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First Move with Julia Chatterley
Idalia Lashes Western Cuba with Heavy Rain; U.S. Commerce Secretary Meets with China's Premier; Regional Football Chiefs Demand Rubiales Resign; Cautious Start of Trade on Wall Street Tuesday; Oura Launches Social Feature with Health Tracker; "Greening Up" Gray Rooftops of Paris to Boost Climate Resilience. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired August 29, 2023 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNNI HOST: Welcome to "First Move" great to have you with us for another busy show this Tuesday. Just ahead this hour Florida
forewarned Idalia strengthening in the Gulf Coast, it could be a powerful category three hurricane when it hits land on Wednesday, mandatory
evacuations are underway across the state.
Idalia already bringing heavy rains and strong winds to Cuba too, complete coverage of the storm's path just ahead. Plus trade teamwork U.S. Commerce
Secretary Gina Raimondo meeting with top Chinese officials on Tuesday during her ongoing trip to Beijing China's Premier promising new efforts to
boost trade cooperation the U.S. delegation saying it's not seeking a Chinese decoupling.
We've got a live report just ahead. And garden gloom troubled Chinese property developer Country Garden set to report first half results on
Wednesday. The firm already warning of a more than $7.5 billion loss, "The Financial Times" saying it's looking for a 40 day grace period to pay back
debt maturing next week to stave off default.
Chinese investors taking the news it seems in their stride on Tuesday. It helped along I think, in large part by Beijing's stock trading tax cut that
we discussed on the show on Monday, Hong Kong's government also announcing a new task force today to "Enhance stock market liquidity to officials
looking to lift stocks out of their bear market slump.
Bloomberg also reporting today that China's state banks may cut rates on mortgages and on deposits to help boost consumer and investor confidence
the latter of course to push money out into the system. Meanwhile, some caution as you can imagine, ahead of the U.S. Open after the major averages
managed a second straight day of gains on Monday Wall Street's first back to back gains this month in fact.
Europe also as you can see there, green higher across the board and sitting near two week highs. We've got a busy show ahead as always. We do begin in
Florida as frantic hurricane preparation begins. The Gulf Coast braces for life threatening storm surges and damaging winds as Hurricane Idalia heads
the landfall north of the City of Tampa, warnings being issued of tropical storm gusts and flashes flood even before the hurricane reaches land.
Mandatory evacuation orders are enforced in at least 10 different counties. And it's not just the United States that's preparing for the worst. More
than 8000 people have been evacuated from coastal areas of Western Cuba too. And you can see some of those images from Monday in front of you.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann is in the Capital City, Havana for us now. And Patrick I think you'll face as it all I can see the rain and the water
behind you?
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Reconsidering my life choices here. But yes, we are getting drenched here in Havana even as the storm pulls away
from Cuba and as it goes into the Straits of Florida gains really dangerous power.
But this is just the remnant. We are all quite a bit away from the center of the storm and you could just hear it. It is drenching us. This morning I
looked at the skies it was completely clear. And then several times we've had these bands of rain and we look at a review across Havana and the city
just disappears and sort of this haze of white.
And it's actually drenching freezing cold rain which is unusual surely for Cuba and here you see the behind me all these people does take cover here
and they're just trying to get out of this storm that has come down all around us is leading to flooding is leading to massive power cuts
throughout the island, the Province of the West as Del Rio that has gotten much harder hit than we have.
You are talking about hundreds of thousands of people who are without power. And again when the storm came by Cuba it was a tropical storm and
then turns it into a hurricane this morning much less powerful than what Florida is going to face.
But still for all of us are right here as you can see a still very punishing storm. You don't want to be out in the street when something like
this is going on. And it's not safe to drive. It's not safe to be out there walking right now.
We were out earlier and we had all our equipment blown over by just one gust. So it can come up and surprise it can be very, very powerful. And I
can tell you this will lead to days of cleanup here in Cuba even if we missed the worst of it for those who've felt the brunt of the storm here in
Cuba it were certainly bad enough.
[09:05:00]
CHATTERLEY: Yes. And he's challenging as we mentioned around 8000 people from coastal areas having to evacuate. Where do they go because that's the
big decision that people have to make? Do we stay at home? Do we sit this out? Do we risk it? Or do we evacuate and go somewhere else? These are
tough choices, whether they're where you are, of course, the decisions that are being made now in Florida.
OPPMANN: Very much shown. And by the time that many people realize it's time to evacuate, it's too late. So here in Cuba, people either go to
government evacuation centers, which are a very bare bones because of the lack of resources in this country, or they go stay with family or friends.
But what people will tell you again and again, is they don't want to evacuate because they're so afraid of losing their houses, many times a few
possessions they have so they choose to ride it out. After all, you're on an island, you can only evacuate so far.
And it's really for the western end of this island entire western section of this island from Havana all the way to the very end of Cuba is just
getting drenched right now very powerful winds, very dangerous flooding conditions when you're talking about a mountainous region like the western
part of Cuba that can lead to mudslides.
We've already seen some trees come down and so many without power right now that means to do without communication. So you really want to storm like
this comes along, you just have to hunker down and try to write out as best as you can. Because at least for the hours to come probably the rest of
today help is not going to be able to get to you.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Patrick Oppmann there and try and stay dry. I know you're looking pretty wet at this stage and then please don't reconsider your life
choices because we appreciate you and we need you there. Patrick, thank you.
OPPMANN: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: OK, meanwhile, in Florida the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA is standing by to funding resources too. A little earlier my
colleague Sara Sidner asked FEMA's administrator about what's being planned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: We have been engaged with Florida's Emergency Management Department for several days now. We've also been in
touch with our officials in Georgia as well as North Carolina and South Carolina. They will also feel some impacts from this.
Our preparation getting ready for this has been to move our resources in. We have urban search and rescue teams that are on standby to support the
state with any life-saving needs that they have. We have the Army Corps of Engineers ready to support any power generation missions that they might
need.
We have teams that are ready to go out into the community door to door to help understand what the impacts are after the storm passes and it's safe
to do so. And so we will continue to move forces in to be ready to respond at Florida's request to come in after the storm passes to begin helping
with any life-saving and then beginning any recovery efforts as needed.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're looking at the map right now right next to your thing places like Port St. Lucie and Tampa Cedar Key, a lot of
area covered by this hurricane potentially. Can you give us some sense of what residents in these places should be doing? In case they have major
damage should they be taking pictures, what they should be bringing with them to make sure that they are safe and that their property is potentially
safe and all of this?
CRISWELL: I think the most important thing right now for all Floridians is to make sure that they know where they're at and what their risk is going
to be as it relates to this storm. It is a category one now we expect it to intensify.
We expect it to make landfall possibly a category three, but it's also the storm surge that's so significant. So the first thing that, I just want to
tell everybody in Florida is listen to your local officials. If they ask you to evacuate, please do so.
And it doesn't mean you have to go hundreds of miles, it could just be 10 or 20 miles inland to get out of that main area. If you are asked to
evacuate, definitely take your important documents with you so you have those. So after you go back in and it's safe to go back in and you start to
assess the damage, you have all of your important documents like insurance papers and identification to be able to start a recovery process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: In the meantime, security has been tightened outside several cemeteries in St. Petersburg, Russia amid speculation that the funeral of
Wagner Boss of Yevgeny Prigozhin may be taking place there. Police checkpoints and metal detectors have been set up at gates for cemetery
that's usually reserved for military burials. We still don't know any details surrounding the funeral. Matthew Chance is in St. Petersburg and
has the latest.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENR: Well we're its St. Petersburg but we're also in this the Piskaryovskoe Cemetery [ph] which is
this huge cemetery in the middle of St. Petersburg on the outskirts of it at least.
Where we expect to where we think Yevgeny Prigozhin the Wagner Leader could be buried either later on today or possibly tomorrow. We don't know for
sure because the trouble is there's a veil of secrecy over these arrangements.
[09:10:00]
You know, and so we're trying to sort of get as much access as we can and look at what evidence we can to try and determine when the funeral might
take place. Certainly, there's nothing official being said to us about when it would happen.
But, of course, it was just the weekend that the Russian investigators said that identified his remains that had confirmed that he'd been killed on
that plane crash last Wednesday. And look here, the security that has been placed outside this cemetery as well, you've got police that have been put
outside or security forces from the interior ministry in fact.
And also these metal detectors and anybody who comes through has to unload the pockets like it was an airport or something like that, and is being
searched. That's not normal, in a cemetery here in St. Petersburg. And so, you know, that's obviously an indication that some big kind of funeral is
being planned.
But again, a veil of secrecy across the whole situation, what we do know is the Kremlin, who are trying to play this down, have said this morning, that
Vladimir Putin, the Russian President will not be attending any funeral. They're saying that it is purely a family affair.
And, you know, again, that that talks to the idea that Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin and officially they don't want to get involved in this any more
than they absolutely have to. Of course, the Kremlin is dismissed as absolute lies, allegations that they were in some way involved in the plane
crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine other people last week.
But despite those denials, there's still a lot of suspicion here in Russia, elsewhere around the world as well that could have been some kind of let's
state involvement. And so I think that's why the Kremlin is trying to distance them as much as possible from the next stage in this process,
which is the funeral arrangements.
CHATTERLEY: And as we wait for more images of that a rare look inside a Russian prison. New video showing American Paul Whelan has been released by
Russian state media in it you can see Whelan any prison uniform, as well as images of him using a sewing machine and eating in a cafeteria.
Whelan has been held by Russia since 2018, and sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison on an espionage charge. His brother David said this was the
first time he's seen what Paul looked like since June of 2020. Earlier this month, the U.S. Secretary of State to Antony Blinken spoke to Whelan who
has been deemed wrongly detained by the U.S. government.
The Biden Administration continues to reiterate to Russia their proposal for Whelan's release. Now officials from the world's two largest economies
saying all the right things during their latest attempt to mend trade ties in Beijing, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo meeting today with the
Chinese Premier as part of her four day China visit, both sides insists that they are committed to boosting bilateral ties.
But restoring trust could be a long term challenge. China's Premier reportedly warning the U.S. of "Politicizing trade". And Gina Raimondo
saying the U.S. will stand up to China when it violates the rule of law.
Kristie Lu Stout joins us now. Kristie, great to have you to talk about this information exchange, which is what they have agreed to surely can
only be a good thing where some of these tensions and concerns are concerned, the question is perhaps will it lead to some kind of easing of
the bans on things like tech chips?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that is what Gina Raimondo is out to do to ease the tensions in this critical relationship. And earlier
today, the U.S. Commerce Secretary met with China's Premier as she seeks to manage this very complicated relationship.
And somehow shore up trade ties between the world's two largest economies. Earlier today that she met at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and
from there we heard from the Chinese Premier Li Chang who said this let's bring up the picture for you.
He said this "Economic and trade relations are the ballast for U.S. relations. A well maintained economic and trade relationship is beneficial
to both countries and the whole world". Raimondo for her part she agreed with Li and she went on to say that the U.S. wants to work with China on
global concerns like the Fentanyl crisis like climate like AI.
Earlier in the day she met with a Chinese Vice Premier Holly Fong where she reemphasize that message that we keep hearing from senior cabinet
secretaries that the U.S. does not want to decouple from China, but will not compromise protecting its national security.
Earlier Raimondo also met with China's Tourism Minister and China urged the U.S. to increase direct flights with China. This visit, it comes at a
critical time for China because there are a lot of concerns about the Chinese economy.
It's facing this long laundry list of issues like slumping exports, like deflation like the ongoing and deepening property crisis like high youth
unemployment with data so bad that the government recently stopped publishing that data. U.S. China tensions have flared over geopolitical
issues, especially over trade and over access to sensitive data technology like chips like semiconductors.
[09:15:00]
But given China's economic dire straits right now, you know the pressure really is on to boost commercial activity and to ultimately stabilize the
relationship that as Raimondo pointed out yesterday, it's worth more than $700 billion in annual trade back to you Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. And as economic growth slows in China it's arguably worth a lot more to try and boost these ties and reduces some of these tensions.
Kristie, what else is on the agenda?
STOUT: Well tomorrow, Gina Raimondo will be leaving Beijing for Shanghai and she is due to visit Shanghai Disneyland which is the joint venture
between Disney and the Shindy Group, a state owned company in China.
She is also expected to meet with additional U.S. business leaders in China. And she's going to hear more of these voices very critical about the
operating in China. They're going to share more about the challenges of operating in China the need for market access.
The day is going to culminate around 4:55 pm, local time with an on the record digital debriefing with the U.S. Commerce Secretary, where she will
talk to the greater public about what she achieved what she discussed in China. And that will cap off her visit. A visit that started on Sunday in
Beijing, ending four days later Wednesday in Shanghai, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Kristie Lu Stout, great to have you on. Thank you very much for that.
STOUT: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Now, Toyota is suspending operations at all of its Japanese assembly plants after a technical glitch disrupted its finely tuned supply
chain. The automaker says at this stage, it doesn't believe the system failure was caused by a cyber-attack. Anna Stewart joins us now. Well, Anna
the good news is and I'm going to steal it from you actually.
We're out of date, because as of the last, what 30 minutes, they're saying they're going to resume production in Japan on Wednesday. However, a few
hours ago, we weren't sure about that. What happened we're talking about the world's largest automaker by sales?
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Listen, this is the hopes that by the end of tomorrow, all of their factories are back-up and running. And there was
also the good news that they believe according to the statement that the malfunction of the system isn't relating to a cyber-attack.
And of course, that's where your mind goes. And actually, we know that Toyota suppliers have been targeted by cyber-attacks before and it has
caused a factory shut down in the past. Less good news, I would say is the fact that they're continuing to investigate the cause of this issue.
This was a massive glitch. They're calling it a malfunction in the production order system. As I understand it, there's just made processing
orders of new car parts incredibly difficult, or perhaps actually impossible, given how big shutdown was.
And that matters, particularly in just in time manufacturing, the beauty of a car factory and I'm sure you've been to a fair few yourself, Julia is
that the parts arrive within hours of going into a car. Car plants don't have huge inventories. They don't waste money on warehousing.
And actually, we saw the fragility of this very efficient system, I think, with a shortage in semiconductors because they didn't have big inventories.
We saw a huge impact on production there. Now I think there'll be hopes that they know exactly what did cause this doesn't happen again.
Just to give you an idea of how big it was 14 factories closed today, multiple production lines, which are more than 13,000 vehicles a day that
is how many cars and vans and other vehicles that Toyota produces in Japan it's around a third of their global production and as you said, this is the
world's biggest carmaker.
CHATTERLEY: Yes this is sort of redefining the term just in time supply chain like completely out of time.
STEWART: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: They've got to get to the bottom of this and they work out what happened and hopefully prevent it ever happening again. We shall see Anna
Stewart, thank you for that. OK straight ahead, Spain's defined Football President appears to be running out of allies after that unwanted kiss.
Details next on who else is calling for him to step down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move", the week goes on for disgraced President of the Spanish football federation Luis Rubiales has to resign.
On Monday night in a dramatic U turn his own organization demanded he stepped down as they try and recover from the scandal that's engulfed them.
The Football Chief's unsolicited kiss of Jenni Hermoso has overshadowed the Spanish Women's World Cup success just 10 days ago. Atika Shubert joins us
live now from Madrid. Atika, it feels like far longer than 10 days ago, quite frankly, it's a mess for many reasons. And I think the silence from
UEFA now is completely deafening. Just to be clear, we haven't heard from Rubiales himself, have we since we heard him speaking defiantly last week?
ATIKA SHUBERT, JOURNALIST: Now we haven't had a peep from him. And so far, there are no signs that he's going to resign anytime soon. This despite the
fact that the regional heads of the Federation stayed up late into the night, last night at this office building here, trying to find a way out
and ultimately came out with a statement that said he should resign as soon as possible.
But it looks like he's going to have to be forced out. And for that to happen, it's going to take a lot of steps. Basically, the Council for
sport, which is a government body, has now said that it has put in the information that is needed for a tribunal that would then investigate the
allegations, look at the incident and have a ruling.
And once the tribunal decides whether or not it's going to go ahead, then there is the possibility that he will be suspended. But all of this is
going to take a lot of time there are a lot of hoops to jump through. So it doesn't look like he's going to be going anywhere, anytime soon.
This is one of the reasons why there's been such increasing pressure on him from the Federation, from a criminal investigation that has now been opened
by the prosecutor, by the players themselves who have said that they will not play unless he resigns, and of course from other people have put their
support for the player Jenni Hermoso, and have condemned Rubiales' actions.
CHATTERLEY: You know, it's fascinating, I've spoken to a number of people discussing this and it's interesting to get the perspectives. There's the
perspective that look, this is just one example of what's become a relatively toxic culture in women's sport in Spain. And we've seen that in
other countries.
And then he's here the other perspective, which is, look, it was an amazing moment. It was a celebration. It was sort of an innocent kiss in an excited
moment. Atika, what this Spanish public saying about what they think happened here and what should happen from here?
SHUBERT: You know, it's interesting when it happened, the immediate euphoria and celebration at the World Cup victory, everybody saw this video
of this sort of exuberant hugs and kisses that he was giving. I should also point out the behavior actually, before the celebration.
As soon as that victory was actually clinched by the World Cup team, there was video of him, grabbing his crotch and victory and he was sitting next
to the Queen of Spain and her 16 year old daughter, the princess. So it's sort of the combination of all of his actions during this World Cup match
that caused a national embarrassment.
But what was kind of a small embarrassment then snowballed into a major scandal when he refused to resign over the issues when he kind of issued a
very small but perhaps what felt to many of the public here insincere apology? And with that, that's when you saw the anger coming out.
[09:25:00]
That's when you saw the rallies, the banners that said we are with you Jenni and what has become the rallying cry of sort of me too movement here
in Spain Se Acabo which means it is over.
And by that it means not only is it over for Rubiales but also that it is over for the kind of unwanted kisses, the kinds of attention that women
have not wanted, particularly in women's sport. And it is over for that kind of structural sexism. So we do seem to be having a major turning point
here in Spain.
CHATTERLEY: It's certainly a moment, Atika, great to have you, thank you. Atika Shubert, there in Madrid. OK, coming up after the break, we'll take
you live to Clearwater, Florida where hurricane Idalia is strengthening as it approaches land. Our coverage continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move", and let's return to hurricane Idalia forecast to hit Florida's gulf coast on Wednesday. Don't be deceived
by the beautiful weather in the Tampa Bay City of Clearwater, which is where we find CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
Derek, yes, the split screen I think between what you're seeing and doing today versus what we're expecting to see tomorrow I think is going to be
pretty unimaginable. Just give us a sense of the storm's path at least at this stage?
[09:30:00]
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Julia. I mean, it'll be a completely different story here in Clearwater Beach tomorrow at this time that is
saying that lightly and we are watching Idalia very closely. But I think it's important to note for our viewers that what you're looking at is the
very shallow Gulf of Mexico behind me.
And this water is warm. Water temperatures here are running up to two degrees Celsius above average for this time of year. And yet it got to
understand something about warm water, and hurricanes and typhoons. They like it, they strengthen off of it. And that's exactly what we're seeing
with what is now hurricane Idalia 130 kilometer per hour winds with a storm right now.
So it is a significant category 1 storm, and there it is just exiting off the Coast of Cuba. That's the storm system that brought some heavy rainfall
to Havana and some of the mountainous regions over the western portions of Cuba. Some of the rainfall totals there have exceeded 100 millimeters.
So it kind of gives us a little bit of an indication of what's to come here along the Florida peninsula specifically over the West Coast of Florida on
the Gulf of Mexico side. There's a load of latest watches and warnings, you see hurricane warnings. That includes Tampa Bay, high population density,
and then the Big Bend.
The simple topography of this area makes storm surge so susceptible to the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula just because it's almost like a
catcher's glove, perhaps for our international viewers say, the catcher's glove of cricket, or perhaps a baseball player here in America.
That water is going to pile up over the eastern sections of the Gulf of Mexico and literally catch that water on land. And you can see just behind
me how flat this coastal area is, well, this beach stretches for miles, and miles and miles. So basically, it never ends. We're talking about maybe 7
to 10 feet above sea level.
And so when you're calling for storm surge of up to 12 feet in some areas of the Big Bend of Florida, you're going to have complete inundation of
some of these very prone areas. So there is the forecast track. We've got a category 3 Atlantic monster coming towards the Florida Panhandle and into
the Florida Big Bend region, right?
So any wobble or deviation West or East has major implications for larger population densities, Tampa Bay, into the Port St. Joe region, Apalachicola
those areas that haven't had a direct landfall in quite some time. So it's been a while since this area has felt the effects of a major hurricane.
A lot of rain behind the system, we saw it in Cuba, you saw the rainfall totals so inland flooding will be a concern. Not only will the destructive
winds caused damage and power outages, but still so will that inland flooding and that's why we have that flash flood threat.
So Julia, we are timing this out for our viewers here if you have family or friends in Florida. The earliest onset of tropical storm force winds, we
believe will be later this afternoon and evening. So the final push for preparations to protect your property to evacuate if you're told to do so
is right now because in a few hours, you won't have that opportunity any longer, Julia.
Yes, smart advice. Derek Van Dam, stay safe, please. And thank you for that. We're back after this, stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:35:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move", U.S. stock markets have been open for what just under six minutes. We'll call it a tentative Tuesday. For the
major averages caution, I think ahead of a full barrage of the U.S. jobs data that could influence the Federal Reserve's interest rate path going
forward.
New U.S. job opening data the so called JOLTS report is set for released next hour too and the all-important U.S. monthly jobs report also out this
week on Friday. The state of the U.S. consumer is also in focus shares of U.S. electronics retailer best buy their higher in early trade after an
earnings report beat.
But it's the latest retailer to warn to that consumers are spending with greater discretion. Best Buy seeing, sales decline in things like mobile
phones, consumer electronics and appliances, and it's lowering its sales outlook for the rest of the year, interesting, take note now from Apple
watches to Fitbits.
People have become used to a wearable tech to track things like steps and sleep. In the health tracker market the race to add new features and
analytics is fierce. And one of those competitors is Oura from Finland. Or its device is a ring that monitors your heart rate sleep patterns body
temperature and more.
The makers say sensors on the ring provide a more accurate measurement than you'll get with the device worn on your wrist. Its latest feature called
circles allows users to create groups in which they can share sleep data and activity scores. And joining us now to discuss all this Tom Hale he's
the CEO of Oura.
Tom, fantastic to have you on the show, our regular viewers will remember having a discussion with your predecessor actually when the first iteration
of the rings came out. Now I believe we're on to generation three. So in your own words, what does this ring offer today?
TOM HALE, CEO, OURA: Well, thank you very much. It's great to be here. Oura is a smart ring that delivers personalized health data insights and
guidance. Our members refer to it as a kind of sixth sense a sort of a superpower that they can wear on their body.
The thing that they appreciate is that it feels almost like Oura watches over them supports them. And maybe it's a little bit of an accountability
buddy as they work on their health. It's convenient; it's a non-invasive form factor. And it prioritizes that combination of accuracy, medical grade
scientific accuracy with comfort without any compromise.
As you said, it's got all of these great sensors that can track and manage your body. But that's only part of the story because it's also got a
software application that gives you guidance along your health journey. We started with sleep and sleep is critical because it's the daily habit that
all of us do.
And it has a really profound impact on your health. One good night can make a big difference. And because it measures continuously and overnight, we
see your data. And we see your baseline so that we can more easily detect a deviation from that and give you a prediction about your health or about
your well-being.
Oura is amazing. It gives your body a voice. And it fosters healthy habits and it's at scale. We've tracked nearly 10 billion hours of continuous
tracking and over nearly 3 billion hours of sleep with over a million and a half rings sold. So it's quite the phenomenon right now.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it centers around those three schools to your point sleep, readiness and activity and sort of calibrates based on really how well you
sleep or how much you can do the next day in your activity. And I've seen that not just for more but from a numbers. And I think that's the basis of
what we're talking about.
Sleep is so important, its, part of the reason I think, and when I talk among my friends, why they end up making that decision to get one of these
activity trackers just because they want to see how well or how badly they sleep. But there's also skepticism I think when they see that reading and
say hang on a second.
I was awake, I just wasn't moving and that thing says I was sleeping or got deep sleep. Tom, how accurate is this, a sort of a basis for activity
tracking?
HALE: So for sleep, obviously, is tracking sleep is something that you can do through a variety of methods.
[09:40:00]
And we just recently introduced something called the new sleep staging algorithm and instead of using just motion which is how mostly trackers
work they look for your lack of motion as an indicator that you've transitioned into sleep, which of course, you know, when you're watching a
good Netflix show, you might be so absorbed that you don't move at all.
We look at a number of physiological indicators, your heart rate, your temperature, your heart rate variability, as well as motion, and we blend
that together and the new sleep staging algorithm, which gives us accuracy that's comparable with the gold standard of sleep staging, which is the
polysomnography.
I'm sure you've seen that the electrodes on your forehead and the bands, all the technology that really allows what is called the gold standard for
sleep to work. We approach that gold standard like no other wearable simply because we're looking across all the metrics in your body and sampling it
at the highest frequency.
So 250 megahertz, which means 250 times a second, we're actually looking at the frequency of inflammation in your body and how that's changing. So
every 30 seconds, we're making a judgment about whether you're asleep or awake. So it's amazing how accurate these technologies have been.
Because these are the technologies that doctors use, we've just packed it into this tiny little ring form factor, you can see some of the technology
inside there made it lightweight, comfortable, something that you wear all the time, and wearing it all the time means that the system knows you
because it's personalized to your particular physiology and your particular experience and your particular habits.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, OK. So this is an important point for me. The second thing you sort of mentioned it the sheer amount of data that you're collecting.
There's sort of two things, what do you do with the data that you collect? And I know you've offered these circles facility to allow people to share
their data.
Or there limits on how those people that receive your data can then perhaps share your data with other people because you know, where I'm headed here
in terms of the privacy angle, whether it's for you as a business or for individuals too?
HALE: We believe that the health data of our members is their property. We believe in something we call digital sovereignty, you're the owner of your
own data, we don't sell it, and we don't market it. We don't merchandise it to anybody that data is for you. And for you alone, we anonymized that
data; we keep it secure and private.
And by the way, I think that's pretty common these days, when you think about the data regimes like GDPR, or HIPAA, which is the medical privacy,
we're not a medical device, but we take your data so very seriously. And we make sure that it's available to you. Now should you wish to share that?
And by the way, many of our customers do want to share their data in a way to get support along their health journey, maybe they had a particularly
good night of sleep or a good day of activity, and they want some support for that. Or maybe they had a bad night or they're not feeling well, their
temperatures elevated.
They're on the way to maybe getting sick, getting that support is really important. Our approaches to it is to keep it really tight, instead of the
typical, go to the gym and pound your chest and look how many reps I did or how fast I ran, which is how most wearables approach the social problem of
sharing.
We do it in a very tight circle, we think about who are your intimates, your close friends, your family who might want to know exactly how you're
doing that day. And what we see this is fascinating, we see people changing their behaviors based on the data that they see.
So for example, maybe someone's having a bad day and the partner, that person might go home early to help them out, or pick up the kids from
school or whatever it is. And that kind of awareness of how your partners and friends are doing actually affects how you behave towards them, because
you now have an awareness of their physiology.
Are they doing well? Are they doing poorly? Did they sleep well? Did they exercise enough? And that's a really powerful connection, because, of
course, we've all been through a giant health crisis. And one of the observations about COVID is people were constantly asking each other, how
are you doing? How can I be supportive of you?
CHATTERLEY: Now I can tell you. OK, I want to talk about costs, because the product itself $299, you can also pay a subscription as well. And I know
some of the features you don't have to pay for that. But that's just shy of $6 a month too. If there's any criticism of the ring itself that I've
looked at, I've sort of scan the web to get a sense of it's that a Fitbit or an iWatch track activity better.
Just in real time, in particular, and this is quite limited to the level of exercise, options that you have. Do you see the ring being worn along with
perhaps then a Fitbit or an iWatch or some other product because you've had the cost of that onto the cost of a ring and then the subscription it's
kind of adding up?
Particularly given the introduction that I made suggesting that people are being a little bit more sort of well acting with a bit more discretion over
how much they spend.
HALE: Of course and I think the reality is that different people have different needs, people who are highly active during the day and want all
the extra features of a smart watch maybe notifications and the ability to manage all sorts of things during the day. They can use the smart watch and
by the way, many of them use a ring simply because they want their ring to track their behavior at night and their metrics and physiology at night.
[09:45:00]
So we actually see quite a number of people who are super optimizers or super athletic wearing both that's not uncommon. I think roughly about a
third of our customers also own an Apple Watch. Now that being said for many people who are not trying to optimize every minute of their lives, the
activity tracking your ring is quite suitable.
In fact, our approach to, is very different from how most wearables work. We do track your heart rate we can have you start a workout, and you can
track your workout and get your heart rate trace for running, cycling, the typical kinds of workouts, but what our philosophy says is that we should
be focused on all movement counting.
So in the background, were automatically giving you credit for all kinds of activities, observing your behaviors and accrediting those activities to
the kinds of things you're doing. So you might get actually, you know, workout credit for walking the dog or doing some work around the house.
Or whatever it is, that is actually getting your body to move because we believe that all movement counts. So for many people, they just use the
ring as an activity tracker they're not concerned with, did I elevate my heart rate as I was walking the dog, they just want to know, did I get my
workout in?
Or did I get enough activity in and that's part of what Oura does is it learns your behavior, and gives you that feedback about whether or not
you're getting enough activity if you're standing up moving your body around enough to keep you healthy. And that's really, key because as we all
know, activity is one of the great benefits alongside of the sleep and diet and nutrition which are critical for your health.
So in many ways, we find that a lot of people who are really focused on optimizing want to use both. And partially because the battery life of the
ring is something more like seven days. They don't have to charge their smart watch every night. As they try and go to bed and track their sleep.
They just wear their ring. They wear it through the day. They wear it through the night, and it tracks their sleep and activity without any
overhead or any kind of cognitive load. It's not another digital mouth to feed.
CHATTERLEY: OK, Tom, I think I'm convinced I don't wear anything, because I don't want to know. But maybe I'm convinced. I've got more to ask you. But
we've run out of time we'll reconvene. Tom Hale, the CEO of Oura, thank you so much for your time, sir. We're back after this.
HALE: Thank you very much.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Famous worldwide the grazing roots of Paris play a starring role in Hollywood movies like this one, offering an iconic backdrop to
stars from Tom Cruise to Gene Kelly. Now covering up to 70 percent of the city's buildings they are a landmark in their own right.
But as global warming takes its toll they're being condemned as a climate contradiction with limited insulation properties and their ability to
freeze lofts in winter and then boil them during the summer. Now, three MIT graduates think they might have found a simple solution to cover the
rooftops with wooden structures on load bearing walls.
Their company Roofscapes Studio has received funding from the Mayor's office in Paris to run a pilot project, which should be ready next year.
[09:50:00]
And reduce the city's heat island "effect" which you can see here actually in this infrared image. Olivier Faber is the Co-Founder of Roofscapes
Studio, and he joins us now. Sir, welcome to the show. I love the concept. I love the way that the company formed because the three of you as Co-
Founders, actually were architects.
But you decided that the industry itself really wasn't getting to grips with the things that you wanted to fight like climate change and adapt
existing buildings. Just start there with the concept and how you found it?
OLIVIER FABER, COFOUNDER OF ROOFSCAPES STUDIO: Yes, thank you, Julia, very much for having me on the show. We are indeed three Co-Founders we met in
architecture school 7, 8 years ago. And as we worked afterwards, in firms, we quickly became frustrated as you were saying, by lack of disruptive
response to the climate crisis from the building sector itself.
The vast majority of brains are focusing on new constructions and not renovation or climate adaptation. And we remember vividly the summers of
2018 and 2019, which were back to back the hotter summers in Europe history at the time. And we kind of saw that for call of action, call for action.
We decided to quit our jobs, and joined MIT School of Architecture and Planning to start Roofscapes and start dealing with climate adaptation on a
day to day basis.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, brilliant to access, designers to get skills to access money, potentially in the future, too. And tell me how you went from there
then and recognizing that I think Europe is sort of an obvious place to start because what two-thirds of the room is in some of the cities are
pitched?
So it's perhaps an obvious place to start, particularly Paris, given the challenges there.
FABER: Yes, so zinc of roofs of Paris, but along with many other city materials, like asphalt or concrete, so all kinds of metals, absorb a ton
of solar radiation and then radiate this heat back into the city. And this causes an enormous distortion in the city's temperature called the urban
heat island effect.
As you were saying, creating temperatures up to 10 degrees higher inside cities that in a rural areas. At the global scale, we know why all of those
heat waves are happening, we know that the hotter climates are moving away from the equator and sliding into lands that used to be cooler and more
tempered.
So heat waves are really a new issue for France as it is for a lot of states in the U.S. And it seemed like a really good place to start, because
those pose significant threats to the health and well-being of populations because the city is not ready for weathering such temperatures.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
FABER: In fact, health agencies in in France, and I've already started to ramp up their capacities to care for people during heat waves. But they're
now calling on architects and planners saying, well, there is only so much we can do on the health side, because the building fabric is the real
lever. So you need to adapt the city at scale and that's what we're trying to do.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, the scale, point there word there is the key is how do we do this on an insignificant size? What's the cost of the building that
you're planning to do? And we should see that in 2024? And what feedback have you had? Have you had sort of business owners coming to you and
saying, hey, you know, we've got a roof. And we'd like to do this too.
FABER: Yes, exactly. So the kinds of interaction that you were describing happen every week. Now, that we are fully established in Paris after our
MIT experience. We moved back to Paris in January of this year. And every week Roofscapes Studio is contacted by condominium associations, or people
who just go on our website roofscapes.studio.
And say, hello, we are suffering from extreme heat. What can we do? So as of today, we've started feasibility studies for about 30 buildings in the
Paris area. And we'll move forward with a few of them over the next year including pilot project with public actors, etcetera. In terms of funding,
we prioritize non-dilutive funding for now.
We raised a bid from MIT from the city of Paris, and it's Bureau for innovation mostly, and the European Commission through its new European
Bauhaus branch. And I think for us, we have currently raised enough to conduct our R&D and deploy our first pilot projects in Paris.
But we'll be looking for investment in 2024. I think before that, it's essential for us to prove that these solutions are technically possible,
financially viable for homeowners but mostly environmentally beneficial for everyone.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, you're in the show me stage. Have you had any pushback of people saying hang on a second, I love our beautiful roofs, even if they
boilers in the summer. This is an eyesore and it's going to look ugly. Have you had any of that kind of pushback -- to get it?
FABER: Yes, I mean, the question of aesthetic and the question of what is right or wrong for a city is a really important one, I think by, at the
beginning of Roofscapes we started working on Paris because we are from here.
[09:55:00]
And I think we love our city and how it looks. So the question of how to adapt the building stock to, frankly, a climate that is totally different
from what it used to be in 19th century when those buildings were erected is a big question. And so I think we're leaving all our ears open to make
sure that everyone in Paris can have its voice being heard.
We also consider that it's our role as sort of like cultural actors to do thing to open the dialogue on what should be climate adaptation in Paris,
and what should it look like? So we call organizing, with the support of the City of Paris, a rooftop festival, actually in September, in order to
make sure that actors from all across the board can come and participate in workshops, in co-designing what this new aesthetic is supposed to look
like.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, fantastic. Just looking at some of those images stopped by painting, everything white as well to reflect the sunlight might help as
well. And this is just the beginning of the conversation. Fingers crossed. Good luck, making sure and we're showing that it can actually work and I
look forward to talking to you again soon.
FABER: Thank you very much.
CHATTERLEY: Olivier Faber there, the Co-Founder of Roofscapes Studio. Thank you for that. And that's it for the show. "Connect the World" is up next.
I'll see you tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
