Paramount Skydance successfully outbid Netflix Thursday, paving the way for the media behemoth to merge with its Burbank, California, neighbor, Warner Bros. Discovery—but local officials caution that the acquisition still has a long way to go before it’s official. “Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Deadline Thursday evening. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny—the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review,” Bonta added. Netflix surprised the media landscape when it announced its intention to buy Warner Bros. in late December, though the streaming giant’s celebration was short-lived. Paramount, which completed its merger with Skydance in August in a whopping $8 billion deal, was projected to be the frontrunner in the deal and refused to let go. The two companies have duked it out in the weeks since, offering successively large bids in order to acquire the media studio. Last week, California’s Department of Justice opened a probe into the bidding war, examining the legality of the deal regardless of the auction’s ultimate victor. “The film and entertainment industry not only has historical importance to our state, it also is a critical sector that buoys the state’s economy of California and touches the lives of Americans daily,” Bonta said on February 20. “The proposed Warner Bros. transactions must receive a full and robust review, and California is taking a very close look.” That could cause problems for Paramount Skydance, which won out with a “superior proposal” valued at around $111 billion. The company’s absorption of Warner Bros. Discovery would only further consolidate America’s largest media companies, merging two of the five major Hollywood film studios in what poses the threat of a monopoly on the industry. Democrats were explicitly critical of Paramount Skydance’s merger last summer, questioning the timing of Paramount’s multimillion legal settlement with Trump and the FCC’s ultimate green stamp on the seismic studio tie-up. Other California Democrats have taken aim at the Warner Bros. deal, insisting that the purchase must pass through the proper governmental channels without interference from the Trump administration. “What was true for Netflix is still true now for Paramount,” said Senator Adam Schiff, who earlier this month pressed the companies for a commitment to protect California’s labor market. “The merger of two of Hollywood’s biggest studios must be subject to the highest levels of scrutiny, free from White House political influence, to determine its impact on American jobs, freedom of speech, and the future of one of our nation’s greatest exports.”

The message was conveyed in an email from Ambassador Mike Huckabee that was sent to the U.S. mission Friday and seen by NBC News.

Donald Trump announced Thursday that he wants the United States to contribute $10 billion to his so-called Board of Peace—essentially forming a slush fund of taxpayer money the president can use however he likes. Speaking at the board’s inaugural meeting in Washington, Trump assured the folks watching at home that $10 billion was “a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war.” There’s just one problem: Transferring billions of taxpayer dollars would require congressional approval. And Trump has not gotten that. So far, Trump’s foreign policy has been nothing short of an assault on Congress’s power of the purse. The president has unilaterally declared war against foreign drug smugglers, launching a series of deadly extrajudicial strikes on vessels the government claims—but refuses to prove—are carrying drugs. (These strikes are still ongoing: 11 people were killed as recently as Monday.) Not to mention the massive military operation Trump mounted to depose a foreign leader and steal that country’s oil—all without Congress’s ever declaring war. Now Trump wants to use U.S. money to facilitate Jared Kushner’s master plan for Gaza—just another luxury real estate grift. Even if Trump did ask Congress for the funds, it doesn’t seem likely that it would approve. Currently, Democrats and the White House remain in a deadlock over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, resulting in a partial government shutdown. With midterm elections (and a potential upheaval in Congress) on the horizon, now isn’t exactly the best time for the president to make a major foreign policy slush fund, as Republicans may be hoping to convince their constituents they still put America first. There is one other source of money Trump could potentially dip into. The president previously sold permanent seats on his board for $1 billion a head, but refused to say where that money was going.

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg bought a multimillion-dollar mansion in Florida, as one of the latest celebrities set to leave California as the wealth tax looms.

The notice covers the airspace over El Paso and the neighboring community of Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

A newly released report ranked all 50 states using 18 metrics of educational quality and attainment.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections released evidence showing that DHS has repeatedly and falsely claimed routine, lawful state-to-federal custody transfers as ICE “arrests” to justify expanded federal enforcement in Minnesota, identifying at least 68 misrepresented cases to date.

Following ICE’s killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, the president and his top officials have spun false narratives and prevented investigation. Congress must act