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Charles van der Steene is Interviewed about the Shipping Business; Dr. Megan Ranney is Interviewed about Kennedy's Impact on Health; FAA Meets with Airlines to Discuss Delays. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 14, 2025 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[09:30:07]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, starting today, cargo leaving China and heading for the United States will carry a 30 percent tariff rate, down from President Trump's initial 145 percent. So, what does that mean for those in the shipping business? With us now, one man who knows very well, Charles van der Steene, president of Maersk North America.

Thanks so much for being with us.

So, down from 145, which was enormous, to 30, which is just very, very large. What difference does that make for you?

CHARLES VAN DER STEENE, PRESIDENT, MAERSK NORTH AMERICA: Let me tell you, John, the last few weeks, of course, with the high tariffs have been one of high uncertainty for almost every single shipper that has production coming out of China. So, what we've seen in our business, roughly a 30 to 40 percent decrease in volumes coming out of China into the U.S. A large part of that, if not the entirety, is a result of most shippers pressing the pause button. Because of the uncertainty, unsure what will be happening, they literally stopped their supply chain.

So, as we now look ahead and there's a reprieve against lower tariffs for 90 days and clarity as to what we have in front of us, the expectation is that that pent up supply will now make its way back into the supply chain and hence back into our organization, making sure that we find solutions for our customers.

BERMAN: So, you saw a 30 to 40 percent reduction in the last few weeks of the 145 percent tariffs. It -- has it been long enough? It's been literally days since the announcement was made on reducing it to 30. Have you -- do you have any data that indicates people are undoing that pause?

VAN DER STEENE: No data just yet. Given the fact that there's only 24 hours old. But it's clear that customers, when we spoke to them over the last few weeks, they were ready, and they are getting ready for what would have been and expected to be a deal. The deal that we now have on the table is probably better than expected. So, we would expect -- we're actually in the midst of doing that now, together with our customers, that there will be a reignite of the supply chain out of China over the next few days.

BERMAN: What happens if there's front-loading? I mean if you're one of these businesses, it's a 90 day reprieve. And they've seen things can change pretty quickly with this president.

VAN DER STEENE: Yes.

BERMAN: Do you have any worries that people will just order as much as they can, as quickly as they can?

VAN DER STEENE: I think the bigger worry is actually one right now of finding the capacity that we need to simply take care of what would be expected to be the claw back of the 30 to 40 percent. The industry took 25 percent of the capacity out of the system from China into the U.S. over the last few weeks.

BERMAN: Oh, wow.

VAN DER STEENE: Part of that capacity has simply been redeployed to other trades where there was no impact and growth was still steady. Part of that capacity is simply waiting to be reignited as now the tariffs become lower. The question now is, how quickly can the industry put back their capacity? For us, the benefit has been that we have just introduced a new network, which has allowed us to be quite nimble and not so much take vessels out of rotation and end up impacting our customers, but to swap what were bigger vessels before into smaller a few weeks back, and we're now doing exactly the same but in reverse, taking our smaller vessels and simply replace them by bigger on the trade.

BERMAN: Other than the reduction in volume to the United States specifically, what other shifts in trade patterns, if any, did you see during that period of extraordinarily high tariffs?

VAN DER STEENE: I think the context here is important. If you take the 30 to 40 percent and you now look at our organization, that truly is only applicable to what is 5 percent of our global volumes as a function of global trade. Those 95 percent that remain, we have seen no shift. So, there's been no contamination from the tariffs, specifically from China, to any of the other trades where we've seen the robust underlying growth, which we went into 2025 with still very much is there, and hence quite a bit of capacity was channeled towards those other trades.

BERMAN: Wow. Charles van der Steene, it's really great talking to you. Got -- kind of getting in real time this moment before you learn more about where things go next. Really interesting. Thank you very much.

VAN DER STEENE: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, we're going to have a live look inside Capitol Hill -- there it is -- this morning where Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will face questions over the administration's overhaul of the agency.

And this morning, the FAA will meet with airlines to discuss their plan to cut flights to Newark to fight the delays there. What this is going to mean for your travel plans and ticket prices?

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[09:38:56]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening right now, we'll show you some live pictures on Capitol Hill. That's a committee hearing where HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is getting ready to kick off a day of testimony on The Hill, first before House lawmakers, which is what you're looking at, and then before senators. It's the first time that the HHS secretary will face tough questions since his confirmation hearing in January. And he'll have to answer for the deep cuts that he's put in place across America's public health agency, slashing the workforce, cutting the amount of full time staff by a quarter, consolidating several departments, among other things, including pushing CDC to study the long, disproven link between vaccines and autism.

Joining us right now, as we prepare to hear from the secretary himself, is Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency room physician and dean of the Yale School of Public Health.

It's great to see you again, Doctor.

How do you assess Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s tenure so far as secretary and the impact that he's already had on the nation's public health agency?

[09:40:05]

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN: Well, he's certainly had a big impact so far. Unfortunately, what most of us are seeing on the ground is a negative impact. Really in three areas.

The first is around information quality and trustworthiness. You know, one of the things that RFK Jr. came in pledging to do was to get America's trust back in public health, in medicine. I don't know anyone who works in these fields who would say that we didn't need change to improve the public's trust, but what we're seeing is decreasing trust. A recent KFF poll says that only about half of Americans trust the recommendations from the FDA right now. That's down from two-thirds. Similar data on CDC and NIH. Parents and doctors and public health officials don't know where to turn for good data right now, and that has changed significantly. That has gotten worse over the last hundred days.

And then the second big area, Kate, is around the science and the structures that keep us healthy. Again, we can and should do better. But what we're watching happening right now is not reform. We're watching destruction of some of the things that are actively keeping Americans healthy. And I'm -- I'm hearing from cities and states that are thinking about disbanding parts of their public health agencies because of the decrease in funding that comes through the CDC. We're watching things like naloxone programs that are a proven strategy to reduce opioid overdoses getting shut down. Community violence intervention programs getting shut down. Mental health support for kids in schools getting shut down. That's really disturbing because it makes it so that we're going to be starting from a place that's further back in terms of American's health.

BOLDUAN: I want to play for you what one member of the Senate committee that he will be testifying before said to me. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, he was on with us just last hour, talking about his focus when he speaks with the secretary today.

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SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): I think I'm going to focus on the massive cuts to staff. When you essentially shutter the agency that is responsible for mine safety, we -- we have a lot of coal mining in southwestern Virginia. When you make dramatic layoffs to the FDA responsible for the safety of our food and our medicines, then what you see is, not only layoffs, but significant effects of constituents.

These massive layoffs end up dramatically affecting the quality of service that they get.

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BOLDUAN: And what Kaine was getting at is how Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as you said, had a big impact. He's moved to completely reshape how HHS operates since moving in. I mean Kennedy -- again, Kennedy has said that the cuts are necessary to refocus the government on -- on tackling chronic disease. But do you see evidence that that's happening?

RANNEY: Oh, listen, I'm a dean of a school of public health. We do a ton of work on chronic disease, on nutrition, on environmental contaminants, and how they affect health, on diabetes prevention, on cancer. Instead of seeing increased support of those programs, we're seeing active cuts to the science that helps us figure out how to stay healthy, and cuts to the programs that are already in place that put the science in effect to help communities.

And -- and I'm hearing from people on both sides of the political spectrum. You know, I don't work for Democrats or Republicans. I work for the sake of America's health. And I'm hearing from folks on both sides of frustration with both information quality and with access to the care that they have come to depend on. Again, we can and should do better. Many of us are on board with the need for reform, but we're not experiencing reform. We're experiencing destruction.

BOLDUAN: Doctor, thank you for coming on. I'm very interested to listen closely, to hear how Robert F. Kennedy answers some of these questions today. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this hour, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy meeting with airlines to address recent equipment outages that have led to thousands of flight delays and cancellations at Newark Airport in just the last few weeks.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers will be hearing from the FAA about flight safety and air traffic in general.

Let's get right to CNN's aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, for the latest on all of this.

Good morning, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

You know, this is huge. Right now, the Department of Transportation is holding this meeting behind closed doors at FAA headquarters, bringing together officials from Newark Liberty International Airport. And all major U.S. airlines, which operate in and out of there, this is the last piece of the puzzle in alleviating these chronic Newark flight delays. Federally mandating airlines to reduce the number of flights so short staffed air traffic control can keep up.

Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was able to convene this meeting through a federal law dating back to 1958, and the announcement that went out to airlines says that Newark is unable to handle the current flight schedules there, that the airport is, quote, "unacceptably congested" and a meeting is necessary to reduce overscheduling.

[09:45:10]

The FAA proposal is to reduce the number of flights in and out of Newark to 56 per hour, domestic flights per hour, until June 15th, then up that number to 68 through the summer.

The rub right now, though, is that there's no official cap on the number of flights at Newark. Something known as slot rules. United Airlines is the biggest operator in and out of Newark.

And I want you to listen now to United's CEO, Scott Kirby, who told me here live last week that slot rules must be in place to manage these Newark meltdowns.

Listen.

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SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: But we just need to keep the number of flights equal to the capacity of the airport. There's 77 operations per hour. Theoretical. When it gets scheduled at 86 or more, it falls apart. And so what we need -- and the government's the only one that has the authority to do --

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MUNTEAN: Here's what the Department of Transportation says is up against Newark and these delays. Antiquated air traffic control equipment. A shortage of air traffic controllers. Remember the loss of radar and radio last Monday caused five controllers at Newark approach control to take what's called trauma leave, leaving the facility short staffed pretty much every day since. The Department of Transportation also calls out the closure of one of

Newark's main runways. It's being done right now. Only adding to the congestion there. Luckily, that round the clock shutdown of that runway set to end June 15th and move into weekend work through the rest of the year, though the help cannot come soon enough for Newark and all of the passengers who have been stranded because of these problems there, John.

BERMAN: I'm tempted to say it's a numbers game, but it's really a numbers crisis in some ways.

Pete Muntean, thank you very much for your reporting on this.

All right, breaking overnight, the Menendez brothers receive a new sentence which, for the first time, opens up their chance of parole.

And Google is hoping that some updated tech will help you avoid scammers, like those trying to convince you to pay unpaid tolls.

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[09:51:31]

BOLDUAN: This morning, a pretrial hearing will be held for the man accused of trying to assassinate President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago golf club last September during the -- during the campaign. Ryan Routh is facing five charges, including attempted assassination. He's pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Today, they will begin discussing some of the charges and evidence in that case.

And breaking overnight, Erik and Lyle Menendez now have received a new prison sentence, life in prison, but now with the chance of parole. That chance of leaving prison was not a possibility for the men until a judge resentenced them yesterday for the infamous 1989 murders of their parents. The brothers appeared for the hearing remotely from prison. They have been serving life sentences without parole. There was renewed interest in this case after a Netflix documentary detailed sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of their father. Erik said in -- in court, if you will, quote, "there is no excuse for his behavior. The next step, a parole hearing scheduled for June 13th.

So, so many people -- so many people are getting scam text messages, unpaid tolls, unpaid bills, et cetera, that Google is coming up with a strategy in a way to help at least android phones warn you. It's updating its scam text detection technology to better spot these new hoaxes. And the tech, it analyzes for red flags, such as poor grammar, urgent language, and suspicious links. Consumers lost $470 million to text message scams last year alone, according to the FTC. Why was that giggle-inducing, John?

BERMAN: Because I think every one of the texts I send will get flagged for poor grammar and spelling.

BOLDUAN: I mean if you guys saw his grammar --

BERMAN: Yes, yes, it's not good. BOLDUAN: If you saw his grammar when he is writing copy or text messages, you would be appalled.

BERMAN: All right, this Sunday, Eva Longoria takes viewers -- she was not appalled. We had a lovely meal. Eva Longoria took viewers through San Sebastian in the beautiful Basque country in northern Spain. I got to sit down with her, and we discussed the rich culture, history, language and long-standing traditions from this region over a meal of Basque pinchos and wine.

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EVA LONGORIA, HOST, "SEARCHING FOR SPAIN": Oh my God. So now we're in the Basque country. I fell in love with chacoli, which is the grape and the wine that is made in the Basque country. You really can't get it anywhere else outside of the Basque country. I'm so excited, I haven't had a chacoli since I got back.

Cheers.

BERMAN: Cheers.

LONGORIA: Spain, geographically is located in a perfect spot for gastronomy. It has so many oceans that surround everything. And that ecosystem really provides a breeding of so many different fish and seafood and amazing marine life.

So, this is a pincho. Usually a pincho is served on a piece of bread with a stick through it. And then, of course, this sheep's milk cheese that is from the Basque country as well.

BERMAN: Pincho is different from tapas, how?

LONGORIA: Yes. A pincho has evolved into a more gourmet bite. In San Sebastian specifically, or Bilbao in the north. Each bar has their own special pincho. And so you do like a bar crawl and you'll have one pincho and one vermouth at this bar, and then you move on to the next, because this bar's known for a certain pincho and a different drink, and then you move on to the next. And so it only -- they're that big. It's not -- it's not filling. You have to have many.

[09:55:01]

BERMAN: Yes, in the Basque region, of course, could you understand anything anyone was saying? It's --

LONGORIA: No. It was (INAUDIBLE) very difficult. Nobody knows the roots of that language. It's not a Latin language. It's not a romance language. It's not a Germanic language. It's its own beast of a language.

BERMAN: And talk about proud. I mean, the Basque region, everyone's so -- all over Spain people are proud of their home region.

LONGORIA: Yes.

BERMAN: But in the Basque region, like fiercely proud.

LONGORIA: Yes.

What a lot of people don't understand is, Franco had a dictatorship for so long, and he had such a strong hold over one Spain, one flag, one identity, that he really squashed and suppressed the regional identities. And so, what happened during the dictatorship was so many of these regions, they could not speak their language. And so, once Franco died and the dictatorship was over and the country opened back up, these regional identities came back with a resurgence of energy and celebration.

BERMAN: The food is an expression of liberty and identity and self that was, what, like suppressed for generation.

LONGORIA: Yes. Yes. Well, when you talk about the food of a country, you're talking about its people. And when you're talking about the people of a country, you're talking about, you know, centuries of history. Centuries of history. And so, how the Basque region, you know, held on to the -- to the language and held on to the tradition was a struggle worth storytelling.

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BERMAN: A new episode of Eva Longoria's "Searching for Spain" airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

BOLDUAN: It's such a celebration of delicious food. Oh, my God.

BERMAN: Oh, it was so good. It was so good. It was so good. My mouth's watering right now.

BOLDUAN: Favorite shoot ever.

BERMAN: It was so good.

BOLDUAN: Thanks so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SIT ROOM," up now.

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