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Connect the World
U.S. Student on Family Trip to Japan Vanishes After Argument; Ukrainian Drones Hit St. Petersburg in Symbolic Blow to Russia; CNN Reports from Hospital at the Epicenter of the Outbreak; Actor James Handy Stabbed to Death, Girlfriend's Son Arrested; Missing Nepali Guide Found Alive After One Week on Everest. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired June 05, 2026 - 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 live pictures of Beirut as Lebanese President Joseph Aoun tells CNN, it is quote, unacceptable that
the IRGC is using Lebanon as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States. More from that interview, coming up.
It's 04:00 p.m. in the Lebanese capital. It is 05:00 p.m. here in Abu Dhabi, from our Middle East programming headquarters. I'm Becky Anderson.
You're watching "Connect the World". Also coming up this hour, Ukrainian President calling on Russia's Vladimir Putin to meet face to face and
negotiate an end to the war.
And CNN travels through a remote mining town in the DRC, believed to be at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak. Plus, the search for an American
university student who went missing in Japan continues. The stock market in New York opens about 30 minutes from now.
New U.S. labor data, just released less than an hour ago shows the U.S. economy adding a stronger than expected 172,000 jobs in May, that will
impact the open on Friday. Futures indicating a mixed start. 09:30 is the bell, of course, on Wall Street. That's half an hour from now.
We will get back there then. Right, new fighting erupts in Lebanon, despite a new ceasefire. The conditional truce between the Lebanese government and
Israel was already fragile. Now it is fraying after four people were killed today in Southern Lebanon. That is according to the country's state media.
It is important to note the Iran-backed Hezbollah has rejected this ceasefire drawn up between Israel and Lebanon, and all this comes after
U.S. President Donald Trump said progress has been made, his words to end the fighting. CNN's Christiane Amanpour is in Beirut, where she sat down
with the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, in an exclusive interview, he had a warning for both Israel and Iran.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: I'm standing here on the balcony of the Presidential Palace in Beirut. Over my shoulder is the
suburb of Dahieh. It has been a target of the Israelis for the last several weeks, and it is destroyed in parts, but also up to 800,000 people, maybe
more, have evacuated.
It is a ghost town. It's symbolic of what's happening in many parts of this country during this fighting and during this war. We can hear Israeli
drones overhead. I've just had an exclusive global exclusive interview with the President Joseph Aoun, and he has said very, very clearly that Israel
needs to abide by a ceasefire.
He's also said very clearly that Iran needs to stop empowering Hezbollah. He rejected a recent statement by the IRGC in Iran that says it doesn't
accept the ceasefire. He told them in no uncertain terms that this is not their country. This is what he told me about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH AOUN, LEBANESE PRESIDENT: IRGC, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, that this -- they don't agree with this. They don't approve this
agreement, what happened? It's not your country, it's our country. It's our obligation. It's not your job to interfere into our country.
I reject the statement totally, because our people being killed, our people being -- our house is being destroyed. They are using Lebanon as a
bargaining chip in their negotiation with United States. It's unacceptable. And here also, Hezbollah must understand that. Hezbollah must understand
that no other way but to sit and talk, no other way to solve this problem, and to save what's left, except through negotiation and diplomacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AMANPOUR: President Aoun has been a military commander for eight years, he's been head of the army here, and he's had a four-decade long army
experience. He's been in combat. He still carries the shrapnel in his body of having been wounded. He has sworn, as president, to uphold and protect
the territorial integrity of this country.
And for a man who's been to war, he really means it. He's a very charismatic communicator.
[09:05:00]
He knows that his power is limited, not only is his mostly a ceremonial position, he can authorize and engage in negotiations, but he doesn't have
as much executive authority, because of the different ways the sectarian factions are aligned in this government.
It's not a presidential system, in other words. But he said he's going to use every power that he has to make this war end. And he says that it
really takes two to tango. Israel has to stop, has to move back, and Hezbollah has to stop. Both sides need to live in peace. The war needs to
end.
And then he says there might be another further negotiation towards eventually normalization of relations, but the first step is an end to this
war, and he says he's working on it as hard as he possibly can under very, very difficult circumstances and realities. The key to note is that the
majority of the Lebanese people, including the Shiites, who, of course, Hezbollah claims to represent, they want an end to this.
They want the sovereign state to be in charge, not a non-state actor. Christiane Amanpour, CNN in Beirut.
ANDERSON: Well, you can see more of Christiane's exclusive interview with the Lebanese President Joseph Aoun coming up at 01:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Look out for their full conversation airing on Monday. Let's get your reaction now from Jeremy Diamond, who is in Tel Aviv.
Good to have you, Jeremy. Thank you. Your assessment of what we've just heard from Lebanon's President.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly very powerful statements from a Lebanese President, who has gone further than any
Lebanese President before towards aiming for the goal of disarming Hezbollah further in terms of diplomacy with Israel, as we have witnessed
the latest series of meetings taking place in Washington between Lebanese and Israeli officials mediated by the United States.
And further, it seems, than previous Lebanese governments in terms of being so direct in his criticism of Iran and of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard
Corps' role inside of Lebanon, in terms of propping up Hezbollah, and in what you know some see as efforts to destabilize Lebanon by taking power
away from the government and putting it in the hands of an Iranian proxy.
What Joseph Aoun is saying here is effectively that diplomacy, in his view, is the only path towards reaching some kind of an understanding with
Israel, to ending Israeli attacks on Lebanese soil, ending Israel's military presence in Southern Lebanon, and basically, you know, rejecting
Hezbollah's theory of the case that the only way to get Israel to leave Lebanon is through, you know, kinetic action, through military
confrontation.
Hezbollah, though, you know, clearly is not being swayed by the words of the Lebanese President. Just yesterday, we saw Hezbollah reject this
ceasefire agreement that was negotiated by the Lebanese government with Israel, a ceasefire agreement that depends on Hezbollah not only ceasing
fire but also withdrawing its militants from the south of the country.
What we have also -- who we have also heard from, is Nabih Berri, the Speaker of Lebanon's parliament, a Shiite position, and one who has been
kind of the intermediary with Hezbollah. He has also said that the only way he sees Hezbollah withdrawing its forces from Southern Lebanon is if Israel
does so as well at the same time. That's not what this current agreement calls for.
ANDERSON: Yeah, Jeremy, while I've got you, I do want to just talk to you about some exclusive reporting that CNN has about Israeli operations in
Azerbaijan. Just explain what we have learned and why it is significant.
DIAMOND: Well, we have previously reported on the existence of Israeli covert military sites in other countries during the Iran war, namely, we
found out last month that there were two covert military sites in Iraq, but now my colleague Tal Shalev has uncovered through multiple sources that the
Israeli government secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to Azerbaijan, a country that shares a border with Iran.
Apparently, these covert Israeli military site operated in Southern Azerbaijan, near to Northern Iran. Dozens of troops, including special
commando units that were deployed to carry out intelligence gathering and drone operations inside of Iran, were deployed to Azerbaijan, as well as
personnel from the Mossad, Israel's Foreign Intelligence Service.
[09:10:00]
So, this is, you know, quite the revelation, I should note that a spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Embassy in the United States denied this,
saying that they quote reject unfounded claims regarding the alleged use of Azerbaijan's territory for operations against third countries.
The Israeli government did not respond to our request for comment about this revelation. You know, it's important to note that Azerbaijan and
Israel have long had very strategic ties, both military and commercial ties, but this seems to take the partnership to a whole new level.
If indeed the Azerbaijani government was aware and authorized the deployment of these Israeli troops on its soil amid wartime with a
neighboring country, Iran in this case, and it adds to the broader picture that we've seen of Israeli troops during this Iran war being covertly
deployed to Azerbaijan, to Iraq, to Somaliland, as well as to the UAE, all around Iran.
ANDERSON: Great to get that reporting. Thank you very much indeed for that. And Jeremy also thank you for your assessments of what we've heard from the
Lebanese President today. Appreciate it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We have managed to secure a meeting with a member of Hezbollah who's been fighting in the south of Lebanon for the
last few months. And he's agreed to meet us in a very remote location, which we're heading towards right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: CNN is on the ground in Lebanon, where Isobel Yeung has gained rare access to members of Hezbollah as the militant group vows to keep
fighting. I'm going to get you her report in the next hour of "Connect the World". And still to come, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushing
for direct talks with Vladimir Putin to end the war.
Let me show you how the Kremlin is responding, that more after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Ukrainian President is calling on the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to meet face-to-face and negotiate an end to the war. The Kremlin
confirms it received a letter from Mr. Zelenskyy and says if he wants to meet Putin, then quote, he can come to Moscow.
Right now, the Russian Leader hosting an economic forum in St. Petersburg. Meantime, Russia's major cities have been largely insulated from the war
with -- in Ukraine, but as CNN's Clare Sebastian supports, Kyiv's expanding drone campaign is now changing the equation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): War on Russia's doorstep as Putin's Davos gets underway. Ukrainian drones rained down on the
country's second largest city, St. Petersburg.
[09:15:00]
Russia's main cities have largely been shielded from the daily realities of the war in Ukraine, but Kyiv's long-range strikes are now changing that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: [The drone] fell on this canopy, and then it burst into flames, black smoke started coming.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Last month, at least three people were killed in the Moscow region after a large-scale drone attack. One drone struck -- as
apartment block in Zelenograd, damaging several floors.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We started pouring water on the black smoke from the balcony. And when we went in to get some water again, there was an
explosion. And then I told my son let's grab the dog and run away. Here everything crashed and all the glass was shattered.
SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Now in its fifth year, Russia's war with Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a special military operation, has brought
widespread devastation for Ukrainians. Ukraine regularly refers to its drone strikes on Russia as long-range sanctions.
President Zelenskyy, calling the wave of strikes on the Moscow region in May entirely justified. Next door in Zelenograd, Maxim (ph) was away for
the weekend when the drone struck. When he came home. He discovered authorities had broken down his door to assess the damage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm half Lithuanian. My entire family in Lithuania is simply shocked by the fact that Ukrainians and Russians are dying. That's
what matters most. Slavs are killing Slavs. I'm all for this to end as soon as possible, damn it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Clare Sebastian reporting for you. Well, the Head of the World Health Organization has warned that while world leaders are spending
trillions on arms, they are underfunding the health systems that protect us all. Those comments from the DG of the W.H.O. come after he visited the
Democratic Republic of Congo recently, which is battling an outbreak of Ebola of course.
In just a few weeks, the number of confirmed cases has risen to 381 and 60 people have died. My colleague CNN's Clarissa Ward went to the remote
mining town in Ituri Province believed to be at the epicenter of the outbreak.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are heading to Mongbwalu, a remote gold mining town deep in the lush forests of
Eastern Congo, and the epicenter of this Ebola crisis.
WARD: From up here, you really get a sense of the challenges in fighting this outbreak, the vastness of the terrain, and the total lack of good
roads.
WARD (voice-over): The World Food Program now operates a daily helicopter to deliver supplies to the beleaguered community. On this day, they're
bringing a much-needed mobile testing lab. Days without results here have cost lives.
WARD: You can see they've sent security for us. That's because yesterday villagers were throwing rocks at a convoy of aid workers.
WARD (voice-over): We drive quickly through the town. Suspicion of aid organizations runs deep here, with conspiracy theories swirling as the
death toll mounts. Jump out of the car to talk to local journalist Gar Mumbesa.
WARD: So, he's saying that there's a feeling among the community as well that aid workers who are coming here are actually coming here to profit
from this crisis, not to help.
WARD (voice-over): He spends his days trying to educate the community about the outbreak.
WARD: So, he's saying that the reason he's frightened of this hospital is because everybody goes in there sick, they don't leave, they come out dead.
WARD (voice-over): Inside the hospital, a small team is holding the line. Logistics coordinator now felt Dridi is preparing to disinfect another
body.
NAOUFEL DRIDI, LOGISTICS COORDINATOR, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: It's like you're on the front lines where the bullets are flying. But with Ebola, you
can't see it. You can't see it.
WARD (voice-over): That invisible enemy is everywhere here. Workers carry the first body to the morgue. A grim procession disinfecting the path as
they go. A second follows closely behind. A woman can be heard wailing from inside. My child, my child, she cries. I remember my child.
WARD: So, he's explaining to me that the two bodies that we just saw being brought in, one of them was an 11-year-old child, and the other one was an
eight-month-old baby, and you can hear -- we've been hearing the wails of the family.
[09:20:00]
It's just -- it's unimaginable.
WARD (voice-over): The bodies keep coming. Six in total, this day, each one a family destroyed. The Mayor of Mongbwalu is overwhelmed. His town has
never seen anything like this.
WARD: Can we talk about when this all started? When did you first understand that there was something terribly wrong going on here?
SESEREKI MANDRO ISRAEL, MAYOR OF MONGBWALU, DR CONGO: The date was February 22nd when a body arrived from Bunia -- In a coffin --
WARD: -- 22nd of February.
WARD (voice-over): That's more than 11 weeks before the outbreak was declared.
ISRAEL: Two or three weeks later people started to die here. The deaths in two weeks, there were forty-eight dead, here in Mongbwalu --
WARD (voice-over): The virus continued to spread silently, invisibly through this town and beyond. Healthcare workers are now playing catch up
to contain the outbreak, and the people of Mongbwalu are still paying the price. Clarissa Ward, CNN, Mongbwalu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, a massive search is underway in Japan for an American college student who went missing six days ago, James "Weston" Higginbotham
was traveling with his family in Kyoto when he just disappeared. His family says the university student went into the woods to quote, blow off steam
after an argument they haven't seen or heard from him since. CNN's Hanako Montgomery here on the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nancy and Keith Higginbotham can only think of their missing son.
NANCY HIGGINBOTHAM, MOTHER OF MISSING AMERICAN: Every single second you think about your kid, and then you have the flashbacks of when he was two,
when I was breast feeding him, the birthday parties we've thrown for him.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): The family of four is on a first-time holiday across Japan, but 20-year-old "Weston" Higginbotham left his parents and
brother on Friday night, and they haven't seen him since. The college student appeared to have switched off a GPS function on his phone and is
believed to have taken a train away from Kyoto.
N. HIGGINBOTHAM: It's not unusual for "Weston" to blow off steam going to, you know, the woods, so, and just exploring, that's his happy place.
MONTGOMERY: But it was unusual that he turned off his location --
N. HIGGINBOTHAM: When he turned off his locations, and that was so concerning, because it's so out of character for him, and I just felt it.
KEITH HIGGINBOTHAM, FATHER OF MISSING AMERICAN: His mother's intuition, she kept saying something's not right.
N. HIGGINBOTHAM: I said something's not right. Something's not right. I knew something was wrong.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): "Weston" is a keen outdoorsman, a vegan, and an environmentalist. His mother said they had bickered after "Weston" got
upset with her for using ChatGPT because of AI's environmental impact.
MONTGOMERY: "Weston" was last seen at this train station on May 29th and since then the Japanese authorities have been searching the woods in this
area, where they believe he might be.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Torrential rain and typhoon winds have stopped the search at times, while strangers have reached out to help the family,
despite the language barrier.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- can't even imagine.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Vigils were held back home in Alabama for a young man described as both popular and caring. The search for him continues, but
without any new leads.
K. HIGGINBOTHAM: I don't want anybody to think that we're thinking of him in the past, because we're not.
MONTGOMERY (voice-over): Hope that "Weston" is OK, trapped or lost in the Japanese forest. Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Kyoto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Let's get you up to speed in some of the other stories that are on our radar right now. And actor James Handy, who appeared in films like
"Top Gun" and "Maverick" and TV shows like "The X-Files", has died after being stabbed in the chest in his front yard in L.A.
Police have arrested the son of the 81-year old's girlfriend on suspicion of murder. Officers went to Handy's home after a 911 caller said, I am the
son of man, I just killed the man of sin. Well in a poorly climbing guide, who was believed to have died on Mount Everest, has been found crawling to
base camp after a week of being missing.
[09:25:00]
The 52-year-old Dawa Sherpa spent a week on the mountain without food or bottled oxygen after he got separated from his climbing team, by the time
he was discovered, his family had begun funeral rites for him. Well, the latest U.S. jobs report shows a strengthening labor market.
U.S. economy adding 172,000 jobs in May, that is much better than analysts had expected. And it is the third straight month that gains have topped the
100,000-mark, unemployment holding steady at 4.3 percent. We are, of course, getting close to the start of the trading day, 09:30 local time on
Wall Street this Friday.
After a record close Thursday, we have got a keen eye on how the New York Stock Exchange will kick off. The DOW was in good shape, of course, on
Thursday. The other two markets not so much, and the picture is pretty mixed ahead of the opening bell this Friday. We are just moments away. More
on that after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson. You're watching "Connect the World". I'm here in Abu Dhabi -- headlines, Lebanon's President accusing Iran of using his
country as a bargaining chip in its conflict with the U.S. and Israel. In an exclusive interview with CNN, President Joseph Aoun says the Lebanese
people are quote, fed up with the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah.
In a CNN exclusive, sources tell us Israeli, sorry, Israel secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to Azerbaijan during the war
with Iran. The sources say it was part of a network of covert sites across the Middle East aimed at facilitating operations against Iran.
CNN has reached out to the Israeli Prime Minister's office and the IDF for comment. In an open letter to the Russian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy of
Ukraine has called for a face-to-face meeting in a renewed effort to end the war. The Kremlin confirms it's received the letter and says if Mr.
Zelenskyy wants to meet Vladimir Putin, then quote, even come to Moscow.
It's now been a week since U.S. student James "Weston" Higginbotham went missing in Japan, sparking a huge search operation that now includes
Japanese authorities, civilian volunteers, and the FBI. The 20-year-old is an experienced traveler, but disappeared after separating from his family
on vacation.
Let's check in on how the oil markets are faring today. This is the picture of both the Brent crude index, which is global benchmark, down about 1
percent there, and WTI down just a little more.
[09:30:00]
Well, it is AstraZeneca ringing the closing bell today, and on the podium about to do that is the Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot. It is just
before half past nine, that is the start of the trading day. And we had been expecting a bit of a mixed open to trade on Wall Street.
Takes a little bit of time for both the NASDAQ and the S&P to settle. Generally able to see what's going on with the DOW that has been at record
highs of late. Looks as if it's a pretty sort of mixed start there today, nothing really sending this market stratospheric. We will keep an eye on
that.
The shipping of the world's oil, of course, remains under severe pressure, with the Strait of Hormuz largely paralyzed. Iran has made clear it intends
to set the rules for passage. They're now saying it wants to charge service fees for ships crossing the strait in exchange for security.
That's -- well, it's a slight deviation from a toll system, which the U.S. has said is unacceptable. Richard Meade joins us now. He's Editor-in-Chief
at the Maritime Logistics Firm Lloyds List Intelligence. And I think for some time people in this region have been discussing the prospect of a
tolling system becoming a sort of services system, which clearly the Iranians think they may be able to get away with, charging for services
rendered as ships vessels cross that strait, environmental tugging, all the rest of it.
I wonder, what you make of that in the first instance.
RICHARD MEADE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AT THE LLOYDS LIST INTELLIGENCE: I think to some extent they've already started doing this. What we're effectively told
to start with, and we're in the realm of 1 to $2 million per vessel have very quickly come down to what effectively amounts to services fees, and
dry bolt carriers would attract something in the rail move, $120,000 per vessel.
Oil tank is about 160,000 but it depends on the vessel, depends on the owner, it depends on who you are. But I think this rather misses the point.
Whatever happens next is really not just up to Iran. It is going to have to, you know, form some sort of agreement, certainly with Iran, but with
other countries as well.
And obviously the vast majority of countries are not particularly willing to wear this as a precedent.
ANDERSON: Yeah.
MEADE: It is a dangerous precedent for all other choke points, apart from anything else.
ANDERSON: Yeah, and in the end, it is ultimately the shipping industry, the insurance industry, and the like, which will dictate whether these vessels
get moving again, when indeed, or if security is established. Let's look at the market, showing Iran. Let's start there.
The country's crude oil exports in May were down 84 percent from the previous month. That's 84 percent down in May from April. Why?
MEADE: Well, it's the U.S. blockade that has finally really started kicking in, in terms of those numbers. Since May 13th, they've effectively said
that no Iranian exports will get through, and after a slightly shaky start that does seem to be really constraining Iran's ability to get ships in and
out.
We are obviously seeing movements through the straits, but in terms of Iran-affiliated tonnage it is massively down, and that is as a direct
result of U.S. enforcement for non-Iranian vessels. There are some things moving, but I must stress that it is a very little amount.
May was the slowest month since the war started.
ANDERSON: Yeah.
MEADE: We're nearly 100 days into this crisis, and you know we are not seeing numbers tick up at all. There has been some reports and some
movements of non-Iranian vessels getting U.S. security support. That is sort of true, but it is not in any way like the Operation Freedom that we
saw last month.
ANDERSON: Got it.
MEADE: This is a sort of quiet over Scottish commitment, where you know there are certain amounts of assurances being offered, but this is in no
way a normalization of trade.
ANDERSON: Very quickly, just another question on Iran, and then I want to go to the wider picture here. Iran being forced to cut crew production by
something like 800,000 barrels a day, you can't just bounce back from that overnight if and when a sort of long-term solution is agreed upon.
So, what would you expect for Iranian shipping, and indeed the business, the export business of oil for Iran in the sort of, you know, short to
medium term?
[09:35:00]
MEADE: Right now, production is being cut because the storage facilities that they have and the options of loading onto vessels on the water are
almost full. The reason they have started ramping down production is because there just isn't the option in terms of getting it out, and there
is only a limited amount of storage capacity out there.
So, I think in terms of what happens next? Not a lot, I think, is the answer. I think, in terms of how quickly they could ramp that back up, in
the event that there was a deal, you have to remember that Iranian's shipping and oil systems have been under pressure for years.
It is quite flexible, it is quite adaptable, and you know, assuming there is some sort of agreement, they can do this very quickly.
ANDERSON: Right. Going beyond Iran, then global oil production averages roughly 100 million barrels a day on a good day. This isn't a good day, of
course, and it hasn't been for the past 12 weeks. Kpler estimates 12 million barrels a day are being lost. So, on day 97 of the closure, we are
looking at well over a billion barrels of oil not in circulation that otherwise would have been, around the world, reserves being rapidly drawn
down.
Now, the laws of economics, or just the laws of physics, if you want to put it that way, dictate that prices should be higher than they are. They're
slightly lower today. We've got Brent down at 94.5, and Brent crude down at 91 still 20 bucks above where they were at the start of this conflict. But
still, how do you explain these current prices?
MEADE: Well, I'm not an oil economist, but the reality is that the U.S. has ramped up production very rapidly, and China has reduced its intake very
quickly as well, and to some extent that has given us some sort of buffer. And obviously on top of that we have the strategic petroleum reserve draw
downs, all of these things have masked what would otherwise have been a much bigger shock.
Now, the question is, how long that masking can go on. And I agree, there is a reality in play here that you can only defy economic gravity for so
long under these circumstances, at some point this is going to kick in, in terms of higher oil prices and demand destruction overall, and that will
have an inflationary effect, and the global economic consequences will be much more severe than they are right now.
ANDERSON: It's good to have you. It's always good to have you. Thank you. And I just, as we let you go, Richard, just want to note in some Lloyds
List sort of reporting quote, cargos that should have clean continuous automatic identification system trails now reappear thousands of miles away
after days or weeks of silence.
If normalized, you say this will distort how markets interpret export flows, prompt availability, and regional balances across crude products,
LPG and LNG. I thought that was a really interesting point that you made there. Richard Meade is Editor-in-Chief at Lloyds List.
Well, you're watching "Connect the World". There is a lot more ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:40:00]
ANDERSON: Well, if you are a regular viewer of this show, you will know that we are the home of the World Cup ramp up, particularly when it comes
to teams representing the Middle East, the wider Middle East, and North Africa. One country from this region, of course, we're broadcast from Abu
Dhabi, making their World Cup debut is Jordan.
And in an exclusive interview for CNN, I spoke to the President of Jordan's Football Association, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein. He had this friendly
message for all the teams from this neighborhood.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE ALI BIN AL HUSSEIN, PRESIDENT OF JORDAN FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION: Best of luck for all the other teams from our region that are participating.
ANDERSON: Good --
HUSSEIN: Except if we have to play them like --
ANDERSON: OK.
HUSSEIN: I'll just have to say, but like we must support them, whoever goes the furthest, we will be behind them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: And you'll be able to hear that full conversation next hour, hear what this football milestone means for Jordan and Prince Ali himself. Well,
elsewhere in the world of sport, President Trump says that he is planning to attend game three of the NBA finals in New York on Monday.
Mr. Trump is a Knicks fan, apparently, and would be the first sitting U.S. President to watch a finals game in person. He says he was invited by the
New York Knicks owner, James Dolan. The Knicks playing in their first NBA finals since 1999. New York won Game One of the best of seven series
against the San Antonio Spurs Game two is tonight.
"World Sport" and more with that and on that is next. We'll be back in 15 minutes with more "Connect the World".
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
(WORLD SPORT)
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