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Quest Means Business

Georgieva: World Economy Poised For Soft Landing; Israeli Forces Rescue Two Hostages In Southern Gaza; Woman Who Opened Fire In Houston Megachurch Identified; Nvidia CEO Says Every Country Needs Sovereign A.I.; ICAO Head: Sustainable Fuel The Pillar For Net Zero; Joe Biden Makes TikTok Debut Amid National Security Concerns. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 12, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:24]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: An hour to go before trading ends on Wall Street and this is where the markets are looking as we head towards

the close. It is up, well, we've given back to best gains of the day, but we are still about a quarter of a percent higher.

The markets and the main events that you and I are going to be talking about: A dream nearly within reach. The IMF managing director tells me the

global economy is poised for that soft landing.

Europe is responding to Donald Trump's threat against some NATO members.

And the chief executive of Airbus on Boeing 737 Max's blowout, Guillaume tells me it makes us very humble.

Today, live from Dubai on Monday. It is February the 12th. I'm Richard Quest in the UAE, and of course here, as elsewhere, I mean, business.

Good evening.

We begin tonight with a soft landing within reach. That's what the IMF managing director, Kristalina Georgieva told me here in Dubai. It has been

the assessment of Wall Street as well. The Dow is more than a hundred points higher, set to continue the strong rally that we've seen over recent

days.

Now, the S&P 500, well, it may be down just today, but bear in mind that is off Friday's close and it is still over 5,000. The NASDAQ is off.

Again, today, it could just be whatever reason, profit taking because it has been set in the high mark set in November 2021.

The managing director of the fund says economies have weathered the post- pandemic storm. Kristalina Georgieva told me they still need to be prepared for unexpected shocks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTALINA GEORGIEVA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND: Well, we are very confident that the world economy is now poised for this soft

landing we have been dreaming and --

QUEST: Are we there?

GEORGIEVA: We are coming there. Yes. We are coming there. I expect to see by midyear interest rates going in the direction -- inflation has been

going key for the last year.

Now, this being said, remember what we learned over the period of time since the pandemic. Expect the unexpected, so we have to be always tuned to

carefully monitor what is happening around the world, and have the agility to respond; not ever be caught unprepared.

QUEST: Now, obviously, we have the Middle East war underway at the moment. I mean, it is -- whatever the personal, whatever the suffering that's

taking place, it seems as if the ability to ringfence the macroeconomic effects, and I hate saying this because the personal suffering is huge, but

the macroeconomic effects have been fairly limited at the moment.

GEORGIEVA: Well, for the world as a whole, but not for the part of the world directly affected. We have looked into the impact on Gaza and West

Bank on the economies of Palestine, and it is horrendous.

Gaze, the economy shrunk by 80 percent. West Bank, it shrunk by 22 percent, and for the Middle East, North Africa region, we just downgraded our

projections from October by half a percentage point. Growth is affected in this part of the world.

What has not happened is to have massive spillovers for the rest of the world.

Yes, what is happening in the Suez Canal is creating a bit of anxiety because it affects supplies and we got really allergic to supply chain

disruptions.

QUEST: Do you fear --

GEORGIEVA: But not majorly.

QUEST: Do you fear -- I mean, if you look -- okay, so you've got the actual conflict itself. You've got the spillover effects for Jordan, for Egypt,

and for the region. And you've got, if you will, the Suez Canal and the sea.

[15:05:14]

Where do you fear most that things could get out-of-control?

GEORGIEVA: Well, I fear most of a longevity of the conflict because it goes on and on. The risk of spillovers go up, and right now, we see a risk of

spillover from the Suez Canal, but if they are other unintended consequences in terms of where the fighting goes, then it can become much

more problematic for the world as a whole.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Return from economics to geopolitics and war.

The Israeli prime minister is congratulating the unit that rescued two hostages. Mr. Netanyahu said it was one of the most successful rescue

operations in the history of Israel. The rescued men were 60 and 70 years old and dual Israeli-Argentine nationals. This is the moment they were

united with their families at the hospital.

The IDF conducted a series of strikes in of Rafah as part of the operation. At least 94 people were killed in those strikes according to Palestinian

officials.

Nic Robertson is in Tel-Aviv.

As I understand it, Nic, once they were executing the rescue operation itself, then the Israelis embarked on a lot of extra attacks, missile

attacks, plane attacks, whatever to try and draw the attention away from what was going on and to keep Hamas busy, if you will, while the rescue

took place.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. I spoke to the IDF spokesperson just a short time ago when we talk precisely about this, and

he described it this way. He said, for a long time, we've been planning the minute by minute of the precise Hamas targets that we would hit when we

were extracting the team from that building where the two hostages were rescued.

And he said, imagine yourself on the ground with them. It is clear by now because they've had a firefight inside the apartment, rescuing the two

hostages that Hamas is coming across the ground, that they are mobilizing themselves. And he said that the only way that they could protect the

hostages and the unit themselves as they were getting out of that particular neighborhood was to target those locations.

And I said, well, yes, but there were civilians killed and you're under intense international scrutiny and the United States, as it were in support

a big military operation in Rafah, unless there is a better way to protect civilians and he said look, there is no -- in that environment, there is no

other way to do it, that Hamas is intentionally putting these hostages inside civilian buildings, in densely populated civilian neighborhoods.

And he said, if we have to do it that way again in the future, we will.

QUEST: That is the heart of it, Nic. That there is no -- if Israel is going to succeed in Netanyahu's goals especially to rid of Hamas, there is

logically no other way to do this than they are doing it with all the attendant civilian deaths and casualties. I mean, that is a truism that

cannot be ignored.

ROBERTSON: I asked that question as well. What would be different because the IDF has been requested by the prime minister to provide a plan to

protect the civilians in Rafah and I asked that question because they said that, you know, the past methods that have been used have still resulted in

almost every day, a hundred plus, well over a hundred civilian deaths and casualties even with the mitigation efforts of providing safe corridors

that don't turn out to be safe, safe areas that aren't always safe and civilians that get left behind and left in the line of fire.

All of that, the spokesman wasn't able to tell me specifically how they will manage it differently other than he believes that they can do the

operation in Rafah when the government gives him the order. He said that they haven't received that order yet, but he believes that they can do it.

QUEST: Nic Robertson in Tel Aviv, its 10 o'clock at night. I'm grateful for you, sir. Thank you.

In the United States, the president, President Biden is said to be growing increasingly frustrated with the Israeli prime minister. People familiar

with the matter say that Mr. Biden complains that Benjamin Netanyahu -- that his advice to Benjamin Netanyahu is being ignored.

[15:10:04]

Biden has not criticized Mr. Netanyahu directly in public, focusing his remarks instead on Israel's actions in Gaza. This will all be discussed

today with His Majesty, King Abdullah of Jordan, the two are meeting at the White House amongst the issues, of course, how to bring an end to the war

will be top of the agenda.

Kevin Liptak is at the White House.

To a large extent, I mean, these two men have known each other for decades, but they are on opposite sides at the moment and whilst I would expect any

disagreement to be the height of respect for each other, will the King make his views clear, do you think?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I think he absolutely certainly will and he is arriving to these talks as a proponent of a

permanent ceasefire in Gaza and it would be hard to imagine him saying anything less than that in his meeting with President Biden in the Oval

Office and joining him here is Queen Rania, as well, his wife, who has also been one of the leading voices about the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza

since this conflict began.

So you can imagine when they sit down, start talking to each other face-to- face that this will be at the very center of their discussions and you see them arriving there about 30 minutes ago at the north portico.

One of the other things that White House officials do say will be the center of the talks today are these ongoing discussions to try and secure

the release of hostages in Gaza paired with a prolonged pause in the fighting. And this has been sort of an ongoing back-and-forth between the

US, Israel, Hamas, and those brokers, Egypt and Qatar.

When you talk to White House officials, they do say that this is reaching something of an endgame. They do say that there is a framework on the

table. President Biden is dispatching his CIA chief, Bill Burns to Egypt tomorrow to continue these discussions to try and bring them over the

finish line.

One of the real impediment so far has been Israel itself, and you'll remember, Richard, Netanyahu said last week that a Hamas counterproposal

was delusional. So there is still a lot of work to try and convince the Israelis to agree to something that would release the hostages, but

certainly that will be a major point of discussion between Biden and King Abdullah today.

QUEST: As the potential for Israel going into Rafah with all the consequences, is there a palpable nervousness at the White House?

LIPTAK: Oh, yes, there is a lot of anxiety about what's going to happen in Rafah. It transpired as well yesterday in a phone call between President

Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, a 45-minute phone call, and in that call, President Biden did warn him that a ground operation in Rafah could

just not go forward unless there was a credible way to get the civilians who are sheltering there out of place.

And when you talk to officials, they acknowledge, there really is nowhere for those civilians to go and it is hard to imagine in the view of American

officials how an operation could proceed there while protecting civilian lives.

So this is a major, major concern here at the White House, and it is another point of contention between Biden and Netanyahu. Just add it to the

list of concerns that American officials, including President Biden have with how the Israelis are conducting this conflict, you can really start to

see how some of those frustrations are starting to bubble over -- Richard.

LIPTAK: Kevin is at the White House and I'm grateful to you tonight, sir. Thank you.

As we continue QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, there are two large plane makers, Boeing and Airbus. When one is in trouble and there are safety concerns,

the other takes note. But as I heard today, it is not easy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUILLAUME FAURY, CEO, AIRBUS: But it is never good when an incident is happening, whatever the type of plane and this incident makes us very

humble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:35]

QUEST: Breaking News: Police have now identified a woman who opened fire in Houston at a megachurch and the event happened on Sunday.

Now, two people were wounded, including a child who was with her. The child is in critical condition and the shooter was killed by law enforcement

officers on the scene.

The weapon had free Palestine written on it. Investigators are of course still trying to determine her motive. Authorities gave an update at the

press conference in the last hour.

CNN's chief law enforcement analyst, John Miller is with me.

This has just happened now, John. Bring me up to date, please.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they've identified the suspect from the shooting as, Genesse Moreno, a 36-

year-old former real estate dealer, who apparently showed up with a seven- year-old boy who authorities identified as her biological son, pointed a gun at a security guard to get by, opened fire while claiming -- yelling

that she had a bomb and was confronted by two armed security officers who were off-duty police officers working at the church as security and then

there was this wild gun battle.

There are more than 40 shots exchanged between the suspect with the rifle and the two security officers, at which point the suspect was killed and

her son is critically wounded.

QUEST: So the motive, I mean, if she has got a gun that says -- allegedly says "free Palestine," one imagines there is either an anti-Israel and

antisemitic motive behind this, but that's still to be fully determined.

MILLER: So the gun had a sticker that said "Palestine" that was on the stock of the rifle, the gun butt, and during the search warrant last night,

as well as some scanning of the social media we've done, we found a number of antisemitic writings.

Now, part of this has to do with a dispute over child custody of that boy with her mother-in-law after a split from the husband and that is part of

the antisemitic angle, but we also have somebody who was detained on an emergency basis in a mental health crisis some time ago.

So what police are struggling with is, is there a clear motive? Right now, there isn't. Was it an antisemitic attack? It was at a church, not a

synagogue and we have a person who is acting irrationally and going through a mental health crisis.

So the motive may be confused. It may be in her mind and it may be something we don't fully understand now, or if ever depending on what they

find in the rest of their searches of social media and computers.

QUEST: John, I'm grateful. Thank you, sir.

The chief executive of Airbus has told me the troubles at Boeing make him very humble.

I spoke to Guillaume Faury during a panel discussion at the World Government Summit. That included the head of ICAO, which is the UN aviation

body.

Guillaume telling me he is not happy to see his principal competitor struggling with its 737 Max plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAURY: With our competitor and with the rest of the industry we share the objective of safe flights, safe mode of transportations for aviation, so

that's never good when an incident is happening, whatever the type of plane and this incident makes us very humble.

[15:20:12]

We are just thinking, again and again and again, what should we be doing to not be in that situation? And we will protect it from events and the less

accidents we see, the less acceptable each and every single accident, so the bar is constantly being raised and that's good. That's for the safety

of passengers.

QUEST: But related to this and I know I won't spend much longer on this, but related to this is the examination which we won't do here of what

clearly went wrong at Boeing, focusing on share for value, focusing on other things besides engineering and safety first, arguably.

To that extent, do you look and think, do I need to tweak Airbus? Do I need to just -- there is a red flag being shown to us, how do I respond as a

result?

FAURY: We are always challenging ourselves on what we do, on what we don't do, on what we should be doing differently to try to get better and we take

learnings from everywhere -- from mishaps, from what's happening in other industries, innovation, discussion with the regulators and the trends in

the industry, what's happening with digitalization and what it enables.

So we are constantly reviewing challenging and that's also the role of the governance in a company, of the discussion that the management is having

with the board and with advisory and experts outside of the industry.

We are in a very fast changing world, even the weather here today in Dubai is reminding us of the speed of change and the very volatile nature of the

world, volatile and predictable, complex, ambiguous, and therefore, you need to be constantly reviewing what you're doing and challenging yourself,

and I think that's one more ingredient of this constant challenge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And we will hear more on the sustainability question. You'll hear from the ICAO secretary general, Juan Carlos Salazar on QUEST MEANS

BUSINESS.

The German chancellor is calling Donald Trump's comments about NATO security irresponsible and dangerous. Chancellor Scholz is the latest to

condemn the former US president and the Republican frontrunner, who made these comments this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of the presidents of a big country stood up, and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and were

attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said, you didn't pay. You're delinquent. He said, yes. Let's say that happened. No, I would not protect

you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The EU's foreign policy chief has also responded, Josep Borrell, underlining the need for stability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEP BORRELL, HIGH REPRESENTATIVE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND SECURITY POLICY: NATO cannot a la carte military alliance. It

cannot be a military alliance that works depending on the humor of the president of the US on those days.

It is not, yes, now; yes, tomorrow, no; it depends. Who are you now? Come on. Let's be serious. Let's be serious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now, Fabrice Pothier is a former director of policy planning at NATO, and the current CEO of Rasmussen Global. He is with me from Brussels.

But if you look at what for instance, Senator Graham and Republicans in the United States, they are saying, hey, you know what you're going to get with

Trump. You shouldn't be surprised he said this sort of thing before and see, it has been very successful in getting European recalcitrance to pay

up.

FABRICE POTHIER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF POLICY PLANNING AT NATO: They are not entirely wrong, but where they miss a big reality is that, first Trump took

it a notch further. He is not just condemning the European allies for not spending enough, and he is not entirely wrong about that, but it is

actually calling on Europe's adversaries, NATO's adversaries primarily Russia to go after those who are not paying their due, and I think that's

taking it like one notch above what we have had in terms of fiery Trump rhetoric. That's when things go wrong.

Even though legally and technically, it would be extremely difficult for a future President Trump to take the US out of NATO and to breach away from

the Washington Treaty --

QUEST: Oh --

POTHIER: .. actually to call what makes NATO really credible.

QUEST: Okay.

POTHIER: You hear me?

[15:25:05]

QUEST: The question -- yes, I can hear you, sir. The line is breaking up, but we will persevere. We will keep going.

Okay, but here is really a problem. The problem is, what are you going to do about it? The more European governments or whether it be Stoltenberg or

Scholz or Borrell, the more they sort of whine and complain, it is grist to Trump's political meal. He says, ah, look, there you are, the Europeans, I

told you. And it just -- it does not have the effect that the Europeans want.

POTHIER: Well, I think it is not entirely accurate to say the Europeans are whining and complaining. I think, the Europeans actually are stepping up.

If you look at Ukraine, Europe as a whole is spending more money and putting more resources into Ukraine than the United States.

The United states is one ally. Europe is many other allies, but it is to say here, Europe has stepped up and should step up even more, but I think

you have to be accurate also.

However, while you're right, Europe needs to do two things. One is they need to spend more and better and be able to provide more for their own

security. It won't be able to replace the United States, but it can do better and still going on, it needs to remind the United States, the

Congress, the US administration that US outside NATO is a weaker US.

QUEST: I think though that perhaps, sir, with respect, you're missing the point here. The point is this is exactly what Donald Trump wants, because

this is the fodder for his election campaign. This is what Middle America wants to hear.

And telling the -- I mean, Christine Lagarde at the ECB talks about a worry of European values, but most Europeans are afraid to basically take this on

because arguably, Trump turns it to his advantage.

POTHIER: Well, I think Trump has to think twice and also, about his base because what he is proposing here, essentially, especially on Ukraine, is

to do Afghanistan on steroids, to basically leave and withdraw its support to what is strategically essential, a commitment for, not just European

security, but for transatlantic security.

So essentially, he would do exactly what he has criticized the Biden administration from doing in Afghanistan. So I think he will have to think

twice before really pulling the plug on the US commitment in Europe in general, and especially in Ukraine.

But where you are right, I think the Europeans need to step up even more even though they have done better since 2014, since Putin's first invasion

of Ukraine, but they should do more and better. And I think that's the key in what is going to happen in the coming months.

QUEST: All right, Fabrice, I'm grateful for your time tonight. Thank you, sir.

NVIDIA is the top-performing stock on the S&P 500 this year. The company makes computer chips that are basically the power behind the AI revolution,

but there are competitors and they are coming online, too.

The CEO of NVIDIA coming up next. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:05]

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. Together we have more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. The CEO of the chip giant Nvidia tells me countries need their

own A.I. infrastructure. President Biden has joined TikTok, despite the fact its ban on U.S. devices.

All of that half news headlines because this is CNN and here, the news always comes first.

Police have now identified a woman who opened fire to Houston mega church on Sunday. She's Genesse Ivonne Moreno, a 36-year-old woman who two people

were wounded during the shooting, including her own son. The child is in critical condition and the woman -- the shooter was killed by law

enforcement officers.

Sources tell us she had a criminal history and a bitter custody battle and there may be health -- mental health issues involved as well.

Donald Trump and his legal team are in the midst of a busy day. It is the deadline to ask the Supreme Court to review his claim of presidential

immunity as a hearing in Georgia related to accusations of impropriety at the district attorney's office.

Earlier, Donald Trump showed up at a federal courthouse in South Florida. Now that hearing is related to his alleged mishandling of classified

documents while the president maintains his innocence in all the cases.

Yes, Secretary Lloyd Austin is still in hospital after undergoing non- surgical procedure for bladder issue. 70-year-old transferred his duties to his deputy and he notified both the president and the U.S. Congress.

According to doctors, the prognosis is good, and they expect him to resume duties tomorrow.

The world's fastest marathon runner has been killed in a car crash in Kenya on Sunday. Kelvin Kiptum set a record last year, run the Chicago Marathon

in two hours, 35 seconds. The police say the 24-year-old run it was behind the wheel of a car when it veered off the road. His coach was also killed

in a third passenger and the vehicle was seriously hurt.

The chief executive of Nvidia has told me he's focused on opening new markets. Now, Nvidia makes chips that basically play a massive role in the

A.I. revolution. And you can see the way its share price has gone from back in February of last year to 15 up to 725. And even since February this year

-- I'm so sorry, directors in Feb -- I beg your pardon, the numbers are standing there at 15 percent this February alone. The cap stands at $1.8

trillion for the company, one of the most valuable on the planet.

[15:35:03]

Artificial intelligence is not only made in video rich, instead of a global debate over regulation, and the chief executive Jensen Huang tells me

different cultures will need to design their own guardrails.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENSEN HUANG, FOUNDER AND CEO, NVIDIA: In every single country, every single region, there is an awakening, the government awakening, social

awakening, that the data of their culture, the data of their society, the data of their people should be refined and processed and turned into the

digital intelligence of their own people.

And so, this is -- this is a -- there's a sovereign A.I. movement that's happening everywhere. Every country should protect their own data, they

should turn it into digital intelligence and A.I. themselves.

And the ability to do that is fairly available today. And so, we should go enable and dis -- and democratize the capability to do that.

QUEST: Isn't that inherently contradictory to the idea of global standards? If you have everybody trying to do their own, controlling their own, within

the borders of their own country, it's not the most efficient way of doing it, even if it might be perhaps arguably the most democratic.

HUANG: We should have underlying technologies achieve standards as much as possible.

However, intelligence cannot be standardized, cultures cannot be standardized. Common sense of different people cannot be standardized. This

region feels differently and has a very different history than different regions around the world.

And so, we need to enable every region to create their own digital intelligence.

QUEST: But what does that give doing that? If you think about the entire way in which this whole digital transformation has taken place, it has all

been based on a standardization. It looks the same everywhere. And now you're saying, well, no, actually, really democratization requires us to

specialize it back again.

HUANG: That's right. Transistors should be standardized. Internet can be standardized. Computing technology can be standardized, but intelligence

should not be.

And the reason is very simple. You want domain specific intelligence for healthcare, you want somebody to be a super intelligence for healthcare,

that's super intelligence for healthcare doesn't have to be super intelligence for anything else but health care.

You want a super intelligence for energy discovery, you want super intelligence for logistics and transportation. And these intelligence is

really ought to be created by the industries themselves, by the countries that specialize in these industries.

QUEST: Right.

HUANG: And what we need to do is enable them to do it, not do it for them.

QUEST: We are in the midst of a U.S. political season, that promises to be extremely volatile, my word. Do you worry that post the next election,

however it plans out, that the relationship with China worsens or at least the ability for you to do your business becomes more difficult vis-a-vis

China?

HUANG: Well, first of all, we're an American company. And so, our first job is to comply with the laws, comply with the policies. And with that --

within that, don't overthink too much about that, focus on everything else, focus on creating new technologies, enabling new industries and solve new

problems, open up new markets.

Then meanwhile, just whatever geopolitical challenges there are between the United States and China, it's opening up enormous opportunities everywhere

else, as other countries realize that they have to invest in their own sovereign A.I.

QUEST: Which Europeans are really tremendously. I mean, look at the digital privacy act in the U.K., you look at what the E.U. has done at an E.U.

level, it's quite extraordinary.

HUANG: That's right. Every single country, this is happening all over -- every region all over the world. I've never seen anything like it.

And the reason for that is because every country and every region, every culture, needs to digitalize their own intelligence. You can't outsource

that to somebody and you don't want that to be an industry standard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The CEO of Nvidia, and we had a long argument about how you say that name, and it is Nvidia. It's up to the word Latin envy, so there.

Still to come, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, some people think bamboo could be the key to climate friendly construction in the future. I'm going to show you

why in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:22]

QUEST: Welcome back, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. The latest research shows more than a third of global CO2 emissions come from buildings and infrastructure

and the solution could come from new technologies using old materials.

In Guatemala, we now explore how one enterprise is turning to the planet's oldest, one of them anyway, building materials.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the east of Guatemala, nestled between Honduras and Beliz, the forest of Punta Brava

held rich possibility. Abundant in a material that could be key to a revolution in architecture. Economically and environmentally friendly

bamboo is one of the fastest-growing materials on the planet, with some species growing by up to three feet a day.

TONO AGUILAR, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, CASSA: It's really a plant with unparalleled potential.

WEIR: At the forefront of this movement is Tono Aguilar, an astrophysicists who pivoted from solving the mysteries of the universe to focusing on our

own planet's problems.

AGUILAR: Ten years ago when I wanted to start an enterprise that created social and environmental impact, I was aware that construction was one of

the leading causes of pollution worldwide. Also, the construction industry greatly excludes a lot of vulnerable people. There's a big housing crisis

here in Guatemala so I thought construction was the best place to start.

WEIR: Since founding his company Cassa in 2013, Tono has overseen 110 projects building homes, clinics, schools, even a shopping mall. Each with

a focus on climate friendly materials like bamboo.

AGUILAR: Bamboo is one of the unparalleled plants on earth that can help us solve both human issues and environmental issues. As opposed to a tree that

takes 20 any or 30 years to grow bamboos are ready to harvest in five years. And when you harvest that, what happens is that another one grows.

It wants you to harvest it.

WEIR: A recent report from the U.N. Development Program foresees coastal flooding susceptibility increasing fivefold over the course the century,

putting communities like this one at Punta Brava, at serious risk.

AGUILAR: Bamboo has long lengths where it maintains its structural integrity. So that allows us to build houses elevated over the ground. All

of coast is subject to flooding. Thanks to climate change, it will continue to flood more and more so people really need to think in these low-income

communities about how they're building the houses.

WEIR: Cassa's working with the World Bamboo Organization to run workshops for the local community and how to plant, cultivate, and harvest bamboo to

maximum effect.

[15:45:09]

SUSANNE LUCAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WORLD BAMBOO ORGANIZATION: Our ancestors knew the benefits of bamboo. The indigenous peoples have used bamboo since

the beginning, and we moved away from that into more contemporary materials that now we realize have hurt the planet. Using that old knowledge with

recent innovations and technologies, improved engineering, it's an excellent example of using an old material for our new problems.

AGUILAR: We need to build with carbon negative building materials. And amongst the bio fibers, bamboo is king and queen. So I have no doubt that

in a few years we'll start seeing larger structures in urban settings using engineered bamboo. And we're excited to continue spreading knowledge about

this wonderful planet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Bamboo, and let us know what you're doing to answer the call. The hashtag is always Call to Earth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: The head of the U.N. body ICAO says that sustainable aviation fuel is the pillar of aviation's net zero ambitions. Juan Carlos Salazar join me

alongside the Airbus chief executive of the World Government Summit.

Now, some airline executives have told us that sustainable aviation fuel is simply too expensive, too scarce and too limited. The two onstage today did

not share those concerns. And when I asked them what the roadmap looks to achieving net zero.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GUILLAUME FAURY, CEO, AIRBUS: That's something quite simple actually. That we have managed to agree with the rest of the interested parties. Today you

have around 25,000 planes, commercial airplanes that are flying around the world. Only 30 percent of those planes are of the latest generation.

So, when you replace an old generation plane by your new one, you're reducing fuel burn by 20 to 40 percent, depending on what generation you

replace.

And a lot of the backlog we have is for replacement. So, that's the first step. The second step is those planes, the one we are selling right now are

not only burning less fuel, they're also capable of 50 percent of sustainable aviation fuel. And that's a very important part of the answer.

Because we're starting to go from fossil fuels to sustainable aviation fuel. And the ramp up of SAF is a very strong and important ingredient to

that equation.

[15:50:04]

QUEST: How -- no, because I'm going to jump in here, if I may. How significant is SAF? Sustainable aviation fuel, you'll hear us use that

phrase again and again. How significant is SAF to achieving net zero?

JUAN CARLOS SALAZAR, SECRETARY GENERAL, ICAO: It's the pillar. It's the pillar because the technology is now available, as Guillaume was just

mentioning, is available in aircraft around the globe. And governments are now focused on aiming and scaling up the production and distribution

availability of sustainable aviation fuels globally.

QUEST: Just remind us the percentage of sustainable aviation fuel currently being used by airlines.

FAURY: Less than one percent.

QUEST: That's --

FAURY: Less than one percent of the fuel that is being used by airlines today is made of sustainable aviation fuel cells. So, we're just at the

beginning of the transition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: That's the CEO of Airbus.

President Biden's become one of TikTok's most controversial creators overnight, post his first TikTok during Sunday's Super Bowl, it was meant

to promote his presidential campaign. Instead, it's shifting the conversation to security risks and hypocrisy. Why?

In 2022, the president signed legislation that blocked TikTok for most government devices. The chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee says the

new video sends mixed messages and the White House says the government's policy hasn't changed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, PRESS SECRETARY, PENTAGON: I cannot speak what -- nor will I speak for the campaign. I can't do that on their decisions. Nothing's

changed about the national security concerns from the NSC's perspective about the use of TikTok on government devices, that policy is still in

place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Harry is with me. Harry Enten and Claire Duffy, both are in New York. Harry to you first. Why has he done this?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, it's simple. First off, he's struggling with voters under the age of 30, right, 18 to 29-year-olds, he

won them by more than 20 points back in 2020. And now his lead, if he has a lead is less than 10 points over former President Trump.

But it's more than that. He knows that the kids are on TikTok, you know, regularly get their news source from TikTok 18 to 29-year-olds that was

just nine percent back in 2020. It's now up to a third of younger voters.

So, he's struggling with younger voters knows that TikTok is a way to reach them.

QUEST: Security risks, Claire, I mean, we -- I mean, I guess it's sort of what's the security risk of a 20-year-old looking at it, who's not in a

sensitive position. But there's a whiff of hypocrisy about it.

CLAIRE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: It is interesting, Richard, I mean, it was just about a year ago that the Biden White House was directing federal

agencies to remove TikTok from all government owned devices.

We've seen similar steps from nearly half of U.S. states from Congress from the U.S. military, not to mention other countries. And all of these

concerns are rooted in worries about TikTok's connection to its Chinese parent company ByteDance. There are fears that because of Chinese law,

China's government could request us user data from these U.S. TikTok users.

And sure, you know, you can say does tick tock really care? Does the Chinese government really care about what I'm doing on TikTok what a 20-

year-old voter is doing on TikTok, but there are worries that things like location data or I.P. addresses could be used by the Chinese government for

intelligence operations.

Of course, TikTok has pushed back on this, the company says that it hasn't been asked nor has it ever given U.S. user data to the Chinese government.

But it is interesting that we've seen so many concerns about this from the Biden administration, and yet here he is on TikTok campaigning.

QUEST: You know, Harry, I'm not sure which is worse or would be seen as worse, the hypocrisy of joining something that you've sort of banned

elsewhere? Or the vision, which, you know, I always think whenever people of a certain age do things that they've maybe shouldn't. It's like watching

our parents disco dancing.

I mean, he's trying to be hipper than hip. And it's just not going to work. He's going to look like he's wearing an ill-fitting wig.

ENTEN: I mean, look, I don't know anything about wigs with my hair. But I would just say this, hypocrisy is a part of American politics, right? The

idea that someone's going to be, you know, go through hypocrisy. What a big surprise that is, right. So, I don't think Biden's too concerned.

I will note, you know, a lot of voters do believe or a lot of Americans do believe that TikTok may be sharing data with the Chinese government. And

there are a lot of Americans in fact, the plurality who think that TikTok should be banned in the United States.

But at the end of the day, on the list of issues that we're looking at, this doesn't rank particularly high and Biden, I think probably feels, you

know what, if I can pick up a vote or two under the age of 30, I'm going to appear to be maybe a little hypocritical, because at the end of the day,

all politicians appear to be at least a little hypocritical, Richard.

[15:55:13]

QUEST: Right. Well, you wound with the sword. OK, finally to you, your mission. Should you choose to accept it, you're going to have to monitor --

you're going to have to monitor it for us. And sort of point out that over the months, I'd point out the best bits, usually the most embarrassing

bits, when clearly they've missed the point.

DUFFY: Gladly, I will be looking at the comment section on Biden's TikTok to see what these young people are thinking of these things he's posting if

they're cringing or if they're into it.

QUEST: Even LOL, hey, guys, I can feel my toes starting to curl.

To both of you, I'm grateful. Thank you.

Quickly for the markets today to update you because it's a busy day. And the IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva has told me the world economy is now

poised for a soft landing. And the markets are going back up again, rallying on that sentiment that are set to close around points higher.

It'll be a fresh record high.

The Nikkei -- the Nike is leading the way, I beg your pardon. Strong gains from Walgreens. Goldman at one year high. You got Nike at the top,

Microsoft at the bottom. So, I guess there's a bit of profit taking having had reasonably good gains.

We will take a profitable moment after the break. And I'm afraid today it'll have to be a digital bell. I left the real one in New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's profitable moment, very profitable if you're the CEO of Nvidia. And the reason is, it was an interesting answer he gave, this idea

of democratization of A.I. chips and the way forward in terms of A.I. because it does go counter to what we've been told about the necessity for

guard rails, the necessity for standard, the necessity to make sure that state sponsored activity, nefarious activity.

And so, I was fascinated when Jensen Huang said it really all this is about is making sure it is not an Americanization. It is national. And it does

relate to the cultures upon which it is involved.

It's a fascinating thought and when you look at the success of Nvidia, then you become even more impressed at how that company continues to push

forward.

[16:00:001]

And by the way, Ronan (ph) and everybody else. It is Nvidia after the Latin word envy, and that comes from the CEO himself.

And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in Dubai. I've got that digital bell to give you tonight. Whatever you're up to in

the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.

END