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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: This is the Blueberg Day Baker podcast, available every morning

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Speaker 2: on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen. It's Wednesday, the

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Speaker 2: twenty sixth of February. Here in London. I'm Caroline Hepga.

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Speaker 2: Coming up today, Ukraine is said to agree terms for

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Speaker 2: a minerals deal with the US as the UK ramps

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Speaker 2: up military spending. Donald Trump says that he will offer

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Speaker 2: gold card visas to people who invest five million dollars,

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Speaker 2: and Foxton's staff tell Bloomberg that they face groping and

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Speaker 2: slurs at the London property broker. We have a special report.

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Speaker 2: Let's start with a roundup of our top stories. Ukraine

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Speaker 2: is understood to have agreed a deal with the US

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Speaker 2: to jointly develop its natural resources. Sources have told Bloomberg

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Speaker 2: that Ukraine's cabinet is expected to recommend the deal to

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Speaker 2: be signed later today. President Zelenski will then travel to

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Speaker 2: the US on Friday to sign the agreement alongside President Trump.

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Dan Flatley says the deal came together after the

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Speaker 2: US dropped its demand for Ukraine to pay it five

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Speaker 2: hundred billion dollars via resource extraction.

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Speaker 1: We're now talking a much lower figure. You know, it's

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Speaker 1: still kind of unknown exactly what it is, but maybe

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Speaker 1: on the order of ninety billion dollars. And of course,

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Speaker 1: one thing to point out is that Ukraine doesn't have

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Speaker 1: rare earths quote unquote, but it does have titanium, gallium,

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Speaker 1: other important minerals that the US is interested in securing

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Speaker 1: a supplier of.

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Speaker 2: Our US national security, reported Dan Flatley, who says that

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Speaker 2: the latest version of the deal still doesn't spell out

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Speaker 2: specific security guarantees for Ukraine. However, US officials argue that

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Speaker 2: binding Ukraine to the US through economic ties would provide

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Speaker 2: a de facto security shield. Trump's apparent refusal for the

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Speaker 2: US to be the final guaranteol of security in Europe

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Speaker 2: is continuing to drive a rapid recalibration across the content. Yesterday,

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Speaker 2: the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to increase

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Speaker 2: defense spending to two and a half percent of GDP

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Speaker 2: by twenty twenty seven and three percent over the next decade.

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Speaker 2: Speaking after the announcement, Starmer said the US president was

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Speaker 2: right to call for a ramp up in Europe's military spending.

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Speaker 3: Yes, it's true, President Trump thinks we should do more

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Speaker 3: and I agree with it. It chimes with my thinking

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Speaker 3: on this and buy more. I need more capability, I

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Speaker 3: need more coordination, and I need more spending, and we

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Speaker 3: have to learn the lessons of the conflict, particularly when

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Speaker 3: comes to capability and coordination.

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Speaker 2: Starmer says the initial boost to defense spending will be

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Speaker 2: funded by deep cuts to the UK's aid budget. The

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Speaker 2: announcement comes at a crunch diplomatic moment for Starmer, who

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Speaker 2: is due for talks at the White House on Thursday.

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Speaker 2: Salma is hoping to use the discussions with Trump to

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Speaker 2: bring him back on side after the US Cause concert

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Speaker 2: the nation across Europe with its diplomatic overtures to Russia

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Speaker 2: and Putin. Donald Trump has also instructed the Commerce Department

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Speaker 2: to examine possible copper tariffs. The president's executive order cites

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Speaker 2: national security concerns and the impact of dumping on domestic

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Speaker 2: US copper production. The probe may lead to tariffs on

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Speaker 2: copper imports, which could raise costs and affect the flow

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Speaker 2: of metal to the US market. The news comes as

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Speaker 2: bond trader's head for a possible economic slowdown. Morgan Stanley's

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Speaker 2: chief US equity strategist Mike Wilson also sounded this note

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Speaker 2: of caution while speaking to Bloomberg Surveillance.

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Speaker 4: People assume that President Trump is very focused on He's

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Speaker 4: not always not going to let the stock market go down.

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Speaker 4: I have no idea, but he hasn't been talking that

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Speaker 4: way this time, and I think this sort of idea.

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Speaker 4: I know Scott Beson was on your show talking about

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Speaker 4: mainstream versus Wall Street, and that is sort of I

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Speaker 4: think how they're evaluating themselves is how do we get

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Speaker 4: main Street to participate war in this economy kind of

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Speaker 4: writ large and shrinking the government. You're getting that crowding

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Speaker 4: out out of their hair, deregulation, Let's get raised down

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Speaker 4: to the back end. They focused on that because that's what

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Speaker 4: affects mortgage race and things that American citizens care about.

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Speaker 2: That was Mike Wilson of Morgan Stanley. He says that

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Speaker 2: the US economy is in a better place in the

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Speaker 2: long term, but progress will be messy. It all comes

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Speaker 2: as how Republicans passed a budget blueprint calling for deep

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Speaker 2: cuts in safety net programs such as Medicaid. The move

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Speaker 2: paves the way for four and a half trillion dollars

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Speaker 2: in tax cuts, but faced resistance from fiscal conservatives and moderates. Now,

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Speaker 2: China's president Shijinping is urging his officials to remain composed

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Speaker 2: in response to domestic and global challenges. According to state media,

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Speaker 2: she told senior officials that China must quote calmly respond.

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Speaker 2: The comments signal a measured approach to the Trump administer

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Speaker 2: new trade and investment restrictions. Washington has ramped up pressure

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Speaker 2: in recent weeks by restricting Chinese spending in strategic sectors,

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Speaker 2: urging Mexico to impose tarris on Chinese imports, and pushing

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Speaker 2: for fees on commercial ships made in China. Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: says that he will offer US residency and a path

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Speaker 2: to citizenship to investors who pay five million dollars. According

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Speaker 2: to the President, the scheme will launch in two weeks

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Speaker 2: time and won't need congressional approval.

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Speaker 5: We're going to be selling a gold card. You have

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Speaker 5: a green card. This is a gold card. We're going

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Speaker 5: to be putting a price on that card of about

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Speaker 5: five million dollars, and that's going to give you Green

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Speaker 5: card privileges. Plus it's going to be a route to

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Speaker 5: citizenship and wealthy people will be coming into our country

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Speaker 5: by buying this card, They'll be wealthy.

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Speaker 2: President Trump, speaking their Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnik, said the

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Speaker 2: move would replace the existing EB five program, which allows

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Speaker 2: immigrants to acquire green cards by investing a certain amount

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Speaker 2: in a US business. The full scope of Trump's Gold

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Speaker 2: card program and how it will be implemented was not

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Speaker 2: immediately clear, and in some corporate news today, Tesla's market

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Speaker 2: value has dropped below the one trillion dollar mark. That's

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Speaker 2: as the carmaker's European sales sync to an all time

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Speaker 2: low amidst fierce political backlash. Here is Bloomberg's team at

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Speaker 2: Adebayo with morenow.

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Speaker 6: A sharp decline in shares, which closed down more than

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Speaker 6: eight percent yesterday, cemented a month's long downward slide at Tesla.

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Speaker 6: The embattled auto firm is facing a dip despite investors

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Speaker 6: betting that CEO Elon Musk's close friendship with President Trump

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Speaker 6: would open regulatory doors. But it may just be Musk's

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Speaker 6: politics driving away customers. Jacob Falconcore, Global head of Investment

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Speaker 6: Strategy at Saxo, says the entrepreneur's political baggage is weighing

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Speaker 6: on sales backlash against the company is growing this year.

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Speaker 6: Showrooms have been vandalized in the Netherlands, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington,

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Speaker 6: whilst weekend protests were staged at dozens of US stores.

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Speaker 6: MASK is polling poorly in Europe, with a Swedish survey

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Speaker 6: also finding increasingly negative attitudes towards Tesla in London, tiwa Adebayo,

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Speaker 6: Bloomberg Radio.

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Speaker 2: And those are our top stories for you this morning.

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Speaker 2: Let's have a look at the markets, but firstly thinking

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Speaker 2: about the clothes. Yesterday, US equities really faultered. The treasury

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Speaker 2: yield and treasury yields on TENNY yields dove after weak

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Speaker 2: consumer confidence data. The SMP five hundred yesterday hit a

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Speaker 2: five week low, falling half of one percent. The NASTAK

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Speaker 2: also has seen losses over the four days of about

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Speaker 2: five percent. The mag seven entered correction territory. Yesterday. US

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Speaker 2: tenure yields fell eleven basis points to below four point

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Speaker 2: three percent. In Europe, we saw defense stocks gain and

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Speaker 2: banks extend gains to over twenty percent year to date.

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Speaker 2: This morning, tenure yields for the US are rising three

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Speaker 2: basis points this after that budget blueprint in the House

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Speaker 2: that we were talking about the Trump tax cuts getting

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Speaker 2: a step closer. US and European equity futures are actually

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Speaker 2: galvanized and a lot higher this morning. U Stocks fifty

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Speaker 2: future is currently up seven tens of one percent, although

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Speaker 2: trading in the Asian hours was fairly mixed. So that's

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Speaker 2: a look at where we are in the market now.

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Speaker 2: In a moment, we're going to be talking about, well,

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Speaker 2: the whole raft of announcements that we've had from the

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Speaker 2: Trump White House. It really does feel a bit like

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Speaker 2: a news quiz this morning. There are so many things

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Speaker 2: that we'll talk about, so we'll do that in a moment.

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Speaker 2: Plus a special story around Foxton's, the big real estate

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Speaker 2: broker here in the UK. Will be discussing that in

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Speaker 2: a moment. But there's another story that caught my eye

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Speaker 2: which is of interest. Ed Stateley and David Hilliott have

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Speaker 2: a story out today. Panoramic views of the pit to

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Speaker 2: reclining seats, personal TVs, a concierge, food service, luxury is

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Speaker 2: coming to the football experience in Britain. This is the

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Speaker 2: story all about the new stadia that are being built

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Speaker 2: across the UK. Everton's new stadium in Liverpool, which opens

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Speaker 2: in August. Apparently the club lounge costs two hundred pounds

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Speaker 2: a season. All of our cry really from the kind

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Speaker 2: of roots of the sport, but it's one piece that

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Speaker 2: caught my eye from Ed Stapley and David Helliet this morning.

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Speaker 2: It's on the Bloomberg terminal and also on the website.

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Speaker 2: If you happen to be a footy fan my family are,

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Speaker 2: even if I never go to a game.

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Speaker 7: Right.

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Speaker 2: Let's tend our attention though to the main news, shall

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Speaker 2: we and examine President Trump's latest policy measures from Ukraine

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Speaker 2: to that gold card visa and possible copper tariffs. Let's

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Speaker 2: bring in Bloomberg's Bill Ferries Bill, good morning, thanks for

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Speaker 2: being with me. First, the minerals deal with Ukraine. Zelenski

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Speaker 2: and the Ukrainian cabinet look ready to sign this deal.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't have the five hundred billion do A figure

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Speaker 2: in it, nor does it have US security guarantees. So

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Speaker 2: what is this deal?

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Speaker 7: It is very vague in terms of what we know.

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Speaker 7: Now hopefully we'll get some more details. We'll hopefully get

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Speaker 7: to see a copy of this deal. But yeah, we

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Speaker 7: don't know very much about it other than it seems

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Speaker 7: to be a framework for creating a fund that would

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Speaker 7: share revenue from natural resource extraction in Ukraine. Now, we

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Speaker 7: don't know how much this fund would be topped up to,

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Speaker 7: We don't really know how it would run, other than

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Speaker 7: that it would be supposedly jointly managed between the US

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Speaker 7: and Ukraine, and we don't know what it would spend

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Speaker 7: its money on. But what I think you made the

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Speaker 7: main point there, which was that the US was originally

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Speaker 7: looking for a five hundred billion dollar fund to basically

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Speaker 7: repay the United States for its support and the conflict.

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Speaker 7: So far, that's not part of this fund. President Zelensky

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Speaker 7: is expected to be in Washington on Friday to sign

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Speaker 7: this agreement, which so far is just more vaguely worded

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Speaker 7: than anything else.

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Speaker 2: Right now, Okay, so that's one point. The gold Card

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Speaker 2: visa scheme, this idea of people being able to pay

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Speaker 2: five million dollars for residency and a pathway to citizenship.

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Speaker 2: Does it mean that anyone with money can now become

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Speaker 2: a US citizen?

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Speaker 7: Well, President Trump said he's ready to unroll this in

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Speaker 7: two weeks, this five million dollar visa. You know, it's

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Speaker 7: it's not clear whether that will be a payment to

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Speaker 7: the US government or more like some other traditional golden visas,

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Speaker 7: where you're promising to invest, you're investing a certain amount

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Speaker 7: and creating a certain number of jobs. The US has

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Speaker 7: this EB five visa. It's basically about a million dollars

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Speaker 7: of investment promises and ten jobs. But that's an investment

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Speaker 7: in jobs as opposed to a payment to the government.

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Speaker 7: We're still waiting the details on that. President Trump in

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Speaker 7: his first term made a lot of promises for things

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Speaker 7: that would come within two weeks that never happened. We'll

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Speaker 7: have to see if this ends up being one of those.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, that's interesting. And on the tariff front, Trump

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Speaker 2: signing another executive order for the Commerce Department to look

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Speaker 2: at possible copper tariffs. What do we know there?

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Speaker 7: Yeah, the Commerce Department will have up to two hundred

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Speaker 7: and seventy days to determine if there is some sort

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Speaker 7: of a national security risk to the US from its

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Speaker 7: dependence on copper imports. The US is not a huge

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Speaker 7: copper importer, and when it does import, it's primarily from

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Speaker 7: countries like Chile and Canada as well. But it does

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Speaker 7: show the president's proclivity to use tariffs and it doesn't

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Speaker 7: require any congressional approval. So if he decides to go

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Speaker 7: this way, on top of the twenty five percent steel

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Speaker 7: and aluminum tariffs that are expected soon, we would then

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Speaker 7: have additional tariffs on copper. And you saw the markets

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Speaker 7: reacting a little bit to that today.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and did Bill. Thank you so much for being

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Speaker 2: with me this morning. Bloomberg's senior editor Bill Ferries, taking

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Speaker 2: us through all of the various announcements from the Trump

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Speaker 2: White House. Thank you so much for your time. Now,

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Speaker 2: let's focus on a story here in the UK. Foxton's

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Speaker 2: is a name well known in the property industry, and

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Speaker 2: it is often seen as an entry point for aspiring

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Speaker 2: real estate agents property agents in Britain, but junior employees

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Speaker 2: have told Bloomberg of unwanted touching, drunk driving, and senior

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Speaker 2: staff who either ignored the inappropriate behavior or were complicit.

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Speaker 2: Foxton says that it's concerned about the reports, but that

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Speaker 2: it doesn't recognize the allegations that issues are not taken seriously.

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Speaker 2: Joining us now for more is Bloomberg's Damien Shepherd, who

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Speaker 2: spoke to more than twenty former and current Foxton's employees

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Speaker 2: to report on this story. Damien, good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Just give us more of the detail then about what

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Speaker 2: staff said about the culture at Foxton's.

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Speaker 8: Yeah, so this is the result of a six month long,

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Speaker 8: nearly investigation into this, as you say, in meeting with

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Speaker 8: over twenty former and current employees at Foxton's. Now, my

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Speaker 8: sources tell me of incidents within the company in the office,

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Speaker 8: out the office of groping, racism, bullying, anti semitism, rife,

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Speaker 8: drink driving. These issues have spanned the past five years,

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Speaker 8: that's the range in which my sources have worked at Foxton's.

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Speaker 8: Christmas parties, boozy Friday meetings seem to generally be the

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Speaker 8: places where this kind of behavior starts, according to my sources.

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Speaker 8: So some really concerning allegations and six months of work

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Speaker 8: has gone into revealing some pretty grim stuff.

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Speaker 2: Okay, what did some of the people who spoke out

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Speaker 2: against this behavior say sort of happened to them.

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Speaker 8: So a real light bulb moment in this investigation was

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Speaker 8: when my sources described the way that leads are distributed

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Speaker 8: to negotiators. So a lead is essentially the flow of

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Speaker 8: work to negotiators at Foxton's, which is essentially clients who

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Speaker 8: want to buy sell rent or lent or letter property. Now,

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Speaker 8: staff that stood up against this workplace culture or stood

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Speaker 8: up for themselves against these incidents and allegations of sexual

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Speaker 8: harassment said that their flow of work essentially dropped off

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Speaker 8: or in some cases reduced dramatically to the point where

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Speaker 8: they were receiving no work. From that point, some of

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Speaker 8: my sources tell me that they were put on performance

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Speaker 8: targets which were impossible to achieve and eventually dismissed on

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Speaker 8: poor performance. Now, the overarching theme here from what my

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Speaker 8: sources tell me, is that this was a way for

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Speaker 8: managers to keep this culture, and anyone that stood up

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Speaker 8: against it would essentially see their work cut off or reduced,

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Speaker 8: and they would eventually be in a tricky situation with work.

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Speaker 2: Okay, So those are the allegations. What has been Foxton's response.

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Speaker 8: So, Foxton said it was concerned about Bloomberg's report and

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Speaker 8: all of the allegations that we put into our story.

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Speaker 8: They do say that they have the correct policies in

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Speaker 8: place to deal with this, and they urged people to

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Speaker 8: come forward to their independent whistleblowing service if they have

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Speaker 8: been involved in some of these allegations within the story. So,

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Speaker 8: really interesting time for Foxton's Now there was a slight

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Speaker 8: dip in their share price yesterday after the story went live,

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Speaker 8: so it'll be interesting to see how everything pans out

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Speaker 8: of the company.

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Speaker 9: the stories making news from London to Wall Streets and beyond.

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Speaker 2: Mm hmm