Return to Transcripts main page

Quest Means Business

Trump Insists Iran Strikes Caused "Total Obliteration"; NATO Leaders Formally Commit to Increase Defense Spending; Aftermath of Israeli Strikes in Tehran; Israel's Offensive in Gaza Shows No Sign of Abating. Trump Says He is Leaving with Different View of Alliance; Israeli Economy GDP Growth remains Resilient Despite Conflicts; Trump: Democrats Crossed the Line in NYC Primary. Aired 4:00-5p ET

Aired June 25, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:02]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall Street. They are about to hit the gavel to bring trading to

a close. The market has been down throughout the whole of the session. There is the bell ringing and there are all sorts of interesting reasons

why the market is unhappy. A lot of it, of course, is giving back gains of recent days. But even so, it does show a wariness. We don't get too excited

over these relatively -- oh, there we go. Thank you, sir. Very grateful.

It's an eye company that's ringing the closing bell and they are seeing things the way they should be. And the market is down. Although not all of

the three indices are lower. Those are the markets and the main events that we are talking about today.

President Trump changes his tune on NATO, his allies are agreeing new spending targets.

That ceasefire between Iran and Israel appears to be holding. On this program tonight, Israel's Central Bank Governor, about the cost of the

conflict and managing a war economy.

And one of Brazil's largest companies, JBS, it is a meat company, rang the opening bell as it lists on the New York Stock Exchange. The CFO will be

with me from Wall Street tonight.

Live from London, middle of the week, June the 25th, to be precise. I am Richard Quest, middle of the week, whenever in the week, I mean business.

Good evening. President Trump is flying back to Washington while we speak. He left the NATO Summit in The Netherlands, and it was certainly a more

positive view of the alliance. The President affirmed the United States commitments to NATO Article V, if you will, saying we are here to help them

protect their country.

Mr. Trump has complained for years about low defense spending among member states and questioned whether the United States would indeed stick to the

principle of a collective response. Now, NATO members have agreed to boost defense spending targets, five percent is the new target, and Mr. Trump

says the group, NATO, isn't a rip off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Without the United States, we couldn't -- we couldn't really have NATO. It wouldn't

work. It wouldn't work. It will in the future because now they're paying much more money, but it wouldn't work. It was great.

And I left here differently. I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It is not a rip off and we are here to help them

protect their country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Jeff is in Washington. Jeff Zeleny, is this a -- pardon the phrase - - a Damascus moment for the President? Has he suddenly gone all misty eyed and rosy on NATO, or what's going on here.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: At the moment, it certainly sounded like it. It was a bit of a love fest, both for and from

the President, Richard.

He is flying back to Washington right now, and we've seen so many of these summits go sideways, really, because of the President's dim view of

alliances in general. But there is no doubt that the planners of the NATO Summit in the Netherlands took great care to accommodate his brief

schedule. He was on the ground for less than 24 hours, and also to, you know, basically reward him with a praise for the potential ceasefire deal

that is still holding in the Middle East, as well as other matters.

Never mind the, one of the central issues at hand, the Ukraine-Russia war that is ongoing and President Trump did meet with President Volodymyr

Zelenskyy, although it was behind closed doors. Ukraine was initially going to be front and center. Of course, the Middle East overshadowed all of

that.

So yes, the President was very much more friendly, I guess, and was happy to be there and happy to leave as well. But I am not sure if it is a

lasting love fest for this alliance.

QUEST: Now, he talked about the Zelenskyy meeting, a very good meeting, enjoyed meeting him, et cetera, et cetera. And he starts to have sniping at

Vladimir Putin. Is there, I guess we are now really studying the ruins and the waters here to see, is there a shift taking place?

ZELENY: I would be very hard pressed to say there is a shift taking place. The fact that the meeting was not held on camera, President Trump loves to

be on camera. He opens up the Oval Office every chance he gets for a parade of leaders and meetings and things, they chose by design to keep this

meeting off camera. Just between the two of them. There has not been a photograph released or anything else.

And that certainly, if he wanted to send a signal to Vladimir Putin that he was, you know, essentially frustrated with his reluctance to end the war, I

think they could have done that.

[16:05:10]

But the President actually has struggled to live up to his promise of being able to end this conflict. He acknowledged today, it is more difficult and

more protracted than he thought, so I am not sure I read much into the fact that he is losing his patience with Putin.

QUEST: I have to say, the man does have extraordinary feats of energy and ability to keep going. I mean, yes, he may look a bit weary at times, but

he has crossed the Atlantic a good few times straight in a couple of weeks, straight into massive amounts of meetings, and he really is a force to be

reckoned with, a physical force, the way he just keeps going.

ZELENY: Look, he rarely sleeps. I mean, that's something that his aides will acknowledge that they are hearing from at all hours. He acknowledges

watching television coverage, often screaming at the television in real time or later. So --

But I think the -- you know, he loves to be the center of attention, certainly at these Summits. A bigger question is what is really coming out

of this? And I think the big question that we learned today, he said that next week, there will be some type of a meeting with Iran, diplomatically

speaking. We have no details about that. So there is always something, a little nugget that is dropped here.

So that, of course, remains his biggest challenge when he returns to the White House here in just a couple of hours.

QUEST: Jeff, I am grateful. Jeff is in Washington. I am grateful.

ZELENY: My pleasure.

QUEST: To Israel now where people have been returning to daily life as schools reopened on Wednesday. The ceasefire with Iran can't come soon

enough for the country's economy.

Israel's growth has remained remarkably resilient at about 3.2 to 3.5 percent, although it has been revised downwards quite considerably as well.

The various conflicts with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas have caused strains. The labor market remains tight as reservists have been called to serve.

Inflation remains elevated above target and the unemployment rate is just over three percent. It is, of course, the government spending on defense

that has surged the country's deficit, 6.9 percent last year.

Managing the economy, of course, is the Finance Minister, but along with that is the head of the Central Bank and Governor Amir Yaron is the

governor of the Bank of Israel. Also, economic adviser to the government of Israel. The Governor is with me now.

It is good to see you, sir. I am grateful.

Thankfully, we do speak at times of relative peace, at least on one of the fronts. How difficult has it been managing the Central Bank and the economy

in a sense, when deficits are through the roof and if the numbers are believed, tens of billions have been spent just on Iran alone?

AMIR YARON, ISRAEL CENTRAL BANK GOVERNOR: Richard, thank you for having me.

First, I want to say that the Israeli economy, as you mentioned, has shown immense resiliency since the horrific day of the 7th of October. We've seen

GDP and the economy grow moderately. The last quarter, we even grew around our potential, which is around four percent, but of course, we have not

caught up with all the lost growth that we had over the year and nine months.

Now obviously, given the campaign against the nuclear threat of Iran, we saw again damages on structures, lives taken, and the overall cost of this

whole event so far has been about one percent of GDP. Again, one has to commend the resiliency of the home front. What you see right now is that

merchants, working places, you know, shops are opening and schools are being opened very quickly. So the economy is likely to resume growth coming

back fast.

I would say one more thing about markets. You see that markets are showing that Israel is in a better geopolitical risk and improved geopolitical

risk. We see it through the stock market. We see it through the appreciation of the shekel. We see it through Israeli CDS, and if this

continues and sustain, we expect higher growth down the road and better prospects.

If I can say something about the deficit, we have shown throughout this crisis from the 7th of October, since you asked about that, the government

has shown commitment to fiscal responsibility.

[16:10:08]

The government has done two major fiscal consolidation steps in the budgets of the 2024 and 2025, on the order of one and 1.5 percent consolidation

steps -- percent of GDP consolidation step, and that ensured that we don't have a divergent debt to GDP. And in fact, a trajectory that over time

should come down.

Now the challenge going forward --

QUEST: Let me just interrupt you, Governor, if I may. Do you forgive me? But I want to point out --

YARON: Sure.

QUEST: I want to just talk about the deficit, because obviously, you can't continue to run that size deficits for the foreseeable future, and yet

there is still a sizable funding requirement for military and social and if you will, the payment that goes with this military campaign.

YARON: You are right. So I was just about to say the challenge going forward is maintaining this fiscal responsibility stand that we've had and

have shown to the markets all along, since the 7th of October and even prior to that.

And right now, we are going to have to -- given this improved geopolitical stand, we are going to have to reassess going forward how we look at the

budget. Do we need more further increases in defense spending or the other way around and allocate more to civilian or maybe take a step back and make

sure that our debt to GDP, in fact, is one that over time is coming down.

And this is very important that we maintain this fiscal responsibility stand and in order to do that, this is a time once the dust settles around

this event that we see and we reassess these budget priorities.

QUEST: Can you still hope to have two cuts in interest rates this year, bearing in mind growth is -- growth is strong, not brilliant, but I mean,

it is better than most and inflation is still above target. On what you are talking about at the moment, it seems it would be risky to cut rates.

YARON: Excellent question. Let me say first of all, inflation has been very volatile lately, partly due to, for example, airplane costs which have come

up and down. Moreover, going forward, we have two vectors going in opposing way.

On the one hand, given this improved, basically geopolitical event, we expect demand to come up, investment to come up, and that should put some

pressure upward on inflation. The other side is that we've seen the shekel, the currency, appreciate, and that should mitigate and to some extent

suppress inflation.

Which one of these will come out is hard to tell at this point, and therefore we are going to have to act cautiously. We are going to have to

get a better clarity regarding the economic outlook and that is why we are going to continue at this point with the data dependent approach that we

had.

QUEST: How significant and relevant is it that you keep an eye on the necessities of social spending? And I am thinking, you've managed to get

yourself into a rather, I won't say argument, but a bit of a brouhaha, a bit of a broyges, as they might say over housing prices and the way in

which the Central Bank and the government is managing, if you will, that arrangement.

But at the end of the day, rents, mortgages, the housing stock is the sort of things that people care about shortly after they care about defense.

YARON: Given some of the damages that we've seen and given the general growth rate of the population in Israel, there is large demand for housing

in Israel. And it is very -- we've been saying the key to basically not allowing housing prices to continue to go up as they've had is to increase

supply. Part of -- going back to the inflation question, you asked me, part of the reason we've seen excess demand and pressure on prices is due to

labor shortages, and we are going to have to make sure that those come back, either through foreign workers and if, for example, the events in

Gaza sort of calm down and more reservists come back into the labor force that would also mitigate some of those labor shortages and allow generally

the labor market to be less tight and less pressure on prices, and in particular, for the housing market.

[16:15:30]

QUEST: You know, Governor, I am looking at your resume, in a sense, Professor at Carnegie Mellon and Wharton at Penn. I mean, how do they teach

-- do they teach at any stage as a Central Bank Governor, how to run a Central Bank at a time of war? Is it just something one learns on the job?

Because the pressures -- and it is not a flippant question in a sense, because you've outlined perfectly in your answer on inflation, the

conflicting duopolies of growth versus reservists versus fear of spending. How does one manage that?

YARON: First, I should say, you know, teaching how to manage a Central Bank during a war is not part of a PhD program in Economics, but you have to

basically take the basics that you know about Economics. I have great staff in the Central Bank, in the Bank of Israel. And, you know, we've endured

many crises.

I've had -- I've gone through five elections, five prime ministers, three of which were Netanyahu, you know, four finance ministers. Another mini-war

called Shamir Khumot (ph). You know, COVID, of course, Ukraine-Russia, judicial changes and now this war. So the bank has learned both business

continuity and also how to manage crisis.

The one lesson we have about crisis, and that was true at the onslaught of the 7th of October, and we know it from other areas, you do not want an

economic crisis to spill over into a financial crisis, and that's why initially there, you know, we managed and sold some of the reserves to make

sure the markets are functioning in orderly fashion.

We have ways of making sure we do business continuity during such turbulent times.

QUEST: Governor, I am grateful that you're taking time to join us tonight. Thank you, sir, for your time. Governor Yaron joining me.

YARON: Thank you, Richard.

QUEST: From Israel tonight. Good to see you, sir.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, still to come, a stunning political upset, a young progressive Democrat is poised to topple a political titan in the New York

City's mayoral primary. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:39]

QUEST: President Trump is now mocking New York City Democrats after the progressive candidate, Zohran Mamdani declared victory in the party's

mayoral primary. He is 32 years old and he has campaigned on freezing rent and free public transport.

Now on Truth Social, the President called Mamdani a 100 percent communist lunatic and said the Democrats had finally crossed the line.

Gloria Pazmino is with me now.

The only thing I noticed is if he is elected, taxes are going up for the wealthy in New York, or at least, you know -- so the city is already on

notice that there will be quite a shift to the left if he is elected. But I think you'll correct me, Bloomberg, I think, got elected as a Republican,

but otherwise its Democrats all the way for that particular job. So one would expect just, you know, on history alone, he will get elected.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right, Richard, and I think a few things that you have mentioned. First, none of the

comments that President Trump made on Truth Social are surprising, right? This is what Democrats here in New York expected that Mamdani's win would

be immediately weaponized and used by Republicans, including the President, to attack Democrats and to suggest that this is essentially the future and

the way of this Democratic Party.

To your point about taxes here in New York City, very important detail. You're right, Mamdani ran on a promise to tax the city's richest,

wealthiest residents to pay for many of his proposals. Things like free city busses, city subsidized supermarkets, child care that's affordable and

universal for all New Yorkers. And he said he would do so by taxing the rich.

But a very important wrinkle in that proposal, Richard, is that the city's taxes can only be raised or lowered by the Governor and the State

Legislature in Albany. So Mamdani would have to take that proposal to the Governor, and it would have to get approved by the Legislature before those

taxes can be raised. So he has a long road ahead, assuming he is able to win the nomination and eventually win City Hall.

Lastly, to your point about Republicans not having won here in New York City since Mayor Michael Bloomberg ran as a Republican and as an

Independent. You're right, Democrats are usually considered a shoo-in for the mayoralty here in New York City after they secured the primary.

QUEST: So did Mamdani win, or did Cuomo lose, if you know what I mean?

PAZMINO: Great. That's a great way of framing the question, and I think it is very important to point out that you saw very, very different campaigns.

You know, Cuomo was mounting a political comeback. Let's remember, he resigned from office in 2021 after being accused by 11 women of sexual

harassment, and he was using this as an attempt to come back into the fray.

Ultimately, Cuomo ran a campaign that sort of assumed and performed as if his win was a given. Right? And I think that ultimately that ended up being

a mistake for Cuomo campaign.

Zohran Mamdani ran a very different kind of campaign, very energetic, very much on social media. A lot of videos and very different from Cuomo,

Mamdani was really on the streets of New York pounding the pavement, as they say, every single day, trying to connect with New Yorkers.

Just one example of this, Richard, and I think you'll love this. On the last Friday before the election, Mamdani actually walked the length of

Manhattan from the top of Manhattan all the way down to the Battery, and he said he was doing this because he believes that New Yorkers should have a

mayor who they can see and talk to and yell at if they need to. And that was just a moment where you really saw the campaigns' difference between

this new way of running versus what Cuomo tried to do.

I think that, you know, much of the establishment lined up behind Cuomo, and it just shows that the Democratic Party here in the United States,

certainly here in New York, is having a battle within itself about how to run candidates in the future, especially in the age of Trump.

[16:25:11]

QUEST: I think before the election, you and I need to walk the length of Manhattan. I am up for it. Get my sneakers on. Go from the top --

PAZMINO: It takes about eight hours.

QUEST: Well, maybe it is not such a good idea. It seemed a good idea at the beginning. All right, good to see you, Gloria.

PAZMINO: We'll take our camera.

QUEST: Absolutely, absolutely. Send the cameraman. We will get the pictures later. Good to see you. Thank you.

It has been a very busy day worldwide. Let me bring you up-to-date with other news that has been happening.

Let's go to Kenya now where eight people have been killed during anti- government protests in the country. Thousands of people took to the streets in Nairobi a year after protesters stormed Parliament over a proposed tax

hike.

CNN's Larry Madowo reports and witnessed some of the latest clashes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what happens when the police come, people scatter and disappear. There are teargas all around us, teargas all

around us. Fabs, they're going to come that way. They're going to come that way.

(LARRY MADOWO speaking foreign language.)

MADOWO: People are not seeing this in real time because the Kenyan government has banned local radio and T.V. stations from broadcasting this

live. But it is a scene unlike any I've ever seen here.

A year ago, many protesters were killed here, and many of them have come back to honor their memories and to call out the government for not dealing

with police brutality, and also for not paying attention to their needs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am here today to remember my fellow comrades who lost their lives at these streets. But the police who killed the Gen Zs last

year, they are here like today, they haven't done anything about those police officers.

MADOWO: This is a major highway that's completely blocked out. There's stones everywhere. This road is important for another reason. It leads

directly to President William Ruto's house, the State House. And some protesters have threatened to go there and to depose him, to remove him

from office. And the police are determined to make sure that does not happen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't need Ruto as our president. Ruto is a corrupt leader and we don't need him in Kenya. Ruto must go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ruto must go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Officers advance.

(PEOPLE shouting)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all have only our phones. We are peaceful. Our hands are up. But we have been -- but we have been cornered and we are afraid for

our lives.

MADOWO: This should be a busy street in Nairobi. It is in the heart of the city. Instead, it looks like this, with those explosions, those bangs that

have been ringing out for hours. A year after the deadliest day of protests in Kenya, these people are back to say their demands have not changed and

the government has not changed. The two sides not speaking to each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Larry Madowo reporting there from Kenya.

As you and I continue tonight, NATO members are pledging to spend five percent of GDP on defense, far more than what most members currently spend.

Now, is this a realistic target in any meaningful timeframe? That is to be discussed next.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:00]

QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. Together we'll have more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm going to talk to the former foreign minister of Lithuania

about NATO's higher defense spending targets. And I want to know from him, is it really realistic that Russia would attack a NATO country as the

German minister decided. And the CFO of one of Brazil's biggest meat companies joins me as it celebrate its U.S. listing.

We can only get to that after the news because this is CNN and on this network, the news always comes first.

Donald Trump is doubling down on his insistence that key Iranian nuclear facilities have been obliterated. He was speaking at NATO when he said he

believes Iran did not have its highly enriched uranium before, did not have time to move, I beg your pardon, its highly enriched uranium before the

U.S. strikes. He also downplayed an earlier damage report from his own intelligence community. He called it inconclusive.

As we just showed you, deadly protests have been taking place across Kenya. At least eight people have been killed reportedly and hundreds more

injured, according to the country's human rights commission. The demonstrations marked the first anniversary of anti-government protests

over taxes. In both cases, they have clashed with security forces in scenes that resemble a war zone.

The FAA is investigating after an American Airlines aircraft reported smoke coming from its left engine. The pictures are dramatic shortly. After

takeoff from Las Vegas, as you can see, smoke billowing from the American Flight 1665. It's an airbus. The carrier says 153 passengers were on board,

along with six crew members with no injuries.

At the NATO summit today, President Trump claimed U.S. strikes on Iran were very successful, though he does concede that an early U.S. intel report was

inconclusive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They said it could be limited or it could be very severe. They really didn't know other than to say it

could be limited or it could be very, very severe. And you didn't choose to put that because it was very early after. Since then, we've collected

additional intelligence. We've also spoken to people, have seen the site, and the site -- the site is obliterated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Kristen Holmes is in the Netherlands.

He's doubling down, isn't he? Absolutely, in this idea of obliterated, destroyed. And until we get more information, you know, we will go with

what the president says, I suppose.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, look, this really hung over the entire NATO summit because President Trump was

fixated on ensuring that he continued to say that this was completely obliterated. This being the nuclear sites in Iran. He enlisted both his

secretary of State, his secretary of Defense, to back him up on that the facilities had been completely destroyed.

At one point, the White House put out a statement which was from the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission that said, and I'll read it to you. It

said that the U.S. strikes on Fordow were decimated the site's critical infrastructure.

[16:35:02]

They also put out statements from the Iranians saying that the site had been badly damaged, even though there were a lot of other things that

happened during this summit that really remained the focus. And you could tell how angry President Trump was. He did try to claim that these reports

were in some way trying to harm the pilots or the soldiers who participated in that bombing, saying that, you know, questioning them and their work,

and that's not what this was.

Just to reiterate, you know, the president admitted that there was a preliminary intelligence report. He just refuted what was found in it. And

we reported what was found in that intelligence report, which there were still a lot of questions of.

And the one thing to note, though, Richard, is that this is preliminary. We do believe this is ongoing. And now we have these statements from the

Iranians and from the Israelis. And this is going to continue to evolve because even the night of the attacks on those nuclear facilities, you had

President Trump already saying they were obliterated. But we were reporting that we had spoken to experts who said that the actual battle damage

assessment could not be done for possibly weeks.

You have to get not only aerial imaging, you get soil samples, you get people on the ground who do their own surveying. This is a lengthy process.

And so this is one preliminary intelligence report. President Trump saying it's not what the other intelligence reports are finding. And we do know

now that several of these high ranking officials in the administration are going to be briefing the Senate tomorrow on some of this.

QUEST: All right. And we'll find out more. One thing is certain, the truth will out at some point in some way. Thank you. Have a safe journey back.

Thank you.

Now President Trump is threatening to punish Spain unless it increases its defense budget. NATO members pledged at this year's summit to spend 5

percent of GDP. Spain's prime minister says 2 percent is enough for his country to meet its obligations. Well, that didn't go down well. Mr. Trump

was asked what he thought about Madrid's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Oh, I think Spain is terrible what they've done. No, I do. They're the only country that won't pay the full up. They want to stay at 2

percent. I think it's terrible. And, you know, they're doing very well. The economy is very well. And that economy could be blown right out of the

water with something bad happening. You know, Spain is the only country that -- are you from Spain?

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes.

TRUMP: Good. Congratulations. You're the only country that is not paying. I don't know what the problem is. It's -- I think it's too bad. So we'll make

it up. You know what we're going to do? We're negotiating with Spain on a trade deal. We're going to make them pay twice as much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: I don't think I've ever heard a president put it quite so mafioso as being a nice country, shame if something were to happen to it. Anyway, at

the moment, no NATO country spends 5 percent on defense. Poland is the only one who comes close. It's over four. But then it is very close to Russia-

Ukraine. Even the U.S. falls short at 3.4 percent.

Look at that chart. The ones in the red are below the original 2 percent, but they are heading in that direction, likely to be there quite soon.

Spain at the bottom of the list, only 1.3 percent of GDP on defense last year. They justify it in other ways.

Lithuania is near the top, spending 2.85 percent. Gabrielius Landsbergis served as the country's foreign minister from 2020 to 2024, with me now

from Vilnius.

I assume, having read your various articles, you like this 5 percent and you know, you think it is the right thing to do since at the moment you are

highly critical of the naivete in many quarters of NATO over the threat from Russia.

GABRIELIUS LANDSBERGIS, FORMER LITHUANIA FOREIGN MINISTER: Yes, indeed. And, you know, I think that at the core of a debate that we heard in NATO

is a difference when it comes to the threat assessment. You mentioned yourself a country like Poland, which is already above 4 percent. My

country is around 3 percent. Other Baltic States also 3 percent. And then you have eight or nine countries who did not -- are not reaching even 2

percent.

So, you know, it's not just about the money, it's not about the public debate. It's about the understanding whether Russia is a real threat and

what would happen if Russia would attack.

QUEST: Can I -- can I just ask you, Gabrielius? I've read your articles and I've read all of this, and I remember, you know, I've heard what the

defense minister of Germany and what Friedrich Merz have said. Do you really believe there is a realistic chance in the next five years of Russia

launching an attack on a Baltic country or a NATO country?

LANDSBERGIS: Well, look, the way that we are seeing the situation is that Putin, if he thinks that he can be victorious in Ukraine, that his imperial

project of rebuilding either the Soviet empire or Russian empire, whichever is actually working and gaining speed, then, yes, he can -- he can have a

greater ambition than going -- that would go beyond Ukraine.

[16:40:03]

The second thing here is that he is ready. Just during the, you know, the months that he had in this year, he was able to recruit, not mobilize, but

recruit about 90,000 of people into his army. That means that they are volunteers that are, you know, being paid. They are not forced to go to the

war. So that means that they believe that Russia can be victorious.

So this is what Putin is currently, and we are talking about the plans for 10 years, that in 10 years we are going to spend 3.5 percent, that in 10

years we will be ready. So he can use this opportunity when we are not ready right now. And this becomes -- this is why it becomes so dangerous

now. And this is why I agree with what German intelligence is saying.

QUEST: Right.

LANDSBERGIS: Yes.

QUEST: Are you reassured tonight by what President Trump said in his seeming reaffirmation of Article Five?

LANDSBERGIS: It is important. It is important that he said that because, you know, just before he left for Hague, for Netherlands, he said something

different. He said that there are different interpretations of Article Five, and that got many people worried, especially those who are so close

to, so close to the war. But then when he amended it, when he reconfirmed the U.S. commitment to Article Five, I think that, you know, OK, we are

confused, but I hope that Putin is also confused about this and the confusion in this -- at this time, it might serve as quite well. That means

that maybe he, you know, he wouldn't try and test NATO.

QUEST: Right. I'm grateful for your time tonight. Thank you. Good to talk to you. Thank you, sir.

LANDSBERGIS: Thank you so much.

QUEST: QUEST MEANS BUSINESS live tonight from London. One of the largest global meat producers has recently listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Brazil's JBS, tariff hikes, issues in the market, IPOs, popularity of meat, climate change, the lot with the CFO after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: So "Call to Earth" this week, we're heading out to the outer reaches of the Great Barrier Reef with marine biologist Emma Camp. It's part of the

Rolex Perpetual Planet initiative. Now, Emma's Coral Nurture Program aims to find the world's toughest coral and then use it to help revitalize the

threatened Barrier Reef.

[16:45:02]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, marine biologist Emma Camp and her team are in northeast Australia preparing for

an important expedition to the Great Barrier Reef.

Their mission, to find what's known as super coral or heat tolerant species that could be key to restoring parts of this reef.

A pioneer in this space, Emma has dedicated her career to finding and researching these super species.

DR. EMMA CAMP, MARINE BIOLOGIST, UNIVERSITY O TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY: We know that corals globally are having to contend with lots of stressors, such as

higher temperatures. So why are some corals able to contend with these conditions better than others? Where are they found? How can we identify

them? But also how can we learn from them?

WEIR: Emma has traveled the globe in search of the world's toughest coral, like here at Woody Isles, a remote mangrove bay about a 30-minute boat ride

from shore.

CAMP: So I just love the mangroves. I just find it such a special place. This lagoon has really harsh conditions. They're not conditions that

typically we would expect to find corals. The temperature gets warm, it gets acidic, and we get low oxygen conditions. So the corals that are here

have to be really tough to survive all of those conditions.

WEIR: These sheltered waters are home to everything from deadly box jellyfish to the odd saltwater crocodile. So the team must keep their

bodies completely covered and eyes peeled when jumping in. As the tide lowers, the coral are revealed.

CAMP: You can see all along the roots here there are corals. You can see a couple of Porites corals here. Got some Goniastrea. So all of the yellows

and they scattered all the way under the roots there as well. Any corals that are found in this lagoon, we can think of as being really tolerant to

stress because we know through the senses that we've deployed and through the water chemistry measurements that we take, how extreme these conditions

are.

Yes, we'll go back in a bit to the filtered ones.

WEIR: Emma and her team have found up to 40 resilient coral species across the globe. They use them as a blueprint for the team's reef restoration

projects.

CAMP: The locations where we find super corals and also the corals themselves. So transforming our understanding of coral tolerance, they're

another tool that we have to understand how corals may adapt to climate change.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Fascinating. Now you'll want to watch the full documentary "Searching for Super Coral." It's this weekend and it's here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:22]

QUEST: State media in Iran is now reporting that more than 600 people have been killed during the conflict with Israel so far this month. In the hours

before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday morning, residents say that Tehran was pounded by sustained Israeli airstrikes.

Our correspondent CNN Fred Pleitgen is there. He's at a building that was badly damaged just before the ceasefire was agreed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here in the Iranian capital one thing that we noticed in the run-up to the ceasefire is

that there was an increase in airstrikes, and the Iranians are saying some of them happened in residential areas, and they took us to some of the

sites in those residential areas that were hit.

You can tell here that this building was badly damaged by an airstrike. The Iranians are saying that a bakery was damaged, a beauty salon and two

residential units. They say several people were killed here. They're not saying who the people were who were killed, but they also say that one

person is still in hospital and many people were also injured here as well.

We spoke to some of the residents who live in the adjacent buildings, and they told us how terrifying that situation was.

(Voice-over): "Suddenly I heard an impact," he says. "Then an explosion. Before that, I heard a plane in the air. All the windows were shattered

over me, but the curtains stopped part of the glass. I was thrown to the corner of the kitchen."

PLEITGEN: You can tell the blast must have been pretty powerful. We're actually in the building next door now, and you can see there's significant

damage here as well. In fact, someone's chocolates are still here on this coffee table. And if we go over here into the room next door, this seems to

be some sort of office and maybe bedroom. There's still someone's sleeping area here. It's unclear whether anybody was laying there, but if someone

was laying there, it must have been a terrifying experience.

We're inside the bakery in the building that was hit, and you could see the damage here is also significant. The folks here say that they were actually

lucky because they closed the bakery down three days prior to the strike simply because of the ongoing security situation with that Israeli aerial

campaign going on. At the same time, there are a bunch of places here in Tehran now where people are cleaning up and picking up the pieces, trying

to move on and getting their business back in order.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Now, while the Israel-Iran conflict has dominated the headlines, Palestinians and hostage families caught up in Gaza have slipped from the

front pages. And yet more than 860 people in Gaza have been killed by Israeli fire since the bombardment of Iran recommenced, or the bombardment

of Iran commenced on June the 13th, I beg your pardon, according to CNN's calculations of the daily death toll released by the Palestinian Health

Ministry.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz with this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Could a ceasefire deal be reached in Gaza? After a truce was brokered to end a 12-day conflict between Israel

and Iran, there are now hopes and calls that diplomacy could win out in Gaza as well. But Israel's offensive there shows no signs of slowing down.

Just in the last couple of weeks, while headlines were focused on Iran, more than 860 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire inside the enclave.

Dozens of them were killed trying to get food in a place where starvation is spreading and where the U.N. warns more than two million people living

there are on the brink of a man-made famine. Now, President Trump has expressed optimism that the deal in Iran could open up channels for Gaza as

well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think great progress is being made on Gaza. I think the -- because of this attack that we made, I think we're going to have some very good

news. I think that it helped a little bit. It showed a lot of power. Yes, I think it helped. But we're going to get -- separately even before this, we

were very close to making a deal on Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: But in an address to his nation, Prime Minister Netanyahu said he is going to now return his focus to his battle against Hamas. He says

that Israel will not let its foot off the gas when it comes to its offensive on the enclave. But there is, of course, signs of just how much

pressure this is putting on the Israeli military.

The call for reservists to join duty has been extended into July, and at least seven Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Gaza, in Khan Younis,

when a bomb attached to their armored vehicle detonated.

Now, on those mediation efforts, Qatar, which is of course one of the mediators, says that it does hope indirect talks could resume in the next

couple of days. It says that there are ongoing diplomatic efforts to find middle ground when it comes to the U.S. proposal currently on the table,

which proposes that a certain number of Israeli hostages would be released in exchange for a 60-day ceasefire.

[16:55:14]

Now, Hamas has said it is open to negotiations, but it is unwilling to lay down arms, of course, but for the families inside Gaza, still suffering in

that enclave, this deal needed to be reached yesterday.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Now, let me just show you how the markets finished as the ceasefire in the Middle East held for the second day, and the Fed chair was speaking

to members of Congress. On the Dow, we're up -- down 106 off the session lows. Quite considerably off the session lows. And if you look at the

components, Nvidia is up 4 percent after its annual stockholders meeting. McDonald's is down 2 percent. It's the latest target of a boycott campaign

over DEI rollbacks and rising prices.

So nice. It's a balanced sort of market overall where the reds have got a little bit. But overall, and of course the Nasdaq did better overall.

We will take a "Profitable Moment" after the break. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" tonight coming to you live from London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Professor Amir Yaron, the governor of the Bank of Israel, admitted that they don't teach you how to run a war economy at business school or

indeed, when you're a professor. Instead, he made clear you just run it as good economics and you just follow that through. And that, I think, is one

of the reasons why Israel's economy has weathered the storm of a 6.9 percent budget deficit, multiple wars at the same time, and indeed,

spending that's absolutely gone through the roof.

Now that clearly can't continue. The governor admitted that on this program tonight. And indeed, if you look at the shifting forces, inflationary

forces, because of spending versus deflationary forces, because people don't, consumers pull back versus inflationary forces because of defense

spending versus deflationary forces on the shekel, you start to see what a complicated picture it is.

But here's the real point that the governor was making. You can make it as complicated as you like. But the truth is, as long as you're running your

economy properly to start with and you have an economy worth running, for example, the startup nation, the tech industries in Israel, then, yes, once

these other aspects abate, you've got something you can fall back on and grow for the future.

And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in London. Whatever you're up to the hours ahead, yes, I hope it's profitable. I'll

see you tomorrow.

END