Return to Transcripts main page
Quest Means Business
BBC Apologizes to Trump, Rejects Call for Compensation; Blue Origin Rocket Lifts Off After Repeated Delays; Tech Stocks Drive Losses on Wall Street; Wall Street Closes Lower Amid Drop in Tech Stocks; Amazon Chief Technologist Says Robotics Leading to Job Creation; New Tech Allows Prices Respond to Demand in Real Time; Nobu Opening First-Ever Cultural District in Krakow. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired November 13, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: A bit of a rough day on Wall Street. The Dow falling sharply after hitting record highs earlier in the week. Those are the
markets, these are the main events.
The BBC apologizing to President Trump for editing parts of his speech on January 6, 2021. Meantime, the longest shutdown in U.S. history is over.
The economic ripple effects, though, are not.
Adobe co-founder and acting legend, Robert De Niro speaks to Richard Quest about expanding his restaurant empire.
Live from New York. It is Thursday, November 13th. I am Erica Hill in for Richard Quest. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
Good evening. Tonight, the BBC offering an apology to President Trump for a misleading edit of his January 6th speech. The broadcaster though says it
will not show the documentary in question again. As for that edited clip, it appeared to show the President calling for violent action before his
supporters stormed the Capitol.
Mr. Trump has threatened the BBC with a $1 billion lawsuit. The BBC says it disagrees that there is basis for a defamation claim and is rejecting the
President's demands for compensation.
Joining me now, Max Foster and Brian Stelter. So we are just sort of getting the details of this, Max, and it breaking during your show. So the
fact that the BBC, Max is saying it, it will apologize -- apologizing here, but is not going to pay compensation. There has been so much talk about how
this is playing out in the U.K. over the last several weeks. How is this going to be received?
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the compensation, I mean, that's a big headline. I will be interested to hear what Brian says about this, but
according to the statement, "The BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited. We strongly disagree there is a basis for a
defamation claim."
I think that's the general view of lawyers I have spoken to on both sides of the Atlantic, that there isn't a case here that would win in court, a
libel case in particular, but it doesn't necessarily -- this statement doesn't say there won't be, compensation outside a court. So there may be
compensation, but you know, it is not written into the statement, but it might be happening offline, I guess.
HILL: So there could be more to come.
Brian, to that point, you know, as Max noted, you know, they are saying they don't believe there is a case here whether or not there is a case has
not actually stopped the President before from moving forward in similar situations.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Absolutely right. And the Trump White House has really twisted the knife this week trying to make this hurt
as much as possible for the BBC. Yesterday, for example, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt highlighting one of those wannabe up (AUDIO GAP).
HILL: We may have a problem with Brian's shot there. We will try to get it back. But Max, as we were talking there, and you noted, right, of course,
that the BBC is saying they don't think there is a case here, as Brian was talking about.
This wouldn't be the first time, and we often see as we wait for more reaction from The White House, we will see from the President and those in
his circle that they will continue to go after anywhere where the President feels he has been wronged. So it is interesting, as you note, that while
there may not be compensation here, perhaps there could be something else somewhere else.
FOSTER: I think we are all looking at The White House to see if this is enough for Donald Trump, who is very clear, he wanted some sort of
compensation. He wanted an apology. He has got the apology, he wanted a retraction. They are also saying that they are not going to reshow this. Is
that enough for Donald Trump? If there is sort of versions of this up somewhere, maybe he wants that taken away as well. But it is whether or not
he feels it is enough.
And as Brian has been saying, these are often actually P.R. exercises for Donald Trump. Is it in his interest to continue pursuing a case to keep the
narrative up there, to show that the BBC has got a problem, as he has been describing? But, you know, the BBC is being quite tough with this language
here, saying we don't accept that there is a case. I am interested to see how Donald Trump receives that, because we haven't actually seen the
letters that have been sent to Donald Trump, including a personal one from the BBC chairman. Will he be placated by that?
Of course, as we both know, he is very difficult to predict.
HILL: Yes, he certainly is. That is the one thing we can predict is that we don't know what is going to happen.
I think we do have Brian back up with us now.
Brian, okay, we got you back. Those technical gremlins get us every time.
So, Brian, just walk us through in terms of we were starting to discuss the fact that it is not necessarily about the case itself in terms of a legal
sense. This is more about for President Trump, oftentimes sort of the case in the court of public opinion, if you will.
STELTER: Yes. It is also about dominance. You know, I think of the President as someone who knows how to squeeze. He will put the squeeze on
an institution or an individual when he perceives they are weak.
[16:05:06]
And so oftentimes media companies have to respond by showing strength. That's what "The New York Times" did when Trump sued "The Times" a couple
of months ago. That's what "The Wall Street Journal" did when Trump sued "The Journal," Rupert Murdoch a couple of months ago.
Other media companies, though, have shown a lot of weakness. Remember, Disney paying Trump to go away last December in a lawsuit. Paramount paying
Trump to go away over the summer. So there has been these different examples of fighting versus folding. The BBC here might be trying to do a
little bit of both. Right? Personally apologizing. But that apology is not a big deal because the BBC already apologized to everybody for the serious
editing screw up.
So writing a personal letter to Trump, we will see if that's enough to make him move on to a new target. But the BBC is signaling that it will fight if
there is a lawsuit, and I think that's the most important detail here. The BBC, not just immediately caving like some other institutions have in
recent months.
HILL: Max, and I know this is just breaking, so I don't mean specifically the apology in this moment, but this story itself, over the last several
days. How has it been playing out in the U.K.?
FOSTER: Well, I think everyone in the U.K. was pretty horrified as other people were around the world about the way this clip was edited. Also
horrified about how it took the BBC a year to sort of acknowledge it after leaks, and they were forced to talk about it. So that gave a sense of a
cover up.
I think there is a lot of embarrassment. I think there is a lot of people out to get the BBC and Brian has reported about this as well, there have
been agendas to try to undermine the BBC as the country's main broadcaster, but there is also a lot of people defending the BBC, aware that it is one
of the biggest content creators in the world, it does make mistakes sometimes, and these mistakes will happen, but they don't apologize quickly
enough. So there is a real frustration.
It was interesting hearing Donald Trump the other day, though, tying Keir Starmer to the BBC because the BBC is publicly funded, but by a tax, it is
completely independent and separate from Downing Street, and they -- you know, really reassert that independence very vigorously all the time.
But Donald Trump talked about how he felt he was close to Keir Starmer, but he linked it to the BBC. Keir Starmer doesn't really have any control over
any editorial standards at the BBC, but it will be interesting to see if he feels as though this reaction from the BBC reflects on his relationship
with Keir Starmer and the U.K. more generally.
Because, of course, the BBC is such so associated, it is such a central institution to the BBC. In many ways, it does represent the U.K.
HILL: Yes, absolutely. Max and Brian, appreciate it. Thank you both.
We are also covering a bit of breaking news out of Cape Canaveral in Florida. I am going to take you now to the Space Station. Just moments ago,
Blue Origin launching its towering New Glenn rocket.
So Blue Origin of course, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos. So the goal here is to deliver two NASA satellites to Mars. So far, it appears the
third time is the charm here, after two previous launch attempts were scrubbed. Janet Ivey joins us now, CEO and founder of Janet's Planet and
also the Director of Education for Explore Mars.
Janet, it is great to have you with us. So as we are watching this launching just moments ago, we are sort of in the window hoping this
continues to go well, as we watch the launch here. Just how significant is this particular rocket and what it is setting out to do?
JANET IVEY JOINS, CEO AND FOUNDER, JANET'S PLANET: It is very significant because it gives us another opportunity to go to the moon and Mars and I
have been watching the footage up until this very moment. It has launched from Kennedy Space Center and the even more massive, amazing thing is that
one of its boosters actually did land upright on that carrier named after Jeff Bezos' mom, Jacqueline. I mean, it landed right smack dab in the
middle of that feather on the boat, out in the middle of the ocean. So that alone is another great indicator that not only are the boosters like can
land that way, but they are reusable and Blue Origin's plan is to use that booster for its mission to the moon, which will probably deliver some kind
of lunar rover.
HILL: So that is essentially a win, right, as we are looking at it, the fact that it was able to land there, land upright, as you talk about being
reusable. When will we know if this mission itself is a success?
IVEY: Well, it is like it is in process now and the rocket looks good and based on all of the teams from Huntsville to, you know, down in Texas,
obviously they are very excited.
So far, everything is going very well. Now, it is carrying a very significant NASA mission called Escapade and Escapade's whole mission is
really about inserting two satellites that will work simultaneously in the Martian orbit, and it is an incredible mission.
[16:10:07]
They have to come out of that fairing, and then they will hang around at a place called Lagrange Point 2 for about 12 months, and you might go, why
are we going to park two satellites and not go ahead and move them onto Mars? Well, there is a very small window for getting satellites or anything
to Mars.
So those engineers will be looking at about 12 months of hanging out. Lagrange Point 2 two is this very steady, strange place where the James
Webb Space Telescope is that again, they can kind of hang out in orbit, be still until it is all systems go for orbital insertion into the Martian
atmosphere, and their mission will be to really discover how space weather affects Mars. Mars' magnetosphere, and we certainly have seen evidence of
that here in the United States when we had auroras as far as Florida this week.
In fact, that was part of the reason Blue Origin's launch was delayed on Sunday was because of all of that geomagnetic activity that was happening.
HILL: Yes, so it delayed the launch, but did certainly give us, as you point out, an incredible show here in the United States.
IVEY: Incredible show.
HILL: Especially in areas that don't normally see those kinds of vibrant colors lighting up their sky.
Janet, really appreciate you joining us. Thank you.
IVEY: Thank you so much.
HILL: Some pretty sharp falls on Wall Street today despite the end of the U.S. government shutdown, we are going to take a closer look at those drops
after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: Pretty tough day on Wall Street. U.S. stocks falling sharply. The NASDAQ suffering the worst. As you can see, they are down just about two
and a third, 2.3 percent there. The tech shares really leading the decline. Companies like NVIDIA, Broadcom falling some four percent, and all of this
coming as investors do expect the Fed will hold rates steady in December.
The U.S. government of course beginning now to reopen, but the effects of the longest shutdown in U.S. history will continue to linger throughout the
economy.
FlightAware says about a thousand flights were canceled today as air traffic controllers staff up again. American Airlines executives telling
their staff in a letter that normal operations could still be days away as controllers and many other federal workers wait to receive their back pay.
Investors meantime bracing for the release of delayed economic data. Kevin Liptak joining us now from The White House.
So certainly great news that the government is officially back open, but there will be some time, some lag here before things are back to "normal" -
- Kevin.
[16:15:07]
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and the federal government is an enormous operation, and it will take time for that
sprawling bureaucracy to kind of spring back to life. What we've heard from administration officials is that some of the key functions of the
government will be back up and running fairly quickly.
So, for example, those air traffic controllers, what we've heard from the Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy, is that they would receive 70 percent
of their back pay within 24 hours of the government reopening. But other agencies, it kind of varies on how quickly workers will receive those
paychecks. And one factor that is hampering it is a lot of these payroll offices have been cut down in size as part of the early downsizing efforts
that the administration took very early on in President Trump's term. So it will take time for this all to get back up and running.
Those food stamp programs that had been the object of so much attention, very importantly, one in eight Americans rely on them, that money could
potentially be reloaded very, very quickly. And state governors had sort of taken steps to ensure that they would be able to provide that assistance
very quickly after the government reopened.
When it comes to those air traffic delays that have really plagued the country over the last a week or so, that will kind of depend on assessments
by the FAA as they look to see whether the air traffic controllers are getting back on the job. You know, they had cut down and mandated certain
numbers of cancellations across the country because those air traffic control towers weren't properly staffed, and so they will have to look at
the data going forward to lift some of those restrictions.
And when it comes to here in Washington, you know, the museums, the zoo that had all been closed, those are starting to reopen tomorrow, the day
after that sort of coming back online after this record long shutdown. Of course, the other question is whether or who will bear the political blame
for all of this.
You know, President Trump seems pretty intent on laying the blame at the foot of Democrats for all of these services that were interrupted.
Democrats appear pretty certain that it will be the Republicans and the President who catch the blame, particularly if those health care subsidies,
which were at the core of the shutdown debate and which have not been extended if that causes health care prices to rise in the year before the
midterm elections.
I think if history is any example, many Americans will have forgotten about this shutdown before the midterm elections. And so this all kind of leaves
both sides of this poised to kind of frame the debate in this next year -- Erica.
HILL: Yes, absolutely, Kevin. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Well, while the government shutdown is over, the cost of living crisis for many Americans certainly is not. The government reopening doesn't really
change that. Bank of America research this week shows nearly one in four U.S. households is now living paycheck to paycheck, and those affordability
issues are getting worse for lower income Americans.
A sobering number to report here, foreclosures in the U.S. jumped in October. One real estate analytics firm says that foreclosures are now up
19 percent from just a year ago, and this comes as the Trump administration is reviewing new ways to make home more affordable. You may have heard that
earlier this week, the President floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage loan. Proponents say that idea could lower monthly payments, while others
warn it could actually just do far worse, not only driving up the interest payments, of course, over time, but also driving up home prices.
Joel Berner is a senior economist at realtor.com and joins me now. Joel, it is good to have you with me.
So a 50-year mortgage, is this really the answer to the U.S. housing issues?
JOEL BERNER, SENIOR ECONOMIST, REALTOR.COM: No, we really don't think it is. There is a very small segment of the buyer population for whom this
might be a great deal. Younger buyers who want to buy a forever home that they will be in for something near 50 years. This could be the difference
between the price being $200.00 higher in a 30-year mortgage, versus a 50- year mortgage, and the difference between them buying a home and not buying a home.
But for most folks, it is really not going to do much. And instead, the interest that's going to end up being paid on a 50-year mortgage is 86
percent higher than on a 30-year mortgage over the life of the loan. So a lot of people are going to look at this and decide it is just not for them.
HILL: Well, absolutely. Because when you look at just what they would pay, as you mentioned, this could be maybe a difference of if we are talking
about a $400,000.00 house, for example, maybe $200.00 to $250.00 less in payments for a 50-year mortgage at six and change percent versus a 30-year
mortgage.
But the reality is, when you're paying twice as much as the home costs in interest over the span of 50 years, you're not even really building equity
over the span of that. So does it even make sense from that perspective?
BERNER: No, it really doesn't. At a certain point, it kind of feels like you're just renting your home from the bank. And we ran the numbers, and
after 10 years of paying off a 30-year and a 50-year mortgage, you own about 10 percent more of your home with a 30-year than a 50-year mortgage.
And so being able to pass that along to further generations just gets more and more difficult when more and more of what you're paying is only
interest to the bank.
[16:20:10]
And not only are there risks to the individuals taking out these loans, but to the market as well. Subsidizing demand in markets where supply is still
constrained could lead home prices to jump really, really high and offset these savings that we were supposed to have in the first place.
HILL: You know, in terms of supply, one of the issues that I seem to keep hearing about both when I am reading it in the reporting, but also just
anecdotally and speaking to people, is for people who have a ridiculously low rate on their mortgage, this is stopping them, right? Maybe from
downsizing, if they may be empty nesters or even just moving because they know they can't get that same rate on a mortgage right now.
So we've also heard more talk about a transferable or movable mortgage. How realistic is that? Is that something you could see coming to the U.S.?
BERNER: That is something that would be very difficult to happen in the U.S. because of the way that the back end of mortgage backed securities
work here, it would be difficult and we'd have to completely reassess the way that we look at mortgages, because right now, you know, you expect if
someone takes out a 30-year mortgage after ten years or so, they may sell their home or refinance or do any number of things that shorten the life of
that loan.
But if its portable and goes with them, that changes the risk structure and changes the longevity of the loan entirely and might lead to higher
interest rates across the board.
So portable mortgages would be great for people who have a low mortgage rate from a couple of years ago who want to buy another home. It would
really shut out people who don't have mortgages at all. First time home buyers, or people who bought in more recent times in the six to seven
percent range, and it really would just make things a lot more difficult.
It would be great for a few, and it would add to some supply of homes, and that people would be willing to move and put their home on the market, but
eventually would shut other people out.
HILL: Yes, I would love to get your take too on this number that we've got that foreclosures are up 19 percent year-over-year. That seems really high
to me.
BERNER: I think it is just a function of the affordability crisis we are seeing across all sectors of living in this country. It is not just
housing, it is groceries, it is car payments, it is student debt. I think a lot of people are struggling to put payments together in order to buy
homes, and that's why we are seeing that the first -- the median age of a first time home buyer has increased to 40 years old because for young folks
right now, it is just difficult to save away money and get that together for a down payment.
HILL: Yes, absolutely. It is understandable.
Joel, really appreciate it. Thank you.
BERNER: Thank you for having me.
HILL: NOBU is expanding beyond restaurants and hotels now, opening an entire cultural district in Krakow. Richard Quest speaks with the co-
founders about just what is in store. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: Hello, I am Erica Hill. There is more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment when CNN speaks to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as he
mobilizes his country's armed forces and A.I., helping companies to adjust prices in real time, leading to higher costs for tourists. We will look at
that shortly. But before that, the headlines this hour.
The BBC apologizing to U.S. President Donald Trump for a misleading edit of his speech ahead of the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol. It says a
documentary that made it appear Trump was calling for violence will no longer be aired. The BBC, though rejecting Trump's demand for compensation.
The BBC says it, "... strongly disagrees there is basis for a defamation claim." Mr. Trump had threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion.
A judge is deciding whether to disqualify the prosecutor who indicted two of Donald Trump's perceived political enemies. Lawyers for former FBI
Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James say Prosecutor Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed by the U.S. President
and as a result, the charges against them should be dropped.
The U.S. federal government is open once again. Air travel across the country, though, will not return to normal right away. Officials from
American Airlines warning it could take a few days before flights are back at pre-shutdown levels, but did say they don't expect there to be lingering
issues over the upcoming very busy thanksgiving holiday.
Wall Street sinking sharply today, led by a steep drop in tech stocks. Take a look at this, the NASDAQ down as you can see there, just over two percent
weighed down by the likes of Tesla, NVIDIA, Broadcom and Alphabet as investors fret over A.I. valuations. Many investors are wondering when
companies will begin to see returns on their A.I. investments.
Well, "The Wall Street Journal" is offering some insight into that question. It says the A.I. startup, Anthropic is on track to turn a profit
ahead of its chief rival, OpenAI, that's according to financial documents seen by "The Journal," which show Anthropic is set to break even for the
first time in 2028.
As for OpenAI, it forecasts operating losses of $74 billion in 2028.
Berber Jin is "The Wall Street Journal" reporter behind this story and joins me now. It is great to have you here.
So it was so fascinating to read about this in your piece, as you looked at these financials, there is this path to profitability for Anthropic. Just
walk us through how very different the approach is from these two companies that are getting so much attention and money.
BERBER JIN, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL" REPORTER: Yes. So Anthropic and OpenAI are bitter rivals. They are both startups that lose a lot of money,
but Anthropic is on pace to turn a profit a lot more quickly. And they are spending a lot less than OpenAI on the chips and data centers needed to
build and run A.I. models, and they also run an enterprise business.
They primarily sell their chatbot to corporate customers instead of consumers; mass market consumers, as OpenAI does, and that just makes for a
more efficient business model because they don't have the subsidize all the people who use ChatGPT for free or use Sora for free. Corporate customers
tend to pay at higher and more predictable rates.
So, you know, they have a slightly more efficient business model, which obviously can help them a lot, you know, if the market begins to cool a bit
on funding these companies.
HILL: Absolutely. I do want to talk about the market potentially cooling in a moment, but when we look at too what is needed to support the efforts of
these companies, there has been so much talk about infrastructure and power as we know, which is key to the A.I. industry and to its growth.
But there are significant questions that you address as well about whether the U.S. really has the capacity, right, to support the growth that has
been promised. Where do things stand in terms of what is needed on the back end?
JIN: Yes, so, you know, obviously OpenAI made a lot of headlines this summer. Chief executive Sam Altman said that they are on the hook for up to
$1.4 trillion in infrastructure commitments, so that's the chips and the data centers needed to power A.I. That almost is just too crazy to believe,
right, that that company is set to make only $13 billion in revenue this year and he is kind of taking the stock market on a roller coaster because
of these announcements, raised a lot of questions about whether the U.S. or the world, frankly, has even enough power to make those ambitions come
true.
Anthropic presents a kind of, if you look at the financials, a contrasting picture where they're saying that they don't need to spend anywhere near
that amount to, you know, be able to build and power their A.I. models. So either Anthropic has discovered something that they're not sharing that
makes these models run much more efficiently, or they're underestimating how much they think they need, or OpenAI is just kind of going, you know,
completely out of reasonable expectations in terms of what they're trying to spend.
So a lot of interesting questions that these -- the contrasts in the performance of these two companies raises.
ERICA HILL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely. And over all of that, right, are the -- I think maybe not newer questions, but questions
that are certainly getting a lot more attention recently about A.I. itself, right, and whether this massive investment by so many is actually going to
pay off, or perhaps concern that maybe this is not going to be what some investors thought it would.
How much is that playing into what we're seeing in this moment?
JIN: Yes. So I think, I mean, there are a lot of reports out there from very credible analysts who say that essentially A.I. will have to make
trillions of dollars in revenue by 2030 in order to make up for all the spending that's going into data centers and chips. And, you know, this
isn't just OpenAI and Anthropic. Of course, you have Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, they're all investing very aggressively into building out their
infrastructure.
And a lot of those companies are getting punished now in the public markets because investors are getting a little bit nervous about seeing a potential
return. And so it is this kind of -- there's almost a game theory element to it where, you know, if you see your competitor investing all of this
money in A.I. infrastructure, you almost feel like you have no choice but to do that. In the event that A.I. becomes this huge success, you want to
set your company up to be able to get all that revenue by building the infrastructure.
But, you know, we're headed into very uncharted territory where I think the question on everyone's minds, even these CEOs' minds, if, you know, get
them -- if you get them to be very honest, is it is a bit of a gamble and it could all end up looking like a massive bubble in retrospect.
HILL: Yes. There is -- that is an understandable concern. And so, you know, keep getting them to be honest and sharing that with us. We appreciate it.
Berber Jin, good to have you. Thanks.
JIN: Thanks.
HILL: Tensions between Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and the U.S. reaching a fever pitch. The most advanced U.S. aircraft carrier, the
world's largest, is now, of course, operating in the Latin American region. The U.S. claims this show of strength is to fight alleged drug trafficking.
President Maduro, however, believes the Trump administration is attempting to topple him.
The Venezuelan leader attending a rally today in Caracas, where he was surrounded by supporters and CNN contributor Stefano Pozzebon was also
there and managed to speak with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We're focused on the people, governing with peace, with these young people building. To
unite for the peace of the continent. No more endless wars, no more unjust wars, no more Libya, no more Afghanistan. My message is yes, peace. Yes,
peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: And there you go. The words of Maduro just a short time ago. We'll continue to monitor the situation of course in Venezuela.
Up next here, a once feared bird now fiercely protected. Inside the race to save this rare vulture.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:37:01]
HILL: In the rugged mountains of southern Africa, one of the continent's most powerful birds of prey is in peril. Today on "Call to Earth, we join
the local guardians fighting to keep them in flight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These chunks of meat are not the next meal of a big cat, wolf, or any other kind of predator, but rather
a baby bird.
SHANNON HOFFMAN, MANAGER, BRED 4 THE WILD: You see, this is what we got.
ASHER: This is the bearded vulture. It's a flagship species of the Maloti- Drakensberg Mountain Range in Lesotho and South Africa. In 2014, they were declared critically endangered in the region. Today, it's estimated that
approximately 100 breeding pairs remain. These powerful birds can weigh up to seven pounds and have a wingspan of almost three meters.
HOFFMAN: They are a big bird and there's quite a fear history around them, but when you understand how they work, how they function, they become a
non-threatening thing. In fact, they're often fascinating species. They don't hunt, they scavenge, so they clean up after the world.
ASHER: For the past 18 years, Shannon Hoffman, manager of Bred 4 the Wild, has been at the helm of conservation efforts in the region.
HOFFMAN: We're putting together a founder population of birds that we can breed from, and it's their progeny that's going to be released back into
the wild.
ASHER: Bred 4 the Wild relies on puppets to rear the birds to prevent them from imprinting on humans.
HOFFMAN: The responsibility is huge because if we lose any of these baby birds, or even as adults, you can't replace them.
ASHER: While rebuilding the population through breeding programs is critical --
HOFFMAN: He's coming in (INAUDIBLE).
ASHER: So too is mitigating the threats to the dwindling wild bearded vultures.
SONJA KRUGER, ECOLOGIST, BEARDED VULTURE RECOVERY PROGRAM: There's a lot of threats to the species mainly poisoning. That is the primary threat. And
they also do collide with power lines.
ASHER: Sonia Kruger is a tireless champion of this imperiled species having dedicated more than 20 years of her life to protecting them.
KRUGER: We're in the Central Drakensberg at a feeding site, and this is on private land. We're really worried about poisoning and vultures. So these
feeding sites are so important because we can provide safe food for the birds and try and keep them in areas that we know are safe and that the
food is safe.
So the bearded vulture is a trans-frontier species. It crosses both Lesotho and South Africa, so both countries need to work together to save the
species because we're sharing a breeding range.
ASHER: Across the border in Lesotho, the traditions and customs of the Basotho people create a unique landscape for this work.
TELANG SEKHOTLO, MEMBER, BEARDED VULTURE RECOVERY PROGRAM: They are not yet out, but they are about to come out. Telescope.
ASHER: For Telang Sekhotlo, the past six years have been spent spreading the values of conservation in his community.
[16:40:06]
SEKHOTLO: When coming to conservation here in Lesotho, we don't have much protected area or (INAUDIBLE). Most of our land is communal land.
The chief and the head boys are here to learn the process of monitoring. In the environment people are not able to differentiate different types of
birds, so we normally call them when we come here to monitor so that as a young people should learn about the bird conservation.
ASHER: It's an uphill battle for these activists, but they stay hopeful that their work today will help fill the skies with the bearded vulture
once again.
HOFFMAN: It's very rewarding with a few successes that we do have, but I think we have a long way to go to try and protect the species and to try
and stop the decline. It would be so sad if the future generations didn't have bearded vultures flying through the skies for them to observe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And you can let us know what you're doing to answer the "Call to Earth with the hashtag #CalltoEarth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HILL: The chief technologist of Amazon Robotics says automation is going to lead to new kinds of jobs at the company.
Ty Brady sat down with Clare Sebastian, told her robotics has already led to thousands of new hirings at some of their warehouses.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TY BRADY, CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST, AMAZON ROBOTICS: We're hiring 250,000 employees for the holidays that's coming up.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But that's temporary.
BRADY: But -- and those temporary jobs tend to turn into full time jobs as well. Again, if I just look at the last 10 years, we've created hundreds of
thousands of new jobs, literally hundreds of thousands. We also created new job types. So you can think of this as maybe 30 years ago, there's no such
thing as a social media coordinator, right? I mean, the technology didn't exist. So now we're adding technology.
We're adding the toolset into our fulfillment centers that allows our employees to do more while also creating a safer environment. That's a
really big deal. For example, our latest fulfillment centers in Shreveport, Louisiana, has 10 times the amount of robotics under one roof. We've really
put a whole bunch of systems in there. We created 2500 new jobs in Shreveport, brand new jobs.
And we're also seeing a 25 percent gain in the processing time it takes to process an order in that fulfillment center, right, while also creating a
safer environment. We're seeing a shift in the needs of jobs that are being, I'd say, with more critical reasoning, more critical thinking,
higher level tasks.
[16:45:09]
For example, our -- the technicians that work on our robots, of course we have more than a 30 percent need, we've increased that need. So clearly
jobs are changing.
SEBASTIAN: Obviously there's this lawsuit now, Amazon is suing Perplexity for allowing its A.I. agent essentially to shop on Amazon as if it were a
real customer. So we're seeing, I guess, a line being drawn in how A.I. is getting used. And how do you think how much of a challenge is that going to
be for Amazon going forward?
BRADY: I don't know anything really about the Perplexity, but I can tell you that what I'm really proud of is that the A.I. systems that fuel all of
our fulfillment is the same A.I. systems in AWS that all of our customers can use, right? So this toolset is open and available to the globe.
SEBASTIAN: Right.
BRADY: They can use the same exact tool sets that that we use that we have really transformed e-commerce. We have transformed the workplace as well.
Those are available to all, right? I think it's really important to have a sound infrastructure, which we continue to build inside of Amazon through
AWS, and then have this application layer available and accessible to all, including us, inside of fulfillment.
SEBASTIAN: But we are at a point potentially where we're starting to see where the lines could be in terms of how this gets used and how companies
interact in this space.
BRADY: Yes, well, it's a -- it's a brand new novel space for sure. It's a very exciting space. Again, if you have -- if you share my view, I believe
in the power of people. I believe that good people with good technology will do great things, right? And we will continue to do that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HILL: And our thanks to Claire for that.
So Disney shares closing sharply lower after the company reported a steep drop in TV profits. Shares sliding nearly 8 percent after investors weighed
the latest earnings. Disney reported solid streaming growth and profits for amusement parks, but suggested that it is ready for this drawn out fight
with YouTube TV when it comes to carriage rights.
Morgan Stanley estimates the blackout has already cost Disney about $60 million in revenue over just the last two weeks. As for its theme parks,
well, they were some of the first major attractions to embrace a little something known as dynamic pricing. So that's when companies raise prices
when they know demand will be highest. New technology has now allowed dynamic pricing to expand, often to the frustration of tourists. And now
A.I. means a lot of prices can just change in real time.
Brian Kelly is the founder of the Points Guy and joins us now.
Brian, it's great to have you here. So I think this is a major frustration for a lot of folks when they are traveling. And of course, it's not just
limited now to theme parks, and it's certainly not limited to the U.S. Is this -- is dynamic pricing essentially the standard at this point?
BRIAN KELLY, FOUNDER, THE POINTS GUY: Well, it's certainly becoming the standard. I saw this week, I forget which artist it was, but concerts are
now dynamically pricing. So even if you get a presale, you might look 10 minutes later and tickets are changing. So as a consumer, it's really
frustrating and you never really know, did I get a good deal? But yes, it's everywhere, especially in airline pricing.
And now that they have these A.I. models that can change the prices of tickets based on your information, yes, there's a lot more to be seen here,
but it doesn't look great for the consumer.
HILL: It does not look great for the consumer. You mentioned airline tickets. I'm always a little leery of doing a search for a ticket, even if
I'm not logged in to a particular site, because I feel like it will know and jack the price on me. To that point, is there any way for us to beat
it?
KELLY: Absolutely. So I will say playing devil's advocate here, so in the old days with airline frequent flier miles, it was either there were
tickets or there were blackout dates. So in the defense of the airlines and hotels, they're now saying, well, we're going to open up every ticket so
that it's not feast or famine, it's just you're going to have to pay more on days when everyone else wants to travel.
So in travel, there's still unbelievable deals out there. You just generally have to go when not every single other person in the world wants
to go to that destination. And this is why at the Points Guy, we've been preaching go and travel shoulder seasons. Europe in August is not great.
And why are you paying double the price or St. Barts in New Year's Eve is 10 times the price of one week later.
So unless you absolutely need to be somewhere, be flexible. And that's why there are tools like Google Flights. They have an explore map which will
actually let you hunt for the cheapest fares by you can put in New York to Europe and just see where the cheapest flights are. So being flexible.
There are still deals to be had.
HILL: I also wanted to get your take. So we saw this agreement this week with Visa and Mastercard and merchants. So it used to be that you had to
accept every card. So now with this agreement, merchants can choose which cards they accept. And so I know there's some concern about certain credit
cards that are linked to maybe a points or rewards program that maybe merchants will say, we don't want to take that card because it is a higher
transaction fee for us.
[16:50:00]
What are your thoughts on that? Do you think this could really put a dent in some of the places that would accept reward cards?
KELLY: Yes, and let's be clear, merchants always have had the right to say we only want to accept cash. We don't want to have Visa or we'll only have
Amex, et cetera. What this settlement potentially, and by the way, it's not signed off on by a judge and this lawsuit has been going on for 20 years,
so I'm not 100 percent sure this is going to actually come into fruition.
But really what it's saying is retailers will be allowed to take the cheap Visas, but not the expensive ones. Those rewards cards. But from my
perspective, the best consumers who are spending the most are on those premium cards. And yes, they cost a little bit extra than the other cards,
but I think this would be a classic example of retailers cutting off their nose to spite their face, shunning the best customers to save a fraction of
a cent per transaction.
So I don't really see anything huge happening. I do think retailers and we're seeing it today without this settlement adding surcharges if you use
your rewards card, but I think consumers will have the power here to say, well, I'm not going to go to retailers that don't allow me to use the
credit card of my choice, that gets me the points and the protections that I want.
HILL: Brian Kelly, always appreciate it. Thank you.
KELLY: Thanks for having me.
HILL: Nobu is opening its first ever cultural district in Krakow, Poland. It is Nobu Hospitality's first residential project in Eastern Europe. It's
slated to include a theater stage, a cinema hall, a fitness center, and of course, a Nobu restaurant.
Richard Quest spoke about it with Nobu Hospitality co-founders Meir Teper, Chef Nobu Matsuhisa, and of course, Robert De Niro.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NOBU MATSUHISA, COFOUNDER, NOBU HOSPITALITY: Now it's a little bit of a different concept that the hotels, residents and restaurants, but already
we have a concept. I'm not worried about much new projects because we have great teams. So now and after the opening, and I'd like to combine to like
a more local cultures, the food product. So I'm so much exciting to come here. It's another new challenge for me.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Robert De Niro, what is it about this particular project that really do you think takes the Nobu concept to
the next level?
ROBERT DE NIRO, COFOUNDER, NOBU HOSPITALITY: It's more of a cultural center that is not just a restaurant and a hotel. There's a museum, too. They're
also putting one of my father's artworks in there actually, that they just showed it to me, to us before. So it's a whole other thing. It makes a lot
of sense.
QUEST: I'm not surprised because the quality is there and it's all about quality. It's all about fine detail, isn't it?
So, Meir, let me ask you, what is it do you -- how would you sum up the success of Nobu?
MEIR TEPER, COFOUNDER, NOBU HOSPITALITY: It's like you said, it's the quality and the consistency that Nobu is able with his great team or our
team to produce restaurants and hotels, that are consistent with the quality. Basically, customers that go to Nobu in Malibu or Nobu in Dubai or
Nobu in New York have the same experience and they get the same service and the same food.
QUEST: When you started, and I know the story, Robert De Niro, I know the story that you had to -- it took you some years to persuade Nobu to open in
New York, and you had to work pretty hard to get that to take place. I guess in hindsight, you're delighted that you persevered.
DE NIRO: You know, I'm, of course, very happy and didn't expect much more than to open but a restaurant in New York, maybe one or two others, if
that. So it's just turned into something totally, totally different which is great.
QUEST: The fascinating part, again, of this is the relationship between you all. You have -- you come from different areas. You've worked spectacularly
together. You describe yourselves as family in some cases. What do you think?
Start with you, Nobu.
MATSUHISA: You know, we know more than two years each others, and always we talk, communications, and you know, each person -- so I hope to respect
each others. And, you know, we're looking for the same goal. You know, myself, I'm chefs, and I like to keep the quality food and service. And
always I like to make guests happy. So this is like my, you know, that's my business looking for this way. So they support me.
[16:55:07]
QUEST: Robert De Niro, why do you think the relationship has survived so successfully for so long?
DE NIRO: That's a good question. We're all so different in so many ways, but we have a common interest, and we have a way of just working together,
disagreeing of course at times, but always moving forward in a positive way. It's just, and we're fortunate, and I consider myself fortunate.
QUEST: Meir, you get the last word.
TEPER: I think we learn how to work with each other, live with each other. We became a real family. We know each other. We know each other's family.
Our children, our wives. We have about the same goal, to give a great quality and great service. And that's why we all feel the same. And that's
why it works very well between us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Well, Wall Street suffering its worst day in recent weeks on this Thursday, as hopes for a December rate cut are fading among investors. The
Dow retreating from a record high, finishing the day off nearly 800 points as you see there. The S&P 500 fell 1.6 percent. The Nasdaq off more than 2
percent.
Tech shares really weighing down the Nasdaq, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM all in the red. Nvidia saw the worst of the season off 3.5 percent. Cisco, the
only outlier, as you can see there outside of tech. Disney all the way at the bottom there. Falling nearly 8 percent on mixed earnings.
That's going to do it for this edition of QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Erica Hill. Stay tuned. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
