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Quest Means Business

Trump to Press NATO Allies on Defense Spending; Netanyahu Tells CNN He Opposes U.S. Sale of F-35 Jets to Turkey; Major Chip Stocks Slide, Continuing Recent Rout; Monaco Bombing Suspect Found Shot to Death in Ukraine; Spiro Aiming to Localize EV Production in Africa; Prince Harry Loses High Court Case versus Daily Mail Publisher. Aired 4-4:45p ET

Aired July 07, 2026 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:25]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Moving day on the markets. But as you see, the Dow is as actually in record territory, again. The pullback isn't

anything that should make headlines here, but the NASDAQ again came back by more than one percent as chip stocks fail to impress.

Those are the markets and these are the main events: The U.S. reimposes sanctions on Iran's oil sales after several tankers were attacked near the

Strait of Hormuz.

Marine Le Pen says she will run to be the next president of France after a court shortened her suspension from public office.

And volatile oil prices are raising demand for electric vehicles. We speak to the founder of an electric motorbike company that is seeing growth in

its business in Africa.

Live from New York, it is Tuesday, July 7th. I am Paula Newton in for Richard Quest and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Tonight, the Trump administration is re-imposing oil sanctions on Iran after a series of attacks near the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude and WTI

have both jumped in price. The move eliminates one of the central concessions made to the Iranian regime.

In a statement, a U.S. official said Iran will only reap benefits if they exhibit good behavior. Iran's actions in the strait were wholly

unacceptable to the United States and will be met with consequences.

U.S. President Donald Trump is in Turkey for a NATO Summit, where he is airing his grievances about that alliance, Mr. Trump said. He is attending,

in large part out of his friendship with host, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. And he said he would consider selling U.S. fighter jets to Turkey

despite a congressional ban on doing that.

The President was more critical of European allies, asked whether the U.S. would remove more troops from Europe, Trump responded, "We are going to

see." And he brought up NATO's lack of cooperation on Iran.

For more on all of this, we are joined by Kristen Holmes, who is in Ankara, Turkey for us. You know, in terms of what happened here just in the last

hour, the Trump administration said they would suspend those oil sanctions. I mean, look, there is a little bit of a grace period here about a week,

but this was a big deal for Iran because they were actually selling oil and receiving U.S. dollars for that oil. What do we make of this move at this

point, especially with that Memorandum of Understanding still very fragile?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Memorandum of Understanding clearly states that one of the things that Iran has to do

in order for the U.S. to remove those sanctions, to remove the blockade from the Strait of Hormuz is to to the best of their capability, help

commercial ships pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Now, we've seen another round of attacks from Iran on these commercial ships. The first round we saw about two weeks ago that was met with strikes

from the U.S. and Iran and we are waiting to see what, if anything, the United States was going to do in retaliation to this current strike.

Now, we have seen that they are going to impose this kind of financial retaliation instead of the military -- the military retaliation that we saw

last time.

This Treasury Department had agreed to lift these sanctions for 60 days and there is no information right now on how long these sanctions are going to

be reimposed for. It is just an indication of how fragile everything is regarding Iran, the negotiation, the MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding,

and how the United States has to really think through how it retaliates with Iran, because we know that they don't want to get into another

military engagement with Iran, particularly one that's not defensive responding to attacks.

And that was, you know, part of what we heard from President Trump today is the frustration that he has around Iran spilling over into this NATO Summit

and to those NATO Alliance countries talking about how they weren't there for the United States when he launched this war.

Now they have pushed back, saying they weren't even briefed that this war was going to happen, and some of them even said their intervention would

have been illegal. But that hasn't stopped President Trump from these attacks and we will see what happens tomorrow when they actually have that

official meeting.

NEWTON: Yes and you know, Europe was trying to set the table here to make some progress with the President, despite their differences on Iran, but

instead, President Trump posted this on Truth Social, saying restraining order needed.

[16:05:14]

And the Trump social post has to do with Giorgia Meloni. President Trump claims at the G7 had begged him for a photo. Meloni then shot back in a

post of her own, saying, nor I nor Italy will beg for anything. I think this is really emblematic of the main beef that the President says he still

has with NATO leaders and I am wondering what progress can be made, because after the G7, Kristen, we were told directly by Rutte and also by some of

those European leaders that, look, we wanted Iran done and dusted so we can concentrate on the problem of Ukraine and how the U.S. could continue to

support Ukraine, given its conflict with Russia.

HOLMES: Yes, and that is going to be a focus of tomorrow's meeting as well, though the dust has not settled on Iran. I do want to mention on Giorgia

Meloni, President Trump seemed to offer his version of an olive branch to her today when asked specifically about her saying that she was a nice

person, despite, of course saying that he needed a restraining order against her, basically saying she was obsessed with him.

We don't have any details as to what happened during that dinner tonight. This would have been the first time the two leaders saw each other since

this kind of back and forth and I will note that Meloni has been growing in popularity as she has continued to push back publicly on President Trump.

But when it comes to Ukraine, President Trump sounded optimistic about it, but then he also kind of said nothing had changed. He said that he had

spoken to Zelenskyy and to Putin, and that both sides wanted to wrap this up and he thought that they were closer than ever. But, I mean, we've been

going at this for years and years and years. I think it is four-and-a-half years now and President Trump said he was going to get this done in the

first 24 hours of his time in office.

Obviously, we are about a year-and-a-half in now to his time in office. So, it is really unclear what progress, if any, can be made on that front.

NEWTON: Yes, and again, we are looking at pictures of that entire NATO delegation, as you said, they get down to business tomorrow. Kristen Holmes

for us in Ankara. Thanks so much.

Now several military deals have been announced at this Summit. Lockheed Martin and Germany's Rheinmetall signed a Memorandum of Understanding to

produce attack missiles. European nations agreed to buy surveillance drones from the U.S. company, Northrop Grumman and NATO reached a deal to buy

planes from Sweden's Saab.

Now this follows Canada's announcement on Monday that a German company would build its new submarine fleet.

Carlo Bastasin is a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution, and he joins me now from Milan. Thanks for joining us. You have been following

this quite closely, and this is starting to look like quite a grocery list of defense supplies. And you point out most of the things on the list have

to be imported from the United States to Europe. You also point out that's one of the main problems. The defense spending cannot actually nurture the

industrial strategy that Europe needs.

Where do you see this going in both the short term and the long term? Carlo, do you hear me?

It is Paula Newton in New York. I don't believe he hears me.

We will continue to try and establish contact with him, because we do want to hear about that spending.

Now, meantime, Israel's Prime Minister says the U.S. would upset the power balance in the Middle East if it sells F-35 jets to Turkey.

In an exclusive CNN interview, Benjamin Netanyahu criticized his regional rival and its alliance with the United States. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think that everybody understands that, notwithstanding the personal friendship that President

Trump has with Erdogan, it doesn't make turkey a friendly or a friendly state to the United States. To the contrary, it is a regime that is

infected with the Muslim Brotherhood, which hates the United States.

He harbors Hamas -- the Hamas terrorists, he supports them. He finances them. He has thrown his opponents in jail, all of them. He throws more

journalists in jail than anyone can understand.

So he is not exactly a model ally of the United States, but even worse than that, he threatens Greece, a NATO ally. He occupies half of Cyprus, another

NATO country.

And the most important thing, and I put it right on the table, he threatens to destroy my country, the one and only Jewish state. His number two says

that we have no place among the nations. And you know what that means. And his number three, the Interior Minister, says that he is looking forward to

be the governor of Jerusalem. Hello?

You know, we are a sovereign country. We've been independent, and we intend to stay independent.

[16:10:10]

NEWTON: Now, moving on to markets today, SpaceX officially began trading on the NASDAQ 100. Today, it was a day to forget though, for investors. Shares

fell more than six percent. The stock has now given up most of its post-IPO gains.

Still, joining the NASDAQ 100, it has clear benefits for SpaceX. It triggers billions of dollars in automatic purchases by index funds. Looking

at the tech sector more broadly, chip stocks fell once again today, continuing a recent selloff. Micron, AMD, Intel -- all closed sharply

lower.

Lisa Eadicicco is with us here in New York to try and parse all of this.

I do want to start with SpaceX though, given the fact that, you know, it is not far off its actual IPO price and some expected it to go up today, given

so many indexes had to buy in.

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: Yes and I think it is hard to peg this market activity that we are seeing to one specific company or one

specific thing happening in the world. But I do think that there is some broad sentiment and broad concerns around the A.I. industry in general that

are kind of that's been looming over the market and that could be contributing a bit to what we are seeing.

And I think the biggest among that has been that it is really impossible to predict A.I. demand and because it is impossible to predict this, there is

no telling whether a lot of this money being poured into A.I. infrastructure is actually going to line up with demand and generate enough

return on those massive investments and I think that's part of what is giving investors a little bit of the jitters is because we really don't

know exactly where this is going to go.

And when you look at the broader market in particular, companies like Micron, which you mentioned, have really been benefiting immensely from

this demand for memory to fuel these build outs of A.I. data centers. But I think there are questions around, you know, how long these companies are

going to see those benefits.

There is a shortage in the industry of memory right now because demand is so high. So I think it is unclear how long they will be able to keep prices

that high and a big example that we've also seen, you know, this selloff is kind of coming after Samsung released preliminary earnings for its fiscal

second quarter, where it said that it expects to see a 19-fold increase in operating profit because of all of this A.I. demand.

And those are huge, huge numbers, but we are still seeing some jitters in the market and I think it is because it is unclear how long they will be

able to really keep prices that high, along with the rest of the industry.

And I also think it is important to kind of zoom out a little bit and look at how the market has been performing in more of the long term if you look

at where the markets at year-to-date the stocks index that tracks semiconductors, even though it is down today, it is still up 70 percent

year-to-date, which is pretty significant. So I think that's where a lot of this is stemming from, the uncertainty around what happens to these

companies that are at the heart of the A.I. boom, of the infrastructure needed to power A.I. if demand suddenly pulls back and it becomes difficult

for a lot of these companies to see returns on their investments.

So at the same time, you also see investors looking to other sectors right now like health care and consumer products as well.

NEWTON: Yes, the sector rotation has certainly been the talk of the market. I mean, the Dow was down today, but it definitely even touched a record

high this morning. I am wondering though how much China actually features in all of this as well. Because you know, there are companies looking very

closely on what China can offer in A.I. and the fact that it is a lot cheaper.

EADICICCO: Yes, and I think that's the big question. And the other thing kind of looming over this isn't just the uncertainty around demand, but how

quickly the dynamics are shifting.

As you mentioned, there are questions around where China stands in the A.I. race and the development of its models and its chips and where it is going

and whether it will be able to offer products and technology for a lot cheaper. There are also questions around how some of the biggest players in

A.I. are going to change their businesses to meet their own needs as time goes on.

For example, OpenAI last month announced its first custom chip that it is developing with Broadcom and while that doesn't really directly impact any

of the companies that we've been talking about, I think it is an example of how some of the biggest players that make the models and the services that

are really driving this A.I. boom, how they are changing their business and thinking about how they're coming up with the resources that they are going

to need in the future.

And I think a lot of that is hard to predict. And that's why you're seeing some of the jitters in the market that, you know, have been on and off over

the past couple of months.

NEWTON: Lisa, we will leave it there. Hard to believe it is only Tuesday in these markets, and we've already had so much news. Lisa, thanks so much.

Appreciate you covering that for us.

We want to turn now to our coverage of NATO. Carlo Bastasin is a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution. He is joining us again, we

hope, from Milan. You can hear me, Carlo?

[16:15:10 ]

CARLO BASTASIN, FOREIGN POLICY EXPERT, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: Yes, I hear you. Thanks for having me now.

NEWTON: Thank you for being here. And I was going -- I was saying that, you know, the E.U. shopping list on defense is looking like a grocery list. And

you point out that most of those things on that list need to be imported from the United States to Europe. You also say that can cause problems,

especially for the European industrial strategy. How long can this last? And do you believe Europe is committed to this defense spending?

BASTASIN: Well, I think you can see it from the figures. I mean, the increase in military spending has been impressive. If we are to believe the

words of NATO's Secretary General, Mark Rutte, the average spending for defense and security has reached the level of four percent of GDP, which is

massive. If you remember, the goal is to reach five percent by 2035.

So, they are surely in the right direction. But the very fact, as you mentioned, that we are doing it in a very fast rhythm implies some problem

because one thing is adapting the demand, the request of weapons. Another thing is adapting to supply, the production cannot be adjusted in Europe as

fast as the only available weapons in this moment on the market are the Americans.

The consequence is that for the European citizens, this process of increasing the military spending has a negative impact on the economy as a

positive impact on the American economy, but a negative on the European economy, and that creates -- it can create some uneasiness for the European

citizens.

NEWTON: Yes, and that is uneasiness that makes it difficult in a fractious political environment to really sell that to voters.

President Trump continues to insist that Europe needs to bulk up. Do you think Europe is capable, even though it runs towards President Trump's

argument? Do you think European politicians are capable of selling this to their voters, especially that they have seen firsthand what the threat from

Russia holds?

BASTASIN: Well, they have been doing for the last year. So, apparently the perception of a risky geopolitical environment is convincing per se and

although, you rightly point out that there is a lack of strong political leadership in Europe, apparently, it was strictly necessary, the military

spending has been realized.

The point is that there is some contradiction between asking for more military spending on the side of President Trump and at the same time,

corroding the meaning of the Transatlantic Alliance by threatening, in many regards, this Alliance, even today, at the beginning, the beginning of the

NATO Summit was not very promising.

The threat of taking control of Greenland was evoked again, this is a very sensitive.

NEWTON: Yes, President Trump isn't making their job any easier. Before I let you go, though, there is the issue of the money to be spent. And in

your words, it is a quantum leap to convince European leaders that they need a common approach to do the military spending at scale.

This could also lead, though more autonomy lead to more autonomy for Europe in defense. Do you have any hope that that will happen if we give it, let's

say, a five-year plan? Or do you think we are looking at more like a decade, if ever?

BASTASIN: Well, if they behave rationally, they will do it immediately, honestly. The point is that strategic autonomy, which is a widely shared

concept, was raised for the first time by Emmanuel Macron, the French President, but then picked up by the Draghi Report, which is a common

currency for all the European governments.

Well, that strategic autonomy requires even more the military spending. It requires technological scaling and the common financial markets. So, in

this sense, it is a quantum -- political quantum leap is required.

I think the worse things go, the better it is for those who claim that political change is required in the sharing of sovereignty and the

necessity of defending Europe.

NEWTON: Yes. It is time that those European leaders do not waste a good crisis when they see it, even if it is a crisis created by President Trump.

Carlo Bastasin, please come back. We've learned a lot, and we will continue to look at this issue. Thanks so much.

BASTASIN: Thank you.

[16:20:15]

NEWTON: Coming up for us, a huge day for the right-wing movement in France as Marine Le Pen announces she will run for president in 2027. We want to

speak to Melissa Bell about this. She is coming right up, live from Paris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: France's Marine Le Pen says she will run for president after an appeals court earlier shortened a five-year ban on her running for elected

office. The court upheld the far-right leader's conviction for misusing European Union funds, but it reduced how long she is barred from running

for office and shortened a jail term to two years suspended and a year at home, where she must wear an electronic monitoring tag.

Le Pen says she plans to appeal.

I am joined by Melissa Bell in Paris. She gave quite an interview just a little while ago live on French T.V. She was incredibly defiant. What does

this mean, though, for her and for French politics in the months to come?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a remarkably defiant Marine Le Pen who took to French T.V. in the wake of that ruling

earlier on announcing, because there had been some doubt about whether or not, even if the ban was lifted, she would go ahead and stand facing that

part of the sentence, which includes her wearing an electronic tag. She previously said she would not consider a run for the presidency wearing

such a device.

So really, everyone was suspended on what she had to say on French television tonight. She announced not only that she would be standing, but

that she was now appealing the conviction entirely. It will now take several months for this second appeal process to run its course, during

which the question of the sentences will be suspended and that means her, we've just been listening to her lawyer on French television saying that

probably by some time next year, when this campaign is, of course, well underway, there may be a decision. It may be that as the Le Pen's believe

and her partisans believe, that appeal will succeed where this one had failed and she will be exonerated.

A lot of people believe that the ruling, the judges found -- in which judges found her guilty the first time and the second time will stand

again. If so, then it will present itself the question of whether or not she wears an electronic bracelet and whether that decision comes in time

before the election itself. Then, of course, kicks in the kind of immunity that protected President Trump when he took office.

So it is a fascinating period of French politics that opens now and make no mistake, this is the starting gun -- the unofficial starting gun to the

race for 2027.

[16:25:22]

The national rally or meeting even tonight around their candidate, Marine Le Pen, we expect her to make her first official outing as the candidate

for 2027 tomorrow. And essentially, you're going to have, over the course of the next few months, this political campaign going on, this judicial

saga continuing and I think from what we heard Marine Le Pen say on French television tonight, that it was for the people to rule, not for the judges.

I think you can expect a very sort of populist framing of this judicial battle as a woman fighting against the system to allow the people to choose

-- Paula.

NEWTON: Melissa, I am riveted. The politics in France running hotter than the weather. I have to say, that interview was something else. And again,

it reengages everyone in French politics as we know how consequential it is.

Melissa Bell for us in Paris. Thanks so much.

Oil prices are helping fuel an electric vehicle boom in Africa. One e-bike company is looking to capitalize. We will talk to the founder of Spiro.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: The prime suspect in last week's Monaco bombing attack was found dead in Ukraine. Two men are now in custody. Police say one of them, a

former law enforcement officer, had a basement room inside his home that resembled a torture chamber. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh with more on this

story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The startling, remarkable story of what seems to be an attempted assassination

on an Ukrainian millionaire in the otherwise peaceful and luxurious territory of Monaco, has taken yet another remarkable twist.

The woman sought by Interpol's Red Notice for being the prime suspect in this particular crime, Anastasiia Berezovska, a 39-year-old Ukrainian,

well, she herself has now been found dead in her native Ukraine.

Ukrainian investigators say that they noticed her return to the country on July the 1st, began looking at bank transfers, her general movements and

communications, saw she was talking to her family. But two other men, as well. One, a serving Ukrainian Intelligence officer from the main

intelligence directorate and one former law enforcement individual.

They went to see the Ukrainian Intelligence officer and he, it appears, confessed about this involvement and indeed suggested to the involvement of

a former law enforcement officer, that man's house was then searched and officials say they found what they thought was some kind of torture chamber

in his basement.

They've released a remarkable video of that particular place.

[16:30:57]

Now, Miss Berezovska's body was found. It says, according to Ukrainian investigators, with shell casings alongside of it. And indeed the Ukrainian

intelligence officer confessed to being party to that particular murder. They are both under arrest, but Ukrainian officials say they're still

looking for who may have instigated this particular crime and continuing to investigate.

A reminder of how we got here in the first place. Miss Berezovska was pointed out potentially as the prime suspect here by Monaco prosecutors who

studied CCTV around the residence where Mr. Yermolaiev was hit by a bomb carried in a shopping bag. They noticed a man in the days ahead and then,

just a day before the device went off, a woman, Miss Berezovska indeed police say, they traced her back to Germany, where she was last resident,

and now it appears she fled to Ukraine.

A remarkable story here, one in which it seems that the apparent hitman was then killed by those who may well have contracted her to do the job.

Investigators still looking for who may have been on high here. I think certainly an unwelcomed embarrassment for Ukraine, that their intelligence

officer, one of them, might be involved in something as high profile as this. And a sign still, too, that the murkiness, the potential criminal

underworld of a former Soviet Union still continues to exist despite the horrors being inflicted on Ukraine by the war.

Exactly why Mr. Yermolaiev was indeed targeted. Still unclear, but a remarkable moment still for what Monaco considers to be its luxury and

safety.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: So as we were reporting earlier, oil prices jumped after the Trump administration said it's re-imposing

sanctions on Iran. Brent crude, the global benchmark, is now trading at $74 a barrel. Still, that is down sharply from its peak during the Iran war,

when it was trading more than $100 a barrel.

Now, the recent volatility has helped spur demand for EVs in Africa. Some nations there, including Ethiopia and Rwanda, have put restrictions on gas

powered vehicles, and Kenya is planning to waive import duties on some EVs.

That's good news for the electric motorbike company Spiro, which operates in seven countries and is looking to expand Spiro. It's raised $270 million

in just its latest funding round.

Gagan Gupta is the founder and chairman of Spiro, and he joins us now from Dubai where his company is based.

I want to thank you for being with us. And we do want to start with where you are right in Dubai. Until earlier this year, a safe, predictable place

to do business. The Iran crisis has put your game plan in sharper focus. Tell us how.

GAGAN GUPTA, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, SPIRO: I think the war in Middle East is creating the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil global

markets. Africa is a continent, imports about $150 billion of petroleum products every year. And that makes energy security not simply an energy

issue, but an economic competitive issue. So every time the price of oil goes up, you know, a lot of countries' exchange rates gets impacted, which

means if they're importing other things, the cost of living goes up.

And at the same time, the precious foreign exchange has to spend out. So any fuel import is massively impacting the countries. And a lot of

countries, as you mentioned, Kenya, Rwanda, import 100 percent of their fuel. So the Iran war is actually accelerating the adoption of EV. I mean,

what we have seen in a market like Rwanda, where every month about 5,000 bikes are sold, now 90 percent of bikes sold are electric, and Spiro sells

about 90 percent of that.

So out of 5,000 bikes being sold every month in a market like Rwanda, 4,500 bikes are being sold by Spiro, which is electric. In markets like Kenya,

Uganda, we sell about 25 percent to 30 percent new motorbikes being sold electric. So the adoption has massively increased post the Iran war.

NEWTON: And we're looking at some pictures of the bikes right now. I mean, you offer the Spiro as good value.

[16:35:01]

It's obviously good for the planet as well. How much does an owner save? Because, you know, from what I know, motorbikes actually don't cost that

much to run in terms of how much you pay in gas. That's why people buy a motorbike in general. So how much savings is there really with an EV?

GUPTA: You're so right. Spiro is not an -- is an economic choice. It's one of climate choice. So the cost of the electric bike of Spiro is cheaper

than the cost of ICE bike, between 20 percent to 30 percent, depending on the market. The cost of operations is lower. The banks are able to finance

it much interest -- much lower interest rate because they can trace the asset and therefore the overall cost of ownership is less by about 20

percent to 40 percent when compared to ICE bike, which means the driver is able to put between $1 to $2 extra every day in his pocket, and that's a

massive saving that a boda boda rider has because of moving to EV.

NEWTON: In terms of this concept that you have as well in terms of battery swapping, can you explain that to us? Because we're of course used to this

issue of plugging in an EV.

GUPTA: So, you know, when we created Spiro, we created Spiro to give a same seamless experience as what he had before. So today, what will you do

before? You had a motorbike, the boda boda rider will go to the petrol station, put the fuel and move on in the next two to three minutes. He does

not have to wait half an hour or one hour charging his motorbike and, you know, then waiting for the -- missing the crucial time to pick his

customers.

Secondly, a lot of times in Africa you might not have energy in the grid itself. You might not have a situation whereby the -- when you want to

charge this energy coming or you might not just have the connection. Therefore, we created a swapping experience whereby basically a rider

comes, he gives his battery, old battery, and takes a fully charged battery. In less than three minutes, he's done with.

So we basically, when we created Spiro, we created that the boda boda riders to get the same experience as before. And today as a company, we are

doing close to 150,000 stops a day. And I would say that it'll be one of the biggest swapping companies globally in terms of number of swaps that we

are currently doing. And I must say that today on a month-on-month basis, we are growing by over 17 percent, sheerly because the adoption is

increasing at a very different pace.

NEWTON: What do you -- how do you see this, you know, unfolding in Africa? I mean, the prospect of this actually being widespread, would you give us a

percentage? I mean, if I'm someone in Africa right now looking to buy a motorbike as I need one, I mean, where do you see this going? Can you see

EVs actually having a majority of the market in Africa?

GUPTA: So I think I'll just step back for a minute. I mean, globally, if you look back, you know, early 17th century to 1850 century was the era of

coal and, you know, wood. Then came the era of petrol and gas, and now it's the era of EV. Surely because of the competitive reasons, my expectation is

that all the new sales will be -- upwards of 50 percent will be EV. So as I mentioned in Rwanda, 90 percent of new sales are EV. In Kenya, Uganda, it's

about 25 percent to 30 percent increasing month on month.

I would expect that next year you should be expecting between 50 percent to 60 percent of new sales will be of EV, and not just in the segment of

motorbikes, but you will see in trucks. You will see other form factors. And Spiro is therefore building the entire ecosystem that enables this to

be a reality.

NEWTON: Right. Well, we thank you. And again, we're looking with interest right now at video of that battery swapping idea.

Mr. Gupta, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

GUPTA: Thanks.

NEWTON: Now, Britain's Prince Harry has lost a major lawsuit against the publisher of "The Daily Mail." He and six others, including Elton John and

actress Elizabeth Hurley, accused it of gathering information illegally. They alleged that Associated Newspapers used private investigators to tap

their phones and intercept their voicemail. The judge called the allegations serious, but said they're suspicious -- their suspicions were

not enough to prove their case.

A spokesperson for the publisher called the ruling a vindication of "The Daily Mail's" journalism. Prince Harry called the decision a complete and

obvious whitewash.

Attorney Max Campbell is a partner at Brett Wilson, which specializes in media law, and he joins us now from London.

A complete whitewash. As a lawyer, you know, you've seen this judgment. The burden of proof was quite high, right, in order for this to go the way of

those plaintiffs.

MAX CAMPBELL, ATTORNEY, BRETT WILSON: Well, the burden was on the claimants, as we call them, plaintiffs, to prove their case. Actually, only

on the balance of probabilities so only more likely than not. But given that many of the allegations in this claim dated back 20 or more years,

that was obviously very difficult.

[16:40:01]

NEWTON: You say it was very difficult. And yet, you know, Prince Harry and the others have won some cases. What was different about this one in terms

of the burden that the judge said had not been met?

CAMPBELL: Well, I think there was a relative lack of what we might call smoking gun evidence in this case. Associated Newspapers have always denied

that there was any kind of cultural, institutional wrongdoing at their titles. And now with the benefit of hindsight, we might think that there

was no killer evidence in respect of any of the allegations. The judge also, in terms of his case management of this trial, he prevented the

claimants from relying to the extent that they wanted to on what we call the generic case.

So a case that was focused on wrongdoing generally Associated Newspapers, or alleged wrongdoing, I should say, generally Associated Newspapers in the

material time period. The judge insisted that these specific claimants had to prove their specific allegations about alleged wrongdoing in respect of

them. And that's where he focused his attention. And so he didn't make more general findings and in turn the claimants couldn't rely on generalized

findings to prove the individual allegations.

NEWTON: This could have quite a tale for Prince Harry and the others, right? I mean, they may have to pay millions in legal costs as I understand

it.

CAMPBELL: Well, I've seen, as you probably have, I've seen a number of 50 million in costs bandied about. I'm not sure quite how that number breaks

down. I know that the claimants had what we call After the Event insurance. They had insurance to try to protect them against adverse costs in this

case, the figure that I saw in respect of that was coverage of about 14 million pounds. So I don't know whether and to what extent any of the

individual claimants will have to pay their own -- they have to pay any adverse costs. But look, clearly it is a bitter blow for them. And it's a

huge victory for Associated. That's undeniable.

NEWTON: You know, I only have a few seconds left, but at the end of the day, the claimants wanted to change the behavior of the aggressive British

press. Do you think there was enough chill in this case to make that happen?

CAMPBELL: I think that over the course of the last 15 years, the behavior of the British press has been changed significantly. I think that a

succession of change cases have helped to change it. And I think that, although this claim failed in its own way, it will have contributed to

that.

NEWTON: Right. Max Campbell, we will leave it there. Grateful for your expertise.

And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Paula Newton. Up next, "CONNECTING AFRICA."

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(CONNECTING AFRICA)

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