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Quest Means Business
Trump Urges Allies To Help Secure The Strait Of Hormuz; DroneShield Products Provide Counter-Drone Protection; AirAsia Under Pressure After Leaving Fuel Costs Unhedged; Grid Operator: Cuba's Power System Suffers Total Collapse; FCC Chair Threatens United States T.V. Networks Amid Iran War Coverage; Drone Attack Causes Fire At Key Oil Hub In UAE. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired March 16, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:16]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell ringing on Wall Street. She means business, the female entrepreneurs
concerning with A.I. are ringing the closing bell on a strong day on the markets. We will get to the reasons why in just a second.
Ma'am, if you'd like to bring trading to an end. I am very grateful. We are up. Weve been up all throughout the course of the day. All sorts of
undercurrents. We will get to it. Those are the markets and these are the stories we are following.
President Trump is calling on countries to help protect the Strait of Hormuz, and he is getting a cold reception in return.
A drone attack disrupted operations at Dubai Airport. I will speak to the chief executive of DroneShield on how similar attacks can be defended.
And tonight --
TONY FERNANDES, CEO, CAPITAL A: Yes, prices are going up, yes, I think the elasticity is there. What is patently clear in my 23 years is that flying
is almost a necessity.
QUEST: That's Tony Fernandes, he says the long-term outlook for AirAsia is bright even with the war and fuel costs soaring.
A new week together live from London. Monday, March the 16th. I am Richard Quest in London, as elsewhere, I mean business.
Good evening.
We begin tonight with a call from President Trump calling on nations around the world to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. President has
argued that U.S. Allies should help with the effort, since many of them depend on the Strait to facilitate oil imports.
The President just said he is disappointed in the reaction so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers, great soldiers, protecting them
from harms' way, and we have done a great job. And when we want to know, do you have any minesweepers? Well, we would rather not get involved, sir.
I've been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries, because I know that we will protect them, and if ever needed, if we ever needed help,
they won't be there for us. I've just known that for a long period of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Now, Chancellor Merz of Germany says Berlin will not help because NATO has nothing to do with the war in Iran. The British Prime Minister,
Sir Keir Starmer, said the U.K. would work with Allies to reopen the Strait, but he did not explain what that all means.
Nic Robertson is with me.
Look the argument is really very simple. We didn't -- I mean, this is their view, we didn't start it. You belittled us and said you didn't need us. Now
you want us, but you didn't consult us at the beginning and it has nothing to do with NATO.
I mean, that is it in a nutshell, but it is not going to advance good relations with the U.S.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, it is not going to get the oil that Europe and other nations need out of the Gulf that's
stuck here because the Iranians are controlling the Strait of Hormuz. It is not going to get into international markets and it is not going to help the
economy survive.
It is not going to help the likes of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is going into pretty tricky elections, local elections in a couple of months.
He said, look very clearly, he is going to commit British troops. He needs a clear legal basis for doing it and a clear plan for it.
You know, when President Trump says, you know, will they come to our aid when they need it? You know, it was only a few months ago, he said
something like that and all the European and NATO countries said, look, absolutely we did come to your assistance in Afghanistan and the difference
then to now is United States gave a plan, gave a call for help, gave a method of how they were going to implement all this NATO support, that
happened over several months and the difference now is European leaders are saying that didn't happen.
Plus, you've been, as you say belittling, berating, saying that NATO soldiers didn't contribute particularly much in Afghanistan or Iraq you
know, we are talking about -- talking to the Danes, talking to the British, talking to the French lost troops, serious numbers of them in Afghanistan
and Iraq that just didn't sell with the population.
So in a way, it is not just President Trump hearing the sentiment of these leaders at a sort of a diplomatic level. It is the inability of these
leaders to have political maneuverability at home because the populations in these countries have been put off by President Trump's message.
The leaders have to sort of react and respond within constraints to that. So that is I think, what we are seeing reflected at the moment .
[16:05:06]
QUEST: But Nic, they are -- I mean, for their own good reasons, they are giving Mr. Trump a way to make them the scapegoat. All he says to the
American people is, I told you, they didn't turn up. It is exactly what I said. NATO is a waste of time, and there will be a large body politic in
the U.S. that will buy that.
ROBERTSON: And this is part of what President Trump's prospectus for the American people, which was America First, a more isolationist United States
and one that has already shown over the course of its dealings with Ukraine, that it is sort of thinking along and moving along a separate
track to the European partners and allies within NATO.
You know, there is some really tough diplomatic things ahead here as President Trump and the European leaders know this. You know, President
Trump talks about those countries in Europe, which provide a significant base for U.S. forces. Previous U.S. presidents have seen that as, you know,
as a cooperative exercise that the United States needs to have those forward positioned troops to protect its interests.
Now, this President doesn't need that, then you know, the upshot of all of this will be and he appears to be signaling it, that he will pull troops
out of Europe and maybe that will play well with his base. But what happens in the big picture is it really does weaken that Alliance, break that NATO
Alliance potentially and weaken the interoperability of the global significant players.
I mean, let's not forget the U.N. Security Council has five permanent members -- the United States, China, Russia, France, England -- France,
Britain.
You know, when the United States does need the big diplomatic and military moves as it does today, it still looks to those nations. All of this will
have to be either patched up or it is really going to weaken the institutions that have existed for many, many decades -- Richard.
QUEST: Beautifully put. Thank you, sir. Nic Robertson, who is in Kuwait City.
Iran still exporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz. Other traffic is paralyzed and it is believed Tehran is shipping about a million barrels
through the Strait down from 1.7 million on average last year.
Iran's Foreign Minister says the Strait is only closed to tankers and ships belonging to the country's enemies.
Anna Cooban is with me. This one million barrels, tell me, so what is going where?
ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, fundamentally, Richard, we are still in a similar position to where we were last week. You
know, you've got the majority of the vessels going through the Strait of Hormuz. Can't get through, yes. You've got Iran basically allowing big
chunks of its oil to get to the global market.
A lot of the oil, Iranian oil was already on tankers floating around the world waiting for buyers before all of this happened. There are some
vessels going through like Indian vessels, for example. Basically countries that aren't directly involved in this conflict, but the U.S. and its allies
are just unable to really get through.
But I think what is interesting, Richard, is that one of the kind of alternatives to this debacle that's been proffered by Saudi Aramco is
actually let's move a lot of our oil that was destined for ships in the Persian Gulf going through the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea via a
pipeline that runs to the West of the country, but even that is riddled with risk.
QUEST: So whose oil would go through that? Would it be only Saudi Aramco's or would they sort of other countries sort of feed into it?
COOBAN: What's being discussed at the moment is Saudi oil, so Saudi Aramco, the world's top oil producer has said it is going to ramp up the oil that
it is putting through that pipeline about seven million barrels at full capacity. But crucially, Richard, that full capacity has never really been
tested before.
And secondly, seven million barrels is less than half the crude that's being lost through the Strait of Hormuz. So, it is necessary, but it is not
sufficient, and crucially, I was speaking to analysts earlier, one of the huge risks here is that actually we will start to see the security
situation in the Red Sea --
QUEST: Which has?
COOBAN: -- become very, very difficult and we don't have to cast our minds back too far to remember what happened a couple of years ago, Houthi
militants in Yemen and I was speaking to sources today telling me that actually, there are some indications that they are readying for a potential
attack.
QUEST: I am grateful. Thank you very much.
Fabrice Pothier, the CEO of Rasmussen Global, NATO's former director of policy planning. He joins me from Brussels.
Good to see you, sir. I am grateful.
When you heard --
FABRICE POTHIER, CEO, RASMUSSEN GLOBAL: Good to see you, Richard.
QUEST: When you heard President Trump say if they don't all join in and help me get this Strait open, it will be very bad news for NATO. What did
you think?
[16:10:00]
POTHIER: Well, first I thought this is President Trump being taken at his own game of transactionalism. He has always, you know, played the
transactional game and now he actually needs something from the Europeans and the Europeans are making it, I would say a bit more difficult to get.
So this is -- I think, there is a lot of schadenfreude here across Europe, like your previous correspondent was saying.
Second point, I think we have to give it that President Trump, as often is right, but in the wrong way. He is right in the sense that Europe and Asian
partners have some real economic interests in having the Strait of Hormuz open for business, but is wrong in the way he is doing it, meaning he has
not associated any European allies, starting with the big ones, the U.K., France and Germany with the planning of this major air campaign that he has
been waging against Iran for the past two weeks, and now that he has some issues to solve, he is kind of asking for help.
QUEST: Is there a feeling, so if you're planning at NATO, what are you doing now? Are you -- because at the end of the day, NATO can't get
involved unless all members do agree. And it doesn't seem likely in today's meeting of European leaders, they wouldn't even agree to extend their Red
Sea plan to the Gulf.
So does NATO just stand and watch?
POTHIER: Well, it is hard to say if first, if there is going to be enough of European allies willing to send some vessels to The strait of Hormuz.
Clearly France is leading this, but is there more than France? That's a real question.
Second, where should it be embedded? Should it be a NATO operation? Should it be a Coalition of the Willing or even an E.U. operation?
Remember that the E.U. had a counter-piracy maritime operation back in the days, which was regarded as actually more effective than the NATO one. So,
I think there will be a question mark here. And like you said, NATO requires consensus from all members. It is not impossible, but what is for
sure impossible is to have all members contributing to a naval operation in the Strait of Hormuz.
So, it will be a handful of European allies who have the capabilities and the will to play a game over there.
QUEST: At the end of the day, this is about -- I mean, it seems to me as the German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, said, I wonder what Trump is
expecting from a handful of European frigates, which the mighty U.S. Navy cannot achieve on its own.
Is it your feeling that Donald Trump just wants other countries in the same leaky boat?
POTHIER: I don't know if it is a leaky boat, but clearly, he has underestimated the capacity of the Iranians to be inflicting cost and pain
and across different domains, not just air via drones and missiles, but also through the Strait of Hormuz.
And it feels quite baffling because in my NATO days, we knew that the Strait of Hormuz was always a chokepoint and always a vulnerable point that
we had to -- we, being the west -- have to think about it.
So, it is quite baffling to see the world's mighty military power being unsettled by basically asymmetric techniques and tactics used by the
Iranians to keep control of the Strait of Hormuz.
So I think we have to wake up to that reality that now our adversaries can be weaker from a military point of view, but still very efficient in
holding their ground by using asymmetric means.
QUEST: I am grateful to you, sir. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.
POTHIER: Pleasure.
QUEST: Drone strikes have been all too common. Coming up next, the CEO of DroneShield about how his company counters these types of attacks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:16:36]
QUEST: Officials now say that the fuel tank fire that disrupted flights at DXP has now been extinguished, Dubai International. It was caused by a
drone strike early on Monday morning. Flights were temporarily diverted to the other airport, Al Maktoum. It is about 65 kilometers away. It is the
third strike on Dubai, the international airport, since the war started.
Iran has fired missiles and drones at a number of civilian targets in the gulf. DroneShield works to counter those sorts of attacks. The company
makes products that can detect and stop unwanted drones. They are mostly used to protect critical infrastructure and high profile figures like
military and government officials.
They use a range of technologies like radio frequency sensing, et cetera. Oleg Vornik is the CEO of DroneShield.
It is good to see you, sir. Very good.
Look, what is the fundamental difference in a defense battery for, say, missiles versus drones? I am just reading here from your from your
comments: The traditional ADS - air defenses are not designed for drones. What's the difficulty here?
OLEG VORNIK, CEO, DRONESHIELD: Well, size is one to begin with. When you have a small plastic drone like what you have auto or DJI making and a lot
of those have been used in military settings in Ukraine as well when they are flying to attack a target, it is very difficult to detect those using
traditional radar methods because the cross section is so poor.
And then the cost of symmetry is another. So, when you have a $500.00 drone and you are deploying ground based air defense system that costs you
potentially a few million bucks a shot. So like Patriot costs you about $4 million, I believe, that is hugely cost asymmetrical.
When you're moving up the curve to Shaheds, some of these things persist. If you have a Shahed, which costs you $50,000.00, there are only so many
Patriot missiles you can fire at $4 million apiece.
QUEST: So what do you fire instead with your system?
VORNIK: Layered protection and detection first is what we would suggest. So first of all, you start with ability to detect those drones. When you come
to defeat, jamming would always be the first step. Shaheds we should remember is a family of drones, and a lot of it is about the silhouette and
how the defense works often is determined by what is inside of that silhouette.
So you try a whole lot of different things. First, you try jamming, and a lot of these things are using satellite. They are using two-way
communication and so if you jam those, then that gets disrupted and the drone crashes.
Now sometimes it will not work. So then you may want to use interceptor drones. The reason I say interceptor drones as opposed to say bullets or
lasers is because when you are in a dense civilian setting, you have to think about collateral damage.
So those bullets are going to land somewhere and those drone means potentially, they are going to hit somewhere. So that is important.
So you basically escalate your response.
QUEST: So the idea of using a drone against a drone, I mean, obviously the maneuverability of a drone is greater than a missile or an anti-drone that
is going in one particular direction and of course, it can match the speed of the drone better.
[16:20:07]
But are we moving to a world where essentially we are going to have dogfights in the air between drones?
VORNIK: Well, that is certainly one aspect of it. The interceptor drones are not a perfect solution. Some of these Shaheds have been reported to be
going at close to several hundred miles an hour, which is exceptionally difficult for an interceptor drone to take down. So I think, we are going
to be moving to the world where layered defense is the answer and how much you stick on your protection side depends on the value of the site. So what
matters more, you stick to.
QUEST: So what would you say is a realistic or albeit possibly depressing, a realistic hit strike rate to bring against drones?
VORNIK: If you are not looking at excessively expensive solutions like Patriots, I think we, as in the West are still figuring out what the answer
is. I don't think there is an answer in terms of the cost effective solutions, which cost tens of thousands of dollars and I would say right
now, the answer probably be well under 50 percent.
Again, because with those Shaheds, we are figuring it still out.
QUEST: Sir, next time you're in London, come and talk to us and bring a drone along so we can have a look. I am grateful for your time, sir. Thank
you for getting up early in Sydney.
The conflict is causing chaos for airlines, and it is not just in the obvious places like the Gulf -- Etihad, Emirates, Qatar et cetera. Even
over in Southeast Asia.
Take AirAsia.
AirAsia is being strained on all sides. So for instance, first of all, its big plan was to open a hub in Bahrain. Why? For obvious reasons. It is
great for traffic going that way, traffic going this way. In a sense, it was going to replicate at the low cost model. What has been done with
Emirates and others.
So AirAsia was going to start that. That's not -- they are still doing it, but of course, it is in much more question.
Oil prices are at their highest since 2022. AirAsia did not hedge and therefore hasn't hedged and doesn't regret not hedging but when the price
went like that, as many airlines, many airlines, the U.S. carriers, for example, they are having to now add surcharges onto their prices overall
because they are just keeping adding more and more surcharges according to how it is going.
And then you've got since the war started, the actual share price, that's a confluence of basically all the other reasons, down some 40 percent. It has
recovered just a tad.
Tony Fernandes, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes joined me. He is the chairman of the AirAsia and CEO of AirAsia holding company and he made it quite clear, he
doesn't regret not hedging fuel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FERNANDES: No one expected the what we are seeing, and I still stand by that it is better to use revenue and efficiencies and costs than hedging.
Over my 23 years, hedging has generally cost the airline more than benefits it. Of course, in the short term it might look attractive, but I still
think demand is very strong and we would rather play around with airfares and cost cutting.
QUEST: The decision to open the Bahrain -- I mean, it really is a double whammy for you, isn't it? The Bahrain hub Between Europe and Asia, the
Middle East, you're sort of building your own in a sense hub in Bahrain, perfect position, et cetera. The difficulty is not to let something that
might be relatively short, relative, my word deflect or turn over long term strategic planning. That's the tricky part.
FERNANDES: I think in the long term, while people are predicting the doom of Dubai and Doha and all of these hubs, they are fantastic airlines, Qatar
and Emirates and they will bounce back.
There is some, you know, obviously people looking at different hubs, but I mean I think Dubai and Doha will come back strongly. We are creating a low
cost hub, which has never been done. We are going to have a few -- obviously, Malaysia will be a big hub and Thailand, and those will be
regional hubs which exist.
And the long term strategic view of using Bahrain as a hub into Africa and Europe still stands.
So no, we don't feel any major change in the short term. Sales are incredibly encouraging.
[16:25:02]
QUEST: What is your number besides staying in business and staying flying, in the next 12 months, what is the priority? Is it to build out and to get
the Bahrain hub up and running? Because that's the sort of the massive growth area? Is it to move into -- to deepen penetration into countries
where you are with greater frequencies?
FERNANDES: It is the latter.
Bahrain is a long-term project. The immediate thing is to increase our frequency and our reach in Asia. We have many, many secondary and tertiary
points.
We are in the process of finalizing a very large order with either Airbus or Embraer and so, you know we are in a great part of the world and
geopolitics is obviously going to play a little bit to our advantage.
But there is a huge amount of latent travel and top, so that is our focus. We are using A.I., we are accelerating that tremendously.
QUEST: How? Can I just interrupt you there? How are you -- how would you actually -- everybody tells me they are using A.I. and I want to know how.
What do you do with it?
FERNANDES: Three areas. Let's take -- the easiest one is enterprise. A lot of accounts, a lot of legal work, a lot of H.R. work is being taken over by
A.I.
The exciting part for me that is real is operational. We are already very heavily using it for predictive maintenance and using it tremendously for
fuel saving.
We will probably this year stay three to four percent on tail assignment. And well, picking the right plane for the right route. I mean we have 300
planes, some are older, some are newer. Shorter routes need newer planes because that's when you burn most fuel. But it is a project that can't be
done by humans because there are so many variables.
And the third one, which is again, very exciting, but lots to do is to build a travel experience with concierges taking out the friction of apps,
et cetera. We are closing in on that and we will have the first version in about two months.
But you know, the rallying call with a crisis like this oil crisis, it helps me to drive our staff to finish things quicker.
QUEST: When I was reading all your comments over the last week, Tony, the one thing that stands out is this comment you say, look we've seen crisis
before, we've been through -- it doesn't matter what the crisis but we've been through existential crises before.
I don't think this is existential in that way, but you have seen this run up in prices, this difficulty of routes, haven't you? With that comes
institutional experience.
FERNANDES: Yes. I mean, it wasn't so long ago that we had COVID plus oil at $130.00 to $140.00 with the Ukraine-Russian war, so, you know right now,
well this isn't something anyone wants.
It is the ability to still fly, the ability to create demand is far greater than what we went through in COVID where we just didn't know when it was
going to end.
So you know, yes prices have gone up. Yes. I think the elasticity is there. What is patently clear in my 23 years is that flying is almost a necessity,
whether you went through -- when we had these massive volcano problems in Europe, which brought things to a standstill; COVID; all the revenge
travel, people still want to travel.
They will change their plans. They may not go to the Middle East or Europe for the moment, but they are readjusting their plans. So, seeing this, been
there before and remaining calm, remaining resilient and sticking to your principles and using this as an advantage to innovate and, you know, when
your back is against the walls, you always find a way to innovate. You always find a way to reduce costs.
So, we are treating this as a challenge, but taking the challenge on its head and finding ways of dealing with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Tony Fernandez of AirAsia.
Coming up, the chair of the FCC has threatened to strip some U.S. T.V. networks of their broadcast licenses. That's following President Trump's
complaint about news coverage. Can he actually do that? In a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:32:54]
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. You and me together. A lot more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS,
Cuba's electrical grid has suffered a total collapse as the U.S. blocks oil shipments to the island. And in the United States, long waits at airports
as airline executives calling for an end the partial government shutdown. But only we'll get to those stories after the headlines, because this is
CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first.
After saying the U.S. didn't need help from other countries, President Trump is now calling on allies to join efforts to secure the Strait of
Hormuz.
In response, the German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his country wants to see an end to Iran's nuclear and missile programs, but will not take part
in this war.
Lebanon says Israel's attacks have displaced more than a million people since fighting between Israel and Hezbollah intensified. Israel began
striking southern Lebanon shortly after targeting Iran alongside the U.S. last month.
This video shows Israeli tanks inside Lebanon on Monday. Israel's defense minister says the troops are working to remove threats.
Officials in Cuba say the island's electrical grid has collapsed, leaving millions of people there without power. U.S. has imposed an oil blockade
that's crippled the country's outdated energy infrastructure for months, leading to widespread outages.
The blackout in Cuba that follows the country seeing rare violent protests at the weekend over this mounting energy crisis.
Patrick Oppmann, our correspondent is in Havana. Patrick, let's pull this apart bit by bit. First of all, the failure of the grid. How total and is
it back up?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, it is not. It is not back up. And we have no sense of when it will be back up.
[16:35:02]
You know, this is like a very old car that has not been properly maintained. And so, it would break down over the years, and officials would
manage to get it running again through hard work, ingenuity, and just dumb luck, sometimes.
Now, it's an old car that's broken down and that has no gas, Richard. So, it will be quite a bit more difficult, if at all, to get the entire
electric grid for a country of 10 million people back up and running. This has been the concern with this oil blockade, is the infrastructure here has
been so mismanaged, so deteriorated over the years, that this, perhaps, is simply the straw that breaks the camel's back, if it were.
We were already experiencing blackouts that were lasting up to 20 hours a day, and now, I expect we will go several days in the best-case scenario
without power, that means people's food begins to spoil. They can't sleep at night. You don't have power for school, for work, for many kinds of
transportation, because increasingly, Cubans have been switching to electrical -- electrical cars and motorcycles, that kind of thing.
So, it will be a complete societal shutdown. And as we've seen over the last few days already, tempers are running very high, and people in towns
like Havana have been coming out and banging pots and pans and other places --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: All right. So --
OPPMANN: They have actually been facing government headquarters and rising up against the government.
QUEST: So, you have been there some years. Does it feel different, these protests?
OPPMANN: These protests feel different and that people have nothing left to lose. You know, protests are not allowed in Cuba, Richard. We should just
point that out. And so, anytime someone goes out and protests, it means that they are making a choice. There may be no returning from. They could
be facing serious jail time.
What feels different now is before the power would go out, you had some faith that they would eventually get it back up and running.
Now, with no oil having entered the country in three months, it's quite a different story.
QUEST: So, there was oil that was coming from Venezuela. That's now stopped because, of course, the -- of what the U.S. has done there. The way this
blockade, just for argument's sake, say Russia wanted to send three tankers to Cuba. What -- How is this blockade working? Would those tankers be
stopped by the U.S. Navy en route?
OPPMANN: Yes. So, the Trump administration has declared that Cuba somehow represents an extraordinary threat to the United States, and that is a
legal backing for this. And what has happened is countries like Mexico, which we are sending hundreds -- of thousands of barrels of oil to Cuba,
they have been threatened with tariffs, which would be extremely damaging to the Mexican economy.
Russia has tried to through third-party companies send oil, and it has been intercepted, is what the Cuban government has said. There are very few
countries at this point, though, Richard, that are willing to donate money, donate their oil to the Cuban government, because they know they are not
going to get paid for it, in all likelihood, because the tab is so high now with so many other countries.
And so, you had a very small list of countries that were willing to do that before, and now you have none.
QUEST: Patrick Oppmann in Havana. I'm grateful, sir. Thank you.
This is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight, live in London.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:41:00]
QUEST: The man responsible for issuing broadcast licenses in the United States is now threatening the broadcasters, following Donald Trump's
criticizing news coverage. The chair of the FCC, the body that regulates the public airwaves reposted some of the president's complaints. And then,
Brendan Carr warned broadcasters they could lose their licenses if they run what Carr called hoaxes and distortions.
Donald Trump hand-picked Brendan Carr to run the FCC and hosted him at Mar- a-Lago over the weekend.
Media watch dogs and Democrats are accusing the chair of the FCC of trying to chill free speech. Brian Stelter is with me.
What is the heart of these allegations of what the media is supposed to have done, the fake news that they are supposed to have perpetrated?
(CROSSTALK)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, we keep seeing -- we keep seeing President Trump complain about The New York Times, Wall Street
Journal, other news outlets, including CNN, in a series of Truth Social posts and in his public commentary.
He seems very agitated about American news coverage of the war in Iran. And, you know, many of his gripes are not rooted in any actual factual
basis. He seems to be misleading people about what's being covered or not covered.
For example, he is complaining that news outlets are showing A.I. generated fake videos of military action when real news outlets are not doing that.
But his hand-picked FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, always under pressure to deliver for the boss. That's what Carr was doing over the weekend. You
know, posting on X, saying, he will take action and take away licenses if stations don't clean up their acts.
But nobody's pointing to any specific examples of anything the stations are actually doing wrong. It's just more of that general, vague, threatening
language that we have seen from this administration. And the danger here is not that the government is going to follow through and create a lengthy
legal battle, it's that news outlets will self-censor in order to avoid government controversy, in order to get their mergers approved through the
FCC. And so, that's what we have seen warned about in the last 24 hours.
Although, Richard, we did hear one hour ago, from the only Democrat left at the FCC. Her name is Anna Gomez, and she said, look, the FCC can issue
these threats all day long, but nothing's going to come of them. So, she said to broadcasters, just keep doing what you are doing. Just keep doing
your jobs.
QUEST: X -- yes, except the corrosive effect of all of this. Once again, it's if you throw enough at the fan, some will stick.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: Yes. Yes, yes.
QUEST: If you say, for instance that NATO countries have abandoned the U.S. in the Strait of Hormuz. If I said often enough, you will believe it. If
Brendan Carr says that the coverage is biased and against, people will believe it.
STELTER: And the media bashing does add up, especially in the minds of the president's supporters.
Richard, you traveled through a lot of airports. Have you ever walked up to your gate and run into the subject of the story you were covering? It
happened to me yesterday. I was in the airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There was Brendan Carr right in front of me. It was the perfect opportunity
to talk to a guy I've known for years. He is now suddenly more powerful, because Trump has really helped weaponize the FCC in a way that benefits
the Trump administration.
So, I was talking to Carr about this. It's clear two things. Number one, it's clear he was at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend, hanging out with Trump,
and that's where this license threat came from.
And number two, from Carr's perspective, he is -- he is touching a dozen different dials. He is trying lots of different ways to reshape the
American media, to make it softer and more in Trump's image. That is what he is doing. And frankly, he is not shy about it, Richard.
QUEST: Brian, that wonderful phrase that we use. You buried the lead. You were with, guys there. I'm going to -- I'm going to borrow time from our
next guest so I can continue talking to you. Do you think he genuinely believes this? That he actually does think that the media is doing this? Or
in a quiet moment, would he say, look, you know, the boss wants me to do this. I've got to do it.
[16:45:03]
I'm not suggesting he is duplicitous or lying.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: I knew --
QUEST: I'm thinking that he is doing --
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: Yes, yes.
QUEST: He is doing rail politic.
STELTER: Brendan Carr is a lot like a lot of Washington Republicans. There was a pre-Trump version of Carr, and now, there is a Trump version of Carr.
The Brendan Carr that I knew two years ago, probably wouldn't have walked through the airport with a Donald Trump 47 hat. But now he does. He is
doing what he thinks is his job. And what's the damage over the long-term? That's for you and me to talk about.
QUEST: And I'm grateful that you did. Thank you very much. Brian Stelter.
STELTER: Thank you.
QUEST: Fire broke out at the Fujairah Airport, after a targeted Iranian drone attack. It's one of the UAE's most important oil hubs.
CNN's, Paula Hancocks from Abu Dhabi.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was in Fujairah, and it is not the first time that the Iranians have targeted this area. We
could see thick, black smoke emanating from the petroleum industrial area. It is a very key area. This is on the east coast of the UAE. And judging
from last year's figures, some 1.7 million barrels a day were coming out of this particular area.
And it's one of the areas that doesn't have to go through the Strait of Hormuz to get to the open water to be able to export this oil. So, it
really is key to the global oil exports at this point. But we have seen it a number of times, being targeted by Tehran.
We heard from the Iranian military officials over the weekend, saying very specifically that they were going to target the UAE. They were going to
target the ports and the docks, telling people to stay away from these areas.
So, Fujairah, we know, once again, has been hit. We also know that Dubai International Airport is another area that has had impact. This Monday,
there was a drone incident, according to officials. There was a fire. They managed to put it out. There were no injuries. But it did disrupt an
already extremely disrupted travel system out of that international airport for hours.
All incoming and outgoing flights were suspended. We know that some were diverted to another airports in Dubai. And then, also, here in Abu Dhabi,
one person was killed as a strike impacted a car. A Palestinian was killed in that particular strike. This really has been one of the biggest targets
the UAE for Iranian retaliation.
QUEST: Now, passengers waiting for nearly two hours to get through security at airports in the United States. How the partial government shutdown is
impacting security?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:50:23]
QUEST: So, the business airports in the United States are seeing long delays. Thousands of TSA agents are no longer being paid as the partial
U.S. government shutdown grinds on. More than 300 of them are quit as of Friday. According to the DHS, Department of Homeland Security, others are
taking unscheduled time off. The lack of staffing is causing major disruptions.
Ryan Young is with me at one of the world's large -- busiest airport, Hartfield, Jackson, Atlanta -- you know, Atlanta Airport. It's got so many
names to it. I always get lost with all those names.
Listen, I came through Kennedy last night on my flying over to the U.K. I think, security was about 20 minutes, but Atlanta has been one of the worst
affected. Why is that?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, today it was. I threw through midway last night and came through here, and it wasn't bad either. But the
impact was this morning. Apparently, there was a small group of TSA agents who did not show up for work, and that started a cascading effect.
And at one point, Richard, you have been here before, the line was all the way out, almost to the parking lot because there were so few agents to
check folks in.
This is the main checkpoint right here. This checkpoint, at one point, was two hours long. Right now, it's below nine minutes.
So, a lot of the passengers who are showing up right now are happy to see the line at this length. But I can tell you, they've seen the impact over
and over again as agents haven't been showing up.
In fact, there was a food drive for agents earlier today, people bringing water and peanut butter and bread for TSA agents, because, like you said,
they missed a paycheck. Take a listen to some of the passengers talk about their frustration that's been ongoing all day long.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YOUNG: So, what was your reaction when you turned the corner?
AKIJAH BROWN, AIRPORT TRAVELER: Oh, my God, are these the lines for TSA? That's crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is --
BROWN: Insane.
SCARLETT KELCH, AIRPORT TRAVELER: We had to wait like, an hour to even check our bags, and it was, like a two-minute process.
I could, like, punch through a wall right now.
VICTORIA KILGORE, AIRPORT TRAVELER: It's ridiculously frustrating then to know that, you know -- and it's not their fault because they are not
getting paid, and they are going to come in here. I wouldn't do it either. But just as the layers are your frustration as hell, layers of you are just
trying to buy your time back, have a little piece of vacation from the matrix, and the matrix still gets you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: All right. Last night, there was -- last night, there was -- they were clearly saying TSA workers that they were not getting paid. They will
get paid in the fullness of time --
(CROSSTALK)
YOUNG: Yes.
QUEST: But I guess none of us really would want to turn up for work on the off chance that we might get -- this is -- this is really a shambolic
situation.
(CROSSTALK)
YOUNG: I think -- well, I think there is a point to be made here, and we've talked a couple of the TSA workers. They are living check to check.
So, if the money doesn't come in, how do you feed your family?
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Yes.
YOUNG: How do you pay for your mortgage? How do you pay your car payment? Or as of right now, with the gas prices so high, Richard, we have -- we
have talked about this. Your show talks about this. If gas prices are high, how do you put gas in the car to make it to work where you don't get paid?
And so, you understand, you don't want to be mad at those TSA agent workers, but at the same time, that's the pain they are dealing with.
And today, that union had a news conference outside, and they were basically saying, look over and over again, they are at the breaking point
here, and that's why a lot of them are leaving.
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Yes. So --
YOUNG: Normally, Richard, if you look down this line, you would see TSA workers at every single one of these seats, and you can tell now only four
of the seats are filled at the world's busiest airport.
QUEST: So, you see Ryan -- I can see the sympathies, obviously, with them. At the end of the day, yes, I know that car companies and banks and all
these other institutions are making arrangements to help people who are in need and who, you know, it's not their fault. But that -- that's an
incredible pressure on people.
They have got to work out which bills are not being paid. You have then got to call the companies, or the electric company or your car company, and
then, be in a long -- I mean, people don't deserve to have to live like this and to have that sort of pressure.
YOUNG: When you think about the pressure of the economy that a lot of people are going through, and let's say your wife or your husband has lost
a job --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Yes.
YOUNG: And then, you are not being paid at the same time. And then, you're going to an airport in which there is all this commerce that are -- is
going on, that pressure compounds itself. And let's just be honest, there are people here on the other side who are trying to get to vacations. That
they have used their money to get to, and now, their flights are being canceled because of bad weather, or they are missing their flights because
of security. And you see this pressure literally bursting at the seam, sometimes with people crying in the lines here, because they know they are
not going to make it on the trips.
[16:55:09]
All the time that you and I have talked and we have covered things, and especially, the holidays, you see people in pressure. I've never felt the
pressure this high on a day like this, and you can feel it, and that's something that really -- we should be talking about.
QUEST: And we are, and I'm grateful. Thank you, Ryan. We gave this extra time because it's important to talk about.
YOUNG: Oh, thank you.
QUEST: It brings it home.
YOUNG: Yes.
QUEST: Thank you, sir.
Now, I do need to finish with you tonight.
Wall Street finished higher across the board as oil -- you know, oil prices pulled back, but I keep telling you this, it could go back up the other
way, it just takes a few -- and the poor decision, poor missiles, and we could see oil at $150 a barrel. It would -- it would not be difficult.
But the markets, there is the triple stack. It makes almost no sense, other than it's just volatility, pure, and simple. With the NASDAQ, 1.2 percent
higher.
Broad based gains across the Dow, Nvidia is up 4.6 percent. Its CEO says 1 trillion revenue is possible next year, and that's nothing like juicing the
market up a bit with that.
Apple gain one percent, unexpectedly unveiled a new air pods model.
Verizon, our old friend, Verizon. They are at the bottom of the heat.
We will take a "PROFITABLE MOMENT" after the break. It's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. Good evening to you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "PROFITABLE MOMENT". Some are saying that the Europeans have got schadenfreude at the way in which the U.S. is now finding itself.
President Trump is asking for help, and the U.S. is sort of enjoying the discomfiture.
I don't think that's what really is going on. I think it's much more nuanced than that. This was a war that the U.S. was not consulted about,
was not advised on, didn't even ask for its opinion. And now finds itself in the position of being asked to help with things like mine sweepers and
clearing the straight.
Which to a certain extent, the Europeans do have the necessary technology. But the problem is, NATO can't be used because it's not an attack against
the NATO country. U.S. have various different -- the Europeans have different constituents, and it will be very difficult for European
politicians to justify going involved in the offensiveness of the war. Unless, of course, a better argument can be made.
[17:00:02]
And so far, that has not come from the United States.
The core problem here, how do you tell, President Trump, we are not joining you, without pissing him of just such an extent that he imposes tariffs,
retaliates and revenge. That's the problem that you are faces rather than schadenfreude.
And that's QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in London.
Whenever you are up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable. We will be here tomorrow.
END
