Return to Transcripts main page
Connect the World
Israeli Offensive in Gaza City Begins; State House Approves Measure that would Help Republicans Gain Five U.S. House Seats; Texas Republicans Advance Bill to Redraw Voter Maps; Fed Policymakers Convene Amidst Trump Administration Pressure; Scottie Scheffler Looks to Defend FedEx Cup Title. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired August 21, 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 from the Israel Gaza border, as the IDF launches a ground offensive against
Gaza City. It's 04:00 p.m. in Southern Israel, it is 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson. You're watching "Connect the World" from our
Middle East Programming Headquarters.
So also coming up this hour, Russia launches its largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine in more than a month, even as President Zelenskyy says he
is ready to make compromises for peace. And all eyes on Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that is the spot for the U.S. Fed Chair's annual speech to Central
Bank Chiefs as Donald Trump cranks up the pressure on Jerome Powell and his colleagues.
Well, the stock market in New York opens about 30 minutes from now, and stock futures in the red, indicating a weaker open for Wall Street as
investors await that highly anticipated speech by Powell tomorrow. Tech stocks also remain under pressure after what has been a very difficult
week.
Well, the Israeli military says it is on the outskirts of Gaza City, and that's just the first step of a larger operation the IDF says. Officials
tell CNN that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to approve the war plans later today, after he ordered the military to give him a shorter
timeline for the threatened takeover and occupation of Gaza's largest city.
And as you can see from these images, bombing clearly already well underway. The U.N. and aid agencies say that this push risks worsening the
ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. Meantime, Mr. Netanyahu has still not responded to a ceasefire proposal accepted by Hamas earlier this week.
Well, CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem. And Nic, we should reiterate the warning from the international community, many world leaders predicting
this latest offensive, this military assault, threatened military assault on Gaza City by the IDF will be absolutely catastrophic. What are you
hearing on the ground there?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, 75 percent of Gaza controlled by the IDF, the Palestinian population has movement orders,
warning orders to or evacuation orders, if you will, over 80 percent of the Gaza Strip, which means the only technical safe place for them is in the
remainder 20 percent so potentially, a million people in Gaza City, some of them have moved so many times they just feel they don't want to move
anymore.
A million people then being squeezed into this already very overcrowded, 20 percent designated safe area isn't always safe. There have been strikes
there before. So, this is the concern, a humanitarian situation, a medical emergency situation, a movement, a population situation. Antonio Guterres,
the U.N. Secretary General, has spoken very clearly about his desire to see a ceasefire there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL: I must reiterate that it is vital to reach immediately a ceasefire in Gaza and the unconditional
release of all hostages and to avoid the massive deaths and destruction that the military operation against the Gaza City would inevitably cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now, the IDF is saying it still has several steps before troops go into Gaza it says they do, or Gaza City, rather, they do in the West of
Gaza City, in the neighborhood of Zaytun, say on the fringes there, there are IDF troops in there that they are already, in essence, at the beginning
of this operation.
Something else we learned from the IDF over the last couple of hours is they've been reaching out to hospitals, to NGOs as part of their efforts to
convince the population to evacuate Gaza City, to tell hospitals to move medical equipment and medical facilities out of Gaza City and move them
south.
This has always been contentious when they've done this in the past. It's always been difficult when they've done it in the past, and hospitals and
doctors often feel under duress when they have been forced to leave their care and life-giving services in these urban environments.
ANDERSON: Well, as we await more information from Israel and the IDF as to what happens next in this military assault on Gaza.
[09:05:00]
Separately, this week, Israeli authorities approved a settlement project that would effectively divide the West Bank. Now you are just back from
there, and you've got fresh reporting. Nic?
ROBERTSON: Yeah. So, several areas or several villages in the what's known as area E1 which is just on the outskirts of East Jerusalem, inside the
West Bank, inside the occupied West Bank. And the reason that this area is so important is because it not only connects the West Bank to East
Jerusalem, which is the future capital of a Palestinian State.
That's how Palestinians see it. So, it's that vital connectivity to the West Bank, and also, because it's sort of central, north, south in the West
Bank, it's a vital sort of part of the economic ebb and flow, the economic future, infrastructure, if you will, of the West Bank, and therefore part
of the economic infrastructure of a future Palestinian State.
When area E1 which is what happened yesterday, is now designated an area where an additional 3500 Israeli settlement homes will be built and
villages, we visited Palestinian Bedouin villages have been told they'll need to evacuate bustling towns being told businesses, some businesses
there will have to shut down to make way for a new highway, a new highway that Palestinians say will just further crumble their suffering economy.
The picture that it creates for Palestinians is one that this really is the last chip, if you will, of their last chip chipping away at the possibility
of a Palestinian State. Indeed, it sort of dies on the hills around there. And when you listen to the Finance Minister, who is also Bezalel Smotrich,
who is also a leader of the settlers.
He says very clearly in the past couple of days that this settlement activity happening in area E1 is part of a project which preempts European
countries like France, like the UK, like Germany, recently saying that they are soon going to recognize a Palestinian State. Because Smotrich says
there will be no Palestinian State there to recognize.
There will be no homes, there will be no Palestinians. So, area E1 is that vital link in the middle, link in the West Bank to the future capital,
linking the north and south economically. This is why it's so important. And the people we were talking to there, frankly speaking to one Bedouin
Leader of a community of 450, people, 80 homes, they have no idea where they're going.
They have no idea what to do with their sheep, with their livestock, how to make a living in the future. They've just been told they're going to be
evicted.
ANDERSON: And that reporting, that full reporting from Nic is next hour, including looking at plans to build thousands of new housing units in the
illegal settlement there. Nic always good to have you. Thank you very much indeed. As we've been reporting, Israel is calling up 60,000 more
reservists for its offensive in Gaza City. But as CNN's Oren Liebermann report, some of them say, well, they've had enough.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The drums of war are pounding Gaza City. A new Israeli military operation has been targeting
the largest city in the northern strip, one that will require a surge of reserve soldiers to go back to fight again.
Avshalom Zohar Sal is a reservist who documented his time in Gaza in these photographs. He says he spent more than 300 days in Gaza on four different
deployments. The last one ended one month ago.
I'm a little in shock that we're still in this thing he says. I'm a little in shock that we're still talking about this war that was supposed to end a
long time ago. And I think if you were to ask everyone in my unit, it's hard for everyone. The doubts, he says, began creeping in one year ago.
They've only grown.
This month, Israel's Security Cabinet approved the occupation of Gaza City, a major escalation that could take five months or more. Zohar Sal says he's
not going back. I think this decision is a death sentence for the hostages he says. The government talked and said all the time that we're talking
about two missions for this war, to return the hostages and to defeat Hamas.
Now it's telling us there's only one goal, which I believe is not achievable, to destroy Hamas. Even this won't destroy Hamas. Amid some of
the largest protests Israel has seen since the beginning of a war, families of the hostages are calling the planned operation a deception, an
unforgivable moral and security neglect.
A recent study of reserve soldiers suggested approximately 40 percent were slightly or significantly less motivated to serve.
[09:10:00]
The military's top general warned the security cabinet of the burden on manpower, an exhausted army in a war that won't end. Israel's military
relies on reservists to keep fighting, and the military said Wednesday that the takeover of Gaza City will require up to 60,000 more troops. Dan Halutz
is the Former Israeli Military Chief of Staff.
DAN HALUTZ, FORMER IDF CHIEF OF STAFF: They believe that some of them will stay home when something is coming to an end you feel it and it comes to an
end.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised the intense fighting would be over by now.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Once we begin the Rafah operation, the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion,
not months, weeks away from completion.
LIEBERMANN (voice-over): That was February 2024, 18 months later, Netanyahu says a new operation is the fastest way to end what has long since become
Israel's longest war.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LIEBERMANN (on camera): The military says the new operation to take over an occupied Gaza City will require 120,000 reserve troops, in total. 20,000 of
whom, they say, will have their time in the reserves extended as part of this operation. And that's in addition to the active-duty troops required
for this new fight. And there you see the burden on the military after two years of war, Oren Liebermann, CNN in Jerusalem.
ANDERSON: Oren Liebermann reporting for you for despite diplomatic efforts to end the war with Ukraine. Russia has carried out its largest combined
missile and drone assault on Ukraine in more than a month. Kyiv says nine civilians were killed in the strikes, as well as shelling in the eastern
part of the country overnight.
Well, the attacks came just hours after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he is ready to make some compromise on his demand for a ceasefire
before any possible talks with Vladimir Putin, though he insists he wants to see some security guarantees established first. But it's still unclear
if such a meeting will even happen.
Russia's foreign ministry is now openly contradicting the White House narrative. The plans are underway for a sit down between Putin and
Zelenskyy. Clare Sebastian is following the latest for us from London. Unpick what we understand to be going on here?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Becky, we can't ignore these overnight strikes. First of all, this was more than 600 drones and
missiles. This is the biggest combined attack that we've seen in over a month, in about five weeks, actually. And it's striking not just by its
scale, but by the locations targeted.
We're seeing towns targeted that are tens of kilometers from NATO territory, in some cases, but, you know, well over 1000 kilometers from the
front line. So, this is Russia's dogged pursuit of essentially pressuring Ukraine militarily into submission. The pictures you're seeing there, by
the way, in the Town of Mukachevo, which is in one of the western most regions of Ukraine, is apparently an American company that was targeted. It
makes consumer electronics.
We think, you know, at least a dozen people have been injured there. And this is something that the Head of the American Chamber of Commerce in
Ukraine talked about today, saying Russia is not only destroying Ukraine, it is undermining U.S. leadership, values and U.S. business.
So, you know, Russia has not strayed from its military goals here. And I think all of this is coming, of course, as we see, essentially a stalemate
over the next steps in these -- in the sort of diplomatic process to end the war, everyone is contradicting each other on what's going to happen in
terms of this so-called bilateral meeting that Trump had touted as a major diplomatic win this week.
On the one hand, we have Ukraine saying it's ready to compromise. Zelenskyy will do this meeting without a ceasefire in place, but he wants security
guarantees in place first. J.D. Vance, in an interview on Wednesday, says we don't think that we need to have everything ironed out beforehand. They
can just go in, have the meeting and figure it out.
Meanwhile, Russia is dragging its feet on all of this, saying that a meeting hasn't been agreed to. It won't be until all these issues are
ironed out. And of course, the only one who benefits from this taking a long time. If we look at the military pressure that it continues to ramp
up, is Russia.
ANDERSON: Good to have you Clare, thank you. Clare Sebastian, on the story for you out of London today. Well ahead on this show, Texas Republicans
move a step closer to potentially adding five U.S. House seats to their party in next year's midterms. What Democrats are planning as a fight back
that is coming up?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:00]
ANDERSON: Republicans in the state of Texas are moving ahead with legislation to redraw Congressional maps that could help the party gain as
many as five U.S. House seats in next year's midterm elections. Now a Senate vote expected later today, after the bill easily passed the
Republican dominated State House on Wednesday.
Texas Democrats say they will fight the redistricting plan in court. Democrats in California moving over their own redistricting plans to
counter the move in Texas. Look, this is a really big deal, and it's a really important story. Arlette Saenz has more on these partisan battles
from the Texas State Capital of Austin.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Texas Republicans are one step closer to making these Congressional maps backed by President Trump into a reality.
The Texas House voted last night along party lines to pass this measure. It really capped off a tense two weeks standoff that the Republicans had had
with Democrats.
Democrats had fled the state to try to stop this from happening. When they returned, they were placed under 24/7 police escort, but really, Democrats
had no other legislative tools available to them. Now, they will try to fight this plan in court, and they've also argued that this is a success
because it has sparked a national conversation and also spurred the Democratic Party to act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. GENE WU (D-TX): What you have just watched are Democrats who are willing to go to any lengths to suffer threats, to ourselves, to our
families, to our friends, we are standing up and fighting against those who seek to take the American dream from us.
REP. NICOLE COLLIER (D-TX): Today is not the end. It is the start of a new beginning of the new Democratic Party, but we won't back down. We won't put
up with that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now today, we will see an all-out redistricting battle underway between Texas and California. The Texas Senate is expected to vote on this
measure tonight and then send it to Governor Greg Abbott for his signature while in California, Democratic legislators are trying to hold their own
vote on their Congressional maps that would potentially net the Democratic Party up to five Congressional seats in the next midterm elections.
Of course, California still has an additional step once it gets through the legislature, they still have to put this on the ballot in November, as
voters will have to decide whether they can do this. But really, what we've seen on full display over the course of the past few weeks is this
willingness to rush to try to find ways to redistrict, to redraw these Congressional maps, after Texas had kick started this process, and it could
be a potential battle that continues in the months ahead, as other GOP and Democratic states are weighing their options.
ANDERSON: Arlette Saenz reporting there. Will the Texas redistricting plans are a classic example of what is known as gerrymandering. So exactly what
does that mean?
[09:20:00]
Well, the Oxford Dictionary defines gerrymandering is redrawing constituency boundaries for political gain, redrawing to gain a political -
- a particular seat, or more generally, it wins more seats than its opponent a particular party.
Well, now important to note that in the United States, both parties engage in gerrymandering, but Republicans have more openly embraced the process.
So how can it impact elections? We'll take a look at these maps. They show how the 2024 election went based on the boundaries of the Congressional
districts around San Anton and the Texas State Capital of Austin.
And how the vote would have gone based on the proposed map. Well, my next guest David Daley, is a Senior Fellow at FairVote, a non-partisan group
that advocates for better elections in the U.S. He's also Author of the book "Anti-Democratic: Inside the far right 50-year plot to control
American elections". He joins me now from Massachusetts. Just give me your initial response to what we've seen in Texas sir.
DAVID DALEY, SENIOR FELLOW, FAIRVOTE: We are in the midst of a gerrymandering Armageddon this summer. Texas is going all out. They are
going to grab an additional five seats. California is going to respond and put this before voters. All of this, of course, the backdrop is that
Republicans only have a three-seat advantage in the race for the U.S. House in the midterms.
So, every single seat that either party can grab, extraordinarily consequential on Congressional map that has become so largely non-
competitive nationwide.
ANDERSON: That's right, and enormously consequential -- consequently, forgive me for Donald Trump at this point, who is applauding what happened
in Texas. Let's just have a look at this. There are a few cities in Texas there are affected. The proposed map on the right here shows how the 2024,
presidential election would have gone if this map had been in place.
For our international viewers, just walk us through this process. I mean, what sort of impact can or is this likely to have at this point as you look
at things as they stand?
DALEY: This is likely to have a huge consequence. The House hangs on a three-seat margin between the two parties. Democrats need to win back the
House if they want to have any chance at putting brakes on Donald Trump and the Republican power in the United States. And so, what Texas is doing
would push Republican advantage from three seats up to eight seats.
They are likely to keep going in Ohio and Indiana, Missouri, in Florida, if they want to continue after that, they have potential seats that they could
draw in North Carolina, in Georgia, in Kentucky in Tennessee and Kansas. Democrats can make a move in California.
The trouble is, they have very few opportunities and targets. They just don't control complete power in enough states. So, this is going to end up
being a big Republican boost in the midterm elections before a single vote is actually cast.
ANDERSON: The Republicans have done this before. Before I ask you this question, it is important to point out that both parties do, do this, but
it does look in this instance and at this point in what you call this sort of gerrymandering Armageddon that's going on that this is going to have a
real detrimental impact on the Democrats.
Republicans have done this before. What are some of the past examples, and how did those affect elections?
DALEY: The best example of this, really is in the last a decade. If you go back, we do re-districting every 10 years, and the goal of this is to have
districts of equal population size. The great irony here is that we redistrict in the name of fairness, but political parties gerrymander in
the name of stealing political advantage, and absolutely correct that both parties do it.
Republicans have simply recognized the possibilities, especially in this high-tech era, of having sophisticated computer software draw these
district lines. In 2012 the first election that was held on that decade's new maps, Democrats nationwide won 1.4 million more votes for the U.S.
House.
It didn't matter. Republicans won 33 more seats. They held a 234, 201 advantage. President Obama's second term essentially was halted on the
night he was reelected to it all gerrymandering.
ANDERSON: Yeah. Of course, I remember that. It's good to have you sir. Thank you very much indeed for joining us. So, if you didn't know about
gerrymandering before, folks should do now.
[09:25:00]
Ahead on "Connect the World" as China secures a new order of Russian oil, India caves to pressure from the U.S. and slows its purchases. And as the
Fed conference kicks off in Wyoming, when we hear from an economics expert on what to expect, all the while the Trump Administration ramps up the
pressure on the Fed. That is after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back. I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. You're watching "Connect the World". These are your headlines, and Israel's offensive in
Gaza City has begun. A military spokesperson says forces are already on the outskirts of the city and that this is the first step in a larger
operation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to approve the final war plans later today.
Well, the Texas State Senate is expected to vote later today on a redistricting bill that could add five Republican seats in the U.S. House
in next year's midterms. The bill easily passed the House Wednesday off Democrats ended a two-week holdout delaying the vote.
Hurricane Erin is churning off the U.S. East Coast, moving away now from the North Carolina shore, a category two storm has caused water levels to
rise up and down the coast. Authorities in several states have closed beaches to swimmers amid threats from storm surge rip currents and, of
course, strong winds.
Well, the U.S. is set to impose an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian exports next week as a penalty for buying Russian oil. Russian Foreign
Minister Lavrov is meeting with his Indian Foreign Minister later today. Well, CNN's Business and Economics Reporter Anna Cooban has been following
this story for us. She's in London today. Anna, good to have you. It's been an -- it's been a busy week for Russian diplomacy. Have the oil markets
reacted to all of this?
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS & ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, as you've mentioned, we've seen China really swooping in there to take advantage of the heat
that's really been put on India. Now, the reason analysts are sort of seeing this drop in demand is that oil cargoes that would ordinarily be
loaded at ports in the Arctic and the Baltic ordinarily going for India are now being destined for China.
And -- which is a data commodities company, has said that this is really, in their words, an opportunistic move, because China is taking advantage of
the relative discount that they can get for Russian barrels compared to what they can buy from the Middle East right now.
But you're right. This is all happening in the context of secondary sanctions and the heat really being on India, not China for its continued
purchases of Russian oil over the course of the war in Ukraine.
[09:30:00]
ANDERSON: Well, let's talk about those secondary sanctions. Just how likely are we to get them on China at this point?
COOBAN: Well, India really has been in the firing line with this, but we did see Trump on Friday last week after his pivotal meeting with Putin
basically say that he told Fox News that he wasn't immediately considering secondary sanctions on China, but that he might do in the next two to three
weeks.
Now is anyone's guess as to why China has really gotten off lightly with this. China is a huge buyer of Russian oil. It might be because of this 90-
day truce that currently is between the U.S. and China. They're agreeing a more formal trade agreement. Perhaps throwing secondary sanctions into the
works would really scupper the progress of that. It's anyone's guess.
But certainly, India feels very aggrieved. They've come out to say that they feel that this is unjustified, and pointed to the very real fact that
the EU, which has banned seaborne imports of Russian oil, continues to trade with Russia, continues to buy liquefied natural gas, for example.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you. Thank you very much indeed. We see the oil prices there, and I want to get you the live U.S. markets. Of course,
markets have been open for just about a minute. The DOW, the NASDAQ, and the S&P, as we had predicted, are off today. These tech stocks, I mean,
really taking a hammering this week.
Some real talk and concern by those who've bought into these companies, who've spent billions on AI that this could just be -- could just be a bit
of a bubble. So, it's a tech stocks off once again, driving those markets lower. And it has to be said, investors waiting on what is a highly
anticipated speech by Jerome Powell tomorrow, Friday in Jackson Hole, which, of course, is the site for the Fed Conference, which kicks off in
Wyoming today.
It's a major event for the world's central bankers and U.S. monetary policy while policymakers convene there the Trump Administration pushing for a
complete overhaul of the Fed's personnel and its policy decisions. The president has repeatedly attacked Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering
rates and for the costly renovation of the Fed Headquarters.
To unpack what is at stake here we're joined by a regular guest on the show, Justin Wolfers. He's Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the
University of Michigan. You will be keeping a keen eye on what is going on in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, as will investors.
There's a lot of pressure on the Fed chair at this point. He's been criticized for not knowing rates, for presiding over a costly renovation of
the Fed's Headquarters. Do you see this as an opportunity for him to preserve his reputation, if not his position, as it were?
JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: I think actually, Jay Powell will end his term with a tremendous
reputation. He's been attacked by the president, but he's been attacked by the president in terms that no economist alive would support.
He's shown himself to be a remarkably independent Fed Chair. He engineered a soft landing after the pandemic-based inflation, and we're all cheering
for him to continue to keep the Fed as an independent organization that will set monetary policy in the best interests of the American people,
rather than the best political interests of the president at the time.
ANDERSON: Well, it may stay independent, but Donald Trump looking for a real opportunity at this point to put in as many people there as he can who
are Trump supporters, as it were. One of those, James Bullard confirmed that he is under consideration to replace Powell.
He'd only accept the job if the Central Bank remains free of political interference, so forgive me, he's not necessarily the Trump sort of asset
that I was -- that I was suggesting there. I mean, given the state of current politics, is it possible, really? I mean, even if -- even if the
sort of the outward story is, this is an independent monetary policy setting organization, is it? Will it be?
WOLFERS: Is it possible for the next Fed to be independent? I think the answer is yes. The way to be independent is to wake up every morning and be
independent. Look at the state of the economy. Think about what's best for the American people, explain those arguments out loud and then change
interest rates.
Look, the good news is, if you look at the short list of people being considered for the Fed Chair job, at least half of them are totally
credible, serious economists. They're not necessarily the folks I choose, but they're very serious people. The bad news is that half of the group are
charlatans, and if the president were to choose from that group, then we're in for a rocky road ahead.
[09:35:00]
ANDERSON: Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, said that tariffs could bring in as much as 300 billion this year. It's been the sort of back and
forth on tariff policy that has spooked so many who watch these markets, including so many of the economists that you are talking about.
And there are real concerns about what sort of impact those tariff rates might have on prices and therefore on inflation. We're not -- we're
actually not seeing that as of yet, are we? And when Bessent says, you know, the U.S. is going to bring in -- you know billions of dollars in
tariff revenue, isn't there an argument that says maybe rates should be coming lower?
WOLFERS: So, let's be clear about what we're seeing so far with tariffs. So, the first thing is, tariffs are a tax. And when you raise a tax rate,
you raise revenue. That's what Bessent is boasting about. That's kind of obvious. The more important question are these taxes that are efficient?
Are they equitable? Do they serve the American people?
What we are seeing is we were promised by the White House that these would be tariffs paid by foreign countries. The way that would work is, if a
foreign company wanted to keep its market share, it would have to cut it's -- the prices it was selling to Americans at so then Americans could pay
the tariff on top, and the overall cost to Americans wouldn't change.
We've got an index called the Import Price Index, and that shows, in fact, that hasn't happened. Foreign companies are still selling their goods to
Americans at exactly the same price that they were before the tariffs, which means that someone in America is paying the extra is paying the
tariff.
It turns out, what's happening right now, and you're seeing this in a lot of corporate earnings reports, is because it's early on, the companies for
General Motors and so on, they're paying out those tariffs, and that's squeezing their earnings. I think that's a short run response.
And probably what's going to happen in the longer run is their costs have gone up, and they're going to pass that on to consumers, but either way,
right now, it's being paid by Americans, not by foreigners.
ANDERSON: Medium, long term, you know, what is your forecast for this -- for this U.S. economy?
WOLFERS: So, short term and then long term, because they're very, very different. So, I am very worried about the year ahead. I think there's
roughly a 40 percent chance of a recession over the next year. If the president acts even more erratically, I would raise that forecast. And if
he were to be convinced by the forces of common sense, I would lower that forecast.
But the damage that he's doing to the American economy is not of the form you're going to see in next year's GDP report. Reducing the -- destroying
American higher education, reducing the extent to which scientists will come from around the world to get their training here and then to stay
here.
A shift away from market forces towards crony capitalism, reducing the independence of the Central Bank, putting partisans in charge of the Bureau
of Labor Statistics. These are the sorts of things that cause an economy to stagnate over a period of decades.
And so, if he continues down this path, it's not that you and I are going to suffer next year, it's that our children are going to end up in an
economy with a lot less by way of a material standard of living. We've seen this before. We've seen it in Argentina. We've seen it in Turkey. We've
seen a lot of Banana Republics, and it's never been a story that's worked out well.
ANDERSON: It is good to have you. Thank you very much indeed for your perspective. Still ahead, well in "World Sport" is on the kind of role golf
fans haven't seen since Tiger Woods was riding high. Scotty Scheffler coming off his fifth PGA Tour title of the year. Can he keep up that
momentum? The Tour Championship at East Lake, more on that is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
ANDERSON: The 2025 PGA Tour season kicks off its four-day finale today at East Lake in Atlanta, Georgia. The big question, can anyone stop Scottie
Scheffler from becoming the first golfer to win back-to-back FedEx Cup Titles? Andy Scholes joins me now. It's a big question, and I'm surprised
I'm even asking it, but I am. This is a fantastic season for Scheffler?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Historic, Becky historic. I mean, he's on a Tiger Woods type run right now. He's the first guy since Tiger back in 2009
to have back-to-back, back seasons where he won five times on the tour. And you know, at least this week at East Lake Becky, they're not doing it to
where it's a staggered stroke start.
You know, last season, he won the tournament, but he started with a two- stroke lead over second place and a four-stroke lead over third place. At least for the other golfers, they're all coming in even this time around,
but the chances of beating Scottie Scheffler are not great right now.
He's the biggest favorite we've seen at the Tour Championship since Tiger back -- way back in 2009. So, you know, it can't -- you can't overstate how
well he's playing right now. We'll see if anyone can chase him down. Don Riddell is going to be live for us there at East Lake for us on "World
Sport" coming up.
ANDERSON: Absolutely terrific. Good for him. Good for Don being down there. And thank you. You're back with "World Sport" after this short break, we
will be back at the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
END
