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• The European Commission has approved the $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, though the deal remains stalled in the United States. • The EU's approval is conditional, requiring Paramount to meet specific regulatory requirements to prevent market monopolies. • This merger represents a massive consolidation of the entertainment industry, aiming to combine vast content libraries to better compete with streaming giants.

• The European Commission has approved the $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros., though the deal remains on hold pending regulatory approval in the United States. • The EU's clearance is conditional, requiring Paramount to meet specific requirements to ensure fair competition within the European market. • This merger represents a massive consolidation of the entertainment industry, combining two of the world's most influential media conglomerates.

Durham University researchers find cataclysmic direct hit with Gaia Sausage sent Milky Way into its current positionAstronomers have found evidence that the Milky Way was flipped on its side following a direct hit from a wayward galaxy long before the solar system was born.The cataclysmic collision took place about 10bn years ago when the Milky Way was struck head-on by an incoming dwarf galaxy known – for purely astronomical reasons – as the Gaia Sausage. Continue reading...

New prime minister urged to introduce 2% minimum charge on households with more than £100m in wealthA wealth tax on the UK’s super-rich households could raise £10bn a year, according to academics who urged Andy Burnham to include the measure in his plans to “make tax fairer” and pay for better public services.The sum could be raised through a 2% minimum charge on households with more than £100m in wealth and would affect fewer than 1,000 of the richest UK households, according to the study by Gabriel Zucman, a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics, and Ben Tippet, a lecturer in economics and wealth inequality at King’s College London. Continue reading...

Lisa Nandy to ask regulators to assess mega-merger involving Channel 5, CNN and TNT Sports on grounds of media plurality and competitionThe UK culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, intends to ask the British media and competition watchdogs to examine Paramount’s $110bn (£85bn) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery.The WBD takeover deal will create a media powerhouse controlling assets including: the Hollywood studios behind franchises including Superman, Batman and Top Gun; the UK’s Channel 5; news channel CNN; TNT Sports, which broadcasts Champions League, Premier League and the Olympics; and the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services. Continue reading...

Deal to create a streaming and sports powerhouse will be scrutinised by Competition and Markets AuthorityThe UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into Paramount Skydance’s $110bn (£82bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).The deal will create a media powerhouse controlling assets including the Paramount and HBO Max streaming services, Channel 5 and TNT Sports, which broadcasts Champions League, Premier League and the Olympics, the Hollywood studios behind franchises including Superman, Batman and Top Gun, as well as HBO, home to shows including Game of Thrones, The White Lotus and Succession. Continue reading...

Legal action claims newspaper tarnished reputation by describing card to Jeffrey Epstein as bearing his signatureDonald Trump has refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10bn in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after a judge threw out an earlier version over legal deficiencies.The lawsuit is one of several the US president has brought in his personal capacity against news organisations and is part of what critics say is a wider pressure campaign against the media. Continue reading...

The lawsuit is one of several that the president has brought in his personal capacity against news organizationsHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.Donald Trump has refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10bn in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after a judge threw out an earlier version over legal deficiencies.In a new interview with CBS News, Jill Biden, the former first lady, said that she was “frightened” as she watched her husband, then-president Joe Biden, freeze up during his disastrous 2024 debate against Donald Trump. Pressed to explain what happened, Jill Biden said: “I don’t know what happened. I mean as I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke’. And it scared me to death.”Two House Democrats, Don Beyer of Virginia and Dina Titus of Nevada, announced that they plan to introduce a bill that would “explicitly prohibit construction of President Trump’s proposed ‘triumphal arch’ outside Arlington National Cemetery”.Cam Higby, a rightwing activist disguised as a pro-Palestinian activist, disrupted a news conference with the Democratic congressmen Jerry Nadler and Dan Goldman outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey. Continue reading...

• A French consortium led by Scaleway has submitted a bid of approximately $10 billion to construct one of the European Union's planned AI gigafactories. • The project is part of the InvestAI Facility, a €20 billion initiative designed to underwrite up to five large-scale AI infrastructure sites across the bloc. • The program has seen significant interest, with 76 expressions of interest received from member states including Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

Settlement with the US government would create $1.7bn fund to compensate allies for supposed persecutionSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailDonald Trump moved to dismiss a $10bn lawsuit against the IRS on Monday, dropping his claims amid reports he is considering a settlement with the federal government that would create a $1.7bn fund to compensate allies for supposed persecution by the government.The Monday filing came just two days ahead of a 20 May deadline in which the judge overseeing the case asked the parties for briefing on whether a legitimate controversy existed – a requirement for any lawsuit – because Trump controls the IRS. Continue reading...

The merger will still require governmental approval and could be delayed by a lawsuit seeking to block itShareholders of Warner Bros Discovery voted “overwhelmingly” to approve the company’s $110bn merger with Paramount Skydance, the parent company of CBS News, on Thursday.But shareholders voted against generous proposed compensation packages for WBD executives, including a $550m payout to the outgoing chief executive, David Zaslav. Continue reading...

Cursor is aSilicon Valley startup using AI to automate coding as Elon Musk’s firm seeks foothold in the AI marketSpaceX said it has secured an option to either acquire code-generation startup Cursor for $60bn later this year, or pay $10bn for their new partnership, as it pushes deeper into the lucrative market for AI developer tools.Along with OpenAI and Anthropic, Cursor is one of several Silicon Valley startups that has drawn waves of developers by using artificial intelligence to automate coding, a business where AI companies have found early commercial traction. Continue reading...

Corporation’s lawyers argue expensive but ‘groundless’ litigation restricts ability to cover public figuresThe BBC has asked a US court to throw out Donald Trump’s $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit over the way a documentary edited one of his speeches, warning that proceeding with the case would have a “chilling effect” on its reporting on the president.In papers filed to the Florida court dealing with the case, the BBC’s US lawyers claimed Trump’s reputation had not been damaged by the documentary, given it aired in the UK a week before his re-election. Continue reading...

Latest effort involves paying off fines worth hundreds of millions of pounds as part of bid to stave off financial collapseBusiness live – latest updatesThames Water’s lenders have put forward a £10bn rescue plan that would involve paying off the troubled water company’s hundreds of millions of pounds-worth of fines for leaks and pollution, as part of an effort to stave off financial collapse.A group of private equity firms and investment groups said they would inject about £3.35bn of cash into Thames Water and raise £6.65bn in debt, in exchange for the company not falling into a government-handled administration, effectively a temporary nationalisation. Continue reading...