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Quest Means Business

Writers And Studios Reach A Tentative Contract Deal; Biden Expected To Join Picket Line In Michigan; Zelenskyy: US Abrams Tanks Have Arrived In Ukraine; U.S. Amb: "Five Eyes" Intel Led To Canada Accusing India; Canada's House Speaker Apologizes For Praising Ukrainian Nazi Member; Kosovo-Serbia Tensions Higher After Standoff. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 25, 2023 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:33]

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Well, it is the start of a new week and with an hour left to trade on Wall Street, stocks are struggling to

find momentum. The Dow is down 47 points right now, but it's a mixed day in the US, and those are the markets and these are the main events.

An end is in sight to the writers' strike, a tentative deal to start making movies again.

While Hollywood moves one step closer to reopening, the US government is heading the opposite way. Little progress in Washington to avoid a

shutdown.

Plus Huawei woes, the China giants has a big launch, but it's what they didn't announce that raises eyebrows.

Live from Dubai, it is Monday, September the 25th. I'm Eleni Giokos. I'm in for Richard Quest. This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

A very good evening, and welcome to the show.

Now after five months on the picket lines, it appears Hollywood's writers are about ready to get back to work.

(PROTESTERS chanting.)

GIOKOS: Negotiators from the Writers Guild of America have reached a tentative deal with the big film and TV studios. Its details have not been

released. While this is a major breakthrough, the strike is not quite over yet.

We've got Camila Bernal joining us now to give us the details. We don't have the details, but we know that it is basically in line with what they

wanted. I want you to take me through the next steps here.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a lot of the writers that I talked to told me look, we trust the WGA and what we were asking for, and

all of them have told me I want to go back to work. They are ready to go back to work.

I talked to one writer who said, I want to go back to making music. I want to go back to telling stories. But the union says not yet. They are still

on strike.

So what they're saying is they have to figure out essentially the writing, the details in that contract and what they're describing it as is dotting

every I.

So after that it gets done, tomorrow, we believe what's going to happen is that union leadership will have a number of votes and after those votes are

made, then the contract is made public and it is handed to the writers to see if they like it or not, and they will have to vote on it.

So once they do ratify it, they really will be able to go back to work full force. Now, the only problem here is that the actors are also on strike and

have been since July. And so a lot of the work won't really be able to go back to normal because you still need the actors.

So a lot of people here in this industry believe that maybe the writers deal will likely push or speed up or motivate the actors to get a deal as

well.

I want to read part of the statement from the actors union, which is currently not negotiating and here is what they're saying: "Since the day

that the WGA strike began, SAG AFTRA (which is the union for the actors) have stood alongside the writers on the picket lines. We remain on strike

in our TV, theatrical contract, and continue to urge the studio and streamer CEOs and the AMPTP to return to the table and make the fair deal

that our members deserve and demand."

Now, the writers have been told we are no longer in the picket lines, but they're being encouraged to go out to the picket lines with the actors. So

we're still going to see movement on the streets and we're still going to be hearing about this over the next couple of days.

But again, the writers may be able to get that greenlight pretty soon and this is something they're thankful for, because it has not been easy

economically for a lot of people in this industry.

The estimated impact -- economic impact of this is about $5 billion. So really people just eager to get back to work and get this done.

GIOKOS: Yes, and it is a really good point, right? Because it's affected the sector and the big players and it's affected the people that are

striking right now and as you say SAG AFTRA still on strike, the WGA needs to ratify this.

You know, from the words that we've heard from WGA, they are saying that this is a good deal. This looks like something that they can work with.

What are the chances here that this could possibly fall through, keeping in mind you've spoken to a lot of people that want to get back to work.

[15:05:08]

BERNAL: There is always a possibility, so I wouldn't say no. But what I'm hearing is that they believe they got the things that they wanted, meaning

the residuals, the higher wages. That was one of their biggest points that they were making and saying, we need to be paid more, we need to have more

writers in the room.

And then there was artificial intelligence, that was a big one as well, because we just don't know what's going to happen in the future and what AI

is going to be capable of doing or replacing when it comes to these jobs.

And so it looks like they made progress on AI, and sources telling CNN, that that was really the last sticking point. They were really trying to

figure out the AI portion of this deal, and if they figured it out for the writers, it's possible that this could be helpful for the actors as well.

It acts in different ways, because you know, AI is not going to be writing for the actors, or that's what these writers were asking for, but the

issues may be different, but at the same time, this could help them in that process, as they already likely have a deal that probably these writers

will vote for in the coming days.

GIOKOS: Camila Bernal, great to have you on the story. Thank you so much.

I want to now bring in screenwriter and producer, David Slack.

David, great to have you with us again. Great to have you back on the show. Look, we don't have details. I'm aware you can't share those with us. But

WGA is saying that this deal is exceptional with meaningful gains, as well as protections. Did your members and yourself get what you wanted?

DAVID SLACK, SCREENWRITER AND PRODUCER: You know, we'll know when they release the details, but I will say that at a bar last night, I talked to

several members of our negotiating committee from various work areas across from comedy, variety, to screen, to TV, and I asked them if they were happy

with the deal and they said they were very happy and that's good enough for me.

GIOKOS: Let me tell you, at bars you get the best information.

Look, you and I spoke in May. It was actually the day that the strike began. And you said this, I want to remind you of what you said. You said:

"This is a middle class industry and the way that things are unfolding on a compensation fund as we move into an increasingly streaming driven

industry, that's not working out for writers. I don't think it's working for any of us except for possibly the CEOs of these corporations."

It is a powerful message and an important one. Do you believe that we can expect equity with this deal? Is that what you're hoping for?

SLACK: Well, I mean, when they make billions and billions of dollars on profit off a product that, you know, they don't know how to create without

us, I don't know if equity is ever the place we get to, but I think hopefully in this contract, we get to a place of more fair compensation,

where we are compensated in a way that's commensurate with our contribution, at least a little bit more.

I mean, this whole fight, as I said, you know, a long time ago, it was about our -- it was about saving our middle class, you know. And so having

a contract that gives us a basic cost of living raise, which has been one of the main sticking points. You know, in the US, we just had two

consecutive years of more than six percent inflation, and that was a bad thing that happened to our economy, and the studios were trying to turn it

into a good thing for them, which would have effectively been a pay cut for us.

So we're getting the raises we needed. We're getting some protections we needed. I look forward like -- with every other member, I look forward to

the specifics, but I am confident that we're going to be in a much better situation than we were before the strike, and then we would have been

without a strike.

GIOKOS: So David, what are you going to be looking for in this deal that would want you -- would want to make you vote yes, so that it can be

ratified? And what would make you not want to go for it?

SLACK: I mean, at this point it -- I don't want to really get in the weeds on that. I'll have to see what it is, but I trust the negotiating

committee. I was on our board for four years, I've been on a negotiating committee before. I know most of these people personally.

Moreover, our board of the Writers Guild East Council and negotiating committee members have been out on the picket lines every day. There has

not been a picket line where there wasn't at least one of them there talking to members.

So they're very in touch with what our membership wants and what they feel. So I'm confident that if they reached a point where they said we have a

deal, we're going to have a deal and we're going to have a deal that members are going to be able to support.

GIOKOS: Well, David, I think we all look forward to you guys getting back to work, making magic again. We appreciate your time. Thank you so much for

joining us.

SLACK: Thank you very much.

GIOKOS: All right, David Slack there for us.

Okay, so the United Auto Workers Union continues its strike after adding more walkouts at GM and Stellantis distribution plants on Friday. The union

didn't expand its action against Ford though, saying negotiations with the company we're making progress.

President Biden is planning to join a picket line in Michigan tomorrow.

[15:10:06]

We go to Matt Egan, joining us now with the latest.

Look, the Big 3 automakers are clocking in billions by all accounts, and a far better position going into the strike. Does the UAW have leverage to

fight for better pay here?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: There's no question, Eleni. I think everyone agrees that the workers are going to make more money. The question is, how

much more money and what other sort of concessions they're able to extract from the automakers?

I recently talked to the former Ford CEO, Mark Fields and he told me that there's really no question that workers deserve more money, and that

they're actually going to get it. His concern, though, was that if they get paid too much, then it could make some of these US automakers less

competitive versus their foreign counterparts and the non-union US automakers like Tesla. So that's where the issue is.

But what's interesting now is, this auto strike is colliding with the 2024 race for the White House. As you mentioned, President Biden plans to make

history tomorrow becoming the first sitting US president to join the picket line. He previously had sort of been kind of neutral in this and now, he is

clearly taking the side of the workers.

Former President Trump, he's holding a rally in Detroit on Wednesday, where he is sure to criticize the electric vehicle transition that has been

championed by the Biden administration and has been one of the sticking points in these negotiations between the UAW and the Big 3.

As you mentioned, we see the strike escalating when it comes to Stellantis and GM, the UAW not escalating when it comes to Ford. But what was

interesting is that on Friday, the UAW said that there's been real progress with Ford. Last night, Ford put out a statement saying that there's

"significant gaps" to close on the key economic issues.

And just a reminder here, Eleni, that the longer the strike goes on, the greater the economic impact.

GIOKOS: Yes, absolutely. We must not forget that the auto sector was bailed out 14 years ago by government and taxpayers and by the workers as well. So

interesting dynamics.

But you know, look, with all the strike action that we've been seeing whether it's been with the Writers Guild, what we're seeing now in the auto

sector, inflation has been at the core of most of what we are seeing. You've got some numbers about the cost of living and how that is outpacing

wages, which gives you a glimpse into what people are experiencing.

EGAN: Yes, absolutely and it helps explain this momentum behind the labor movement.

Bank of America out with this sobering report that finds that 67 percent of US workers say that the cost of living is still rising faster than

paychecks. That's up from 58 percent early last year. Bank of America says that just 42 percent of workers say that they are financially well. That's

a 13-year low for this survey, the lowest they've had since it came out in 2010, so that means lower than even the COVID low, lower than right after

the Great Recession.

These figures are clearly moving in the wrong direction, which is somewhat surprising, because government data shows that the rate of inflation in the

United States has cooled off considerably, right? Prices were going up at more than nine percent year-over-year at the peak in June of 2022. We're at

less than half of that, and yet you have this survey showing that workers feel otherwise.

And I think that, you know, this raises two points. One, prices are still going up. They're not going up as fast as they were, but they're still

going higher. And two, inflation is cumulative, right? There's this snowballing effect, whether you're talking about the cost of rent of a car,

the price of eggs, the price tag when you go out to eat at a restaurant, all of it is significantly more expensive here in the United States, and

really in many places around the world relative to pre-COVID.

And so even though some of the government data shows that very recently, paychecks are going up a little bit faster than prices, when you ask

workers, they still say they feel they cannot keep up.

GIOKOS: Yes. You know, the best barometer is when you go to the store and you buy your groceries, that's when you can really feel the inflationary

impact, right, that's the reality for so many people.

Matt Egan, great to see you. Thank you so much.

Well, one of the items threatened -- all right, let's go to Ukraine now, actually, so to Ukraine and the Pentagon has confirmed the delivery of 31

Abrams tanks to the country and we are also learning that Ukraine's missile strike last week on Sevastopol may have killed a top Russian officer.

We've got CNN's Fred Pleitgen with more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a pretty big claim that the Ukrainians are putting forward, claiming that they have

killed the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in that strike on the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet that happened this past Friday.

[15:15:05]

Now, in total, the Ukrainians say when they hit the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, with what appear to have been cruise missiles that they

killed 34 officers in total, and that one of those senior officers was in fact the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Viktor Sokolov.

Now, we do have to say that so far, the Ukrainians have not put forward any evidence to confirm that they've actually killed the commander of the Black

Sea Fleet, and the Russians so far have not commented on all of this at all.

So right now, very difficult to ascertain the extent to which all of this is really true.

At the same time, though, we do know that there was a massive attack by the Russians on the port town of Odesa. That happened in the overnight hours.

The Ukrainians are saying it was a very complex attack using drones, but also using a lot of cruise missiles of various types.

They say that at least 12 Kalibr cruise missiles were used. Those are subsonic cruise missiles, but ones that can maneuver and the Ukrainians say

they shot most of those down, but the Ukrainians also say that the Russians used supersonic Oniks cruise missiles, and some of those appear to have

managed to reach some of the targets.

Now that Ukrainian say that some grain installations were hit by these strikes, but also a massive hotel complex and the Ukrainians for their part

are saying that this hotel has not been in use for years and so therefore was empty.

The Russians for their part had been suggesting, possibly there was Ukrainian military inside that compound. All we know from the Ukrainian

side so far is they say, two people were killed in this attack.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN in Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Coming up from a gold smartwatch to electric vehicles, China's Huawei is touting its new products, but the when it comes to its latest

smartphone, the tech giant is staying silent. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GIOKOS: Welcome back.

Now Huawei is showing off its products at a high-profile launch event, but it's keeping very quiet about the Mate 60 Pro smartphone. The phone has

been under scrutiny over its use of an advanced chip. The US is looking into whether the chip was developed in violation of trade sanctions.

Steven Jiang is in Beijing with the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Despite a really impressive lineup of new gadgets released on Monday, Huawei did dodge mentions of their most

talked about, but also most controversial smartphone model Mate 60 Pro that they started selling last month while the US Commerce Secretary Gina

Raimondo was visiting China.

[15:20:10]

Remember her agency is the one that's been imposing crippling sanctions on Huawei starting in 2019 basically cutting off the company's access to

advanced chip making tools they use, any US technology because Washington has deemed Huawei to be a national security threat. That's something of

course the company has long denied, but those sanctions are the reason that Huawei, once the world's second biggest smartphone maker saw that part of

their business almost wiped out in the past few years.

Now, this new device, Mate 60 Pro apparently with 5G capabilities if true, that means somehow the company has managed to find a workaround on the US

sanctions. Experts who took apart the phone found one domestically produced advanced chip and two South Korean chips.

Now the South Korean company, Hynix told CNN they have no idea how their products got into the Huawei phone because they have long severed business

ties with the company and the Chinese chip is produced by the country's leading chipmaker SMIC, which is also under US sanctions.

So all of that has really alarmed a lot of people in the US with critics pointing to this as yet another evidence as the ineffectiveness and all the

loopholes of the Biden administration's current approach to export controls targeting China.

Now, Secretary Raimondo acknowledge that she was upset when she learned about the new Huawei phone, but insisted there is no evidence so far that

the company is capable of producing advanced chips in large volume.

But for many people here in China, of course, this new phone really has marked a watershed moment that makes a mockery of the US export controls

targeting China, with many people celebrating this milestone moment and stirring a lot of nationalistic fervor online.

Steven Jiang, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS: Well, also in China, the European Union's trade commissioner, saying Beijing is forcing the EU to be more assertive in pushing back

against what he called unfair trade. It's far from a balanced relationship. The EU's trade deficit with China ballooned to $420 billion last year.

Anna Stewart has more for us. Great to see you. And of course, the EU trade commissioner also saying that they will create a dialogue mechanism. Is

that going to be enough to ease trade tensions?

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Well, it's interesting. It's very similar to what was announced between Beijing and Washington in that meeting with the

secretary in the US, Gina Raimondo, which Steven Jiang was just talking about. It is too soon to say whether that's going to bear any fruit at all

in the same situation as here.

We have seen, of course, really high tensions between the EU and Beijing, particularly with export controls. I think the semiconductor market is a

pretty hot one right now, and even just the threat of more export controls, it has been a game of volley. You also have and this has been for years

decades, even the ongoing complaint from the EU that it's simply unfair sometimes to do trade with China, particularly with Chinese imports.

At the moment, there's a big focus on Chinese electric vehicles and whether they are cheap as a result of Chinese state subsidies, so this is how

Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU Trade commissioner described the relationship right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALDIS DOMBROVSKIS, EU TRADE COMMISSIONER: We are concerned about imbalance in our relationships. The EU is having a trade deficit with China of almost

400 billion euros and European companies in China are raising a number of concerns about business environment.

Addressing these concerns will help China to retain its capacity to attract and retain foreign investment and meet its objective of a sustainable, high

quality economic development.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Concerns about the business environment in China and from a summer survey by the EU, the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, two-thirds of

respondents said they are finding it harder and harder to do business in China and we have seen a number of businesses of course, up stakes and

leave or reduce their presence and move their hub elsewhere in Asia.

So this dialogue will certainly go both ways. You'd think it would be in Beijing's interests to attract and retain business in China.

GIOKOS: So I mean, when we look at what's happening in China, specifically, in the property market, more trouble brewing in this company that we've

been looking at for quite some time, Evergrande plunging 22 percent.

May I remind you, this company has been on the downward spiral for a while now. It's saying, it is going to delay debt restructuring meeting. What is

the fear behind Evergrande right now, Anna?

STEWART: I mean, this was just the latest twist in this plot, but Evergrande really needs to restructure. There is no doubt about that. But

for that, it needs first of all, creditors to accept a change in debt. And secondly, if that happens, it also needs to have to issue new debt.

Now the Chinese regulator is investigating one of the subsidiaries of Evergrande, it's a probe about investor disclosure and while that's

ongoing, this company cannot issue new debt.

[15:25:05]

So at the worst case, you're looking at Evergrande, if this doesn't improve, facing liquidation and having a fire sale of assets, again, this

is something Beijing I'm sure will not want. They will want to see pre sold homes going to buyers and limiting the contagion effect because Eleni, as

you and I talk about a lot, the real estate sector in China accounts for around a quarter of the economy, which is why a story like this, about a

subsidiary of a real estate developer in China really matters because it has a big, outsized role when you're looking at the economic outlook of the

country.

GIOKOS: Absolutely, it's a really good point. And of course, the issue of contagion, right? You let one fall and what happens to the rest.

Anna Stewart, thank you so much. Great to have you on.

Well, the US House will be back in session Tuesday as lawmakers look to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. Let's go straight to

Manu Raju, who is in Washington for us.

Manu, great to have you on.

Look, just a few days to resolve the standoff. Can it be done?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems unlikely at the moment just because the House is moving in a much different direction than

the United States Senate.

The House Republicans led by the Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to keep his own members in line to get a Republican-led bill out of the House with

all Republican votes to include measures in there that the Democrats simply will not accept.

He simply does not have the votes though in the moment because a handful of Republicans simply don't agree with the direction he is going on spending.

So even if he did manage to get the bill out of the US House, it wouldn't pass the United States Senate, which is a moving on this different track,

on a different proposal to keep the government open past Saturday at 11:59 PM Eastern.

Now, at the same time, the question is, how the threats that continue to emerge over Speaker McCarthy, the warning from members of his right flank

is that if he cuts a deal with Democrats, that could be enough to push him out of the speakership. They are saying that they will call for a vote

seeking his ouster if he does cut a bipartisan deal with the Senate.

I asked the speaker just moments ago, whether or not that is driving his handling of the talks and there is a reason why he is not moving to try to

find a bipartisan deal with Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The fact that if you do cut a deal with Democrats, there could be a vote to push you out. How much of that is driving your decision making?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Nothing drives my decision. If that was driving my decision, would that have driven drove my decision making 15 times

before?

RAJU: But if you did cut a deal with Democrats, then that could be the end of --

MCCARTHY: Did I cut a deal then? Did I cut a deal then? When I went 15 rounds to be speaker?

RAJU: No, I am talking about right now with the --

MCCARTHY: Okay, but let me explain something to you. I'm no different than I was then or before. My whole focus, what's in my mind, what drives me is

the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So his argument is that he is simply trying to get a bill done, that achieves conservative policy wins. His hope is to pass a bill so he could

strengthen his negotiating posture with the United States Senate to find a common ground approach to keep the government open.

But as you can see, having a difficult time even getting a Republican bill out of the House, which is one reason why, Eleni, the betting right now is

that the government will indeed shut down because there is just no agreement, particularly divisions on the Republican side of the aisle

within the Republican Party and that is one big reason it is driving things towards a shutdown potentially by the end of the week -- Eleni.

GIOKOS: Yes. Exactly. Just a few days to go.

Manu Raju, thank you very much. Brilliant work there.

All right, we're going to a very short break and we'll be back with more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:18]

GIOKOS: Welcome back, we're getting more information about what led the Canadian Prime Minister to publicly link the Indian government to the

assassination of a Sikh activist. According to the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Justin Trudeau's intel came through Five Eyes. An information

sharing pact between the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The accusation has set off a diplomatic firestorm with India vehemently denying the claim. But it's not the only controversy Mr. Trudeau's

government is facing over the weekend. The Speaker of Canada's House of Commons was forced to apologize after he praised a Ukrainian veteran who

once fought in a Nazi military unit.

Now tensions between Kosovo and Serbia are high following a deadly clash and standoff near the border Sunday. Police in Kosovo say one of the

officers was killed along with three Serbian gunman. Serbia's President denies his country has anything to do with the attack to border crossings

between the countries reportedly remained closed.

Regional insecurity is one of the obstacles keeping Africa from reaching its full potential, so too, is a lack of opportunity for young people. Last

week, Richard Quest sat down with Nigerian investor Tony Elumelu. And they talked about his foundation's efforts to address that shortcoming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY ELUMELU, FOUNDER, THE TONY ELUMELU FOUNDATION: My wife and I decided that we need to have democratized luck on the continent of Africa by

investing in young Africans, giving them seed capital because we realized that first the lack capital, to the lack training and mentorship. And

three, they lack networking opportunities. So, we'll say let's have these young ones. Let us get them to experience the luck we experience growing

up.

We operate across all 54 African countries touching lives of young ones, young male and female. So, what we do is identify every year, once as a

young Africans, give the non-refundable seed capital $5,000 each. Train them, mentor them, set them free.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The money is not necessarily the most important bit. It's the mentorship, it's the guidance, it's the

opportunities and the networking.

ELUMELU: And the training.

QUEST: All right. The training.

ELUMELU: We have seen that if you give someone (INAUDIBLE) the person, the person will not succeed. So, through all we do, we train them, and we see

that they are succeeding. We see that they are happening to live the needle in terms of the transformation of Africa.

QUEST: You talk about the economy of Africa but, you know, in recent months, the events in Niger and Gabon and elsewhere, they've once again

raised fundamental questions about the invest ability and the risks involved.

[15:35:11]

ELUMELU: In the world, the problem is leadership. We need to officially (INAUDIBLE) on the continent of refusing the lecture on the continent ever

let them fall in place. But you can't lead us (INAUDIBLE) that is why we invest in the young African entrepreneurs. Teaching them how to succeed,

teaching them how to make a living from little resources that they have.

QUEST: But how do you teach, you know, you talk about the problem is leadership. But you take a country like Niger which is vast, has enormous

resources. And I think you would agree should be doing better than it is.

ELUMELU: Certain, there's always room for improvement, Niger in particular.

QUEST: Yes.

ELUMELU: The past couple of years have been very difficult. Difficult for investment (INAUDIBLE) but things are changing. We have in place now, a

leadership that understand the importance of economy -- the economy. The leadership that understands what it takes to fix a country, especially a

contrast strategy. Not just to Africa, but to the world as Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people occurred as in data and resources.

Both human and natural. Well, the good thing is things are improving. And that is why again, what we're going to deal with the foundation is

important not just for Niger but for all of Africa.

QUEST: What is the key to prevent your most talented from leaving or turning to extremism or corruption? What is the key?

ELUMELU: The key, good leadership and national level at the government level. But more importantly, all of us, private sector leaders,

philanthropists, global leaders, governments in Africa and Nigeria, working collaboratively to give economic hope and opportunity to younger. People

who have hope and opportunities, see opportunities. They don't go into extremism. They don't exert. They don't leave the country in various

(INAUDIBLE) because they believe that life is better not that bad at all. In our lifetime, we want to see them survive and succeed in Africa.

QUEST: Right.

ELUMELU: In spite of the challenges we have on the continent and that is why I'm here at UNGA to play my own role, to galvanize further support to

enable us, scale up what we do at the Tony Elumelu Foundation. We committed $100 million U.S. to support the Niger in Africa but it seems that we have

so far supported 18000. We should be supporting hundreds of thousands of young Africans.

The continent of 1.6 billion people. This is a national aim for a global issue that all of us must come together to result. So, when I have

opportunity like this, I say to the world, let us come together to feed this world because poverty anywhere is a threat to all of us everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, diamonds might be a girl's best friend but can they help us unlock secrets about the solar system as well as life on Earth? Well, some

other rocks can.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Touchdown. I repeat, EDL - SRC has touched down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, that's touchdown for NASA in the Utah desert on Sunday. The space delivery, the first of its kind for the U.S. was a capsule containing

pristine samples from the asteroid Bennu. And there's a slight chance it could collide with earth one day, by the way, about 250 grams of asteroid

rocks and soil were collected by a spacecraft that launched seven years ago. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why this journey measured

in the billions of kilometers almost seemed impossible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: We want a space probe from Earth itself a moving platform to intersect and asteroid itself a moving target.

It then touches and go -- does a touching go off of that asteroid surface and grabbing anything it could, when it hit. We expected maybe a couple of

ounces, but it got like eight -- half a pound of material got grabbed up into the capsule.

Then that continued on to re-intersect Earth, deploy that capsule, and then it kept going and it's on to another asteroid. And so yes, it is rocket

science. And yes, it's a brilliant feat. And I look forward to more of this in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Very cool. All right. And finally, superstar Usher will have audiences screaming yet when he takes the stage at the Super Bowl halftime

show in Las Vegas in February.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIOKOS: Well, since his debut album in 1994, the singer has sold over 80 million records and won eight Grammys.

[15:40:02]

I should confess that headlining the halftime show was on his bucket list and called it the honor of a lifetime. He appeared on the halftime stage

back in 2011 with the Black Eyed Peas but this will be his first time as the main attraction.

All right. I want to quickly take you to what the Dow Jones is doing. We've had quite a dismal day actually battling to find direction across the

board. A bit of green as you can see there but we're flat. The month of September hasn't been particularly good for stocks in the United States.

S&P is down four percent, NASDAQ down six percent. Dow losing two percent for the month.

People are really worried about the oil price and what we've been seeing generally across the board. We'll be bringing you more information on the

markets in around 15 minutes. We'll see you soon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:01]

GIOKOS: Hello. I'm Eleni Giokos in Dubai. It is the dash to the closing bell and we're a minute or so away from the close of trade over on Wall

Street and as we've discussed earlier in the show, the U.S. government is heading towards a shutdown at the end of the week.

The U.S. House will be back in session Tuesday. But Moody's is warning the budget impasse could hurt America's credit rating. It's citing intensifying

political polarization coming at a time of widening fiscal deficits and deteriorating debt affordability. Now the Dow has been struggling to stay

in the green today.

It has been mostly flat. As you can see, we're down, oh, we're up 43 points. It's been as you can see sewing through that line. The other major

indices are set to post modest gains, but mostly in the green. Looking at those Dow components, Dow Inc. is leading. Most stocks in the red.

Microsoft is lower according to a new job posting. It is looking for someone to help power it's A.I. systems with nuclear energy. 3M is at the

bottom.

Well, that is your dash to the bell. I'm Eleni Giokos. And the closing bell on Wall Street is about to ring. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right

now.

END