Responding. And, move over, oprah. Sherry redstone cements her status as the most powerful woman in u. S. Media as cbs agrees to merge with viacom in a long awaited deal. Shares of apple and chipmakers soared in tuesday trading after the u. S. Delayed a 10 tariff certain imports including smartphones as well as laptops. Before boarding a helicopter in new jersey, President Trump said in case it has an impact on people, what we have done is delay it so they wont be relevant during the Christmas Shopping season. To discuss in washington, the president of the u. S. China business council. , bloombergs l. A sarah mcgregor. Sarah, do we have any idea what the motivation is for the change of heart . Sarah we do know that the news gave a bump to the stock market. We saw some retail and Technology Stocks go up today. There have been some declines in share prices in recent weeks since tariff announced since trump announced the tariff. Of course, that is an immediate cheer from the market. What we dont know what was discussed between officials of the china and the u. S. On the phone call. We know that the Trump Administration was waiting out on purposes on purchases from china and other agricultural continued trade stocks, for the chinese to come as planned. We dont know what kind of promises were given in exchange for this delay. As you said, it is about 110 billion of goods that will still be hit in september. In december we calculated it is about 160 billion of goods. It is not that these tariffs arent going to happen, it is just a staggered timeline. Emily we are hearing that the chinese vice premier liu he had a phone conversation with Robert Lighthizer and secretary mnuchin. Of all of the fits and starts, one step forward, two steps back, how optimistic are you that they will come to an agreement . There is a little bit of a cycle here. Talks, hiatus, then more sanctions. Talks, hiatus, then more sanctions. We have seen repeat of this cycle, 6, 7, eight times. Are we at the end of the process or are we in the middle of the process . It is difficult to say. These tariffs will have a severe impact for many people, including sporting goods, apparel, and other consumer goods, such as toys. While some sectors have been temporarily let off the hook, others are looking at a much more immediate effect, and this will have an effect on the economy. Emily sarah, walk us through what is on the list, what is not on the list. Of course some products still getting hit by tariffs on september 1, then a new raft of products in december. You have some apple products on both lists. What stands out . Sarah i think as an example of the uncertainty and chaos these announcements caused. For a company like apple, the airpods are on the list for september 1, but the apple iphone for december 15. We have heard from companies that have sent this in itself messes with their planning. They have already told their clients, the people they sell to, that the prices will go up and now they have to plan for something slightly different, even if it is a temporary reprieve. Some of the items from the september 1 list include more agriculture products, footwear, some retail items. The december 15 list is interesting, because it is more your holiday shopping, black friday, ciber cyber monday type of items, things like tv and cell phones. Trump acknowledged today that there would be a hit if those tariffs took effect on consumers going into the holiday season. That was some of the thinking behind the delay as well. Emily while it is difficult to say what is going to happen in the short term, in the long term got the discussion about whether this is the beginning of a new normal, no matter how these talks play out. What do you think . Craig i think we have to remember, at the beginning of the dispute, which was over the 301 sanctions imposed by the United States trade representative on intellectual property rights, market access, cyber forced Technology Transfer and market access, those are issues that can be solved. If we go to the core of the problem if we remember the cause belli, our original objectives, those can be resolved. We hope there is a resolution of those important issues in the nearterm because there are other issues piling up on top of this in the trade, technology, and National Security area. Until we get agreements in a relatively more simple space of trade, those larger issues are going to become more difficult to resolve. Emily nearterm, as i understand it, the next step we know of is a phone call between the two sides in two weeks . Is that correct . Sarah absolutely. It cant be stressed enough that todays announcement, there is no indication that the two sides are any closer to a deal. We do know they are going to speak again in two weeks. There were talks scheduled to happen in early september. We dont have a date on that yet. The chinese were supposed to come to washington. We havent heard that those were canceled. If those move forward, there are more chances for progress. If the december 15 date comes and the two sides have come up with an agreement, theres a chance the tariffs could be delayed or not put into place. There is a wider window for the talks to take place, but theres really no indication today that anyone is closer to a deal on these really big issues like addressing ip theft, any of that the Trump Administration is closer to removing any of the tariffs china has been advocating for. Emily sarah mcgregor, i know you will keep us posted. Craig, we are going to switch gears to hong kong. Protesters at the Hong Kong International airport, one of the busiest global hubs in the world, brought it to a standstill tuesday. For the second day this week, dozens of flights canceled, and the chaos escalating as Police Officers began confronting and arresting demonstrators. A lot of complicated micro situations in this chaos. First of all, what is your reaction to just how quickly this has escalated in the last 48 hours and the impact on the Global Business and Tech Community . Many companies obviously have hubs there and a lot of travelers coming in and out. Craig i am very concerned that beijing has started to use the word terrorism to describe the situation. That word has great meaning. It portends a change in the hong kong situation if this continues. I am hopeful that the demonstrators understand the import of that word and that there is a bit of a backing off. At this stage, the last thing that we need is more violence. Statuseed, hong kongs as a center of asian commerce and culture is at risk. Emily there has been violence allegedly on both sides. There was a video widely circulated on twitter of a Chinese Police officer who was trying to confront a protester. The baton was stolen and protesters started hitting the officer with the baton. On the other hand, there are reports of other officers dressed as protesters, trying to apprehend protesters. What is your take on the Chinese Governments reaction so far . You have Security Forces doing demonstrations in shenzhen, just across the border. At the same time, hasnt escalated to broadscale violence. Craig i think that the use of the word terrorism is indeed a step change. It worries me greatly that that provides an excuse for the pla or others in the Chinese Government to go in. If there is terrorism in hong kong, clearly beijing would be concerned. I think most would argue this is not terrorism. It is a riot. But beijing is clearly going up an escalatory ladder, and i hope that the violence stops before acts are committed that cannot be taken back and change hong kongs status forever. Emily President Trump tweeted earlier, our intelligence has informed us the Chinese Government is moving troops to the border at hong kong. Everyone should be calm and safe. It is unclear what information the president has, if any. What do you make of President Trumps response here, given the complicated dynamics between the u. S. And china that he in many respects is initiating and how it is impacting u. S. Business in Tech Companies and u. S. Consumers . Craig the u. S. China relationship is incredibly complex. I think the president s use of the word riot, which is the same word that the chinese have been using, indicates a degree of empathy with beijing. And that the president understands that this is a situation that needs to calm down. The violence does need to stop. The u. S. China bilateral relationship has multiple tension points come points, multiple tension and fragmentation points, and there is a great deal of conflict. Let us hope that the pla stays out of hong kong so as not to add to that tension, and that the violence subsides as quickly as possible. We should be looking for a peaceful way out of this situation rather than further escalatory actions on either side. Emily alright, well, we will continue to follow this situation as it evolves. Craig allen, of the u. S. China business council, thank you. Meanwhile, the sec dealt another blow to the cryptocurrency communities. Regulators delay approving two Bitcoin Exchange traded funds. The chair said it is unlikely the funds will be approved anytime soon. Coming up, facebook has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from its users. We will have the details, next. And if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio, the bloomberg app, bloomberg. Com, and in the u. S. , on sirius xm. This is bloomberg. Emily now to a bloomberg scoop. Facebook has been paying outside contractors to transcribe audio clips from its users. The work has rattled these complex employees, who were not told where the audio was recorded, how it was obtained, only to transcribe it. Facebook is not the only company to come under fire for collecting audio snippets from the consumer devices. Apple, amazon, and google have also been in the hot seat. Sarah frier broken this story. First of all, say what . So this is an instance of it is really intense right now because a lot of people have heard facebook come out and say that they dont listen to their users conversations. They are not listening to you on your phone, etc. However, there is a subset of facebook users who use the Transcription Service on their Facebook Messenger chats. Say if i send you a voice memo, you would have the option to transcribe that memo. What facebook has done, in order to make sure that the ai is transcribing that correctly, they have also sent those clips to these hundreds of outside contractors who are listening to these peoples conversations and judging their human transcriptions against the ai. Emily it is also not just to determine the actually determine the act receipt of the accuracy, but also if they are violating standards. Sarah it is unclear about why , but Facebook Says yes, they have been doing this. They confirmed our scoop, but they put in the same bucket as what google and apple and amazon have done in trying to use humans to make the ai more functional. When you ask facebook to transcribe your messages, you probably are not expecting there is an actual person looking at these messages and trying to transcribe them. This is done autonomously, but these are your private conversations. It is kind of the same if you have a voice message on your phone that gets transcribed automatically by your phone provider. It is obviously from a bot, and there are a lot of errors, and they are trying to make that higherquality by using these humans to make it better. Whatt runs afoul of everyone expects to be happening. Emily how would you differentiate between what facebook is doing and what apple, amazon, and google have also been accused of . Sarah apple, google, and amazon are all doing what they are doing for the voice assistants. If you say, hey, alexa, or ok, google, they are getting commands by recording your voice. You are communicating with the company. You are saying hey, alexa, what is the weather today . This is people talking to each other. This is me saying, emily, do you mind calling this source on my behalf, because i think you have a better relationship with them. Somebody would be able to see that. I do think it crosses a different kind of line than these other relationships we have known about. Emily facebook putting themselves in the same boat as apple and google. Saying much like google, they paused human review of audio more than a week ago. They say they stop this now before your story broke. Sounds kind of convenient. What do you make of their reaction in the midst of Everything Else going on with facebook . On top of that, not having transparency with its workers about why exactly they are doing this. Does that lack of transparency indicate that facebook knew there was something [laughter] sarah contractors who have spoken to me say they are very concerned that this is an ethical violation. If you look at the facebook data use policy, it says nothing about audio. It says we will look at your communications, trying to give you the right newsfeed, serving you the right ads. But it doesnt say there may be people transcribing your audio. On the flipside, we are in a different place with facebook than with other companies. Facebook came off a 5 billion settlement with the ftc that says they would not do anything without explicit user consent. They have tried to turn over a new leaf with their users. Im told that the program to transcribe what these messenger people are saying to each other, this is a recent program that started in the last few weeks. Even though they stopped it recently, it is also something they started even after amazon was getting critiqued. Emily sarah frier, thank you. I know you will continue to pull that thread. Thank you for that great scoop. Bloombergs sarah frier. Coming up, in a longawaited, cbs and viacom finally announced its 11. 7 billion deal. Weve got all the details next. We are livestreaming on twitter. Find us there technology. Be sure to follow our global breaking news network tictoc on twitter. This is bloomberg. Emily in longawaited dealnews, cbs agreed to merge with viacom in an 11. 7 billion transaction. It unites the mostwatched u. S. Broadcast network with the parent of Paramount Pictures and channels like nickelodeon. It followed a marathon session of negotiations as the two sides hashed out a price. What was it . What clinched the deal . I think they finally realized that after two, three years of going back and forth, that whatever misgivings they had, needed toboth just get bigger so they could compete in this streaming war. Over the past few years, we have seen time warner sell out to at t. We have seen fox and the murdochs sell a lot of their assets to disney. Now most of the companies playing in Media Entertainment are companies that are worth 100 million, 200 million. Cbs and viacom even combined, they are worth only about 30 billion. But by coming together, they have a deep library of movies and tv shows that will follow into streaming services that will get much stronger. Emily how does this position , this now combined entity against all of the other newly merged now larger Media Companies . It is still small in comparison. Most analysts and investors would tell you there are probably more deals to be made. I spoke to the ceo of the combined company and he acknowledged that more m a is likely. It is not clear if that will be a buy or a sell. They have been linked to Companies Like lionsgate, discovery. It is possible they will try to buy or merge with one of them. It is also possible that the Redstone Family, who will own the combined company, say it is time to cash out. Now that we have assets that you have seen as weak, it be able to entice some Larger Company to scoop it up. Emily in a nutshell, take us on a little trip down memory lane, how hard it was to get to this point for these two sides. This dates back to when the patriarch of the Redstone Family was very much in control. He decided to split them more than a decade ago, which he believed would unlock a lot of value for viacom. This was a time when the cable tv business is booming. He thinks the cbs broadcast network and Showtime Network was kind of dragging viacom down. Then youtube, netflix. Suddenly viacom looks like the weaker partner. Old, incapacitated, how involved he was in the decisionmaking was of dispute. What we do know is sherry redstone, his daughter, thought it would be better for the company to get together. First, she fought for control of viacom. She ends up installing bob as the ceo of that company. She tries to get les moonves, ceo of cbs, to merge them. She resists, but he ends up having to leave the job because of accusations of sexual harassment. After discussions of putting them together again, we have an agreement to do it. Not after a lot of of fighting and handwringing along the way. Thanks so much for all those twists and turns. Coming up, stopping the spread of online extremism. We will speak to one guest who has a plan for what Tech Companies need to do, next. This is bloomberg. From the couldnt be prouders to the wait did we just winners. Everyone uses their phone differently. Thats why Xfinity Mobile lets you design your own data. Now you can share it between lines. Mix with unlimited, and switch it up at anytime so you only pay for what you need. Its a different kind of Wireless Network designed to save you money. Save up to 400 a year on your wireless bill. Plus get 250 back when you preorder a new samsung note. Click, call or visit a store today. Emily this is bloomberg technology. Now to a topic were continuing to follow, the rise of online hate speech and extremism. 8chan defended his ate after it was claimed perpetrator of the norway attack had posted on the site b