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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh.
Chapter 2: What concerns are raised about Federal Reserve independence?
Republicans and Democrats who have once occupied the position of chair of the Federal Reserve have a blunt message for the Trump administration to stop interfering with the Fed. Former officials from Ben Bernanke to Janet Yellen signed on to a short statement today.
That statement says their reported criminal inquiry into Fed Chair Jerome Powell is an unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine the central bank's independence. Signatories warn that is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets with weak institutions. The consequences for their economies, it says, highly negative.
Harvard University economist Jason Furman, who served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Obama era, concurs.
Chapter 3: How is Ukraine coping with winter energy challenges?
The pressure that Nixon put on his Fed chair, Arthur Burns, is part of why we ended up with double-digit inflation in the United States and ironically helped create and strengthen the degree of independence that the Federal Reserve has today.
Now to Ukraine, where the main energy supplier, says the country, is facing its toughest winter after repeated Russian attacks on the power grid. NPR's Joannika Kisis reports that blackouts continue throughout Ukraine through heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures.
Hundreds of apartment buildings in Ukraine's capital have no heat. Neither do more than 33,000 families in the southern region of Odessa, as well as several towns in Ukraine's south, north and east. In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said hundreds of crews in Kyiv were working on repairing energy facilities.
The harsh winter is adding to the difficulties, he said, so that's why it's not so easy. Russia exploits weather conditions like these. Many Ukrainians are managing with generators and inverters. Authorities have also opened emergency energy shelters in major cities. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv.
Paramount is taking to the courtroom and the boardroom in its drive to beat Netflix's campaign to take over Warner Bros. Discovery. We have more from NPR's David Fokenflay.
Netflix struck a deal to buy Warner's Hollywood Studios, its back catalog and intellectual property, as well as HBO Max. Paramount's David Ellison, backed by his father, the co-founder of Oracle and one of the wealthiest people on Earth, has offered more. He also wants cable channels like CNN and TNT and Discovery. But Ellison says the cable channels have zero equity value.
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Chapter 4: What is Paramount's strategy against Netflix's acquisition efforts?
That's nada, nothing, bupkis. Paramount has filed suit in a Delaware court to try to force Warner to disclose more detail about that Netflix deal. And Ellison is appealing directly to Warner shareholders, saying he's going to nominate his own slate of directors for Warner to try to pull off a Hollywood mega merger. David Folkenflik, NPR News.
This is NPR. In the wake of President Trump's assertion the U.S. runs Venezuela and that national security needs the acquisition of Greenland, the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, says she had a conversation with President Trump this morning about, quote, security with respect to our sovereignties, end quote. Sheinbaum says the conversation was good and she declined Trump's offer of U.S.
military action. Last week, Sheinbaum said she wanted to talk after Trump repeated that drug cartels were running Mexico.
Chapter 5: What did President Trump discuss with Mexico's president?
Winemakers who sell their products in the United States are working with new federal guidelines that see an occasional glass of wine as socially positive. NPR's Luis Schiavone reports on one wine producer from Argentina that believes the updated guidelines are here to stay.
Laura Catena's top-rated Malbecs from Mendoza are a fixture in the wine markets of 65 countries. She says previous U.S. dietary policies warning off alcohol content no doubt influenced an overall softening of the entire wine and spirits market, and the new guideline posture is good news. What Dr. Oz said about, you know, alcohol being a social lubricant, and that we should drink it with caution.
I think that that's a very adequate statement. Like other winemakers, she has now added low and no alcohol products. Unlike most other winemakers, Catena is an experienced emergency room physician.
Chapter 6: How are new U.S. guidelines affecting the wine industry?
She hopes there'll be more science on the subject and encourages all consumers to talk to their doctors. Louise Schiavone, NPR News. U.S. stocks trading slightly higher with the Dow up nine points. This is NPR.