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February 18, 2026

Good morning. Andrew here. Lauren Hirsch goes deep into the latest jousting over Warner Bros. Discovery. We’d like to ask: Which would be a better owner of the company, Netflix or Paramount? Please let us know.

Also, Grady McGregor examines the powerful lobbying machine that could yet save a major crypto bill. And anxiety about A.I. is continuing. How worried are you at this point? (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here.)

Brian Armstrong, the C.E.O. of Coinbase, has sounded more optimistic about a crypto measure that had stalled in the Senate after he raised some objections. Eric Lee for The New York Times

Can crypto win over Congress?

Bitcoin’s monthslong slump has turned into a roughly $1 trillion rout. But the crypto industry’s well-funded lobbying machine remains formidable.

That has become evident in a showdown over the Clarity Act, which would introduce long-awaited crypto regulation that supporters hope could stabilize slumping markets, Grady McGregor reports.

A recap: The legislation seemed to stall last month amid a dispute between some crypto figures — notably Brian Armstrong, the C.E.O. of Coinbase — and banks over stablecoin rewards, which offer interest-like payments to users who hold the dollar-backed digital tokens. Crypto companies say such rewards help them compete against traditional lenders; banks say they’re unregulated interest payments that could destabilize the banking system.

The pro-crypto Trump administration convened a White House meeting last week, in which officials urged the two sides to resolve their differences before the midterm elections, when Democrats could regain control of the House.

The banks and Armstrong seemed to listen. “I’m confident we can achieve a market structure win-win that advances the president’s crypto agenda while addressing the concerns of the banks,” Armstrong wrote last week on social media.

Democratic lawmakers remain a wild card. Senators including Adam Schiff of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have pushed for the Clarity Act to include ethics provisions that bar elected officials from profiting from crypto. Those calls grew more urgent after news reports revealed that an investment firm tied to the United Arab Emirates had bought a $500 million stake in a crypto venture tied to President Trump’s family shortly before his inauguration last year.

Senator Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, has called ethics a “red line” for his party on the bill, even as the White House calls such ethics provisions a nonstarter.

How strongly will Democrats stand up for the issue? In a private meeting with lawmakers this month, Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, warned of the risks in crossing Fairshake, the crypto-aligned super PAC that began 2026 with $193 million in the bank, a person with knowledge of the matter told DealBook. (The meeting was reported earlier by Sander Lutz of Decrypt, an industry publication.)

For many Democrats, the result could be that they “hold their nose and vote for this thing” while working on the issues of concern, said a Democratic congressional aide. The aide was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Bayer proposes paying billions to settle Roundup lawsuits. Shares in the German chemicals and pharmaceutical company fell more than 10 percent after it outlined plans to pay $7.25 billion to settle lawsuits claiming that its weedkiller Roundup caused cancer. The settlement is the company’s latest attempt to end its exposure to litigation over the weedkiller, which it acquired when it bought Monsanto.

Les Wexner is expected to testify before lawmakers about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The billionaire founder of L Brands will be questioned in a closed-door session today, after new revelations in the latest release of files related to the convicted sex offender Epstein. Wexner was one of Epstein’s earliest wealthy friends and clients; the relationship ended, Wexner said, after Wexner and his wife learned that Epstein had stolen from them.

The Trump administration’s plan to police prediction markets draws fire. Mike Selig, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said yesterday that the agency would sue states that challenged federal oversight of betting platforms — a statement that immediately drew criticism from Gov. Spencer Cox, Republican of Utah. Watch for this state-federal turf battle to grow alongside the popularity of prediction markets.

More central bank drama

Global markets are abuzz this morning over a report that Christine Lagarde may step down early from her role as president of the European Central Bank.

Lagarde’s future has been closely watched. That was true before a bombshell report last year in The Financial Times that quoted Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum founder, saying that he and Lagarde had discussed her becoming his successor. (Lagarde also told Bloomberg Television last month that when she took the job in 2019, she thought it was for a five-year term.)

But the prospect of Lagarde departing early underscores a bigger issue that is rattling markets: The politics threatening the independence of major central banks, including the Fed.

As President Trump has pressured Jay Powell, the Fed chair, to lower interest rates, European Union leaders worry about politicians from hard-right parties doing something similar.

The latest: Lagarde, whose term at the bank ends in October 2027, plans to leave before then to allow President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany to choose her successor before the French presidential election slated for April 2027, the FT reports, citing an unnamed source.

Lagarde “has not taken any decision regarding the end of her term,” the central bank said in a statement today.

Worth knowing: Some polls in France suggest that candidates from the far-right National Rally party — either Marine Le Pen, who is appealing an embezzlement conviction that would temporarily bar her from elected office, or her protégé, Jordan Bardella — lead in polls.

The National Rally has dropped its call to leave the euro. But as President Trump has done with the Fed, Bardella has said that if he were to gain power, he would call on the E.C.B. to stimulate France’s economy and ease the financing of its debt burden.

Politicians strong-arming central bankers has become a concern on both sides of the Atlantic. This month, Joachim Nagel, the president of the German central bank, warned that Trump’s attacks on the Fed could serve as “a blueprint for politicians in other countries.”

Gaming out the latest Warner Bros. Discovery moves

Paramount has five days left to win over Warner Bros. Discovery, after being given another chance to woo the fellow entertainment company away from Netflix, its current merger partner.

So far, at least publicly, the companies are adopting a stance of confidence with a touch of passive-aggression, Lauren Hirsch writes.

Warner Bros. Discovery: Its new course of action appears intended to pressure Paramount to swiftly present its best and final offer, while Netflix will have the right to match.

Warner Bros. Discovery also appears to be trying to overcommunicate publicly, seemingly countering criticism from Paramount that it had withheld information from shareholders. That includes disclosing that a Paramount representative had told one of its board members that Paramount was willing to raise its bid to $31 a share if the two restarted deal talks in earnest.

But Warner Bros. Discovery is also demonstrating momentum with the Netflix offer. It said that it would hold a shareholder vote on the offer on March 20 and that it had begun mailing proxy materials to investors.

Paramount: The company said it was “unusual” that Warner Bros. Discovery had reopened deal talks for seven days, rather than allowing for more open negotiations by ruling that its existing $30-a-share takeover bid “could reasonably lead to a superior outcome for your shareholders.”

Yet Paramount added that it was “nonetheless prepared to engage in good faith and constructive discussions” — and it still intends to pursue a proxy fight and tender offer for Warner Bros. Discovery shares.

Take note: Paramount didn’t publicly address Warner Bros. Discovery’s claim about the potential $31-a-share bump. Instead, it reiterated its belief that its current offer was worth more than Netflix’s complicated proposal and was more likely to win regulatory approval.

Netflix: Ted Sarandos, a C.E.O. of the streaming giant, told CNBC that Warner Bros. Discovery had given Paramount a week “to put their money where their mouth is.”

Of the potential $31-a-share price bump, Sarandos said, “That’s not something you typically do with a phone call.” He added, “Let them make a move and then we will see where the next step takes us.”

“Corporate America, they answer to a board. Trump doesn’t answer to a board.”

— Gene Grabowski, a crisis communications expert, on why the president has not taken a harder line on Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after recently released Jeffrey Epstein files revealed closer ties than Lutnick had suggested. Epstein ties have prompted several prominent business leaders to resign.

Fear of, and uncertainty about, A.I. continues

Markets closed up yesterday, but that masked a crisis of faith among investors when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Here’s the latest:

It’s not all negative news — at least for A.I. companies. Meta agreed to buy billions of dollars’ worth of chips from Nvidia, bolstering a relationship that at times had seemed strained, given Meta’s efforts to develop its own A.I. chips. Anthropic released a new model, Claude Sonnet 4.6, less than two weeks after offering the latest version of its more powerful Opus model.

And Legora, an A.I. legal start-up, is in talks to raise $400 million at a valuation above $5 billion, nearly double the valuation it attained in an October round, according to Forbes.

Worth watching: the growing political backlash to A.I. Tech companies are competing with home developers for land, which they need to build data centers. And voters in some conservative parts of the U.S. are increasingly at odds with the Trump administration’s embrace of A.I.

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