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First Move with Julia Chatterley
China says Suspected Spy Balloon was used for Research; Ukraine Military: Number of Russian Missile Launching Ships in Black Sea has Increased; Richardson: This Jobs Report is a "Stunning Number"; Google- Parent Alphabet's Profits Fall by a Third; Palestinian Family's House Used in Jenin Military Raid; Mindvalley CEO: Mindfulness can make you a Happier Person. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired February 03, 2023 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, FIRST MOVE: --suspected Chinese spy balloon flying across the United States. Unusual and very highly sensitive development
instance U.S.-China relationship. All of this had a U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Beijing. We'll have the latest in just a moment.
Plus, called to account reports say that Gautam Adani will sign off on a big four accounting firm audit of his empire all of this coming after
another volatile day of trade for Adani shares the latest on the Indian conglomerate stock market meltdown, just ahead.
But first, it is another jobs Friday in America in the U.S. The U.S. jobs report is out. Quick look at how American jobs market is doing in the New
Year. And we have a blockbuster number buy Oh, buy, suddenly much better than expected 517,000 jobs added to the economy last month.
Analysts were actually expecting half of that they're expecting just under 200,000 jobs added. So this is a massive surprise. Today's numbers
certainly represent the best month for jobs growth since last July the U.S. unemployment rate easing as well to 3.4 percent and wage growth ticking
higher too.
The big question, what does all this great news for workers, I mean for the Fed and its fine to bring down inflation. U.S. futures had been trading
lower all of this morning and they are still looking, let's see here a bit soft.
Europe trading mix tech stocks set to pull back after disappointing set of earnings from three big cap heavyweights, shares of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet
all of those guys falling premarket trading, but tech still up strongly on the week.
We'll break it down for you later on in the show. But first new developments on a suspected Chinese spy balloon flying over the Northern
United States right now China now says the balloon was used for research. Oren Liebermann is live for us at the Pentagon with the very latest.
So Oren, just walk us through what the U.S. thinks the Chinese were looking for in terms of surveillance here? And be one of Biden's options right now,
in terms of possibly shooting it down? I know that it's off the table. Are there any other military options on the table?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that hasn't been taken off the table entirely. The Pentagon has just said they're not going to
shoot this down right now, because of a threat to what are below it potentially facilities and people. But that option does remain possible
depending on the risk.
They view from what they see as a Chinese spy satellite, not as the Chinese just said, a Chinese weather balloon. Now the Pentagon has acknowledged
that have traveled over several sensitive sites. And they have said it's over Montana. They haven't specified what those sites are. But we know that
Montana houses some of the U.S. is ballistic missile fields.
So perhaps that's the sensitive side that this balloon was traveling over. It came over from Canada, and is now drifting, or at least was drifting
over Montana. We're waiting to see if they give an update on where this is now. The Pentagon has been tracking this for several days.
The decision was made by President Joe Biden with the recommendations of top military leaders not to shoot it down at this time. But again, that
remains a possibility as the Pentagon keeps on tracking this. We just learned from a U.S. official that there have been previous instances of
this over Hawaii and Guam, sometime in previous years. Yesterday, the Pentagon said that this had happened before, including in the previous
administration.
And the administration views this very seriously, especially ahead of a planned trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China, with tensions
already high between Beijing and Washington. So does the Pentagon by the explanation? Does the U.S. by the explanation that it's a weather balloon?
We'll get a sense of that today and find out if the thinking has shifted at all on whether to shoot this thing out of the sky, Zain.
ASHER: Alright, Oren Liebermann live for us there, thank you so much. Right, this comes earlier at a sensitive moment as U.S. Secretary of State
Antony Blinken plans to visit Beijing in the next few days. China says the balloon is used for research as you just heard, Oren Liebermann talking
about just there.
Let's bring in Marc Stewart live for us in Hong Kong. So Marc, just walk us through what the Chinese have said about this because they've been very
cautious from the stock really not come out and fully claim responsibility.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right Zain, within the last hour or so we got a notification from Beijing that perhaps this balloon was not part of
the --, if you will. Again, the validity of these claims that this was for scientific research still needs to be ironed out especially from Pentagon
officials whom I know something Oren is keeping watch on.
But it is interesting if we go back in time and look at the language that we received from the Chinese government relating this incident from the
beginning, very guarded, very diplomatic tones were used in a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that China is a responsible
country that it operates in accord with international law, and hopes that this matter will be dealt with in a cool headed way.
Now, again, we still need to know what the response is from Washington. But this does illustrate just how tense relationships have been between the two
nations. And as you mentioned, Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to be headed to the region.
[09:05:00]
STEWART: We will have to see how much prominence this will play in the discussions if at all, Zain?
ASHER: Yes, I mean, that was going to be my next question, because you've got Secretary of State Blinken, as you point out going to China. It is
certainly a time of raise tensions. There's a lot of tension right now between the U.S. and China. How does Blinken handle this?
STEWART: Well, I was talking to an analyst about this trip as a whole. And he pointed out two interesting points. One, he feels that everything is on
the table. So if this is a matter that Secretary Blinken thinks raises to prominence of discussion, then likely he will. But there are so many issues
that he will have to confront, especially with Chinese leadership.
I mean, we have this case, but we also have the buildup of U.S. forces in the Philippines. We have the question of Taiwan, we have trade, we have
microchips. The list goes on and on. The key really here is for Blinken, to establish some kind of feeling of diplomacy where if there is some
heightened event, such as with this balloon.
That he will have a counterpart with whom he can pick up the phone and have an immediate discussion to eliminate some kind of scramble or potential
misunderstanding as this case made? And I stress, may turn out to be, Zain.
ASHER: All right, Marc Stewart live for us there, thank you so much. All right, let's dive further into whopping U.S. jobs report. 517,000 jobs
added, as I mentioned at the top of the show added in January, completely blown past all expectations by the way. It's really double what people had
been expected?
All of this coming of course, as the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates and try to cool the economy. Matt Egan joins us live now. So
Matt, something tells me that this is not what that the Fed had in mind. That's not what anyone was expecting. 517,000 jobs add it break it down for
us.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Zain, this is a remarkably positive remarkably strong jobs report. And it really does give another boost to the
soft landing camp because there's nothing about this report that looks like a recession. This looks like a boom, as you mentioned, 517,000 jobs added
that is more than twice the expectation best in nearly a year 100,000 jobs better than the average last year.
You know, and despite this almost unprecedented war on inflation by the Federal Reserve, the unemployment rate going down, this is a new post COVID
low, you have to go all the way back to 1969 to get an unemployment rate like this. And really, the strength in the jobs market was basically across
the board.
I mean, leisure and hospitality added 128,000 jobs. Those are restaurants, hotels; professional business services added over 80,000 everywhere almost
added jobs, government, health care, retail, construction, manufacturing. The only sectors that were negative were utilities slightly, and tech and
that was only slightly negative.
So really impressive across the board and Zain I think one of the keys here though, is the fact that hiring continued, hiring actually accelerated, but
wages didn't wages cooled off, as expected. And I think that is encouraging, because that does sort of give hope to the idea that maybe
this jobs more could continue going without having it fresher inflation. And that's good, because it could take some of the pressure off the Fed.
ASHER: So what about all of these layoffs that we've been reporting on, Matt? I mean, you know, we've seen layoffs. I mean, you mentioned that tech
was down slightly, but we've seen layoffs across the board in this country, tech media, so many different sectors. Why haven't those shown up yet?
Well, they show up in late amongst jobs report?
EGAN: Well, I think that's the trillion-dollar question. I mean, we're not imagining these layoffs, right? We're hearing companies PayPal, IBM, SAP,
Hasbro just in the last 10 days announcing thousands of job cuts. Challenger, Gray and Christmas says that January, the number of announced
job cuts quintupled from the year before.
And yet jobless claims, which is a proxy for layoffs continue to move lower. Non-Farm payrolls continue to move higher. So it is a bit of a
mystery. I think that one thing that we have to keep in mind is the fact that we are still in the middle of a worker shortage. So both things can be
true.
We can have some tech companies and some media companies and others cut jobs. And yet, the economy as a whole still needs more workers, a lot of
CEOs, a lot of bosses, they don't want to let go of the workers they have because they're worried they won't be able to get new ones. And so that's
why we are seeing some churn in the jobs market.
[09:10:00]
EGAN: And yet it does feel like by all accounts the jobs market remains strong, you're surprisingly strong.
ASHER: So you've made my day on this Friday morning by using the word quintupled in a lunch.
EGAN: That's all it took, Zain?
ASHER: Quintupled I love it. Keep it up, Matt, thank you so much.
EGAN: Will do.
ASHER: I don't know why that made me laugh so much, Matt thank you. Right, India's Adani group is planning to appoint a major global accounting firm
to conduct an audit of its business that according to French energy giant, total energies, which is one of Adani's biggest international partners.
Shares of Gautam Adani's businesses have been plunging since U.S. short seller Hindenburg researcher's fraud allegations. So far the sell-off has
wiped off about $100 billion off of the value of Mr. Adani's empire. His personal net worth has now fallen to about 60 billion for about $100
billion just last week.
Meantime, take a look at this chart. Today shares of his flagship firm Adani enterprises fell as much as 35 percent before closing down 2 percent
myths after credit ratings agency Fitch said that the Hindenburg report would have no immediate impact on the ratings of Adani entities.
Vedika Sud joins us live now from New Delhi so Vedika, just in terms of having one of these big four accounting forms audit the company. Just
explain to us, whether or not that is going to be enough at this point to reassure people to reassure investors?
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Zain, if you go by what the markets are telling us clearly not at least for now, that's my reading of it at least because
given the slump, that the markets have faced the slump that Adani group shares have faced over the last one week, it's been a massive fall, as you
yourself have pointed out right now.
I mean, you talk about his net worth is gone down from $120 billion within nine days to $61 billion. You've just spoken about how you know a huge
amount of staggering amount has been wiped off the conglomerate in terms of its values? And clearly now you do have a lot of people watching Adani very
closely.
A lot of institutes and institutions watching Adani very closely you have opposition lawmakers in India in parliament for three consecutive days
disrupting proceedings, demanding an explanation from the Modi government from the Indian government. They want an independent probe into this
controversy.
And it's not only going to stop at this, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny along the way for the Adani group. By far they themselves have
said this is an unprecedented situation. You had the share, sell off a $2.5 billion share sell off that was abandoned last minute because of the reds
in the market.
So clearly this is not going to abate anytime soon for the Adani group. However, for the first time, during an interview with affiliate CNN News
18, the Finance Minister did not directly talk of Adani or the controversy. But here's what she had to say, here's the message that she had to give to
the viewers to the people in India and abroad on this controversy listener.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIRMALA SITHARAMAN, INDIAN FINANCE MINISTER: India remains as before, absolutely well governed stable government and also very well, you know,
regulated financial market. And as a result, I think the investor confidence which existed before shall continue even now, our regulators are
normally very, very stringent about certain governance practices.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SUD: What cannot be denied is that there's been panic in the markets. What cannot be denied is that investors right now are very nervous. Will the
Finance Minister statement help calm their nerves? We'll have to wait till Monday then that's when the markets will reopen. That's when once again the
fate the future not only of the Adani group, but the Indian economy will once again be under scrutiny, Zain.
ASHER: All right, Vedika thank you so much, appreciate it. An Italian mafia boss, who was on the run for more than 16 years, has been captured in
France after hiding in plain sight as a pizza chef. Italian anti-mafia police caught 63-year-old Edgardo Greco in Saint Etienne on Thursday.
He was part of one of the most powerful Italian criminal networks in the world. Greco was wanted for murdering two brothers from a rival gang back
in the 1990s. I want to turn now to developments in terms of the war in Ukraine. The number of Russian ships capable of launching missiles on
Ukrainian territory from the Black Sea has increased.
According to a statement from the Ukrainian military it goes on to say that preparations for missile strikes are evident. It comes as authorities in a
Southern Port City of Kherson report shelling residential areas. At least two people were killed. Russian forces were driven out of the city only
three months ago.
[09:15:00]
ASHER: By the North there's no that up in Russia's missile barrage against residential areas in the City of Kramatorsk. At least 4 people were killed,
18 wounded in the latest attack. CNN's Fred Pleitgen and his team were heading to the scene when one of the strikes actually, one of the second
missile actually hit, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Two missile strikes on the city Kramatorsk in Eastern Ukraine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.
PLEITGEN (voice over): Right at the location we were about to film.
PLEITGEN (on camera): There were just two massive missile strikes right in our vicinity. You can see it's just a couple of yards away from where we
are. We're not exactly sure what kind of missiles it was, but this is a residential area. We're right in the middle of town.
PLEITGEN (voice over): Photojournalist Mattia Sum films the damage caused by the impact. Ukrainian authorities later said they believe the missiles
were S-300s, normally used to shoot down planes devastating when launched at urban centers as medics tended to the wounded producer Tim Lister checks
in with our headquarters.
TIM LISTER, CNN PRODUCER: Extremely large detonations, really, really close. We're going to stay in shelter.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): As we take cover, residents are clearly traumatized by the violence. It is terrifying, Natalia tells me, but what can we do?
The strikes came as search and rescue efforts were ongoing in exactly the same neighborhood after a Russian missile leveled an apartment block on
Wednesday night, killing at least three and wounding eight.
The Russians seem to be bringing the cities of this region into their war, regardless of the consequences. And Russian President Vladimir Putin is
saying there is worse to come. Putin spoke Thursday at events commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad, where Soviet forces defeated Nazi Germany 80
years ago, openly threatening the U.S. and other countries supporting Ukraine.
Clearly they don't understand that modern war with Russia will be quite different for them, he said. We won't send our tanks to their borders, but
we have the means to respond, and it won't be with the use of armored vehicles. Cities like Kramatorsk already know that the Kremlin is ready to
escalate its war on Ukraine. Largely quiet just weeks ago, they are now in the eye of the storm as Russian forces seek to grind their way through
Donetsk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we're going to make. That's it.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): When the coast seemed clear, we left Kramatorsk.
PLEITGEN (on camera): We're going to get out of here as fast as possible, just in case there are more missile strikes coming. But it certainly seems
to us as though the Russians are making Kramatorsk a front line in this war.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): A grim prospect for the thousands of civilians here and in other towns in eastern Ukraine Fred Pleitgen, CNN Kramatorsk,
Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: Alright, still to come here on "First Move". Economists were expecting U.S. job creation to slow last month why were they wrong? Latest
on today's super, super strong jobs number what it means the Feds fight against inflation just ahead. Plus, the 18th of the tech world suddenly on
Wall Street's B list what happened to Apple, Amazon and Alphabet fourth quarter results? We'll discuss coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
ASHER: Welcome back to "First Move", U.S. stocks remain on track for lower open with tech stocks set to fall after three days of stellar gains. NASDAQ
futures down over 2 percent after disappointing results from some of the biggest mega cap tech names. Apple reporting a 5 percent sales drop, Amazon
posting weak guidance.
Google parent company Alphabet also out with earnings miss as well. All this however, taking a backseat to what could only be called a blockbuster
jobs report, a greater than expected 517,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy in January that was more than double what all of us were expecting.
December jobs gains were revised higher too.
The good news for workers continues the unemployment rate falling to more than 50 year low wages rose last month to the report comes hot on the heels
of the Feds quarter percentage point hike that took place on Wednesday. The U.S. Central Bank dialing back, the severity of rate increases but it says
it's not done hiking just yet as the fight against inflation continues.
Today's number could keep pressure on the Fed to do much more. Nela Richardson joins us live now; she is the Chief Economist at ADP and the Co-
Head of the ADP Research Institute. Nela, thank you so much for being with us! So how do we get so wrong? I was researching the jobs report last night
preparing for the show and I was anticipating just fewer than 200,000 like everybody else. How did we get it as wrong?
NELA RICHARDSON, CHIEF ECONOMIST AT ADP: This is a stunning number. I mean, there was nothing in the last three months of U.S. job games that would
have prepared you or me for a number that was above a half a million jobs created in a single month. So we got it wrong, because the numbers are so
high and so unexpected.
And a couple of things are worth noting here, not only is that number high, we saw a dip in the unemployment rate to 3.4 percent. That's the lowest
it's been in the United States since 1969. And all of this high intense job creation came without a pickup in wages. Wages actually decreased year over
year to 4.4 percent. How do you square all that? It's really hard. It's a stunning number to comprehend actually.
ASHER: I don't get it. I mean, especially because the number we've been talking about this week is the number eight and that is because the Fed has
raised interest rates eight times over the course of last year. I know obviously there's a lag, right?
It between actually raising interest rates and having an effect on the economy we all know that there is a lag and the lag can be several months.
But would you have anticipated that after almost a year or so are raising interest rates. So these would be the kinds of jobs reports that we would
still be getting?
RICHARDSON: No, and there is a lag that is absolutely true. But even if that lag is playing out now. We saw, you know, last year, the most recent
history; the average monthly gain was 400,000 for the year. The last three months of that year job gains were strong, but of below 300,000.
So to see a year's worth of interest rate hikes, and many of them quite aggressive. Three quarters of a percentage point translate into a number of
this strong spells a question for the Fed. There is some good news for interest rate policy and those who are waiting for a Fed.
And that in the fact that wage gains were pretty moderate in this report, despite how stunning the jobs numbers were. So the Fed really has its work
cut out for it to really understand what's going on in this labor market, which is obviously still very tight, still very high.
ASHER: It's interesting because, you know, speaking to several economists starting this week, and they were saying you know what, the days of 75
basis points increase in terms of Fed rate hikes. Those days are long gone, those days are completely behind us, you know, and now we're going to see
more of these sorts of minor increases like what we saw on Wednesday.
[09:25:00]
ASHER: However, the Fed sort of reads this jobs report that just came out and they think what? How does it change their calculation as to what to do
going forward?
RICHARDSON: I don't think it changes how high they raise rates. And I do think that the tenure, a moderate quarter point increase, because things
are changing so rapidly, but it means that they can't keep their eye off the ball of inflation that the those who expected a softer economy, a
weaker labor market who maybe had been captured by the headlines coming out of tech, in terms of layoffs.
That this narrative that the Fed was almost ready to stop raising and pivot that story has been destroyed by this report, I think what you're going to
see is a Fed that still raising rates, whether it's a quarter percentage point, or even higher, and that they're going to hold those rates at higher
levels for longer. I don't think we're going to see a cut in rates in 2023, especially not after this jobs report.
ASHER: And you know, this Jerome Powell, on the other hand, has been dreaming of the so called soft landing. And this is I guess, this is proof,
would you say it's proof that he is managing somehow to do that?
RICHARDSON: If every element of this report bears fruit in terms of trends for the rest of the year, this is not just a soft landing; this is a
landing on an air mattress.
ASHER: I loved that.
RICHARDSON: Because you've gotten people back to work, we saw the labor force participation rate go up. You've gotten the unemployment rate down,
and you've done it without stoking inflation through higher wages. So you've avoided a wage price spiral, which everyone has been concerned
about.
This is the best landing possible for the economy. We'll just have to see what next month brings, because it's hard to think that this trend will
continue. But it does speak well for at least the first quarter in terms of what we're seeing in the labor market.
ASHER: Yes, I mean, I'm curious to see next month, I was speaking to our Correspondent, Matt Egan, just before you and he was we were talking about
all of the layoffs we've seen. I mean, you know, a lot of these companies like tens of thousands of people, in some cases, depending on how big the
company is?
Obviously, being laid off, since I guess between November and now and the layoffs have been quite severe so of course, at some point that's going to
have to show up in these jobs reports. Nela Richardson we have to leave it there, thank you so much. Nela Richardson, Chief Economist at ADP.
RICHARDSON: Thank you for having me.
ASHER: Oh, you're very welcome. We love having you on by the way, thank you so much. All right, still to come on "First Move", a rare miss from Apple
and stumble from Google have investors on edge about slowing growth in big tech. We'll have the latest earnings report, after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
ASHER: Alright, welcome back to "First Move". U.S. stocks are up and running on the last trading day of the week, a lower open for all the major
averages after the release of today's super strong U.S. jobs report. Today's report is great news for workers but it could force the Fed to do
more and its fight against inflation. And that would create a lot of uncertainty of course for global markets.
Stocks lose today let's talk about the stocks in the news at Ford Motor Company shares falling after the former reported weaker than expected
results CEO Jim Farley vowing to do better with more cost cutting.
Starbucks shares you see on your screen, they're falling as well after reporting weak earnings because in part of a slump in sales in China better
news from Nordstrom, they're at the bottom of your screen. Shares of the U.S. retailer rallying more than 25 percent on the news that activist
investor Ryan Cohen has actually bought a stake in the firm at Nordstrom suffering from slowing sales, Cohen could push for changes.
An Apple a day may keep the doctor away. But Apple's quarterly earnings aren't making investors particularly happy this morning. The iPhone maker
posted a rare decline in earnings in the last three months of 2022 after a shutdown of a key Chinese factory hurt supplies. Clare Duffy joins us live
now.
So, Apple gave a lot of excuses here just in terms of a strong dollar. But also, the fact that the company is not immune to the overall macro-economic
environment just walks us through that.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH WRITER: Yes, Zain I think it's a really big shift for Apple for CEO Tim Cook to admit that the company is not immune to some of
these economic challenges. Apple and a lot of the big tech companies were long sort of thought of as the exception to the rule when the economy was
turbulent. But here you see in this report, Apple's sales down 5 percent year-over-year, which was even worse than Wall Street expected.
And the first revenue declined since 2019. And certainly, some of these factors came into play the factory shutdown, and this economic uncertainty
that's probably causing consumers to think differently about how they're spending their money, whether they want to upgrade to the latest iPhone or
invest in Apple TV plus.
And the company also said that in the March quarter, the first three months of this year, it's expecting similar year-over-year revenue performance,
which means we might see yet another revenue decline from Apple.
ASHER: Right, Clare Duffy, live for us there. Thank you so much. Right, let's talk about Amazon, Amazon finished out 2022 strong but it doesn't
expect to start 2023 on the same foot recession, fears and rising prices, of course, consumers and businesses to cut back on spending.
Let's discuss all of this with Paul R LA Monica. So, Amazon surprising lost about $2.7 billion last year such a stark change from the boon days for
them during the pandemic. Part of the issue is their investment in electric car company. Just walk us through that Paul.
PAUL R. LA MONICA, CNN REPORTER: Yes, obviously Amazon having some issues with that investment in Rivian, Zain. But I think that a bigger issue for
Amazon right now we're seeing this with other big tech companies that have a major cloud presence, Amazon Web Services, their massive cloud
infrastructure hosting division that generates a big bulk of the company's profits.
Since the retail business has very thin margins, growth is slowing there was only about 20 percent year-over-year. That's a pretty dramatic
slowdown. And I think we're seeing that it's consistent with what other tech companies have reported as well.
Microsoft's cloud business is slowing Alphabet, which reported last night also, we saw Google Cloud revenue starting to decelerate as well, the
growth at least. So, I think that is a big concern right now Zain, that corporations that had been spending a lot of money on cloud infrastructure,
they're not doing it as much as they were during the pandemic. And that's going to be a problem for these big tech giants.
ASHER: And speaking out, I mean, you touched on off of that speaking of alphabet, I mean, there are a number of factors affecting alphabet here,
YouTube, YouTube, which of course Alphabet owns not doing too well. They're falling short in terms of their revenue, but also there's also a onetime
charge because of all the lay-offs that Alphabet has issued. Just walk us through all the different factors affecting Alphabet right now.
[09:35:00]
MONICA: Yes, definitely Alphabet, which I think most people probably still refer to as Google, they clearly have some issues because of the layoffs.
That's not something that they are the only company in tech, of course, that's going to be having these big restructuring charges because of
massive job cuts.
But I think a bigger concern, as you pointed out, Zain is YouTube, a lot of people had hopes that YouTube growth would be pretty strong. But I think
what we've seen now with Meta having very strong earnings just a few days ago, it's possible that Meta, the owner of Facebook is really eating into
YouTube shorts with things like Instagram, and Reels.
And that's probably a problem for not just Alphabet and YouTube, but we saw SnapChats results were pretty disastrous. So, this might be an example of
TikTok and Meta is the big winners in social media right now. Whether or not TikTok remains on top given all of the regulatory concerns remains to
be seen, of course but Meta had a great quarter and you know, Alphabet did not.
ASHER: Paul R LA Monica live for us. Thank you. All right, coming up after the break here on "First Move", EU leaders are meeting in Kyiv as President
Zelenskyy pushes for EU integration this year. We'll have details on that after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: Air Raid alerts rang out in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv where European Union leaders are gathering for summit. EC President Ursula von
der Leyen says that Russia must be held accountable in court for what she calls odious crimes in Ukraine.
Meantime, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pushing for EU integration talks this year. Earlier in the show we mentioned that Ukraine's warning about
Russia beefing up its presence in the Black Sea comes as the U.S. is poised to offer Kyiv a new $2.2 billion aid package, which includes longer range
missiles. Scott McLean joins us live now.
So just in terms of what's top of Zelenskyy's mind here, it's going to be membership in terms of the EU. That is what Zelenskyy wants. And he's also
going to talk about the progress that Ukraine has made towards that goal, especially when it comes to rooting out corruption, Scott.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's absolutely right. And you know, in the weeks leading up to this EU Ukraine summit the very first one
since the full-scale invasion began the very first one since Ukraine was officially declared a candidate state for EU status.
[09:40:00]
MCLEAN: There have been a series of anti-corruption raids announced anti- corruption investigations and charges laid against people for embezzlement fraud. The list goes on and on. Even just today, Zain, police announced
that there were charges against the heads of two companies accused of defrauding the ministry out of defense out of more than $3 million.
And so yes, Ukraine has a lot to prove to show that it's trying to clean up its reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. And that is
one of the conditions that the EU has set out for it.
If there's really any realistic possibility of Ukraine actually joining the bloc at some point, you have to remember that countries like North
Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, they've been waiting as EU candidate states for a decade, more than a decade in some cases, and they're still not quite
there yet. So, this is not generally a quick process. But Ukraine is pushing for it to be fast tracked. We've just gotten some new comments from
President Zelenskyy.
You're see him there speaking he said that Ukraine is completing the recommendations of the European Commission which had been outlined for our
country, and we expect the Commission's assessment this spring on our process on our progress, excuse me, so they're obviously hoping for the
best. But really, nothing happens overnight when it comes to getting into the EU Zain.
ASHER: That's Scott McLean live for us, thank you. Recent outbreaks of deadly violence in Israel and the West Bank are shaking a region that's
already on edge. CNN's Nic Robertson talked to one father whose family got caught in the middle of the Israeli military aid in Jenin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (on camera): So, the soldiers came on to the roof of your house here.
ROBERTSON (voice over): From the roof of his Jenin apartment, Mohammed Abu Al-Hija shows me where Israeli troops fought a three-hour battle with
Palestinian gunmen just a few feet away.
ROBERTSON (on camera): So, the whole house here was surrounded by Israeli troops.
ROBERTSON (voice over): It was Thursday last week. The raid killed 10 people, seven of them Palestinian gunman. One of the deadliest such West
Bank operations in years, Mohammad thought he and his family might die too, because Israeli troops took over his apartment to fight the gunman. He
shows where he says two soldiers shot from his window.
ROBERTSON (on camera): And you can see all the bullet holes along the wall there.
ROBERTSON (voice over): They've spent bullet casings he says testimony to the ferocity of the firefight. He says the soldiers tied his hands behind
his back, ordered him and his wife to get on the floor cover their two daughters ears.
ROBERTSON (on camera): This is one of the bullets that came into your room right here.
ROBERTSON (voice over): The gunman began firing back at the Israeli soldiers hitting the wall and the door while he, his wife, and his two-
year-old and one year old daughters lay terrified on the floor. He thinks at least one soldier was hit.
ROBERTSON (on camera): So, they cut this out here. And they're looking right over the house. This is the house that target.
ROBERTSON (voice over): In his bedroom, he shows where he says the soldiers cut the bars off his window.
ROBERTSON (on camera): And they fired the rocket from here on the blast back here.
ROBERTSON (voice over): The whole place shook he says there were three rockets. It was so loud. We were terrified. The Israeli military say it was
an urgent mission that when they arrived here, their troops came under heavy fire that they returned fire. They say the suspects barricaded
themselves in the house here so they fired a shoulder launch anti-tank missile at them.
The buildings so damaged local officials had it bulldozed using apartments like Mohammed's to give covering fire is standard operating procedure and
Israeli military spokesman told CNN so that the action can be more precise. UN officials say the incident breaches international law.
In the ground floor apartment beneath Mohammed's Ziad says he saw the firefight saw an Israeli soldier hide behind his car shoot one of the
gunmen. This is the worst I've seen it much worse than the 2002 raids, he says, there are lots more government on the streets now. It's a younger
generation.
They were born into it. Upstairs Mohammed is close to tears, when I asked him how safe he feels. We're not safe, not safe for a moment after what
happened he says if they had killed me no one would hold them accountable.
[09:45:00]
ROBERTSON (voice over): You have to be very cautious. Despite the battle scars, it might look as if some kind of normality is returning. But in
people's hearts here, there is fear. The worst is yet to come. Nic Robertson, CNN, Jenin camp, the West Bank.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right, coming up after the break, time to switch gears a little bit here. We're talking about meditation, but not as we know it. We've got
several mindfulness tips to make your life just a little bit better. Mindvalley is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ASHER: Right. In terms of goals, my next guest has set his sights pretty high. Transforming the lives of a billion people is the aim of Vishen
Lakhiani, the Founder of Mindvalley build as an online personal growth platform with 20 million students worldwide.
Mindvalley offers 30 courses to lift the mind, the body and the spirit. The company says its clients include Facebook, Google and the Airline Emirates.
Vishen Lakhiani joins us live now. Vishen, thank you so much for being with us! I absolutely love, love, love this app Mindvalley.
I mean, it represents the intersection of technology and also spirituality. Two things that people think are somewhat incongruous, but of course
they're not. And this app really did change my life.
You've got so many online courses and workshops to choose from, that really sort of focus on your inner growth and also just helping people live up to
the highest version of themselves. Just walk us through if you're a business leader, or if you're an entrepreneur, if you haven't found your
calling or your passion, walk us through what Mindvalley offers.
VISHEN LAKHIANI, CEO, MINDVALLEY: Well, firstly, thank you for saying what you said that that warms my heart that changed your life. That's the key
word we try to do at Mindvalley, we want to change a billion lives. So if you're an entrepreneur or business owner, one of the most important things
we need to keep in mind is that the era of business is changing.
We know that soft skills are important; we know that our ability to connect as leaders to people to lead teams to nurture ourselves to take care of our
health and wellness to have mindfulness practices. All of these lead to happier employees, better company culture, more productivity, more
connectedness between a team, and a lot of these skills are not found in many traditional forms of education.
And what Mindvalley seeks to do is to get the best teachers out there in the world to teach this in mass to the best quality training in the world
to as many people as we can.
[09:50:00]
ASHER: Yes. So, explain to us the sort of structure of Mindvalley. Because you've got this sort of small bite size videos, right? You're supposed to
watch one video a day, if you pick a particular workshop that's focused on personal growth.
And I mean, it ranges I mean, it's absolutely everything is everything, either from spirituality or meditation, it could be any form of personal
development, career growth goals. Just explain to us specifically what the course the various courses offer?
LAKHIANI: Absolutely. Well, firstly, it starts with your goal; we look at around 290 different human development outcomes, which could be anything
from speed weeding, to greater confidence to greater productivity, to learning to use AI to speed up productivity, things like ChatGPT. And then
we find a really great teacher.
And we put them together with someone called a learning theory designer. So learning isn't just passive consumption of facts, learning is installing in
people new beliefs, new behaviors, new attitudes, new habits, it's a slow gradual accumulation of wisdom that you are then putting into practice.
Now we deliver this not just through content and teacher, but through our app itself, which does micro lessons every single day that get you hope
that get you engaged. And every single day, we build up a new behavior and a new attitude and a new habit, until at the end of, say, three weeks or
four weeks, you are literally completely different in that specific area of your life.
ASHER: You know, Vishen, I am so sorry, I was so excited to talk to you that I forgot to mention your book, guys, can we can we pull up his book,
you're the author of the six-phase meditation method.
And actually, what's interesting is that you're not a fan of meditation in the traditional sense, because we talked to a lot of people who you know;
focus on meditation, especially for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Just explain to us, you know, what the difference is here in terms of how
you view meditation.
LAKHIANI: Well, a lot of people think meditation is long periods of silence, focusing on your breath that is mindfulness, right. There's a
different aspect of meditation called active meditation, where you are not trying to steal your mind, you're not trying to focus on your breath, and
you're focused on the problems that you want to resolve.
And the results you want to create. It is an active application of the mind towards changing your future, but also creating emotional balance. So, the
six face looks at three methods to create this incredible, juicy emotional balance within you. And then three methods to get your mind focused on the
future.
It's meditation, for entrepreneurs, for athletes, for people who are going out there and really wanting to compete in the game and build something and
create something. But the side effect is really beautiful peace of mind; you become a better, nicer, more blissful, kinder, happier person.
ASHER: The side effects are absolutely that it does make you a better person. And what is I guess, kind of surprising here is really how
successful this app is $100 million in revenue, I only say surprising, because it's so niche. You know, when you think about spirituality and
personal growth, it is still somewhat niche. It's becoming more popular, but still niche $100 million in revenue. Did that kind of success surprise
you at first?
LAKHIANI: Well, we are a product led company, right? So, we want a product to be so good that people who come on want to bring their friends. I mean,
you just said it changed your life, and your brand new on CNN. This happens all the time. And so, what starts happening is that customers stopped
learning about this from other customers.
And we hit well over 100 million in revenue before taking a drop of venture capital. The company is fully self-funded at this point. But it's all about
changing lives. So, on our website, I'll share an interesting statistic.
We have 18,000 case studies from - who came to us and wrote a case study because Mindvalley changed some aspect of their life. My personal goal is
to get this to about a million like I want to die knowing that I've changed in some way to change a million lives. And that's what you said means so
much to me.
ASHER: Oh, well, what you've done means so much to me. It's when you think about, you know, being an entrepreneur and being spiritual. A lot of people
think that those two things are mutually exclusive. So, for example, that being an entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur obviously means thinking
about competition.
To a certain extent, being cutthroat and being spiritual is all about sort of letting things come to you and sort of meditating and lot of people
think that those two things do not go together. But you don't believe that explain why.
LAKHIANI: No, well firstly, we confuse drive with competitiveness. The best entrepreneurs are driven, but they are respectful to their competitors.
They see their competitors as beautiful mechanisms for them to get better. And in today's world, we're more connected than ever.
Human beings are so closely connected that the best way to build companies is to build our skills and how we relate with other people. But at the same
time there's also so much emerging research that shows that when we take care of our minds our spirit, our sleep, our health, we simply do better.
[09:55:00]
LAKHIANI: And that's why entrepreneurship and wellness have to come together the best entrepreneurs, I know, their non-negotiable are their
health, their spirit, and their family and team.
ASHER: And you're a major advocate of the three-day workweek. So, I'm going to have you talk to my bosses. OK. Vishen Lakhiani, we have to leave it
there. Thank you so much, CEO of Mindvalley there.
LAKHIANI: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
ASHER: I absolutely love, love, love that app. You're very, very welcome. OK. Finally, on "First Move", the world's oldest dog has clearly found the
secret to a long and happy life. This is Bobby. And he lives in a village in Portugal.
And purebred livestock guardian dog is more than 30 years old, beating the average lifespan of 12 to 14 years for the breed. He's definitely good old
boy. All right, that is it for the show. I'm Zain Asher. Thank you so much. I'll be back in a couple of hours, joining me for my show "One World".
"Connect the World" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
