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Quest Means Business
U.S. Adds 1.4 Million Jobs, Unemployment Dips To 8.4 Percent; Aspiring Writer Says He Was Lured Into Russian Plot; Interview with Mayor Francis Suarez (R-FL), Miami; U.S. Travel Industry Aims To Salvage Summer Over Holiday Weekend; Lionel Messi Will Continue At Barcelona; The Batman On Pause After Lead Actor Tests Positive. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired September 04, 2020 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Gloria, thank you so much. I can't wait to see this back-to-back documentary events. This will start Monday night at 8
Eastern only here on CNN.
And our special coverage will continue now with my pal, Brooke Baldwin.
[15:00:10]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Traders in New York need their long weekend after the last couple of days. Let's take a look and quickly see
how the Dow is doing. Basically flat. Mind you, at one point, we were down over 500 points. The Dow has obviously made quite the comeback.
Those are the markets and these are the reasons why. It is a tech selloff 2.0. The NASDAQ is tumbling for a second straight session.
Moscow's mayor plans a mass vaccination trial after new test results for Russia's coronavirus vaccine.
And know Messi divorce for Barcelona. The football legend says he is staying put.
It is Friday, September 4th. I'm Zain Asher, in for Richard Quest. And this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
Tonight, the tech selloff continues. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 are still pulling back from Wednesday's all-time highs, but nowhere near as much as
in earlier trading. The Dow is even flirting with actually a positive territory -- a positive day rather after a disastrous start.
Big tech stocks are giving back more of their record gains. Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft are all down Friday. But again, nothing like huge
drops we saw earlier.
Tesla has managed to come all the way back and Apple has been bouncing back and forth as the trading day winds down.
CNN business correspondent, Alison Kosik joins us live now from New York. So, Alison, just in terms of tech stocks. I mean, what was it that we saw
today just in terms of -- I mean, was it profit taking or was there something deeper at play as to why the NASDAQ was down so much?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: What I am hearing, Zain, from analysts is that this was really all about profit taking.
Earlier today, before we saw the market bounce off the lows of the session, analysts I have been talking about said the NASDAQ support level of 11,000
is what they were looking at. That's about eight to 10 percent from a recent high on the NASDAQ. It kind of got there and then bounced off it.
You think about what is happening here with the NASDAQ. It was only just a couple of days ago we were talking about how the NASDAQ reached a fresh
record high closing above 12,000 for the first time.
But here's the thing, we have been warned for a long time that these big cap tech stocks were overvalued. So investors have been looking at that.
They saw these record highs for these tech stocks and profit taking really seems to be the catalyst for the selloff that we saw on Wednesday and then
saw earlier today.
So it is not necessarily a catalyst that has anything to do with the pandemic, but it is one nonetheless.
And it is not just sort of a mission to selloff everything. This is a way for investors to sell off the froth here. So it is not about something
fundamentally wrong. I mean this is a market that has really ignored what's wrong, the pandemic, for so long.
So this is a situation where we have got investors actually looking at valuations.
We also have a long holiday weekend. The market is closed on Monday. That could be part of the reason you are seeing such volatility today -- Zain.
ASHER: And we will likely continue to see volatility through the U.S. election depending on what happens. Alison Kosik live for us there. Thank
you so much.
KOSIK: You've got it.
ASHER: U.S. unemployment is down in the single digits for the first same since March at 8.4 percent; 1.4 million jobs were added in August, but only
about half of the jobs lost in March and April have come back so far.
Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden says that President Trump is making the recovery much harder.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Economists are starting to call this recession a K-shaped recession, which is a fancy phrase for what's wrong
with everything about Trump's presidency. The K means those at the top are seeing things doing up, and those in the middle and below are seeing things
go down and get worse.
It is no surprise because the root of this is the fact that Trump HAS mismanaged the COVID crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: The latest numbers are giving us a clearer idea of what the shape of the labor market recovery might take, and most economists agree the second
half of the climb will be much tougher. The fastest jobs to return were in industries like online retail, leisure and hospitality and the Federal
government.
But a full recovery could provide more -- could prove more gradual. Fields like higher education, air travel and office workers may not be as quick to
rebound.
But there's also a potential plateau in play as well as jobs in brick and mortar retail and non-residential construction may never come back.
CNN's global economic analyst, Rana Foroohar joins us live now from New York.
So, Rana, I want to break down the numbers because unemployment coming in this time around at 8.4 percent. On the one hand, the good news is that
some workers who were laid off temporarily were rehired. But we also saw some permanent job losses add up as well.
Just what's your take on these numbers?
[15:05:13]
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Yes, well, you hit the nail on the head here. Temporary versus permanent layoffs is what we really need to
be thinking about, and yes, we had some strong headline figures there.
You see temporary workers coming back. The summer months have been good for a lot of businesses. That is probably going to continue maybe for another
month or so.
But what you are seeing is even in those August numbers, those who see their job layoffs as being permanent, that number is rising. So that number
jumped about 12 percent.
The folks that think, you know, I am laid off and I am not going to be able to go back to work, that jumped 12 percent, which is a really, really high
number and that says to me that we are headed into a deeper long term recession unless something fundamentally changes in the picture here.
And that's what you need to worry about, Zain, because as you know the longer people are unemployed, the harder time they have coming back into
the workplace, so that can be a really, really long process.
ASHER: And Rana, as a person of color, the number that stood out to me was black unemployment almost double the level of white unemployment. I believe
it was 13 percent.
What sort of recovery are we going to see for people of color? For blacks and Latinos? And how do he would make sure this recovery is that much more
inclusive?
FOROOHAR: A hundred percent. So you know, you heard Joe Biden use the phrase "the K-shaped recovery." That's absolutely right. This recovery has
favored knowledge workers. It has favored people who can do their jobs from home. It has favored people in the top 25 percent of the income spectrum.
And the folks that are on the frontlines, the essential workers, caregivers, people who work with their hands, people who work with their
hearts, you know, these are the folks that are either being putting put into harm's way by the virus or are seeing their temporary layoffs, in some
cases, permanent layoffs really take hold.
I think that what you are going to see now going forward particularly in the run up to November is a lot more talk about spending. How are people
going to afford healthcare? How are they going to afford their medications?
I think you're going to see Joe Biden really grab hold of that and push his retraining ideas, push the caregiving economy, push Green New Deal --
things that can get that segment of the population, people of color, people in the lower 25 percdent of the income spectrum back to work. I think
that's going to become a much bigger election issue.
ASHER: Let's just talk about the markets. We saw tech stocks, the NASDAQ down five percent at one point today. Obviously, it has caught back some of
those losses, but there was no real catalyst today.
Alison Kosik was just talking about the fact that it was more profit taking? Does that suggest that tech stocks, there was some frothiness there
to begin with?
FOROOHAR: Well, there was frothiness, but I would actually argue that there was a catalyst. Softbank, the giant Japanese investment firm was found in
the last two hours to have been buying massive amounts of tech shares in the wake of the pandemic, in April, in the spring and summer. That
definitely helped what some people call a melt up in tech shares where you have a giant investor in tech buying a lot of tech shares, buying a lot of
derivatives, pushing the market up.
And there are worries now we are going to see that tech bubble continue to burst.
ASHER: OK, so Softbank going on a buying spree essentially contributed to this. So just in terms of what's next for stocks as we head towards the
election? I mean, is the key question here the outcome of the election? Is it whether or not a Stimulus Bill is passed? What's going to be the driver
over the next couple of months for tech?
FOROOHAR: Well, you know what, as always, it is the Fed. Don't fight the Fed. I mean, you know, I've said this before in the last few years really.
The fact that the Federal Reserve has essentially kept interest rates incredibly low, pushed investors into more riskier assets, it has been a
key driver of the markets.
It is interesting though, if you were to see say a Biden win or a sense that there was going to be a Democratic sweep that would indicate higher
taxes. That might not be great for companies.
I would argue that might be good for the real economy because we are going to need greater public spending to put a social safety net under all of
these unemployed folks. But that could be bad for stocks and so you could see a correction in that case.
On the other, if Donald Trump were to spark a bigger trade war with China, if we were to see some kind of conflict in the South China Seas, that could
also rile the market. So I would say, buckle up I think between now and November. It's going to be very up and down with the S&P.
ASHER: All right, we will see what happens. Rana Foroohar live for us there. Thank you so much.
FOROOHAR: Thank you.
ASHER: The first peer reviewed study of Russia's coronavirus vaccine came out today. We will tell what you a major medical journal says about its
early clinical trials, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:12:31]
ASHER: A leading medical journal has some encouraging news about Russia's potential COVID-19 vaccine. "The Lancet" says it generated neutralizing
antibodies in early limited clinical trials with mostly mild side effects.
Russia plans to begin mass trials next week. Some officials including the Defense Minister have actually already been vaccinated.
Our senior medial correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen joins us live now. So the fact that this Russian vaccine actually did produce some antibodies, how
encouraging is that especially when you think about the fact that the pool that this data was gathered through was actually quite small?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, this is encouraging, Zain. But we have seen these kinds of results from other
companies, from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca who are working on a trial; from Pfizer, and from Moderna. So this is not new. It is good.
We want to have as many shots on goal as possible, as many possible vaccines. So this is encouraging, but this vaccine could still fail. You
don't know if a vaccine works until you try it in thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, which is what, Gamaleya, the Russian company plans to
do.
Let's look at their numbers that they published today in the medical journal, "The Lancet," 76 study subjects, so that's small, but that's what
you do at this stage, 76 study subjects all developed neutralizing antibodies.
Theoretically, that mean that that should keep the virus at bay, but that's theoretical. We don't know if that will actually work.
Now, it is interesting that half of them had a fever. The study didn't say exactly how long the fever lasted. Other vaccines they have seen for sort
of like a day or two, and while this is just unpleasant, it will be interesting to see whether this deters people from wanting to get the
vaccine because there is a reasonably good chance that they will feel not so great for a day or two.
So again, promising, but it doesn't mean that this will actually work -- Zain.
ASHER: And Russia actually begin to -- is planning on beginning mass vaccinations around October. So in about a month or so from now. Is that
the right thing to do, especially, you know, with the fact that there is limited data and there hasn't been a clinical trial for Phase 3?
COHEN: I mean, certainly that wouldn't meet U.S. standards, its standards or the standards of other European countries. What you are supposed to do
is test it out before you start doing mass vaccinations.
If you are doing mass vaccinations, you don't know what you are doing to people. You want to test it out in a very controlled way, with tens of
thousands of people, looking out for safety issues. Vaccines can hurt people that's why you do clinical trials.
You also want to make sure that it works. You might feel good sort of vaccinating a whole bunch of people with this vaccine, but if it doesn't
work, you haven't done people any favors.
[15:15:10]
ASHER: All right, Elizabeth, I want to show our viewers a disturbing new prediction about coronavirus in the United States. A widely used model now
projects that more than 410,000 Americans will die by January 1st. That's more than double the current death toll. If all restrictions are eased and
a herd immunity strategy pursued, the death toll could actually reach 620,000.
Elizabeth, obviously, these are extremely concerning numbers. What do you make of them?
COHEN: It is very concerning. It means that just over the course of the next few months, it is going to be dramatically worse than it has been in
the past six months.
Let's take another look at those numbers, Zain. Current deaths in the United States are almost 187,000. What this model projects is that by
January, if we keep up with all the interventions that we are doing, we are going to get to 410,000 deaths, so that's more than double.
They also projected that by January, if we don't do all the interventions that we have been doing, if we just sort of let this go, which is what some
people are advocating for, just let it kind of spread like wildfire and get immunity that way, we are talking about 620,000 deaths.
Those numbers are very sobering. We should note, this is just a model. Models are never exactly right, but this model has been quite reliable over
the past few months.
ASHER: All right, Elizabeth live for us there. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
COHEN: Thanks.
ASHER: Two months from Election Day, U.S. Homeland Security is warning again that Russian internet trolls are trying to influence voters.
In an Intelligence bulletin obtained by CNN, the Department says Russia is trying to sow doubt about the integrity of the election by boosting false
claims about mail-in voting.
In an interview with CNN, a Facebook official says the company is doing its part with massive investments in security.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK CLEGG, VP OF GLOBAL AFFAIRS AND COMMUNICATIONS, FACEBOOK: Facebook as a company over the last year or so now spends, now invests billions of
dollars into integrity security, not least to safeguard the integrity of our elections to the amount -- the amount that is now invested and that is
about -- slightly more than the total revenues of the company when it was floated back in 2012.
So that shows the huge shift in resources and technology, personnel and effort to do a lot better this time than what happened back in 2016.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: And just this week, Facebook banned accounts and pages that it said had links to Russia. An F.B.I. tip said the operation was run by Russian
trolls and recruiting unwitting Americans to help.
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, a freelance writer in New York says he was fooled.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JACK DELANEY, FREELANCE WRITER: I mean, this isn't the way I want to be getting media attention or getting notoriety. This -- I mean, it is
embarrassing, right? Like I wrote for a foreign government and I had no idea.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER (voice-over): Jack Delany is a 26- year-old aspiring writer who lost his day job at a restaurant because of COVID-19, so he was delighted when somebody calling themselves Alex Lacusta
messaged him on Twitter, offered him a job writing for Peace Data, a left- wing news website.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DELANEY: The message was, you know, saying, hey, we liked your work, would you like to write for us? Would you like to be a part of our publication?
We can offer you about $200.00 to $250.00 per article.
And at that time, I was like -- I mean, this sounds like a good opportunity for me. I can make money, and get my work published.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Everything seemed to look normal to Delany.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DELANEY: I looked at all the editors, or a few of the editors. I saw that there were LinkedIn accounts watched to their names. Their pictures were
popping up on Google image searches. So you know, at a glance, it looked legitimate
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But Lacusta wasn't who he said he was. In fact, he didn't exist at all and Peace Data wasn't an independent left-wing site. It
is, according to Facebook, acting on a tip from the F.B.I., a Russian influenced operation.
Peace Data says the accusations are baseless. The Russian government has not commented.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DELANEY: I am obviously no fan of Putin or the Russian government. So, it was concerning. Obviously, I don't want to have any association with an
authoritarian regime. So it was -- it was -- I mean, I can't put it in any other words that it was like one of the strangest experiences of my life.
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): But it must be quite surreal to hear about this and say oh, my God, I'm -- am I part of a Russian disinformation campaign?
DELANEY: Totally surreal. I was completely unwittingly doing it. I had no idea that they were linked to the Kremlin or anything. You know, obviously,
if I had known, I wouldn't have done that.
It seemed like -- it seemed legitimate from what I saw.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The whole thing apparently a Russian con. Each the profile picture of Delaney's editor, not a picture of a real person, but an
image of a face generated by a computer through artificial intelligence.
[15:20:10]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN (on camera): You know, I was looking at that picture and there is no way I could have told that there was anything off about it. That it
was a fake image.
It looked so real.
DELANEY: It looked like a headshot. It's just looked like a standard head shot of an editor that I have seen in other places. You know, it didn't tip
me off as being a fake image obviously. I had no way to tell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): And Jack wasn't alone. CNN spoke to three other Americans who were also coopted, all paid online and it was all done by
people linked to the Internet Research Agency according to Facebook. That's the same Russian troll group that interfered in the 2016 U.S. Presidential
election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DELANEY: I am more mad at myself for letting this happen than at like Vladimir Putin or Russia or anything. Like I should have -- I should have
my guard up a little bit more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: Donie O'Sullivan reporting there.
A top health expert is warning Americans not to let their guard down over Labor Day. Many families typically travel or gather with friends over the
long holiday weekend. Dr. Anthony Fauci says they should take all precautions, as usual.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We don't want the see a repeat of the surges that we have seen
following other holiday weekends. Particularly as we go on the other side of Labor Day and into the fall.
We want to go into that with a running start if the right direction. We don't want to go into that with another surge that we have to turn around
again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: All right, let's talk about this with Francis Suarez. He is Mayor of Miami, Florida, one of the top tourist destinations in the United States.
So Mayor, obviously people are tired of being confined during this pandemic. How much of an influx are you expecting to Miami this weekend?
MAYOR FRANCIS SUAREZ (R-FL), MIAMI: Not as much, obviously, as we would otherwise, and not very much at all. We just opened in-door dining this
week. We have not lifted the curfew. We have a 10:00 p.m. curfew. Our county still has implemented a 10:00 p.m. curfew, so that is still in
effect.
And our airport has been operating at about 10 percent of its normal capacity. We usually have about 50 million passengers a year. We are
operating about five million passenger a year rate.
So, we think it is obviously going to be a slow weekend. We are hoping, as Dr. Fauci said, that we can come out of it successful so that we can
potentially lift some of the other mitigating factors like the curfew or at least extend the curfew a little longer.
ASHER: So you are expecting a relatively slow weekend, but even with the people who are coming to Miami this weekend, what are you saying to them?
So, obviously, beaches are open in Florida. What are you saying to them in terms of what the rules are about mask wearing and that sort of thing?
SUAREZ: We are stressing the fact we are going to be enforcing, we have a mask in public rule and I think that's one of the reasons we went from a
high of 3,500 cases per day to where we are right now which is about 500 or 600 cases a day, so that's about one-seventh our high point.
So we believe that the big part of that is the fact that we are vigorously enforcing a mask in public rule. So that's something that we are -- we want
to notify people who are coming in from out of town.
We want to remind our residents that we are going to continue to enforce that, because like you said, you know, a lot of it, it comes from our own
residents, and now, we have to continue to be vigilant.
If we are not vigilant, we can see another spike especially with flu season coming along. I think we are very concerned about the combination of flu
season happening over the next few months.
ASHER: Dr. Anthony Fauci touched on this. He didn't elaborate, but in that soundbite I just played, he sort of hinted at it that typically the U.S.
sees a rise in cases after holiday weekends.
We saw it happen after Memorial Day. We saw it happen after July 4th. Even though you are expecting somewhat of a slower weekend especially compared
to normal standards, how are you preparing for the possibility there will be a rise in cases?
SUAREZ: He is absolutely right. I mean, there certainly is a possibility that we could see a rise in cases, and that's usually -- you know Memorial
Day, we saw a rise in cases afterward and we have seen it just in holidays and things of that nature. So he is absolutely right about that.
We are hoping that the mask in public avoid that from happening. But certainly, that could be a possibility. We are ready for it. We are nowhere
near the worst point where we were just a few weeks ago.
But, you know, we are hoping that as he said that we build a little bit of momentum coming out of this long weekend so we can go into the fall, which
is flu season, you know with a diminished number of cases.
ASHER: And how much has Miami suffered economically because of the limited tourist numbers?
SUAREZ: It is hard to even quantify. Just our government alone -- we had a $20 million surplus going into COVID and we finished the year with a $25
million deficit, so that's $45 million swing.
Our incoming year which begins October 1st. We have a $30 million deficit. That's just the government.
Our city, you know, was booming, growing by double digits every year. So this is something that has impacted our economy greatly, and there is a lot
of human suffering on the economic side as there is on the healthcare side.
[15:25:12]
ASHER: So just in order sort of not to make the situation any worse than it already is, especially when it comes to the health perspective, do you
think that Miami should have open beaches? Should there be indoor dining given that we are really not out of the woods just yet from a viral
perspective?
SUAREZ: It is a tough -- you know, it is tough. We have had the beaches open while we have seen this drop from 3,500 to 500. We have had outdoor
dining and in fact, we have expanded outdoor dining to allow for a pretty robust outdoor dining.
And we have seen counties slightly to the north of us, Broward County which is just north of us has in-door dining and they have a lower positivity
rate and lower per day case rate than we do.
So there is precedent for seeing other localities that are nearby still diminish their numbers even though they have in-door dining.
ASHER: Francis Suarez, Mayor of Miami, Florida. Thank you so much for being with us.
Good luck for this weekend, by the way.
All right, still to come, the head of IAG says it could be three years before air travel is back to normal. Part one of Richard's exit interview
with Willie Walsh, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: Hello, everyone. I'm Zain Asher. There is more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment when we will hear from the CEO from IAG, Willie Walsh as he
prepares to step down as the helm of the airline group.
And the CEO of Tripadvisor discusses a late summer bounce back for the travel industry.
Before that though, these are the headlines at this hour.
Donald Trump is denying he called U.S. service members who died in wars losers and suckers while he was serving as President in 2018.
He says the report in "The Atlantic" is fake, but the the magazine's editor-in-chief tells CNN, he has multiple sources and stands by their
reporting.
[15:30:06]
France set a new record high for coronavirus infections with nearly 9000 new daily cases. The country now has almost 310,000 total cases but health
officials says that -- say that hospitalizations are stable. Search and rescue teams in Beirut are hoping for a miracle. Exactly one month after a
powerful explosion devastate the city. Signs of potential life have been detected in the rubble but hope is quickly fading.
A Chilean team has halted the search and now after reaching that destination and not finding anything. They'll resume again on Saturday.
IAG's chief executives as he hopes at travel will return to pre pandemic levels within three years. Willie Walsh spoke with Richard Quest days
before he's due to step down from the parent company of British Airways. Walsh told us that is wrong caused by the pandemic is unlike anything he
has ever seen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIE WALSH, OUTGOING CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES GROUP: It's the worst challenge the biggest crisis we've ever faced, you
know, people ask me to put it into context. And I suppose my career has been defined by crisis I've been taken over either lingers just after the
tragic events of 9/11. But if I use financial results to give you an idea, in the fourth quarter of 2001, after the events of 9/11, British Airways
lost 187 million pounds in the first quarter of 2009.
So, in the height that the depth of the global financial crisis, B.A. lost 309 billion, and in the second quarter of this year, B.A. reported an
operating loss of 711 billion pounds. So 187, 309, 711. And I think that helps just to give you a sense of how deep this crisis is, it's unlike
anything we have seen before.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Why didn't you take or seek government bailout money other than that, which was offered in the general
economy? I mean, your competitors have taken money by the billions? Doesn't that put you at a dramatic disadvantage?
WALSH: I don't believe so. You know, I have changed my views a little bit because, you know, as you know, I'm strongly opposed to state aid, and I've
always defined state aid, or a bailout as something to help a company or in this case, an airline that has failed or is failing. I think in this
situation, many of the airlines that have received state aid, were in good financial shape before this crisis and deserve to be hoped.
The thing that we have to focus on, Richard, there was a lot of this state aid has come in the form of debts. So, the balance sheet of all of these
airlines will be severely stressed as a result of this. Now we've taken the view that before you can ask for help, you've got to help yourself, you've
got to do everything you can, within your own power to as best you can address the challenges you face.
That's what we've been doing. So, I don't believe we need state aid, state aid, you know, I can't rule it out. So, obviously, I'm finishing up next
Tuesday, my successor Luis Gallego will have to make these decisions going forward.
QUEST: Look forward a bit. You've -- you sort of -- everybody hatches around 2022, 2023. And I suppose it's academic, whether it's one or the
other, in terms of getting back to where you were?
WALSH: Yeah, it's going to take some time, because we will be facing economic crisis as well. The global economies have taken a big, big hit and
that will impact on the airline industry. So, once we get through the immediate crisis of the -- like the association of prevalence, a result of
coronavirus. I think we then have to deal with the economic impact. So, we'll take time. But the restructuring that we have undertaken at IAG and
the airlines within IAG will help us to return to profitability.
But there's a long way to go, you know, we've got -- we have to prepare our own balance sheet. We've got to build up to get back to where we were in
2019 and 2022, 2023. I don't think it's unrealistic to believe that it's going to take us back round to get back to where we need to be because
don't forget, we have huge commitments going forward in terms of taking new aircraft into our fleets and they've all got to be paid.
And that that has to come from our own resources. And there's huge work to be done. But I'm confident that we and other airlines within the industry
will be able to do so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: And you can see more of Richard's interview with Willie Walsh on Tuesday, his final day as head of IAG and he reflects on his career in the
aviation industry. Here on this program we've heard from travel experts trying to make heads of how to move forward. Many told us the changing
nature of this pandemic makes planning much more difficult.
[15:35:13]
JOZSEF VARADI, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WIZZ AIR: It's a difficult time for the whole industry. And certainly, we are not immune from the situation.
And clearly this has become kind of a roller coaster. So, we are seeing markets and countries going up and down.
OSCAR MUNOZ, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, UNITED AIRLINE: To be the size of the industry is going to be 30, 40, maybe 50 percent lower for some time.
HARRY THEOHARIS, GREEK TOURISM MINISTER: Nobody knows the end date yet. We don't know only the, you know, health front. When we will see some kind of
return to normality.
BRIAN CHESKY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AIRBNB: So, what we need is we need ways for people to feel comfortable getting on airplanes, and feel
comfortable crossing borders. If that doesn't happen, then you're going to have some winners, which are big domestic economies, you're going to have
losers, which are basically going to be people that require tourism as an import and that's going to be very important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: The U.S. travel industry is still hoping for a strong finish to what has been a very, very difficult summer, Labor Day weekend will mark the end
of a very turbulent season. According to TripAdvisor areas that were once pandemic hotspots are staging a comeback, all of it as its top five, four
destinations are on the beach with three and a Florida and the others in New Jersey and South Carolina.
TripAdvisor CEO, Steve Kaufman joins us live now from Newton, Massachusetts. Steve, thank you so much for being with us. So, what are you
noticing right now in terms of trends as to where people are traveling to if at all this time of year?
STEVE KAUFMAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, TRIPADVISOR: Let's see. The biggest trend is certainly to move and stay closer to home. So, it's the road trip. It's
going to outdoor places like beaches but also hiking and other activities where you're not with a lot of other people in the city center. So, some of
the biggest declines are the -- are what you would expect a New York City. Now even in Miami is a bit crowded whereas Key Largo or Key West, much more
open spaces, or Myrtle Beach, these are the type of locations that have a lot of appeal for Americans right now.
ASHER: So, as you're suggesting, I mean, it's really areas or countries that have domestic tourist destinations that are faring better. For
countries that have always relied solely on international tourists. What can they do at a time like this?
KAUFMAN: Well, the best suggestion I would have would be to really drive home, how safe their areas are for the worldwide travelers, or at least the
folks that are legally allowed to travel to that particular destination. So, you take Greece as an example. They've done a very good job as you
really reported on how, how to keep travelers safe during their vacations. And so, they have been able to grow perhaps better than some others.
Where there's been travel quarters and one of the E.U. is coming together to help form a system that allows travelers to really know where they can
and cannot go. I think those were all really wonderful developments to help travelers feel safe and feel confident that their trips won't be
interrupted.
ASHER: What about the places that are seeing a sudden influx of domestic tourists that aren't necessarily used to that kind of tourism? I mean, is
there a risk or a fear of over tourism in cities and towns that aren't used to it?
KAUFMAN: I don't think there's really anywhere around the country around the world right now that's too concerned about over tourism because as the
international travel may have shifted more domestically, it's probably more of a -- of a blip. We really do encourage everyone, certainly all the
locations that are looking to attract the domestic tourism industry to play it really, really safely.
Put on the mask, set the very clear guidelines so that none of these -- none of these Labor Day vacations, none of these upcoming vacations turn
any location into a hot spot. That would just be terrible for the short term and of course, long term for the travel industry and in of course, the
whole country.
ASHER: Right? So, if hotels and various businesses show that they're taking this very, very seriously in terms of mass squaring and enforcing rules
about social distancing, and they might be able to your people, your tourists, to spend money with them. However, what about actually getting
people to cross borders? That's something completely different. How to -- how do you actually encourage people and show people that it's actually
still safe to get on a plane and cross an international border at a time like this?
KAUFMAN: I mean, it's also tied together. So, if the country is doing well, keeping the overall case slowed down, they're going to be a more natural
destination. And that's whether -- it's a domestic traveler or whether it's just keeping the nightclubs close so that the spread is less. When it comes
to making it making a traveler feels safe, whether it's a domestic trip or an international trip, it's about how can that traveler get the information
that both the destination as well as the hotels and the restaurants care?
[15:40:06]
KAUFMAN: We have a great travel safe initiative of TripAdvisor where close to 100,000 different properties and restaurants have uploaded safety
information so that their guests can feel safe. And that's something I encourage every hotel, every restaurant to go ahead and do. It's free on
our site, of course, but then as a traveler, you get to come and in planning your trip, you really want to know the information.
It's where I'm going, taking this virus seriously, and specifically, what are they doing?
ASHER: Yes, that really is key. Just understanding what companies are doing. Steve Kaufman live for my fresh there. Thank you so much. All right.
Still ahead. Robert Patterson is the movie star of the moment starring in two of the industry's biggest projects, we'll look at how Hollywood is
banking on them for the sake of the future. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: South Korea's trade minister says we're at a moment of opportunity for the WTO. You mean he worked on the TPP replacement and the renegotiated
trade deal with the United States. Now she's one of eight candidates hoping to become the next head of the World Trade Organization. She told Richard
why she could lead it through the turbulent times.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOO MYUNG-HEE, SOUTH KOREA TRADE MINISTER: And we need a new director general who can deliver successful outcomes. And throughout my career I
have to negotiate, finalized and implemented numerous trade deals, not only with the major countries such as the U.S., China and E.U., but also with
the countries spanning all levels of development. And to close -- to finalize the conversations, you need to understand the underlying concerns
and interests of the parties, and also law have to make hard decisions.
And I have done this again and again. And I'm ready to do so again as the next agenda.
QUEST: But the U.S. has already put on the plate, a trade agenda that many other countries simply find unacceptable. And so, what does it mean to you
to have a doable trade deal? Is it facilitation, is it services? What does it mean?
YOO: Currently, there is one ongoing multilateral negotiation such as fisheries substantive associations, so this is the only ongoing budget
letter and negotiations at the WTO. And if we conclude these negotiations and deliver a successful outcome at the next ministerial meeting, we could
contribute to the sustainable development and also could show to the world that WTO is valuable and WTO is relevant.
QUEST: That's the point, that is -- that is point. Proving to the members that actually, it's not just a dispute panel, but there is relevance. You
know, this is -- this is one of those occasions where everyone says, we need reform, but nobody really wants to reform.
YOO: I don't think that nobody wants to be on because now usually when we had global -- historically speaking, when we had a global crisis, that
actually led to transformation in global governance and debt, could it be a moment of opportunity for another reform? In some sense, this COVID-19
crisis has forced us to reflect upon what is needed from the multilateral trading organizations and what should be done. So, this could be a moment
of opportunity for WTO reform and improvement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: All right. Still ahead. One of the world's greatest footballers puts rumors about his future at Barcelona Tibet wants to draw. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: Barcelona fans finally have something to celebrate this weekend. Lionel Messi says he will continue at the football club. After telling them
he wanted to leave. It means there likely won't be a huge bidding war for his services, at least for now. Don Riddell joins us live now. So, Don, it
turns out that if he did leave, he would have likely ended up paying a transfer fee of about 700 million euros which will be enough to make me
stay to be honest.
DON RIDDELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, somebody would have paid $100 million. He wouldn't have been him. And to be honest, Zain, it
wouldn't have been a massive bidding war because there's not that many clubs in the world that could have afforded to pay Lionel Messi. But yes,
this has been the most intriguing transfer drama story of the summer and it ends up that he's not going anywhere for now.
And Messi has made it very clear. This is not what he was looking for. He definitely did want to leave. He has said that he is very unhappy at the
club. But he's found himself in a position where basically he didn't want to have to go to war with a club that he loves.
[15:50:06]
RIDDELL: There was a dispute over the language in his contracts. He and his advisors including his father and agent, Jorge Messi, who were in Barcelona
this week negotiating with the club, believe that there was a release clause, or rather, there was no release clause and with a year to go, he
could walk but the club and La Liga who got involved just said actually no, this clause does apply. And so, Messi basically said, you know what, I've
spent my whole career here.
The club has been really good to me. I will stay, but he made it very clear that he doesn't really want to go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIONEL MESSI, ARGENTINE PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLER: And this is the reason why I am going to continue in the club, because the president told me that the
only way to leave was to pay the 700 million euros clause and that this is impossibly obviously. There was another way and it was to go to trial. I
would never go to court against Barca because it is the club that I love which gave me everything since I arrived. It is the club of my life. I have
made my life here in Barcelona. Barca gave me everything and I gave it everything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RIDDELL: That interview from an exclusive with gold.com. He's not happy, he had some pretty damning things to say about Barcelona. And he -- I suppose
he's now kind of a disgruntled employee for the last year of his contract. It remains to be seen how he performs on the field. And we'll find out soon
same season starts in a week's time.
ASHER: So, he says he loves -- he loves the club. The club has been good to him. He's given it everything. So why does he want to leave so badly?
RIDDELL: Well, yes, he loves the club. And he loves the idea of Barcelona. Clearly he doesn't love the way it's being run at the moment and he doesn't
love some of the individuals that are running this team at the moment. If you look at their results over the last few years, I mean, Messi is one of
the best players of his generation, arguably one of the greatest players of all time. And Barcelona with Messi we're used to winning great titles all
the time.
But if you look at what's happened in the last few years, the load has increasingly been placed on his shoulders. They've had some very humbling
defeats in the Champions League in the last three seasons. They blew big leads against Roma and Liverpool, and then they were thrashed a two by
Bayern Munich recently, they didn't win La Liga this year. The domestic title in Spain. This is actually the first title -- the first season since
12 years ago, where Barcelona didn't win anything.
So, he's really frustrated with the way the team has been run. And he's finding it very, very difficult to imagine a future there. There's another
coach coming in Ronald Koeman. It remains to be seen whether Messi will agree with that style and enjoy playing for a team under Ronald Koeman, but
it clearly now seems to be a situation where he's just going to see the last 12 months and then he's going to leave and go -- and go wherever he
wants next.
ASHER: Yes. So, we'll likely see a bidding war possibly next year. Don Riddell, live for us. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. He may
wear a mask and socially distance himself from society, but unfortunately not even a superhero can escape the coronavirus filming for the new Batman
movie is on pause after actor Robert Pattinson tested positive. It's yet another blow for the artists and crew working on the film in a year that
has already hit them so hard.
A spokesperson for Warner Brothers which is owned by CNN's ns parent company Warner Media says the production team is following appropriate
guidance. And the industry is hoping Patterson's other big movie Tenet will hope help give it a massive boost that it needs and with cinemas still
closed here in New York and elsewhere, Hollywood is banking on audiences in China. David Culver has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Tickets in hand movie goers in Beijing prepare for their brief departure from reality. I really miss it
before the pandemic almost every time there was a good movie, I would go to the theater to watch it. (INAUDIBLE) tells me. She is among the fans here
to see Tenet. Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated sci-fi thriller Produced by Warner Brothers which like CNN is owned by Warner media.
This is the first major Hollywood theater release in China since the COVID- 19 outbreak that is expected to attract large audiences.
China's allowing theaters like this one here in Beijing to reopen at 50 percent capacity. They've also got several seats, as you can see blocked
off allowing for some social distancing. And once you're here for an actual film, you've got to wear a mask the whole time. If you say, can I at least
take it off for some popcorn? It's not an option. Concessions are not being sold.
I think it's OK. It is worth it, Tow says. China's shuttered theaters countrywide in late January has the virus spread, only to begin to reopen
them with limited capacity and many film reruns in July.
[15:55:00]
CULVER: So we're talking about roughly six months of closure. How devastating is that for the industry here?
YING LOU, INDEPENDENT FILM PRODUCER: It is definitely very devastating. That means sort of lower investment for future projects. So that's actually
a pretty worrying trend, not just for this year.
CULVER: It comes off what was a $9.2 billion a year for China's box office in 2019, which was up more than five percent from the year before that,
still less than North America's $11.4 billion. According to the Motion Picture Association, but rapidly narrowing the gap. Experts expected China
to have overtaken the U.S. and Canada box office sales by this year. That was before the outbreak of course.
Now with a vast majority of theaters here back open and customers feeling more comfortable to venture out. China could very well become the most
profitable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone (INAUDIBLE)
CULVER: Though there have been controversial cuts from Western films here in the past, including censoring LGBTQ content from the Oscar winning movie
Bohemian Rhapsody, Chinese film producer Ying Lou does not believe U.S. filmmakers will self-censor only to reach Chinese movie goers. Rather she
thinks producers and studios aim to appeal to the global audience.
LOU: I think they sort of understand what can or cannot be shown in Chinese theaters.
CULVER: Tenet made the cut, so too Disney's live action adaptation of Mulan releasing in Chinese theaters September 11th. Movie goers adjusting to this
very different, movie watching experience post outbreak, perhaps making the escape into another plot all the more alary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right. Let's take a look and see how the Dow is doing. During the last few minutes of trade on Wall Street. We are down 129 points or so
there's been a lot of frothiness in terms of tech stocks, especially over the past few days, given that SoftBank has been buying a significant number
of tech shares and that really has fueled the rally. But today, we've largely seen profit taking, spritely began and looked like a repeat of
Thursday's losses.
But as we have drawn closer to the end of trading stocks have partly, partly clawed their way back. At one point the Dow was actually down 500
points or so, now you see it's only down 120 points. So in terms of where we're seeing positive gains, big tech companies like Apple which was down
as much as eight percent salesforce has still trails index off another rough day.
Meantime financial services are leading today, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and American Express are or towards the front. And that is QUEST MEANS
BUSINESS. I'm Zain Asher in New York. The news continues right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
