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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. This is the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Daybreak Europe podcast. Good morning, It's Tuesday, the nineteenth of August.

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Speaker 1: I'm Stephen Carroll in London. Coming up today, the US

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Speaker 1: President Donald Trump pushes for Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelenski

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Speaker 1: to meet after the Ukrainian leader visits the White House.

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Speaker 1: Traders expect the Bank of England to keep rights on

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Speaker 1: hold at four percent for the rest of this year plus.

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Speaker 1: Going off peacet Saudi Arabia's plans for a desert ski

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Speaker 1: resort strain in the country's one point five trillion dollar

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Speaker 1: Niom megacity plan. Let's start with a roundup of our

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Speaker 1: top stories. The US President Donald Trump has called Vladimir

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Speaker 1: Putin and urged the Russian leader to begin making plans

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Speaker 1: for a summit with Vladimir Zelenski. The move comes after

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Speaker 1: Trump met as Ukrainian counterpart and European leaders at the

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Speaker 1: White House. The US President is proposing that Putin and

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Speaker 1: Zelenski first hold a one on one meeting, followed by

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Speaker 1: a three way summuch with him in attendance. Zelenski said

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Speaker 1: he would be willing to discuss territorial issues with Putin.

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Speaker 2: What is very important that all these sensitive things territorial

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Speaker 2: and et ceter We we will discuss on the level

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Speaker 2: of leaders during trilateral meeting and President Trump will try

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Speaker 2: to organize such meeting.

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Speaker 3: And he said that he.

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Speaker 4: Will come or not come.

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Speaker 3: Ukraine will be happy if if you if you, if.

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Speaker 1: You will won't be there. I will be there here,

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Speaker 1: Thank you. Zelensky added he was pleased Trump had agreed

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Speaker 1: to two key asks, participating in security guarantees as part

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Speaker 1: of any peace deal and reserving discussion of territorial exchanges

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Speaker 1: for direct talks with Putin. European officials say they expect

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Speaker 1: another virtual meeting with Trump as soon as today to

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Speaker 1: discuss what security guarantees they could collectively offer to Kiev.

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Speaker 1: Softbankcerus agree to buy two billion dollars of Intel stock

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Speaker 1: in a surprise deal. The Japanese firm says the investment

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Speaker 1: is testament to its belief that advanced chip manufacturing and

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Speaker 1: supply chains will continue to grow in the United States.

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Speaker 1: News of the purchase came as Bloomberg learns the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration is also considering taking a ten percent stake in Intel.

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Speaker 1: Here's Bloomberg's M and A reporter Ryan Gould.

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Speaker 5: I think if you're a shareholder, you're looking and you're

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Speaker 5: fully forll well aware of some of the challenges facing

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Speaker 5: in top and a balance sheet perspective. What this deal does,

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Speaker 5: on the one hand is give confidence to Intel. It

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Speaker 5: gives confidence to shareholders in terms of you have the

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Speaker 5: most credit worthy institution in the world becking you. But

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Speaker 5: what it doesn't do, at least on the face of it,

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Speaker 5: is solved the problem that Intel has with its product.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg's Ryan Gould reports that the plan could involve converting

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Speaker 1: Intel's ten point nine billion dollar in Chips Act grants

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Speaker 1: from the US government into equity. Money markets are betting

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Speaker 1: with the Bank of England will keep interest rates on

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Speaker 1: hold at four percent for the rest of this year,

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Speaker 1: as signs of faster inflation reduced the case for more easing.

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Speaker 1: Bloberg's even parts has more It's.

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Speaker 6: Not so long since traders were expecting the second half

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Speaker 6: of this year to see it continued easing in UK

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Speaker 6: interest rates, but now the market sees a less than

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Speaker 6: fifty percent chance of a cut before twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 6: Bets on lower rates diminished after the BOE's unexpectedly hawkish

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Speaker 6: recent meeting, which saw four NBC members vote not to

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Speaker 6: cut rates at all. Tomorrow's inflation data's forecasts show the

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Speaker 6: headline rate increasing to three point seven percent in July,

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Speaker 6: with the BOE forecasting a peak of four percent in September,

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Speaker 6: double the bank's target. In London, i'm Une Potspoomberg Radio.

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Speaker 1: The heels on UK thirty year inflation linked barns is

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Speaker 1: at its highest level since nineteen ninety eight. It's the

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Speaker 1: latest unwanted market milestone for the UK government, as long

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Speaker 1: dated deals are now higher than during Liz Truss's guilt

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Speaker 1: market melt. There's no clear catalyst for the moves, which

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Speaker 1: are gradual and not unique to Britain. Instead, they reflect

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Speaker 1: pension funds and investors moving away from government debt staying

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Speaker 1: in the UK. The government's reportedly asking officials to draw

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Speaker 1: up plans to turn its tax on property sales into

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Speaker 1: one only for the wealthiest homes. The Guardian says properties

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Speaker 1: worth more than five hundred thousand pounds would potentially be

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Speaker 1: paying an annual tax and a further levy. Unselling Bloomber

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Speaker 1: ex Chanmes Wilcock has more.

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Speaker 4: Council tax has long been a bugbear of British policy experts.

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Speaker 4: Based on property values recorded in nineteen ninety, is failed

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Speaker 4: to keep up with skyrocketing property prices. If the Guardian's

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Speaker 4: reporting is right, Labour's potential replacement would dramatically reshape the

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Speaker 4: housing markets. No file decisions had been made, but if enacted,

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Speaker 4: any new plan would likely hit London hard. In London,

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Speaker 4: James Wilcock Bloom No Radio.

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Speaker 1: And the US Director National Intelligence says Apple will no

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Speaker 1: longer be forced to give the UK government a backdoor

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Speaker 1: into America's American users data. In a post on x Hussy,

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Speaker 1: Gabbard said the UK had agreed to drop the mandate

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Speaker 1: to ensure americans private data remains private. Apple had refused

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Speaker 1: in order from the British government to create the back door,

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Speaker 1: but did put its most advanced cloud security feature from

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Speaker 1: the UK. Advanced Data Protection for iCloud remains unavailable in

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Speaker 1: the country and it's unclear if it will be restored

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Speaker 1: following the news. Those are your top stories on the

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Speaker 1: market's The Mscirish Pacific Index just flat to the downside

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Speaker 1: at the moment. Eurostocks fifty futures are two tens of

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Speaker 1: one percent. Higher oil prices are weaker six tens for

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Speaker 1: brankcrew at sixty six dollars and nineteen cents the tenure

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Speaker 1: treasury yield up a basis point at four point three

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Speaker 1: four percent. Now in a moment, what's next after a

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Speaker 1: President Zelenski strip to the White House, Plus the troubles

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Speaker 1: facing ambitious plans for a winter sports resort in Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 1: With another story that I've been reading this morning about

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Speaker 1: how the heat waves may have abated in the UK

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Speaker 1: for now, many people in London are still thinking about

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Speaker 1: installing air conditioning. Olivia Roudguard has been reporting on how

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Speaker 1: those living, particularly in older buildings, are facing hurdles and

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Speaker 1: getting permission to install a sea units. Who's speaking to

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Speaker 1: Richard Gill His director of the architecture firm Paul Archer Design.

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Speaker 1: It says roughly thirty percent of his clients, mostly high

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Speaker 1: earners in London, want air conditioning, but not all of

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Speaker 1: them are able to get it as there can be

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Speaker 1: technical or esthetic restrictions at attaching units to old buildings.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes councils are simply rejecting claims of overheating. Now it's

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Speaker 1: clear that according to some in the building trade that

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Speaker 1: properties in certain parts of London are now extremely hot

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Speaker 1: during summer months, but existing restrictions are preventing or delaying

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Speaker 1: installations in thirty to forty percent of residential homes. Olivia

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Speaker 1: ssidessea examples of For example, in Camden, family denied permission

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Speaker 1: for two AC units earlier this year because of noise

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Speaker 1: and visual clutter concerns. But that is something that's part

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Speaker 1: of the conversation here now after the recent hot temperatures, again,

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Speaker 1: who wants their conditioning and who's able to get it?

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Speaker 1: Perhaps not as simple as it might appear. You can

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Speaker 1: read Olivia's full piece on Bloomberg dot Com. I'm up

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Speaker 1: on a link to it in our podcast show notes

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Speaker 1: as well. Well, let's turn now to the outcome of

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Speaker 1: Ukrainian President Vlotimore Zelenski's meeting with Donald Trump and the

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Speaker 1: White House. President Trump spoke to Ladimir Putin afterwards, it

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Speaker 1: urged the Russian leader to begin making plans for a

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Speaker 1: meeting with Zelenski. Ar chief ate correspondent to Roslin Mathson

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Speaker 1: is with me now for more ross. Are we today

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Speaker 1: closer to an end to Russia's war in Ukraine?

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Speaker 7: Well?

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Speaker 3: Certainly there seems to be some momentum towards further talks

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Speaker 3: and possibly a direct conversation between the leaders of Russia

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Speaker 3: and Ukraine. And that's always been the thing that Ukraine

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Speaker 3: and Russias said is necessary to really look to bring

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Speaker 3: an end to this war, and that's the two leaders

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Speaker 3: sitting down directly, face to face, discussing all the very

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Speaker 3: tricky issues that are required to get a peace deal.

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Speaker 3: And that having you know, the Europeans or the US

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Speaker 3: involved is one thing, but those are the only two

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Speaker 3: leaders who can resolve the key questions, including around things

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Speaker 3: like land. So the fact that there seems to be

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Speaker 3: quite a push to get that meeting done and perhaps

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Speaker 3: within a matter of weeks, is significant. Of course, there

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Speaker 3: are a lot of very tricky issues on the table.

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Speaker 3: There are very long running issues also between Russia and

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Speaker 3: Ukraine that predated the full invasion of twenty twenty two

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Speaker 3: that are still simmering away, including questions around places like Crimea.

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Speaker 3: So this is not going to be easy, but at

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Speaker 3: least we do have an understanding. It seems from both

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Speaker 3: Russia and Ukraine that it's about time that their leaders

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Speaker 3: met face to face.

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Speaker 1: This white has trip. Both Loger and Zlansky went much

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Speaker 1: better than the last one. The Ukrainian president dressed more formally,

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Speaker 1: for example, after he was criticized the last time for

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Speaker 1: what he was wearing. But what did Ukraine get from

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Speaker 1: the US in terms of security guarantees, Well, they got.

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Speaker 3: Pretty much what Donald Trump was saying days ago, which

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Speaker 3: is a fairly broad and general understanding that US might

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Speaker 3: contribute to some of these security guarantees for Ukraine. And

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Speaker 3: those security guarantees are seen as crucial for Ukraine, especially

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Speaker 3: if it's going to be in the position where it

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Speaker 3: seeds territory to Russia. But the question is what do

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Speaker 3: those guarantees look like? And Donald Trump's being very very

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Speaker 3: wooly about all of that. He's saying maybe it's mostly

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Speaker 3: for Europe to work out. The US could perhaps chip

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Speaker 3: in to some extent, or maybe in the end they're

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Speaker 3: not even really needed at all. So it's very very

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Speaker 3: unclear what that means. I mean, the one thing he

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Speaker 3: has made very clear is he doesn't want Ukraine joining NATO.

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Speaker 3: That's his red line. He said that cannot happen, but

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Speaker 3: there could be some kind of generic Article five type

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Speaker 3: understanding around Ukraine. But again, would he be willing to

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Speaker 3: commit US troops to Ukraine in those scenarios? Under what

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Speaker 3: scenarios would he be willing to commit US troops? So

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Speaker 3: there's a lot we don't know. At least he says

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Speaker 3: he's willing to consider it and to discuss it with others.

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Speaker 1: If a lot of Menzelanski was accompanied on this trip

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Speaker 1: by a host of European leaders, was this diplomatic effort

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Speaker 1: by them, the likes of Amnua Macron, care starmer Frederic Martz,

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Speaker 1: a success in moving towards the conclusion that they want.

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Speaker 3: Well, they were very careful in their meetings yesterday with

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Speaker 3: Donald Trump to make sure that he was being flattered

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Speaker 3: as someone who'd brought everybody together, who'd been able to

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Speaker 3: coax Vladimir Putin along and get the Russian leader engaged

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Speaker 3: in the conversation. So quite a lot of praise for

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Speaker 3: Donald Trump. Some of those leaders he really does admire

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Speaker 3: and get on with, I mean, the UN Secretary General,

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Speaker 3: the Finnish President, Georgia Maloney from Italy. They were all

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Speaker 3: there and carefully selected as well as leaders that he

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Speaker 3: does have that rapport with, and so they were very

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Speaker 3: careful to manage that conversation as it went along, and

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Speaker 3: arguably perhaps get back into the conversation in a way

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Speaker 3: that it's not been for quite some months.

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Speaker 1: What happens next ras what do we watch for in

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Speaker 1: terms of developments and the key issues that will be

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Speaker 1: at stake If the call between Vlatimo Pruden and Vladeo

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Speaker 1: z Lanski goes ahead, well that's got to be the

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Speaker 1: key thing.

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Speaker 3: Is the timing of any meeting between Zelenski and Putin

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Speaker 3: and do we really get on the pathway to that happening,

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Speaker 3: Where does that happen, When does it happen? Is it

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Speaker 3: a phone call, as you say, is it even a

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Speaker 3: face to face conversation? And then of course all the

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Speaker 3: issues that would be on the table for that meeting.

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Speaker 3: There's everything from further prisoner swaps. Ukraine says that Russia

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Speaker 3: has taken a lot of Ukrainian children into Russia. What

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Speaker 3: are the plans to potentially bring those children back? And

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Speaker 3: the biggest issue of all, of course is territory, because

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Speaker 3: as Lynsky under the constitution cannot give away Ukrainian land,

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Speaker 3: but yet he might have to find a way to

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Speaker 3: do so. And then what are going to be the

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Speaker 3: lines for Vladimir Putin in that what will be the

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Speaker 3: lines for Ukraine, And that's going to get very, very

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Speaker 3: delicate and could easily fall apart. But that's going to

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Speaker 3: be the thing that those two leaders discussed directly, is

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Speaker 3: the issue of territory.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Archiefraser, Correspondent Rosla Matson, thank you very much. Stay

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Speaker 1: with us. More from Bloomberg Daybreak Europe coming up after

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Speaker 1: this now. In twenty twenty two, Saudi Arabia announced one

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Speaker 1: of its most ambitious endeavors to date, a ski resort

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Speaker 1: designed to host the twenty twenty nine Asian Winter Games.

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Speaker 1: But Trojenna, set on a mountaintop a little snowfall, is

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Speaker 1: becoming the most pressing test yet of the kingdom's ability

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Speaker 1: to pull off its grand ambitions and meet commitments for

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Speaker 1: influential international events. Joining us now to discuss Abir am Omar,

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Speaker 1: who is Bloomberg's Middle East Economics and Government reporter. Abi

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Speaker 1: are great to talk to you. Tell us then about Trojenna.

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Speaker 7: What is the product goal, Trevina, is this project in

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Speaker 7: me on the very famous project under cran Prince Pamad

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Speaker 7: and Salmon's vision twenty thirty. It's one of five major sites.

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Speaker 7: Those include the Line, which we've reported on quite a bit,

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Speaker 7: Magnas and Dell, and Oxagon. So it's estimated its construction

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Speaker 7: is estimated to be at around nineteen billion dollars, and

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Speaker 7: it's expected to host the twenty twenty nine Asian Winter Games.

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Speaker 7: As you have suggested, it's supposed to feature a ski resort,

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Speaker 7: ski slopes, a big, big construction for the games. And

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Speaker 7: it fits again into the crand Prince's Economic Transformation Plan

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Speaker 7: that was announced in two thousand and sixteen to overhaul

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Speaker 7: the Saudi economy and get the world talking about these

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Speaker 7: major events that are worth over a trillion dollars at

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Speaker 7: this point in the Saudi desert.

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Speaker 1: So what's gone wrong with the project from what we've

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Speaker 1: learned from our reporting, right.

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Speaker 7: So, I was listening to you talking about temperatures in

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Speaker 7: London and this reagion. You know, the temperatures here really

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Speaker 7: put London shame. When we talk about you know, the

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Speaker 7: weather getting or temperature is getting up to fifty degree celsius.

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Speaker 7: It's not really that different. In Trasina is a little

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Speaker 7: bit different when we compare it to the rest of

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Speaker 7: the projects that are happening in the region because it

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Speaker 7: is supposed to host those Winter Games, so we should

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Speaker 7: expect to see some snow. Now, natural snowfall in that

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Speaker 7: region is very, very limited, and so what the Saudis

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Speaker 7: have had to resort to is create artificial snow. Now,

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Speaker 7: what we're hearing from our sources and what we've put

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Speaker 7: out in the story from yesterday is that this is

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Speaker 7: proving hard to achieve. The timelines just don't match up.

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Speaker 7: So Trasina was supposed to be achieved, or the first

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Speaker 7: phase of delivery was supposed to happen by next year.

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Speaker 7: That's just around the corner. That doesn't seem to be

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Speaker 7: feasible anymore. And so the committee that overlooks the Winter

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Speaker 7: Games is looking over the project and seeing if these

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Speaker 7: deadlines are going to be met. Some contingency plans may

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Speaker 7: have to be put in place, But what we know

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Speaker 7: is pumping up water through the mountain to create a

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Speaker 7: frozen lake and therefore create ski slopes and a ski

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Speaker 7: resort is proving to be a hard task. And so

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Speaker 7: what we know for now is that those deadlines may

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Speaker 7: not be met. Trasina may have to either look at

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Speaker 7: alternatives to how it was envisioned in the beginning, but

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Speaker 7: that is all yet to be seen.

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Speaker 1: Can the project get back on track? And I suppose

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Speaker 1: what does it mean for the Crime Prince's vision for

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Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia.

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Speaker 7: Look, the first phase of delivery was supposed to happen

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Speaker 7: next year. The Winter Games are still in three years time,

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Speaker 7: three and a half at this point, so it could happen.

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Speaker 7: What we may see is some delays in the deliveries.

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Speaker 7: What we may see is them having to figure out

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Speaker 7: alternative plans. And it's not completely uncommon for the committee

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Speaker 7: to look over the space and decide maybe we should

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Speaker 7: look at alternative venues. Now that's not on the table yet,

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Speaker 7: NEOs just that you know, all the plans in the

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Speaker 7: region are happening according to phases and that everything is

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Speaker 7: on track.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 7: What this means for the Crown Princes is essentially one

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Speaker 7: word that's been used quite a bit by Saudi officials,

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Speaker 7: by analysts we talk to, and that's rationalization. Rationalization and

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Speaker 7: maturity are two words that have been used over the

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Speaker 7: past couple of years, and it just shows that the

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Speaker 7: Saudis are really looking at these projects and figuring out

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Speaker 7: how to spend their money.

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Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the

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Speaker 1: stories making news from London to Wall Street and beyond.

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Speaker 8: Mm hmm