Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: This is the Bloomberg DAYBAQ podcast. Good morning, It's Wednesday,
Speaker 2: the third of December. I'm Caroline Hepga in London.
Speaker 1: And I'm Stephen Caroline Brussels. Coming up today. The Kremlin
Speaker 1: makes positive noises following Russia US talks, but stops short
Speaker 1: of backing a peace plan for Ukraine.
Speaker 2: Open AI CEO Sam Altman declares a code read as
Speaker 2: the firm scrambles to improve chat GPT with rivals snapping
Speaker 2: at its heels, plus.
Speaker 1: A truck's worth every second. Why global plastic pollution is
Speaker 1: forecast to hit two hundred and eighty million tons a
Speaker 1: year by twenty forty.
Speaker 2: Let's start with a roundup of our top stories.
Speaker 1: Talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Envoy Steve
Speaker 1: Whitcoff on a plan to end Russia's war in Ukraine
Speaker 1: concluded after nearly five hours without a deal. According to
Speaker 1: the Kremlin, Putin held very useful talks, but a compromise
Speaker 1: hasn't been reached yet on the critical issue of territorial control.
Speaker 1: The former US Ambassador to Ukraine, Steve Pifer, says the
Speaker 1: Russians and Ukrainians remain far apart, and he believes Putin
Speaker 1: is using the talks to drive a wedge between the
Speaker 1: United States and Europe.
Speaker 3: What the Krewmen hopes is that they can somehow continue
Speaker 3: to string President Trump along and get him to sort
Speaker 3: of back away and not continue the kind of support
Speaker 3: that Ukraine has received from the West over the past
Speaker 3: three and a half years, whereas Europe has made clear
Speaker 3: that it is prepared to continue that support.
Speaker 1: Steve Pifer, and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution,
Speaker 1: was speaking after Vladimir Putin earlier accused European leaders of
Speaker 1: sabotaging peace efforts with unacceptable changes to proposals originally drawn
Speaker 1: up between the US and Russia.
Speaker 2: The European Union has reached a deal to phase out
Speaker 2: Russian gas a year earlier than originally planned. Negotiators representing
Speaker 2: members States, the European Parliament, and the European Commission agreed
Speaker 2: a deal in the early hours of this morning to
Speaker 2: gradually prohibit liquified natural gas imports from Moscow by the
Speaker 2: end of twenty twenty six. That's in addition to a
Speaker 2: plan to end pipeline gas imports by September twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2: It means the BLOCK can finally end its energy reliance
Speaker 2: on Moscow as it looks to the US and the
Speaker 2: Middle East as alternative suppliers of.
Speaker 1: NG Francis President Emmanuel macrom is preparing for togs with
Speaker 1: the President cheating paying as part of a three day
Speaker 1: visit to China. Beijing wants support from France, a fellow
Speaker 1: member of the UN Security Council, in its dispute with
Speaker 1: Japan over Taiwan status. Wombrooks freddie Fulston has more.
Speaker 4: President Xi is looking to court Macron as part of
Speaker 4: a diplomatic effort to isolate Japan's new Prime Minister, Senai Takeichi.
Speaker 4: Macron's priority is to address global trade tensions and press
Speaker 4: she to use his influence on Putin to end the
Speaker 4: war in Ukraine. Kirs Starmer's team will be watching closely
Speaker 4: as the UK Prime Minister prepares for a visit next month.
Speaker 4: It comes as China condemned the UK's decision to once
Speaker 4: again delay plans for a Chinese super embassy in London,
Speaker 4: an ongoing saga in Westminster in London.
Speaker 1: Freddie Fulston Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: Now a tax holiday on newly listed UK shares is
Speaker 2: set to spark a revival of London's IPO market. So
Speaker 2: that's according to a top banker who says that plans
Speaker 2: to exempt stocks of freshly public London companies from a
Speaker 2: zero point five percent stamp duty for three years has
Speaker 2: resonated well. Anthony Goodman, co CEO at Goldman Sachs International,
Speaker 2: speaking at the Financial Times its Global Banking Summit, so
Speaker 2: the move will create a more level playing field than
Speaker 2: other markets.
Speaker 1: Open A CEO Sam Altman has declared a code red
Speaker 1: situation has more rivals to chachipt emerge. Bloomberg understands the
Speaker 1: tech boss sent an internal memo calling for employees to
Speaker 1: put in a surge to improve the AI chatbot and
Speaker 1: delay work on other initiatives like AI agents and advertising.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Tech Europe anker Tomackenzie says the issue comes down
Speaker 1: to financing and.
Speaker 5: It does speak to that funding story, the need to
Speaker 5: have those deals, the need to raise capital, have that
Speaker 5: liquidity and raise debt as well. For open AI, which
Speaker 5: does not have the balance sheet of course of the
Speaker 5: likes of Alphabet and needs that liquidity and that funding
Speaker 5: to spend not just on the infrastructure, but to the
Speaker 5: ensure that there is adoption of their products, and particularly GPT.
Speaker 1: Tom McKenzie speaking there, Will Altman didn't directly address his
Speaker 1: reasons for encouraging the push, Sources tell Bloomberg he recently
Speaker 1: warned workers at Google's AI resurgence could cause temporary headwinds
Speaker 1: for the firm. OpenAI declined to comment on the reports
Speaker 1: of the memo.
Speaker 2: And those are our top stories for you this morning.
Speaker 2: Looking at the markets US and your opin stop futures,
Speaker 2: little brighter Eurostox Swifty futures up by a quarter of
Speaker 2: one percent. There's been a better session in Asia to
Speaker 2: the costb Index up by one point one percent. Gains
Speaker 2: for the nick A actually declines though in China, so
Speaker 2: those are the outlying markets. Bitcoin has rebounded to a
Speaker 2: closely watched story, up by two point four percent. We
Speaker 2: trade now above ninety three thousand dollars present. Trump says
Speaker 2: he will announce his selection to lead the Federal Reserve
Speaker 2: in early twenty twenty six, usually important for the bond markets.
Speaker 2: Tenure US yields this morning trading down a basis point
Speaker 2: at four spots zero seven, and the dollar has weakened
Speaker 2: this morning. So Bloomberg Dollar Spot index currently down a
Speaker 2: tenth of one percent. You've got the greenback weakening against
Speaker 2: all major currency pairs. So those are the markets at
Speaker 2: a moment.
Speaker 1: We'll bring you more on those Kremlin talks over Ukraine
Speaker 1: and whether their reason for optimism are caution, plus why
Speaker 1: global plastic demand is set to keep surging. We've also
Speaker 1: Caroline in working our very human eyes over the writing
Speaker 1: by our colleagues on AI this morning. Plenty to read
Speaker 1: across Bloomberg on this subject as always, but a couple
Speaker 1: of stories that have stood out for us. One in particular,
Speaker 1: our opinion columnist Dave Lee has been tackling some of
Speaker 1: the Internet outrage over the re released Beatles anthology documentary,
Speaker 1: which AI was used to restore and enhance old footage
Speaker 1: of the band. Sounds like a great idea, except people
Speaker 1: put spot at things like John Allen's guitar and one
Speaker 1: performance appeared to have about ten strings at Paul McCartney's
Speaker 1: face didn't look quite right. One fan on Radit remarking
Speaker 1: that he looked like a shrunken head. This is look,
Speaker 1: we're kind of back into the territory of how good
Speaker 1: is this technology? Really, and Dave kind of digs into
Speaker 1: the idea of because there's been resistance, of course about
Speaker 1: from Paul McCartney, in particular to some of the UK
Speaker 1: rules around copywriting and AI, although he has supported the
Speaker 1: use of the technology to for example, support the Now
Speaker 1: and Then song three as well. Yeah, the kind of
Speaker 1: fine line between what's good and rice when it comes
Speaker 1: to applying AI to creative products like music or a film,
Speaker 1: And then when does it get just a bit weird
Speaker 1: and too much?
Speaker 2: Can I say something? I just think this is like
Speaker 2: bad plastic surgery, isn't it for AI? If it's wrong,
Speaker 2: it looks really freakish. But actually the world has largely
Speaker 2: kind of accepted moderate tweaks. Maybe, But does it fundamentally
Speaker 2: alter I mean plastic surgery for age and beauty, but
Speaker 2: AI for history, for your cultural icons? Does it all
Speaker 2: to something fundamental? I don't know. I feel very curmudgeonly
Speaker 2: saying that I do. Even I dislike just remastering of
Speaker 2: old records in Maria Callas and so on, so you know,
Speaker 2: I'm a purist.
Speaker 1: I think Colin firmly in the letter B Camp clearly
Speaker 1: on this front. You can read Davely's a piece at
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com for its lash opinion. We'll put a
Speaker 1: link to it in our podcast show notes as well.
Speaker 2: Now, let's bring you more on the talks between the
Speaker 2: US and Russia over Ukraine. The discussions were described in
Speaker 2: polsitive terms by both sides, but it's unclear what progress
Speaker 2: was made. Tony Halpin, who leads our team covering Russia's
Speaker 2: economy and government, joins us now for more on this. Tony, Hello,
Speaker 2: what came out of this huge important meetings? Good morning.
Speaker 6: Well, there was a lot of positive rhetoric from the
Speaker 6: Kremlin side, at least we haven't had a US read
Speaker 6: out yet, but there wasn't a great deal of substance
Speaker 6: on what the two sides might have agreed on on
Speaker 6: where the disagreements remain unbridgable apart from the question of territory,
Speaker 6: which the kreminin Foreign policy aid Ulshookov said they didn't
Speaker 6: really reach any compromise on. And since that's such a
Speaker 6: central issue about the amount of Ukrainian land that Ukraine
Speaker 6: that Russia is trying to take and have recognized as
Speaker 6: its own, it suggests there's still plenty of work left
Speaker 6: to do.
Speaker 1: So what happens next. Then does a meeting between Trump
Speaker 1: and Putin look likely? At this stage?
Speaker 6: Eurosha was pretty cautious about that. Actually, he said it
Speaker 6: would depend on the progress that was being made. And
Speaker 6: previously President Trump has said that he's not really interested
Speaker 6: in meeting with Putin and Zelenskin less a deal is
Speaker 6: on the table. It doesn't seem that a deal is
Speaker 6: on the table currently. We're waiting still to see what
Speaker 6: Steve Wikkopp and Jared Kushner report back to President Trump
Speaker 6: and what President Trump has to say about The meeting
Speaker 6: was a fairly lengthy one five hours, But so far,
Speaker 6: at least, nobody's talking about any kind of renewed summit
Speaker 6: between Putin and Trump.
Speaker 2: So where is Ukraine in this Ukrainian president saying that
Speaker 2: he is ready to receive all signals from the talks.
Speaker 2: How much, say, does Ukraine have in these conversations.
Speaker 6: Yes, it's a trick. I mean, let's not forget Ukraine
Speaker 6: is the victim in this war, right, They're the ones
Speaker 6: that were invaded by Russia. It's their sovereign territory that
Speaker 6: US and Russian negotia we're discussing yesterday in carving up
Speaker 6: that's made it very difficult for Ukrainian President Voladimir Zelensky.
Speaker 6: Ukrainian negotiators were in Florida at the weekend talking to
Speaker 6: the US. The US was trying to shape the peace
Speaker 6: plan ahead of the meeting with Putin yesterday. But Zelenski's
Speaker 6: leverage is pretty limited with the US, and he's very
Speaker 6: reliant on European support really to kind of back up
Speaker 6: the positions that he's taking and his efforts really to
Speaker 6: restrict the amount of Russian demands that have been made
Speaker 6: upon him.
Speaker 1: And there was some saber rattling from Vladimir Putin as
Speaker 1: well going into these talks, these comments that reported that
Speaker 1: he wasn't planning to go to war with Europe, but
Speaker 1: if Europe suddenly wants to go to war and starts
Speaker 1: when we are ready right now is what he's reported
Speaker 1: and said, how should we be reading those comments in
Speaker 1: the context of the talks that were about to happen
Speaker 1: at that stage.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So I think at some levels this is basically
Speaker 6: just high level trolling by Poutin. I mean, his whole
Speaker 6: stackergy at the moment is to basically restrict discussions about
Speaker 6: the outcome in Ukraine. To Russia and the US and
Speaker 6: to sideline Europe and to cast it as not serious.
Speaker 6: So he wants to show really that you know, if
Speaker 6: Europe saber rattling about war with Russia, he doesn't regard
Speaker 6: that as serious because, let's face it, Russia is one
Speaker 6: of the world's biggest nuclear powers. And as he said,
Speaker 6: you know, there wouldn't be anybody to talk to if
Speaker 6: war really did escalate between Russia and Europe. And so
Speaker 6: this is part, I think of his strategy to say
Speaker 6: that the future of Ukraine is a matter between him
Speaker 6: and Trump and Europe should just butt out.
Speaker 7: Really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, let's see what emerges then. On the US side,
Speaker 2: we did here from Marco Rubio an interview with Fox News,
Speaker 2: saying that trying to end the war in a way
Speaker 2: that protects Ukraine is the US goal. So we've had
Speaker 2: that so far. Tony, thank you so much for being
Speaker 2: with us. Tony Halpin leads our team covering Russia's economy
Speaker 2: and government, talking about those talks on Ukraine. Stay with us.
Speaker 2: More from Bloomberg DAYBAKEUOPE coming up after this.
Speaker 1: The global production of new plastic is set to increase
Speaker 1: by fifty two percent by twenty forty overwhelming waste management systems.
Speaker 1: That's the alarming finding from a new report from the
Speaker 1: American ENGLPEW Charitable Trusts. Are Reporter Tea out of Bio
Speaker 1: is with us for more on this story. Teama, what
Speaker 1: does this research say about our use of plastic in
Speaker 1: the future.
Speaker 7: Well, I've been pouring over this research and our great
Speaker 7: piece about it on the terminal this morning, and in short,
Speaker 7: from reading it, it seems like things are about to
Speaker 7: get a lot worse unfortunately. I mean, we've known for
Speaker 7: a while now that plastic isn't great for our bodies,
Speaker 7: it's not great for the planet, but this report shows
Speaker 7: that there's clear evidence that it's clogging beaches and oceans,
Speaker 7: and also that microplastics are entering our bodies and harming
Speaker 7: our health. And despite this, what is striking about these
Speaker 7: findings is that we are still continuing to produce plastic
Speaker 7: at accelerating rates. And because of that, one of the
Speaker 7: key findings that has exposed in this report is that
Speaker 7: global plastic pollution will hit two hundred and eighty million
Speaker 7: metric tons per year by twenty forty. That's a dump
Speaker 7: trucks worth of plastic every second. Global production of new
Speaker 7: plastic is set to increase by fifty two percent. That's
Speaker 7: twice as much as waste management systems are increasing to
Speaker 7: deal with it, so it's quite a staggering amount. But
Speaker 7: there are also some interesting insights here about the future,
Speaker 7: especially when it comes to international cooperation. So the report
Speaker 7: talks about how in August there were talks to forge
Speaker 7: a sort of international treaty to kind of rain in
Speaker 7: plastic pollution, but it was blocked by countries that produced
Speaker 7: the majority of the material that would have been blocked
Speaker 7: in those proposals. So it seems like the outlook here
Speaker 7: is a pretty bleak all things considered.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sounds absolutely grim. The consequences of increasing plastic use
Speaker 2: that the research also describe some of those sounds quite alarming. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there are some pretty big consequences.
Speaker 7: And it's great that this report is it's kind of
Speaker 7: a hybrid, so you can see data, current data from
Speaker 7: recent research, but then it puts that into a model
Speaker 7: which helps to predict outcomes under different policy scenarios, and
Speaker 7: included in that are some of the worst case scenarios. So,
Speaker 7: for example, they are about sixteen thousand chemicals in plastics
Speaker 7: and out of those, scientists think that about a fourth
Speaker 7: could be harmful to our health. There are also some
Speaker 7: big environmental risks. So under the current trajectory, plastic related
Speaker 7: greenhouse gas emissions are expected to surge by fifty eight
Speaker 7: percent a year, and that means that if plastic production
Speaker 7: were a country, it would be the third largest emitter
Speaker 7: of gases like carbon dioxide in the world. But what
Speaker 7: is interesting as well here is that Pew has done
Speaker 7: some pretty detailed modeling about those consequences, and I think
Speaker 7: for me, the most striking of those is that the
Speaker 7: authors estimate that the world's population would lose five point
Speaker 7: six million total years of healthy life in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 7: and that's nine point eight million years in twenty forty.
Speaker 7: So I mean, I suppose the biggest impact or the
Speaker 7: biggest consequence that comes out of this is that impact
Speaker 7: on or the shortening of human life that could come
Speaker 7: out of this plastic production.
Speaker 1: And what solutions to the researchers from QARFO, well, actually.
Speaker 7: They don't think it's some sort of innovative new solution
Speaker 7: or invention. They actually say that countries and communities already
Speaker 7: possessed the tools to reduce the manufacture and the use
Speaker 7: of plastic quite greatly. They are suggesting things like better
Speaker 7: productions and packaging design, and also investing in the infrastructure
Speaker 7: to support recycling so that we don't always have to
Speaker 7: produce new plastic products. There's also policy solutions, so ending
Speaker 7: subsidies for plastic production and also expanding waste collection. But
Speaker 7: coming back to that gloom we talked about in the
Speaker 7: original forecast, they do can see that microplastics will be
Speaker 7: harder to control.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
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