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Quest Means Business
"New York Times" Hacked; Spain's "Secret Payments" Scandal; Earnings Disappoint; European Market Review; Dow Slips; Beckham Gives Salary to Children's Charity; Beckham Fashion Tour; Dollar Down; Make, Create, Innovate: Medical Breakthrough for Amputees
Aired January 31, 2013 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: There's a new row for Rajoy. Spain's prime minister is embroiled in a corruption scandal.
All the news that's fit to steal. "The New York Times" says hackers have taken every single staff password.
And bonjour to Beckham. Football's biggest brand name is on his way to Paris.
I'm Richard Quest. I mean business.
Good evening. "The New York Times" says Chinese hackers have stolen the passwords of every single one of its employees. The paper says the systems have been attacked for the past four months, ever since, in fact, the "Times" did a story on Wen Jiabao and his family's alleged money.
Earlier, I spoke to the "Times'" chief information officer, Marc Frons, and I asked him that when they were writing the story, did they fear this sort of thing was going to happen?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC FRONS, CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": That's right. When the Chinese ambassador says there will be consequences if you publish the article we were working on and we published it, we figured there would be consequences.
QUEST: Were you surprised at the ferocity of the attack?
FRONS: I think we were surprises first in the brazenness of the attack. Once we understood where they were and what they were doing, it was fairly obviously they really weren't trying to cover their tracks.
QUEST: And as you look at the ways and the mechanisms that they used, did the -- what did -- what have you learned from this experience?
FRONS: Well, I think what we've learned, and the reason that we went public with this is that many companies are vulnerable, and we actually have a false sense of security, because you have antivirus programs on your computer, you have other things.
These are not enough, in that we really -- all corporations, governments, need different protocols and different technology to keep the hackers at bay.
QUEST: The Chinese say the allegations are baseless. You would say to that?
FRONS: Well, I wouldn't expect them to say anything else.
QUEST: Finally, if we look at the -- the nature of what's taken place, they didn't -- they stole passwords, they stole information. Do you consider what they stole crucial and valuable in that sense?
FRONS: We don't believe that they actually got any crucial or valuable information per se of the data and the e-mails that they downloaded. However, had this gone undetected and they were still in our network, they could have obviously taken all kinds of information.
But we stopped them before they could do that, and now we're confident that they're out of our network, at least for now. Though in the future, we expect other attacks,.
QUEST: You just summed up --
FRONS: We'll be on guard.,
QUEST: You just summed up what I was about to say. "For now."
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: And you don't -- who knows what's lurking. And it really is - - well, it's just a case of maybe today, but who knows tomorrow?
FRONS: That's right.
QUEST: Good --
FRONS: Absolutely.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: "The New York Times" and the hackers -- alleged hackers -- from China. It is worth mentioning that the Chinese do say that those allegations are groundless and baseless.
Our other big story tonight, Spain's rulers are accused of taking secret payments in one hand even as they're squeezing taxpayers with the other. It is alleged that construction companies made the payments to the ruling Popular party, which then handed thousands of dollars at a time to members, including Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
That's the allegation. It comes from "El Pais," the newspaper. Apparently, it says the undeclared payments go back nearly two decades. The Popular party denies having any secret accounts. It has absolutely nothing to hide. Still, the scandal is threatening to inflame feelings of anger over Spain's brutal austerity drive at a time of recession and record unemployment.
Our Madrid bureau chief, Al Goodman, is with me now. Al, look, this is bizarre. The paper says payments were made, and the prime minister received them. The -- oh, that's the paper, thank you. The prime minister says he never received anything. I'm guessing that the facts are well and truly somewhere in the middle.
AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF: Indeed, Richard. This is a paper you cannot get your hands on at this hour because it has sold out across Spain as people want to see on the front page and inside whose names are in these alleged documents, these handwritten documents starting back in 1990, according to the paper.
Now remember that Spain has modern, it's got computers, that's how accounting is done at major institutions across the country. Way back then, then even now, so that there would be these handwritten documents is raising a lot of eyebrows.
The prime minister has said there is nothing going on there. He hasn't said publicly, but his aides have said no wrongdoing, and we heard that loud and clear from the ruling party. Here's what one of their leaders said earlier this day:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DOLORES DE COSPEDAL, SECRETARY-GENERAL, POPULAR PARTY (through translator): The only aim of this alleged information is to hurt the Popular party, its leaders, and certainly to hurt the prime minister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOODMAN: The problem, Richard, is that, as you say, this is right in the midst of a deep economic crisis, 26 percent unemployment, and it's not the only scandal. The Socialist party, even the royal household, they've all been touched by scandals -- financial scandals lately during the crisis. Richard?
QUEST: Al -- I mean -- I'm choosing my words carefully here. Who will people believe in this, the newspaper or the government?
GOODMAN: Well, according to recent polls, both the government's poll and private polls, Spaniards are increasingly worried about the rise of corruption, they say, in these polls, and about the --
(AUDIO GAP)
GOODMAN: -- of the political parties and the courts to tackle it. There are some analysts who are saying it's so endemic. And of course, as Spain has already gotten a bank bailout and may need, according to some, a sovereign bailout, Europe is watching closely, because they don't want to be pouring --
(AUDIO GAP)
GOODMAN: -- a lot of money down here if it's just going to disappear under the table, if that's what actually has happened, Richard.
QUEST: Right. So -- so Al, the unemployment rate, 26 percent, the -- we got numbers on GDP showing over -- a contraction of minus 1.7. Is there any feeling in Spain that it's turned the corner?
GOODMAN: Well, it -- at the government? Yes. They say -- they point out the IMF, which says there'll be a contraction of 1.5 points this year, three times what the government says, a half point, the government says. But the IMF says there'll be some growth next year. So the government says look, it will be growing in 2014.
But if you talk to the people on the street, and a lot of analysts say fine, the markets have given a breather here in these recent months, the government has been able to raise money on the markets paying steep interest rates but not terribly high interest rates.
But what if things turn south with the markets? Then they will need this bailout and it could all turn very, very sour. Even worse than it is now. Richard?
QUEST: Al Good man, who is in the Spanish capital for us tonight, with that newspaper, "El Pais," and the allegations against the government. Spain's biggest bank is still being damaged by the property bust, whereas for the oil company Shell, the problem is the boom.
Join me over in the library. There's Shell, there's Deutsche Bank -- we start tonight with Santander, which has set aside $25 billion for bad property loans. Now, the annual net profit was down 59 percent. Still made a profit, $3 billion.
And interestingly, Santander, which of course is a huge European bank with tentacles in many countries and Latin America, says that it sees a marked recovery in 2013.
More results in this earnings season from Deutsche Bank, which is bringing up past problems. Third quarter loss of $3 billion -- sorry, the fourth quarter. Getting my numbers the wrong way around. A $3 billion loss in the fourth quarter.
The co-chief executive Anshu Jain says, "We are willing to take pain," which of course is somewhat stating the obvious, since it made a loss and they really didn't have much choice.
Shell, the oil company, saw its earnings up 15 percent. Disappointing is how they described it, $5.5 billion in Q4. Of course, the reason is, even though -- even though they did well, the abundance of shale gas in the United States is keeping prices low, and of course, that for Shell means that the money they're making is not quite as great as it could be.
Shares in Shell were down -- look at the numbers on the market overall. Shell was down. It was another day of red arrows for European markets. The Xetra DAX was down. Zurich SMI, which of course had fallen earlier in the week, just eked out the tiniest of gains.,
Gold prices are falling. Need to tell you about gold. It is down 1 percent as the general economic outlook improves. It's down $17, around 1 percent.
As for the Dow, to the markets in New York -- well, we've talked about this a few times over the last few days. It couldn't make 14,000. That psychologically important barrier, it got to 13,950 -- 960, and now it's pulling back, exactly what Alison Kosik and Ken Polcari talked about on last night's program. Now, we're off 20 points, just a tenth of a percent. But we are now under 13,900.
When we come back, football fashion and philanthropy. David Beckham is in Paris.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Paris with no pay. That's the story for David Beckham, who announced he will sign with one of the world's biggest-spending football clubs. It's the Qatari owned Paris Saint-Germain. And in a surprise move, the football superstar revealed he will not be taking home a salary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID BECKHAM, MIDFIELDER, PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN: We've decided that my salary will go towards a children's charity, a local children's charity in Paris. And that's one of the things that we're very excited and proud to be able to do.
So, it's something exciting, and something that I'm not sure has been done before, but it's something I'm very passionate about, children, and the charity side of things, and so are the club. So we came together, and it's something special.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: An interesting idea. It is not about the money. And there's a good chance Paris is not just about the football.
OK, so -- brand Beckham, we know this is most definitely about. And Beckham's career has so far spanned some of the world's most famous fashion capitals. Let us begin with the Beckham Fashion Tour.
It begins in London during his heyday as England's captain, helped by that high-profile marriage and that haircut, which brings back memories of a different era.
From there, we go to Real Madrid, another fashionable area. It was to be an even more iconic look and cement that iconic status. "Forbes" reports the merchandise sales more than doubled during his four years at Real Madrid, reaching $600 million.
But the catwalk of Beckham continued. From Madrid, across the Atlantic, to Los Angeles and the bright lights and the football shirt were the tip of the fashion iceberg. A much more clean-cut look with sponsorship deals from Armani to Adidas all piling up. According to the Major Soccer League, by 2008, he was making 50 times -- 50 times -- the average soccer player's salary.
From Los Angeles, it is back across to Europe and it is to Milan. Now. Not necessarily for family viewing, but we've lost the clothes. It's no surprise, on a six-month loan to Milan in 2009, Beckham's fashion reputation preceded him. He seemed to have left his clothes behind. This was his campaign for Armani.
And as it said in today's press conference, now it is bonjour to Paris, as Beckham goes to Paris Saint-Germain, which of course, has to be for the fashionable Beckham, the home of fashionistas.
Fashionistas and footballers, do they go together? Well, because the Italians talk about -- the Italians talk about that. Tancredi Palmeri joins me. We'll do the fashion later, let's do the football. Why's he going there?
TANCREDI PALMERI, ITALIAN FOOTBALL JOURNALIST: Well, because he didn't have so many offers --
QUEST: He said he had lots of them.
PALMERI: Yes, but not from high-profile clubs like Paris Saint- Germain. He probably had some clubs like West Ham, QPR, so stay in England, but the lower part of the Premier League, not any Manchester United or Arsenal. They won't risk it with such a personality.
QUEST: But why does he want to do it? Is it the love of the game? He doesn't need the money, does he?
PALMERI: Exactly. But he --
QUEST: And his -- his playing days are nearly over.
PALMERI: But you pray by yourself to that, because inside -- apart -- let's not focus on the bad for his hair or the style, the fashion. Inside, he's a footballer. Inside, he's someone that goes for the challenge of sports. And in Saint-Germain, he can do that still. Not so much, maybe 20 minutes per game, but still, he can do that.
QUEST: Are the Qataris who fund Paris Saint-Germain, are they just basically buying a brand? They've got the money, so they can buy Beckham and it looks good?
PALMERI: Well, I tell you two things. First of all, the Qataris, since they took Paris Saint-Germain, since -- end of season 2011, they spent 300 million euros. So, one Beckham more, one Beckham less is not changing a lot.
QUEST: Yes, but they want the --
(CROSSTALK)
PALMERI: But --
QUEST: They want the trophy of Beckham.
PALMERI: Yes.
QUEST: They want the --
PALMERI: Exactly
QUEST: -- scalp on the trophy wall.
PALMERI: They want the magic. They already did last summer bringing Ibrahimovic. They've got nothing else that's viewed in the world like Beckham. He's not a brand like Beckham, he's just a brand for football.
But now, with Beckham, they bring that attention. And I tell you one thing: when they did the price, and the band the height of the table, they had reve plus grande, and dream bigger. An English sentence in a French phrase. Unbelievable.
QUEST: So, do you -- and I bow to no one in my admiration. Beckham is an absolute role model, the way he did the Olympics, the way he did the World Cup. He is absolutely --
PALMERI: He should have done Olympics.
QUEST: Right, well no. I mean the way he supported the campaign for it.
PALMERI: Yes, yes.
QUEST: He absolutely is the epitome of respectability in that sense.
PALMERI: Yes.
QUEST: Will we see some fancy football from him? Or is it just sort of going to be a rather 20 minutes and go and have a lie down in a darkened room?
PALMERI: It's this that they are asking to him. Ancelotti, the manager, is the manager with whom he worked at Milan, he is asking to him, that last 15, 20 minutes when maybe the club is in need, the game is tough, he can come in. Still is one of the best cross-deliverer in the world.
QUEST: Is Beckham maybe not the best footballer in the world, but is he by far and away probably the biggest brand in the game?
PALMERI: Oh, yes. There is no doubt about that. Do you know any other footballer that is hanging out with Tom Cruise and other people from Hollywood? I don't know them. But if you know them, you can introduce me to them. I would be happy.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: Good to see you. Come back and talk more about this. That's what we like, sport and business put together absolutely perfectly. Now we move to our Currency Conundrum.
(RINGS BELL)
QUEST: A silver dollar coin dating back to 1794 was sold at auction in the US. Silver dollar from 1794. How much was it sold for? $10 million, $12 million, or $15 million? The answer later in the program.
The rates and the dollar is down against the euro and the pound, up against the yen. Those are the rates --
(RINGS BELL)
QUEST: -- this is the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Now, this is Brendan Marrocco. He is the US infantryman who lost four limbs in a roadside bomb in Iraq. He is only one of seven people around the world to receive a successful human double arm transplant.
The whole transplant industry, the miracle of what you're seeing on these pictures, it's a field which is seeing the most exciting advances, and we needed to talk more about it. In tonight's Make, Create, Innovate, Nick Glass reports on the i-limb, which offers new hope to people around the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK GLASS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've used a whole variety of materials to make artificial limbs in the 20th century. These days, the science has made a great leap forward. Prosthetic hands are now able to do pretty much what a real hand can.
GLASS (voice-over): This is the i-limb, a prosthetic hand built with individually-powered prosthetic digits.
DAVID GOW, DOCTOR, INVENTOR OF THE I-LIMB: The old generation of electric hands had what I would call in these hands here is a pincher grip, where these fingers are pre-flexed so they don't change shape, and the thumb is one shape. And they move like that in one plane.
GLASS (on camera): A claw.
GOW: A claw. Whereas what we did is we produced something which rotated about the knuckles, it could do this.
GLASS (voice-over): Every finger, every thumb could be powered and moved separately, which gives a choice of grips and mimics a real hand.
GOW: We've broken through the barrier of making a hand that has to look like a medical device.
GLASS: The i-limb is expensive. Making, fitting, and training a hand costs between $60,000 and $100,000.
So, how easy are they to operate? Sensors are attached to the muscles on my upper arm, just as they would be to an amputee.
GOW: Just make graduated movements of your wrist. The key is to move through the movements, so one muscle gets tight and the other relaxes.
GLASS (on camera): Goodness me! That's astonishing. You really do learn how to instruct it.
GLASS (voice-over): Almost as important as the great range of movement is the look.
GOW: If you try and shake hands with an amputee who's wearing a prosthesis, it's an awkward moment. But I've noticed that people with the i-limb hand offer the hand.
GLASS (on camera): They're proud of it.
GOW: They're proud of it.
GLASS (voice-over): It's so seductive, so cool, it features in the latest will.i.am and Britney Spears music video.
Donald McKillop lost his right arm in an accident at home 35 years ago. He was one of the first amputees to try an i-limb in 2007.
GLASS (on camera): How has it changed your life?
DONALD MCKILLOP, AMPUTEE: It's the hand I never thought I'd have again. You hear that? The change, it's a lot better looking.
GLASS (voice-over): According to Gow, there are about 4,000 i-limb users in the world, but the potential market is huge: an estimated 2 million upper limb amputees. Touch Bionics is looking to take its share. Sales are accelerating, and 2012 saw turnover reach over $16 million. But for David Gow, it's more than a business.
GOW: I've seen hundreds of people, it's the father that says "thank you" --
(CRYING)
GOW: -- on behalf of his son, and that means an awful lot, because -- you don't as an engineer get many moments where you can articulate your -- human emotions about these things.
GLASS (on camera): We sometimes forget what vital and complex tools our hands are. One of the great challenges of modern prosthetics, to mimic them. In doing so, the next generation of bionic hands is transforming thousands and thousands of lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: An amazing story of scientific advancement making real differences to people's lives. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, we're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There is more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in just a moment. This is CNN and, on this network, the news will always come first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST (voice-over): Syria has issued a statement saying it has the right to defend itself against what it says aggression. The Syrian government says Israeli warplanes struck a research facility near Damascus. Syria's allies, Iran and Russia, are condemning the incident. There's been no comment from Israel.
"The New York Times" says it is the victim of Chinese hackers. The paper says that intruders seemed most interested in staffing associated with stories about the former Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. "The Times" says it has kicked the hackers out and prevented them from reentering the system.
Incidentally, this program was blacked out in China when we had the interview with "The New York Times" chief information officer at the top of the hour.
A battle is underway in Mali to restore government control in the city of Kidal. It's the last remaining major stronghold of Islamist militants in the country. We have learned two Malian soldiers have been killed in land mine explosions while securing territory elsewhere in the offensive.
Greece and Europe are calling it one of the largest-ever operations against human traffickers on the continent. They have arrested 103 people in 10 countries this week. The suspects are accused of smuggling people on boats and trains and in hidden compartments in the floors of buses and trucks.
The snowmobiler Caleb Moore is dead a week after he was injured in a crash at the Winter Games in Aspen, Colorado. He was 25. The accident happened when he was attempting a backflip and the machine landed upon him. Caleb Moore's family says he will be truly missed but never forgotten.
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(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: A court in La Hague has rejected all but one claim against Shell relating to oil spills in Nigeria. It said four out of five spills were caused by sabotage. Nina dos Santos asked the chief exec of Royal Dutch Shell, Peter Voser, his reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER VOSER, CEO, ROYAL DUTCH SHELL: First of all, the growth is coming from projects in Qatar and Canada, China, Australia, et cetera. So Nigeria didn't have new projects coming on stream. Now with Nigeria, I think the court made a few rulings, which are very important.
The first ruling is it rules that all the four cases were sabotage. So no accident by Shell. They were actually by criminals who steal products.
The second one is they therefore dismissed all the NGO claims from Friends of the Earth. It said in one claim that if when the judge looked at it, that Shell could have done somewhat more to protect the pipelines to make it a little bit less -- not that easy to actually steal product. And that's really what the court ruled. It did not rule that we had actually spilled or did anything else.
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN HOST: Are you going to be doing that and putting money aside to try and tackle that situation?
VOSER: We have been doing this for years. So we are burying pipelines; we are putting cement on everything.
So I need to look at this specific case now, but in a more strategic sense we have been doing this now for 2-3 years, and we will continue to that, to make it even more difficult, causing possible that -- or at least it makes it very difficult that they actually dig up the pipelines again and drill holes in it and steal the product.
DOS SANTOS: OK. Going forward, obviously this case in Nigeria does, many people say, represent a bit of a landmark change, let's say, in the relationship between some African countries and big oil producers. Obviously you're bringing enormous technology over to Nigeria. Oil is a huge part of the economy there.
Do you view this as changing your relationship with some of these African partners as well, to make sure that obviously extracting oil is less environmentally dangerous, less risk of sabotage?
VOSER: I think this will not change anything because clearly we are a responsible operator. We have proven this over many decades. We are using global standards wherever we are operating. If it's in the African continent, Asian or American, it really doesn't matter.
We work together with the government, with local and, let's say, government, so central and local governments. We are performing at the best in all of these countries. So this will not change the way we do business. It has just been a great proven point now that it is not Shell actually spilling it.
DOS SANTOS: Let me ask you briefly, your predictions for the year to come. How's it looking for Shell?
VOSER: I think if I look at the globe, I see a more positive 2013 compared to 2012. I see that the U.S., during 2012, I have -- 2013, I have expectations that the economy will grow. I see Asia, Middle East, more positive. I'm a little bit less positive on Europe. I see that still as a slow growth in 2013, potentially '14.
But I would think that the general economy, and therefore the consumption of energy, will go up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: That's the chief executive of Shell.
Now some -- while we've been on the air talking to each other, the former Peregrine Financial Group owner and chief exec Russell Wasendorf has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for stealing more than $215 million in customer funds. When we get more details in the sense of to put it into perspective for you, we'll let you know.
A check on the world weather forecast in a moment. The weather -- well, you'll find out from Jenny Harrison.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST (voice-over): The answer to tonight's "Currency Conundrum," how much this silver dollar coin, based dating back to 1794, is worth what it was sold at the auction? The answer was, $10 million, a record amount. It's believed the coin was one of the first of its kind to be struck by the U.S. Mint, a dollar worth $10 million. That's how you do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The world's largest distiller is toasting emerging markets as the maker of Johnnie Walker whisky, Smirnoff and Bailey's, it saw growth shift away from Europe and into the hands of Africa, Brazil, China and other EMs.
Diageo reported a 9 percent rise in operating profits in the second half of 2012, compared to the previous year. And that was before exceptional, which wiped that down quite considerably, but an impressive performance nonetheless.
The chief exec, Paul Walsh, told me the growth shift was a reflection on the global economy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL WALSH, CHIEF EXEC, DIAGEO: You know, we are seeing the new high- growth market perform very strongly. You are seeing consumers come into the beverage alcohol category and allow themselves to be traded up. You're seeing a lot of brand loyalty.
Equally, we are seeing certainly in southern Europe a continuation of some of the negative trends that we've experienced in the past few years.
QUEST: And if we actually look at the numbers, the money still comes in from the new markets; the money still comes in from the U.S. But Europe remains probably, I would imagine, one of your greatest concerns.
WALSH: It is concern.
QUEST: But there's not much you can do about it.
WALSH: Well, no. You've got to play the hand you're dealt. But what I would say is that Europe continues to become a smaller piece of the overall pie. And as long as we can get double-digit growth from the new high-growth markets that now constitute almost half our global business, and as long as we can see the U.S. continue to perform, in aggregate, the growth rates will accelerate, not retreat.
QUEST: This shift of trading up, is it accelerating as those economies improve in emerging markets in the U.S.?
WALSH: I wouldn't say it's accelerating. You are getting similar levels of percentage increase, but on a bigger base. So in absolute dollar terms, you're getting more sales of your ultra premium brands. But the trend line is probably unchanged. But it's a very positive trend line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: On MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST next week (inaudible) even see more of Paul Walsh, particularly as we discuss on that program, MARKETPLACE MIDDLE EAST, the future of the U.K. in Europe.
Now Jenny Harrison is at the World Weather Center.
Jenny, good day to you. I think you have what I believe -- I don't know whether you're still minded to show us some remarkable photographs.
JENNY HARRISON, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I do. It's actually (inaudible) now, Richard. It's a wonderful, remarkable piece of film. Let's have a look at it, shall we? Let's roll it straightaway.
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HARRISON (voice-over): Look at this. Do you know what you're looking at? I'm sure you do, Richard. Many of us have been lucky enough to see this sight over the years, but not very often in Israel. It is a flock of starlings. Now this is something they do typically in the autumn and the winter months.
And they just create these incredible shapes as they swoop and fly throughout the evening skies, the dusk hours. It tends to happen before they roost. They keep together and fly like this because it make them much less vulnerable when it comes to the local predators.
Also they pass on information to each other about the local area for food. And it also helps to keep them warm. Now apparently, it's a fairly rare sight in Israel and experts over there are saying it's been about 20 years since they've actually been seen in Israel.
Interestingly enough, in the U.K., the numbers are really down on starlings, 70 percent less, a sharp decline over the last few years, all sorts of reasons, a lot of them environmental. So maybe this is a good sign that they've spotted elsewhere.
Now you need some pretty good weather for it. And that is something which we're luckily enough we've been seeing across the U.S. just this day, not so much, of course, yesterday, on Wednesday. We had the tornado in Georgia. We showed you those pictures, and then in Iowa, 15 centimeters of snow in Des Moines.
And the temperature in Columbia, South Carolina, 28 Celsius it was on Wednesday. The average is 14. That, of course, is why we saw such severe weather because of that moist, mild air in the Southeast followed by that clash of cold air. The rain has cleared. The snow continuing to affect the Midwest, quite a bit of lake effect snow going on there.
Look at the temperatures, particularly with the wind. This is the main story really now for the next few days. It feels like -18 in Chicago, couple of days ago, it was +17 Celsius. Actually broke the record in January for that particular day. Feels like 5 in Atlanta, very strong winds in the Northeast.
Be prepared if you're traveling. You could actually have a few delays because of those temperatures. And as we go through Friday, again, another very chilly day as you can see there.
Now in Europe, it's been mild, as you know, across the west. That is already changing. Cold air is back in the forecast. The snow has been coming across the Highlands of Scotland in the last few hours, a band of heavy rain working its way through Germany. And just beginning to appear in the Bay of Biscayne, the next system is coming through.
But right now, -2 in Glasgow, -4 in Oslo. Winds will be strong but generally pushing across into the southwest of Europe. The western Med in particular, some very strong winds.
Here's the next system coming into the part, first part of the weekend. Once that sweeps through, guess what? That wind again coming from the very, very cold north and northeast. And look how it changes the feel of things over the next couple of days. So hope you haven't packed away the winter woollies just yet. There's rain as well.
The snow to the mountains, fairly widespread across central Europe. But delays at the airports Friday, a bit of a mix into Munich and Berlin and then really it's the windy conditions which could cause the problems, certainly as I say across the southwest of Europe. Your temperatures on Friday, a nice 10 in Paris, 7 in London, Mr. Quest.
QUEST: (Inaudible) I've been watching the temperatures, Jenny, in Oslo, which I see is also pretty chilly where I'm headed tomorrow. Jenny Harrison, many thanks indeed.
@RichardQuest, the old Twitter address, less of the old, more of the tweets. And you and I will continue our discussion offline, off air. And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.
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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Welcome to MARKETPLACE EUROPE from Copenhagen in Denmark. I'm Max Foster. This is the Amalienborg Palace, home to the oldest monarchy in Europe; the very popular queen is still featured on the coins here.
Denmark is part of the European Union, but it decided to keep its own currency. That's hasn't protected it, though, from the Eurozone crisis. The economy is stagnant at best. We've come to Denmark to find out two of its biggest companies are finding a way forward.
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FOSTER (voice-over): Coming up, brewing up for a sustainable future, how Carlsberg is leading Denmark's drive to reduce waste.
And the CEO of the world's biggest container shipping line tells me about the next edition Swiss fleet.
NILS ANDERSEN, GROUP CEO, MAERSK: It's going to be 400 meters long, so -- and will be able to carry 18,000 containers, which is, by far, the largest vessel in the container trade.
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FOSTER: Denmark is home to 5.5 million people. That's just 1.1 percent of the entire population of the European Union. But this relative minnow has big ambitions when it comes to its green credentials. Copenhagen is hoping to become the first zero-carbon city in the world.
One of Denmark's biggest and best-known businesses is Carlsberg, the brewing giant. And I've come here to find out how it's playing its part in achieving Denmark's green ambitions.
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FOSTER: There are 3,000 of these reverse vending machines across Denmark, and this is how they work. Take a can, for example. It's only meant to be used once. It's single-use packaging. You put it in there and I get a token that I can spend in the supermarket or I can get the cash.
Ninety percent of single-use packaging is coming back through this system. When it comes to refillable bottles, for example, system works exactly the same, in the same machine. You get the token in the same way. But nearly 100 percent of refillable bottles are coming back through the system.
So certainly in Denmark, this has been a complete success. Three million items of packaging are coming through it every single day.
FOSTER (voice-over): Carlsberg's sustainability program begins with the raw ingredients itself, barley, in these greenhouses; traditional breeding techniques are used to nurture new varieties.
BIRGITTE SKADHAUGE, DIRECTOR, APPLIED RESEARCH, CARLSBERG GROUP: (Inaudible) something that we, of course, try. As a big brewing company, it's very important that we have competitive varieties and we have varieties which the farmers agronomically like to grow, so they have a high yield. They have a good disease resistance. So they do not need to use a lot of pesticides.
FOSTER: And they can withstand changes in the climate, in the weather as well. I guess that's a priority.
SKADHAUGE: Exactly. That's another very big and highly prioritized area we actually work on here in the barley research. And it's mainly to adapt barley, again, to extreme weather conditions.
FOSTER: But you've also developed quite recently a type of barley which allows a bottle of beer to last longer.
SKADHAUGE: That's true. We have made a new and very innovative type of malting (ph) barley. And that was launched in 2010. And this new type of barley actually helps the beer to stay fresh for a longer time than a traditional beer.
FOSTER (voice-over): In the brew house, the barley malt is transformed from a solid grain into a liquid, which is used in the fermentation to produce the beer.
FOSTER: And here we have the spent grain, the byproduct from the barley.
JEAN-YVES MALPOTE, VP, GROUP R&D, CARLSBERG GROUP: Yes, we are using the husk of the (inaudible) grain as cellulose source that we will put in the beer fermenter.
FOSTER: This is a fermenter, which then creates --
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MALPOTE: (Inaudible) is transforming the cellulose in the gas, in bilio (ph) gas, in this case, methane.
FOSTER: And this gas can be used to run this whole pump, potentially.
MALPOTE: Yes. (Inaudible) can produce 90 percent of our thermal energy for the plant.
FOSTER (voice-over): Along the production line, Carlsberg is looking at every element of the packaging process to reduce the environmental impact of the materials they use, starting with the bottles.
SIMON HOFFMEYER BOAS, CARLSBERG GROUP: The most obvious thing we can do is to reduce the weight. And we do that by looking at the shape, looking at the shape, looking at the traits of the bottle and then reducing it to the minimal amount of (inaudible) needed to keep the product safe.
FOSTER: So what progress have you made there?
BOAS: Well, within the last 20 years, in average, a glass bottle has been reduced by approximately 30 percent. So there has been made a lot of progress in the industry.
FOSTER: I presume, actually, you're saving some money on this as well.
BOAS: Definitely. For us, still ability of (inaudible) is business. So it's not something that is detached. And one of our motivations is, of course, that there might be increased pressure in the future. But we also do it because it makes business sense.
FOSTER (voice-over): Probably the best job in the company, Carlsberg's thirst for improve its carbon footprint is kept in check by an elite panel, making sure that the end product tastes as good as it should.
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FOSTER: This is the Gefion Fountain. It was donated to the city of Copenhagen by Carlsberg to mark the 50th anniversary of the brewery. There's not much water flowing in it this time of year, though, in Denmark.
Coming up, the chief executive of Maersk Group. It is the world's largest container shipping company, and much more besides. That's after the break.
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FOSTER: Welcome back to MARKETPLACE EUROPE in Denmark. The Copenhagen Malmo port is a unique cross-border alliance. The Danes and their Swedish neighbors have merged their port operations into one company. The port is an important gateway to the Baltic region. It's also a key location for the transportation of goods. And it's home to Denmark's largest company.
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FOSTER (voice-over): Maersk Group mainly operates across two key industries. It's the world's biggest container shipping line and its oil and gas division produces over 600,000 barrels of oil and 1 billion cubic feet of gas a day.
The group employs 117,000 people, working across six continents. It generates annual revenues of more than $60 billion.
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NILS ANDERSEN, CEO, MAERSK: But of course, shipping is a top area to be in at the moment. We make money, but not a lot. So what we're doing now is we're trying to build up a set of parallel activities of equal importance with the oil company being the most -- the most established and the largest activity we have outside shipping.
FOSTER: And presumably China is being seen as the future sort of engine of growth for the world economy. Give us a sense of where you see China going and what plans you're making around that.
ANDERSEN: Of course, living standards will go up in China. We know that the Chinese leadership are focusing on making or promoting domestic consumption. So we'll see more wealth internally and more consumption internally in China. But it will be an export engine for many years.
FOSTER: There's a figure you've given, which is one container going into China for every two coming out. Do you see that proportion changing over time?
ANDERSEN: We do, actually, because we're in line with distinct relation of domestic consumption in China. We do see exports out of Europe growing quite rapidly into China. And the same goes for the U.S. More and more finished goods go back to China, can be branded product. It could be foodstuff or it can be raw materials for production out there.
So a lot of things are happening on the import front in China. That's the most dynamic trade development, actually, in the world at the moment.
FOSTER: Tell us about this new massive ship that's going to be coming to service this year, the largest ship ever made. You're going to have 20 of them, aren't you?
ANDERSEN: It's going to be 400 meters long. So -- and will be able to carry 18,000 containers, which is by far the largest vessel in the container trade. And it's also, if I'm not mistaken, the largest -- the largest vessel in any -- in any shipping trade that will sail the ocean. So it's going to be very, very exciting.
But the -- I would say the most exciting part of it may not be -- even be the scale, but the fact that we will be able to transport containers from Asia to Europe with far less, really far less -- I'm talking 30 to 50 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions compared to what was in the trade a couple of years ago and what is coming into the trade now.
FOSTER: You are a truly global business. Do you feel that you're on a level playing field with your competitors around the world?
ANDERSEN: We're extremely competitive. And one of the things that we, of course, as a big shipping line, that we are advocating very strongly is that we shouldn't -- we shouldn't resort to protectionist, more trade limitations in order to fight the present --
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FOSTER: You are suffering because of that, though, aren't you, in some (inaudible)?
ANDERSEN: I think, in all fairness, if you go back to the '30s (ph), there was a big problem. I think in this -- this time around, in this price is the absolute vast majority of countries are reacting very responsibly, understanding very clearly that trade is a key to solution. It's a solution; it's not a problem.
And you don't solve really any country's problems by becoming very protectionist. But it's something that I think that every government has to watch out for. And we try to do our best to make sure that that debate is ongoing.
FOSTER: You don't shy away from complex businesses, do you? But you're also pushing very hard into the oil business.
ANDERSEN: I think we view ourselves as a midsize oil company with a number of technological strengths, being very focused on the host country where we operate. And coming in with this midsize oil company, with technical skills and then being part of the big A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, I think we're able to compete on good footing with most global players as well.
FOSTER: How are you feeling about the world economy this year?
ANDERSEN: Well, we don't view it as very different from 2012. We don't believe that we're going into neither a downturn nor a rapid pickup in growth. But we do believe that we'll get the same growth level that we had in 2012, more or less, probably with a better second half than we had last year.
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FOSTER: The chief executive of Maersk, bringing this edition of MARKETPLACE EUROPE from Copenhagen in Denmark to a close. Thanks for watching.
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