump at the white house, trying to attract capital to saudi arabia. given your experience in the

ritz carlton, how good can you feel about presenting a common front with the government, the very same government that put you in the hotel? >> look, i am a supporter of saudi arabia, a supporter of my government, a supporter of crown prince salman, all the way, before, during, and after the detention. no doubt about that. i support saudi arabia. that is my country. >> some people will find it hard to understand. >> this guy is my cousin. this guy is my uncle. this guy is my grandfather. and these are my sons and daughters, granddaughters here. i am part of the community. part of it. like in the united states, do you think paul ryan always agrees with president trump? they are the same party. even pelosi, and mr. schumer of

the senate, the democratic party, right? we are one party here, the ruling family of saudi arabia. this country was established with the blood of al-saud, and i'm not about to move from that front. i am in. order of saudi arabia -- in full support of saudi arabia. you have been detained and you are still supporting them? i say, you bet so, i am supporting them wholeheartedly, with complete freedom and liberty. >> you have spoken to other investors who have spoken to other ceo's. what do they say? >> most of them, i did not speak to all of them. some called me, some i called them, and it is all back to normal. >> but you have to wonder how comfortable they will be putting capital in saudi arabia after theng what we might call

ritz-carlton method of dealing with disputes. >> they have to decide that. i can assure you, i can tell you, business as usual. we will continue to invest in saudi arabia. i was born in saudi arabia, i will die in saudi arabia, and that is my nation forever. scarlet: that was prince alwaleed bin talal. this is bloomberg. ♪

scarlet: time for the bloomberg business flash, a look at the biggest stories in the news right now. united airlines is suspending reservations for its animal transport service. they plan to review until may 1, including which breeds of dogs they will accept. this comes after an especially bad week that saw one dog die in an overhead bin and a kansas bound dog sent to japan. some of the videogame sector's the survivalrs -- one fortnite is weighing heavy hitters. is your business flash

update. coming up, it will only get the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia. ♪

mark: i am mark crumpton with first word news. education secretary bes betsy devos says the federal commission on school safety formed in the aftermath of the florida school shooting will consist of her and three other cabinet secretaries. during a tense hearing today, she defended the right to arm teachers and would not say whether she supports banning gun purchases for anyone under the age of 21. the head of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons says the group has been asked to look into the nerve agent used against a former russian spy and his daughter in britain. >> upon the request of the british government, the office

has deployed some experts to the u.k., and they will collect some samples, which will be sent to our designated labs, and analysis may take another two to three weeks. mark: britain says the soviet designed nerve agent was used to poison sergei skripal and his daughter in salisbury earlier this month, and it has said russia is likely responsible, which moscow denies. skripal and his daughter remain in critical condition. the gunmen in this morning's high school shooting in maryland is dead and two students are hospitalized, one in critical condition. the gunfire took place at great mills high school. >> when the shooting took place, our school resource officer inside the school was alerted to the event and the shots being fired. he pursued the shooter, engaged the shooter. during that engagement, he fired

a round at the shooter. simultaneously, the shooter fired a round as well. mark: it is not known if the officer's bullet killed the suspect. sheriff cameron added, there's an indication a prior relationship indicated between the shooter and the girl who was wounded. a new u.n. report accuses turkey of human rights violations and the statenkara to end of emergency in place since a failed coup in 2016. in response, turkey says the high commissioner for human rights lacks impartiality and collaborates with terrorists. the turkish foreign ministry called the claims baseless, and commissioner had not accepted invitations to see the country for itself. global news 24 hours a day, powered by 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries. this is bloomberg. scarlet: let's get a recap of

today's action. shocks -- stocks shaking tech woes to close higher. fairly quiet here before the fed decision tomorrow at 2:00 p.m., which we will cover for you right here on bloomberg television. we have breaking news on salesforce, it is buying mulesoft for $6.5 billion. $36 in cash and a fraction of priceare, so the share will be about $44.89, a 36 premium -- 36% premium over the last close. julia: that would be the biggest deal they have ever done. interesting deal for them. right now, the price down .2% in after-hours trade. scarlet: "what'd you miss" -- president trump welcoming saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salman, applauding him as a

big purchaser of american armaments and a friend of the u.s. >> the relationship was, to put it mildly, very strained during the obama administration, and the relationship now is probably as good as it has really ever been, and i think we will probably only get better. tremendous investments made in our country, and that means jobs for our workers, jobs for our people. scarlet: for more perspective, we are joined by robert jordan, former u.s. ambassador to saudi arabia and current adjunct professor at southern methodist university. thank you so much for joining us. i want to get your success of what would -- your idea of what would define success for mohammed bin salman versus donald trump. robert: the meeting from the prince's standpoint is very important in terms of preserving u.s. support for the war in yemen. this young crown prince owns that war, and it is not going

very well. he has fired his entire senior general staff because of it, so he needs american support in terms of munitions, intelligence, reconnaissance, and midair refueling. congress is viewing this very skeptically, so i think prince mohammed really wants continued american support. i think he also wants continued american acquiescence in the saudi rivalry with iran, and i think, of course, the potential scuttling of the nuclear agreement with iran is going to be something the crown prince would support as well. from president trump's standpoint, i think he very much wants the aramco ipo to be listed on an american stock exchange. i am not sure that is in the cards, but that would certainly be a feather in president trump's cap. he also very much wants the saudis to try to do something with qatar. the blockade with qatar has gone

nowhere, throwing qatar into the arms of iran and turkey. those would be big deliverables, if he can pull that off. julia: that is a huge problem, the standoff between the saudis is, given the air force base and soldiers the united states has in the region. what does the resolution look like, and how would the president facilitate that? robert: i am not sure there is a resolution soon, but what the president could do is emphasize to the saudis how important it is to resolve it. there have been 13 demands the tar, most ofof qa which involve withdrawing support for the muslim brotherhood and stopping some of their funding of extremist organizations that have attempted to bring down some of these regimes in the gulf. qatar could make representations with proper

monitoring, the saudis might accept that. i think the saudis would also have to begin something further, something more in the nature of continued support for the war in yemen, and perhaps other economic assistance in terms of military sales as well. joe: talking about the aramco ipo, you say that might not go anywhere even though it is summing trump wants. why does it seem implausible to have it listed in the u.s.? robert: first of all, the disclosure obligations aramco would have to undertake are enormous. reserve estimates, sources and uses of funds, the kinds of things we would expect of any listing on one of our stock exchanges. second, there is an inconvenient issue here with regard to what is called the jasta legislation, which allows litigation by the 9/11 families' survivors against saudi arabia. a listing on a stock exchange, and saudi resources and assets

in the united states might be jeopardized at least in their view by a listing on the exchange. so i think there's a lot to be done there to satisfy the saudis, and if they could be made comfortable, it would be a huge win to have it listed on one of our exchanges. julia: a great deal of excitement from the international community, speaking with investors about the opening up and efforts of reform by the crown prince in saudi arabia. then we saw the crackdown on corruption, the resulting headlines, the news cycle that went global as a result of that. many investors looking at saudi, just trying to work out exactly what's going on, what the rule of law ultimately is. you know this country better than most people. what is your perception right now, and how fearful should investors be ultimately? hasrt: first of all, there been a corruption problem in saudi arabia for many, many generations. i have had saudi businessmen come to me and say they are sick and tired of having some minor

prince, in and try to take a piece of your deal when they get ready to close. so they need to do something about it, but what was happening here is a very heavy-handed effort in the name of anticorruption, to bring to heel many of the business elites and members of the royal family, with a complete lack of transparency. so i think investors are going to be asking questions, and this has a lot to do with the purpose of the crown prince's visit to the united states. i think he's trying to make investors more comfortable with the prospects of investing in saudi arabia, but to do that they have to show investors they clearly have a rule of law, that they do have transparency, and that if they do business over there, they or their business partners will not be hauled into a place like the ritz-carlton and shaking down for billions of dollars. they have a heavy lift to restore investor confidence. my hope is they can do that, and

the best way to do it is to come forward with a great degree of transparency on what they are up to with this anticorruption campaign. scarlet: obviously the business opportunity for u.s. companies is very attractive to the president, but i wonder, let me ask a basic question, why has the president chosen to put so much emphasis into a relationship, a friendship with saudi arabia and this particular crown prince? the u.s. has or is on its way to energy independence, so we do not need middle east oil the way we did before. what is so special about this particular saudi arabia right now that attracts the president? robert: first of all, the president takes great comfort in the fact the saudis did not get along very well with president obama. i would say we have a lot of common interests, and there is a u.s. national interest in a relationship with saudi arabia. it does not get much attention, but the saudis are the guardians of the two holiest sites in sunni islam.

there are almost 2 billion muslims in the world, almost 25% of the world's population, so for us to have a positive relationship with the leader of that world is very important to us. secondly, there's a geographic element. in order to project force in the middle east, you almost always have to overfly saudi arabia. you need flight clearances to do that. i experienced that personally myself. you also have, of course, a very significant partnership in counterterrorism. this is something we worked hard on with the saudis after 9/11. they ultimately came around and i think now are a very strong counterterrorism partner in the region. they have saved us many lives, saved us from attacks on our homeland, through their intelligence and partnership with us. there are many reasons we need that relationship. we also need them to stand as a bulwark against the incursions

of iran in the region. we need a balance of power, and they can help provide that. julia: thank you so much for in joining us. robert jordan, former ambassador to saudi arabia and current adjunct professor and diplomat in residence at southern methodist university. at&t is squaring off against the federal government in a trial that could shape how you get and how much you pay for streaming tv and movies. we have the latest on that from new york. this is bloomberg. ♪

-- the"what'd you miss" u.s. department of justice and at&t are facing off in court over the company's $85 billion agreement to buy media giant time warner.

opening arguments were postponed until thursday thanks to an impending snowstorm. here to walk us through it -- we have not even gotten to the opening statements, because the department of justice says they want to use internal documents from at&t as evidence as to why this deal should not go ahead. is that right? what is contained in those documents? do we have any idea? jennifer: that's right. most of what has been going on yesterday and today are discussions over what evidence will and will not be used as we go forward in this eight-week trial, as well as how some witness testimony will be handled. yesterday was the discussion primarily about the at&t documents, and i believe most of these documents were documents before by directv, directv was acquired by at&t. it looks like directv may have put in complaints to the department of justice or the fcc

at the time that comcast acquired nbcu. now the department of justice is looking to take their statements and use them against them at this stage. joe: what do we know about the judge in this trial, and how that will inform this strategy of the two sides? jennifer: we know this judge was appointed by president bush. we also know this is the very first trial of this kind for him . he did say, while he has had many trials in the past, and he was the one who signed off when comcast acquired nbcu on the settlement agreed to by the doj, he said it was the first time he was handling this kind of a trial, and was really learning about what the burdens would be and what the proof would be, and what his task is going to be going forward. scarlet: so of course, whatever is decided at this trial or in this case will be setting a precedent for other m&a deals in the future, especially anything

that is a vertical merger. to what extent are lawyers for other deals looking at this particular case and deciding how they are going to frame their arguments? jennifer: you know, i think to quite a great extent. i think a lot of companies and attorneys are watching to see what happens here, and to see what the decision is. if it is a decision against the companies, how broad or narrowly tailored that decision is and the applicability to future deals. it could be if it is against the companies a very narrowly tailored decision without a lot of applicability for mergers going forward. if the decision ends up against the government, that could in a sense open floodgates for other deals to go forward. senior: jennifer rie, analyst for antitrust litigation at bloomberg intelligence, joining us from washington. coming up, we speak to citigroup chief global analyst tina fordham for her take on facebook's data woes and how

governments around the world deal with the fallout. this is bloomberg. ♪

--ia: "what'd you miss" demanding answers from facebook executives on the data crisis besieging the company. in united states, lawmakers are honing in as the company has agreed to brief the senate judiciary committee tomorrow according to an aide to charles grassley. joining us to discuss, citigroup chief political analyst tina fordham. you have long said that social media, digital disruption of elections is a confluence of factors, increasing risks right now. you can tie into that data protection in this case, another issue. what are your thoughts at this

stage? tina: my main reaction as a macro analyst, the problem of low trust in institutions, which is very much related to this idea, is only going to get worse with developments like this. it will be the next frontier in and inal science, opinion polling, to try to understand and quantify what the impact of these ads might be. on the one hand, facebook tells us you should buy their ads andn opinion because they are very effective, and on the other hand we hear it is impossible to say if there was any impact from these ads in the political space. but in my world, anticipating election results, it is going to be more difficult. the biggest take away i think is, will people believe that any elections are won fairly? julia: are corporates like facebook, twitter, are they held to a lower standard because they

offer utility benefit, and in many cases we are probably quite addicted to them, so we can't hold them to the same standard? tina: what is our alternative as consumers? i saw some people on twitter say they were deleting facebook accounts, but what are they going to do instead? joe: that is a pretty strong statement, that we may just never have election again where people are totally confident it was won fair and square. tina: and that is probably a casualty of this low trust phenomenon. it is remarkable, when you look at citizens in advanced economies, compared to emerging markets, when they talk about corruption in politics and in business. people in advanced economies are almost as mistrustful as in developing markets. that is new, by the way. our trust has declined steadily. there's probably some correlation to economic growth, but yes, for democracy the loser

has to accept the results. that's the only condition of having a democracy. scarlet: peaceful transition of power as well. as trust deteriorates in public institutions, we see a lot more people in favor of strongmen, authority -- authoritarian rulers. what confrontation do you foresee between big tech, companies like facebook, google, amazon, with these authoritarian leaders? tina: well, so far they have tried to toe a pretty careful line. i am originally from the silicon valley, and it took silicon valley a long time to get interested in washington and policy. the next stage, global leaders and how to engage there, is going to be challenging as well. this is really another frontier in international relations and global business. julia: but there is a connection, for many of these

people. president trump actually harnesses social media for his own purpose. so when you talk about greater regulation, where do those two things meet? a slightly on different point, i have been thinking about brexit and the campaign for leave, which was roundly criticized for numbers that didn't exist and everything else. there's no accountability. if you are a company and you engage in false advertising, there is a penalty for that. we do not have that in politics, in campaigning. joe: would you expect to see at some point seriously harsh regulations? the regulations discussed right now would mostly be on the margins, things like disclosure of who is buying ads, tighter regulations about who can buy them and where the money is coming from, but at some point would you expect governments to feel that gigantic social

networking, tech companies are truly encroaching on their sovereignty and something for coney and must be done? tina: i actually don't see that on the horizon at this point. furthermore, you don't see a public outcry suggesting for example that trump won fraudulently, if you see what i mean. look at the comments from cambridge analytica, they are presidenteting, which obama and his campaign was applauded for, applying these really new -- if things work, it is difficult to imagine them being withdrawn. it is the privacy, the data protection element that i think is most significant. scarlet: so put this all together. how does this affect how people vote, how people approach the midterm elections? tina: i think there is a real cognitive dissonance at this point. you just don't see people connecting these headlines with outcomes just yet, anyway.

i saw a super wonky statement from an academic research institute, because think tanks have also been kind of wrote in -- roped in, this idea of performing tailored work for the benefit of governments and companies. is there such a thing as independent research? like a free press, you could argue it is extremely important to have independent research standards, but this is really in the wonky world, i am afraid. julia: when does the penny drop? when people begin to say, are we being duped, led? tina: it takes a lot for people to think that. most people think they are making their decisions based on information they have collected from -- julia: accurately gathered. tina: we talk about how other people live in a bubble, but not me. [laughter] julia: as far as wisconsin is concerned, people's lack of

trust in institutions, making them vote for things that were counterintuitive. not having more medicaid coverage, voting against that. not greater spending on infrastructure, roads, education, because they did not trust the institutions to put the money to work in the way they said they would. tina: this is a very insidious phenomenon. in emerging markets, low trust in brazil has been a factor for a very long time, finally dhilma and the other scandals. joe: from a political science perspective, is there anyway trump avoids his party getting demolished in the midterms -- tina: the map for a true wave election looks challenging, but wave elections in midterms happen all the time. after the obama victory in 2008, as commentator said, republicans out of power for a generation,

and low and behold in the midterms they wiped the floor with democrats. no responsible pollster is picking a strong view at this point on the midterms, but i have to think the republican establishment is pretty worried about that migration of middle-class white suburban college-educated voters that we have seen here and there. since whatpecially we saw a right outside pittsburgh. tina for them --tina fordham, thank you so much. that does it for "what'd you miss" julia: bloomberg technology is next. joe: have a great evening. this is bl

mark: you are watching bloomberg technology and here is a check of first world news. president trump says he congratulated vladimir putin today on his reelection. he also said he is making

provisions to ensure the u.s. remains the world's preeminent military power. >> we had a very good, and i suspect we'll be meeting in the not-too-distant future to discuss the arms race, which is getting out of control, but we will never allow anybody to have anything even close to what we have. mark: for the fifth time this month a package bomb exploded in taxes and it happened this time at a fedex facility near san antonio. one person suffered minor injuries and an meantime that the eye denied earlier reports that a second bomb had been discovered. two people were killed entire bombings in austin. the school shooting in southern maryland ended today with a gunman getting killed according to a local sheriff who says the suspect was killed at a school resource officer. two students were wounded. education secretary betsy devos defending community's to decide