Return to Transcripts main page
Quest Means Business
US Stock Markets Fall Nearly One Percent; High Inventory Pushes Oil Prices Lower; Chinese Stocks End Higher in Seesaw Trade; US Stocks Sell Off; Thai PM Urges Bangkok Bombing Suspect to Turn Himself In; Germany Approves Greek Bailout; European Markets Down; Cheaters' Dating Site Data Revealed; The Dark Web
Aired August 19, 2015 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:59:55] (NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSING BELL)
RICHARD QUEST, HOST: The closing bell is ringing, the Dow is down. No, no! Wait, sir, wait. It's not time for the gavel just yet. Now it is.
(GAVEL POUNDS)
QUEST: My word! You don't get a gavel like that every day. But then today is Wednesday, the 19th of August.
And tonight, consider it buckle up. Look at the numbers. The Dow Jones, it fell sharply. It was off 159 points as the markets go on a roller
coaster that even the Fed can't stop.
Her lips are sealed no more. The dating site for cheaters has its secrets spilled across the Dark Web.
And a passionate debate over female Viagra. We've got it all.
I'm Richard Quest. I mean business.
Good evening. It was one of those trading days where the markets, even though it's the middle of summer, were all over the place, but the trend is
what is crucial tonight. Oil prices have tumbled to a six-and-a-half-year low. The Fed has signaled that a rate hike could come within weeks when
the Fed minutes came out.
Now, look at how the day traded. This is the closing number. It's now off 160 points at the close, the best part of one percent. It -- it fell
sharply at the beginning, it stayed low. Just about lunch time, at 12:00, it was particularly weak.
Then those Fed minutes came out, and obviously, they saw something in that. They saw a classic line, which I'll go to in a second, which brought the
Dow up, but mature views later in the day seemed to have taken it down again.
The July meeting showed a September rate hike could be on the table, which is what was going on there. Now, on the Fed minutes, most members said
conditions for raising rates were approaching, if they were not yet quite there or not yet achieved. These are the minutes that came out just two
hours ago.
Other members of the FOMC said conditions for a hike had been met or would be met shortly. Those are the issues. Some believe conditions met or
would be, others say not quite there.
Into this maelstrom of monetary policy, crude prices are down nearly 5 percent over the session, and that's a drop of $2 a barrel. And if you
look, it's quite interesting how the day moved on, because we hovered around $42, $42.50, up a bit, but this very sharp drop, which didn't
recover towards the close, this is the lowest in half -- six-and-a-half years. US crude stocks unexpectedly increased.
Now, some Fed Reserve members said the health of the US economy could be affected by a slowdown in China. Look at what happened on the Shanghai
market. We saw another volatile session in the Chinese stock market. It went up this time, having fallen 4 or 5 percent, now it was up 1.25
percent. The Shanghai Composite opened lower and it fell as much as 5 percent before the rebounding.
You see the picture that we've got at the moment. We'll talk about China first of all. Markus Rodlauer is the International Monetary Fund's -- the
IMF's -- mission chief for China. He joins me now from Washington.
I read parts of what was talked about with China. You can see the -- you heard from my introduction there the grand macro economic scenario, but
when you look at the Chinese movement on the currency, I wonder, do you believe it was for their domestic reasons or for international reasons?
MARKUS RODLAUER, MISSION CHIEF FOR CHINA, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND: This was a move that was made for China's own reasons. I think first of
all, we need to see this as a change from a very tight peg to the US dollar to now a system that's hopefully more market determined.
The central parity will now be linked to the previous close much more closely than before, so I think this is really laying the basis for
something good, which is for China's exchange rate to move more in line with market forces, to be more flexible than it was before. And that's a
very important structural progress --
QUEST: Right.
RODLAUER: -- for China if they can achieve that.
QUEST: But you now --
RODLAUER: But I would --
QUEST: You now believe that the yuan at its current rate is properly priced.
[16:04:52] RODLAUER: When we assess exchange rate at the Fund, at the IMF, we look at this from a medium-term fundamental position. And from
that perspective, clearly what we're seeing now is an exchange rate that has moved up a lot against other currencies over the last year by 15
percent on the order of that.
So, we currently see the renminbi properly valued, no longer undervalued as it used to be before compared to medium-term fundamentals and medium-term
policies. So, it's there now.
What happens in the short term, like with every other currency, depends a lot on capital flows and shorter market movements. This is not what we are
talking about. We are talking about a currency now that is no longer undervalued and in much better position going forward --
QUEST: But with --
RODLAUER: -- to being at the right value.
QUEST: But with the China economy, and as we've seen with the Shanghai, which I know, sir, I know it's a smallish market, I know it doesn't have
the same deep range of penetration and liquidity of, say, a full-scale Western market, but you can't ignore these falls, you can't ignore the land
bubble, and you can't ignore the feeling that there's something smelly in the banking system.
RODLAUER: I think you're absolutely right, Richard, that this economy is in the middle of a deep adjustment process. China is dealing with a lot of
problems that it has accumulated over the last five to ten years. They have an over-extended real estate sector, they have a credit growth over
many years that was too large. They have environmental problems, they have over-capacity in many sectors.
So, these are the problems that China is now adjusting to. Adjustment is not easy. It's hard all over the world. We see this in Europe, we see it
in China, now, and they're adjusting in an environment where they are moving towards market determination.
So, in many areas, this process of adjustment is happening for them in a new environment where markets are playing a larger role. For the first
time, they are dealing with a stock market, for example, that has been a lot of margin financing in there.
QUEST: All right.
RODLAUER: I think they have been tested by that. And that's new for them.
QUEST: Sir, thank you for bringing in the China perspective. We'll talk more about it, because obviously in the future, very important stuff.
Thank you, sir.
RODLAUER: Thank you, Richard. Thanks for having me.
QUEST: Always good. Now, we talked about the FOMC minutes, and you've seen how the market was down some 162 points. Aside from the increasingly
apparent growth slowdown in China, if you throw in cheap oil and the possibility of an imminent rate rise, and markets are indeed worried.
You've got the Fed, you've got oil, you've got China, you've got Ben Willis of Princeton Securities, who's with me at the stock exchange. Now, Ben,
come off the fence, please, because as I look at the market at 2:00, you all thought this was good news and a Fed rate was off into the distance.
By the time the bell had closed, you'd changed your mind. Where did you stand?
BEN WILLIS, NYSE TRADER, PRINCETON SECURITIES: Richard, I stood very firmly and still believe that the FOMC is behind the curve, that they need
to naturalize rates, that this will happen in September, the September 18th meeting, that you'll see them come off the zero indicator and go to a
quarter.
I think what we saw today had -- was a one, two, three punch, if you will. We first got punched coming in because of the Chinese data that we saw,
which put a huge downward pressure on the energy sector, meaning oil. Oil continues to come under pressure, it drove the major part of this
marketplace, and the S&P 500 down over 2 percent on the oil patch.
You had a release of the Fed minutes, which -- you could read either way. Personally, I read the fact that it -- they're very near to moving it meant
that is still very possible, and I think very likely to raise in September. The market did rally on that. However --
QUEST: All right.
WILLIS: -- the sellers in the marketplace were not done. This selling was not being done because of the FOMC, in my position. I believe it's because
of the energy complex, the money that went to work in there and found out that --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: All right --
WILLIS: -- they're not going to make money fast enough.
QUEST: But hang on a second. I'm --
WILLIS: Sure.
QUEST: -- going to play devil's advocate with you, here.
WILLIS: Go right ahead.
QUEST: Because that falling oil price, which you tell me clobbered the market, it's also a net positive for the US consumer --
WILLIS: Couldn't agree with you more.
QUEST: -- for the -- for industry. So, factor the whole thing around, and you end up which way around.
WILLIS: Factor the whole thing around, I am still bullish long term. I believe in buying the dip, that trade has continued to work. It worked
today. When I was on a -- different network and I said at 11:30 that you were going to have a chance to buy here, and the market did rally to
unchanged, actually slightly positive.
The falling off of the oil prices on the global scale is by, in fact, a stimulus package. It is a natural rate cut. It's a natural tax cut. That
is going to benefit China, it's going to benefit Japan.
QUEST: All right.
WILLIS: It's going to benefit the eurozone. What we're seeing in the marketplace is the stocks that it's going to have a negative effect on, and
there's a great -- they have a huge impact on the S&P 500. So, I will tell you to continue to look in the Russell 2000 more so --
QUEST: Oh!
WILLIS: -- than the Dow Jones Industrial.
QUEST: Oh!
[16:10:01] WILLIS: I will look in the smaller cap issues. I would also under the pressure, the Russell 2000 is under pressure because of energy.
It's also --
QUEST: Right.
WILLIS: -- under pressure because of the biotechs. So, you need to stock pick and not buy groups. What I'm telling you is, the Russell 2000
contains stocks that are US-based. They don't have the impact of the rising dollar, they don't have the impact of the loss of revenue from the
oil situation --
QUEST: All right, that's --
WILLIS: -- that's going on. So, this is not -- the low-lying fruit of buying a stock market is done. You need to be with smart people who will
give you individual stocks that will benefit in the case of the marketplace we're in today.
QUEST: Good to see you, Ben. Stay with --
WILLIS: Thank you, Richard.
QUEST: -- smart people. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, doesn't get much smarter than here.
Still to come on the program, Angela Merkel got Greece's bailout approved by German parliament. She's still under pressure. I'll be talking to one
of the Bundestag members who was very much against the vote.
(RINGS BELL)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Thailand's prime minister is urging the prime suspect in Monday's bombing in Bangkok to turn himself in. According to an arrest warrant
issued on Wednesday, police do not yet know the name or the suspect's identity, but it's believed he is a foreigner.
CNN's Andrew Stevens joining me now from Bangkok. The pictures are chilling. We talked about that last night. They still haven't managed to
identify, but they're pretty certain this is the man.
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Yes, they are, Richard. They're "very sure" -- that's their words -- that this is, in fact, the bomber. A
lot of the new information now coming from a motorcycle taxi driver who picked this -- the man up and he was -- he gave the taxi driver a
handwritten note in English with the name "Lumpini Park," which is a park here in central, which he dropped him off at.
And he said the man was speaking on the phone on the back of his motorcycle, and he said it wasn't in an English language. He didn't get a
good look at his face, but police have released a sketch nonetheless, based on the CCT video and what the taxi driver has been saying.
So, they are building a case around this man, and also the fact that they now say there are at least two accomplices. They have been identified also
at the shrine.
They were seen one wearing a red shirt, one wearing a white shirt, standing in front of the man when he sat down on the bench and put the backpack,
which looks like it contained the bomb, under that bench. They then left, and three minutes later, the bomb exploded from that bench, Richard.
QUEST: This idea that -- I mean, that the prime minister was talking about of some organized groups or some version of this. Has anybody put names to
these groups?
(SILENCE)
QUEST: We do appear to have lost Andrew's audio. Most unfortunate. If we do get Andrew back, if we do suddenly, do let me know. Are we hearing
Andrew again? It sounds like we might be hearing him. Andrew, I think I can hear you, and what you're talking about --
STEVENS: Richard, can you hear me?
QUEST: I can. And what you're talking about is very important, so we will come back to you. Please, tell me what you were saying.
[16:14:58] STEVENS: Yes. The prime minister has dismissed links to the Chinese-Muslim Uyghur group. Now, this group had been named because the
Thai government had deported more than 100 Uyghur.
Now, these are Chinese Muslim separatists fighting for a separate state in China. About 100 had been deported from Bangkok in July, and there was
speculation that this was a revenge attack.
But no responsibility has been claimed by anyone, Richard, and the prime minister basically saying it was not the Uyghur. So, he's ruling that out.
There is still speculation is this an extension of the street violence we've seen --
(COUGHS)
STEVENS: -- excuse me -- or is this --
QUEST: Right.
STEVENS: -- to do with an insurgency in the south? The motive, what's happened here, doesn't fit the operations of either of those two groups so
far, but they are still in the frame, if you like.
QUEST: Andrew Stevens. Thank you, Andrew. Glad we came back to hear that. Thank you, sir.
STEVENS: Thank you, Richard.
QUEST: The German parliament has approved a third bailout deal for Greece. The new ones are worth $95 billion, give or take change. The European
Stability Mechanism, the ESM, has given its blessing, and Greece is expected to receive the first disbursement tomorrow. How convenient, just
in time to pay a large sum of money over to the ECB, and then the IMF later on.
Klaus-Peter Willsch is the member of the German Bundestag and part of the CDU, Christian Democratic Union Party. He voted no to the bailout, and he
joins us now, live from Berlin.
Sir, thank you. You said -- the quote that everybody is saying from you about Greece, "When you have with a running start twice run into the wall
head first, then you should take a look and see whether there isn't a door somewhere and the door is called Grexit." But they looked at Grexit at the
Brussels summit and they decided against it. Do you think they were wrong?
KLAUS-PETER WILLSCH, CDU MEMBER OF GERMAN PARLIAMENT: Yes, I think so. Because I'm quite sure that Greece is not able to succeed within the
eurozone. Their competitiveness is very poor, and it would be better for both sides if they made a new start with their own currency.
QUEST: Did you have any qualms about voting against your own government? I mean, 63 members of the CDU and the CSU voted against, 3 abstained. But
this is Angela Merkel's worst electoral -- sorry, parliamentary performance, if you like, in her ten years in power.
WILLSCH: Well, I think we have to look back to the time when we started to euro. We were very eager then to form the architecture of euro system.
Along the way, we had it in Germany with the Bundesbank, which was a very successful central bank in Europe after the Second World War.
And one essential thing within the framework was there will be no bailouts. Everyone has responsibility for his own budget, because every national
parliament decides on the budget. As I'm informed, not even you, being one nation, federation, are bailing out -- you didn't bail out Schwarzenegger
as he had problems in California. He just sent --
QUEST: Right.
WILLSCH: -- his public servants home because he couldn't pay them anymore.
QUEST: But do you think it has weakened the chancellor?
WILLSCH: No, I don't think so. I think it will help her to -- well, to play a tough role in all those meetings to come in Brussels and elsewhere.
You know there are some other countries in the first plan, of course, Greece, who want to get their hands on our money, let's put it that way.
And she will be able to say there --
QUEST: Right.
WILLSCH: -- you guys, even if I wanted to, I couldn't have passed this because I won't get the majority in my house with that.
QUEST: You see, now, that's really the point, because two -- two thoughts, finally. You are pretty certain that Greece is going to be back again,
aren't you? And secondly, the question of -- cutting the deficit, cutting Greek debt, still has to be resolved, and that's another fight that you're
ready for.
WILLSCH: This is a very severe point for a lot of us. We were very convinced that -- are still -- that if you have a program, you need to have
the IMF within, because all the others, the same guys that always come together as the eurogroup, the other finance ministers, they come also
together as the governors of the European Stability facility.
QUEST: Right.
[16:19:57] WILLSCH: And you need this expert, this external expert who is also able to stand up from the table and say, no, you didn't fulfill what
you promised, so you won't get any more money.
QUEST: Sir, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. You've had a busy day, and we needed to hear your views tonight. Thank you.
European markets finished mostly lower.
(RINGS BELL)
QUEST: The FTSE, the CAC 40, the Xetra DAX, all down around 2 percent. The Athens market rose a third of a percent. Hardly surprising when you
consider they've just pretty much nearly got a good $80 billion to $90 billion
Time's up. That's the message from the hackers -- the criminals, some say -- who stole millions of records from the cheating dating website, Ashley
Madison. The details are available online for anyone to see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: They are the details that Ashley Madison's customers had hoped would never see the light of day. Tens of millions of names, their credit
card numbers, their e-mail addresses, the physical addresses, and perhaps more salaciously, the sexual preferences stolen from the cheaters' dating
website. And now, it's all available online.
It came after Ashley Madison's corporate owners, Avid Life Media, refused the demands of the criminals, who took the information to shut down the
site.
The company wrote, "This event is not an act of hacktivism, it is an act of criminality. The criminal or criminals involved in this act have appointed
themselves as the moral judge, juror, and executioner, seeing fit to impose a personal notion of virtue on all society."
Laurie Segall from CNN Money is here with the latest. I don't think -- I mean, it's fine for Avid to say that, but I don't think Impact would
disagree with that anecdote or that reference to them.
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think -- in fact, it's very interesting, it's like this whole new breed of hacker
that's kind of a hacktivist, and they believe, hey, we don't like what you're doing. We're going to threaten, and we're going to take you down.
Remember Sony and the Sony hack? This is exactly what the hackers did there. They said if you air "The Interview," we are going to start
exposing this. So, this is almost taking this to a new level.
But I will say this. Richard, this hack was unprecedented in many ways. This was 35 gigabytes of data that was put out on the Dark Web, 33 million
accounts leaked, 36 million e-mail addresses.
Even if people made up those e-mail addressed, which they could have, because this is an anonymous site, their payment information is on there.
So, you also have street addresses, home addresses, internal corporate data. They were able to do --
QUEST: Right.
SEGALL: -- so much damage.
QUEST: And as I read the first letter, or the first mail shot from Impact, they basically said to the CEO, this is your worst -- an expletive, which I
shan't discuss in public on a family program, but this is your worst nightmare. And they go on to say, your security is so bad, we've been in
there for months.
SEGALL: They said you promised all your users that you were protecting their data. This is a site we don't believe in. We don't believe in
adultery, we don't believe in the morality of this site. So, not only are we going to prove that this is not a safe site, but we're also going to
expose all these immoral people -- they actually had a manifesto --
QUEST: OK, right.
SEGALL: -- that they put out there that said you should be ashamed and embarrassed and then move on.
QUEST: How far are these names now spreading through the legitimate web?
SEGALL: So, here it goes, right? They were on the Dark Web, which is a deeper layer of the web that's --
[16:25:01] QUEST: I'm just going to ask you to pause.
SEGALL: Yes?
QUEST: Don't necessarily tell people where they can see them.
SEGALL: OK. Not going to tell anyone. I'm not going to even name the sites, right?
QUEST: Please
SEGALL: But now they are popping up on the open web, right? Where there are multiple, multiple sites where people can just plug in a name -- I
think I saw one earlier that just said put in the email of the potential cheater, and we'll tell you if they're on this list.
So now this is just beginning. Someone was actually geolocating, because you can use the information on the Dark Web finding out where these people
are.
QUEST: Right.
SEGALL: They were creating a Google Map that was --
QUEST: Oh! Tasteless!
SEGALL: -- geolocation. It's really scary when you think about how much information was put out there, Richard.
QUEST: Good to see you.
SEGALL: Good to see you.
QUEST: Thank you very much, indeed.
All right. Now, the hackers have called themselves Impact. You heard us talking about that. Their real identities are hidden deep into the Dark
Web, and that's where we are going now.
There are three areas of the internet. You have the surface part. Think of it very much as the classic iceberg. The surface part, where you have
good old favorites: CNN, Wikipedia, Amazon, Twitter, Google. Everything that you might be familiar with. But it's estimated less than 5 percent of
all information is in the surface web.
Go one stage down, and you're into the Deep Web. This is most of the net. It's not searchable with Google, but it's not necessarily nefarious. It's
private, it's corporate. Database search engines can't get into the Deep Web. Information that's password protected. Even, obviously, private
networks. It's all in the Deep Web.
Now, from the Deep Web we go further down. We go deep into the Dark Web. Once you're into the Dark Web, you're into unchallenged territory. It's
not accessible from a web browser. The most popular way is via Tor, which incidentally stands for The Onion Rooter. I have no idea why it's called
that.
But that's where Ashley Madison's information has been posted. Some data is now reposted publicly. Tor requests bounce around the network. It all
provides anonymity for users and servers. It was started, as these things are, by US naval research laboratories.
It's now being used by dissidents, black market, anybody who doesn't want somebody to know what they are up to. Doesn't want to go there or there.
They end up down there.
Howard Schmidt served as the Obama administration's cyber security czar. Today, he's a partner at Ridge-Schmidt Cyber. He joins me now from
Washington. Sir, this is -- this is extraordinary that this exists and there's nothing we can do about it, when you get a release of this sort of
documentation.
HOWARD SCHMIDT, FORMER US CYBER SECURITY CZAR: Well, when you take a look at it, this is the way the internet was built to begin with. It was the
accessibility of the top layer of it, and there was the inner workings the way things went.
But there was also the Dark Web, as we call it now. But originally, it started out as just something to really put the most private things out
there. So, we should not be surprised.
QUEST: We shouldn't be surprised, but when you've got -- I mean, is -- it's obviously criminal activity, but now you've got people not for profit,
but for moral values. And that makes this whole thing much more difficult.
SCHMIDT: It does. And that's where the whole issue of the morality of it, or the way people feel about something. It used to be in the early days of
the internet, you felt this way about businesses, this way about governments, and that's all there was. Now there's hacktivism. Virtually
everything that you disagree with, somebody's going to be able to hack you.
QUEST: Right.
SCHMIDT: And it goes on and on.
QUEST: But do you think, for example -- I mean, clearly, Ashley Madison has -- and Avid Media have some very serious questions to answer about
their security. These hackers were in there for days, weeks, or months, we believe.
SCHMIDT: Well, and that's -- that sets up a big question is, is what did they do that was special over those that are more protected, like some of
the financial institutions.
But the bottom line is, the vulnerabilities that existed -- all it takes is one to get through. So, you may have a thousand different attempts, you
make it through one, gives you the ability to dig further, to pull more information to make it accessible for more people.
QUEST: Right. But isn't -- didn't we learn from Sony -- to your point, exactly to your point, didn't we learn from Sony, it's one thing to stop
people getting in, but another layer has to be, if somebody does get in, make sure they don't get off with the crown jewels?
SCHMIDT: The whole issue with Sony is proof that it doesn't scale. Because what happens is, security and IT and all these other things, is
built on a certain infrastructure.
[16:30:01] Now, some of it's very, very, very robust and good security. Others are very well open. But the bottom line is, the technology is the
same over and over again.
So when you look at this and you say, well, geez, why shouldn't we be more protective? Well, one, the CEO has got to buy into it that this is part of
the business process, not just something we plug in to cover it up.
QUEST: Thank you, sir. Good to talk to you. Come back. We'll need your guidance more in the future. Thank you.
Now, the FDA has approved a new drug that treats women with low sexual desire. The long road to create Flibanserin, and why you shouldn't call it
Female Viagra next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:30:00] HOWARD SCHMIDT, FORMER U.S. U.S. CYBERSECURITY CZAR: -- is very, very, very robust and good security. Others are very well open. But
the bottom line is the technology's the same over and over again.
So when you look at this and you say, well gees, why shouldn't we be more protective? Well 1), the CEO's got to buy into it that this is part of the
business process, not just something we plug in -
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND REPORTER HOST OF "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" SHOW: Right.
SCHMIDT: -- to cover it up.
QUEST: Right.
SCHMIDT: Not something that we just plug in to cover it up.
QUEST: Thank you, sir. Good to talk to you. Come back when we need your guidance more in the future. Thank you.
Now, the FDA has approved a new drug that treats women with low cell - low sexual desire. A long road to create Flibanserin and why you shouldn't
call it "female Viagra." Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There's more "Quest Means Business" in just a moment when we're going to be talking about the small pharmaceutical
company that scored a very big win.
It's approved with its "female Viagra" although many will take issue with us even calling it that.
And Donald Trump tells CNN what he thinks of Hillary Clinton's e-mail scandal. Before all of that, this is CNN and this network the news always
comes first.
Thailand's prime minister has called on the chief suspect in Monday's bombing in Bangkok to hand himself in. Police released the sketch of the
man they're looking for.
The arrest warrant describes him as an unnamed male foreigner. Thai police say they believe the suspect was not working alone.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
SOMYOT POOMPANMOUNG, THAI POLICE DEPARTMENT VIA INTERPRETER: There are many possibilities because I believe that it is highly (ph) unlikely that
this attack would be carried out by one person.
It is likely that many people are involved and have some sort of backing.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Israel's Supreme Court has suspended the administrative detention of the Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Allan after his lawyer proved he had
suffered some brain damage as a result of his partial hunger strike.
The court ordered him to be released but kept in hospital for treatment. Allan is being held without charge since November 2014 on suspicious - of
involvement in terrorism, a claim that his family and his lawyer denies.
Oscar Pistorius may not be released on Friday into house arrest as had been widely expected. South Africa's justice minister has all in a review of
the athlete's parole on the grounds the decision may have been made too early.
The minister told CNN he had not been put under any political pressure to intervene.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
I indicated very clearly that I looked solely on the law - at the law - and what it provides - and subsequently, the grounds on which they asked me to
reconsider the decision is not a valid grant in law on which I could consider the matter.
[16:35:07] However, having looked holistically at the matter, I was convinced that the parole board in any case had erred and I couldn't ignore
an error in law in the decision that they took.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: The Turkish military says eight soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in the southeastern part of the country.
The military blames Kurdish rebels for the attack. In Istanbul, two gunmen were arrested near the entrance to Dolmabahce Palace where the prime
minister has offices. After gunfire was heard, no injuries have been reported.
An antiquities expert in the Syrian city of Palmyra has been beheaded by ISIS. Khaled al-Asaad spent decades overseeing Palmyra's historic
treasurers.
A Syrian official tells CNN he was killed because he refused to tell ISIS where to find specific artifacts or indeed to swear allegiance to the
terrorist group.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration - the FDA - has approved the first drug designed to treat sexual dysfunction in women.
Now some people are referring to it as the "female Viagra." That's rather misleading. Unlike Viagra, Flibanserin is meant to treat a lack of sexual
desire rather than a physiological malfunction.
Well the idea is that the pill works on the brain and boosts the female libido. And the fight to get the drug approved has been passionate and
indeed controversial from the very beginning. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
Male: This is the age of knowing how to make things happen.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We've heard the pitches and the questions -
Male: So why let erectile dysfunction get in your way?
COHEN: Men have had an answer in pills like Viagra for more than 15 years.
Female: Ask your doctor if Viagra is right for you.
COHEN: But now the Food and Drug Administration is finally answering a long, lingering important question from women -
Female: What the (BLEEP) - are we really so far behind that we don't think women have the right to sexual desire?
COHEN: And now the FDA has approved a pill to address female libido for the first time in history.
Female: There isn't one available medication on the market.
COHEN: Spoof ads like this have become part of a campaign called "Even the Score," sponsored in part by Sprout Pharmaceuticals - the maker of
Flibanserin.
AMANDA PARRISH, FLIBANSERIN PATIENT: It works on key chemicals in the brain to increase desire and decrease distress.
COHEN: Some experts say the problem is more psychological than physical for many women whose lack of libido is not due to disease or relationship
problems.
According to a 2002 study, up to one-third of adult women experience hypoactive sexual desire disorder, the technical term for a lack or absence
of sexual desire or fantasy which causes distress.
Female 3: I am pleading for help, for an option.
COHEN: FDA committee meetings have acted as a platform for women to address the agency about Flibanserin, most recently in June.
Female 3: It's not just about me, it's about the millions of other women I have to represent today who are looking to the FDA for a solution.
COHEN: Many desperate for help.
Female 3: I want to want my husband. It is that simple.
COHEN: But it's not that simple. The FDA had previously rejected Flibanserin twice, noting that the modest benefit of the drug wasn't worth
potentially risky side effects including depression.
But for some women struggling with desire, the hope for help is greater than the fear of side effects.
PARRISH: It's not an easy conversation to have with the man that you love to say, hey, I love you, I'm highly attracted to you, but for some reason I
just don't want to cozy up and have sex. I think women finally are on a level playing ground or are heading in the right direction to be on a level
playing ground.
COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Some doctors have raised doubts about Flibanserin's effectiveness. You may wonder why we're talking about it on a business program. But as my
next guest Dr. Lauren Streicher has just been telling me, she's a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School
of Medicine.
And Dr., as you were just saying - or Professor - as you were just saying - it might be odd for us to talk about it on a business program, but from
your experience, -- this is big - this is big -
DR. LAUREN STREICHER, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY OF FEINBERG SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: This is big. This is huge news for the one out of ten women
that suffer from distressing lack of sexual desire.
And for the first time, these women have an option to have a drug that's FDA-approved, that's non-hormonal and that will switch their libido switch
from off to on.
So this is a very important thing, and especially for someone like me. I see these women every day and I've had absolutely nothing to offer them.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
[16:40:01] QUEST: Ah, but at what point will you prescribe it?
STREICHER: At the point that I realize that their problem is biologic - that it's in the brain. Because so many women that I see have, for
example, painful sex.
Well, if they have painful sex, it's normal to not want to have sex and I need to get rid of the pain. If they have a terrible relationship, it'
doesn't matter what pill they take, you have to fix the relationship.
But this is intended for women who are in a loving relationship who don't have physical problem, but the balance of the neurotransmitter in the brain
are just not firing correctly.
QUEST: You are not going to be able to convince some of your patients - as you know - that actually this won't solve their problem.
STREICHER: Well, I'm going to convince them because I think when you listen to a patient and you talk to them, you can offer them the right
thing.
So if someone says to me I'm in a loving relationship, I really like my partner, I just don't think about sex, I don't fantasize about sex, I don't
want sex. And if I can't find a physical reason for it or relationship reason, I say these are neurotransmitter.
We know that in the libido cocktail there are a lot of ingredients - hormones and relationship - but when you look at these neurotransmitters
like Seratonin and Dopamine, if those aren't working correctly, you're not going to have normal sexual feelings.
And I think a lot of people are concerned that is this going to make people hypersexual? No, we're trying to make it normal.
QUEST: But it's not Viagra in the sense -
STREICHER: It is not.
QUEST: -- take the pill and there will there be a physiological response within the hour.
STREICHER: Correct. It is also not Viagra and that Viagra works by increasing blood flow to the genitals. This works on the brain, this works
to balance those neurotransmitters that cause those `I want to have sex, I feel like having sex' feeling.
QUEST: But is that a concern and should we be worried about -
STREICHER: Oh, it's a huge concern.
QUEST: No, no, no, that it affects the brain rather than a piece of genitalia
STREICHER: (LAUGHTER). Yes.
QUEST: And, I mean, isn't that a long-term issue?
STREICHER: And that is why the fact that there were 11,000 women in the clinical trial - and it has been tested for years and looked at forwards,
backwards, upside down - we know that the effects that this has and we know - you know, when the FDA approves something, there's three criteria they
look one.
One, is there's unmet need - got it, the second is does it work? We know that there was a 53 percent increase in desire and double the satisfying
sexual event.
And the third is - is it safe? And when you look at the side effect profile, we're looking at thing sleepiness, fatigue, nausea. And that's in
a minority of people.
QUEST: Right.
STREICHER: Let's look at Viagra if you want to look at side effects. And at least men have had this choice for years and now women, when they learn
about it, they will have the choice if this is the right thing for them.
QUEST: Sprout Pharmaceuticals -
STREICHER: Yes.
QUEST: -- a small company -
STREICHER: This is not Big Pharma. (LAUGHTER).
QUEST: (Inaudible).
STREICHER: Teeny little pharma.
QUEST: Teeny little pharma.
STREICHER: Teeny little pharma, yes.
QUEST: Teeny little pharma has managed to do this. And I can tell from you you're thrilled by this.
STREICHER: I am, I am. And I don't work for Sprout - I want to be clear about that. I have no financial relationship with them. I'm thrilled
because I am a sexual health expert in addition to being a gynecologist and I have had nothing to offer these women.
But even more important from my point of view, I'm looking at the bigger picture. This is starting a conversation which has been taboo, and if a
woman comes in to my office and says, `Am I a candidate for Addyi?' I might say yes and I might say.
But if I say no, it give me the opportunity to say, `This is your problem. You might need a sex therapist, you might need talk therapy, you might
have nothing to help with the dryness and the pain. But at least we're finally talking about it and we haven't been.
QUEST: And we are delighted that you came in to talk to us about it tonight. There you are, you see - "Quest Means Business." Doesn't matter
what the subject, if there's a business angle (RINGS BELL).
We're going to go from sex to Disney. I'm not quite sure how we made that transition with anything approaching comfort and decorum. It's "Business
Traveler." It's after the break - good evening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:45:59] QUEST: The "Business Traveller" - and it's time for vacations. One of the biggest vacation places - whether it's in Disney Land Paris or
in Hong Kong or in Tokyo or in the United States with Disney World and Disneyland are the Disney parks which, just in the last week, we learned -
are going to get a little bit bigger with the arrival of "Star Wars."
So many millions of people are going to Disney, we decided it's summertime. Off to see the Mouse.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
(CARNIVAL MUSIC PLAYING)
QUEST: What better escape than going to a place where fantasy is reality. You're never far from a thrilling ride and characters come to life.
Male: Do you know where Pluto's ticklish? There you go. (LAUGHTER).
QUEST: Central Florida is prime real estate for theme parks. It's home to Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, and it just keeps growing.
This concentrated chaos is all here because this is where the Mouse lives.
The Magic Kingdom at Disney World. It's just before opening hour. Soon, tens of thousands of visitors will be thronging along Main Street.
Fifty years ago, no one would have wanted to vacation in such a place. However, Walt Disney saw it differently. To him, this stretch of unwanted
land represented a second chance.
Male: Walt Disney who will bring a new world of entertainment, pleasure and economic development to the state of Florida - Walt Disney.
(APPLAUSE)
QUEST: It was 1963 and Disney Land on the West Coast had run out of space. So Walt Disney went out and bought 40 square miles near Orlando to build
his utopian dream.
In 1971, Disney World Opened, and over the years, Disney World's grown to four theme parks, 15 miles of monorail track, with dozens of hotels and
nearly 300 restaurants, unequivocally transforming this middle-of-nowhere America into the mecca of global tourism today.
And Disney keeps growing. The company's going to spend an estimated $2 billion expanding its Hollywood Studios park with a Star Wars Land. It's
all part of the effort to use the parks to capitalize on the popular franchise. It seems the galaxy far, far away will reside in the House of
the Mouse.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton's e-mail controversy isn't only a campaign issue. It's something much more serious. He calls it a criminal
matter. Donald Trump has been speaking to CNN.
First, a highlight from "Make, Create, Innovate."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:51:13] QUEST: CNN's latest surveys show the Republican contender Donald Trump is closing the gap in polling numbers between him and the democratic
likely candidate - or certainly the frontrunner at the moment, Hillary Clinton.
Trump now trails the former First Lady by just 6 percentage points and said Ms. Clinton's campaign faces a criminal problem. He's speaking today to
Chris Cuomo who joins me now, Sir.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: A pleasure, a pleasure.
QUEST: Good to see you, Sir. Now, what did you learn from Mr. Trump that you didn't know last time you spoke to him? What did he talk about?
CUOMO: Well, I'll tell you. A definite different experience in terms of how we see Donald Trump. You judge for yourself. Here's a little bit of
the interview. You'll see something unfamiliar, something all-too-familiar and something that should be of concern to everyone.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, I think it's devastating for the election but I think her bigger problem is not the
election. I think her bigger problem is going to be the criminal problem.
CUOMO: Really, you really think that this could turn out to be a criminal situation for Hillary Clinton?
TRUMP: Well, --
CUOMO: Because there's no reference of that from the investigators right now.
TRUMP: I don't think I'm the only one. I mean, the FBI's involved, they only do criminal. I don't think I'm the only one. Now, maybe it's
somebody on her staff, but, look, it's either criminal or it's incompetence - it's one or the other.
There's either gross incompetence or criminal and neither's acceptable to be president.
CUOMO: I feel like you're skipping the headline. You're six points from Hillary Clinton -- nobody would have expected that. You're kind of
glossing over it. Why? Shouldn't you be saying six points, I can't believe I'm not ahead?
TRUMP: Well that's one thing I could say I guess -
CUOMO: (LAUGHTER).
TRUMP: -- you know, I think we'll do very well against Hillary. Hillary's record as secretary of state was a disaster. She was in favor - totally in
favor - of the Iraq War which is obviously not a good - not a good sound byte.
I think we're going to do very well. And as you know, I've been against it for years - the Iraq War. I said you're going to decimate Iraq, Iran will
take over the Middle East and take over Iraq which is exactly what's happening, and somebody's going to come and take over the leftover oil.
And who did that turn out to be? ISIS. So, if you look at 2004, exactly what I said happened. So call it vision - I have to call it vision because
I'm trying to get elected. First time in my life I'm trying to get elected, right? I'm a politician all of a sudden.
But there was a certain vision. I've gotten a lot of credit for it. They made a terrible mistake and then they made a terrible mistake the way they
got out. And in my opinion, they made an even worse mistake not keeping the oil.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
QUEST: Chris, he's toned down the rhetoric, he's still being brutally honest and he's starting to look a little presidential.
CUOMO: Well remember, up until this point, Donald Trump has been a surprise to the system - a shock to the system some would say. Because he
represents everything that the American people think they want if those people are angry at the way things are.
And he has been the face of that discontent. But now we're seeing something different. This is no longer, you know, an outlier. He's been
in the lead for a while and he knows it and he has to consider himself that way.
What does it mean? Be a little more measured, don't beat everybody over the head with your own truth because that's not how a contender speaks, and yet
then you see he does what he does best - deflect a question about himself and make it into an insult of someone else.
The concern is that, Richard, will his policies hold up over time with logical consistency?
QUEST: Just quickly on the question of Hillary Clinton and this e-mail. To the viewer around the world who sees this and wonders what I see - what
is everybody getting excited about?
Does this scandal have further legs?
CUOMO: Politically, yes. Because of how it' been handled frankly. Legally, there's almost no indication that this could mean anything
significant for Hillary Clinton. It's not a criminal disposition toward her, she's not being implicated by any of the 5,000 agencies that are
looking at it, but it politically has hurt her - we see it in the polls - and until she gets on top of it in a way that is convincing, all the voters
will cough just like you are right now.
[16:55:03] QUEST: (COUGHS). I was quite overcome.
CUOMO: You were overcome.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: Nice to see you, Sir. Now you can see the upcoming CNN special - the Donald Trump interview. You can see it on Thursday at 9 a.m. in Hong
Kong, that's 2 a.m. in London which must be 9 p.m. in - stay up late.
CUOMO: (LAUGHTER).
QUEST: Stay up late, whatever it is. And it will be repeated throughout the day on Thursday like a bad case of something.
CUOMO: (LAUGHTER).
QUEST: We'll have a "Profitable Moment" (RINGS BELL) after the break. Don't touch the bell. Don't touch it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment." I'm standing here wondering how many of you are feeling a little uncomfortable, wondering about whether if
your name, if you've been a client of Ashley Madison, your name is on the list that's now being released around the world.
The whole question of Ashley Madison as you heard us discuss tonight raises a very interesting contradiction that many of us will now have to grapple
with.
On the one hand, there may be a natural distaste, reluctance, hate or whatever for infidelity and for cheating and adultery and the like.
And now you have to balance that because that's what Impact is against with this feeling of that nobody should have their private life spread across
the web - dark, medium or otherwise - in such a fashion.
That balancing act of rights and responsibilities is what possibly this is all about. But there's one thing of which I think can speak some
certainty. It certainly isn't up to the group of - group of vigilantes to decide the morality of the rest of us, wherever we may choose to do our
business.
And that's "Quest Means Business" for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, (RINGS BELL) I hope it's
profitable.
[17:00:00] Let's get together tomorrow.
END