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First Move with Julia Chatterley
Israel Launches Lethal Strike on West Bank's Jenin; Shooting Victim's Grandmother calls for End to Violence; Scientists: Grazing Method could Lower Emissions; Service Disruptions Occur as Twitter Limits Use; Overstock.Com Renames itself Bed Bath & Beyond; The Great Ketchup Debate of 2023. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired July 03, 2023 - 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)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN HOST, FIRST MOVE: A warm welcome to "First Move", great to have you with us. We begin a new week, month and quarter on the
show just ahead. Middle East morning, at least eight Palestinians have died and dozens injured after Israeli raids in the West Bank town of Jenin.
The second major military operation they're in weeks with Israel now calling the city a terrorism hub. We're live from Tel Aviv with the latest.
Plus, Paris Peace and an uneasy calm across France after days of violent protests, fewer than 200 people arrested overnight that unfortunately is a
relative improvement.
President Macron meeting with parliamentary leaders for talks on the crisis today, he'll meet with more than 200 Mayors tomorrow too and Musk marathon,
no rest for the world's, richest man, this weekend. We got strong second quarter sales numbers for Tesla that's helping the stock pre market.
And new Twitter turmoil, Elon announcing a temporary limit on accessible tweet, citing the need to battle data scraping on the site, or limiting
social media scrolling might be a positive for our mental health and of course our eyeballs too. But fewer eyes not necessarily good news for
advertisers and the business model long term.
We'll discuss Musk's motives later in the show. In the meantime, I'm keeping at least one eyeball on Wall Street back in business a number
jungle as we begin trade on July the third ahead of the July 4 holiday. Why bother of course just half a day's trade before markets are closed before
the Independence Day festivities on Tuesday, cautious trade in the meantime, as you can see both in the United States and in Europe.
But we did see solid gains across the Asia session with the HANG SENG up some 2 percent after Chinese factory data surprised to the upside. And some
crude realities for you to oil prices volatile today as Saudi Arabia extends production cuts of 1 million barrels a day into August.
And Russia also cutting exports by a half a million barrels per day their combined demand concerns follows the fourth consecutive quarterly drop in
prices. A busy show ahead, as always, we begin today's show though in the West Bank where deadly violence is flaring once again.
Israel says its military operation in the City of Jenin was a counter terrorism operation. The Palestinians call it a "war crime against
defenseless people". Hadas Gold joins us now. Hadas, the Israelis were saying they were targeting or striking terrorism infrastructure? Do we know
specifically what they were targeting and whose lives were lost in the process?
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the Israeli Military saying that they utilized airstrikes, mostly from drones overnight. And through
the ensuing hours specifically to target what they said were militant infrastructure command and control centers. They said as well as explosive
weapons manufacturing sites, they said they also destroyed an improvised rocket device.
But why we've been reporting for so many months now on these regular Israeli Military raids, which started last year in response to a wave of
Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis. What has changed is it seems as though every single time the intensity just ratcheted up and it's now
we're trapped.
We're starting to really see scenes that are incredibly reminiscent really flashbacks to the days of the Second Intifada to 2002 and what happened
overnight and is actually still continuing now maybe the largest Israeli Military operation in the occupied West Bank really since 2002.
Because not only were there multiple airstrikes there were also hundreds of Israeli forces in Jenin, there were bulldozers that were tearing up streets
in Jenin. This was to remove or look for IEDs that militants have started to use against Israeli forces, and also seems that we haven't seen again
since the days when Second Intifada Israeli Military tanks were seen on the outskirts of Jenin.
They didn't actually enter the city itself, but they were seen on the outskirts. Now, we know at least eight Palestinians have been killed
Israeli army radio saying all of them were militants, but no militant group has claimed any of them as their members and we know that at least two
dozen others if not more, have been injured.
One Israeli soldier was injured as well. There is a major question of course now of where does this go from here. This is still apparently
ongoing just in the last two hours the Israeli Military saying that there were firefights going on outside of a mosque and that they once again, used
an airstrike.
[09:05:00]
They said to remove a threat they didn't specify what that threat is? Now the Hamas militant group has now called on all of its cells it says across
the West Bank and Jerusalem to target the Israelis in any way that they can't. So will this somehow spark others in other parts of the West Bank
that so far may have been at least somewhat common comparison to join in on the fight?
The Israeli Military saying this is not turning into some much broader military campaign. This is a focused operation just on Jenin. They say that
they want to remove Jenin as being a safe haven for militant groups. But every single time we see these raids, it seems in recent weeks.
They just keep increasing in their intensity and keep going and keep going. So now the question is, when will this potentially, you know, tip over into
something much broader than what we've seen in the last few years here?
CHATTERLEY: Thanks for your reporting, Hadas Gold, there. Now, Ukraine claims its gaining ground and its ongoing counter offensive over the
weekend. New video shows a Russian tank being destroyed near the City of Bakhmut.
A top Defense Official says Ukrainian forces are advancing near the captured city and have retaken over 37 square kilometers of ground in the
past week. And overnight, Russia unleashed another wave of drone attacks across Ukraine including on the capital city Kyiv. The Ukrainian Air Force
the 17 attack drones were fired. 13 of them were shut down.
Others didn't reach their targets. Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy sat down for an exclusive interview with Erin Burnett to discuss the aftermath of
last week's brief mutiny in Russia. Zelenskyy said it shows that President Vladimir Putin is quote weak, and his grip on power is crumbling.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. President, you know, you recently said that you have dealt and I'll quote you the way it the way it quoted with
different Putin's it's a completely different set of traits in different periods. Now, of course, he's faced a rebellion and attempted coup from
Yevgeny Prigozhin. Have you seen any changes in how you think he's acting in his behavior since the attempted coup?
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: Yes, we see the reaction after certain Wagner steps. We see Putin's reaction, it's weak. Firstly, we see
he doesn't control everything. Wagner is moving deep into Russia and taking certain regions shows how easy it is to do. Putin doesn't control the
situation in the region.
He doesn't control the security situation. All of us understand that his whole army is in Ukraine. Almost entire armies there, that's why it's so
easy for the Wagner troops, to march through Russia, who could have stopped him. We understand that Putin doesn't control the regional policy, and he
doesn't control all those people in the regions. So all that vertical power he used to have just got crumbling down.
BURNETT: Do you believe he's fully in charge of the military right now when it comes to your front line and this counter offensive? Do you believe
Putin is fully in charge of the Russian Military?
ZELENSKYY: I don't think he fully controls all the processes. He gives orders to the commander. It's understood. They are scared to lose their
jobs. But he doesn't understand and doesn't control the middle layer of the Russian Military nor the lower rank officers and soldiers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: And Ben Wedeman joins us now. Ben, they also talked about the pace of the counter offensive and the attempts and as President Zelenskyy
said in the past life is precious. And the challenges that they're facing on the front lines is that much of the area is covered in minds.
That sort of caught my attention, particularly with the use of drones that we're talking about its slow progress, because it's just dangerous to
advance.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the Russians have had months, Julia, to prepare for this offensive, and by all accounts
they've dug in deeply. They've put out lots of minds. There are so called Dragon's teeth, which are designed to concrete things that are supposed to
stop tanks. They've redeployed extra forces, for instance, here in Eastern Ukraine.
There were reports a few days ago that the Russians had moved thousands of their troops to the Bakhmut area. Now, if you look at the amount of
territory, the Ukrainian said they took over that last week, perhaps 38 square kilometers. That's not an awful lot and at this point, now that
we're well into the third week of this counter offensive.
The total territory they've gained is maybe 150 square kilometers, eight or nine villages. We've been to some of those villages. Even village is sort
of an overstatement about the size of those communities.
[09:10:00]
And at the same time, the Russians are, for them they are also launching offensives in fact in the around the town of Svatove in the Luhansk region
which that town is currently held by the Ukrainians. But apparently the Russians are making a concerted effort to take that town.
And that is one of the few parts of the Luhansk region that is still under Ukrainian control. So it's a real hard going for the Ukrainians. And of
course, there were such high expectations that they would be able to make dramatic gains against the Russians before the upcoming NATO Summit just in
about 10 days' time.
And therefore I think the Ukrainians are trying to perhaps dampen down expectations, given the difficulties they're encountering in during this
counter offensive, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, Ben, I wanted to ask you and get your take on something else, too. That President Zelenskyy said that this wouldn't be over until
Crimea was no longer occupied. And we know that dates back right to 2014.
It ties, at least with a new story and accusations from the Russian suggesting or the Russian security agency that Ukraine had attempted to
bond the car of the Russian black leader of Crimea in a botched assassination attempt. What more do we know about that? And have we heard
from the Ukrainian side on that?
WEDEMAN Well, this is not uncommon that, basically, collaborators Ukrainians who have in some way joined the Russian occupation, that they
sometimes suffer untimely deaths. The Ukrainians rarely, if ever, actually claimed responsibility. But it's well known that behind enemy lines, the
Ukrainians have a network of peaceful activists.
In fact, we've reported on them, and also essentially partisans who are attacking Russian infrastructure, and particularly those Ukrainians who are
working with the Russian. So no word yet, from the Ukrainians don't actually expect them to acknowledge that they were behind it.
But I don't think there's any question that certainly went and high ranking official in the Russians supported administration in Crimea has an accident
like this probably there is a Ukrainian hand in it, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Diplomatically put, Ben Wedeman, thank you so much for that. And you can watch Erin's full interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy, this Wednesday at 7 pm Eastern. And to France now, why Sunday night protests or fewer arrests and hope for a cautious calm prevail.
Still officials say over 150 people were detained. And that despite the grandmother, the teenager who was killed by police last week, calling for
an end to the violence, and now France's Mayors have called on people to come together to protest against the violence.
Joining us now is Nic Robertson. Nic, good to have you with us, I read this weekend that the average age of those that have been detained is around 17
years old. Are we seeing a sort of slowing pace in the protests and people sort of getting to the end of this violent period? What are ordinary people
saying about it?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: I think the sense here is that it perhaps has turned a corner this weekend some of those arrested
as young as 13 years old, an appeal from the President over the weekend, to tell parents to keep your young children at home and that's been one of the
sorts of central government messages.
But another message that's getting currency and you're seeing it behind me here. Several 100 people here gathered outside the Mayor's office. This
Southern suburb of Paris over the weekend was witness to one of the acts of violence that have caught people's attention in the country.
The Mayor was in his office, the protesters couldn't get in. They went a half a mile, a mile away and attacked his house where his wife and two
young children were and his wife was injured badly broken leg as she tried to run away. So there's you know, a grounds well of support that's come out
and said, OK, well we need to come out and say we want peace.
We want an end to this violence we want to support our Mayors. Interior Ministry says 99 different city halls across the country damaged. And this
sort of really falls in line with what Nahel's grandmother has been saying over the weekend, which this is time to stop the violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NADIA, GRANDMOTHER OF SHOOTING VICTIM: I blame the policeman who killed my grandson. I'm the grandmother I blamed the policeman who killed my
grandson. That's all I want. The police they are here. Fortunately, they're here and the people who are breaking things that tell them stop, stop. They
use Nahel's death as a pretext. Now they must stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[09:15:00]
ROBERTSON: And what you're saying they must stop is burning the busses. Her appeal was look your mother's use those buses stop burning the city halls
your mothers your families use the city halls you're destroying your own community. So it is a message that has broad appeal, because people do want
to see an end to this sort of violence in their communities.
CHATTERLEY: Nic, I have two questions on that I read that President Macron wants to help deeply understand what's behind some of this violence and the
anger that's being displayed beyond of course, that the death of the teenager and we heard from the grandmother there.
What options are available to him do you think to try and assuage for want of a better word, some of the concern? And the second question would be do
we know anything more about her health.
ROBERTSON: In terms of what President Macron is likely to do or able to do is meeting with the upper and lower house of parliament today, tomorrow's
meeting with 220 Mayors but this deeper understanding of something that his characterizing, or at least a palace has characterized, and that will take
place over the months coming out.
And in the past, what President Macron has done is meet with different groups around the country groups with vested interests. And it's not clear
right now who he'll choose to meet with, but listening to analysts here. They feel that there is yes, a deep rooted systemic racist problem bias
within the police.
And that's something that the government needs to address. And they would question, the government's not unaware of this, why haven't they dealt with
it before. But when President Macron says he's going to try to gain a deeper understanding.
People interpret that as he wants to try to get to the underlying reasons why you have this perceived and documented problem in the police service
here and how you can address that? But look, let's be very clear here. The government has treated this 100 percent so far as a law and order problem,
very large numbers of police on the streets.
That's why we've seen the drop off in the number of arrests and the amount of violence. But in terms of the government now addressing the underlying
issues, potentially, that's what is about to begin, but as you rightly question, precisely, how will President Macron do that? Will he have these
sorts of group meetings and go listen to people as he has in the past? Maybe we'll see.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we'll see. And this is children to your point 13 year olds. Yes, Nic Robertson, great to have you, thank you. We're back after
this, stay with "First Move".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move" and some out of the box thinking or maybe out of the trough in this case. Cows and other livestock have been
major contributors to carbon emissions that heat our planet. Well now some scientists are saying that they can also be part of the solution to combat
climate change too. Our Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WEIR, CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the beginning was the buffalo, tens of millions of them wandering the land munching wild
grasses and using poop and hooves to create rich fertile soil up to 15 feet deep.
WEIR (on camera): Look at this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WEIR (voice over): But since Americans replaced buffalo with cows, generations of fertilizers and pesticides, tilling and overgrazing have
turned much of that nutrient rich soil into lifeless dirt. But not on farms, where they graze cows, just like wild buffalo.
PETER BYCK, FILMMAKER/ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: Well, so adaptive multi paddock grazing, amp grazing is a way that mimics the way bison have
moved across the Great Plains. And so it's really about the animals hit an area really hard. And then they leave it for a long time.
WEIR (voice over): Peter Byck is a Professor at Arizona State University. And he believes that if enough beef and dairy operations copy this simple
hack, cattle could actually become an ally in the fight against climate change.
BYCK: I anticipate we'll get a lot of pushback. Because people are not thinking that cows can be a part of the solution.
WEIR (on camera): Not only are you going against the grain of environmentalists who think meat is evil.
BYCK: Yes.
WEIR (on camera): For lots of reasons, you took money from McDonald's for this.
BYCK: Yes, I asked for money from McDonald's for this. I wanted to go to big companies because if they don't change, we don't get there.
WEIR (voice over): For his Docu series Roots so deep you can see the devil down there, big assembled a team of scientists.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were really interested in insects that live in poop.
WEIR (voice over): Experts and bugs, birds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, --
WEIR (voice over): Cows, soils and carbon. They spent years comparing five sets of neighboring farms in the southeast. On one side, traditional
grazers who let cows roam one big field for months at a time and often cut fertilize grass for hay. On the other side, camp grazers who never mow or
fertilize.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We open a gate they go through it takes five minutes - - roll up a wire.
WEIR (voice over): And with a single line of electrical fence move their cows from one patch of high grass to the next.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not smelling fat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is how easy it is, Peter?
WEIR (voice over): While there's science is yet to be published and peer reviewed. Byck says early data has found amp farms pulling down up to four
times the carbon while holding 25 percent more microbes three times the bird life and twice as much rain per hour.
BYCK: If it's 1000 acre farm, it's 54 million gallons of water. That's now washing your soil away versus soaking into your land.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow, look at this grass.
WEIR (voice over): But this is also a human experiment to see whether data and respectful discussion can change hearts and minds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was grazed about 40 days ago. And this hadn't been fertilized in 12 years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we got out of spending money on fertilizer was huge. And I don't think that ever happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is such a stress relief. We just don't worry about a lot of it anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And they you don't even fertilize when you plant your grain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome, It sounds crazy. But if we're letting Mother Nature do the work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would it be an interesting thing if you didn't have to pay for fertilizer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would that be --
WEIR (voice over): Curtis Spangler is one of the conventional farmers in Roots so deep. And he says his mind was changed when he realized he now has
a way to double his herd and quit his second off farm job.
CURTIS SPANGLER, FARMER: And right now we have to dump thousands of dollars into nitrogen every year that really if we just change a couple things
might be able to save that money to put it toward other resources.
WEIR (on camera): Is that something you're committed to doing now as a result of this project?
SPANGLER: Yes, we're really looking and seeing the benefits of it and how we can work it.
WEIR (voice over): So as we hit the height of grilling season, a little food for thought.
BYCK: There is ways to produce meat that is not good for the planet. And there's ways to produce meat that's really good for the planet. And that's
the nuance that's been missing.
WEIR (voice over): Bill Weir, CNN, Jasper, Tennessee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[09:25:00]
CHATTERLEY: Wow, I can't wait to see the data on that. Imagine the savings in cost of fertilizers too. OK let's move on glamorous symbols of 20th
century nightlife are attending to Cuba more than 60 years after they began to feed. Patrick Oppmann reports from Havana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Throwing a party with 20 musicians for a neon sign may seem like overkill, but repairing and
relighting this pre revolution ice cream shop storefront has been a long time coming. Before Fidel Castro to power Havana was a sea of neon.
After his 1959 revolution, the government seized all private businesses and as replacement parts became scarce, the signs began to go dark.
ADSOLFO NODAL, HABANA LIGHT + SIGNS: Cuba was an early adopter of Neon, arrival Paris and New York in terms of the amount of neon.
OPPMANN (voice over): -- Adolfo Nodal, he co-founded a small band of mostly U.S. and Cuban neon enthusiasts who've made it their unlikely mission to
rescue as many of the signs as possible.
NODAL: Helps you see the city in any way. It brings back a lot of the memory of the city. People remember the signs from 30s and 40s in Habana as
well.
OPPMANN (voice over): With the artisans who search out and repair the signs. It's a labor of love that can take months. It depends on the
complexity of the metal structure, if it's in good condition, she says. If we have to make new parts, it depends on the availability of the raw
materials.
Unfortunately, none of these items you can find in this country, and they have to be important. Repairing Havana's neon signs can seem like a
quixotic pursuit in a city where aging buildings collapse every day and even when they are restored. The signs often stay dark during the regular
power cuts here.
OPPMANN (on camera): The sudden restoration and say that fixing up the sign is just the beginning of a transformation. The people are more likely to
walk down a well at street less likely to throw trash on the ground. And then when they're hoping they have Cubans is not just a restoring sign, but
a little bit of hope as well.
OPPMANN (voice over): Nodal says the signs are his small gift to the homeland he left at a young age.
NODAL: I'm Cuban American I wanted to come back and make a contribution to my country and I'm a neon guy, so I figure that neon would be a wonderful
thing to do and it goes in keeping with the history of Habana.
OPPMANN (voice over): His team's dream as they slowly bring the lights back is the neon signs are not just part of the city's past, but also its
future. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: OK, coming up on the program, Elon's edict, Twitter in a tizzy after Musk's latest mandate, a sudden change of policy that's causing
content confusion. We'll explain just ahead, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move". The opening bell sounding on Wall Street as investors begin a new quarter as well as the second half of the
trading year. How time flies? The previous quarter giving tech investors plenty to cheer Apple beginning the week above the $3 trillion market cap
here a solid U.S. economic numbers offset Fed rate hike fear.
In early trade today stocks getting in gear quiet trade ahead of Tuesday's July 4th holiday but Tesla zooming ahead by more than 5 percent almost 6
percent now after reporting better than expected second quarter sales and record deliveries.
Tesla's performance also juiced by price cutting as well as electric vehicle tax credits of course. Tesla stock a big winner in the second
quarter up more than 26 percent is actually more than doubled this year. I believe too Tesla's triumph helping contribute to the best first half of
the year for the NASDAQ actually since the early 1980s.
Tech up 31 percent since January, thanks in part, of course, as we often talk about on this show, to enthusiasm over artificial intelligence. So
Tesla sales and deliveries are soaring amid a Twitter user complaint outpouring Elon Musk announcing over the weekend that he's limiting the
amount of tweets people can view each day.
The days of endless Twitter scrolling may be over, at least for now. And that's causing some confusion among users. Sara Fisher joins us now to help
us understand and explain. Great to have you on the show. There are two things going on here for me.
There's the fact that Twitter's cut staff and we've seen frequent operational issues. And then we've had CEOs that are operating in the AI
sphere thing that they do scrape data to help build these systems from the internet. How closely are these two things tied?
SARA FISHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Oh, it's very good question. So let's break down the second part first.
CHATTERLEY: Right.
FISHER: Twitter is not alone in starting to make big changes in order to sort of create a value exchange that they think is fair for the data on
their platform. And you'll recall, Reddit last month, said that it was going to start charging users that use vast amounts of its data and its
back end data.
Twitter has also said that it's going to charge you know developers some have access to that back end data in order to make more money, but also so
that it's not getting you know plummet like hit by these big AI companies taking its data and not paying for it.
So Elon Musk has come in to your point, and said that he's going to limit the amount of tweets that people can see. So that way, he can block people
who are just trying to gather a bunch of information and data. The problem, Julia is that they don't, to your point, have the staff in place to be able
to make big changes without users really feeling the impact.
And you'll notice that Elon Musk oftentimes when he tries to introduce big changes, has to sort of retro actively walk them back because he doesn't
have the staff to ensure that the product doesn't get disrupted. You saw this when he tried to roll out Twitter blue subscription service.
Then yesterday, he said that at first, he would limit the number of tweets that a verified user could see to 6000, and then he increased it to 8000,
and then increases it to 10,000. I mean, it really speaks to the fact that they can't rule out big changes like this, because they don't have the
staff and the support to do it really efficiently and cleanly.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean, this is the key you can buy into the idea that actually trying to limit the amount of scraping and free access to data
makes sense. The problem is do you have the staff and the operational capabilities to enact it if you do?
One of the sorts of side lines to this made me think is does this force people who do see a utility function and I'm one of them? Twitter is very
useful to me. Does it force some of those people to say, OK, if we're going to be severely limited if we aren't verified to actually pay the
subscription and verify, is there a sort of backhanded benefit perhaps of this?
FISHER: I think that that's part of Elon Musk's calculus, because you've seen over the past weeks, he's made a lot of changes in order to push
people towards that subscription. He made it so that you can't send a certain amount of direct messages unless you're paying for that service.
[09:35:00]
So clearly, that's part of his thinking and rationale. But I do think that what he's going to face is advertiser concerns. Remember, advertisers need
a lot of impressions in order to slot their ads in between, if you have your sales team going out and selling on a cost per impression basis, and
then they're not able to fulfill those sales requests, because you don't have enough people consuming tweets.
That's going to be a really big problem. So even if there is a calculus here, Julia, that this could help bolster the subscription product. In
doing that he might severely undercut his advertising revenue, and that is his current form of revenue that really is still keeping the company
afloat. I don't know that he can afford to do that.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, like a leaky bucket, less ability to access tweets less eyeballs is not what your advertisers want to hear. I mean, you know, all
of these people, you speak to them all the time. What are they saying about the ongoing utility benefit of Twitter that sort of holds people in and
says, look, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt?
And we'll keep watching to see what they do, versus the changes that they're seeing and the concerns, I think, the valid concerns that they have
about this platform?
FISHER: Great question. So you have a ton of Twitter alternatives that are popping up. Mastodon and Postdot News and even Meta Instagram and
Facebook's parent says it's coming out with a Twitter like alternative.
The problem Julia is that to create a new social network, the barrier to entry is a lot lower right now, because technology is so much better. But
that also means it's a lot harder to break through than it was over a decade ago when Twitter and Meta and some of these are Facebook's big
social platforms launched.
So what Twitter has and it's sort of side is that it's the legacy platform. It's still the number one place where people go to have political
discourse, discourse around live breaking news, et cetera. And even though there are a lot of competitors trying to move in, it really does still,
even to this day, even under the chaos of Elon Musk have the scale to continue to be the dominant player.
And I don't see anyone moving into its space right now in part Julia, because the competitive space is just so crowded there's just too many
people trying to get in.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, fantastic to have your wisdom. Thank you for making me smarter. Sara Fisher, great to chat to you! We'll see you soon. OK, still
to come, Bed Bath & Beyond will live on well, the name will at least I'll discuss it surprising rebrand with Overstock.com CEO Jonathan Johnson after
this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move". A major ecommerce player in the U.S. and Canada headed for an overhaul in terms of its name at least.
Overstock.com is already known for selling products like rugs and decor right through to furniture items.
Well, now it's set to change its name to an even more well-known brand, perhaps Bed Bath & Beyond. They just spent $21 million to acquire the name
and domain of the bankrupt home wares chain but not Bed Bath & Beyond physical stores, which had been closing across the United States.
Investors certainly liked the idea. Its stock jumped more than 15 percent in trading last Thursday, following that announcement. And here to discuss,
Jonathan Johnson is the CEO of Overstock. Jonathan, great to have you on the show! I do feel like it's been a really long time since you've evolved
from a sort of liquidator out let store and an ecommerce business do you feel that this is a name that finally represents where you are today?
JONATHAN JOHNSON, CEO, OVERSTOCK: It does. It's been more than two decades since we were liquidator. Two years ago, we morphed into 100 percent home
and home furnishings company. And so our Overstock name I think provided real headwind with both our customers and some suppliers and so matching
our strong business model with the iconic Bed Bath & Beyond name, which more accurately says who we are. We think is a real win for us.
CHATTERLEY: You think suppliers would be far happier to do business with you when you're branded as Bed Bath & Beyond versus Overstock why?
JOHNSON: Well, you know, there are some suppliers who don't like the idea of being having any taint of liquidation on them. Bed Bath & Beyond's
generic meaning says just who we are, while Overstock's generic meaning is not who we are.
And I'll tell you this in the seven days since we were announced is that stalking horse bitter for the Bed Bath & Beyond name, we had vendors come
to us and we added more than 100,000 new products, Bed Bath and products to our site. So you know, our thesis that it was hurting us, I think was
really proven true, almost immediately.
CHATTERLEY: Wow! So this is suppliers that obviously have lost business with the collapse of Bed Bath & Beyond coming to you and saying, hey, we
want to sell our products on your website. And you're like; sure, we'd love to do business with you. So you're already capturing old business,
basically?
JOHNSON: Exactly. Some of those suppliers, some other suppliers, we just know that in our attempt to add breadth and depth of skews, this will be
something that will be helpful. We also think it will really resonate with the customer.
We were self-aware enough to know that the Overstock name was probably a headwind, and we're looking for a good way to rebrand rather than pick a
new name and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to try and associate that with home. When the opportunity came up to buy an iconic brand like
Bed Bath & Beyond and for the price we got it just made a ton of sense for us.
CHATTERLEY: You know, when I saw this announcement, it actually I have to say made a ton of sense to me too simply because when you live in the
United States, you get bombarded by emails from Bed Bath & Beyond and through your letterbox as well coupons that you can spend in store.
So my immediate thought was that you get access to a whole host of addresses, email addresses, names of I'm sure there is some crossover but
potential clients that you can immediately access. I would imagine that your marketing budget is about to explode as you try and access those
people and get them in on the website.
JOHNSON: Well that's absolutely right about the customer lists. They're -- the Bed Bath & Beyond active customer list is about four times as large as
Overstock's. And even if you peel out, just those that are bought in brick and mortar, it's still more than two times larger than us.
And so when we spoke to investors last week, we did note that we will purposefully deviate from our typical financial recipe card during the next
few quarters and spend more on marketing as we really try and talk to reach out and convert those customers to the new Bed Bath and even bigger Beyond.
CHATTERLEY: Going beyond now is the biggest difference actually that former Bed Bath & Beyond customers will feel is the fact that you have no physical
presence that they're not going to be able to walk into a store.
JOHNSON: Yes, that is a significant change. But I think a positive change will be two things one our product selection will be much broader than they
were used to in Bed Bath & Beyond.
[09:45:00]
They'll find all or most of the great products that they found in Bed Bath & Beyond were much deeper in furniture and rugs as you noted in your intro.
Also, I think that they will find our pricing at the new Bed Bath & Beyond just a little sharper.
We really focus on providing smart value. And of course, like Bed Bath & Beyond, we were a couponer. Coupons need not be quite as big because our
deals are already great, but it will feel very familiar to every Bed Bath & Beyond customer.
CHATTERLEY: You know when you made this announcement and I mentioned the share price reaction investors clearly loved it. It was unfortunate perhaps
that it masks some of the broader challenges that you're facing after a growth boom during the pandemic for online sales, that the macro
environment now is more challenging. Talk to me about what current Overstock future Bed Bath & Beyond customers are doing right now and how
their spending is changing?
JOHNSON: The macro environment in the home and home furnishing era is difficult. You know, post pandemic, consumers are really craving
experiences. We see travel we see concerts are a big deal. Nonetheless, Overstock for 12 quarters in a row; each of the last three years has been
able to churn out a profit.
So our business model is a good one. And when we added to the customers the Bed Bath & Beyond brought and its great name brand we think even in the
macro environment, we'll be able to perform well.
CHATTERLEY: Can you give us a sense of what your forecasts are, and how quickly you'll start to see the benefits of this sort of name rebrand and
the access to those former customers? What kind of boosters you're hoping for?
JOHNSON: We close this deal on Wednesday of last week and on Thursday we launched our site in Canada. So whether you go to Overstock.CA, or Bed,
Bath and Beyond.CA, you're taken to the Bed Bath & Beyond site. It's really lovely.
And we've seen an uptick almost immediately in Canada. We're going to kind of iron out the wrinkles use Canada as a beta test will roll out our Bed
Bath & Beyond site in the U.S. in early August. So until then we're really not going to know what its impact is. But we think it's going to be very
positive.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, but you don't hang it around. This is fast moving changes and get on out there. Jonathan, I'll let you go because I know you're a
busy man much to do. Jonathan Johnson there sir thank you for coming on to talk --
JOHNSON: Thank you for having me and nice to chat with you.
CHATTERLEY: Likewise. Thank you. OK coming up here on "First Move" Yellen heading to Beijing, Washington's latest bid to fix economic ties with China
right after this.
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[09:50:00]
CHATTERLEY: China has imposing strict export restrictions on some rare materials used in chip production. The measures will begin in August and
the announcement coming just days before U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is set to travel to China in a bid to stabilize ties between the two
nations. CNN's Anna Coren has more from Hong Kong.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. Treasury Secretary will be heading to Beijing later this week to further improve relations between the two
superpowers. It comes two weeks after the successful visit to China by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reestablish dialogue.
Janet Yellen is expected to meet with her Chinese counterpart and other high ranking officials for what we are hearing will be constructive and
frank conversations. But like with Blinken's trip, officials say they are not expecting any significant breakthroughs.
She is not expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Yellen has long signaled the Biden Administration's desire to improve communications
with the Chinese and lower the temperature between the world's two largest economies, which are deeply entwined.
Back in April while giving testimony before Congress, she stressed the importance of maintaining ties with China, and said that decoupling would
be a big mistake. And last month at the Paris Finance Summit on stage with Chinese Premier Li Jiang, she said, as the world's two largest economies,
we also have a responsibility to work together on global issues. It is something the world expects of us.
Yellen's trip comes at a time of heightened uncertainty for the global economy. China is struggling to reboot its economy post COVID following a
slew of poor economic data, while the U.S. is trying to contain inflation and avoid recession.
Global challenges and mutual areas of concern will no doubt be on the agenda but the airing of grievances is also a priority. The U.S. has
imposed sweeping restrictions on China's access to advanced technology, specifically semiconductor technology, citing national security threats to
the U.S.
While the U.S. is concerned about the scope of China's new counter espionage law, and the challenges it could present for foreign companies.
We know that Yellen will be meeting with American companies operating in China.
There certainly will be a lot to discuss during her three day visit. But at the end of the day, there's $700 billion in trade between the U.S. and
China each year. And both countries need each other. Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong,
CHATTERLEY: And Saudi Arabia extending its decision to curtail oil supply through August and Russia is getting in on the act too. Right now we can
see Brent and WTI little changed in the session, which certainly tells us something.
Anna Stewart joins us now. Anna walk us through the decision by Saudis when I think perhaps was relatively easily predicted and how well we think
Russia will adhere to what it's suggesting it will now do too?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think you're right. In terms of Saudi Arabia, it wasn't really a surprising move here at all. But it is
sizable 1 million barrels per day. And as you can see from that oil price, actually, they're not really being rewarded for their persistence in
cutting oil.
Oil price there at $75 a barrel and actually, for Saudi Arabia according to the IMF, it needs oil to come in, I believe, around $80 a barrel $81 a
barrel to balance their budgets, so not really reaping the rewards.
In terms of Russia, I find this movie even more interesting. They introduced a very similar cost of 500,000 barrels a day in March for every
month for the foreseeable future. And actually, they really overshot it both in March also in April, they finally met their target, I think, in
May. But to promise another output cut, I'm not sure how convinced markets will be.
Also you have to remember that in terms of the incentive for Russia, to try and prop up oil prices, it's perhaps not as pronounced as it is for Saudi
Arabia, given there is a G7 oil cap that puts oil prices for Russia at $60 a barrel.
Currently, it's actually trading at even more of a discount than that at $57 a barrel. So same decision from two different players but I think one
is perhaps more believable than the other.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and a very different reception, I think, to this decision in light of the ongoing war in Ukraine after four straight quarters of them
energy price declines. So they're certainly seeing something out there in terms of declining demand. Anna Stewart thank you very much for that!
And finally, the most important question of the show to chill or not to chill? That's the question in the next great debate of 2023. What am I
talking about? Well, last week Kraft Heinz sparked a bit of a debate over an age old question how should you store your ketchup?
[09:55:00]
The UK based branch of the company tweeted, FYI, ketchup goes in the fridge. Exclamation marks. Later, Heinz asked the public to weigh in and
over 13,000 votes were cast. The result 63 percent of those that responded said yes, of course you keep it in the fridge while the other 37 percent
are just wrong.
I'm a fridge girl doesn't last very long either way. That's it for the show. If you've missed any of our interviews today, there will be on my
Twitter and Instagram pages search for @jchatterleycnn. "Connect the World" is up next. I'll see you tomorrow.
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[10:00:00]
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