PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, December 9: The bidding war has begun after Paramount launched a $108 billion hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, days after shareholders accepted a Netflix deal. Who will prevail? Also: we learn about the growing Japanese community in India. Plus: YouTube launches the first ever AI reality TV series: a "Hunger Games"-style fight to the death.

The bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has begun. Paramount has launched a hostile takeover bid in dramatic scenes worthy of a Netflix series. Days after WBD shareholders agreed to a rival $82.7 billion cash and stock Netflix deal, Paramount launched a hostile $108 billion takeover of all assets of Warner Bros Discovery, one of the most storied studios in Hollywood. This includes news channels like CNN, unlike Netflix's offer. The British daily Financial Times takes us behind the scenes of what it calls one of the most audacious hostile bids in history. Paramount's deal is financed through Chief Executive David Ellison's billionaire father Larry Ellison, who is the founder of Oracle. It is also financed through Middle East sovereign wealth funds and a US private equity fund run by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law. Paramount made six proposals over 12 weeks to WBD's board, but a person close to the company is quoted as saying they were gaslit and then ghosted by WBD. One sticking point was the Middle Eastern sovereign funds, which WBD worried would not pass the test with the US committee that reviews potential national security risks from foreign investment. Deadline reports that to sweeten the deal, Paramount has promised to release 30 or more films each year – an attempt to assuage fears that a Netflix takeover would favour TV and streaming releases over movies. The editors of the Wall Street Journal offer a "novel idea": let the shareholders of Warner Bros decide for themselves. They will have to navigate the mercurial whims of Trump, who wants to be involved in the deal. Both CEOs of Netflix and Paramount have courted Trump like "contestants on the Bachelorette", they write.

In other news, Israel has said Gaza's yellow line demarcation in the US-brokered ceasefire deal is a new border. The Guardian reports that the yellow line is part of Trump's 20-point peace plan that commits the Israel military to progressively hand over Palestinian territory to an international security force until they have completely withdrawn from Gaza. On Monday, the chief of general staff, Eyal Zamir, said Israel would hold on to its current military positions, which give it control of the border crossing with Egypt and most agricultural land in Gaza. The London-based, pan-Arab paper al-Quds al-Araby explains in maps how Israel has continued to divide the Gaza Strip. Its headline reads the "yellow line of death." The first map shows the area carved out of Gaza following the Rhodes Agreement of 1949. The second map highlights the yellow line as it appeared during the Israeli army's deployment last October. The third map illustrates shows the Israeli army's withdrawal according to the Trump plan – showing that Gazans would only have 20 percent of territory, with Israel holding more than the 53 percent of land it has officially declared.

Elsewhere, The Washington Post looks at the growing Japanese community living in India. It seems quite improbable, but there were over 8,000 Japanese citizens living in India last year. It's barely a drop in the ocean in terms of India's 1.4 billion-strong population, but it is a nearly four-fold increase from 2005. Most of them have come to work for Japanese companies like Panasonic or Toyota. The expat presence has particularly grown in Gurgaon, a financial and tech hub near New Delhi. There are more and more Japanese restaurants and Japanese mahjong rooms, while Indians are increasingly hooked on anime culture and Studio Ghibli dreamscapes. East meets subcontinent in this micro expat community! 

Finally, we bring you a story that seems like something out of science fiction – the world’s first ever AI reality TV show. "Non Player Combat" launched on YouTube on Monday by AiMation Studios and it's the first reality TV show where all the contestants are virtual. The four-episode series is a hyper realistic fight to the death competition between six characters who are hunting each other and facing off threats like polar bears and venomous snakes. It's said to be a blend of "Hunger Games", "Fortnite" and "The Traitors". The London Evening Standard explains that each contestant is programmed with a human backstory – past lovers and personal tragedies. They also face hunger and fatigue, like real humans in the competition. Among the AI contestants are a murderer, a Navy Seal and a content creator who are parachuted into the virtual jungle.

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