Marketplace Morning Report

Paramount Skydance appears to have won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount raised its offer, and rival Netflix refused to match it, saying the deal is “no longer financially attractive.” The merger still has to be approved by federal regulators. We'll learn more, then dig into the current state of streaming services. And later in the program, roughly half of high schoolers planning to go to college are using AI tools in their search.

From the BBC World Service: First up, British manufacturer Dyson settles a lawsuit filed against it by 24 migrant workers, and the Premier League says it's launching its own streaming service. And while David Brancaccio and the team will continue to share the economic news you need each weekday morning, today marks the final edition of the "Marketplace Morning Report" produced by the BBC World Service. Host Leanna Byrne reminisces about some of the show’s biggest global news stories from over the years.

Now that the Winter Olympics have wrapped up, the Milan Cortina Paralympic Games kick off on March 6. Dozens of athletes will represent Team USA in sled hockey, skiing, wheelchair curling, and snowboarding. But getting to the Olympics or Paralympics is expensive and costs competitors an average of $12,000 a year. For winter athletes in particular, the costs can be even higher. But first: why the FDA is looking to put the brakes on compounded GLP-1s.

The AI company Anthropic is loosening some of its core safety principles. Anthropic unveiled a new policy on safeguards earlier this week, moving from self-imposed guardrails to non-binding goals for AI safety. At the same time, the company is facing pressure from the Pentagon to roll back limitations on how Anthropic’s Claude AI models are used. We hear more. Also: a conversation about age-verification rules on social media and privacy concerns.

From the BBC World Service: The United States says it will allow some small Venezuelan oil shipments to reach Cuba, providing a lifeline to the Caribbean island. Cuba's electricity grid runs on foreign oil, and without it, the lights simply don't stay on. Then, we'll head to one small town in the north of England, where a collection of 13 charity thrift shops on its Main Street is attracting visitors from far and wide.