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IDF: Six Countries Airdrop 136 Aid Packages into Gaza Sunday; Texas Dems Flee State to try to Prevent Republican Redistricting Plan; TikTok Pulls Israel Conspiracy Video by Huda Kattan; Trump's New Tariffs go into Effect this Week; India Beats England in Thrilling Fifth Test to Draw Series. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired August 04, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Outrage in Israel over the condition of hostages held in Gaza as Benjamin Netanyahu faces mounting
pressure to end the war. This is the scene in Khan Yunis where it is 04:00 p.m. and it's 02:00 p.m. in London. I'm Christina Macfarlane. This is
"Connect the World".
Also coming up, the White House defends the firing of the job data commissioner, a removal now raises concerns about data integrity. Some
Texas Democratic lawmakers have left the state amid a fight with national implications. We'll tell you why. And new U.S. tariffs are set to go into
effect this week for dozens of countries, as Donald Trump looks to squeeze trade agreements out of the holdouts.
And stock market in New York opens in about 30 minutes from now. So far, the outlook very promising. All the hours there are up and in the green, it
looks like investors are trying to recover from Friday's post jobs report sell off. First, the hunger crisis in Gaza is claiming more Palestinian
lives.
And now stark video of Israeli hostages is sparking an appeal from Israel's Prime Minister and outrage from the hostages' families. A warning the
images you're about to see are disturbing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is asking the International Red Cross to bring food and medical
care to the hostages after Hamas released a propaganda video showing two emaciated captives.
Hamas said it will allow that, but only after humanitarian corridors in Gaza open to get food to the broader population there. It also claims it
isn't singling out the hostages for malnutrition, and that they are experiencing what many Palestinians in Gaza are facing lack of food.
Outraged Israelis protested over the weekend demanding their government reach a deal to free the remaining hostages. The Red Cross says it's ready
and willing to help the hostages, but needs a ceasefire first. Here's what a spokesperson told CNN a bit earlier about the challenges facing aid
workers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACOB KURTZER, COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: The situation in Gaza is extremely volatile. The vast
majority of it, 80 to 85 percent remains an evacuation zone or an area of military operations. The remaining spaces is very densely packed with
people who have been displaced, who have been forced to evacuate their homes.
The security conditions remain very, very difficult, and so what we need to know is for the safety and security of our own colleagues, that the
environment in which they would be able to do such a visit, if it were granted, and if the parties came to such an agreement, is one that we could
ensure the safety of our colleagues as well as the safety of the people that we seek to meet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, CNN's Ben Wedeman has been covering Gaza and reporting from there for decades. Israel's government is currently restricting access
to Gaza for international media. So, Ben is joining me from home today in Rome. And Ben, just to begin with, we know that there have been a number of
airdrops in recent days from various nations.
Can you just start by giving us the picture of what we know of the aid, the situation in Gaza today.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Christina, the situation in Gaza remains critical. There has been a marginal improvement
in recent days. Now we understand from the government media office in Gaza that 80 trucks went into Gaza yesterday, that over the last eight days, 674
trucks with relief supplies have gone in.
Keep in mind, however, that in the best of times, somewhere between 500 and 600 trucks are needed a day to supply the people of Gaza with the necessary
food. So really, it's still a minimal amount. Now there have been airdrops. Yesterday, there was airdrops. 136 packages were air dropped into Gaza.
This was a sort of a joint operation involving Israel, Jordan, the UAE, Egypt, France, Germany and Belgium, but the U.N. has made it very clear
that this is a very inefficient and dangerous way to get food into Gaza, that it costs 100 times more to get food into Gaza via airdrops than it
does by trucks, and in fact, the U.N. says they have more than 6000 trucks waiting to get in on the outskirts of Gaza, full of food.
However, the Israeli authorities are not allowing that to happen. Now, we understand from health officials in Gaza that within the last 24 hours,
five people have died of hunger or malnutrition.
[09:05:00]
The total number of people, according to those sources, who have died from hunger malnutrition in recent weeks, is 180, 93 of them children,
Christina.
MACFARLANE: And Ben, as far as reaching a deal goes, both sides now are accusing the other of negotiating in bad faith. They're both hardening
their positions, and now a source is telling us the Prime Minister is pushing for the freeing of hostages through a military defeat of Hamas.
What more are you learning about that?
WEDEMAN: Yes, this is what Israeli officials told CNN, that the Prime Minister wants to use military action to defeat Hamas -- free the hostages.
But the consensus seems to be growing in Israel, as well as elsewhere, that, if anything, that will endanger the hostages.
The sort of track record for military action is to free hostages is pretty bleak when you compare what happens when you actually negotiate, as we saw,
for instance, at the end of two rather November 2023 when many hostages were released as a result of negotiations.
The fear is that, if anything, military action will endanger the approximately 20 hostages that are believed to be still alive, out of the
50 that are still the other 30 it's believed are dead at this point. For Hamas, they're saying, look, there's no point in negotiations while Gaza is
being starved.
So, we're at an impasse, the United States Steve Witkoff, the U.S. Middle East Envoy, was in Israel. He doesn't seem to have achieved much, and he
reportedly is going to be refocusing his efforts on peace between Russia and Ukraine. So, it appears that the United States hasn't been able to yet
again, broker one of those deals that President Trump said he was so good at arranging, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yes, Ben, Witkoff also saying that Israel is moving towards an all or nothing Gaza deal, the details of which we do not know anything yet
about. For now, though. Ben Wedeman, there from Rome. Appreciate it. Thank you. Donald Trump is doubling down on his decision to fire the Head of the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and says he'll move quickly to replace her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We'll be announcing a new statistician sometime over the next three, four days. We
had no confidence. I mean, the numbers were ridiculous, which he announced, but that was just one negative number. All of the numbers seem to be great.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: Well, the president accused the Labor Statistics Commissioner of rigging employment numbers after a dismal job support on Friday. One of
his top economic advisers says the president wants quote his own people in charge of the agency. CNN's Matt Egan is joining us with more from New
York.
And Matt first, could you just run us through the numbers here what we saw on Friday and why the president is so upset?
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Christina, it was an ugly jobs report on Friday. Right, just 73,000 jobs were created during the month of July,
worse than expected. But really what got the most attention from the White House and from investors on Wall Street was the fact that two prior months,
May and June, were dramatically revised lower.
About a quarter of a million jobs were removed from the payrolls as the Bureau of Labor Statistics gathered new information. And that's really what
has gotten attention and has concerned economists about the strength of the job market. But I'm going to tell you, economists and investors and former
U.S. officials that I'm talking to, they're even more alarmed by what happened next, which is, of course, the president announcing he's going to
fire the head of the agency that puts together the jobs report.
This would be like the owner of a sports team reacting to his team losing big by firing the scoreboard operator. It's not going to change the score,
and if anything, it's just going to raise concerns about the quality of the information right, that's coming into the president. Now, there's a lot at
stake here, the BLS, it doesn't just put together the jobs report.
This is also the agency that puts out the inflation numbers, the Consumer Price Index, the Producer Price Index, a number of different labor market
statistics, including the jobs report, data on imports and exports. It's also -- there's also practical implications here too, because the BLS, this
is the agency that puts out the data that decides cost of living adjustments for Social Security.
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And CEOs, investors, small business owners, they rely on economic data being both accurate and trustworthy, without it, they'd be flying blind.
Same thing with the Federal Reserve, which relies on economic data to decide whether or not to raise or lower interest rates.
I talked to Mark Zandi, the Moody's Economist, and he told me he's hired a number of former BLS officials. He said that the work that this agency does
has been to the highest standard, and he said anything that undermines that, or even the perception of that high standard, is deeply worrisome,
Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yes, certainly, a lot of economic risk tied to this firing, and the administration is claiming, as you know, the agency rigged the numbers
to hurt the president politically. Is that even possible?
EGAN: Well, first we should stress there's no evidence to substantiate the claim that the BLS was somehow cooking the books here to help one party or
another. But what I thought was telling was that William Beach, the Former BLS Commissioner under President Trump during his first term.
He was speaking over the weekend, and he said it's not even possible for the BLS Commissioner to manipulate the numbers. Take a listen to what Beach
told CNN's Kasie Hunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM BEACH, FORMER BLS COMMISSIONER: I don't think there's any grounds at all for this firing, and it really hurts the statistical system. It
undermines credibility.
KASIE HUNT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president said that the BLS Commissioner rigged these numbers.
BEACH: Yeah.
HUNT: What do you think?
BEACH: There's no way for that to happen. The commissioner doesn't do anything to collect the numbers. The commissioner doesn't see the numbers
for until Wednesday before they're published. I was commissioner, and I was sometimes locked out of the process of actually, where the people were
working in the building. So, there's no way for doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
EGAN: No way for doing that. And again, that's the president's own Former BLS Chief saying that. Now, none of this is to say that the BLS is perfect,
right? I mean, there are, of course, times where there's going to be revisions that just makes sense. As more data comes into the agency,
they're going to revise and update their numbers.
But I've got to tell you, you know, economists say the BLS really is the gold standard when it comes to economic data around the world, and now
there is this risk that the firing and the controversy and all these comments are going to raise doubts about how much we can really rely on
those numbers.
Going forward, the "Wall Street Journal" put out an op-ed where they titled their op-ed the Bureau of Labor denial. And in the op-ed, they said that
Mr. Trump's data denial is one more reason fewer Americans will trust the government. And just one last point here. I mean, I think if you're the
President of United States, you want to know that people are not scared to give you bad news, right?
Because if they sugarcoat all the economic numbers, you're not going to know there's trouble until it's too late. And you want that information on
a timely basis, and you want to be able to trust that, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yeah. We do know that President Trump has not had a good track record with receiving bad news in the past, so we will wait to see where
this goes. Matt Egan, appreciate you breaking it down for us. Thank you.
EGAN: Thank you.
MACFARLANE: Texas Governor Greg Abbott is threatening to remove democratic state lawmakers who don't show up to work today. On Sunday, House Democrats
in the state legislature fled Texas in a bid to block a passage of Republican led effort to redraw the state's congressional map.
Republican lawmakers in Texas and across the country are under pressure by President Trump to revamp district lines in an attempt to flip democratic
seats ahead of 2026 midterm elections. This moves in Texas playing out now could have significant and national consequences when it comes to deciding
which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives.
CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us now from Austin, state capital of Texas. So, at this is highly contentious, deeply political. Tell us, where did these
democrats flee to, and what more are you hearing about what comes next?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yesterday afternoon, we got word that more than 50 Texas Democrats left the state of
Texas and flew to Illinois, the state of Illinois and the state of New York, where they are meeting with governors and holding other public
events, and they will continue to do that, we're told, for the next several days.
And all of that is done to prevent the Texas Legislature and lawmakers here from continuing its efforts to pass a very controversial redistricting bill
that, as you mentioned, has been pushed by President Trump and the governor here of Texas as well, and essentially, with the Democrats leaving the
state, that brings everything to a halt. There will not be a quorum for the legislative body to do business.
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The Texas House is supposed to reconvene at 3 o'clock later this afternoon here in Texas time, but there will not be enough members to do business, so
everything will just come to a grinding halt. That is causing the Governor of Texas, a Republican, to threaten these Texas Democrats and accusing them
of vacating their seats, and he's essentially threatening to strip them of their office.
Other Republicans are calling these democrats cowards for not being here and facing the legislative process. But Democrats say that they are on the
moral high ground, and while they know that they ultimately will not be able to win this legislative fight. They are trying to ratchet up pressure
with a public relations campaign across the country to make this very difficult for Republicans.
This is what some of them said yesterday after landing in Chicago. Sorry, so the Democrats there talked about they believe that they have the moral
high ground. They pushed back on Governor Abbott's threats of removing them from office, saying that he does not have the legal authority to be able to
do all of that.
All of this, really, Christina getting to the heart that the political escalation of this fight between Democrats and Republicans, not just here
in Texas but across the country, over the issue of redistricting and what it means for next year's midterm elections will only continue to intensify
here in the days ahead.
MACFARLANE: And can you talk to us about a bit more about those national consequences there? Because there will be other states, of course, watching
this and taking their cues from what happens in this moment. And you mentioned Governor Greg Abbott there. I mean, does he have any options at
the moment to force these Democrats to resume their work?
LAVANDERA: Well, the Speaker of the House here in Texas could issue civil arrest warrants to bring them back, but with these democrats being in
Democrat friendly states, doesn't appear to be likely that they'd be able to follow through with that in any real way. So that doesn't appear to be
an option.
Other Republicans are urging the governor and the speaker to strip various members of any kind of leadership positions that they might have. But this
is really about the bigger picture of what is happening across the country. Democrats in these, Texas Democrats are hoping that this will ratchet up
pressure.
There is a good number of people who want democratic legislatures in places like California, Illinois and New York to follow suit, to redistrict as
well, to create more democratic seats. Some have described it as fighting fire with fire. So, you have this, you know, this back and forth between
the Democrats and Republicans.
And that will only continue to intensify, because here in Texas, and this was an idea first floated by President Trump, urging the Texas Legislature
to redistrict and create five more Republican seats, and that's exactly what the proposed redistricting map that legislators are considering here
in Texas would do.
But for the moment, they will not be able to push that forward, as Democrats will remain out of the state of Texas, and business just grinds
to a halt here.
MACFARLANE: All right. Well, we will continue to follow this Ed Lavandera from Texas. Thank you. Now, an all-out manhunt is underway in Montana after
a deadly bar shooting. We'll have the latest on the search.
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MACFARLANE: An all-out manhunt is underway in the U.S. state of Montana after a deadly bar shooting which left four people dead. It happened in the
western town of Anaconda on Friday. The suspect, named as Michael Paul Brown, has been on the loose for more than 48 hours.
Authorities say he is believed to be armed and dangerous. Montana authorities have now also named the victims, all of whom were local
residents. Julia Vargas Jones has been following developments for us. And Julia, let's start with the manhunt for this suspect, which is now
becoming, of course, a multi-day hunt. What are you learning about the authorities and in their search for him?
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have locked down Christina, not just parts of a national forest. This is the Beaverhead-
Deerlodge National Forest, but also an area around a Stumptown road. This is near a popular lake in the area called Barker Lake.
It's a heavily wooded part of Western Montana, and that presents its own kind of challenges, you know, to search that kind of perimeter. But
authorities have said that every cabin, every hunting site that is known up there, is pinned and that they have a tremendous number of assets, local,
state and federal agencies working on land and air to find brown.
They're also now offering a reward of $7,500 for any information that will lead to locating him. Take a listen to what else they said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AUSTIN KNUDSEN, MONTANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We want to find this guy. This is a dangerous individual who has committed an absolutely heinous crime
against this community and these victims. Absolutely there's concerns he might come back into town. This is this violent occasion.
This is an unstable individual who walked in and murdered four people in cold blood for no reason whatsoever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JONES: Now we're also learning that Brown is the U.S. army veteran, and he was part of an armored vehicle crew from January 2001 to May 2005. And
spent most of his last year in the army, deployed to Iraq from February 2004 to March 2005. He later joined the Montana National Guard in April
2006 where he was until March 2009.
He left his military service as a sergeant. Now, his niece Clare Boyle told CNN that her uncle struggled with mental health while he was in the army,
and that he just wasn't the same after his service. She said it also got worse after his parents passed. She expressed remorse and heartbreak for
all of those victims' families, Christina.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, and we are, of course, as I mentioned, just learning more about the victims who have now been named. What can you tell us about them?
JONES: Well, they were identified yesterday as 59-year-old, Daniel Edwin Baillie, 64-year-old, Nancy Lauretta Kelly. She was the bartender at the
Owl Bar, a bar that was next door to Brown's house. 70-year-old, David Allen Leach and 74-year-old Tony Wayne Palm. All of them were residents of
the town of Anaconda, Christina.
MACFARLANE: All right. Julia Vargas, for now, thank you, and let's get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now. U.S.
Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to Russia this Wednesday. That's according to reports from Russia state media tasks, which cites two anonymous
sources.
CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. If the trip happens, it would come just ahead of President Donald Trump's Friday deadline for his
Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. Chile's President says the last missing worker in a partially collapsed
copper mine has been found dead, bringing the death toll to six.
The collapse occurred after an earthquake hit the area on Thursday. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the collapse. Beirut state
devastated in the blink of an eye. It was five years ago, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history ripped through the city on ending
thousands -- upending thousands of lives.
It was caused by tons of ammonium nitrate improperly stored at the port. The scars of that day still linger. Now President Joseph Allen says he is
committed to uncovering the full truth. TikTok has taken down and inflammatory anti-Israel video by celebrity beauty mogul Huda Kattan.
In the video, the Founder of a billion-dollar brand Huda Beauty spread conspiracy theories about Israel to have more than 11 million TikTok
followers.
[09:25:00]
She accused Israel of orchestrating both World Wars, despite the wars occurring before the State of Israel was established in 1948 as well as the
September 11th terrorist attacks and Hamas October 7th attacks. Some Jewish groups are now calling for retailers like Sephora to cut ties with Kattan's
brand.
All right, still to come increased U.S. tariffs are set to go into effect this week for dozens of countries, what the White House is saying and how
the new policies are being felt in Europe. That story just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Hello, welcome back. I'm Christina Macfarlane in London, and you are watching "Connect the World". These are our headlines. An Israeli
official tells CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a military victory over Hamas to free the remaining hostages in Gaza.
That word comes amid more protests in Israel demanding the government reach a deal with Hamas after Hamas released a video showing two emaciated
Israeli hostages. The Governor of Texas is warning Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to show up for work today or face being removed from office.
On Sunday, the House Democrats fled to other states in an effort to push back against a Republican led plan to redraw the Texas congressional map
ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. An ex-girlfriend of rapper Sean Diddy Combs has written a letter to the judge asking for his release on bail.
Virginia Huynh was identified in a criminal case against Combs as victim three, and was set to testify against him, but mysteriously disappeared
before the trial began. Combs was convicted last month of two prostitution charges, but was cleared of the more serious charges he was facing.
3200 machinists at Boeing are on strike this Monday, union workers rejected a four-year labor agreement on Sunday. The strike affects three plants in
Missouri and Illinois that make the military aircraft. This is the second strike for Boeing in the past 12 months after 33,000 workers in the
commercial plane division downed tools last year.
And U.S. tariffs will begin to take effects on just about every single country in the world this week. The Trump Administration says a 10 percent
tariff applies to most countries, and at least 15 percent for any who have a trade deficit with the U.S., they also say the rates are not expected to
change again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could a market reaction prompt President Trump to change these tariff rates again?
KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR OF U.S. NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: The markets have seen what we're doing and celebrated them. I don't see how that would
happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, but not ruling it out.
[09:30:00]
HASSETT: No, I would rule it out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
HASSETT: Because these are the final deals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MACFARLANE: But to trade deal with China could be delayed. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CBS, the August 12 deadline is still up
in the air. No agreement was reached during last week's meetings. Joining us now CNN's Alayna Treene from the White House.
And Alayna, Donald Trump's tariffs have created uncertainty for markets and for mainstream and that is beginning to show up in that economic data we
saw on Friday, like the jobs report, which has led to Donald Trump's termination of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Chair on Friday.
So, what are you hearing on the ground there about this? You know, as we look ahead to this secondary deadline this week?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think, and we saw this weekend, you played one of those clips of Kevin Hassett, one of his
economic officials, advisors here at the White House, you know, a lot of them facing questions about whether or not this deadline is going to be
moved yet again.
Of course, we've now seen it be pushed back several times, beginning in April. But also, if there's anything that these U.S. trading partners can
do to try and bring these tariffs down now, has it, and others like Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, have all been trying to
argue that these tariff rates are pretty much, you know, staying in place at this point in time.
Of course, negotiations are going to continue, but that's what they're arguing. But again, I think the questions around all of this are arguably
just, you know, justified because we have seen so many changes to this tariff policy since the president began discussing it in the spring.
Now, a couple things I think that are worth pointing out. One is that we know many countries, particularly those that have yet to strike deals with
the Trump Administration, but have been engaging in talks with officials here. Countries like Canada, Mexico, the list goes on.
They are all going to continue to keep negotiating. I mean, the goal, of course, is still, even if they do see these initial tariffs rates go into
effect starting Thursday, August 7th. They are hoping that they could, you know, change those and bring those levels down while they continue to work
out some of these talks.
Now other countries, like those who have struck deals already, the European Union, Japan, South Korea, for example, all of those have, those three that
I mentioned, have a 15 percent tariff rate, still pretty high, and so there is still some hope. We're told, among those different countries, despite
having these trade frameworks, that they might be able to lower those rates as well.
All of that is still unclear, but I do think your point Christina, and specifically pointing out China. I mean, that is a huge question. We have
now seen China, of course, be one of the key targets of the president's eye, or when it comes to trading policies. We have seen that rhetoric
change ever since officials here at the White House have been conducting really intense negotiations with them, mostly in Switzerland.
But we still haven't really seen any progress that first meeting in Switzerland that they had earlier this summer, they had announced a 90 day
pause that came and went, and now they are hoping, you know, August 12 will be the day they could have an agreement by.
But we are now hearing increasingly for our discussions here with among Trump Administration officials that that might get pushed back as well.
China, again is such an important one, because we saw those tariff rates higher than any other country initially, really waiting to see what a
potential trade agreement could actually look like with them.
As of now, very much unclear, I'm told that those talks have been progressing at a slower pace than the White House would like all to say
they are moving ahead with these tariffs. And part of the reason, I'm told that we shouldn't expect this deadline to push even more.
Is because the president is emboldened, and so is his team. That he has been able to reach a number of deals already that is really leading him to
want to stick to these and in some ways, I'm told, feeling vindicated against all of the critics who had argued that these tariffs were going to
really wreck the economy.
Of course, we have to actually see what the impact of these tariffs are going to be, not only on the U.S. economy, but global markets, once they
actually go into effect. And still now, as of now August 7th, they are sticking to that deadline, Christina.
MACFARLANE: All right. Alayna Treene from the White House, we appreciate it. Thank you. Well joining us live from Frankfurt, Germany, is the Global
Head of Macro for ING Research, Carsten Brzeski. Carsten, thank you so much for being with us. I just want to pick up on something Alayna was saying
there about the fact that President Trump clearly feels emboldened in this moment to continue with his tariff war.
And you know, on reflection, what we're seeing here is a whole perception of tariffs and trade distorted under President Trump. You know, the
countries that are being leveled with 15 percent with 10 percent are breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't work, that it wasn't worse.
We're seeing the markets remarkably resilient to even this second round of tariffs. So is all of this an indication that Trump's strategy here over
this tariff war ultimately winning out.
CARSTEN BRZESKI, GLOBAL HEAD OF MACRO FOR ING RESEARCH: Well, Hi Christina, yes, I think initially it looks like it, especially when you get the market
reaction on Friday was pretty negative, but now on Monday today, we had a bit of a turnaround again.
[09:35:00]
I think markets have grown numb. But, you know, I think, let me warn you, we know that these effects from tariffs always take a while before they
really reach the real economy. So, I would say that we can only really tell how big the impact is by the end of this year.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, and we are seeing obviously against some of the United States biggest trading partners, this beginning to fall foul. On Friday,
European stocks posted the biggest drop since April. So, what's your sort of assessment on how all of this is playing out in the European market
specifically, and how they're being felt by European workers and businesses?
BRZESKI: Yeah, I think you hinted at that already. I think Europe was preparing for a hurricane, and in the end, the hurricane only became a
summer storm. So initially this felt a bit like relief. So, it was only 15 percent and that Europe had avoided, you know, more harm to the European
economy.
But what we saw, I think, at the end of last week, is licking the wounds and now realizing that 15 percent is still much higher than where we were
at the start of the year, that 15 percent tariffs would probably shave off some open the two percentage points after GDP growth this year, and the
longer these tariffs are remain, the bigger, the larger the impact will be on growth in the following years.
I think that is something that Europe is currently realizing. The other thing that Europe is also realizing is that it more or less was in on the
negotiation table, in the position of weakness, and that it made some promises, of which no one really knows whether Europe can fulfill them.
This is the purchases of U.S. energy. This is more investment in the U.S. I think there are still so many question marks, which also run the risk that
there still is no deal, but that also the U.S. government might retreat from what currently is a 15 percent tariff deal.
MACFARLANE: Yeah, it's very much an open question, isn't it? Whether this is just Europe playing the long game over of things like the energy. And
just briefly on China, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said in interviews that China is driving a hard bargain, now, as we were saying,
they're getting extra time to make the deal.
What is your assessment about this delay and what potential trade agreement should we -- do you think we should be looking at here?
BRZESKI: Well, I think the longer these lasts, I think the higher the chances are that also the U.S. government will finally fold and will
withdraw, or at least reduce its demands, because it clearly shows here that China is in a position of strength. We saw that with the magnesium
story, so that China actually is the only trading partner of the U.S. that is actually able to hold up something against the pressure of the U.S.
Administration.
So, I think the longer these negotiations last, either there will be an extreme scenario of really severe escalation, or we will see a much milder
scenario in which there will be a good compromise between the U.S. and China?
MACFARLANE: Yeah. Well, all eyes on that August 12th deadline. Carsten Brzeski, appreciate your analysis. Thank you. Now it's been 25 days of a
thrilling England, India test series culminating one of the wildest conclusions in test cricket history. We have that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
MACFARLANE: Welcome back. Just a few hours ago, England and India wrapped up a thrilling test series. India won by an astonishing fifth test, by six
runs to draw the series two-two. But it was the test match I'll be remembered for so much more, including a moment that may go down in cricket
folklore, Amanda.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, it's actually India's smallest winning margin of a test ever. But the moment is, I mean, you don't hear
that phrase, putting your body on the line while Chris Woakes. Look at this. He has been out of action, sitting on the sidelines having dislocated
his shoulder on day one, but he was the last man for England, as they needed to get 17 runs to win this test.
So, he said, you know what? I'll do it. I'll go out and bat one handed. But what it means? What it meant in reality, was that Gus Atkinson.
MACFARLANE: Yeah.
DAVIES: Was the player who needed to stay on strike.
MACFARLANE: -- yes.
DAVIES: But that meant, you know, rather than chip away single by single. So, Chris Woakes, you know, would run hit a ball, as it would normally be
the case. Gus Atkinson always had to hit a four or a six. He got a six, Woakes did run a couple of times, but you could see the pain, the agony.
MACFARLANE: Oh, yeah.
DAVIES: But Mohammed Siraj, for the Indian bowling attack, has been the player of this series. He wasn't going to let this go without a fight.
MACFARLANE: Yeah.
DAVIES: And he took the wicket that he needed, with Woakes out there at the crease. England went from needing 17 to needing seven. They couldn't quite
get over the line. But it is one of those images that will be --
MACFARLANE: -- seen that --
(CROSSTALK)
DAVIES: -- and there's a lot of discussion about the rules, should they be changed? Should you be able to bring in an injured replacement?
MACFARLANE: That -- you were having in "World Sport" --
DAVIES: Exactly, yeah.
MACFARLANE: -- after the break, stay with us for that. Thanks, Amanda --
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
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