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Quest Means Business

UEFA to Boycott FIFA World Cups Over Private Investment Plan; Consumer Spending, A.I. Investment Drive Growth in Q2; U.S. Attacks Iran After Trump Says it's "Our Turn", Missile Fired by Russia Landed Deep Inside Poland; Apple and Amazon Report Quarterly Earnings; Study Says Waymo Robotaxis Have Fewer Crashes Than Human Drivers; Merlin the Duck Helps Owners Find a Home. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired July 30, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:12]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Comeback for the Dow today. Really coming back more than half of what it lost yesterday. Impressive though on

the NASDAQ, which is up nearly three percent. We will have more earnings out for you this hour. Those are the markets and these are the main events:

A threat to future World Cups as UEFA votes to boycott all FIFA competitions. U.S. GDP comes in softer than expected, even as consumer

spending increased, and Apple and Amazon will report earnings at any moment as investors scrutinize which companies are actually making money with A.I.

Live from New York. It is Thursday, July 30th. I am Paula Newton, in for Richard Quest and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

European football's governing body has voted unanimously to boycott future World Cups and all FIFA competitions over FIFA's plan for private

investments. UEFA issued a statement after the vote, saying "Some things are simply too important to sell. The FIFA World Cup belongs to football.

It always will and so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale."

Now imagine a World Cup without most of the top 10 teams. You're seeing it there. This is the latest FIFA men's world ranking. Six of the teams that

you see right there are from Europe.

Now, a short time ago, CONCACAF, the group representing the football in North and Central America as well as the Caribbean, announced that its

member associations have indeed also rejected FIFA's plan. Now, there is a lot of money on the line here. To remind you, during the last World Cup

cycle, so that was from 2019 to 2022, FIFA generated more than $7 billion in revenue.

FIFA is expected to announce an even greater revenue from the current World Cup cycle. Our Christina Macfarlane has been on top of this the minute it

broke and I should say some moments before it broke, Christina, what is the significance of all of this? And crucially, have we heard FIFA's reaction

to this?

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN SENIOR SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: We have not, Paula, heard FIFA's reaction to this yet. In fact, the lack of the reaction, some

are saying is quite telling. You know what steps they are going to take in the aftermath of this because let's be honest, this is the strongest rebuke

that UEFA could have had and a rebuke, of course, to Gianni Infantino for what he was trying to do here, which was commercialize the World Cup

through bringing in private entities and not notifying its members, its leaders or even people within his orbit. We are hearing that FIFA vice

presidents weren't even aware of his plans for this FIFA Forward Enterprise, so that 55 to zero unanimous vote was a furious reaction from

federations who really feel that they have been blindsided here.

So no, we have not heard from FIFA. We have, as you pointed out there though, just heard from CONCACAF. This is North America's bloc. Its

oversees 41 countries. As you say, they have rejected FIFA's World Cup sell off plan. They have called for more transparency from Gianni Infantino.

But really, Paula, what we are watching in this moment is if any of these confederations, if CONCACAF if the Asia Confederation are going to follow

suit in terms of potentially pushing for a boycott like UEFA, the reason I say that is we are hearing from sources that CONCACAF are due to actually

hold an emergency meeting tomorrow. We don't know if that has anything to do with the boycott that will take place tomorrow afternoon.

And we know that in recent days, the Asian Confederation have come out very critically against Gianni Infantino, which is unusual. They are normally in

his corner to criticize this business venture that he is putting forward, which represents a real break from where they have been in the past.

Now, if the Asia Confederation and CONCACAF, the North America Federation, follow suit with UEFA, we could see a situation where not only Gianni

Infantino's deal cannot be done, but it could be a breakdown of Infantino's leadership altogether. Let's be honest, this moment now is being seen as a

referendum on FIFA and on his leadership as we look ahead to that FIFA presidential election in March.

NEWTON: And Christina, look to make a fine point of it, as you've been pointing out to us for hours now, Spain and Portugal are supposed to host

the next World Cup. We have the Women's World Cup next year in Brazil.

MACFARLANE: Yes, I mean, can a World Cup really go ahead? You know, will a World Cup first of all go ahead at all? Good point. But also can a World

Cup go ahead without some of the strongest teams in the world being present? And you pointed out just how many of those strongest teams are in

the world's top ten right now.

[16:05:02]

You know, we are talking about the recent -- only two weeks ago, by the way, World Cup winners Spain, France, England, Germany, Portugal,

Netherlands, I mean, this would seriously damage the integrity, of course, of the Men's World Cup.

But when it comes to the Women's World Cup, I mean, this is a potentially of greater importance for the women's game because we have the 2027 Women's

World Cup set to take place in Brazil just next summer.

In fact, qualification for that tournament is already underway. The playoffs are set to happen in October. Are we going to see now European

teams withdrawing for that competition, as the entire football world is gearing up for that, and another competition to point out as well, Paula,

the next FIFA tournament is actually getting underway in just 37 days' time. That is the under 20 Women's World Cup, set to be hosted in Poland.

There are 24 nations in that competition taking part; six of them are going to be from Europe, so there are so many questions, if I am honest you know,

in the hours to come and not many answers right now, but we are still waiting for that FIFA response to all of this.

NEWTON: Yes, and as you say, so much at stake even beyond the next Men's World Cup set in four years.

Christina Macfarlane, really thankful for you to breaking so much of this news for us today. Appreciate it.

Now, Henry Winter is a football journalist and co-host of the "Football Boardroom" podcast. You got more than you bargained for here.

You know, Europe is pushing back saying this is not a business. What was Gianni Infantino thinking? Why couldn't he see that UEFA would push back

with a boycott so quickly?

HENRY WINTER, FOOTBALL JOURNALIST AND CO-HOST OF "FOOTBALL BOARDROOM" PODCAST: Arrogance. Naivety. I mean, he should know that UEFA tend to push

back against a lot of his suggestions. I mean, very shortly after FIFA announced fairly stratospherically high ticket prices for the World Cup

just concluded, UEFA immediately announced that the 2028 European Championships would actually be reasonably priced.

So look, there is a tension there. The irony in all this, almost a Shakespearean irony, is that Infantino used to work at UEFA, left the

European family and has really seemed to embedded himself or try to embed himself in the White House or more recently in Wall Street in terms of

getting these venture capitalists in.

So your question is completely right: Why on earth did he think of what the reaction would be and the arrogance of the man to actually go ahead without

actually giving any of the people as your reporter very eloquently put it, in his orbit, actually knew what he was doing.

So yes, this is almost a Shakespearean or it could be a Shakespearean downfall of one man who flew too close to the Sun, Icarus-style.

NEWTON: Quite dramatic, especially as we await more reaction from FIFA. As you say, Gianni Infantino's tenure at FIFA could be on the line. And yet I

am wondering from you what happens next, given this threat of a boycott, and then also obviously more meetings ongoing.

I mean, kind of take us into that boardroom because you have to say that Infantino and perhaps others at FIFA thought, look, we have had such a

successful World Cup monetarily and otherwise, why not try and price it the way the NFL is priced, just to name one league?

WINTER: Well, also, one of the other things that Infantino might have looked at is that he effectively gets paid $5 million in salary and bonus,

annually as president of FIFA and he probably looked around while he was in the United States and sees what some of the Commissioners over there of the

NFL and others probably about sort of ten times as much. So, you know, maybe that went slightly to his head.

But, you know, one of the great sadnesses is that, you know, I've just returned from the World Cup in your great country and also in Mexico and

Canada, the 10th World Cup I've covered and it was a really good World Cup. I mean, some of the football was fantastic. The right team won, Spain with

Rodri, absolutely magnificent.

And there were some really good football, some great stories and also in a slightly tense world, a lot of these fans just simply got on with each

other. And it was great to see nation sort of speak peace unto nation. So it was a good World Cup and really he should have been celebrating that

rather than running off to his venture capitalist mates and seeing how he could generate more money for competition and a World Cup, he doesn't own

it.

The World Cup does not belong to President Infantino, it belongs to the world. It belongs to Rodri, it belongs to Mbappe. It belongs to all the

players, all the fans. You know, it is a global thing. It is not up to him. It is not in his gift to sell off.

NEWTON: You make such a good point to that, you know, despite all the controversies, that World Cup was highly successful in the sense that it

really elevated the experience and the game, despite all the concerns about ticket prices and other things.

So what does FIFA do now, though? Because is there really a choice? So many of the Federations have pushed back here.

[16:10:10]

WINTER: Yes, I mean CONCACAF coming out was very significant a couple of hours ago, 41 members associations there. I mean, they didn't go as far as

UEFA and say that they were going to boycott FIFA events, but they categorically rejected to it.

So again, it is a little elbow in the face of Infantino. So, if you do the math, 41 CONCACAF members, 55 European members, assuming they do vote the

way that they've said in those two boardrooms that they would vote and there was unanimity on both counts. My math is terrible, but it gives them

within about ten votes from around the world, which are very much likely to come to actually kiboshing this plan of Infantino. He needs 106 votes.

And of course, you then fast forward, as your reporter was rightly saying, to March, where there is another election for him in which he thought would

have been a ceremonial one, he would have just sort of turned up, waved and won in a landslide. That is not the case now, particularly if UEFA put a

powerful candidate forward to stand against Infantino.

NEWTON: Well, Henry Winter, we did not expect football to be in the boardroom so quickly after the successful games on the pitch, but here we

are. We will continue to follow the drama, of course, over the next few days. Grateful to you. Thanks so much.

WINTER: My pleasure.

NEWTON: Now, as we had been saying at the top of the show, U.S. markets bouncing back after a steep sell off Wednesday, the Dow gained 615 points.

The S&P 500 finished 1.6 percent higher. Chip stocks, you see it there elevated the NASDAQ 2.7 percent.

Now the latest data show U.S. economic growth slowed to 1.5 percent in the second quarter on an annualized basis. Economists were expecting a number

similar to Q1. That was, as you see there, 2.1 percent. Consumer spending, though, actually picked up last quarter to 3.2 percent. That's the biggest

jump since last summer and business investments grew a robust 8.4 percent.

Spending on equipment was up 15 percent, reflecting the massive spending still going on with those A.I. data centers.

Joe Brusuelas is the principal and chief economist at RSM, and he joins us now.

Joe, tell me, you argue the low GDP number in this economy is not a thing to worry about. Economy is doing just fine, thank you very much.

Can you explain and specifically because some of the numbers I was looking at today were the issue of if you strip out A.I., that economic growth

otherwise was quite tepid.

But go on, just prove me wrong.

JOE BRUSUELAS, PRINCIPAL AND CHIEF ECONOMIST, RSM: Well, you don't want to strip out A.I. because that's resulting in investment in productivity

enhancing capital equipment. Over time, that's what drives an increase in wages and actually, over the long term, it means everything because that's

how you see living standards go up, right?

So that build out in A.I. requires a lot of software and peripherals spending on those increased just under 30 percent. You have to import a lot

of that into your economy when you're structurally transforming it, which is what the build out of A.I. is actually doing.

So at the end of the day, that 1.5 percent. Well, that trade deficit was a one percent drag, right? Moreover, when you look at the real underlying

economy, what we call real final private demand from domestic purchasers, excluding trade inventories, growth was up 3.9 percent and that's a

function of those very strong, robust spending numbers that we see, admittedly driven by the upper 40 percent of American households.

When you combine that with that build out of A.I., again, that's going to structurally transform the U.S. and global economy, we've got something

brewing here that's actually quite nice.

NEWTON: And I don't want to get too much into the weeds and the technicalities of the numbers, I would just say that there are some -- me

included -- who say, look, we have yet to prove the return on investment and the increase in productivity on that.

The other thing that kind of bothers me a little bit is that 40 percent figure you just gave and also people who aren't that in that 40 percent,

that consumer spending is coming off the back of more debt and more credit. But let's put that aside for a second, because the second part of your

argument is that you say inflation is broadening out and looks more persistent, you think, than even the Fed is acknowledging.

BRUSUELAS: That's right. We had a 6.2 percent quarter over quarter increase in the GDP price index. If you look at the core, you strip out oil and

food, it is advancing at 3.4 percent. When you get this sort of dynamic transformation and you're going to mop up every single little part of every

product you can around the world that you need to build out A.I., yes you're going to see inflation increase.

Now, over the medium term, five to 10 years, A.I. will cause productivity to rise and I think actually inflation -- the growth and inflation is slow.

[16:15:10]

But here in the next one to three years, it is going to be a source of inflation and let's just say very challenging performance put forward by

Kevin Warsh yesterday did not instill confidence, which is why we saw the long end of the yield curve increase significantly.

I was looking at the 30-year rate today at 5.2 percent. Now, that's not good for those down market households that you talked about, right? If they

want to buy a car, if they need a mortgage or they want to send their kid to college and borrow money, that's all going to get more expensive because

of what is happening in this economy and the Fed's reluctance to acknowledge it.

NEWTON: And I want to get to the markets in a second, but to put a fine point on it, you believe they should have raised rates a quarter point

yesterday?

BRUSUELAS: Well, I think that they should have held yesterday and laid the predicate for raising rates when they meet in six weeks in September, but

we will have to get back to that, because our markets are going to have a lot to say about that.

NEWTON: And you said the magic words there, markets. So what does this mean for markets? Because investors have been easily rattled and we have seen

these fluctuations that leave people uneasy, especially when, as you said, we look at the long bond and that means that there are places for people to

park their money with a reasonable return even when you put inflation in there.

BRUSUELAS: Well, that's right. For those fixed income investors, the boomers who have aged out of the economy quite a long time ago, this

actually helps them, right? For people who again live on fixed income, this is good. But for investors, there is a little bit too much risk there.

Part of why yields are rising at the line of the curve is because investors are losing confidence that the Fed will restore price stability, defined as

a two percent inflation target and can we sustain government spending at these levels? So there is a lot going on here right now.

My sense is the Fed is going to have to change its tune, that the regime change that Mr. Warsh is pursuing at the Fed is actually injecting

uncertainty and volatility into the market and that tends to actually push your median household away from investing in the market and actually, they

don't buy -- many of them won't buy bonds, even with higher yields, they will park their money in cash because they will just be too frightened

around the noise that's been going on from day-to-day and that's not a good thing.

NEWTON: It is a very salient point, especially as we've seen retail investors, those investors, have so much more of an effect on the market in

recent years.

Joe, I appreciate the deep dive on the data, especially from your blog, because the devil is in the detail, especially these days, the results for

us. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

BRUSUELAS: Thank you.

NEWTON: Just ahead for us, the U.S. strikes Iran after President Trump threatens to hit it hard, in his words, and Egypt reports a drone attack in

one of its ports.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:32]

NEWTON: Egypt is reporting the first damage on its territory since the U.S. and Israel went to war with Iran. It says a drone strike caused two vessels

to catch fire at one of its mediterranean ports. No one has claimed responsibility, and no deaths or injuries were reported. Iran's Foreign

Minister just posted on X that Egypt is an important friend and that its security is important to Tehran.

Now, the night before, the U.S. unleashed a heavy wave of strikes against Iran. The U.S. Military said it was responding to Iran's attempted strikes

on U.S. bases in the region.

Kristen Holmes is at The White House for us. And Kristen, really, the question is the same, right? The strikes have escalated. And yet, what

effect is it actually having on this conflict if any and I am wondering what more you're learning from the Trump administration about where they go

next.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's always been the issue here is why continue these strikes if your own Intelligence,

and this is what we've reported that U.S. Intelligence found, shows that this kind of level of strikes in the United States on Iran doesn't actually

move the needle or is unlikely to move the needle, particularly when it comes to Iranian stance on negotiations.

Now, it did briefly look as though it had forced them to the negotiating table when President Trump announced that they would be stopping those

strikes roughly for five days. He wanted to give the talks space to breathe, these negotiations some room to actually work out. But of course,

then we saw this kind of surprise attack on U.S. Military forces that led to an entire escalation.

Now, there is huge fear that this is going to be an expanded war, particularly after we know that Saudi Arabia launched a joint military

operation with the U.S. in Iraq. This was on what they called Iranian linked logistics and weapons sites. Now, there is obviously this concern

about Egypt.

We heard what the Iranians have said. We know President Trump kind of implied, but without any evidence, that it was the Iranians that had struck

that port. But that also opens the door for even more expansion across the Middle East if that's the direction that we are going in.

Now, we will see whether or not Central Command announces another round of strikes tonight. It seems likely, just given what we've heard from

President Trump, the fact that he says it is our turn to hit them harder after those strikes on U.S. Forces.

But again, to answer your question, it doesn't seem to be moving the needle at all. However, we do know that behind-the-scenes mediators are trying to

get both sides back to the negotiating table; unclear if it is working at this point.

NEWTON: Yes, and as you said, this is the witching hour to use a term. And again, nothing so far from the U.S. government. But we will certainly wait

to see what happens in the coming hours.

Kristen Holmes for us at The White House. Appreciate it.

Now, the head of Air France-KLM says heatwaves are pushing some summer travelers to avoid Southern Europe. Ben Smith told "The Financial Times"

that European customers are choosing northern destinations rather than certain parts of Spain or France. Wildfires have ravaged those countries

over the past week, forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their homes.

Now, Melissa Bell spoke to one man in Southwest France who unfortunately lost his home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is what the village of Le Porge in Southwestern France looked like a week ago.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

BELL (voice over): These videos, filmed by Matthieu Plessus, one of a handful of locals who stayed behind to try and help firefighters.

(MATTHIEU PLESSUS speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: There were flames jumping of over a kilometer, or even taller. It was -- well, it was the apocalypse.

BELL (voice over): By Friday morning, however, this was all that was left of his home

(MATTHIEU PLESSUS speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: We're at my home, we're at my family home.

(MELISSA BELL speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: You've been here for seven generations, and this is what's left.

(MATTHIEU PLESSUS speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: But the next morning, when we came back, everything was still burning.

(MELISSA BELL speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: What was inside that house, which has belonged to your family for generations?

(MATTHIEU PLESSUS speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: My whole life, there was aquarium with fish, I had a snake in a terrarium. I couldn't save it I couldn't save everything.

Everything burned even the animals!

It breaks my heart.

BELL (voice over): Some locals here accuse authorities of sending firefighters elsewhere just when the fire hit hardest for them. As it

spread, they were engulfed and felt abandoned as firefighters raced towards the popular tourist hotspot of the Cap-Ferrat Peninsula.

(MATTHIEU PLESSUS speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: Everyone deserves to have their home saved, to have their living space saved, whether they're rich or poor, we're all human beings.

[16:25:10]

BELL (voice over): His neighbors didn't fare much better. Many of their houses were destroyed as well. Overall, in the village of Le Porge, 180

houses were destroyed, making it the hardest hit by the Gironde Fire.

BELL (on camera): That trail of devastation that led to Le Porge began here just over a week ago at ground zero of the Gironde Fire and here on the

outskirts of the village of Saumos, you get an idea as well of just how violent it was.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Saumos.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Coming up for us, Poland says a Russian cruise missile landed deep inside its territory. We will have more on what officials say was an

incursion into NATO airspace.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: Hello, I am Paula Newton, and there is more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment when the world's most valuable company, Apple reports earnings, we

will look at the results.

And autonomous Waymo cars may be safer than human drivers. We speak to the author of a study that looked at that question.

Before that, the headlines this hour.

UEFA, the organization that runs European football voted unanimously today to boycott any event run by FIFA. UEFA is furious at FIFA President, Gianni

Infantino's plan to raise billions of dollars by selling off part of the World Cup. UEFA says the only way to end the boycott is for FIFA to drop

the investment plan.

At least nine people, including four children and their parents, are dead following a massive wave of Russian attacks right across Ukraine. An

injured ten-year-old boy was rescued from the rubble of a building in the western city of Lviv.

July is now the worst month for civilian casualties in Ukraine since 2022.

U.S. economic growth slowed last quarter to 1.5 percent on an annualized basis. The growth was driven in part by a boost in consumer spending. It

picked up to 3.2 percent on an annualized basis, the fastest pace in nearly a year.

[16:30:00]

Now, during those Russian airstrikes last night on Ukraine, Poland says a missile landed deep inside its territory. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk

visited the crater it left behind in a field. He said all indications suggest the cruise missile was fired by Russia. A NATO military official

says forces were seconds away from shooting it down before assessing that it would crash on its own, as you see there, into an empty field.

Michal Sznajder is an anchor with our Polish sister station, TVN24. He joins us now from Washington.

And we're really interested to get your perspective of this. What is the significance of this kind of missile landing so far into Polish territory?

MICHAL SZNAJDER, SENIOR ANCHOR AND INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, TVN24: Good evening. Well, this was some 90 kilometers from the border and some 50

kilometers from the city of Lublin, a city of more than 300,000 people. Now, that might give you an idea of what could have happened. And this was

not some sort of debris. The Polish authorities say that the missile was armed and was carrying significant amounts of explosive material.

And while Poland has had similar events happened before, we have not seen a missile go so deep into Polish territory during this full scale Russian

invasion of Ukraine. The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said this was another night of Russian terror, and this time it also touched Poland and

that results in unacceptable threat to Polish lives. This also creates an opportunity for the Polish authorities to analyze and improve all

procedures.

And for the ordinary Poles, the meaning is simpler. The war next door is not entirely next door anymore. It has reached deeper than ever before

during this conflict.

NEWTON: And how are people in Poland taking all of this in? Obviously, the war has been difficult on Poland as well. And yet what do they want the

government to do in terms of a reaction here?

SZNAJDER: Well, nobody, especially nobody of any significance, is demanding an escalation. The dominating idea is to carry on meaning to continue

spending on defense. Now, Poland is already the biggest spender on defense in NATO as a share of GDP. And almost nobody in Poland has been questioning

that strategy. Of course, sometimes you have fights about how to finance those investments, but overall, you know, the government and the president

who disagree about almost anything else, they are on the same page when it comes to the significance of defense.

Furthermore, there is a constant diplomatic offensive in Europe and in the United States, especially focused on securing as many American troops and

American firepower in Poland as possible. Now, situations like this can be used to strengthen that case. The real debate is about Ukraine. Poland is

willing to send even more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, thinking that it's better to stop these things over Ukraine than over Poland.

But that argument is getting harder to make at home because Warsaw and Kyiv have had a falling out of sorts recently rooted in grievances about

history, and the Polish public is somewhat turning sour on Ukraine. Navigating that relationship might be the biggest challenge now, and the

Poles are more afraid of Russia than at any point during this war and at the same time are losing some of their goodwill towards Ukraine. So those

two things sit together very uncomfortably.

NEWTON: Yes. You make such an important point about that, given how long this conflict has now gone on. I really appreciate the perspective. Thanks

so much.

Now, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt joins us. He's currently co- chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

And I want to welcome you to the program. So just give it to us straight. What do you believe were Russia's intentions about hitting this deep into

Polish territory?

CARL BILDT, FORMER SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER: Well, I think the intention was to attack Ukraine. I mean, it was part of a rather massive attack with

close to 400 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. I mean, they've really been stepping up during the last few weeks. And then this

particular cruise missile, a heavy cruise missile, air launched one, even went astray. And when you have these sort of massive attacks with hundreds

and hundreds of missiles going into Ukraine airspace, then sometimes these things happen.

I don't think it was aimed at Poland, but it's unavoidable with these massive attacks that it will have consequences beyond the borders of

Ukraine.

NEWTON: So you do not believe this warrants any kind of a reaction from NATO, from Poland, from the United States?

BILDT: I think it was primarily -- I think it was part of the massive attack against Ukraine. And I think it's fairly obvious that Mr. Putin is

under pressure. He's under pressure inside Russia because the war is not going particularly well. He's stepping up pressure on Ukraine.

[16:35:02]

He knows that there are shortages of air defense assets in Ukraine. And accordingly, he's stepping up production of cruise missiles, production of

ballistic missiles, and trying to hammer Ukraine. This was part, I think, of a fairly large strike against the Ukrainian city of Lviv, in the

vicinity of the of the Polish border. They're also attacking heavily the ports of Odessa to stop the Ukrainian grain exports.

So it underlines the need to give support to the defense of Ukraine. That's the only way of de facto defending also Poland and other countries.

NEWTON: Given that we have heard so much, even from the United States, given the Iran conflict on the shortage of those, you know, defense

ordnance, do you believe that Europe, the United States, has the capacity for this right now? Because Russia is obviously testing and probing and

making a point of this?

BILDT: Well, it's a question of priorities. And clearly, from the European perspective, the priority is to defend Ukraine because the defense of

Ukraine today is the defense of Europe tomorrow, even defense today, as we've seen in this particular case with Poland. Then the United States has

its own war of choice that consumes a lot of ordnance. As a matter of fact, far more air defense ordnance than has been given or sold to Ukraine.

I mean, that's not a priority that we Europeans find particularly appealing, to put it very mildly. But that's where we are.

NEWTON: That's where we are. It is a sobering account of where we are. Where do you think this goes next, though? Because even if Ukraine has done

a good job right now of not just winning on the battlefield, but perhaps, you know, turning the tide a bit on the opinion of the U.S. president,

where does all of this go? Winter is not that far away. And we just gave the civilian body count now, the worst since 2022.

BILDT: Yes. No, I think, as said, Mr. Putin is in a fairly bad mood. He want to believe what the military say or what the military leadership is

saying to him, that he can make further progress during the autumn. He will do it utmost. It might be mobilization in order to achieve that. But in the

meantime, he's using all of the assets as he had to hammer Ukraine with these hundreds and hundreds of drones and cruise missiles against some

military targets, no doubt.

But I mean civilian targets. I mean, there was a family killed today, and hurting the economy and believing that in this way he can defeat Ukraine. I

don't think it will succeed. But, I mean, the human cost of it is staggering and the cynicism of it is appalling. And I think we Europeans at

least have a duty to do whatever we can to support Ukraine because it is, at the end of the day, it's our defense as well.

NEWTON: I was going to say it's not just supporting Ukraine, right? The defense architecture in Europe has been completely transformed and will

continue to be so in the coming years because of this conflict.

BILDT: Yes.

NEWTON: Carl Bildt, always good to have you on the program. Appreciate it.

BILDT: Pleasure.

NEWTON: Now, a new study says driverless cars -- stay with me here -- are safer than human drivers, possibly safer than me. One of the study's

authors joins us to explain ahead on QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:08]

NEWTON: So in the past few minutes, Apple and Amazon reported quarterly earnings. Here's the reaction in afterhours trading. Amazon up nearly 7

percent but Apple down 2.6 percent. Now Apple's sales rose 16 percent, narrowly beating expectations. It was driven by a large boost in iPhone and

MacBook sales. Tim Cook will soon host his last earnings call as CEO.

Amazon's Cloud revenue, meantime, jumped 37 percent, beating estimates. That's easing concerns over its heavy spending on A.I..

Clare Duffy is in New York for us.

These results from both Amazon and Apple have been so closely scrutinized. And I will add, even though Apple is down a bit, I mean, it has had such a

run up in the last few weeks.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Paula. I mean, I think this just shows how high expectations are for these big tech giants and how sort of

concerned -- how much concern there is around the A.I. performance. Of course, the Apple story is a little bit different than a lot of the other

big tech companies. Apple is spending not nearly as much on A.I. infrastructure, but the company did launch its new A.I. Siri that had been

so highly anticipated within the last quarter.

And so there have been big questions from investors about whether that would be enough to get more users to upgrade their iPhones. And these are

sort of lukewarm results for Tim Cook's last earnings sprint as CEO. You did see sales beating expectations just slightly. Profits up 27 percent

year on year. But I think there are a lot of big questions going into this earnings call around Apple having to have raised prices in the last quarter

because of tariffs.

There are also questions again about whether this A.I. Siri is going to be enough to spark a big upgrade cycle when Apple announces the newest iPhone

in September and John Turness, of course, takes over as CEO. And I think there are longer term questions for Apple about the future and how it is

going to compete in the post-iPhone, post-smartphone world, where we start to see new A.I. devices be released. I think all of those are questions

that I expect to hear Apple get asked in this earnings call.

And Paula, turning to Amazon, sort of a different story here. You are seeing investors react to the fact that Amazon seems to be benefiting from

its massive A.I. infrastructure spend. As you mentioned AWS sales that is the crucial Cloud computing unit, up 37 percent year on year. As one

analyst said after looking at the results, Amazon is earning the right from investors to keep spending.

You've got other big tech companies that are asking their investors to just trust them that this A.I. spend will pay off Amazon. You are starting to

see that already, and I think that is why the shares are in the green today.

NEWTON: So I'm wondering, Clare, and we have been discussing this that the markets have been really just so volatile, meaning, not kind of

directionless almost, especially when it comes to the tech earnings in A.I.. And I'm wondering, given these results from Apple and Amazon, where

we think we're headed here, especially since there are still many more tech earnings to come.

DUFFY: Yes. Paula, it's really hard to say. I think we're probably heading for more volatility. There just seems to be a level of distrust about the

A.I. story that we've been hearing from the big tech giants that they're making these billions, trillions of dollars of investments in

infrastructure, but they are going to see that pay off. Investors are really starting to question that thesis. And of course, when it comes to

major Cloud players like Amazon and Microsoft yesterday, you are starting to see that.

But even that, I wonder if investors will start to ask for even more going forward. Investors have just come to expect such significant growth from

these tech companies, and maybe they're not seeing quite the A.I. turnaround that they were expecting to see in the immediate future. Of

course, there's potential down the line, I think. But in the immediate future, I think investors want more.

NEWTON: Yes, not even when they get it like from Microsoft, they were actually excited that Microsoft wasn't going to be spending a lot of money

going forward on things like data centers. So it was really interesting to see that dichotomy. Microsoft, by the way, up 15 percent today.

[16:45:04]

Clare Duffy, thanks so much as always for breaking it down.

DUFFY: Thanks, Paula.

NEWTON: Now, a new study finds that Waymo robotaxis have fewer crashes than human drivers like me. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted

the study. It looked at data from four U.S. cities, Austin, Texas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and that was Phoenix, Arizona, and San Francisco. The

study says Waymo's rate of police reportable crash involvement was in fact 68 percent lower than human drivers.

David Kidd is one of the study's authors, and he joins us now live.

I am wondering about what that statistic really means because A.I. is really outperforming humans here, right, in terms of safety. What key data

did the study provide that perhaps we didn't know before?

DAVID KIDD, VP FOR VEHICLE RESEARCH, INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY: We've heard from Waymo in their own studies that they are -- they

assert they're safer in terms of -- compared to human drivers. And so this is really one of the few independent efforts to look at publicly available

data to see if they indeed are safer, and that the key is they get in fewer crashes in the areas that they deployed compared to human drivers.

NEWTON: Do you think that that's difficult for some people to accept because some people are still queasy about this? When you dive into the

data, I mean, what is that? Is it reaction time is better? Is it more rational reactions? Because you're definitely taking any kind of human

reaction right out of it.

KIDD: Well, what we're seeing is, is just that they're just involved in crashes less time or less often. And when you look at the crashes, what's

really happening is they're getting run into by other people. You have to remember they're on the same roads as people are. And so they're making --

it seems like they're making fewer mistakes. But that does not mean that they're going to avoid everything on the road.

We've seen public examples that that gained a lot of news attention going through big flooded roads or perhaps swerving around to get around the

school bus, running over chains or, you know, locking up emergency. So they're not perfect by any stretch. But compared to, on the whole, the

drivers in those cities where they're deployed in those urban areas, they get fewer crashes.

NEWTON: And what implications do you think this kind of study should have for the development of autonomous driving? In all kinds of scenarios,

including things like trucks? And I know that you made the point that they're being crashed into, I almost feel as if, well, if all the cars had

autonomous driving and all the trucks, would there be fewer accidents, period?

KIDD: It's a great question. It's one that we can't answer with this study alone. We're looking at the limited deployments of these automated

vehicles, and they're continuing to expand. You know, but one of the things that we noted in our study is that the data infrastructure is just not

there. The only reason we were able to look at Waymo is because they publicly report the number of miles that their vehicles travel.

So we have that data and information about crashes involving Zoox and involving Cruise. But there's no information about how many miles they

went. So we couldn't compute a crash rate. And that's what really speaks to the safety. And it's something we want to monitor. You know, as these

vehicles go to new places, will that safety record hold up?

NEWTON: So interesting. And in fact, some of the examples that you gave before, we're showing right now an example in Atlanta, Georgia, where, yes,

two Waymo taxis were doing donuts in a cul de sac because they lost their way and, you know, a nuisance, maybe not necessarily unsafe. But then also

in Atlanta, we had, you know, a car, you see it there, robotaxi stuck in a flood. It kind of then put on its hazards. Didn't really know what to do.

In terms of the overall data, though, you're saying what we're looking at right now, that kind of confusion, they're anomalies. Not necessarily

something that you see all that often.

KIDD: Well, it's hard to tell. That's the problem. When we look at data that these companies are required to report to the Department of

Transportation, it's just when they're physically involved in the crash. Early on it was when they sort of contributed to crash, or maybe they

bumped a curb or something like that, but it's got a little bit more conservative in the sense that it has to cause some damage.

We don't really know anything about how often they're blocking up emergency scenes or running through emergency scenes, or they have these follow ups

where maybe the entire grid goes out and their connection goes out. They just stall in the middle road and block traffic. And so when you say, are

these vehicles safe in terms of getting crashes, our study, as well as some of the other studies that Waymo has done indicate that they are involved in

crashes left often than human drivers.

But, you know, there's a lot more that goes into whether or not they're safe participants in the roadway. And so hopefully this gives some momentum

to better understanding whether or not they are allowing emergency vehicles to do what they need to do and not blocking up emergency responses.

[16:50:05]

And they're not having these kind of edge case reactions where they're doing things that are completely mind boggling exactly as you say.

NEWTON: David, we don't have a lot of time left. But I have to ask you, have you been in a robotaxi? Given you're a scientist and you did a deep

dive on the data, are you very comfortable in them? You feel really safe?

KIDD: I mean, it feels no different than driving or being driven in an Uber. How about that? Because right now it's just the ride hailing but with

a different driver. So, you know, I take some comfort in that these vehicles are programed not to speed. They're not going to be impaired. They

won't be distracted. And so by definition, but because of that, they should be better, right?

NEWTON: That is a very scientific answer, I would say. Just looking at the odds, like you said, there are so many things that you can take out of the

equation. I've not been in one yet, but I am looking forward to it just to see what the experience is like.

David Kidd for us, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

KIDD: Thank you.

NEWTON: Now, Mexico's unofficial World Cup mascot is back. How the viral Duck Merlin helped get his family a home.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: So Mexico's unofficial World Cup mascot, Merlin the Duck, you will remember him, has changed the fortune of his struggling family.

Valeria Leon has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Merlin the Duck became an unlikely star after going viral during the World Cup. His fame transformed

the life of the Mexican family that raised him.

Karla and her sons, Cristian and Carlos, used to sleep inside a tiny street side shop in Mexico City, where they sold bottled water.

KARLA GOMEZ, MERLIN'S OWNER (through translator): Living in a shop, working seven days a week, putting in exhausting hours and carrying heavy loads was

very difficult. Sometimes I would cry at night. I was always apologizing to my sons for making them live in a shop.

LEON (voice-over): Cristian told us how they crawled inside each night and how that reality weighed heavily on his mother.

CRISTIAN GOMEZ, MERLIN'S OWNER (through translator): My mom slept up here. I slept down below and my brother slept down there.

LEON (voice-over): After their story caught the attention of local authorities, Mexico City's government gave the family a home.

K. GOMEZ: Vecino.

LEON (voice-over): With Merlin in their arms, Karla and Christian returned to their former neighborhood, greeting the street vendors who witnessed

their struggle along with their sudden rise to fame.

[16:55:11]

K. GOMEZ (through translator): For the first time in many years, we were able to sleep peacefully.

LEON (voice-over): Now that the World Cup has ended, they've dropped by the old shop to pick up Merlin's favorite soccer ball.

C. GOMEZ (through translator): I'm happy. Thanks to him we have a house now and he can sleep wherever he wants.

LEON (voice-over): For this family, their lucky duck changed everything from surviving day by day to dreaming about what comes next.

K. GOMEZ (through translator): I want to pursue the business side of this. I want to start making clothes for ducks.

LEON (voice-over): Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Now, Wall Street ended higher today amid a rally in chip stocks. The tech heavy Nasdaq up nearly 3 percent. You see it there. The S&P up 1.6

percent. The Dow didn't get back everything it gave up yesterday. But it was a good comeback up more than 600 points.

We do want to take a look at some of those Dow components. Microsoft ended up more than 15 percent after it gave a stellar forecast in its earnings

report, and also indicated that it would be spending less than first thought on that A.I. infrastructure build out. Goldman Sachs, meantime, was

up 4.5 percent. It launched an A.I. investing platform called Alpha A.I..

Amazon, ahead of releasing earnings, closed up nearly 4 percent. Its earnings, in fact, outpaced expectations, especially in the all-important

Cloud area. Salesforce down 4 percent along with Apple, down 1.4 percent. In fact, the conference call, which will be CEO Tim Cook's last, gets under

way at the top of the hour here.

That is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Paula Newton. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" is next.

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