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Quest Means Business

U.S. Says Iran Planning to Execute a 26-Year-Old Protester; Colombian Voters Seek Stability Ahead of Presidential Election; Saks Global Files for Bankruptcy Amid Luxury Market Strains; Astronauts Due to Depart the ISS and Come Home Early. Aired 4:00-5p ET

Aired January 14, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:16]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": And the closing bell is ringing on Wall Street. Marsh Professional Services firm

are ringing the closing bell. As you can see, we were down throughout the session, pulling up. We are not going to go positive, but we have pulled up

quite a long way towards giving back the gains.

One, oh, I love the way they tried to break the gavel, but no sir, you failed to do that, but your trading is over and as you can see, those are

the markets and the events we will be talking about over the next hour.

Denmark's Foreign Minister says his country will never accept a U.S. takeover of Greenland after he met with Vice President Vance.

In Iran, flights are being canceled, embassies are being evacuated as the U.S. is weighing military action against Tehran.

And a 5th Avenue icon, Saks has filed for bankruptcy as the department stores continues to decline.

Tonight, I am in London and we are live in London, midweek, Wednesday, January the 14th. I am Richard Quest and I mean business.

Good evening.

They did their best to put the bravest of faces on it, but it is clear President Trump's foreign policy resolve put to the test as the Foreign

Ministers of Denmark and Greenland left The White House only a few hours ago without giving in to Mr. Trump's demand for control of the island.

Instead, they announced a high-level working group to discuss what they called fundamental disagreements.

The U.S. President is considering how to back up his promise to support Iranian protesters, another part of the world in which there is difficulty

and problems.

Two sides of the U.S. foreign policy agenda that we are looking at tonight.

Let's begin in Greenland. The Danish Foreign Minister said -- described the discussions as frank and that Greenland's self-determination must be

respected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARS LEKKE RASMUSSEN, DANISH FOREIGN MINISTER: Here, our perspectives continue to differ, I must say. The President has made his view clear and

we have a different position. For us, ideas that would not respect territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the right of self-

determination of the Greenlandic people are, of course, totally unacceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Even as they were speaking, President Trump in the Oval Office was saying, well, we must have Greenland, we will have Greenland come what may.

Nic Robertson is in the capital of Greenland. He is in Nuuk. He joins me now.

Good evening, Nic.

There is no -- I am not sure what this meeting at the Washington was aiming to achieve, because there really is no meeting of minds at the very top.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Lars Lekke Rasmussen, very experienced Danish diplomat, the Foreign Minister had said

he wanted this meeting to bring -- to tone it all down, have this conversation face-to-face.

He has had that and he used the best diplomatic language possible to explain it. You know, frank, but these huge differences, fundamental

differences remain. I think what is managed to achieve here and this is, it goes only a little way, a tiny little way. But for a few weeks, it appears

at least the people of Greenland here don't have to worry about President Trump's hard option, which is the military option, people surmise for

taking over and getting sovereignty of Greenland.

He has bought a little bit of time. He has not changed the dynamics, it appears of this, but he wanted to get it. He wanted to get the talks in a

different environment. He has done that.

But the problem, the can is kicked down the road, the can remains the same. The problem remains the same -- Richard.

QUEST: Yes, you see, President Trump has now answered the very specific questions. Number one, why do you want it when you can have it anyway via

NATO? I want ownership. It is not the same thing unless you own it. And then secondly, basically saying we are NATO, therefore, only through us can

NATO have it properly.

There is no -- Nic, you and I can parse this any which way and backwards. It is clear what the U.S. President wants now.

ROBERTSON: It is absolutely clear, and I think if you look at this from the Danish-Greenland perspective, what the Danish Foreign Minister will have

recognized going in because of his experience, because he is a tough negotiator, he will have recognized going into that room that the United

States faces another huge international diplomatic, potentially military dilemma objective in front of it, namely Iran.

[16:05:15]

That maybe, he was just looking for a way to get this pause and recognizing and understanding that the United States has another big fish to fry, was

able to get -- was able to buy essentially a couple of weeks' of time because that works to the U.S. advantage. It works to Denmark's advantage,

of course, because today that we've heard that the Danish are putting additional troops in here, the Swedes are sending a few, the Norwegians are

a couple, the Germans also sending here.

But these NATO troops that are coming here from these other NATO countries are sort of exploratory to find out what, you know, they will need if they

ramp up their forces here. So it buys Denmark time to get a firmer and fuller NATO response, perhaps something, you know, on the record by Mark

Rutte, the Secretary General of NATO that's been sort of absent so far. So Denmark gets a chance to build more international support behind it.

Look there is precedent for what is going on here. The situation has been internationalized. Denmark has drawn a very clear red line, whatever The

White House has said, and Denmark has also managed to get this on the international agenda, to get lots of journalists here talking about it, to

get the Greenland position out, to represent the views and the democratic will and wish of the Greenlandic people. That's about as much as a diplomat

can do against this position in The White House.

QUEST: I am sorry, I have just got to ask you, forgive me. It is completely obiter. How cold is it there? And does it feel that cold?

ROBERTSON: Well, I mean, one can guess, right? You can take these off, but your hands are getting cold pretty quickly. And when you stand around all

day outside, as we do. Yes, my feet have turned to ice. My fingers are doing fairly well, thank you very much.

I've got a big jacket on. It would be nice to get indoors later. It is cold, very cold, and it is set to get colder next week.

QUEST: I suggest you go inside, have a drink and put it on my bill.

Thank you very much, sir. Nic Robertson in Nuuk.

Now, some U.S. officials say personnel have been urged to leave an air base in Qatar. Remember, the U.S. has a massive airbase there as President Trump

is weighing military action against Iran.

The U.S. President is warning of a strong response if the Iranian regime kills more protesters. And now U.S. officials say the President's National

Security team is preparing a range of options. And that, of course, includes airstrikes.

The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard is threatening to respond at an appropriate time. The U.S. based rights group says more than 2,400

demonstrators have now been killed in the unrest.

Over the last hour, Mr. Trump said he has been assured the killing won't continue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We were told that the killing in Iran is stopping and it has stopped, it is stopping and

there is no plan for executions or an execution or executions. So I've been told that on good authority. We will find out about it, I am sure, if it

happens, we all will be very upset.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Kevin is with me. Kevin in Washington. Let's just quickly do this question of what is happening with Iran. The options, the military options

are actually quite varied, but they're well-known -- how many cruise missiles you can send, what sort of missiles, where you would attack, but

we don't really know how close the President is to that.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, based on his own words there, he doesn't appear close at all because he says he has been told by

the Iranians that the killing has stopped and the execution has stopped, and that, you know, just in the last hour has created, you know, a degree

of confusion among some of the American officials that I've been talking to.

And I think that there are one of two things that could be happening here. The President could be attempting some misdirection, and remember when he

ordered the attacks on the nuclear sites back in June, he was saying up until the moment that it happened that he hadn't yet made up his mind. That

could be one thing.

I think perhaps the President could also be trying to give himself some room to maneuver here. He drew this red line that if the regime was going

to crack down on these protesters, that if it was going to get violent, that if many, many protesters were going to be killed, which has happened,

that he would respond accordingly. And the President said that that red line had been crossed.

And I think the President realizes that if they cross the red line and he doesn't enforce it, that the regime will just be emboldened. Now, in this

briefing that the President received last night from senior National Security officials.

[16:10:03]

One of the points that was under discussion was the potential response from Iran if the U.S. starts firing missiles into the country, potentially U.S.

facilities being targeted not just in Qatar at the Al Udeid Air Base, but also in Iraq and in Syria. I think the President recognizes that any option

that he took here would have risks associated with it, so he is coming out today to suggest that there could be some sort of conciliation on the part

of the regime.

QUEST: Do we know what the end game is in terms -- I mean, do we have a good idea of what they want the policy to be?

LIPTAK: I am not sure that we do, and I think the policy right now is to demonstrate American strength, and you see that all around the world,

whether it is Venezuela or Greenland and Iran at the moment, I think that there are things that the administration wants to avoid. They don't want to

become engaged in a prolonged conflict with Iran. They don't want to send boots on the ground, and they don't want to see, you know, if the regime

falls, some sort of militant option coming in to replace it, to become what Syria became for the last 10 years. That's what they want to avoid.

I am not sure it is necessarily precisely clear what they envision happening, and any kind of airstrike in Iran, whether it is on the nuclear

sites or on the security services that are leading the crackdown on these protesters, it seems certain that that alone isn't going to cause the

regime to end this crackdown on the protests.

And so while they know what they don't want in that country, I am not sure it is precisely clear what they envision happening once the President

decides how he wants to go ahead.

QUEST: I am grateful to you, Kevin. Thank you very much indeed.

So to the areas of the world that are being -- well, I was going to say where U.S. attention is at the moment. You have obviously Iran and

Greenland, but they're far from the only ones at the moment. Countries across the globe are dealing with harsh words from Donald Trump and in some

cases, military action.

Obviously, we've got Venezuela, we've got the threats against Cuba and Colombia. We've got what the World Economic Forum is referring to as

confrontation that is replacing collaboration in all of these areas.

In its Annual Global Risks Perception Survey, the geo-economic confrontation -- that is a new one to me -- was the top risk identified and

then faced by state based armed conflict. Now, bearing in mind in the past, we've had things like misinformation, economic downturn, A.I. and all of

these -- these things at the top, they are not new, but they're prominence most certainly is.

And the response is also reflected in society, increasingly concerned about this with the economic downturn, inflation and other risks. The biggest

rises in this year's rankings.

Saadia Zahidi is the managing director, the M.D. at WEF with me now. Looking forward to seeing you, ma'am, when we are all in Davos next week.

I've got your sort of the risk charts here. This -- I mean, I don't want to be as vulgar as basically saying Donald Trump, but a lot of the geo-

economic confrontation can be laid at the door of the U.S. President at the moment.

SAADIA ZAHIDI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM: I think, Richard, what we are seeing here is in the short term, so for 2026 through to 2028,

there is a deep concern across experts that this is now a global risk. So they are really looking at across the world, not one specific country or

the other, and starting to see a rise in tariffs and investment screening in a competition when it comes to critical minerals and resources, and

that's what they are really pointing to, and lowering investment and lowering investment in particular in developing economies.

So all of that together is creating this picture, and that is followed directly by armed conflict -- interstate armed conflict. So overall, when

it comes to 2026, that's nearly 30 percent of respondents that are primarily concerned with geo-economic and geopolitical issues.

QUEST: But the difficulty here, though, is it is not just the issues of whether it be tariffs, Venezuela, whatever. It is the fact that to a large

extent, we -- you know, people in policy have been told the earth is flat. The U.S., which has had very persistently stable, regular dialogue

collaborative policies, we knew has gone in completely the opposite direction, and that's the biggest risk that nobody knows where they stand.

[16:15:10]

ZAHIDI: So we are describing this overall era that we are entering as the sort of age of competition, and that is what is amplifying and compounding

all of these other global risks.

So, you know, certainly one example relates to geo-economic confrontation, but when it comes to solutions that come around, artificial intelligence

risks or solutions to societal polarization or solutions to climate change or health and pandemics, all of these things are global risks, and they

don't quite respect borders.

So we are going to need to again find mechanisms for global cooperation and because of this current state of a sort of a new competitive order that

we've entered, it is becoming harder and harder to see how we will find the cooperative muscle to be able to deal with some of these risks, and that's

what next week is really going to be about, bringing leaders together and starting to restore the spirit of dialogue and collaboration and building

trust.

QUEST: Why do you think -- and I don't disagree with you that this is the desirable outcome -- but why do you think we stand any chance of making

progress?

I will give you an example, and again, it comes from today. You've got Denmark and Greenland, you know, in Washington at The White House, whilst

the President is basically saying, I've got to own Greenland, the opportunity -- I guess I'd phrase it this way, Saadia, the opportunity for

common ground is more limited now than it has ever been or maybe I am just being unduly pessimistic and -- you know, you put me in my proper place.

ZAHIDI: So the Risks Report's role is to try to highlight perceptions around what may be around the corner --

QUEST: Right.

ZAHIDI: -- in this year, in the next two years, in the next 10 years. But these are not predictions. These are not saying this is where we are headed

for certain. I think what they are pointing to is this is where things could go, but we very much have agency today as a sort of a global

community and there are coalitions of the willing that can be built between those that do wish to collaborate and we see that competition does not

necessarily mean that cooperation is not possible, it simply means that it is going to look different.

It is going to be perhaps more self-interested, it is going to be perhaps more driven by national goals rather than global collaboration goals, but

that middle ground can still be found.

QUEST: Right. I shall see you up the mountain, up the magic mountain next week. Looking forward to it.

ZAHIDI: Thanks.

QUEST: Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you.

And indeed, these are the issues and more that we are going to be talking about at the WEF, World Economic Forum. It is Davos next week.

Who are we talking to? Well, we've got the ECB president, Christine Lagarde, the Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan. We will have the Edelman

Trust Barometer. Well, just a whole potpourri of events.

The U.S. plans to pause immigrant visa processing indefinitely for 75 countries. The impact will be broad-based. In a minute after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:49]

QUEST: The U.S. is suspending immigrant visas, and that's important. Immigrant visa processing for more than 75 countries. There is the gamut --

Russia, Somalia, perhaps obviously, Brazil, Egypt less so and Haiti. The officials of U.S. said the suspension begins next week. So we are talking

about immigrant visas. It is those who are seeking employment in the U.S. and the like. Tourism and student visas are not affected.

Jennifer Hansler is with me.

The reason is interesting that's been given. It is not because they fear people are going to vanish into the yonder and never be heard of again, it

is because the fear that they will become a drain on the public purse, indeed.

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: Yes, that is exactly right, Richard. They are applying this new standard, this suspension of

visa processing for immigrant visas in these 75 countries under the Public Charge Clause of the immigration laws here in the United States.

Basically, they are accusing immigrants from these 75 countries of having a pattern of being a drain on U.S. public resources. So, they say they need

to suspend the processing in order to look at how it is being carried out.

This is something that we saw the Trump administration expand late last year in terms of how they were going to be screening people for immigrant

visas. They said they were going to be looking closely on whether they would be a drain on emergency rooms, for example, the taxpayer dollars

here.

They have yet to provide really any evidence that any folks from these countries are actually a drain or actually more prone to becoming public

charges of the U.S. However, this is important because it is a significant expansion of what we already saw of pretty stringent immigration policies

being put in place by this administration.

These are 75 countries, so that's on top of this list that we already saw that expanded travel ban where no one from those countries was allowed and

these are countries that are allies -- Brazil, Colombia, Egypt -- their people are no longer going to be able to apply for immigrant visas during

this suspension.

Richard, we don't know how long either this suspension is going to last. We know it is going to be put in place on January 21st and they said that it

was going to stay in place while they evaluate how they are processing things.

It is important to note that this does not apply to nonimmigrant visas. These are for tourists, for people coming to study in the United States,

shorter term employment, people who are coming for the World Cup, for example, this would not apply to them -- Richard.

QUEST: I am grateful. Thank you. We move on. Thank you.

The FBI searched the home of a "Washington Post" reporter as part of an investigation into an alleged leak. Now, the reporter, Hannah Natanson,

published a story last month about receiving tips from federal workers impacted by the job cuts.

In her column, she described having over 1,000 contacts on the encrypted messaging app, Signal from across the federal government. She called

herself "The Post's Federal Government Whisperer" and went on to detail the stories of those impacted by the mass firings.

The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said on X that Natanson was obtaining and reporting classified and illegally leaked information.

Brian Stelter, CNN's chief media analyst is here.

Brian, the Attorney General is probably right. This is probably in many cases or in some cases, classified, and it is being leaked and there are

probably rules against it, but it is the -- but that is, if you will, the lay of the land. These aren't Defense secrets. These are not war plans and

the like and the searching of a reporter's house, et cetera. Tell me more about it.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, it is a dramatic escalation. It is a break from decades of past precedent, and you can stop me right

there and say, Brian, you've said that on this show a dozen times, and you're right.

You know, the past year is full of examples of this, especially from the Justice Department, especially from the FBI and that's exactly what we are

seeing in this case as well.

Historically, under previous administrations and even during Trump's first term, if the government was investigating a leaker and wanted to try to

look into a reporter's phone records, for example, they would go to court and get a subpoena and there would be a long, drawn out legal fight with

the newsroom trying to stop them et cetera, et cetera. We've seen that before.

In this case, though, in Trump 2.0, the government just went ahead and raided the reporter's home and grabbed her phone and took her computers. So

it is a dramatic escalation in that way, although not entirely surprising.

Reporters, newsrooms, editors, media lawyers have been worried that a moment like this would come for the past year, and now it is here and we

don't know exactly what the FBI and the DOJ are pursuing in this case.

We do know Hannah Natanson wrote a bunch of stories about federal government shakeups. She also wrote a couple of stories about the Venezuela

raid in recent weeks. And in the last hour, President Trump suggested that maybe the raid on her home was related to her reporting about Venezuela.

There is a lot that still needs to shake out here that we still need to find out, but it is notable for the first time that we are aware of, the

U.S. government decided to knock on the door, go into a reporter's home, take her phone and potentially go through her phone records in that way.

[16:31:47]

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. In a moment, I'll be speaking to the Colombian presidential candidate about his

plan to stabilize Venezuela in the wake of Maduro's ouster. And we'll be tracking a crew of astronauts leaving the International Space Station early

after one of them experienced a medical issue.

We'll only get to that after the news headlines because this is CNN and here the news comes first.

The Danish foreign minister says there's still a fundamental disagreement with the U.S. about the future of Greenland. He and his counterpart from

Greenland visited the White House. Before the meeting President Trump said anything less than U.S. control of the island is unacceptable. The growing

rift has prompted Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Norway to all send troops there.

President Trump said he was told that an Iranian protester being held by the regime will not be executed. The president said the killing has stopped

in Iran, but he didn't give any details. Earlier, the U.S. State Department said Iranian authorities planned to execute 26-year-old Erfan Soltani on

Wednesday.

And the U.S. says it will pause the processing of immigrant visas from 75 countries starting next week. The countries affected include Brazil,

Colombia, Egypt and Russia. The suspension does not apply to nonimmigrant visas like student or tourist visas, and it would not apply to those

traveling to the World Cup later this year.

The acting Venezuelan president, Delcy Rodriguez, gave a press briefing at the presidential palace for the first time since the U.S. ousted her

predecessor Maduro. She had this to say about the future of her country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELCY RODRIGUEZ, ACTING VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Venezuela is opening to a new political moment to enable understanding from

points of divergence and diversity in political and ideological terms. There must be respect, however, for others. There must be respect for human

rights. Messages of hate, intolerance and violent actions will not be permitted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Rodriguez also said she plans to release 406 prisoners who were detained under Maduro. A source told us on Tuesday four imprisoned

Americans have already been released.

More than 18,000 people have been arrested in Iran and it is their fate which is now in question. The U.S. State Department says one Iranian man, a

26-year-old, may be executed today. His relatives say he was detained by plain clothed officers and has not been allowed a lawyer or a retrial after

being sentenced to death.

We'll bring you more information on that when we have it.

Now Erfan Soltani is the man who's involved. His cousin spoke to Isobel Yeung about the ordeal his family is dealing with.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It must be incredibly raw for you. You've only just received this message. Your cousin is due to be executed

extremely soon. How are you feeling?

SOMAYEH, ERFAN SOLTANI'S FAMILY MEMBER (through text translation): I was in so much shock, I cried so much. Now that you see me, I am in complete

shock. I keep feeling as if I am in a dream.

[16:35:15]

YEUNG: Somayeh says that she is living in fear that her family member is about to be executed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Erfan Soltani is 26

years old, and he's believed to be the first anti-regime protester in this latest uprising to be given the death sentence according to human rights

organizations.

What is it that he's been protesting for? What does he want to see happen in Iran?

SOMAYEH, (through text translation): He has always wanted people to be at least free in the most basic aspects of life. He has always fought for the

freedom of Iran, and today we see him standing under the gallows.

YEUNG: The protests that Erfan took part in were huge and they turned violent. To date, about 2,000 protesters have been killed, according to a

U.S. based rights group. But that figure could be much higher.

The Iranian state media has said that these protesters are rioters. Was Erfan using violence?

SOMAYEH, (through text translation): Erfan has never resorted to violence. I always witnessed that all the destruction being carried out was done by

the regime itself. In order to execute young people, they fabricate accusations against them.

YEUNG: Human rights organizations say that he was arrested on Thursday and that he was given the death sentence just two days later. They said that he

wasn't allowed access to a lawyer and that his execution has been expedited without trial.

Tehran's prosecutor on Friday said that some protesters could be given the death penalty. Iranian state media says that rioters have killed dozens of

members of the security forces, but we have not been able to contact the Iranian government for comment.

Somayeh says that there's just one person who could save Erfan from being killed, and that's President Donald Trump, who's threatened military action

if protesters continue to be harmed.

SOMAYEH, (through text translation): My request is that we need Trump's help by the second. We need Trump's help by every second. People trusted

Trump's words and came to the streets. I beg you, please do not let Erfan be executed. Please.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Colombia is preparing for a presidential election in May, and stability in Venezuela is top of the mind for many people. Colombia's

proximity to Venezuela is complicating its own path forward. It's vulnerable to any political violence from Maduro's ouster and of course

Donald Trump's own threats of military action.

Mauricio Cardenas is running to be president in Colombia. He's proposed to combat narco terrorism with U.S. support and stabilize Venezuela by

financing $10 billion in exports. He's the former finance minister of the country and joins me now from Bogota.

Minister, thank you for joining us. It is good to see you. Let's just begin, before we get into Venezuela and everything, this announcement from

the Trump administration that Colombia is one of the countries where they are suspending the immigrant visas for the time being because, as you know,

they say too many people are going on public assistance.

What do you make of it, sir? What's your reaction?

MAURICIO CARDENAS, FORMER FINANCE MINISTER, COLOMBIA: Well, it's not good news. And let's remember that the U.S. consulate here in Bogota, Colombia

is the number one in the world, in the entire world, in terms of visas issued per year. So, as you can imagine, a lot of people here are worried.

There are some news that this is only affecting the permanent residents in the United States, not the tourist visas. But I think that the news are

still unfolding.

QUEST: The relationship with Colombia has deteriorated to such an extent the U.S. relationship. Most recently, the president said he'd had a

conversation with the president, but he hasn't taken away the idea that there's going to be some form of action. What's your understanding?

CARDENAS: Well, the issue and the biggest problem has been a very significant increase in cocaine production from Colombia. And I think

that's why President Trump has -- he had his eyes put on Colombia. President Petro, the current president of Colombia, has been, through his

policies, part of the problem because there has been a very badly conceived strategy to negotiate peace, even with criminal groups, groups that are

dedicated to illicit drugs production. So those negotiations have resulted in the military -- basically the military of Colombia not protecting

certain areas of Colombia where these groups operate. And that's the result -- the reason for the increase in drug production.

[16:40:01]

I think that's the main topic of the conversation that will take place in early February in Washington between the two presidents. And I'm sure

President Trump will put a lot of pressure on Petro to change his policies and change his strategies, which have resulted in nothing good for this

country.

QUEST: So in terms of your own -- your own candidacy for the presidency, what is -- what is the hallmark? You talk about attacking narco terrorism

and about the war on drugs. What are you going to do differently?

CARDENAS: Yes, we need to begin again. The eradication of illicit crops. There's been no eradication. That means no spraying of pesticides. And

Colombia has to take much aggressive action on that front. It has to end those negotiations of what's called the total peace. So that means bringing

back the military and the forces to the regions of Colombia where these organizations are present.

But most importantly asking the United States for a new version of what 25 years ago was called the Plan Colombia, which is a large initiative to

provide support to the Colombian military in terms of equipment, in terms of intelligence information, so that the Colombian military have the

capacity to take control of the territory again. That happened already 25 years ago. It should happen again.

And with President Trump that could be possible. I'm actually saying that that now needs to be a strategy for four countries, not just for Colombia,

for Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia. So it's transnational. You know, this is a -- this is transnational drug trafficking, drug terrorism.

QUEST: But here's your problem.

CARDENAS: And we need a strategy that covers all.

QUEST: Here's the difficulty. You've got not only the attacks, which some say are illegal against international law, on the boats coming out of

Venezuela and the Caribbean. So you first of all, you've got that. You've then got the actions and the threats that are being made.

Now, I understand and accept that you, you know, you're no fan of Maduro and good riddance in a sense that he's been removed from office. But how do

you navigate the very dramatic actions by the United States, without pissing them off at the same time being true to what you've got to do for

Colombia?

CARDENAS: Well, I think removing Maduro was a first step, a very important and significant first step. I fully support that. But more needs to happen.

The regime is essentially still there. I mean, Maduro supporters are still in government. Today President Trump said that he had a fantastic

conversation with Delcy Rodriguez, the former vice president, now the president. I am very skeptical of that because I think Venezuela needs a

democracy, needs elections.

Hopefully in those elections, someone like Maria Corina Machado can actually take over. So I really want to encourage the United States to

expedite the process, to reestablish democracy in Venezuela. I think that's going to be good for Venezuela, of course, obviously, but also for

Colombia, because for now the fact that still the military, the old military, the Maduro regime, still running Venezuela, I think that causes a

lot of concern, especially for the drug trafficking issues.

QUEST: Finally, if we look at the deterioration across the region and you sort of factor in how it is all taken, how it's all happened so fast, it's

head spinning at best, but it's worrying because there does seem to be the law of one man's view. We see it in Colombia, we see it in Greenland, we

see it in Venezuela. We're now seeing it in Iran. And that means that nobody -- we're seeing again and again politicians simply not wanting to

offend the United States, even when they are opposed to the actions.

CARDENAS: I think the region needs new governments, and governments are more pragmatic, more effective in terms of solutions. And that to me speaks

to the center right. The region was for too long governed by the left. That's the case of Venezuela. We're seeing the disaster. But we should not

go in the direction of the Monroe Doctrine, which is what President Trump now is promoting, which is essentially a United States making most

decisions.

I think I'm very much in favor of us, we, the Latin Americans, in my case, the Colombians, deciding for ourselves from a pragmatic, moderate,

effective type of government, which to me calls for the center right. That's what I'm promoting. That's -- I think that's what Colombia needs.

[16:45:02]

And the countries in Latin America that have moved in that direction are doing a lot better. Think of Paraguay, think of the Dominican Republic.

They're doing fantastically well in terms of economic progress. So I think that's the way to go.

QUEST: I'm grateful to you, sir. We'll talk more as your candidacy moves on and as there are more issues to discuss. Thank you for joining us tonight

from Colombia.

In a moment, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, has filed for bankruptcy. What this means for the fashion institution,

coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Declining department store sales have hit a fashion institution. The parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue has filed for bankruptcy protection a

year after it acquired Neiman Marcus in a luxury powerhouse play.

Saks itself dates back to 1867, when the brothers Andrew and Isidore Saks opened their first store in Washington, D.C. They opened the iconic Saks

Fifth Avenue on Fifth Avenue 35 years later. And the store has been impacted by shoppers pulling back on luxury purchases. It's another

indicator of the K-shaped economy.

Anna Cooban is with me.

This is an interesting one because of the way in which it's all fallen apart.

ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the idea, Richard, to begin with, was quite a good one. You might say. You've got

these two iconic department stores, smash them together. The hope was that they then have this, you know, size that would allow them to negotiate

really great prices with the luxury brands, but the reality is that people just aren't visiting department stores like they used to.

This was the way that Americans and, you know, a lot of other people would go into these stores, meet these luxury products. But now that middle man

has been cut out, people are going online. They're going directly to the stores themselves. Combine that background picture with, you know, classic

mismanagement, people, you know, Saks not paying creditors, vendors, and you get this financial mess.

QUEST: Right. So the hope, this is chapter 11, which means they get to restructure within the themselves. And what happens next? They will

obviously try to restructure, but at the end of the day, I mean, from your understanding, what is the plan for the future for these stores?

COOBAN: Well, yes. Chapter 11 is the, you know, hold the hands up, we've got too much debt, let's restructure. It's not Chapter Seven, which is

when, you know, it's kind of last chance, you sell all your assets, but it's not a great look. And what tends to happen in these situations is that

these companies will use Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a way of getting out of very expensive lease contracts. And so that is another way of saying that

you might see fewer stores.

[16:50:04]

QUEST: But it doesn't address the core problem. Do they need to come up with a new strategy?

COOBAN: I would say yes because they're playing in a -- with a mindset that is decades out of date. People just don't visit luxury department stores in

the way that they used to. And also post pandemic people are turning away from luxury buying in large numbers. You talked about this K-shaped

economy. Rich people are spending more, people in the middle and on lower incomes are spending a lot less.

And this is what other department stores have seen. Macy's, for example, has closed over 100 stores a couple of years ago. So really Saks is playing

a game that is kind of very outdated.

QUEST: OK. I'm grateful. Thank you very much indeed.

For the first time in history, NASA is bringing an astronaut back to earth early for health reasons. The latest as the crew prepares to leave the

International Space Station.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Moments from now, four astronauts are set to leave the International Space Station about a month earlier than planned because of a medical

issue. These are the pictures of the SpaceX capsule as the crew is making their final preparations to return home. Behind will be left a skeleton

crew of just three people to maintain and run the space station.

Tariq Malik is the editor-in-chief of Space.com.

We don't know -- we know medical issue. We don't know why. We don't know who. We don't know any of the details. But it must be -- I want to say

serious, I mean, because these are all -- they are all coming back next month, I believe, anyway. So to bring it forward, what can you tell me

about it?

TARIQ MALIK, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SPACE.COM: Well, we know that it must be a serious but not an emergency medical issue with one of these four

astronauts, and we're likely not going to find out exactly which of these four astronauts, NASA's Zena Cardman, Mike Fincke, and Japan's Kimiya Yui,

and Russia's Oleg Platonov, because of medical privacy concerns. NASA has stressed that very, very highly that they're going to keep all that

confidential as well as the nature of this medical concern.

We do know a few things, though, that the astronaut involved is stable and that these four astronauts did seem to be at least able to go about their

work fairly normally. They had some televised events where they said farewell to the space station. They all seemed in good health or at least

stable at that point in time. And we know that it could be something that we find common on earth as well.

NASA's chief medical officer has said if it's common on earth, it's common in space from the common cold to something else.

QUEST: And the decision to bring them all back together rather than, I mean, I suppose it's not practical just to bring the old one back on its

own, because they're still going to need that craft to bring the others back anyway.

MALIK: Exactly. The space station is currently home to seven people, soon to be three as you mentioned earlier. And that's very much set by the

amount of spacecraft and seats available at the station. Each of these vehicles, the Crew Dragon Endeavor that these four crew 11 astronauts are

on now, that's not just their spacecraft to and from the space station. It's also a lifeboat if there was an emergency where they'd have to leave

earlier than planned, like what we're seeing now. So essentially it would have to be all of them together or none of them at all to leave so that

they would have enough seats if there was another emergency later on in the future.

QUEST: What about the three that are still there? How did they -- is there another lifeboat or is the next one coming up?

MALIK: Yes, they actually arrived later. So the astronauts returning to earth today are actually a set of astronauts that arrived back in August.

The three that are there now, NASA astronaut Oleg, or pardon me, NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian cosmonauts.

QUEST: Right.

MALIK: They arrived on Thanksgiving. So a few months later or in the middle of their own six-month mission.

QUEST: Right. But so is their craft there to take them back already?

MALIK: Yes.

QUEST: Where's their lifeboat?

[16:55:05]

MALIK: Yes, exactly. Yes, they're on a -- they arrived on a Soyuz spacecraft. So they have a three-seat spacecraft that's already docked.

That's going to be their ride home around the summertime.

QUEST: In all of this, finally, in all of this, did you -- because this is unprecedented, but NASA has planned for this all along, as you watched the

decision-making, did you get the feeling of any, not panic, but uncertainty? Did you get the feeling or did this all seem very sure footed?

MALIK: Well, it does seem like they made a very deliberate decision. This is kind of the first serious decision that NASA's new administrator, Jared

Isaacman, has had to make, and it does feel like they were erring really much on the side of caution. We have seen medical issues on the space

station before, ones that have come up. Just before a spacewalk, they had to delay things, but we've never seen a decision to have them return

someone early because of a concern, something, you know, has happened that they really can't get a good picture on and they want to be able to use

instruments on the ground, you know, in medical facilities that are, you know, a bit more detailed with more sensitivity than what's available on

the space station.

They saw that need, they tried to accelerate this return to earth, and it does seem like they weighed all of their pros and cons before making that

call.

QUEST: I'm grateful to you, sir. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate your time.

We'll take a "Profitable Moment" after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment," next week's Davos promises to be quite an event, if for no other reason than President Trump will be

visiting. And as he goes there, it's going to be fascinating to see the reaction of everybody because here you have -- the last time he was there,

by the way, he was feted and there was genuflection and people couldn't get enough of it. But this time, so much of the U.S. current agenda is at odds

with, if you like, the traditional elite agenda of the World Economic Forum.

And it will be fascinating to see, because just take tonight's program. We've spoken about Colombia and the issues there, Venezuela. We've got the

immigrant visa issue that's been suspended. You've got the question of Greenland. How will the Europeans react to their U.S. counterparts when the

U.S. of course is trying to annex seemingly one part of the Danish territory?

Throw all that into the mix, and the fact that the U.S. is spending quite a lot of money building a U.S. house right in the center of Davos, it's going

to be a very different event. One that's going to be I think a lot more argumentative but substantially, who knows, we're all still be there stuck

up a mountain.

And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in London. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.

END