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Connect the World
Pope Leo XIV Celebrates First Mass in the Sistine Chapel; World Leaders Attend Massive Military Parade in Russia; Macron Urges EU not to Renew Syria Sanctions; U.S. to Hold Trade Talks with China on Heels of UK Deal; Tottenham Beat BODO/GLIMT 5-1 on Aggregate to Reach Final. Aired 9- 10a ET
Aired May 09, 2025 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Well, these are live pictures of St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on the day. The newly appointed Leo,
the fourth -- 14th led his first mass as pope in the Sistine Chapel. It's 03:00 p.m. there, it is 05:00 p.m. in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson, you're
watching "Connect the World" from our Middle East Programming Headquarters.
Also coming up, Vladimir Putin celebrates Russia's Victory Day with a military parade in Moscow. He was accompanied by a host of world leaders,
including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Well Trump Administration officials preparing to meet their Chinese counterparts this weekend in the hope of
bringing their trade war to an end.
Well, the stock market in New York opens about 30 minutes from now. And the prospect is for a positive start with trading day this Friday, ahead of
those talks this weekend in Switzerland. Well, Pope Leo, the 14th has opened a new era at the Vatican celebrating his first mass as pontiff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE LEO XIV, HEAD OF CATHOLIC CHURCH AND SOVEREIGN OF THE VATICAN CITY STATE: I begin with a word in English and the rest is in Italian, but I
want to repeat the words from the responsorial psalm. I will sing a new song to the Lord, because he has done marbles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, the new pope making history there opening his homily in English. This was hugely significant for Catholics in the U.S., hearing
American English from the Leader of the Catholic Church. This is also, of course, a moment of great pride for Peru, which Pope Leo called home for
many years.
Well, let's get you straight to Vatican City, where Ben Wedeman is standing by. What's feeling that you are getting there as the new pope sets the tone
for his papacy, Ben?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what we're seeing, Becky, is that the faithful, whether they be from the United
States, Italy, Latin America, Europe, Africa or Asia, are having to come to grips with one simple fact, as illustrated in Il Messaggero today, the
Italian daily, Il Papa Americano, the American Pope, the first ever American Pope, he was not considered one of the top contenders.
In fact, CNN put together in the lead up to the conclave about 20 names, that of those who might be candidates, he was number 13 out of 20. But I
think his announcement that we heard yesterday from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica surprised everybody, by and large positively what we saw
the crowd here, estimated at almost 50,000 was a quite happy to see the white smoke, to see that a new pope had selected.
We waited an hour, somewhat tensely, waiting for this, the news about who exactly they'd chosen, and when the name came out. There was a certain
amount of surprise. I did speak to some and Italian couple who was disappointed because they said there hasn't been an Italian Pope since 1978
with the death of Pope John Paul the first after a short 33-day reign.
But they said they are ready to give this new pope, Pope Leo the 14th a chance. Now, this morning, we spoke to some Americans who were here, and
they were thrilled. They were absolutely shocked that that Robert Prevost the Cardinal. Now, Leo the 14th had been chosen as the pope.
And I can tell you most of the people I have spoken to, Americans in the square didn't even know who he was before his name was announced. So, I
think a lot of people are learning more and more about him, and certainly what we've seen so far is clearly he's a man of the world.
He spoke in very good, fluent Italian when he addressed the crowd yesterday, switched into Spanish. We heard him speaking Latin at the mass
this morning in the Sistine Chapel, clearly having lived in Peru for many years, ministered to poor communities. He is very familiar with the
difficulties of life for those on the margins of society, and we heard him say yesterday, he wants to build bridges.
And of course, this is very much in along the lines of what we heard from Pope Francis in the past, who made it clear that he was in favor of
building bridges to bridge the gaps of differences between different groups, rather than as others are advocating building walls, Becky.
[09:05:00]
ANDERSON: Ben, it's good to have you. Thank you very much, and thank you for your coverage these past couple of weeks, you and I have been constant
TV buddies for this and for that, we are very thankful -- Well following what could be a breakthrough for Gaza, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike
Huckabee, announcing a short time ago that a plan for a renewed humanitarian aid operation is set to begin soon.
He says that operation will be carried out by multiple partners and will not rely on any direct military coordination. Huckabee adds that Israel
will not deliver aid, but it will take part in security efforts to protect the critical supplies. Israel's blockade of aid deliveries to Gaza has
entered its third month.
Humanitarian groups have warned that supplies are depleted, and the Palestinian enclave is approaching all out famine. Listen, there's one
displaced woman in Gaza describes what is the diet situation there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ask the world to stop the war on Gaza. Enough of the war's tragedy, enough. Half of our children are gone. You go out for
five minutes. You find one without a hand, or one without a leg, or one, for example, whose entire family is gone. There is no good left. There is
nothing left. There is nothing left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well CNN's Jeremy Diamond following this story for us, and he joins us now. Jeremy, what war can you tell us about this new plan to
resume aid deliveries to Gaza? What do we know at this point?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, this afternoon, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, outlined some of the basics of this
U.S.-Israeli proposal, which would create a new aid mechanism to get aid into Gaza in a way that, according to the U.S. Ambassador, would prevent
Hamas from getting their hands on that aid, diverting it and selling it in order to profit off of it.
That, of course, has been the consistent allegation made by Israeli officials in particular. But humanitarian aid organizations have rejected
that claim, insisting that the overwhelming majority of humanitarian aid that has gotten into Gaza is directed directly to the people in need.
But nonetheless, that is the impetus for this new mechanism, the fact that Israel has blocked aid from going into Gaza for more than two months now,
and will only allow it to go in if there is this kind of mechanism in place to try and prevent the aid from getting to Hamas as they say.
We've also obtained a document from this Gaza humanitarian foundation which will oversee the implementation of this mechanism, which talks about
setting up distribution centers in Gaza, four distribution centers to begin with, each of which will be able to serve about 300,000 people initially,
according to the document.
Altogether, that's about 1.2 million people, or about 60 percent of Gaza's population. And so, I asked the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, what about the
other 40 percent? How are they supposed to get food? Here was his answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE HUCKABEE, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO ISREAL: Everything is planned to be scaled up. You have to start somewhere, and the somewhere feeds an enormous
level of the people of Gaza, and then it scales up from there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't have time to wait, do they?
HUCKABEE: Well, I don't know. Right now, they've been waiting a long time thanks to Hamas and their efforts to keep their people starving. I wish
Hamas would decide that they wanted their people to have more food and would quit stealing it. And if that would happen, we would be further along
than we already are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAMOND: And indeed the U.S. Ambassador repeatedly pointing the finger of blame at Hamas, not at Israel, which has maintained a siege of Gaza now for
more than nine weeks, he did, though, unlike Israeli officials, acknowledge that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, something that the Deputy
Israeli Foreign Minister denied just a couple of days ago in an interview with our Christiane Amanpour.
Huckabee, though, you know, acknowledged that it will take some time to get this mechanism up and running. I spoke with a source familiar with the
plans, who told me that it will take at least two weeks from now in order for this mechanism to get set up, and then several more weeks after that
for it to scale up to accommodate and take care of the needs of a larger share of Gaza's population and the people of Gaza at this moment, they
simply do not have the time.
The warnings are growing more and more dire from inside of Gaza, where just this week alone, we have seen several of these soup kitchens in the Gaza
Strip shutting down due to a total lack of supplies. And of course, we know that when famine strikes, it is always the most vulnerable who are most
impacted first, and that, of course, includes children, Becky.
[09:10:00]
ANDERSON: Jeremy, it's good to have you, and next hour, I'll speak with Olga Cherevko from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs. She's been on the ground in Gaza and has seen firsthand, the devastating crisis that is unfolding there, including the lack of food,
water and critical supplies.
Do you stay with us for that? Let's get you to the conflict between India and Pakistan now, each accusing the other of drone attacks today. There's
also more shelling reported along the de facto border separating the Indian and Pakistani administered sides of Kashmir. Dozens of people have been
killed in the latest fighting between the longtime rivals, while fears of a much wider conflict persist.
A senior Pakistani source in Washington tells CNN, Pakistan is giving space for diplomacy to try to de-escalate tensions. Well, Nic Robertson reports
from Rawalpindi in Pakistan near a cricket stadium that was the apparent target of a drone attack. Have a look.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, when you're looking at Kashmir across that line of control, there has been intense
shelling. People are fleeing the border area right now. That's what we're understanding overnight, Pakistani officials told us that India sent more
drones into Pakistan.
They sent 29 according to Pakistani officials, India sent 29 drones into Pakistan yesterday. One of them came down here, and I'm asked Javid just to
give us a show and tell here. This is a cafe area. You see some of the metal work rip down here -- pan up. You can see there where the drone
impacted on the building up there above us.
And if you come down here, you get a sense of look. The shrapnel literally splashed all across the wall here, it came down the shrapnel marks all over
the ground here. A piece of shrapnel lying on the ground. Now it was about 10:30 in the morning when that happened yesterday.
This area here is known as Food Street. Fortunately, at that time it wasn't too busy, but the window fronts in all these restaurants were blown out.
They're being tidied up today. But right behind what you're looking at there is the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, and there is a major cricketing
event going on here.
Well, there was the Pakistan Super League bringing in international players. It's the sort of it's the main cricketing event of the year inside
Pakistan. That because the foreign minister said, actually it was the stadium that was the target of the drone. The organizers of this cricketing
event have put it on pause.
They're moving it to the UAE. That's going to cost several millions of dollars to do. India, in the meantime, is also now pausing matches in the
India Premier League, major sporting event there as well. And it's ironic, if you will, that cricket, the sort of unifying thing for the youth of
these two nations, is getting affected by these attacks, but this is what people are living in fear of here. Yesterday, one man in his mid-20s was
killed. Two people were injured.
ANDERSON: Yeah. Nic Robertson reporting there from Rawalpindi. Well, this conflict between Pakistan and India is impacting cultural exchanges between
the countries, specifically the movie industry. Pakistani actor Fawad Khan's new film "Abir Gulaal" was set to make its highly anticipated debut
in Indian theaters today.
Last check, no showings are scheduled anywhere in the country. Khan is a huge figure in India. He's got a huge following there, and has appeared in
Bollywood films in the past. Right next up, CNN exclusive, Ukrainians on the front line of the war say that Russia is breaking its own ceasefire.
We're going to join a National Guard unit monitoring drone attack. More on that is after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:00]
ANDERSON: Patriotism and pageantry in Russia, a massive military parade commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi
Germany. Vladimir Putin took center stage with guest of honor, Xi Jinping, one of dozens of world leaders on a guest list designed to show the world
that Russia is far from isolated, even as the Ukraine war drags on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: Law and Justice is on our side, the entire country, the entire United people the competence of the special
military operation. We are proud of them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well to coincide with its Victory Day celebrations. So, Russia had previously declared a three-day ceasefire in the fighting with Ukraine,
but Ukrainians on the front line say Russian forces are repeatedly breaking their own truce. Nick Paton Walsh has this exclusive report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The clock strikes zero, and nothing new comes. The Kremlin promised 72 hours of their guns falling silent.
WALSH: They have to see if President Vladimir Putin was keeping his word at all.
WALSH (voice-over): They knew the answer, but the proof isn't far behind. This National Guard unit can see most of the eastern and southern front
line from one room.
WALSH: So, it's just saying, three minutes ago, and that will be about just three minutes into the ceasefire. Artillery shooting in the direction of
Pokrovsk, one of the hottest parts of the front line, now.
WALSH (voice-over): Rocket launchers a rise in surveillance drones, but this is how it was at Easter when Russia last declared unilateral
ceasefire.
"KIR", NATIONAL GUARD OF UKRAINE: That ceasefire was broken several times. The Russian Federation opened fire. They used the ceasefire to move their
troops, regroup, evacuate their wounded, rotate troops, bring in fresh forces and gather along the front line for further assaults.
WALSH (voice-over): They also share something remarkable, a window onto the future that's far from peaceful. Outside of most drones range this fast
Russian camp has sprung up in just the last two weeks. An endless network of dugouts, tarpaulins, vehicles, possibly thousands of Russian troops
amassing to the south of their front lines, probably not for a summer of peace.
12 hours into the ceasefire, we join this drone unit. Warfare in 2025 is just six men in goggles sitting in the bushes. Feather light -- homemade
drones with 40-kilometer range, smaller attack drones slugging it out in the skies. Nothing has changed with the ceasefire today here, but the war
itself seems to change with ingenuity every week.
They now intercept the feeds of Russian drones themselves see their enemy hunting them.
WALSH: So, this is you watching them, watching you.
"BANKIR", SECURITY SERVICE OF UKRAINE: Yeah.
WALSH (voice-over): Here's a Russian mortar strike on Ukrainians this morning and a Russian attack on a Ukrainian vehicle at 05:00 a.m.
WALSH: So, when you guys hear all the talk of how the White House wants to make peace happen here, how do you react to that kind of talk or idea?
[09:20:00]
"BANKIR": Maybe it will be better they give us real American weapon, and we will show how peace looks like.
"PIXEL", SECURITY SERVICE OF UKRAINE: How to make the peace.
"BANKIR": Because they attack our house. Why do you need to negotiate with somebody?
"PIXEL": I'm from this current village. I'm born here. And my mother still lives here. And I'm here to protect her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peace here something simple and vital without tricks or limits.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, on the Eastern Front in Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, for more on the prospects of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal and the critical role that international players like the European Union
are playing. Let's speak to Luigi di Maio. He's the EU Representative to the Gulf, and he joins us here in Abu Dhabi, and it is terrific to have you
here.
The EU's position on Ukraine is very, very clear. Europe, you know, keenly supporting not just the country in its fight against Russia, but looking to
support it better with regard security. Where do you see things at present?
LUIGI DI MAIO, EU REPRESENTATIVE TO THE GULF: First of all, thank you for the invitation. Great day for me, because it is the Europe Day is May 9,
and today we celebrate the visionary declaration. Robert Schuman. So, it's another reason, good reason for being here. Thank you for your question.
Of course, we totally support Ukraine. We totally supported Ukraine during the last years, and we can say that we are working for a just and lasting
peace in Ukraine. At the same time, we are in Abu Dhabi today, and I have to thank all the countries here in the GCC that supported even the exchange
of prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.
They worked hardly for facilitating what was possible. And this is even why -- this is why, I think that is very important to say that the countries of
the GCC, particularly Emirates and the others, are becoming more and more indispensable our strategic partners for European Union, and the presence
here in the region of our initiatives, our relations with them, is booming tremendously.
ANDERSON: And it's interesting you point that out, because there is a burgeoning story of mediation through these very significant Gulf states,
UAE, Saudi and Qatar. In a myriad of files, not least out of the Ukraine, Russia file, Oman very involved in mediating talks between U.S. and Iran.
At present, the EU's fraught relationship with Tehran, made worse during Iran's close relationship with Russia during this conflict period. Is that
going to change? I mean, how do you see the EU reemerging a relationship with Tehran?
MAIO: Yeah. First of all, I'm not surprised that Oman is mediating like even UAE that's delivered the letter to Iran on behalf of U.S. President,
and then even Qatar and the others that were very active on the mediations with Iran. I have to say, historically, European Union was the facilitator
in the framework of the JCPOA towards Iran, and we had very good relations. But honestly --
ANDERSON: That fell apart.
MAIO: We are in a new reality where you have the military partnership between Russia and Iran against Ukraine, and is something that it matters a
lot, the nuclear and the absence of transparency about the nuclear program, this is what we are asking. And even some bilateral issues with our member
states of the European Union obviously created a very difficult position for engaging more.
But we totally welcome and support every kind of talks for the non- proliferation in region and with us, like with the GCC countries, we share the goal. The goal is in Iran, without nuclear weapon, and active for de-
escalation and peace in the region.
ANDERSON: Syria is a big file for this region, squarely for Saudi and Qatar, perhaps less so slightly for the UAE. But there was a big push to
try and get sanctions lifted for this new government, so they can get on and build a country.
MAIO: Yeah.
ANDERSON: Macron, Emmanuel Macron, the French President, has said he will go to the Europeans and he will encourage them to lift sanctions. We were
already seeing some exemptions on the Caesar Act. U.S. sanctions on Syria, for Qatar to pay civil servants salaries in Syria.
MAIO: Right.
ANDERSON: Do you expect to see Europe move to raise or lift sanctions --
MAIO: We have to say we already saw good steps from the European side on the lifting of sanctions. There was a Foreign Affairs Council of the
foreign ministers.
ANDERSON: -- to --
MAIO: Yeah, one month ago, and for the suspension of some sanctions and the lifting of others, of course, I think that now we have to support an
inclusive government in Syria, as much as they can, they have to be inclusive.
[09:25:00]
And I accompany the President of the European Council Costa to Cairo, meeting with the President of Syria, and we discussed about the fact that
now is a matter of supporting our common values, about as Member States, about inclusiveness and about support of people, and this is the approach
that we want to see in order to lift the sanctions.
But European Union is very open about that, and the idea is to see progress for people, and even in order to create more development for the economy of
the country.
ANDERSON: We are a couple of days out from President Trump's trip to this region. He will go to Riyadh.
MAIO: Yeah.
ANDERSON: Qatar, Doha and Qatar, and then he will come to the UAE. This is a trip which, for Donald Trump, is pretty much all about trade, investment.
We are living in a very volatile period with Donald Trump's trade policy and tariffs, and the EU is squarely in his crosshairs at this point.
How important for the EU is a region like the GCC when it comes to trade relations, given the context that we live in today.
MAIO. Yeah. I think trade is just one among the reasons why this region is becoming more and more indispensable. We are, I think, indispensable
partners to each other, and obviously the visit of President Trump, the first ever visit after his appointment abroad, except the funeral Pope
Francis.
ANDERSON: And second only U.S. sitting president -- UAE.
MAIO: It shows the importance of this region. And I have to say that during the last few years as European Union, we approved a new strategy, I'm just
the implementator strategy. And during the last year, we had the first ever summit of our leaders, the 27 European leaders in Brussels, with their six
leaders.
ANDERSON: Of the GCC.
MAIO: We had very important --
ANDERSON: What -- so long so it's been some --
MAIO: Yeah.
ANDERSON: -- 30 years in the making.
MAIO: Better late than never, I would say. But I would say even on trade, the starting negotiations of a bilateral free trade agreement between
European Union and Emirates, just announced by Ursula von der Leyen few weeks ago, is a building block towards a regional free trade agreement,
many steps ahead on visa, the first ever European Chamber of Commerce in the region, in Riyadh and IMEC with U.S., India and Gulf countries.
This India, Middle East, Europe economic corridor is a huge project for cooperating, not only for economy. But you see they are involved in the
main mediations and facilitations on the multilateral agenda side. And I think that we will see more and more this approach, and this is why we want
to work with them more than ever.
ANDERSON: Talking trade, the Red Sea has been a real problem with these Houthi attacks on shipping during the Gaza conflict of the past 18 months,
President Trump announced that the U.S. would halt attacks on the Iran backed Houthis. The violence in the Red Sea has, of course, significantly
harmed the global shipping industry.
So, this should be a good sign for companies. Houthi say they will continue their aggression, though, against Israel. What do you make of this?
MAIO: Think that before the terrible terrorist attack of October 7th, we know that we were working as United Nations for a peace process in Yemen
and their roadmap for going to a good end of this process. Unfortunately, October 7th, it was disruptive, not only for what happened in Israel, but
it creates many dominant facts, it created many dominant facts in the region.
One of that is the Houthis attacks against the Brussels. First of all, knowing that U.S. and the Houthis agreed about an agreement understanding
about a sort of ceasefire. It's, in any case, a de escalatory point that it creates a de escalatory dynamic for the region, but we have to go back as
soon as possible at U.N. peace process.
But for having that, we need the ceasefire in Gaza. Because these two points, we have to remove the excuse for the Houthis for continuing these
terrible attacks against the Brussels. In parallel, European Union, one year ago, deployed a speed less mission in the region.
This mission, with the navies of the European member states, escorted more in one year, more than 500 ships in the Red Sea as a defensive mission. And
we will continue to do that on the medium term, but on the long term, we need the peace in Yemen. This is the real goal.
[09:30:00]
ANDERSON: It's good to have you.
MAIO: It was a great pleasure, great pleasure to have you.
ANDERSON: Thank you and Happy Europe Day.
MAIO: Thank you. Thank you.
ANDERSON: All right, U.S. stock markets are about to get out of the gate. That is the bell on Wall Street. Markets did look to climb, certainly, that
was the indication from the futures markets. Let's take a quick look and see how markets are getting on there you go out of the gate, not
explosively, it has to be said.
These markets, don't forget, are back to where they were before so-called Liberation Day, when Donald Trump really set the cap on the pigeons, as far
as global markets are concerned. DOW up about a third of 1 percent and something like the same on the S&P, the NASDAQ that roaring.
No, it wasn't. I thought that number might change. So, apologies that NASDAQ number looking good now up about a half of 1 percent. You're
watching. "Connect the World". More news just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back. You're watching "Connect the World". I'm Becky Anderson. These are your headlines this hour. Well market optimism in
anticipation of U.S. China trade talks in Geneva this weekend and breaking this morning, a major concession from U.S. President Trump suggesting an 80
percent tariff for China is more likely than 145 percent.
Well Chinese exports to the U.S. sank by 21 percent in April, right as new tariffs took effect, but in a surprise to the markets, China's total
exports actually rose more than 8 percent last month. Justin Wolfers, joins me now. He is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University
of Michigan.
It's good to have you, Justin, what can we expect from the first round of these talks between the U.S. and China in Switzerland this weekend, do you
think?
JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Let me give you the optimist and then the pessimist. Look, the
optimist in me is that both sides understand that this is unsustainable, that tariffs on China of 145 percent in China with retaliatory tariffs of
125 percent is effectively a trade embargo.
No one can afford to pay tariff rates like that. And so, what you've done is you've taken two biggest economies in the world and you've put a wall up
between them. And even if that were your medium-term goal, you wouldn't want to do it all at once. You've left American manufacturers unable to get
parts or inputs into their production, and likewise, in China as well.
[09:35:00]
So, it's the American tariff on China is bad for people in America and bad for people in China. China's tariff on America is bad for people in China
and bad for people in America.
ANDERSON: Yeah.
WOLFERS: Hopefully they'll bring it down. The problem, of course, is that this is an issue that's been central to the president -- Sorry.
ANDERSON: Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, I mean, let's have a look at these numbers. China's overall exports grew by 8.1 percent in April. That
was due to a surge in Chinese exports to countries in Southeast Asia and to Europe. Can we expect that sort of growth to continue to other countries to
balance what is likely to be an expected decline to the United States, right? I mean, ultimately.
WOLFERS: Yes. So, there's two issues at play there. The first one is the China is engaged in one trade war. The U.S. is engaged in 192. And so, what
that means is, when China can't find willing buyers in the United States, it will naturally look elsewhere. The second thing that's going on, though
that may be going on, is the single best way to reduce tariffs on Chinese made goods into the United States is to send them through Malaysia and bang
a made in Malaysia label on it.
That's not really how trade is meant to work, and it probably breaches a bunch of rules. But I have a sneaking suspicion, when the incentives are
this sharp, that's some amount of if not what people were doing this month, what they'll be doing in future months.
ANDERSON: That's fascinating. What do you make of the U.S.-U.K. trade deal announced by the prime minister and president yesterday. The universal 10
percent tariffs are still in place, and they didn't give many details, frankly. We're getting a few more today, and what exactly can, what can we
expect from that agreement?
WOLFERS: Right. So, I think the big headline here is that we've had one trading partner and ally come in for negotiations, and the outcome is 10
percent tariff with an asterisk. So depends who you are and which part of that's more interesting. I think for the rest of the world, we've learned
that Trump is serious about 10 percent across the board tariffs.
Every industry, every country, it seems, is likely to end up with those 10 percent tariffs, which is still a very, very high rate. For folks in
Britain, they're really concerned with the asterisks. They take it as given that that's what the Trump is going to do, and they've managed to get a
small number of carve outs and a small number of industries.
And that gives the British Prime Minister something he'd like to call a win, in terms of what it means for the United States, the answer is not
very much at all, because Britain simply isn't central to the American economy. Tariffs from Britain on the U.S. were low to begin with. They're
low after the fact. So basically, nothing has changed.
ANDERSON: How important to Donald Trump, aside from, you know, the big one, which is the deal with China. How important are these other deals? Japan,
South Korea, for example, deals that we expected to see first, India. We expected to see those deals before the U.K. one. And we still expect to see
them. Well, certainly we are told to expect to see.
WOLFERS: I think it's time to stop -- deals. Korea has a deal with the United States. It has a free trade agreement, in fact, a free trade
agreement that it renegotiated under the previous President Trump. So, Trump is going to impose a 10 percent tariff, effectively violating the
deal, unilaterally doing so.
And then he's going to say to the Koreans, is there anything that I can do to carve out enough that you're willing to come over to the White House for
a humiliating photo opportunity with me. So, this isn't deal making. This is dictating what the president's doing as he rips up deals.
ANDERSON: I hope you pass that wry sense of humor, slight sarcasm, onto that little fella on your shoulders in that picture, over your left-hand
shoulder, he looks like a lot of fun. It's good to have you. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. Well ahead in sports, Spurs, turning up the
heat inside the Arctic Circle, look at Tottenham's big win in Norway.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
ANDERSON: Well on to the final top notch but -- their ticket to the final of the Europa League later this month with a convincing victory way up
north. Patrick Snell is here with the detail. You can see a big smile on my face. Of course, I am a Spurs fan, even though this is Thursday night
football, which everybody kind of slightly teases us about. It's a big win for Spurs.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, both our clubs were both happy today, because as the United fan, I'm looking forward to seeing them in the final
as well.
ANDERSON: Yes.
SNELL: But yeah, look, this is why it's so important to win the Europa League, because it comes with a massive boost of automatic qualification
into the Champions League for the following season, the financial ramifications, Becky, are absolutely huge.
ANDERSON: Right.
SNELL: Much has been made of the fact that both of these teams have been struggling in the Premier League this season, which they have United
currently in 15th, Tottenham in 16th, would you believe it Spurs worthy winners on Thursday night over Norwegian champs, BODO/GLIMT winning that
one, 2-0 on the night, 5-1 on aggregate.
And Ange Postecoglou, the Spurs head coach, saying, look, in his opinion, it matters not how poor each team has been in the league. Who cares as he
put it, it's all about the final. Now in Spain, two Premier League rivals going head-to-head. That can only be one winner, Becky, I wonder if after
that final we'll still be talking. Back to you.
ANDERSON: I don't think we will. Good to have you. Thank you. "World Sport" is up next. I'm back in 15 minutes time.
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