TNB Tech Minute: U.S. States Sue to Block Paramount’s Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This episode is sponsored by Anthropic, the makers of Claude. Scott Wu spent his childhood winning math and programming competitions. Now he solves similar problems as CEO of Cognition, a successful AI startup. Find out more at the break.

**Pierre Bienaimé** (0:17)
Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Monday, July 13th. I'm Pierre Bienaimé for The Wall Street Journal. A coalition of 12 states led by California is suing to block Paramount's $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The states alleged that the Hollywood merger would boost prices for consumers and lower quality for film and television. The suit was filed today in Northern California Federal Court with New York, Colorado, New Mexico and New Jersey among the states joining. The coalition has requested Paramount and Warner not close their merger until after the process concludes. Or they will seek a temporary restraining order to attempt to stop the deal from moving forward. Paramount said it plans to vigorously defend the deal and said the suit should be dismissed.
The European Union and the UK sanctioned Russian intelligence units and hackers today. Authorities accused them of a 15-year campaign targeting governments and critical infrastructure across the continent. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has intensified its efforts to spy on European governments and destabilize their economies through operations ranging from cyber warfare to drone surveillance. The sanctions hit as a group of mainly European nations backing Ukraine is set to meet the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Paris this evening.
And the Federal Aviation Administration said today it has closed an investigation into an issue that postponed a SpaceX flight test, clearing the company to launch the newest version of its Starship rocket later this week. The mission would be the first flight for Starship V3, a redesigned version of the vehicle aimed at deploying bigger satellites. The rocket will also carry V3 Starlink satellites, which will attempt to connect with the larger Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers.
And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. We'll have another quick tech update in the morning.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:09)
Anthropix collaboration felt like a true partnership, according to Loveable's Anton Osyka. That helped fuel the startup's greater mission.

**Anton Osyka** (2:17)
I'm super excited about this world, where more things are possible. There is fundamentally more human agency that's unlocked. When frictions for starting a company and building your product, they start disappearing. I think we're entering an era where there are more societal problems that are getting solved. We're seeing that live with millions of people building on top of our platform.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:41)
And how does he think other startups can tap into that energy?

**Anton Osyka** (2:45)
My advice to founders working with Anthropic would be to dig into a partnership and ask for help and spend time with a team because these are humans that actually really care. It starts feeling more like we're building something together than just a customer-vendor relationship.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:01)
How can Claude bring your vision to life? Get started at claude.com/problemsolvers.