Return to Transcripts main page
Quest Means Business
Le Pen Banned From Seeking Public Office For Five Years; White House: Trump Deciding On Final Tariff Details; Rescuers Race To Find Survivors In Myanmar; Boeing Under Scrutiny After Troubled Starliner Mission; IAG CEO Reacts To Heathrow Airport Chaos; Bringing Uganda's Gorillas Back From The Brink; Elon Musk Sells X To His Won A.I. Firm In Deal Valuing X A T $33 Billion. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired March 31, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:10]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall Street. As you can see, it has been an interesting day on
the Dow Jones. The market is actually up quite strongly positive having been negative, slightly different on the NASDAQ which has taken much more
of a tumble. A nice good solid gavel there to bring trading to a close. I think we are almost -- don't take it to the bank, but i think we might be
almost at the best of the day.
Those are the markets and these are the events we are talking about: A French court has barred Marine Le Pen from running for office for five
years after she was convicted of embezzlement. Marine Le Pen is calling it a political decision.
No clarity on President Trump's tariffs. There's two days to go, and the President says he is still deciding on the plan.
And Elon Musk has sold X, formerly known as Twitter. The buyer his own A.I. startup. We need to explain.
Yes, back home. Live in New York on Monday, March 31st. Last day of march. I am Richard Quest and back in New York, of course, I mean business.
Good evening. Let's begin with that explosive court ruling that has upended French politics. Marine Le Pen, the country's top far right politician has
been banned from seeking elective office for the next five years after she and other members of her National Rally Party were found guilty of misusing
E.U. funds.
The ban prevents Le Pen from entering the 2027 presidential race. Opinion polls had her as the frontrunner.
Not surprisingly, Marine Le Pen has sharply criticized the judge's ruling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARINE LE PEN, FRENCH FAR RIGHT LEADER (through translator): What she is doing here is saying, I am going to make you ineligible straight away, and
I am doing it precisely to stop you from being able to be elected President. If that's not a political decision, I don't know what is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: For more on this and the background, Melissa Bell has the gist from Paris.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Richard, I think the real surprise today is just how far the presiding judge went with this
sentencing. There had been so much surprise when this trial wrapped up last November, that the prosecution should be seeking, not just this sentencing
with regarding prison sentences and fines, but the ineligibility of Marine Le Pen to stand for public office.
No one really believed that I think the judges would go through with it. There had been such an outcry, not just from supporters of Marine Le Pen,
but from the current Justice Minister at the time, suggesting that this would be judicial overreach and that Marine Le Pen should be allowed to
stand in 2027.
There was a great deal of surprise outside that courtroom today that the presiding judge -- when the presiding judge announced that they had gone
that far, and Marine Le Pen is to be barred for the next five years and essentially excluded from the next presidential election.
She now in a very combative mood, but I think a great deal of surprise in France that the judges should have gone that far -- Richard.
QUEST: The gist from Melissa Bell.
Eleonora Bottini is a Professor of Public Law at the University of Caen in Normandy.
Professor, good to see you. I am grateful.
Let's just be clear about this.
ELEONORA BOTTINI, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC LAW, UNIVERSITY OF CAEN IN NORMANDY: Thank you.
QUEST: As I read the case itself, there was a valid cause to bring the charge about how she had employed these various assistants and whether this
was a correct or proper use of E.U. funds. So the actual prosecution per se doesn't sound like it was overtly political.
BOTTINI: I agree, it doesn't. The law is very clear. The defense argued that miscommunication or misunderstanding with the administration of the
European Parliament, but it doesn't seem to be so.
So the accusations are actually legally pretty sound, and the judge, the judgment actually puts together the piece of the puzzle of a larger scheme
that the entire party has pursued for some time.
QUEST: So now we come to the interesting bit, in a sense, don't we? Did the judge have discretion or was it a sort of a mandate that if you are
convicted and you are sentenced, you are ineligible? Was there discretion to let her continue to be -- to stand for public office?
BOTTINI: Yes. Actually, the judge had discretion. A double sense of discretion, one for the additional sanction on being barred from public
office. So ineligibility, and the second one was to apply it immediately and not wait for the final appeal.
[16:05:14]
For the first -- the interesting thing is that now with the more recent law, this sanction on eligibility would be automatic, but it wasn't at the
time of the facts. And so the judge both says that she has to apply the former law, which is more lenient towards politicians accused of
embezzlement, but then the fact that the law has changed signals that the legislator wanted to toughen up sanctions, so also that is taken into
account.
QUEST: Right. So there is rationale for doing it. The problem is 11 million people who supported Le Pen are basically going to be saying, this is a fix
up. This is a stitch up. She was done over.
And that not only calls into question the judicial process, but also the electoral process.
BOTTINI: Yes, and the judge does acknowledge that in her judgment, she says that the French people must decide because the tribunal renders judgment in
the name of the people and she explicitly says the people is not a fraction of the electorate, even if it is a big fraction, but it is the people as a
whole.
QUEST: So how do they get out of this mess? In a sense that this will obviously continue. Does she hand over the reins to her number two?
BOTTINI: That's possible. She said that right away, even though she said she wasn't done with politics, but at the same time, in the same interview,
she also says that Jordan Bardella is a big asset for the party, so signaling that he might take over in a way. He is a bit too young, though
for presidential elections, so I am not sure they have decided what is going to happen. She is going to appeal also right away, and so appeal can
be quick.
QUEST: Right. So, let's talk about the legal side versus the political. To your tutored eye, is there any way she can legally get back in the race?
BOTTINI: The only way would be for the appeal to be quicker than the 2027 presidential election. It is definitely not sure it is even probable
because the campaign is going to start way earlier, and so she must be sure to be able to run to initiate a campaign that cannot be last minute.
So I think if the appeal doesn't go as fast as she is hoping, then they will find another candidate, just to be sure.
QUEST: Professor, how lucky we are to have had you this evening to guide us through the labyrinth of the French legal system.
BOTTINI: Thank you..
QUEST: And I look forward to talking to you again, as I am sure this hasnt gone away. This might just be resting. You will be back. Thank you,
Professor. Good to see you. Thank you, in Paris tonight.
BOTTINI: Thank you, thank you. Goodbye.
QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS as we continue.
Tariffs uncertainty. What a day. These numbers were far worse as the day went on. Our next guest believes that things could be far worse. It is a
cheerful Monday. A cheerful Monday for you. But anyway, it is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, and I am glad you're with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:11:03 ]
QUEST: The White House says the President is deciding on final details before Liberation Day. Tariff announcements on Wednesday. Well, those are
his words, "Liberation Day."
The Press Secretary says the President is choosing among several plans put forward for him, and the President is not concerned with recent moves in
the market.
Well, the markets have just wrapped up the worst quarter in three years. S&P is off about five percent so far this year, and the Press Secretary has
given a warning to the rest of the world.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I will let the President make the announcement on Wednesday, but I think any country that has
treated the American people unfairly should expect to receive a tariff in return.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Kevin is with me. If today is Monday, this must be more tariffs back and forth, as the old saying goes.
Kevin, do we have any idea.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: We don't. We have an idea of where this announcement will take place. It will take place in the Rose
Garden, but that's about the only level of specificity that we've got about Liberation Day.
We know that the president has gotten analyses. He has gotten plans from his economic team. His economic team is divided in some ways about the
strength of these tariffs, about the structure of these tariffs and it will all fall on the President to decide on Wednesday what he plans to announce.
Right now, there does appear to be something of a debate. On the one side, you have some advisers who are advocating for the dollar for dollar tariffs
that the President has been previewing for the last six weeks. Essentially, if a country has a tariff on American imports, then the President will
apply the same tariff on those goods coming into the United States.
You also have a faction that seems to be supporting a universal tariff, perhaps as high as 20 percent on every country that the United States does
business with. So these are wildly different plans that the President will have to be choosing from. It remains to be seen what exactly he will
decide.
QUEST: And there is no certainty it all comes in on Wednesday, does it? I mean, he may announce it on Wednesday, but if history is to go, although we
do have a lot of tariffs that have already been put on, on China, on aluminum and steel and things like that, but we really just don't know.
LIPTAK: Yes, I mean, they could it be that he is using this as the start of a negotiating position, which is how he has used tariffs in the past,
particularly on the American neighbors of Canada and Mexico. So what exactly he announces from the Rose Garden on Wednesday isn't necessarily
going to be the final say, although when you talk to certain advisers, they do suggest that this will be permanent.
And I am thinking of Peter Navarro here, one of the most hawkish trade advisers here at the White House, who said over the weekend that these
tariffs over the course of the next decade could raise $6 trillion for the United States, which is alarming one, because that's an astronomical
figure. But also, if he is talking about these tariffs as staying in place for the next ten years, that's a much more permanent situation than what
you hear from other advisers who say that this could be just the start of a negotiation for the President, as he works on trade deals with countries
around the world.
QUEST: My guess is that everybody is trying to talk their book to try and get to curry favor for being the last person to the President's ear.
Thank you, Kevin. I am grateful. Busy week ahead for both of us. Thank you, sir.
So it is those tariffs that's caused the sell off. And our next guest is warning that the selloff we've seen so far may be a tea party.
Well maybe that's a bad analogy, but you know what I mean compared to others.
William Cohan says shares in companies like the Magnificent Seven have soared on momentum, and those sky high valuations could fall very hard. The
M7 now represents around a third of the S&P 500, which means that investors holding index funds are highly exposed to a handful of companies.
William Cohan is a former Wall Street banker, founding partner of the news site, Puck, exactly the man we need to be talking to at this moment.
William, look, first of all, we will get to the -- to what you say so far, the idea of these tariffs coming on Wednesday in some shape or form, wide
scale or broad based, do you think the market has fully priced in yet or not?
[16:15:10]
WILLIAM COHAN, FORMER WALL STREET BANKER, FOUNDING PARTNER, PUCK: You know, Richard, it is hard to say, because when President Trump talks about the
tariffs, the market goes down; when he sort of pulls back from talking about the tariffs, or maybe he is going to delay the tariffs, the market
goes up. You know, the market went up crazy at the end of the day today even though the tariffs are supposedly coming on Wednesday. It is really
hard to know.
One thing that investors do not like is uncertainty, and we get a lot of uncertainty with this President. So there is a lot of volatility to go with
it.
QUEST: Now your article which has caused a stir basically makes the point that whatever the self-inflicted wounds of the tariff, the market, it says
"at least partly inflicted by the bone dry kindling lying around in the market." In other words, the overtly high valuations that had already taken
place that were starting to be questioned, to be fair, weren't they?
We were starting to see a crack after DeepSeek that suggested that yes, A.I. Is coming, but it may not come as fast or as profitably as before. But
now this kindling has been -- has had some lighter fuel put on it.
COHAN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, first of all, Richard, as you as you know, well, you know, we tend to have financial market corrections in this
country once every 20 years or so. We are a good 17-18 years since the last one, which was, of course, was the 2007-2008 crisis.
So we might have been overdue for one anyway, and then you compound that with the fact that the Magnificent Seven that you alluded to, those stocks
have just skyrocketed in recent years. They are now held by regular people in index funds, index funds, which are sort of 60 to 70 percent of the
holdings.
And now since Christmas, when these Magnificent Seven reached their peak, those Magnificent Seven stocks led mostly by the fallen Tesla, are down 20
percent. That's bear market correction territory.
So that means that a lot of people with money in their index funds who have invested in this Magnificent Seven think they're going to have a great ride
up, are now experiencing a roller coaster down.
QUEST: You see the problem as I read your article and I sort of shouted at the screen because I was reading online and I sort of shouted because you
make the valid point that -- and I've looked myself, when I looked at my 401(k) and my portfolio, you know, a lot of the funds, they all have the
same companies in it. They all have Apple, they all have NVIDIA. So essentially you're investing the same money 15 times over.
But I shouted at you metaphorically over the breakfast table. But Bill, what the heck did you want us to do? This is where the money was being made
when the market was going up. We are told to diversify.
We put our money into all of these different funds. You know, we did what we were supposed to do.
COHAN: Oh, harrumph.
So the reason people are investing more and more in index funds are two reasons, Richard. One, they are less costly, the fees are less, and they've
outperformed the stock pickers. Right?
So it is perfectly logical that people would do that, but index funds are like kind of sedentary. They make their decisions and they stick with them
and that was great when the Magnificent Seven had their rise up.
And unfortunately, if you've got to take the good with the bad, you've got to take the bad with the good. Now, as they're on their way down and again,
particularly Tesla, because Tesla has been way, way overvalued for a very long time. Some of the others in the Magnificent Seven are actually not
that overvalued, like Apple and Google and Microsoft. They are high priced, but they're not overvalued like Tesla is.
And now, for whatever reason, investors have lost their faith in Tesla. The Magnificent Seven are on the way down. You know, it is hard for investors
in index funds to make that change.
QUEST: So what does it -- what do we all do? I mean, we are in this -- if you haven't sold and you haven't optioned against it, you're in this now
for -- it is basically, tighten your seat belt, tray table in the upright in stowed position and don't serve hot drinks while we have this
turbulence.
COHAN: Well, that's exactly right and this is not the first time we've had turbulence. There have been -- I can't count on my both hands the number of
turbulent financial markets we've experienced in the last, you know, 20 years. You shouldn't bet against America. That's one thing that I think is
safe to say.
[16:20:10]
Plus, if you do sell and get out and a lot of people are going to want to sell and get out, you have to pay capital gains tax. So the market has to
go down like an additional 20 to 25 percent for you to cut -- to overcome the capital gains tax, so, to sell is a really big decision. It is very
hard for individual investors to hedge. Big hedge funds can hedge. Individual investors have a lot harder time doing that.
So, you know, you've got to take the good with the bad. You've got to take the bad with the good.
QUEST: Right.
COHAN: Sometimes you just have to hold on for dear life on that roller coaster, Richard, and hope that it goes up again.
QUEST: We will talk more. I am grateful, sir. Thank you. Reading your stuff on Puck is always illuminating and exciting and I am grateful for you
joining us tonight on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, sir. Thank you.
COHAN: Thank you.
QUEST: Now, the two astronauts who were stuck in space are speaking. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore say they would happily go back into space and
they still have confidence in Boeing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello. I am Richard Quest. Together, we've got a lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
Two NASA astronauts stranded in space have held a news conference, the first since they've returned back and Elon Musk has sold X to his own
company, his own A.I. company. Well, that all sounds a bit weird. So, what's going on? I'll tell you, but after the news, because this is CNN and
on this network, the news always comes first.
A French court has banned the far right politician, Marine Le Pen from seeking office for the next five years. She and other members of her
National Rally Party were found guilty of misusing E.U. funds. Marine Le Pen vows to appeal against the ruling, and she says the decision was purely
political to keep her from entering the 2027 presidential race.
[16:25:07]
President Trump has some uncharacteristically sharp words for his Russian counterpart. He told NBC News he was, in his words, "very angry" and pissed
off by President Putin's conditions on a peace deal with Ukraine.
The U.S. President also threatened to put secondary tariffs on Russian oil.
On the outskirts of Rome, at least 17 Tesla cars have been destroyed after a fire broke out at a dealership. The cause is being investigated. Italian
Fire officials say they are not ruling out arson. It follows Elon Musk's company's deals with growing reports of vandalism.
Time is running out in Myanmar for rescuers to find more survivors following Friday's large earthquake. The authorities say more than 2,000
people are now confirmed to have died, but in reality, it will be weeks before we know the true number who passed.
Thousands of people have been injured, with dozens of people missing.
CNN's Ivan Watson has more on the rescue efforts and the desperate search for survivors in Myanmar.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Desperate cries for help, two teenage girls trapped in an air pocket with their
grandmother under the rubble of their home, trying to get the attention of the outside world by banging on concrete with a butter knife.
(UNIDENTIFIED GIRL speaking in foreign language.)
WATSON (voice over): The trio trapped and terrified for 15 hours until rescuers pulled them to safety.
Frantic rescue efforts repeated across Myanmar since a deadly 7.7 magnitude earthquake shook the country on Friday. These two women, who asked not to
be identified, say they were also trapped when their five story hotel in Mandalay collapsed.
Could you see outside? Could you see daylight from where you were?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): We were trapped in total darkness, but the good thing is we had a phone and we could use its light
to see. If we didn't have that, we could have died. We could see to clear rubble from on top of each other.
WATSON (voice over): They say civilian volunteers from the neighborhood rescued them after five frightening hours.
Also in Mandalay on Monday, a Chinese rescue team pulled three people from the wreckage of a residential high rise, including a pregnant woman and a
little girl.
(UNIDENTIFIED MALES speaking in foreign language.)
WATSON (voice over): But now, as more time passes, hope starts to dwindle. The majority of those still missing, now thought unlikely to be alive.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people in quake damaged cities and towns must now find food, clean water, and shelter. Myanmar's military ruler, Min
Aung Hlaing, who rules over a closed society and rarely cooperates with the international community, is asking for international aid and help.
Already one of the poorest nations in Asia, Myanmar has been further devastated by four years of Civil War and the earthquake zone crosses the
war's front lines.
With its people in desperate need, some have been critical of the military junta.
YANGHEE LEE, FORMER U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON MYANMAR HUMAN RIGHTS: Why hasn't Min Aung Hlaing sent in all of his military assets for rescue and
relief? We don't see any helicopters with rescue and relief teams. We only see civilians digging into the rubble.
WATSON (voice over): Some lucky survivors in this majority Buddhist country are giving thanks to a Higher Power.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): While being trapped, we learned that nothing is permanent and the most important thing to do before death
is to live a happy life and to do many good deeds. Don't do bad things because karma will follow you.
WATSON (voice over): They say they may become nuns to show their gratitude for their miraculous escape.
Ivan Watson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: In outer space, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams say they are not looking to assign blame after being stranded in space for nine months.
Today, the two astronauts held their first news conference since returning to Earth. Their original trip was only supposed to last eight days, it was
extended after their Starliner ship malfunctioned.
Butch says he partly blames himself for the mission's failures.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUTCH WILMORE, NASA ASTRONAUT: I'll start and point the finger, and I'll blame me. I could ask them questions, and the answers to those questions
could have turned the tide. So blame -- that's a term I don't like that term, but certainly there's throughout all the programs, and certainly you
can start with me.
Responsibility with Boeing? Yes. Responsibility with NASA? Yes. All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.
[16:30:02]
We are not going to look back and say this happened or that happened, and that persons or that issue or that entity is to blame. We are going to look
forward and say, what are we going to use? Our lessons learned from this whole process and make sure that we are successful in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Miles O'Brien's with me. Gosh, Miles, that's refreshing, isn't it? A good, common sense answer that basically says there's enough blame to go
around. Let's not worry too much about -- you know, let's put it right and move on.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AEROSPACE ANALYST: Yes, I think Richard, everybody wanted to see almost an astronaut meltdown in tantrum today, but you're
just not going to get that in the halls of NASA. These are professional space farers. They know the score. They are also military officers who have
had deployments which have been extended.
And so, the idea that this mission was somehow this crazy burden that has made them forever (AUDIO GAP) is not exactly what you heard from them
today.
QUEST: And more than that. I mean, these are two people who just been told that Christmas was never going to last one day, it was going to last
several months. I mean, this is -- this is the Nirvana. This is what they hoped for, an extended stay on the -- up there.
But I am curious where this leaves Boeing and the starship the Starliner?
O'BRIEN: Yes, this is an important one. And by the way, Richard, I'm glad you see the insight on that. A lot of people I tell that to don't get that,
but that is where they want to be stuck, if any place, right?
Now, here we -- here's the situation with the space station, only five years left at best. Elon Musk has said he'd like to deep six into the next
couple of years, the odds of getting Boeing Starliner tested and test flown and back in space to do any functional work to get people to and from the
space station seem to be diminishing by the day.
I mean, it is, after all, designed for one purpose, to get people to and from a space station which is going to vanish at the latest five years from
now, and maybe sooner.
So, maybe, with all the problems that Boeing has, this might be one thing we see that goes by the board.
QUEST: Do you foresee potentially, potentially them extending the life of the station?
O'BRIEN: Not in this political environment. You know, the current -- the soon to be NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman is a close associate and
customer of Elon Musk. He's bought a couple of space flights from him. Has another one on the books. We'll see how that goes once he is sworn in as
NASA administrator.
They're thinking Mars, they're not thinking about the moon. They're not thinking about low Earth orbit in a space station run by NASA.
So, I don't see an extension in the cards. The other side of this, excuse me, Richard, is that there are 15 other countries in this partnership, if
the U.S. cares about those partnerships, and it's hard to know all that now, they might want to keep it going just for that reason.
QUEST: What do you see as NASA's role after in this new administration with Elon Musk? Musk sort of needs NASA, in a sense, to set the policy
direction, and NASA, more than ever, needs Musk for the heft and the technology.
O'BRIEN: Well, which is inherently right there in the nutshell, the conflict of interest, as you can see. SpaceX would not exist were it not
for NASA. It is a successful company, but those NASA contracts make it so.
And so, there's a lot of opportunity, frankly, for self-dealing here, as the future of space is chartered in the Trump administration, with Elon
Musk right at the center of it. And I haven't seen a lot of lip service or any kind of statements clarifying where those guard rails or firewalls
might be.
QUEST: And we have to -- and we can extrapolate that even further, when we look at, for example, you'll have to -- it's just come to my mind, you have
to refresh my memory, the one that exploded, the rocket that exploded recently, and the investigation that that's going to take place.
Now, I don't want to impugn the FAA or any of the investigative authorities, but essentially, they are investigating an explosion of a
rocket of the president's best friend.
O'BRIEN: Well, and you'll note that Elon Musk helped hand pick a new FAA administrator. He had an ongoing feud going with the FAA because he felt
they were not regulating in a reasonable manner for him to do what he needs to do.
So, again, you have a blatant conflict of interest having Elon Musk at the center of decisions made on who's regulating his own rockets and his own
systems.
So, it's hard to see how this sorts itself out in a way that we can all look at it and say this is an objectively the right way to go.
QUEST: I'm good to see -- I see you're in Paris tonight. I suggest that you go and enjoy yourself with a good glass of something appropriate. Send me
the bill. Good to see you, sir. Thank you very much.
[16:35:08]
O'BRIEN: Merci beaucoup.
QUEST: Merci beaucoup Monsieur, bonsoir. The head of British Airways parent company, Luis Gallego says the chaos at Heathrow will cost the airline and
IAG, the parent company, tens of millions of dollars.
I sat down with Luis last week at the A4E Aviation Summit in Brussels. He told me, Heathrow international needs to rethink how it operates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUIS GALLEGO, CEO, INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES GROUP: I think we'll have a model in Heathrow that we need to change. We were -- we were saying that before
this incident. We have the most expensive airport in the world, but when you see the quality that we receive for that is not in the top 20 airports.
And now that we are talking about a new runway, this model is not going to work, so we need to change that.
QUEST: To what?
GALLEGO: Well, there are other models in the world. We are talking with the -- with the government. We are talking also with the CIA. We don't have a
preference, but there are models in the world with competition between terminals, for example, that are working better.
The problem is, when you have a monopoly at the end, it doesn't work because all the capex is very high, and at the end all the projects are
delayed and you don't have the quality that you require.
QUEST: Were you annoyed that the CEO of Heathrow basically said, well, we did very well, all things considered, nothing to see here. Keep moving
along, I'm paraphrasing.
But actually, when I spoke to other airport CEOs, they said this should never have happened.
GALLEGO: I don't have enough information to know if they did the right thing. I am sure they have more knowledge about the origin of the problem.
It's strange that with only one facility failing, you need to close the complete airport, but at the end, we follow what they say, and what we want
is to have safety in our operations.
QUEST: The transatlantic is disproportionately important to IAG because of British Airways, there are -- we're not seeing it yet, I realize. But are
you concerned that there may be weakness? Travelers may decide that the U.S. is not as tourist friendly as it was, and that will impact you.
GALLEGO: It's not what we see now with the visibility that we have for the first quarter and second quarter, we don't see that and the third quarter
still will have time, but we don't see a contamination of what is happening in the States in the leisure domestic market, to the transatlantic.
And also the American carriers, when we talk to them, they don't see that weakness. So, we hope we are going to continue with the same trend, and we
are going to continue with a good year.
QUEST: When you look you may be the smallest of the three groups or not, or you may not have the most number of planes, but if you look at the
profitability, IAG is way more profitable than the Lufthansa Group or Air France-KLM.
GALLEGO: But I think what is important is consistency. You can do that one year, but the challenge is, can we repeat this in aviation? We know that we
have cycles. Can we do -- can we deliver that through the cycle? And that's the challenge.
And then, in the capital markets data we have in 2023, we established three priorities and want to be stronger in our core markets, North Atlantic,
South Atlantic, intra Europe, to develop the asset like businesses and also sustainability, but not only from the environmental point of view, also
from the financial point of view.
QUEST: TAP, you still want to?
GALLEGO: We said that we think that the model that we have in AIG, the model we were talking before, is the right model to develop TAP and in the
same way we have a dual-hub strategy in the north, we're traveling in London, we can have a dual-hub strategy in the south of Europe with Lisbon
and Madrid.
QUEST: But you think you can beat the cultural question, the sort of Portuguese airline being bought? The same thing that happened with Aer
Lingus and British Airways and -- British Airways and Iberia, deep seated. Do you think you can beat it?
GALLEGO: With that, as you said, there are similar problems in the past, and we handled that. The people, they were worried when we merged British
Airways in Iberia, and also when we did the operation in Aer Lingus partner.
I think what we have proof is that we developed the airlines, that they joined the group, and also we are an international group. I am a Spanish
today, but maybe the next one can be from any other place, or the previous one. Willie (ph), he was from Ireland. So it's not a Spanish group. It's an
international group.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: That's Luis Gallego of IAG. In a moment, how a coffee brand is helping protect the mountain gorilla from extinction.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:42:32]
QUEST: Throughout the past week, Call to Earth has been in Uganda, and we've been following efforts to protect the mountain gorilla.
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. And today, how new income streams are helping save the
gorillas simply by elevating the local community.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the highlands of southwestern Uganda, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is working to break the
chain of disease transmission between humans and mountain gorillas, but sickness is just one of the many challenges facing these great apes.
With such close proximity to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, much of the local community has relied on the forest for food and firewood for
generations, and though the intention is rarely to hurt the gorillas. They are vulnerable to accidental injury.
DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA, FOUNDER AND CEO, CONSERVATIVE THROUGH PUBLIC HEALTH: In most cases, these people are just looking to put food on the
table. The subsistence poachers, they're hungry. That's the main reason they're poaching.
So, they don't actually attack the gorillas to eat them if they're busy poaching other animals, like tiger or bush pig, and they come across
gorillas. That happens from time to time, they set out snares and they spear the gorillas because they're trying to go for other food.
WEIR (voice over): The mission to reduce poaching in the forest is twofold. First, help the local community see the benefits that guerrilla tourism can
bring to the area in the form of new jobs and infrastructure and schools, and secondly, in helping former poachers find alternative income.
KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: During the pandemic, we started the Ready to Grow program where we give them fast growing seedlings. So far now we've distributed to
3000 households, and then we also try encourage them to have a cash crop like coffee or tea, because the more that they have food security, the less
likely they're going to enter the forest to poach, so this is what we're looking for. These which are exactly right, these four.
WEIR (voice over): With its high altitude and rich soil, Bwindi is an ideal climate for growing Arabica beans of good quality.
KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: And even here there's Bukya (ph), there's some red cherries.
[16:45:00]
WEIR: So, in 2016, Gladys and her husband Lawrence launched a new coffee brand that would provide a stable income for Bwindi farmers, while also
protecting the gorillas.
KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: We signed it off with 75 farmers of which only five were women, we now have 630 farmers of which 230 are women, and it's going
really well.
It's set up to only sell coffee from where gorillas are found, and this equates to premium specialty coffee. And a donation from every bag sold
goes to support community health, Gorilla health and conservation education in the same communities around the National Park. So, we're -- in that way
we're providing sustainable financing for conservation.
WEIR (voice over): Thanks to Gladys and her team of Gorilla champions around her, this once dwindling species is slowly reclaiming its place in
the wild.
KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: This is Kaunda (ph) now, it's getting big.
WEIR (voice over): More than a thousand mountain gorillas still roam the protective forests of Bwindi and the Virungas, a fragile but growing
testament to 30 years of conservation efforts.
KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA: The mountain gorillas have really shaped my life. I went there as a vet student, and I never left. I always get very excited when I
hear that baby mountain gorilla has been born. It gives me hope that the numbers are continuing to grow. It means that we're bringing the gorillas
back from the brink of extinction, and every new birth gives us hope that our conservation efforts are working.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Can life get much better than that? Coffee and mountain gorillas, sign me up. You can let us know what you're doing. Trans the call, the
#CalltoEarth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Elon Musk has sold his social media site X to his own artificial intelligence company xAI, it's an all-stock deal. It was announced on
Friday, and it valued it at $33 billion, that Musk says the two companies are intertwined, and X and xAI will eventually combine their operations and
staff.
It comes as he faces public scrutiny as head of DOGE, of course, and as big investors who abandoned X bought social media site have become to return.
Clare Duffy is in New York. We have much to cover here, Clare.
First of all, what's the purpose of the selling? What -- why is he sold this thing and brought the two together?
[16:50:02]
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, I think in many ways, like this sounds funny. Elon Musk is selling his own company to the company that he
owns. But this isn't totally a surprise. xAI was already really integrated into the X platform. It's where you accessed Grok, their chat bot.
And given Elon Musk's obsession with running lean organizations, maybe it made sense for them to bring the staff together. X's data is certainly
going to be -- I imagine already has been, it's going to continue to be valuable to xAI to train its large language models.
And I think there's probably an acknowledgement here that at the end of the day, having an A.I. business as your core business is probably going to be
more valuable than the social media advertising business, which even pre Elon Musk Twitter always had kind of a hard time making into a really
sustainable, profitable business.
My big question here now is, who is running this combined company, who is going to be in charge calling the shots? Is it Elon Musk? Is it Linda
Yaccarino, the CEO of the X platform, who is going to be leading this now very powerful combined A.I. and social media giant?
QUEST: And this idea, nor I have no idea on the answers to that, you'll come back and tell us at some point.
Also, this business of advertisers coming back slowly but surely, dipping their toe in the water, makes perfect sense in the reasoning, of course,
you don't want a nasty tweet, as we used to say from Elon Musk. In fact, you want to just be ignored by him.
DUFFY: I think that's exactly right. I think advertisers are, you know, probably are kind of afraid of the power and influence that Musk has gained
now that he has this role in the White House. They don't want him calling them out and, you know, putting them on bad terms with President Trump.
I also think that because of Elon Musk's role in the White House, X really has become a more central platform to follow the news and what's happening,
and especially what's happening in Washington in a way that it hadn't been in the last few months.
And so, I imagine there are indeed more eyeballs on this platform right now as people try to figure out what is going on in the government and
advertisers like that too.
QUEST: You see the other point is, of course, I noticed that X's price, assuming it was a publicly traded company, again, was starting to come back
towards the 44 billion, still not there yet, that he paid for it. But this isn't surprising, and this isn't an indication, actually, that X is back
where it was. This is just a reflection of the power that Musk himself and has.
DUFFY: I think that's exactly right. I don't think there was any reason to think the fundamentals of this business had changed so significantly that,
you know, this company was once again worth $44 billion.
In fact, we never really were sure that the company was worth $44 billion when Musk bought it in the first place. I think he himself would
acknowledge that.
You know, so I think it is a lot of the resurgence of the company's value is rooted in Musk's place in Washington right now.
QUEST: How are your tie tying skills? If I invited you to tie a Windsor knot, I'm sure you'd have it sorted out in seconds.
DUFFY: I might look up a YouTube video to figure it out.
QUEST: All right, well, I'm going to explain. Thank you. Thank you, Clare.
Now I was reading in my morning, reading, as you know, the New York Times, apparently, the Windsor knot is back, at least in the White House anyway,
the style has become the standard members of the Trump administration.
And indeed, as you can see here, a very fine Windsor knot that you have here. I have done a Windsor knot for as long as I can remember.
So, for those of you, I can honestly say I've never had to do it live on television. Just remember that the Windsor knot uses an enormous amount of
time to get it right.
And to get it right, just sort of take a bit of fiddling around. You've got to get that knot looking good. Then you go over here, up and over, a full
double Windsor, named after, of course, the Duke of Windsor, the king, of course, there we go. It was actually named for the King George V. But then,
of course, it was named after the Duke of Windsor.
And then you just do a little bit of tightening up and all being well, you end up, quite literally, a double Windsor. Oh, come on, that was quite
funny.
Anyway, you get two knots for the price of one. That sort of double Windsor, not looks like that. Now I want to show you the way the market
(INAUDIBLE) YouTube moment waiting to happen.
I want to show you the -- how Wall Street finished, because we are just 48 hours from liberation day as the president's calling it. Investors are
preparing for the tariff announcements on Wednesday.
The Dow Jones and the S&P, they did claw back their days. The Dow gained 117 points. Sorry, 417. The S&P, tech stocks kept the NASDAQ in the red. It
wasn't as bad as it could have been. Newsmax rallied more than 700 percent shares in the Cable News Network, small c, small n, small n opened at
$14.00 a piece. So that gives you an idea of how that did.
If you look overall at the markets, then you start to see it was just one of those moments where everybody is waiting to see. And that green is a
reflection of it bowing off one percent, the ones that were down really just on the products. Except, of course, the Nvidia, which, of course, is
on a frolic of its own most days, we'll take a profitable moment after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:58:31]
QUEST: Tonight's profitable moment is going to be more of a therapy session, if you will.
I am terrified that I've made the same mistake that I made in the 1990s. Remember the .com boom and bust, where we all plowed into things and then
watched the market collapse and then see value destroyed and losses. I've still got embarrassing stocks in that portfolio that disappeared without
trace.
And I've always said to myself, I'd never do it again. And now we have the Magnificent Seven. And if I look at my portfolio, and I look at my 401(k)
and I look at everything else that I've got, oh yes, sure enough. There it is, buried in the small print, Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft.
In other words, all the same index funds that I own, all the same various mutual funds are all stuffed to the gills, unger stuffed, if you will, with
the same Magnificent Seven.
And The Magnificent Seven, as William Cohen told us tonight, is collapsing, or at least not doing very well. And I'm asking myself two things.
Firstly, have I made the same mistake again? Have I learned nothing after doing this job for so many years? I always said I couldn't sell water in
the desert. Being able to talk about this stuff in economics doesn't mean you can actually know what to do about it.
And then you've got the whole question just riding the roller coaster for the next goodness knows how long before it all turns out right?
Well, I feel better for getting it off my chest. Hope you do too. That's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York.
Whenever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it is profitable. Now, just send me the bill for the therapy session.
END
