Caroline Hepker

into a self-reinforcing death spiral, in his words, inflicting lasting damage on companies that have spent the past year stockpiling the token.

London's Metropolitan Police have started a criminal probe into politician Peter Mandelson over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Authorities are investigating the former minister over alleged misconduct in public office.

The news follows Mandelson's resignation from the House of Lords after the Prime Minister Keir Starmer called his actions disgusting.

But the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenock, questioned Mandelson's previous appointment as the UK ambassador to the United States.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch speaking there.

They're following the release of US Justice Department files, which appear to show Mandelson forwarding internal Downing Street emails to Epstein.

The European Commission is also assessing whether the former Labour peer breached its code of conduct through contact with Epstein, given that Mandelson was the EU's trade commissioner from 2004 to 2008.

Santander has announced a €5 billion share buyback after confirming it has agreed to buy Webster Financial for €12 billion.

The deal will give Santander a major presence in the northeast of America.

It is one of the largest ever US transactions by a European lender.

Spain's biggest bank reporting better than expected fourth quarter net income this morning coming in at 3.76 billion euros.

The results were brought forward after Santander announced that it will pay a total consideration of $75 per share in cash and stock for Webster.

President Donald Trump has insisted that the United States and Iran are maintaining diplomatic talks even after a drone incident in the Arabian Sea, which has pushed oil prices up for a second day.

The U.S.

says that it shot down a drone in self-defense that, quote, aggressively approached the USS Abraham Lincoln with, quote, unclear intent.

Now, following this skirmish, Trump told reporters at the White House that talks with Iran are ongoing.

President Trump there as White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt confirmed US-Iran talks involving Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are still scheduled for Friday.

I'm Caroline Hepka and this is Bloomberg.

And I'm Caroline Hepker.