Stephen Carroll

It's smart, calm and to the point.

You can find new episodes of the Bloomberg Daybreak Europe podcast by 7am in Dublin or 8am in Brussels, Berlin and Paris on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.

And I'm Stephen Carroll.

The US President's latest warnings come as Bloomberg has learned the UK has not granted permission for its bases to be used as part of any strike on Iran.

The Times newspaper first reported that Britain had not given approval for the Diego Garcia base in the Chagos Islands or RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire to be used in any potential military action.

The newspaper said the UK position was due to concerns over a breach of international law.

The US President publicly withdrew support for Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Chagos Islands deal following a phone call between the two leaders on Tuesday.

The UK government has recorded its biggest budget surplus on record.

Revenue exceeded spending by £30.4 billion in January, more than double the figure for the same month last year, according to official statistics.

Our senior economy reporter, Philip Aldrich, says it's a positive surprise for the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Baldrick adds that January is the biggest tax month of the year as taxpayers settle liabilities from the previous fiscal year.

The good news for the government comes as UK retail sales started the year with the fastest growth in 20 months.

The mining company Anglo-American is taking another major right down over its struggling De Beers diamond unit.

The company announced a $2.3 billion impairment in its latest results, the third such charge in two years.

Anglo-American is in the process of a complete transformation of its business.

It reported a 2% rise in underlying earnings from its continuing operations and full-year profits of $6.4 billion.

And those are your top stories on the markets.

The stock 600 up by half of 1%.

Wall Street futures pointing higher as well, up three tenths for S&P.

Minis four tenths higher for Nasdaq futures.