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This is Andrew Peach with World Business Report. Donald Trump had the US tech giants on board at the start of his administration. In a moment, we'll check the data on how they're doing. As the trade war between the US and China continues, we'll hear from a small business owner in Idaho.
You know, we're good guys. We're sustainable. We're B Corp. We're doing good things for the world and we're growing. We're an economic success story and the administration is taking that away from us. And we're in Colombia where government support for projects like this could help to keep the peace. The beehive consists of around 10 panels which can be lifted out of the hive and Milena is just lifting them out now and each time she does, thousands of bees just come rushing out and are swarming around us.
But first, highly anticipated results of big American tech firms have been published in the last hour or so. Apple's revenue for the second quarter topped Wall Street's expectations. Amazon's profit forecast disappointed. Let's get the numbers from our North America tech correspondent, Lily Jamali, who's live with me on World Business Report. Talk us through it, Lily.
Sure. Well, let's start with Apple, because I think that we've been using that one as a proxy, really, for what the reaction will be to the tariff war. And Apple, you know, actually had a pretty, I think, upbeat set of comments from Tim Cook. Of course, he's been asked multiple times on the call, which is ongoing, this investor call about tariffs. He
He said, and I think the headline here is this, the majority of iPhones that are sold in the U.S. will now have India as their country of origin, not China. That's a really big deal. So they have been able to shift the supply chain for that product.
In pretty short order, and for a lot of other products like the iPad, the Mac computer, Apple Watch, etc., those products being sold here in the U.S. also are now going to be sourced not in China, but in Vietnam.
OK, and Donald Trump's been trumpeting Apple's investment in the US itself, as well as willingness to make these supply chain changes in response to his policies. So they're seeing pretty aligned the government and Apple at the moment. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well, it's interesting because Tim Cook actually opened the call with investors talking about exactly the point you just made, talking about Apple is spending, you know, $500 billion across multiple states over the next four years. This is an announcement that was made early in the administration. We knew this was happening.
But he, I think it was noteworthy that it came in minute two or minute three of the call with investors. So he talked about this new factory for manufacturing advanced servers in Texas. He talked about all the states where they have suppliers, 9,000 manufacturers across 50 states. So you could tell that's a huge part of the messaging that he's trying to highlight today. But the fact remains that India is going to be the focal point of
for anything that comes to the US in the way of an iPhone. And then you have Vietnam as well, which I mentioned, not the United States. Those products are not going to be made here by and large. Let's talk about Amazon. There was a report at least of a fallout between Amazon and the Trump administration just a couple of days ago with this idea of them putting the amount of tariff in the price advert of every product on Amazon. I think that's now going to happen. What are their numbers like this evening?
Yeah, that's right. That was quite a mini crisis I think was resolved in a couple of hours after a phone call between Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump. Amazon
Amazon's sales have not actually been hurt by the tariff turmoil is what we're hearing from the boss there, Andy Jassy. You know, there was some talk about maybe businesses benefiting, sorry, maybe businesses seeing an uptick, people who sell on Amazon, from people stockpiling products.
And Apple actually was asked about that as well. They didn't see people rushing out to buy a new iPhone to the extent that one might have imagined. So a little bit of a different story, these companies adapting to tariffs in a slightly different way. Yeah.
Lily, thank you so much. Lily Jamali with the latest on the US tech giants. Bring on Kerry Leahy, now economist at Columbia University. Kerry, good to have you with us. Just give me your take on those huge companies before we talk about other firms that have put out results today.
Well, virtually every investor is wondering when the shoe might drop and have decreased sales and budgets regarding the Trump tariffs. But you didn't see that in the data today. And not only were earnings for most, if not all the investors.
Magnetism 7-like companies doing quite well. They were quite upbeat or at least weren't downbeat about budgets going forward and demand going forward. So it was all pretty much very good news for companies that have been really good at making money. We're still able to make really good money, but we're still waiting to see if a shoe might fall over the next 60 to 90 days. Now, what else has caught your eye? Because quite a lot of firms are publishing their results profit forecast today.
Well, it's all over the map. I mean, while people certainly talked about General Motors talking about how many billions they might lose compared to what they thought they were going to make because of tariffs, it just pointed out, I think, clearly to just about everyone that even though GM is a producer of cars, it is a big importer of foreign parts from Canada, from Mexico and elsewhere. And net-net, they still will be worse off with a tariff that you think
it's designed to help. And then take another step. You had a CVS had very good results and, uh, uh, they showed that you can still make money the old fashioned way in the pharmaceutical business. So it's all over the map. And finally you had a McDonald's. You'd think they'd do well. If times are getting, uh, uh, uh, uh,
but they actually had pretty bad numbers, and you'd think they'd actually be helpful since they're sort of a low-cost fast food vendor. Everything's so hard to forecast at the moment, and that's what the market hates more than anything, isn't it? Absolutely. The old adage that if you're going to forecast, forecast frequently certainly applies to the world today.
Kerry, thank you for now. Kerry Leahy is at Columbia University. Now, if the big names are feeding the pinch of the tariffs, I want to focus now on how smaller businesses in the US are faring. I've been talking to a businesswoman who's trying to survive in the trenches of the trade war between the US and China. Cassie Abel founded and is CEO of Wild Rye, which is an outdoor clothing company based in Idaho.
If we were to produce a ski jacket that we're launching in the fall, you know, very rough product costs are $100. Historically, or at least the plan was to charge our customers just shy of $500 for that. So like $475-ish. We would have to charge our customers $1,200 in order to maintain healthy margins and also continue to work with our retail partners. So that's not...
So what does absorbing some of that into the business look like? What does that mean doing? As a small business, it's not possible. It's literally not possible. I mean, we have implemented a hiring freeze. We've frozen all salary increases. We're looking at every line item on our budget and cutting expenditures the best we can. But we're not going to be able to do that.
I mean, realistically, this is going to put thousands of small businesses out of business. We don't have the cash flow that big brands do. We don't have the diversification of manufacturing. So, I mean, this is an existential threat to our business and thousands of others. So, it's going to close you down eventually. How long would you survive before it puts you out of business, do you think? I mean…
I don't know. I mean, there's so much in question right now. We are frantically trying to countersource as many of our products as we possibly can. I'm really stubborn, so I will do everything in my power to find a way to get through this, but...
I don't know. There are not clear answers for our administration about where they want us to go. So maybe, of course, in the end, there's some kind of agreement, there's some kind of deal done between Washington and Beijing. Who knows what the terms will be? Who knows how long that will take? But in the meantime, businesses like yours might not survive. Yeah, exactly. We don't have any clarity to what we're going to need to raise our prices to, where we should be moving.
if we are not able to stay in China, if Beijing and the administration are not able to reach a deal. So right now we're playing a waiting game and doing everything in our power to, you know, keep the lights on. And we have an incredible team and, and,
I have jobs at stake. I have my house at stake. It can't be true that these items can only be made in China. It may well have been. That was the best deal available up until now. The U.S. administration has deliberately weighed the scales differently. So whether they're manufactured in the U.S. or manufactured in another country where there isn't quite the same swinging tariff in place, I suppose there must be another answer.
So the minimum order quantities in many of those countries are out of reach for small brands. So it's not impossible, but it's really hard. It takes a lot to try to move product. It takes years. I mean, we're developing our spring 27 product right now. We're working two years in advance. And so we would have to start from scratch in order to move out of China at this stage. Just let me ask you this finally, Cassie. How do you feel about all of this, this maelstrom that you and your business have been plunged into? Yeah.
Very discouraged. I mean, our brand has incredible momentum. Our DTC channel is up about 85% over last year. We're growing. We're one of the fastest growing brands in our industry, in our state. And this feels completely crippling. We're handcuffed. You know, we're good guys. We're sustainable. We're B Corp. We're doing good things for the world. And we're growing. We're an economic success story. And the administration is taking that away from us and thousands of other small business owners.
That's Cassie Abel, CEO of Wild Rye, which is based in Idaho.
Now, President Zelensky says the agreement signed with the US on exploiting Ukraine's minerals and fossil fuels is an equal partnership. Mr Zelensky said it was the first tangible outcome of that recent meeting with President Trump at the Vatican. Any future US military assistance to Kyiv would be counted as an investment in the partnership, but there is no US security guarantee for Ukraine.
Let's talk to Ashley Zomwalt Forbes, who's principal of Smoketree Resources, formerly the US's deputy director for batteries and critical materials. Thank you for being with us, Ashley. What do you make of the deal insofar as we know the details?
Yes. Look, we're very much in uncharted territory. We've now seen the U.S. government become an LP in effectively a reconstruction fund for Ukraine. I think it's very promising diplomatically. It's a great source of security for Ukraine and a bargaining chip with Russia.
However, I think its description as a solution to the US's critical mineral supply chain is a bit of a misnomer. Okay. So clearly there's something of a diplomatic one.
win here. Some might say, while it provides some security assistance, it isn't anything like the guarantee that's been in place until now. But I'd really like to focus on your expertise about the minerals. Is it not the wealth of minerals that the US needs? Is it the wrong stuff? Tell me.
It's a little bit of a combination of all of these things. So the deal is actually setting up a reconstruction fund. So the capital that flows from new mining permits or oil and gas permits that are taken out in-country, 50% of that revenue flows into the reconstruction fund.
The U.S., as a 50% limited partner, then has the ability to direct some of that capital around how Ukraine goes through rebuilding efforts.
And this is a strong signal that much of that rebuilding will be tied to energy and to minerals. Now, if you look at the U.S. critical mineral supply chains and where weaknesses lie, it's actually not in the upstream resources area.
There's an adage in the mining business that rare earth minerals are actually not that rare. The rare part is the ability to process those minerals and make a usable end product out of those. China controls upwards of 90% of those supply chains.
and they are single point of failure supply chains. So whilst the Ukraine deal focuses on unlocking upstream assets...
albeit extremely early stage, highly politically unstable upstream assets. It does not solve the most critical piece of the puzzle, which is this missing middle and the need for downstream industry to replace Chinese capacity. A bit like we were saying a second or two ago with Cassie, even if
It's only China that's been able to provide the supply chains or has had the most efficient version of the supply chains until now. Surely that doesn't mean they couldn't possibly be replicated elsewhere. I absolutely think there is every chance that the West can replicate supply chains, but there are significant unit economics issues.
China has a multi-decade head start on building out these supply chains. If we know anything about large capital projects, it's larger scale drives lower unit cost and therefore the ability to compete lower on the cost curve.
So we as the West need to jump from nascent industry to massive scale and compete on a head-to-head basis with a monopoly that is China. And add to that that China doesn't need to make a profit. They can take a decades-long view trying to increase market share versus pure financial focus.
In the West, we're a capitalist society, and I think that's a great thing. But in this instance, you know, investors and investment are driven on the ability to make quarterly profits. So interesting. Ashley, I have to stop you there because we're out of time. But thank you so much. That was really interesting to hear that the additional supply of minerals might not count for very much without the middle part being resolved. Ashley Zumwalt Forbes from Smoketree Resources. Thank you.
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The World Health Organization has warned of great disruption to global health funding after the announcement by Donald Trump back in January that the U.S. was pulling its funding. The U.S. has traditionally been the agency's top donor. Here's the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Donor countries can spend their money where they want and they have the right to spend it the way they want.
But instead of an orderly withdrawal, the abrupt cuts to overseas development aid in a changing economic and trade environment are searing chaos in public health.
Let's just wind back for a second. You say World Health Organisation. It sounds like a really good idea, worthy cause. What does it actually do?
Yeah, I think coming out of World War II, there was a very clear recognition that if the world wanted to move towards a healthier, wealthier, safer, thriving community that would benefit all countries around the world, that we had to move away from the type of environment that existed prior to that big war. And there was a recognition that some sort of organized effort needed to be put in place
that could help countries promote health in a way that benefited all. And that was really the genesis of the World Health Organization. And I think what Tedros just said on the clip you played, that countries can spend money where they want, is very important.
because I think what's being lost in the conversation and what he's really speaking to is what we really want. And what we all want is to be healthy, wealthy, safe, and thriving. And it's only through the ability to bring together and convene the functions of the WHO that we're able to do that. The transactional or strong...
arm approach to and try to enforce others to do our will was proven very clearly throughout history not to be an effective way to get us to that environment. Okay. So obviously it looks for trends in health threats that are bigger, taking a wider view than just a national country view. And then there are vaccination programs, there are humanitarian response programs when there's been some kind of natural disaster.
Without the US funding, give us a sense of what that means the WHO can't do anymore.
Yeah, so the U.S. funding accounts for probably about a fifth of the overall funding to the WHO in this current year. And so the withdrawal of that is a very sizable amount of about a 25 percent reduction in the funded workforce. It doesn't mean that the workforce will be reduced that much because there may be shifts around, but that's the overall impact. And what it means is that the WHO will not be able to deliver on a lot of essential functions, some of which you mentioned, but many of which you didn't.
So just quickly, I'll just name a couple that you didn't. Setting guidelines for countries to be able to follow to improve the health of not only their own populations, but populations around the world to ensure not only that other populations remain healthy, but that diseases don't spread around the world, that economies grow, and that as a result of economies growing, there's increased political stability around the world is a key feature.
Providing technical assistance to governments to improve their health systems is a critical function of the WHO. Collecting and analyzing data to understand what's happening in the world and where we're going in the world is another critical piece. And really focusing on setting standards and guidance for the entire world around the promotion of health and wellbeing.
All of those functions are likely to be impacted as there's an incredible stress on the system to reduce numbers of staff, reduce the types and numbers of operations that are occurring. And of course, when you do that, some things are going to have to be withdrawn. Could the money come from anywhere else? Because in the end, if the US says we're just not going to give you as much as we have in the past, then there's not an awful lot anyone can do about that.
But rather than saying, well, we have to slash everything, could the funding come from other sources? Yeah, I think there's two components to your question. One is, of course, and we are seeing other member states stepping up and increasing their contributions. And it's expected that there will be a doubling of member state contributions by 2030 is what I understand. And so we are seeing other countries step up, and that's very important. So there's the monetary component of that and what the actual dollars mean.
But there's also what it means to have global community coming together in recognition of the importance of a body such as WHO. So dollars aside, it is really critical that all countries come together to discuss and debate and reach consensus on what are issues of global importance in health and well-being so that we can pursue a common agenda. And what we've learned from history is that when we don't do that, we all suffer.
Judd, thank you. Thank you so much for being with us. Judd Walson is Chair and Professor at the Department of International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School.
of public health. More than eight years have passed since the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the FARC, the largest left-wing guerrilla group in Latin America. Thousands of FARC fighters came out of their jungle and mountain hideouts, handed in their weapons and returned to civilian life. The state's been trying to help them reintegrate into the workforce, find a job, start a business and
How is all that going? Well, my colleague Gideon Long has been to Colombia to find out. It's early morning here in Colombia's third largest city, Cali, in the southwest of the country. We're just heading out of town now to visit a beekeeping project in the hills above the city. But this is no ordinary project. First of all, all of the people working on it are women. And secondly, they're all former members of the FARC.
I'm here to meet four of the women. As we pull up, I can't help noticing they've brought security guys along with them too. We drive on a little further and then leave our cars by the side of a country road and we start walking into a thick forest. We've walked a couple of hundred metres off the road now and we've come to a little clearing where there's about 20 beehives.
I speak to one of the women, Ana Milena Cortes. She was 19 when she joined the FARC. She was a nurse and in her part of Colombia, the guerrillas were in fierce battles with another rebel group, the ELN. Ana Milena treated wounded FARC fighters and spent the next nine years with the guerrillas. But in 2014, the Colombian army caught up with her unit and she was detained.
She spent three years in jail before being released in 2017 as part of the peace process. When I left jail, I went to the government demobilization camp, but I didn't want to be there, so I went home. I wanted to see my family. It had been so, so long. I met the man who's now my husband, and we came here to work on a farm. That was when I first heard that the government could help us set up our own projects.
They held a meeting and this cooperative grew out of that meeting. The women who run this project have dressed me up in a full beekeeper's outfit, complete with a face visor, covered from head to toe. And we're going to go in and look at the main beehives now.
The beehive consists of around ten panels which can be lifted out of the hive and Milena is just lifting them out now and each time she does, thousands of bees just come rushing out. They're swarming around us. They're covering my recorder and microphone. This beekeeping cooperative is one of thousands of projects that former members of the FARC have set up with help from the state since the peace deal was signed. But they are controversial and there's been a backlash against the former guerrillas.
The FARC killed thousands of people during its war with the state. It kidnapped and extorted thousands more. It forcibly recruited children and was heavily involved in the drugs trade. Many Colombians question why the state is helping former rebels set up businesses, but it isn't subsidising other ordinary Colombians who never took up arms to do the same.
Ximena Ochoa has a long history with the FARC. The group kidnapped her mother in 1990 and only released her for a ransom. For years, Ximena's family, cattle ranchers in rural Colombia, were harassed by the group. These days, Ximena is the president of an association of victims of Colombia's left-wing rebels.
Jimena, part of the peace agreement that was signed in 2016 involved the state helping and financing projects run by former members of the FARC. What's your view on those projects? Those projects suffer from a problem which comes from a lack of understanding of the FARC.
The government of Juan Manuel Santos saw the FARC as a monolithic organisation. It thought the leaders had the same objectives as the rank-and-file members. That was a big mistake. The leadership of the FARC were criminals. I don't know where this idea comes from, that someone who is a criminal ceases to be a criminal just because they sign a piece of paper. I don't know where the idea comes from, that a criminal ceases to be a criminal because he signs a paper.
So you're talking there about the senior members of the FARC, but do you accept that there were also junior members of the FARC who did need help to reintegrate themselves into civilian life? They've had more economic help than the victims because the state gave them a salary and it gave them money to start businesses. The vast majority of the victims of the FARC in Colombia haven't been given that. The
The victimizers have had it easier than the victims.
If you'd like to hear Gideon's full report on the reintegration of the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, just search for Business Daily wherever you get your BBC podcasts from. All the latest on today's global business stories online, bbc.com slash news is our web address. From me, Andrew Peach, and the team here on World Business Report, thanks for being with us on the BBC World Service. ♪
Toyota is the best resale value brand for 2025, according to kellybluebookskbb.com. And with a wide range of dependable vehicles for any lifestyle, you can get everything you need in a vehicle today while investing in tomorrow. So choose Toyota and choose value. Shop by at toyota.com for great deals and more. Vehicles projected resale value is specific to the 2025 model year. For more information, visit kellybluebookskbb.com. Kelly Blue Book is a registered trademark of Kelly Blue Book Co. Inc.
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