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Quest Means Business
Brent Crude Tops $112.00 Per Barrel; Meta CEO Strikes Deal to Stay in California; Trump Speaking at The White House; One-on-One with Sri Lankan Prime Minister; New Airbnb Rules Limit Cleaning Chores for Guests; Advertisers, Marketing Agencies Driving Influencer Economy. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired October 22, 2026 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:10]
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: So the Dow essentially flat. It had even been high for a certain part of the day. That's not the story though.
We want to look at the tech heavy NASDAQ and the S&P both really rattled by geopolitical concerns and CapEx spending on A.I. Those are the markets, and
these are the main events.
Wall Street, as we just said, reeling as fears over A.I. spending and a reigniting conflict in the Gulf send stocks tumbling.
Companies and governments around the world are racing to update their websites after a cyber security flaw was uncovered that threatens -- get
this -- 70 percent of the world's websites. We speak to the man who helped sound the alarm.
And the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka tells Richard Quest that the Iran War has been tricky for her country to navigate.
Live from New York, it is Thursday, October 22nd. I am Paula Newton, in for Richard Quest and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
And good evening.
Tonight, concerns over military flare ups in the Middle East and A.I. over spending in Silicon Valley are colliding on Wall Street. Oil prices have
reached a five-month high, now, more than $112.00 a barrel. The increase comes after new Houthis strikes on an airport in Saudi Arabia. The Iran-
backed group hit King Fahd Airport in the country's east Wednesday night, killing two.
The U.S. now ordering some embassy staff to leave Saudi Arabia. Here is how Wall Street fared today. You can see the tech heavy NASDAQ fell the most.
Here is why this is all connected.
Higher energy prices can feed higher inflation and inflation can keep borrowing costs high as well, which is a problem for companies that need
cheap money to build data centers or fund A.I. projects.
We want to go straight to the geopolitics of all of this. First, Kristen Holmes joins us now from The White House.
And Kristen, I do understand that the President perhaps might speak. He is on his way to yet another political rally, but The White House juggling a
lot, especially when it comes to trying to keep down the price of oil.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, this is the complete opposite of what they want. Everything President Trump has
been doing, even things that have been highly criticized, like coming up with this deal with Vladimir Putin in order to get them to release diesel
to the United States, all of that has been to try and drive the global diesel prices down.
And in turn, the prices at the pump down, because that's one of the biggest issues that President Trump is facing and Republicans are facing going into
the midterms.
Now, it also doesn't help, as we see these escalations in the Mideast, and President Trump continues to kind of float the idea of what he is going to
do next with Iran.
Now, part of what we've heard him say over and over again is this idea that Iran is going to come to the table after the midterm elections, that they
were trying somehow to kind of hold his feet to the fire. But on the other side of that, you have him kind of musing over the idea of more strikes of
an all-out warfare in Iran after those midterm elections, which, of course, is also going to drive up the price of diesel.
So what you're seeing now is a consequence of what is happening with the Houthis in Saudi Arabia, but it is really, truly the last thing that the
Trump administration wants to deal with, as they have tried to throw everything they can at the wall to bring down those gas prices, gas prices
that we will note increased after President Trump decided to launch this war in Iran.
NEWTON: Yes, and the markets are certainly noticing. I am wondering how much all of this is hanging on the midterms.
The President himself has stakes, not even just his own political future, the Senate and Congress, but also what he is doing in Iran. He keeps
saying, we will wait until after the midterms.
HOLMES: That's right, and I think one of the things you have to really keep in mind here is that all of it is hanging on the midterms. When you look at
President Trump and you look at the fact that he has really been the driver of the Republican Party, he has been the one who has also been trying to
raise enthusiasm in the Republican Party.
But if you look across the party, the enthusiasm is gone because people feel like they can't afford to live, and most of them, or many of them do
equate that to President Trump's own policies. It is not just the war in Iran, which has driven up gas prices, which has caused enormous issues
socioeconomically across the country, but it has also things like tariffs, trade wars, the various different things that he has done that have made
Americans' lives harder.
For example, he is going to Iowa tonight. Those tariffs, that trade war, all of that has really hurt Iowa farmers. You're going to hear him
messaging that, and as it comes down to what he is going to do in the war with Iran, I mean, this is really becoming his legacy.
Remember, he said he was going to be out of there in a few days, and it was a few weeks, and now we are coming on, I think eight or nine months of
this, and it is unclear what he is actually going to do. And if he does not take action, it seems very likely that this entire war in Iran is going to
become his legacy, no matter what he does.
[16:05:12]
NEWTON: Yes, just you saying it that way, right? It was supposed to be a few days, a few weeks, and now, here we are. As you said, nearly nine
months in.
Kristen Holmes for us, who continues to await the President's departure there at The White House, appreciate it.
Now, the NASDAQ posted its worst day since early June. The cloud company, Coreweave, with chip makers Marvell and AMD, all down about 10 percent as
investors wrestle with the high cost of the A.I. buildout. Now, shares of Meta, which reported results yesterday, are also down sharply. They dropped
about seven percent on the company's A.I. spending, and a, we will call it crafty plan to keep its founder in charge.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg was apparently thinking of leaving California to avoid a proposed billionaire tax. In response, the board created a new class,
this is key here of non-voting shares. Zuckerberg could sell off those shares to pay the new tax I those new taxes are approved by voters in the
first week of November.
Clare Duffy joins me now with more.
I was intrigued by this, and it won't necessarily cost people anything unless you're a shareholder for Meta and I am wondering what kind of
reaction -- the board must have felt as if it had no choice, but to acquiesce to his demands.
CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Paula, it is such an interesting strategy to deal with this proposed billionaires tax, which would impose a
five percent one-time tax on the net worth, the total net worth of people over -- with a net worth of over $1 billion in California. So, that would
hit folks like Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, who has a net worth around $247 billion.
His estimated tax bill under this law if it were to pass, would be about $12.35 billion, and I think the concern for Mark Zuckerberg here was that
much of his wealth is tied up in his controlling share in Meta, in his stock in Meta. He would need to potentially sell off some of those voting
shares in the company in order to foot this tax bill.
And so he went to the board and essentially said, look, I am considering listing my home in Palo Alto publicly, and that would raise all kinds of
questions about the future of the company and its leadership.
And so the board created this new non-voting class of shares, split the stock, and essentially going to allow Mark Zuckerberg to sell off those
non-voting shares if he needs to pay this $12 billion tax bill, if this law were to go into effect without losing his controlling stake in the company
and really that is what is key here.
Mark Zuckerberg controls about 60 percent of the voting shares in Meta. That means he essentially has full control of this company. The board cant
oust him. He can shoot down shareholder proposals.
He was willing to leave California in order not to lose that controlling stake in the company. And the board said, we don't want to lose you in
California.
In this regulatory filing where they spell out how this all happened, they write that a special board committee further believed "... that it is
critically important to keep Mr. Zuckerberg in a leadership position with our company, and that he continue to reside in and manage the company from
our headquarters in California to ensure his continued ability to effectively drive our performance during this era of unprecedented
challenge and competition in our industry."
And Paula, it is going to be really interesting to watch if we see other Silicon Valley companies take similar actions, given that so many of these
billionaires in California that could be subject to this tax made their wealth through the tech industry.
NEWTON: Yes, and given so many different factors right now with the A.I. buildout, you can't blame the markets, right, for having these jitters that
we are seeing just this afternoon.
DUFFY: Yes. I think that's exactly right. It is continuing to this concern around the CapEx story. You know, Meta raised its cap -- I should say,
narrowed its full year capital expenditures guidance to between $135 billion to $145 billion. That was the top end of the range that it had
previously guided for investors.
In just this current quarter, CapEx was up 80 percent year-on-year, and so investors are continuing to ask these tough questions about will the sort
of business growth keep up with that CapEx spending. I think you're going to continue to see these jitters as we head into more tech earnings next
week.
We will hear from Google, Amazon, Microsoft. Investors will want to be hearing about how their business is growing versus those CapEx spending
plans, especially as so many of these big tech companies are taking on debt in order to fund that A.I. infrastructure buildout, that is what investors
are really nervous about right now.
NEWTON: Yes, and given we don't expect huge relief or quick relief to the energy crisis, we are not expecting a lowering of interest rates anytime
soon either.
Clare Duffy, thanks so much for wrapping it up for us.
Now, the NASDAQ CEO told CNBC that these non-voting shares that Clare was just talking about are more in Meta's financial interest than its
shareholders, and the head of Japan Exchange Group agrees.
Hiromi Yamaji, told me that shareholders have to have fair treatment. Listen.
[16:10:07 ]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HIROMI YAMAJI, CEO OF JAPAN EXCHANGE GROUP: The voting power, especially for those founders, has more power, like SpaceX. I think it is not bad
because we saw a number of Japanese companies cases that if those founders are quite serious to grow the company, however, at the same time, I think
shareholders have to get, you know, fair treatment.
That means that, you know, probably too much difference in the voting power of founders and normal shareholders may not be good for the exchange, I
think.
NEWTON: So, as opposed to Mark Zuckerberg who has full control, you believe more of a hybrid model would work.
YAMAJI: Yes. Yes. Yes, that may be true, a hyper model -- I don't know what is the exact -- what is the exact percentage of ownership for the normal
investors and for the founders. It is difficult to define.
However, I think probably too much ownership for the founders maybe not good for the equity market itself.
NEWTON: Big challenges ahead. I know you have plans to articulate to our audience who sometimes believe that the history of the Tokyo Stock Exchange
is not the most dynamic exchange that they've ever experienced around the world.
What would you say to them -- succinctly say to them about what changes you want to see?
YAMAJI: I think foreign investors' appetite for the Japanese equity remains very strong, and last year was 10-year high of net purchase of foreign
investors' purchase of Japanese equity, and this year, as of the end of September this year, the net purchase by foreign investors very close to 10
trillion yen, which is again ten-years high.
And I think there are multiple things are happening at the same time, rather than the single catalyst. And I think the biggest change is that we
have -- Japan has got out of deflation. In other words, as you know, we have been suffering from deflation for more than three decades, and now
under deflationary economy, everybody put everything -- their cash into the deposit and the value up, and because of that, other prices comes down.
However, because of I think nowadays this year, the fifth consecutive year that we have, basic inflation above two percent.
Now, I think, you know, companies have to seek for a good investment vehicle to hedge against the inflation, and that they have urgent needs for
growth, and so I think that right -- that that has driven the M&A transactions in Japan and record number, record high number of M&A
transactions in Japan, the record high number of transaction value in Japan last year.
And also, I think household sector has to shift their savings to investment. So now I think capital market dynamics has come back to Japan.
NEWTON: And for the foreign investors, so much that underpins this is the competitiveness of the Japanese economy.
So kind of give us your outlook there because it has not always been easy.
YAMAJI: Yes. I think, you know, last year, as I said, I mean, last year, the net purchase amount by the foreign investors was 5.4 trillion, and this
trend continues into this year and this, as of the end of September this year, net purchase of foreign investors of the Japanese equities, 10
trillion yen. I think nowadays, new types of foreign investors coming into the market. That's the reason why I think Japanese markets have a very
strong downward resilience, even if the market is down, there are buy orders coming in from new type of investors.
So I think, it is very sustainable, you know, market dynamics at this moment.
NEWTON: Does the yen itself though pose some challenges there?
YAMAJI: Well at this moment I think --
NEWTON: You knew I was going to ask you that.
YAMAJI: Sure, sure. I know that, 156 today, a little bit appreciated against dollar, but 156 is totally, totally -- I mean, it is not acceptable
from our viewpoint. It is too weak. And as you know, we are importing so much of energy and grain from outside of Japan, and excessively weak yen, I
think, undermines Japan in terms of trade.
So we'd like to see much higher -- you know, I mean, the more appreciated to the earnest dollar.
NEWTON: But does that make Japanese stocks a good buy at this point, given the fact --
YAMAJI: Ditto, 156, if the yen gets 130, so 20 percent value increase.
NEWTON: So given the geopolitical landscape, if things simmer down with an energy crisis and what is also a food crisis around the world, you believe
right now --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: And forgive me, we do have to interrupt that interview. I want to take you straight to The White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump is
speaking.
REPORTER: -- she said that the Ramaswamy ad is absolutely terrible and it should be taken down. Why are you defending it?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, that's her opinion. That's her opinion. I am defending it because I know that if
that ad were about my mother, you would love it. You would love every inch of it.
[16:15:05]
And what has happened is the press has teamed up because he is a Republican and they've tried to make it like it is a horrible thing.
This is a mother saying very bad things about her daughter. And I don't know why that should be shielded.
The only problem is, the press has decided to unify and act like it is a horrible thing. It is horrible for her.
And I told Vivek, I said, well, if it were about you or about especially about me, if Mary MacLeod, my mother -- Mary MacLeod Trump said that about
me, you'd have it as your number one story.
REPORTER: On Ukraine, Mr. President, President Zelenskyy said these new Russian strikes overnight are proof that nothing has changed with Putin,
that he doesn't want peace. How do you see it?
TRUMP: Well, we will see how it works out. That's been happening a lot.
REPORTER: Any thoughts on how that's going to work out for Democrats?
TRUMP: Well, I won Michigan by a lot. It was a -- it is a great state. I've done a lot for them -- the air force base and everything else. And I think
we are going to do very well in Michigan. I really do.
REPORTER: You saw what Ilhan Omar said about her brother, who was asked if she had married her brother, and she said, "not to my knowledge." Do you
think --
TRUMP: Well, if you asked me that same question about, let's say, my sister, I would say no. She said "not to my knowledge." That tells you a
lot right there.
No, she is -- I've never been a big fan of hers, I'll be honest. Let's see how it all works out. But that statement tells you a lot.
REPORTER: Did you tell Elon Musk to bring back Starlink for Ukraine?
TRUMP: Well, I don't want to say, but I know it was a very interesting situation, so I don't want to comment one way or the other. But my
relationship with Elon is a very good one.
Go ahead.
REPORTER: -- you called him and asked him to --
TRUMP: Yes, I don't want to comment on it. You know, whether I called or whether somebody else called, it doesn't make any difference. I guess, the
bottom line, he put it back.
Any other question? Go ahead. Say hello.
REPORTER: -- to settle those lawsuits if they are --
TRUMP: If they can.
REPORTER: Yes, why not do so now, sir?
TRUMP: I think if they can do it reasonably, they should settle it. If they can't, they have to just go. But we want to take care of a lot of soldiers.
If the soldiers were affected and it was a proper situation, we want to take care of it. We want to take care of our soldiers.
REPORTER: -- depending on the midterms results, though --
TRUMP: Well, because if we are not there, then somebody else is going to have to settle it. So I can't speak for another administration. So if we do
badly or if the people that we need surrounding us can't get it done, because you have a lot of congressmen up, you have a lot of senators up,
you have a lot of people involved in that whole situation.
So if the Republicans don't do well, I would say that maybe they won't get their money.
REPORTER: President Trump --
REPORTER: Why did you make no mention of the sexual abuse allegations that Amy Acton made against her stepfather, who stayed married to her mother?
TRUMP: Well, I have no idea. I don't know the mother. I don't know her. I've never heard of her until just recently as somebody running for
governor of Ohio.
I can tell you this: If my mother ever made those statements, I have a mother -- I had a mother who is up there right now looking down, Mary
MacLeod Trump, if she ever made statements like that about me, you and your fake station would have a front row center. You'd love it.
What's happened is the press has ganged up on a woman making a horrible statement about her daughter and I don't know why she should be shielded --
or the daughter should be shielded --
REPORTER: But her stepfather --
TRUMP: Wait a minute -- the mother made a horrible statement about the daughter. She said she was a dirty liar. She said she was a lot of
different things. And I don't know why you're not allowed to say that. Gee --
I know one thing. If my mother who loved me made those statements, you'd be the first one to be broadcasting, and you would have found nothing wrong
with them.
Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about Amy Acton, and I don't know why you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to broadcast it.
Now, I will say this: The press has ganged up, because you hate it, because that one ad should really win. Look, if what the mother said about the
daughter is half right, she has no right even running for the governor of Ohio.
REPORTER: -- the daughter said about her mother.
TRUMP: I don't know what the daughter said. I don't know.
REPORTER: Her stepmother -- her mother remained married to her stepfather who sexually abused her at 12 years old.
TRUMP: Well, when did she make that statement? Was it just recently?
Because, you know -- you know, I have no idea. All I know is Amy Acton's mother said horrible things about Amy Acton calling her a liar and other
things and unreliable -- a lot of very bad things. And I say that she's fair game, and I know one thing, if it were my mother, I'd be fair game.
And you know that and you know that well.
[16:20:17]
You're trying to help Amy Acton get elected. The press has teamed up to help Amy Acton get elected, and that's all it is. What the mother said is
terrible from the standpoint that I wouldn't want somebody like that to be the governor of a great state.
REPORTER: Sir, have you been briefed on --
NEWTON: And you've been listening to President Trump as he leaves for a political rally. He did actually clarify something about the Starlink
service. You will remember how much Ukraine depends about this. He is telling us that he didn't want to comment one way or the other about who
had decided to throttle it, who had decided to restore it.
But he said, bottom line, he -- meaning Elon Musk -- has put it back. We will see later if that can be verified by Ukrainian authorities; also said
that he has a good relationship with Elon Musk.
On the issue of that ad in Ohio that we did speak about on the program yesterday, he is defending it. President Trump says it is totally
legitimate for the Ohio campaign, the Republican campaign to run that ad and we will continue to bring you more news from that if it is warranted.
In the meantime, we bring you this story. I.T. departments around the world are racing to fix up to 70 percent of all websites after critical
vulnerabilities were revealed by A.I.
Some sites and services briefly went dark after vulnerabilities were found. The bugs are located in php, that will be familiar to some of you. It is a
programing language that runs most websites.
They were discovered by teams at OpenAI and two cyber firms. Governments everywhere urged companies to patch their sites using the latest update. If
they don't, hackers could use the flaw to remotely execute code or expose customer data.
Anna Stewart is in London for us. A puzzling development, I guess, we can say that A.I. is helping here, but can you just kind of broaden this out --
put some flesh on the bone here for those of us who really don't understand how all this happened?
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Well, this is a rare moment of A.I. to the rescue, I feel like in the media right now. A.I. of course, is really good
when it comes to cybersecurity and here is an example of it preemptively finding a flaw that could have really wreaked havoc across the internet,
given this flaw could have impacted, you know, 70 percent of the websites in the world. So, there was huge potential here.
Now, two bugs were discovered in php. As you say, this is a programing language that many websites use. It is a very basic programing language.
There were two flaws and effectively, at its basic level, it could have allowed hackers to obtain sensitive information like passwords. This was
uncovered, as you say, by OpenAI, by two cybersecurity companies as well. It was a joint effort.
And finally, as I say, we have a positive A.I. story -- Paula.
NEWTON: In terms of the building blocks of this, though, and then how you fix it. I mean, look, you told me something a few hours ago that literally
made my head spin. Please do share because it involves the potential for chaos here.
STEWART: What was so interesting was the bug was actually discovered all the way back in August, so some time ago, but it was only disclosed
yesterday because that was when php Foundation, which manages this programing language, actually had a patch, good to go that, you know,
websites could download. So that's when it was disclosed.
There is a really interesting tweet by the CEO of Cloudflare on this, and in that he says, "... in the 10 hours before it was publicly announced
across the Cloudflare network, we saw thousands of attempts to exploit it. That jumped to tens of thousands in the 45 minutes post announcement,
hundreds of thousands within two hours, and millions now."
So one thing to note is that ten hours before that announcement, actually some hackers got news that this was coming and had a good go at it. But
also now, millions of hacks have been attempted since then. So this just goes to show how big this could have been.
And also, Paula, you know, A.I. is very good at finding flaws in cyber security. This is an example of that. But of course A.I. can also be used
not just to find flaws in cybersecurity, but also to exploit those flaws, which didn't happen in this case, but it just goes to show like how
advanced artificial intelligence has become and how big the potential is for havoc.
NEWTON: Yes, we are only starting to come to terms with what we are looking at here in the future.
Grateful to you for that explanation, and also grateful that Ryan Austin is here. He is a researcher at Calif, one of the cybersecurity firms that
uncovered the flaws in php. He joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida.
Okay, I feel like we are the patient here. You're the doctor. So please, what is the diagnosis here? And how are you going to patch us up? Are we
all cured?
[16:25:00]
RYAN AUSTIN, RESEARCHER AT CALIF: Well, the diagnosis is that it is extremely bad and it does need to be patched. It is all patched up now, and
we should be good as long as everyone rushes to actually get the patches -- all the patches. And you know, that's part of the disruption that you've
seen already with people taking services offline, proactively to get that stuff done.
NEWTON: So, Ryan, I am almost afraid to ask if this isn't done and it can be exploited, perhaps in ways that we don't even know right now, what could
the consequences be? Like what would be an example of what might happen?
AUSTIN: Oh, I think something that, you know, a lot of people know about is ransomware hackers, you know, break into companies and steal the data and
then they will encrypt it and try to ransom the companies or just basically anything, not even big companies, they will do it to anything they can if
they think that they can, you know, make money off of the data somehow.
NEWTON: And how do you view the vulnerabilities now going forward? Because this is not trivial. It is material not just to businesses, but
governments. We saw what they had to do.
So how do you, at this point in time, measure the risk going forward?
AUSTIN: Well, the risk is going to be inherent with other software, right? Like for example, right now with php, as you mentioned, you know, we've
been working on this since August.
We've done extensive testing and looking for what we call variants of the same flaws in different parts of the code to really, really make sure that
we've stomped out all of these types of vulnerabilities of this type. That's not to say that other vulnerabilities of different types can't occur
in the future or in other software, of course.
NEWTON: Ryan, you and your colleagues must be pretty tired right now. I mean, how hard do you guys work at this understanding what is at stake?
AUSTIN: Pretty hard. I am actually pretty rested today, finally, but yesterday, on the day of the release in the morning, I didn't sleep from
the previous day from when the patches went live. And between yesterday, I didn't sleep for almost like 48 hours, making sure everything went as
smooth as possible.
NEWTON: And I understand you're being hyper vigilant, but you can understand how me and our audience, it is not really putting my mind at
ease. So I ask you, how do you see this playing out in the future, especially when it comes to I.T. systems that are critical and I am
thinking of banks, utilities, aviation.
AUSTIN: So right now, we can think the labs, you know, the frontier labs are right now giving defenders a leg up over a lot of these attackers
because we have access to A.I. models that are much stronger and more powerful than anything they can run locally on their own computers, for
example.
NEWTON: Now, do you -- I mean, have you gotten news of anyone that's in trouble right now? And I am just wondering what you think your next few
weeks look like as we see this exponential growth in A.I.?
AUSTIN: Well, my next few weeks personally are going to be probably talking about this and going to conferences and making sure that everyone knows
that it is -- you know, it is very serious. It is a serious, as we say, and people need to take it serious because, you know, a lot of times these
things can be a little overblown for media purposes and whatnot. But this is legitimately very critical and people need to take it seriously.
NEWTON: Ryan, we are all now better informed, but I can't say we are feeling any better. I am grateful to you and all the other researchers that
stayed up so long.
I covered Y2K, that seems pretty trivial at this point in time. Not sure what your age was at that point in time, but yikes. We will continue to
follow this.
Ryan Austin for us. Really grateful to you.
AUSTIN: Thank you.
NEWTON: Now, British Bank, Barclays says it is cutting 5,000 jobs, saying it believes it can be more efficient with artificial intelligence. It
follows similar cuts announced at Standard Chartered earlier this year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANNA ZIADY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Well, these job cuts, although a small percentage of Barclays overall workforce at just five percent, will
disproportionately affect support functions. Barclays says about 60 percent of the cuts will be in those roles, including fewer developers, as A.I.
makes its employees more productive.
The end goal: Lower costs. Barclays said it expects to save nearly $1.5 billion next year, partly as a result of job cuts and as it invests in
technology to make its operations more efficient.
Now, this is just the latest example of how A.I. is disrupting the banking industry. Earlier this year, Standard Chartered, another major U.K. lender
said it would cut more than 15 percent of its back office roles by 2030. That's nearly 8,000 jobs as it increasingly uses artificial intelligence.
And of course, it is not just banks, tech firms and retailers have also been among the companies announcing A.I.-related layoffs this year, really
deepening concerns about the impact of the technology could have on jobs.
A recent McKinsey report found that in the U.S., an estimated 11 million workers, or 6.5 percent of the current labor force, may need to find
completely new occupations in the next decade as A.I. disrupts many industries.
But on a more positive note, that same report found that while many workers will need to gain new skills, the technology could actually create more
jobs than it kills.
Hanna Ziady, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Now, just a few years after widespread civil unrest, the prime minister of Sri Lanka Says the nation's economy is doing remarkably well.
Richard Quest sat down with Harini Amarasuriya in Colombo earlier today. We'll bring you their wide-ranging interview next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: Hello, I'm Paula Newton, and there's more quest means business in a moment when Sri Lanka's prime minister says her country has been and will
remain neutral on the conflict in the Middle East. She explains to Richard in Colombo how the government is handling the war. And Airbnb says rental
hosts can no longer make guests do chores that take significant effort or time. We'll take a look at the new rules and what they mean. Before that,
though, the headlines this hour.
Russia hit the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv overnight with a massive missile strike killing two people and injuring 34. The attacks came just hours
after Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would be willing to resume peace talks with Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the
strikes show there has been no real change in Moscow's attitude.
Ohio's Republican candidate for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, is refusing to pull a controversial ad that features the estranged mom of Amy Acton --
Acton, pardon me, his Democratic opponent. The state's current governor, Republican Mike DeWine, joined in those in the party who have denounced the
ad. He called it deeply troubling.
[16:35:08]
President Trump and President J.D. Vance have defended the ad.
The U.S. Geological Survey says a powerful magnitude seven earthquake struck Tibet Thursday night. China's Xinhua News Agency says at least 16
people have died and dozens of others were injured. It says hundreds of homes have collapsed. Rescue teams are still assessing the extent of the
damage.
So the prime minister of Sri Lanka says the nation's policy is to remain neutral on the war in the Middle East. Richard Quest just sat down with
Harini Amarasuriya in Colombo. She told him that the war has been tricky to navigate. The prime minister also discussed Sri Lanka's economic recovery
after the unrest there in 2022.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARINI AMARASURIYA, SRI LANKAN PRIME MINISTER: We are doing remarkably well given what we've been through and I think that's primarily really good
fiscal management, very high discipline when it came to fiscal management, sticking with the program, really tackling things like corruption and
waste. Governance I think was the difference. Really good governance mechanism, which made it possible. So here we are two years later and
things are looking not too bad.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You criticized the IMF program and then followed it.
AMARASURIYA: Well, we had no choice but to follow it because --
QUEST: But you didn't like it.
AMARASURIYA: We didn't. We didn't like it because we felt that our previous experiences with IMF have not been great. This is not the first time we've
entered an IMF program, but when we came into power, the IMF agreement was already signed and we started working with them and we found them
approachable. We found that we were able to sit down and talk to them and discuss our concerns.
And many of the issues that they raised about governance and corruption and strict discipline we were in agreement with. So we decided to carry on with
the program because also, Richard, one of our main tasks was to maintain stability soon after the election because there was so much concern about
what the country had been through. And we are a very new government, very new people in positions of power.
So to ensure that, you know, there was lots of people looking at us waiting for us to fail, and we needed to prove that we were not going to fail.
QUEST: The recent energy crisis has hit hard. Luckily for Sri Lanka, of course, investment in hydro and renewables is greatly to your advantage. So
you are benefiting from that. But if I just look at this Iran war and how it's affected you in different ways, whether it be the sinking of the ship,
the submarine sinking of the ship in waters, whether it be having to choose between the superpowers, whether it be just the energy costs.
AMARASURIYA: Yes.
QUEST: And the difficulties. It's what Harold MacMillan I think was called events, dear boy. Events.
AMARASURIYA: Yes. Well, events that we could have well done without.
QUEST: But how do you position the country in these things?
AMARASURIYA: Well, our position has always been that wars of this nature, conflicts of this nature, serve no good to anyone. But our concern has also
been regional peace, maintaining the fact that given our strategic location and our maritime location, that we make sure that the war does not enter
our space.
This has been our major concern. And this is why we've always been very neutral and talked to all the parties engaged to make sure that we are kept
out of the line of fire, as it were. But then we've also had to deal with the consequences of rising fuel prices, energy costs, all of this, which
was -- which is really unfortunate for an economy that's just coming out of a crisis.
QUEST: For a country that threw its lot in with China in some way with the port, is right next door to India so obviously the economic forces there,
has tried to play with the United States and unfortunately your tariffs show that it hasn't been incredibly successful. But juggling, Prime
Minister.
AMARASURIYA: That has always been our foreign policy challenge. Because of our location, we've always been caught between all these superpowers and it
has never been to our advantage when we lean one way or the other, which is why our government has always maintained this strict policy of non-
alignment. Of course, giving priority to regional interests. This is -- this has been our policy throughout.
QUEST: Most prime ministers keep defense or foreign affairs, or maybe even, you know, they go for the sort of the core three. You chose to keep
education.
[16:40:06]
AMARASURIYA: Well, you know, we have an executive president. So it's the -- and the president is the head of the Cabinet. And he kept the defense and
finance portfolios. But our other big priority in our policy, in our manifesto, was education. And that was given to me.
QUEST: Do you envisage constitutional reform?
AMARASURIYA: Yes.
QUEST: What's your priority for constitutional reform?
AMARASURIYA: Well, this constitution went through 22 amendments and there's some -- there's obviously real flaws in it in that, also that, you know, I
mean, we have a history of conflict in this country, and the constitution has to be one that addresses that conflict and looks at the roots of that
conflict and addresses that. And one that really enables sort of transparency and accountability in the --
QUEST: Do you really want to open that can of worms?
AMARASURIYA: Well, we will have to because I think it's not a can of worms because the war ended, but the root causes of that conflict have to be
addressed for the country to move forward. And what we've always talked about is an inclusive country, a development that's inclusive and
sustainable. And that requires looking at all of these different factors.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Now, many of us are familiar with this experience. You're checking out of an Airbnb, but you have to complete a laundry list of chores first.
Yes. Tick, tock. Now Airbnb is cutting down that to-do list for you. We will discuss when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: So the days of washing the dishes and stripping the beds at an Airbnb are nearly over. New rules starting next month say rental hosts can
no longer make guests do chores that take, quote, "significant effort or time."
Now we'll give you some examples here. Hosts can ask guests to put dishes in the sink, but not to wash or put them away. Hosts can ask guests to
gather used towels, but not to strip the beds or start the laundry. Host can ask guests to sort garbage but not take it off site. The changes,
though, are sparking a big debate on social media.
An Airbnb spokesperson told CNN, "House rules help guests understand what hosts expect, but we've heard from our community that they can be
confusing, onerous and hard to manage."
[16:45:13]
Dennis Schaal is the founding and executive editor at Skift, and he joins us now.
I'm not sure if you're joining us from an Airbnb, but I'll leave that there for now. The technical term for what we -- the technical term for what we
call this at CNN is a talker. It got us going. Rarely has so much been debated about dishes and sheets. I mean, in your estimation, why is Airbnb
doing this?
DENNIS SCHAAL, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, SKIFT: Well, ever since -- do you remember the cleaning fee uproar of several years ago? So many guests were
complaining about excessive Airbnb cleaning fees. So ever since then, Airbnb has informally been telling hosts don't make unreasonable requests
of guests. You know, Airbnb is trying to get the booking. They want the guest experience to be good.
So now they are formalizing this. So as you said, I love the intro before about the laundry list of tasks that hosts sometimes ask guests to do, so
you don't have to do the laundry anymore. You don't have to strip the beds. You don't have to do all the tasks that you're already paying a cleaner to
do in terms of washing the dishes, stripping the beds, taking out the garbage off site. Why should you have to do all this stuff when you're
already paying for it?
Now, I mean, washing the dishes is not an unreasonable request. A lot of hosts are angry about that prohibition, about asking for that because, you
know, it's going to attract, you know, roaches, cockroaches, vermin, whatever. But some of these things are great for the guests, you know, and,
and Airbnb has been, you know, in recent years, it's been tilting towards favoring the guests. Hosts are resentful about it.
NEWTON: And yet hosts --
SCHAAL: You know, so, I mean, I could give you -- I could give you a laundry list of ways they are tilting towards guests, you know. So --
NEWTON: Well, give us an idea there because the pushback from the hosts, while they might be there, and I mean, we've seen it online, right? Again,
how much power do they really have with Airbnb? Because, again, Airbnb wants to increase its bookings to increase its revenue. They're going to
listen to the guests, right?
SCHAAL: Right. Exactly. I mean, Airbnb is supposed to be a neutral marketplace. It's supposed to be balancing the needs of hosts and guests
and hosts feel like Airbnb is increasingly telling them how to manage their homes. For example, with these new rules, a host can't enter into a
separate contract with a guest. A lot of hosts' insurance policies require that kind of thing, you know, for liability reasons.
Hosts can't collect IDs in advance. They can check the id at the door, you know, but they can't keep the IDs. They can't collect them in advance. And
so Airbnb has been tilting towards guests. Last year, they removed all fees that the guests pay, and they put it all on hosts. Hosts now have to pay a
15.5 percent fee per booking. They introduced a policy called reserve now, pay later so you can book an Airbnb now, U.S. users can book an Airbnb now
and pay nothing up front.
And they can cancel like a few days before the stay and, you know, leaving the host high and dry. So there's a lot of ways that Airbnb has been
tilting towards the guests and many hosts are angry about it.
NEWTON: Dennis, I have very little time left. I want to ask you, do they want to become more of a service that mirrors a hotel experience more than
what we're used to?
SCHAAL: Well, that's what hosts are saying that, you know, you don't have to clean your hotel room before you go. They are on boarding hotels, you
know, so, you know, they're trying to create sort of a level playing field in that regard.
NEWTON: Well, Dennis, we'll leave it there for now, but given how much we're talking about, it is certainly a topic we'll come back to. Thanks so
much. Really appreciate you joining us.
Now, advertisers and marketing agencies are leaning into the influencer economy. Up next, we speak with the CEO of Obviously about the business of
content creation.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:52:30]
NEWTON: So the growing influencer economy is changing the way that content creators make money. Now, of course, they can earn directly from social
media platforms based on views and subscribers. Brand deals, though, can also be a major cash cow.
Now, you may remember Charli D'Amelio's partnership with Dunkin' back in 2020. But now, traditional advertisers and marketing agencies also are
investing in influencers. WPP, for example, bought the influencer marketing agency Obviously, and it helps influencers build brand partnerships and
scale their social media presence.
Mae Karkowski is the founder and CEO of Obviously.
Love the name, and it certainly catches our attention. I want to look at this from a few angles. And first well go to the creators. So how lucrative
can this be? And why are traditional brands looking to creators as these brand representatives?
MAE KARWOWSKI, FOUNDER AND CEO, OBVIOUSLY: So being a creator can be extremely lucrative. I think so many people are shocked when they find out
what size checks that we're writing to some of these creators even if you have maybe 10,000 followers on Instagram or 100,000 followers on TikTok,
you could be making, you know, $5,000, $10,000, $25,000 per brand deal. And you add in different things like licensing rights and exclusivity, it could
be in the six figures.
NEWTON: Six-figure checks for this, to people who are not celebrities, they're not sports stars. They just started the social media content.
KARWOWSKI: Yes, it's really amazing. It's a true meritocracy. And when there are very few places like that, it seems right now in the world, you
know, your waiter, your babysitter, your tennis instructor could be making millions of dollars if they have a major platform on one of these channels.
NEWTON: Yes. Amazing. Not even just a side hustle. Now, what's in it, though, for the brands? What potential do some of these influencers hold
for them? Because it is quantifiable data that they're getting back, right? And I'm wondering, they're giving over a certain amount of money, but is it
because they're trying to get to a niche marketing strategy? I mean, what's in it for them?
KARWOWSKI: So marketing has really been evolving up until this point of really going into creator marketing. You have people spending upwards of
three to five hours a day on not just their phone, but on social media.
[16:55:02]
And they are building, you know, parasocial relationships with the people that they follow. And if I'm a creator and I'm really big in wakeboarding
and I love wakeboarding, and they're telling me that this is the best brand and this is the best board I should try. Like, I'm going to try it. And so
there is real data in our, you know, our clients are all Fortune 100. They come back quarter after quarter saying, hey, that worked really well.
We sold out of that product. We moved the needle here. We see a lot more foot traffic to this one store now that we're really promoting it with
creators and it's working really well.
NEWTON: You know, I'm wondering if the success of this has surprised even you. You've leveraged it beautifully, but did you see it clearly before
this all started to happen?
KARWOWSKI: I saw it incredibly clearly, which is kind of -- kind of kind of wild. Maybe it's the naivete in 2013, starting it from my apartment.
NEWTON: Wow.
KARWOWSKI: But it really took three years before brands wanted to pay creators or pay an agency like Obviously. And now, you know, the spaces
really has tripled over the last five years. It went from over $14 billion to $60 billion.
NEWTON: Wow.
KARWOWSKI: And it's growing even more now. So, so, yes, you know, just everyone can really make a lot of money as a creator.
NEWTON: Incredible. I don't have a lot of time left, but have you seen more political influence as well? I mean, people who are using some of these
influencers to win races.
KARWOWSKI: Definitely. I mean, as I mentioned, you follow someone, you care about their opinion. And when they start to tell you about the different
issues, topics and candidates they care about, it makes perfect sense that you'd tune in more to that person. And all these young people are so online
and all these conversations are happening online.
I don't know the exact figure, but just with the number of super PACs and parties that have reached out to us, you know, I think it's easy to say
that it's in the, you know, tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars just, you know, in this year alone.
NEWTON: Mae, listen, I have learned a lot from just speaking to you. I've also had to -- I had to do basically some education. I educated myself on
so many influencers. And when I actually learned how much money some of these people I had never heard of have, as you said, cut checks with these
brands, it is incredible. And we were happy to learn that there are still some meritocracies out there.
Thanks for being with us and we'll hear from you again, I'm sure. Take care.
KARWOWSKI: Thanks so much.
NEWTON: And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I'm Paula Newton. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
