Return to Transcripts main page
First Move with Julia Chatterley
Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett Calls on Biden to Step Aside; White House Defends Biden After Debate; Biden Campaign Fends Off Calls to Drop Out of Race; Judge Postpones Sentencing in Trump's Hush Money; Hurricane Beryl Heads to Jamaica; Biden Warns About Dangers of Extreme Weather Events; Tesla and China's BYD's Q2 Deliveries; Tesla Robotaxi Day Set for August 8; Coffee Crop Crisis in Vietnam; Bionic Leg Breakthrough; Rhombus Power's A.I. Stopping Conflict Before It Begins; Turkey and Netherlands Reach Euro 2024 Quarterfinals. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired July 02, 2024 - 18:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNNI HOST: It's 5:00 a.m. in Hanoi, 5:00 p.m. in Kingston, Jamaica, and 6:00 p.m. here in New York. I'm Julia Chatterley.
And wherever you are in the world, this is your "First Move."
And a warm welcome to "First Move" as always. And here's today's need to know. Presidential problem. The first sitting Democratic lawmaker calls on
President Biden to step aside.
Sentencing suspended. The judge in Donald Trump's hush money case postpones his ruling until September.
Beryl peril. The hurricane headed towards Jamaica now after claiming the lives of at least six people in the Caribbean.
And prediction to prevention. We'll speak to the founder of an A.I. firm looking to stop wars before they begin. That conversation and plenty more
coming up.
But first, "it was a bad night." That admission earlier from the White House press secretary in the first briefing since President Joe Biden's
disastrous performance at last week's debate on CNN. Karine Jean-Pierre pointed to his record over the last three and a half years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: That's why he's acknowledging he's not a young man. That's why he's acknowledging he's a
little slower than he used to be in walking and not as smooth as speaking, we get that. But we also want to make sure that we point to the successes
he's had, his record, and we want to continue to build on his unprecedented record. And I'm not going to discount what the American people see or feel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: And yet, the new CNN poll shows most voters think Democrats have a better chance of keeping the White House if President Biden isn't
the nominee. MJ Lee has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, the Democratic firewall around President Joe Biden is beginning to fracture.
Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett becoming the first Democratic lawmaker to publicly call on Biden to withdraw from the 2024 election following last
week's poor debate performance.
The congressman saying in a statement, President Biden's first commitment has always been to our country, not himself. I'm hopeful that he will make
the painful and difficult decision to withdraw.
Today, the White House facing a barrage of questions about the president's debate performance.
JEAN-PIERRE: It was a bad night. He was not taking any cold medication. That is what I can speak to. I've asked the doc -- his doctor, and that's
what he stated to us
LEE (voice-over): And urged to release more medical records.
JEAN-PIERRE: We have released thorough reports from his medical team every year since he's been in office.
LEE (voice-over): The White House press secretary digging in and saying Biden's accomplishments speak volumes.
JEAN-PIERRE: With age comes wisdom and experience.
LEE (voice-over): Other Democrats beginning to publicly express concern that the president could hurt candidates in down ballot races.
REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): It's his decision. I just want him to appreciate at this time just how much it impacts not just his race but all the other
races coming in November.
LEE (voice-over): As Republicans are ready to pounce on Biden's debate showing to attack their Democratic opponents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a lot of confidence in his leadership.
LEE (voice-over): Even the president's most staunch defenders giving credence to the flurry of questions about his health.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: He has a vision, he has knowledge, he has judgment, he has a strategic thinking, and the rest.
He has a bad night. Now, again, I think it's a legitimate question to say, is this an episode or is this a condition?
LEE (voice-over): New CNN polling showing no immediate damage from Biden's halting debate performance. The president trailing Donald Trump by six
points, 43 percent to 49 percent, the same numbers as April. But Biden's approval ratings declining to a new low, with just 36 percent of Americans
approving of his job performance.
And in a hypothetical matchup, Vice President Kamala Harris is polling better against the former president. She is within striking distance, 45
percent to 47 percent.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): I will support her if he were to step aside.
[18:05:00]
LEE (voice-over): Some prominent Biden supporters also expressing support for Harris, but insisting for now that the president remains at the top of
the ticket.
CLYBURN: I want this ticket to continue to be Biden-Harris. And then, we'll see what happens after the next election.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: And joining us now is Stephen Collinson. Stephen, good to have you with us. Is the dam breaking, do you think, where private concerns,
reservations, fears start to spill out into the open?
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I don't know if it's breaking irrevocably, but it's certainly a lot more fragile than it was 24
hours ago. Everybody keeps talking about that bad night on the debate stage. Biden really had a bad day today. This was the day when the panic
following the debate turned, I think, into growing threats to his hopes of staying on the Democratic ticket.
We had the bad poll numbers, Congressmen starting to come out, there are many more people in the House who are not speaking publicly but are just as
worried about their prospects of keeping the House if Biden is at the top of the ticket.
That White House briefing was almost as painful to watch as the debate itself. The White House doesn't have answers. Their answer to questions
about Biden's capacity is that he's had a great four years, he's got a very good record, he's older and wiser. But the question that Americans are
asking is, can we honestly see the president still in office in two, three, four, five years' time? Does he have that capacity? So, they aren't
succeeding in stopping the panic growing, and now it is evolving, I think, into questions about whether the president can stay on the ticket.
He said that he's going to do a TV interview on Friday but will air mostly on Sunday. The pace this is developing, that may not be quick enough.
CHATTERLEY: I'm astonished every time I hear someone suggest that those 90 minutes don't define the three and a half years of his presidency when all
the focus now is on his capacity to continue for the next four and a half years, and it's those years that we should really be focusing on, Stephen.
Is it the American public though, I think, is the question versus the press that continued to press the White House on his capabilities at this moment?
What did you make of Nancy Pelosi today? Because she acknowledged that it was a legitimate question, and we heard it there to question whether this
was an episode or a condition that people saw in that debate on Thursday night from President Biden. Her spokesman then came out and said, look,
speaker -- Former Speaker Pelosi is looking forward to attending his inauguration the 20th of January next year. She let something slip there,
perhaps.
COLLINSON: Yes, I think you're right. And I think she's going to be an exceedingly important figure here. Although she's no longer the Speaker,
she is possibly one of the most influential Democratic politicians still in Washington. She has the ear of all those House members that are now looking
rather nervously and understanding that they're going to have to outrun an even more unpopular president as they try and hang on to their seats in
November.
When people are saying things like Nancy Pelosi's saying that, you know, this is ultimately up to the president, he's a patriot, that doesn't really
instill a lot of confidence about what really thinking. In many ways, this was perhaps inevitable. This is the oldest president -- sitting present in
history. He will be 82 years old at the time of the inauguration. He's asking Americans for a second term. Any slip up at any point in this
campaign was always going to unleash questions about his health and his capacity.
The fact that it 50 million Americans and the White House hasn't been able to give answers, Biden hasn't been out there that much either since the
debate, that big contrast that the Biden campaign wanted from that debate was Biden, the sober -- you know, somber president standing against this
wild, dangerous candidate Donald Trump, that's been obliterated by what's happened over the last week. And that's very damaging to the campaign.
CHATTERLEY: The nation needed a fact-checker in chief that night and didn't get it, Stephen. I think that's at least one of the bottom lines. In
that excruciating press briefing today, and I agree with you, again, it was. One of the reporters there said, look, he's three minutes down the
hallway. He could come in here now and talk to us without autocue, without prompts or any form of structure and just effectively tell us that he's OK
and we can assess for ourselves. And of course, that was another awkward moment.
Is that ultimately what you think it's going to take or to reiterate what you and I discussed earlier this week, is it data dependency? It's what the
polls say ultimately that will make a difference to a president that has to make the choice to step down or not.
COLLINSON: Right. And the polls really aren't that great and don't look like they're going to get much better. Even though the CNN poll didn't show
much movement, Biden was still six points behind. He needed this debate to catch up.
[18:10:00]
But to your point, a lot of Democrats are saying, what we need now is for the present to be on camera every day, several times a day, traveling
around the country, being in spontaneous situations that aren't controlled. The campaign knows that very much. So, it does pose the question whether
it's a fair one or not, is why the president hasn't come into the press room, why he hasn't set up some kind of spontaneous meeting with the
public.
All the things he's done since the debate, even though the White House is saying, well, he went to a Waffle House, a restaurant, he went to a meeting
with supporters, that's not really a public spontaneous event that's not scripted. So, if he knows, and the campaign knows that's what Democrats are
pleading with him to do, why is that not happening? And that kind of comes with all sorts of its own questions.
CHATTERLEY: And on a human level, is that good for his health if he does? Yes, we have to take in some way the politics out of this and remember
there's a person here too and this isn't personal.
COLLINSON: Correct.
CHATTERLEY: We have to care for him too. Stephen Collinson, good to chat to you as always. Thank you.
COLLINSON: Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Now, from a possible Biden support break to a Trump trial delay, the New York judge ruling that the former U.S. president won't be
sentenced now until September. That's for Donald Trump's conviction business fraud in his hush money case. He was previously scheduled to be
sentenced next week. The announcement follows Monday's ruling from the Supreme Court, which said presidents have immunity for official acts while
in office. Paula Reid explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a scam. This is a rigged trial.
PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first fallout from Monday's Supreme Court decision presidential immunity, Trump's
sentencing in the Manhattan hush money case now delayed until September.
TRUMP: This is bigger than Trump. This is bigger than me. This is bigger than my presidency.
REID (voice-over): Trump's team plans to use the Supreme Court's historic decision granting Trump some immunity from criminal prosecution to attack
his recent conviction in New York on 34 counts related to hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.
REID (voice-over): Both sides are now asking to brief the court on how they think the Supreme Court's ruling impacts the New York case. Trump's
legal team believes this decision bars evidence related to Trump's official actions.
WILL SCHARF, ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: We believe that that corrupts that trial, that that indicates that that jury verdict needs to be overturned.
And at the very least, we deserve a new trial where those immune acts will not come into evidence.
REID (voice-over): The opinion is likely to reverberate in Trump's other criminal cases too. A source tells CNN his team is confident it will help
them gut the federal January 6th case.
TRUMP: We caught a sham indictment.
REID (voice-over): The high court outlined parameters for presidential immunity, and then told the trial court judge, Tanya Chutkan, to decide how
that applies to the Trump case. Making a trial before the election nearly impossible.
TRUMP: We did nothing wrong at all, and we have every right, every single right to challenge an election that we think is dishonest.
REID (voice-over): The decision may also have implications in Georgia. That case is currently paused to determine if D.A. Fani Willis should be
disqualified. But if it resumes, the judge would have to go through the same analysis to determine which of Trump's acts were official and
therefore immune, like this call to pressure Georgia State election officials.
TRUMP: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more that we have. Because we won the state.
REID (voice-over): The Trump team is also expected to try to undercut the Mar-a-Lago documents case
TRUMP: I had every right to have these documents.
REID (voice-over): A source tells CNN they plan to argue that how classified material ended up at the Florida resort stemmed from official
presidential acts
TRUMP: Whatever documents the president decides to take with him, he has the right to do so. It's an absolute right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Hurricane Beryl currently headed towards Jamaica and expected to make landfall there Wednesday. It's weakened slightly, however, to a
Category 4 hurricane, but remains extremely dangerous after charting a deadly path through the Eastern Caribbean, with at least six people losing
their lives.
Earlier, the U.S. president warned about the dangers of extreme weather events and the level of damage they can inflict.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Extreme weather events drive home a point that I've been saying for so long, ignoring climate change is deadly and
dangerous and irresponsible. This climate fueled extreme weather events don't just affect people's lives, they also cost money, they hurt the
economy, and they have a significant negative psychological effect on people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: And Patrick Oppmann has more on the damage wrought already across the Caribbean.
[18:15:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hurricane Beryl leaves a trail of destruction in the Caribbean. The earliest Category 5 hurricane on
record to ever form in the Atlantic, Beryl roared through the Windward Islands on Monday. In Barbados, the storm wrecked fishing boats and
livelihoods.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Boats are sinking. As we're talking, the boat is sinking. You understand? And it's total devastation.
OPPMANN (voice-over): The U.N.'s climate chief said the eye of the storm had hit his home island of Carriacou in Grenada, and he was trying to reach
family members there.
SIMON STIELL, U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY: The island has been flattened, the reports that are coming out show a very, very distressing
signal.
OPPMANN (voice-over): There was precious little time to prepare as Beryl, in 24 hours, exploded from a tropical storm to a major hurricane capable of
inflicting catastrophic damage. That rapid intensification is fueled by manmade climate change, which has caused the ocean to warm to unprecedented
levels, the fuel that strengthens hurricanes.
Images taken from a Hurricane Hunter aircraft flying through Beryl show the kind of monster storm usually not seen until the height of hurricane
season, still weeks away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Jamaica is next in Beryl's sights, and with a population of more than 2.8 million, and a large tourism infrastructure,
there is a potential for even greater devastation. Officials there activated emergency response measures, and warned residents to get ready
now.
ANDREW HOLNESS, JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER: It is easier to be prepared when you're standing on your two feet than when you are in the midst of a
hurricane.
OPPMANN (voice-over): Low lying islands are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The damage inflicted by Beryl could take years to recover
from. Forecasters have delivered a record prediction for a hyperactive hurricane season that began June 1st. And with nearly five more months to
go in the season, the pain and suffering may only be just beginning.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: A hyperactive hurricane season. Chad Myers joins us now with more. Chad, you were telling us yesterday that it's right in the path now
for Jamaica. What can we expect there?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I think we probably get the first tropical storm force gusts around 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and then by
1:00, we're full into the eye, and it literally could be still a category three. And so, this is what a Category 3. And so, this is what a Category 3
wind will do. Category 4 there in Carriacou was just devastating. I've seen pictures. I've seen aerials. There's not a home that hasn't had some type
of damage and many are catastrophically damaged.
So, yes, we still have a storm of 250 kph. Although, there is a Hurricane Hunter aircraft, that you just saw in my other picture, flying to it now to
make sure or to see what it is. I don't believe it's 250 anymore. I think we'll probably be dropping down to around 220. But it's still going to be a
major hurricane as it crosses over Jamaica. There will be storm surge with this.
And I vividly remember Katrina, although we said, oh, it's only a Category 3, only a Category 3 surge. The problem, Julia, is that it it's been a five
and a four. It's going to come in here with four surge, without a doubt. So, although the official forecast is somewhere between two and three
meters of surge, there could be waves coming onshore that will be well above two to three meters without a doubt in that storm surge.
Where does it go from here? Well, the models are turning it as it gets back toward Tampico and up even maybe even to the Western Gulf of Mexico. Before
that though, Jamaica will have 250 millimeters of rain that not even including the salt water that's going to come on shore. So, yes, this is
going to be a big storm for them. It's going to be a big storm even for Grand Cayman, likely a Category 3 going over the Cayman Islands, Cayman
Brac, Little Cayman, Grand Cayman, and those are very, very low islands. So, it won't take much to get a lot of water over the Cayman Islands. And
so, people there are going to have to be very, very careful.
The focus now is on Jamaica. It's first -- Cayman, you're going to be there on Thursday morning, but it's still a very, very dangerous storm. Even
though it has lost some intensity, the waters are getting slightly cooler, but it's encountering just a little bit of wind shear out there.
Hurricanes like to be all by themselves. Don't touch me kind of thing. I've said this before, like my cat. Don't touch me. I'll be happy. And so,
hurricanes just want to be happy all by themselves. And now, it's not happy anymore. It doesn't have that big circulation like it did yesterday. Julia.
Just one cat, Chad. Just one.
MYERS: That's all.
CHATTERLEY: OK.
MYERS: Named Thunder.
CHATTERLEY: Named Thunder. Of course.
MYERS: Of course.
CHATTERLEY: Chad, thank you so much for that as always. All right. More on the global climate crisis just ahead, forgive me, I shouldn't be smiling,
the world's second largest coffee producer in Vietnam sounding the alarm on the worsening crop crunch.
[18:20:00]
Plus, robotaxis to the rescue. A delivery drop for Tesla, but a robotic renaissance may be just around the corner. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move" and some early 4th of July fireworks on Wall Street in today's "Money Move." U.S. stocks rallying on
Tuesday, tech leading the charge once again. The NASDAQ and the S&P 500 rising to fresh record highs with the S&P crossing 5,500 for the very first
time.
Bond yields also falling after fresh comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on the inflation situation. He says the U.S. Central Bank is
making "quite a bit of progress on prices," but Powell still perennially patient. He says, the Fed is still not ready to cut interest rates.
And a mixed day too of trade across Asia, but the Nikkei powered ahead topping the 40,000 mark for the first time in almost three months.
Now, Tesla and China's BYD are locked in a dead heat for the E.V. king crown. Tesla announcing on Tuesday that it delivered over 440,000 vehicles
in the second quarter. That's a near 5 percent drop on the same quarter last year, but it's still better than expected. And I can tell you
investors loved it. The stock closed up more than 10 percent in Tuesday session.
BYD sales, by comparison, rising 21 percent to record highs in the second quarter with results just trailing Tesla's. Elon Musk hoping that
incentives like zero interest rate loans will help boost sales in China, where we know competition is tough.
And maybe a robot recharge will also help next month when Tesla unveils its eagerly awaited robotaxi and displays the firm's A.I. at prowess. Dan Ives
is Managing Director at Wedbush Securities, and he joins us now. Dan, you were pleased with these numbers, stronger than expected, a mini boost in
terms of demand from China, better than expected, and some stabilization in prices. Just talk us through from your angle what you saw here.
DAN IVES, MANAGING DIRECTOR, WEDBUSH SECURITIES: Yes, Julia. I mean, the mojo is back at Tesla. The street was expecting a soft core of the missed
expectations they beat. You're seeing price stabilization. I'll call it a mini rebound that's happening in China. And this is all a drum roll going
into the next stage of growth. Autonomous, the robotaxi day in August.
[18:25:00]
I think you're starting to now see that bull case scenario for Tesla return to the story. Bears go back into hibernation mode.
CHATTERLEY: We'll talk about robotaxis, but is the mojo that you can see in this quarter sustainable, Dan? All the headwinds that we can discuss,
the pressures, the increased competition, the price wars, even to the point that we've seen Tesla cutting costs by what, 10 to 15 percent in order to
maintain profitability, they continue to exist. Is this sustainable is my question?
IVES: Look, I think 98 percent of the price cuts are in the rear-view mirror. So, now, we've hit stabilization. And that's important because
demand starting to level off, and China is front and center. Everything we saw that BYD, Odyssey, NIO, and others rebound in that China market for
E.V.s. That's the hearts and lungs of the Tesla growth story. And that's why, right now, after what's been a turbulent period, smile and Musk's face
after these results.
CHATTERLEY: So, if you're an auto enthusiast out there that's looking to buy Tesla, then according to you, you're not going to get a better price at
this moment.
IVES: Look, I think -- yes.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
IVES: I think -- and we went through some significant price cut, but I think clock struck midnight on these price cuts.
CHATTERLEY: OK. Robotaxis, this is key, as you said, to the biggest story that you see, the A.I. robotics story versus the carmaker and that elusive
$1 trillion valuation. What are you expecting when they announce this in August?
IVES: I think it's going to be historic debt, because ultimately robotaxi, in terms of where this -- I could argue is the most undervalued A.I. play
in the market. Because autonomous is now coming to pass on -- even when you look at ride sharing and others, I mean, down the road (INAUDIBLE) call it
two, three, four years. You're going to have a call it 10, 15 percent of those going on ride shares with no -- ultimately, with no one at the wheel.
And I think Tesla has the massive lead here. And I think this could be worth a trillion dollars alone, in terms of that autonomous piece.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, he's been talking about this since, what, 2019. So, if he really comes up with the goods today, and I think gives a timeline, at
least on this, it would, I agree with you, be pretty huge. We'll certainly be talking about it.
Coming into this year, you said that tech stocks generally, driven by A.I., would be up, what, 25 percent. I mean, I look at the NASDAQ and were
already up 19 percent this year. You think a further 15 percent. percent upside from here, Dan. What should investors be looking at if they are
interested in perhaps dipping their toes into some of these stocks?
IVES: I mean, Julia, it's 9:00 p.m. in the A.I. party, and I think this goes to 4:00 a.m. And others are going to try to get on the dance floor.
You look at Amazon, look at Apple now in terms of what we've seen in Cupertino in terms of A.I. This is a revolution. I think it's a two-year
bull cycle for tech going forward, which is why I think NASDAQ 20,000, I think that's something -- that's on the doorstep as we go into year end.
CHATTERLEY: Who gets to the $4 trillion market cap first?
IVES: Look, in the spirit of the Olympics this summer, there's going to be a 100-meter race between NVIDIA, godfather of A.I., Jensen, Microsoft,
Apple. I think Apple gets there first. A year from now, you have $3, $4 trillion market impact.
CHATTERLEY: Wow. We'll hold you to that. We'll talk about that in a year's time. Dan, great to have you on as always. Thank you. Dan Ives there,
managing director at Wedbush Securities.
All right. Turning now from tech and E.V.s to coffee leaves, the coffee leaves -- coffee beans. The U.S. says Vietnam is one of the nations with
the greatest exposure to climate change. And this year, the threat to farmers there is particularly intense as hot, dry weather imperils their
coffee crop. As Lynda Kinkade explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): In the fields of a mountainous province in Central Vietnam where coffee plants usually thrive, trouble is
brewing.
DOAN VAN THANG, COFFEE FARMER (through translator): The drought dried up this whole area and the surrounding areas. And the water shortage is so
severe that compared to last year, the harvest of coffee cherries is very low. We've lost a lot of the output.
KINKADE (voice-over): Vietnam is the world's second biggest coffee producer, exporting more than 1.5 million metric tons of coffee a year. But
the worst drought in nearly a decade, fueled by extreme heat, is expected to have a severe impact on next season's harvest.
In April, a heat wave in the country drove temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, drying up farms and rivers. That same
month, wholesale prices of Robusta beans hit a 45-year high, according to the International Coffee Organization. Vietnam is the largest producer of
Robusta coffee beans used in instant coffee and espresso.
[18:30:00]
THANG (through translator): We farmers should be happy when the price increases, but due to the drought, we are not very happy because the price
increases, but the output decreases. So, in general, we're happy and we're sad at the same time because the climate changes erratically, and we can't
grasp those changes.
KINKADE (voice-over): To fight the effects of drought conditions induced by climate change, coffee farmers are forming cooperatives to find new ways
to protect their crops in drier conditions, such as digging reserves to catch rainwater, covering topsoil with vegetation to reduce evaporation and
letting trees grow for longer periods of time to produce deeper roots.
By one estimate, some 97 percent of coffee is produced in countries that are vulnerable to climate change. So, these lessons could have widespread
impact and also help keep down the cost of beans that make your morning cup of coffee.
Lynda Kinkade, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: OK. Coming up next for us, a literal "First Move" that's truly inspiring. The first bionic leg giving an amputee remarkable new mobility
and freedom. We've got the details, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move" with a look at more international headlines this hour. At least 116 people have lost their lives in a
stampede at a religious gathering in India, according to authorities. It happened during a Hindu prayer meeting in the northern state of Uttar
Pradesh. Authorities say a police report will be filed against event organizers for allegedly exceeding permitted attendance levels.
Mass evacuations of civilians are underway in Southern Gaza as Israel escalates attacks against Hamas targets. The U.N. expects 250,000 people to
be affected by the evacuation orders that include Eastern Khan Younis and Rafah, but it says they have nowhere safe to go.
[18:35:00]
Strong turbulence hit an Air Europa flight going from Madrid to Uruguay on Monday, throwing some passengers into the ceiling. The Boeing 787 had to
make an emergency stop in Brazil. Dozens of passengers were injured. We're now hearing that turbulence was minimal for about 20 minutes before the
plane suddenly dropped.
And now, to a medical breakthrough that could revolutionize the field of prosthetics. A woman fitted with a bionic leg linked to her brain says it
feels like she never lost her own leg at all.
Researchers believe this groundbreaking new technology could help people with amputated limbs walk and navigate obstacles as well as anyone else.
Jacqueline Howard is following the story for us. Jacqueline, this blew my mind when I read the story about this and saw the videos. We obviously
understand it's incredibly experimental, but tell us what more we know about this advance.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: It is incredible science, Julia. What we know, the way that this bionic leg works, the user's nervous system
is able to control and direct it, and it does this through electrodes. Electrodes are placed between the amputation site and the leg itself, and
signals from the nervous system can go directly to moving and directing the bionic leg, and the bionic leg is able to sense its own positioning and
send signals back to the nervous system.
And in one study, Julia, researchers found among people who had amputated legs, they underwent a specific kind of surgery and they were equipped with
this bionic leg, the bionic leg was found to increase their maximum walking speed by 41 percent. So, it helped the users to walk more quickly and more
smoothly in a way similar to the speed of walking we see among people without amputations.
And as you mentioned, Julia, CNN did speak with a woman in this study, and she said as soon as she was equipped with this bionic leg, she felt like
she wanted to take off running. She said it felt like she had no amputation at all. And that's impact that we're seeing this technology have on people,
Julia.
CHATTERLEY: It's giving me goosebumps because you can just imagine her brain is thinking that the leg is restored, which is just, like I said,
mind-blowing technology. Now, obviously, it comes down to we -- as we said, it's experimental.
HOWARD: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: The progress that has to be done. The cost of this. How many people could this help? What are researchers saying?
HOWARD: Well, here in the United States, there are about 2 million people in the United States living with limb loss, and many are due to diabetes.
Now, what the researchers are saying, Julia, they do say that they're working to make this technology commercially available within the next five
years. So, this is an area to watch closely as it evolves in the coming years to see when it might be available to the masses.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, we'll continue to track its progress, certainly. Jacqueline, great to have you on the show. Thank you, Jacqueline Howard
there. We love the good news.
HOWARD: Absolutely.
CHATTERLEY: All right. Coming up, could A.I. be the secret to stopping conflict before it begins? We'll talk to one company trying to do just that
after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:40:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move." What if we could stop a war before it begins? That's one of the questions posed by Rhombus Power, the
tech company behind A.I. security tool called Guardian. Rhombus likens it to a digital nervous system that utilizes all sorts of data to help predict
conflict around the world before it begins.
The company says it predicted Russia's invasion of Ukraine months before it happened. Rhombus has already partnered with several nations around the
world, including the United States, its Air Force and Strategic Command.
I'm joined now by the founder and CEO of Rhombus Power, Anshu Roy. Anshu, fantastic to have you on the show. It sounds like a lofty ambition, but a
pathway to peace via technology seems to be your focus.
ANSHU ROY, FOUNDER AND CEO, RHOMBUS POWER: Absolutely, Julia. That's our focus. We believe that with data, with data turned to insights, especially
with forecasts and predictions, it is possible to find intervention points that can potentially avoid conflict.
CHATTERLEY: We have all sorts of previous conflict data to, in some way, help us understand at least why conflicts begin, and it's a whole host of
things, rival armed factions, sudden economic declines, ethnic religious divisions, inequality. Just give us a sense of what the data inputs are
into your system that allows you to model and then predict where you think conflicts may begin.
ROY: Yes, absolutely. So, our artificial intelligence platform, especially for countries outside the United States, is called Ambient. And what
Ambient does is it collects and connects publicly and commercially available data, globally, trillions of data points every single day, across
all domains, land, air, sea, space, cyber, information domains, and it does so via satellites, via sensors, terrestrial sensors, social and mainstream
media, dark web, various data stores and so on.
And it basically connects that data and correlates and further reasons with events that are happening around the world, especially adverse events, to
figure out what is the relationship at scale in order to then be able to forecast and predict what might happen in the future.
CHATTERLEY: So, if we use a real-world example, as I mentioned in the introduction, you utilized some of that data and whatever it was that you
were recording and listening to and then the A.I. system was analyzing helped you predict the invasion of Ukraine by Russia months ahead of when
it happened. Just explain the sort of inputs that went into that. And I'm assuming you notified relevant governments. As I mentioned also, you know,
you were working with a number of them.
ROY: Yes, absolutely. We did. And -- so, just as an example. In this case, we were looking at -- across Europe, we were looking at changes that were
happening at military bases, at relevant bases that were tied to Russia. And we were observing their movements from satellites and from ground-based
sensors, as well as add tech data. And once we were able to do that, in an automated way, through our system, then it became pretty obvious months
ahead of the conflict that they had plans and they intended to stay wherever they were moving to.
And we were able to identify individuals who mattered at certain locations and with that knowledge and some additional human judgment applied to it,
which is really our expertise as well, we were able to then interpret, down to the day, when that invasion might happen.
[18:45:00]
And this is where it becomes interesting, right? Everybody knew something would happen. Almost everybody knew something was going to happen months
leading up to the invasion, but nobody could actually talk about when, especially from commercial and publicly available data sources. And that's
where we excelled by the application of modeling and mathematical techniques that we use.
CHATTERLEY: And I was going to say, that's the key difference, I think, between human intelligence that's being gathered all the time around the
world, perhaps versus a model like this that's collecting data and analyzing in a different way.
Very quickly, a separate example that just sprung into my mind was the Arab Spring and that uprising, and then, how quickly that then filtered to other
nations in the region. And I think in many respects that confounded most of, if not all, of the analysts that had been watching the region for many
years.
Hindsight is perfect sight. But would your model perhaps, do you think, have been able to predict that better than human intelligence did at the
time?
ROY: Yes. I'm glad you asked that question because back in 2016, when this journey started for us, Arab Spring was the back test we ran. That was the
first example we demonstrated to some of our customers here in the United States. And not only about being able to predict whether it would happen,
that became obvious after -- very quickly, within a month of our getting into it and analyzing the information. But also, what were the drivers? And
they were unique to every country.
And those drivers were sitting -- staring at our faces within the data, those variables, and how one could have found some intervention points,
especially related to things like climate that were affecting many of those 20 countries that saw -- witness the Arab Spring revolution and how that
could have been a source of potentially maybe avoiding some of the challenges that we saw in the revolution.
CHATTERLEY: It's such a great point. It might not be what you expected, but aspects like climate change, fueling things like inequality, if you can
try and identify and address those things early, that's a very important message, I think, for us today.
Do you think it replaces humans in the field and intelligence collectors in the field, or is this very different? And I think one of the other
questions that people will be asking is how is the data used? As you said, it's public, but this could also, as all technologies can be, perhaps be
used for bad as well as good, Anshu, when you're collecting this kind of intelligence and information, how do you think about that? How do you
protect from that?
ROY: Right. Right. So, the first part of your question, does it replace humans? And the answer is absolutely not. It empowers them. In fact, that's
-- that can happen right now. It's available right now. This tool is ready. It actually gives humans their freedom of action back, especially leaders
to be able to make decisions early on, decisions that can potentially avoid the need for military action.
It helps us win peace, I think, by doing so. And leaders become more important and not less, because with those insights, they can actually
intervene. But the question then becomes, and this is an open question, how does our current systems across the world adapt and adopt to this rapidly
changing technological landscape, especially embedding these insights into decision making cycles that were largely manual and human driven, a legacy
of the way we've been doing intelligence for decades?
The second part of your question, whether it could be used by bad actors. Well, as far as we're concerned, we are allied to just -- we only work with
the United States and its allies and partners. The protection of this data is absolutely paramount for us and we treat it with extreme care and we are
only trying to build this digital nervous system across democracies around the world and nations that are aligned with United States and its allies
and partners.
CHATTERLEY: I think anything we can do to head off violence and conflict in the world is a worthy mission. Anshu, I've run out of time. I have
plenty more questions to ask you. I'm sure some of them were classified information and you wouldn't be able to give it to me anyway, but we'll
stay in touch. Great to hear about what you and your team are doing. Thank you so much for your time. Anshu Roy there, founding CEO of Rhombus Power.
Great to chat to you, sir.
ROY: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
CHATTERLEY: Now, if you've missed any of our interviews today, they'll be on my X and Instagram pages. You can search for @jchatterleyCNN.
[18:50:00]
And still to come, it's game on for the quarterfinals at the Euros. Turkey and the Netherlands taking the last spots. We'll bring you all the latest
football action.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back. Into the Euros now. Turkey advancing to the quarterfinals thanks to a thrilling 2-1 win over Austria on Tuesday. And
earlier, the Netherlands also booked their spot in the quarterfinals beating Romania 3-nil. The Dutch side now go on to play Turkey this
weekend.
Darren Lewis is with us for the latest. Darren, you promised you would be back and so you are. And I was just frantically googling and they were all
legitimate goals. And their own goals, I believe.
DARREN LEWIS, CNN SENIOR SPORTS ANALYST: No, there were no own goals tonight, Julia. But a promise is a promise. A promise is a promise. I am
back to actually give you all of the goals. And I can tell you it was a really entertaining night, all football too.
Some new names always come up when we have this European championship, household names as well. And there were one or two more this evening
because the defender, Merih Demiral, scored both of Turkey's goal to send them into dreamland this evening. The first of them, Julia came after only
58 seconds of this match, a really, really entertaining encounter against an Austria side that many people saw as dark horses for the tournament.
But they couldn't cope with the Turks who were holding them at bay for a long time. And then, the Turks did this, a wonderful second goal that put
it beyond the Austrians and sent a whole host of Turkish fans, not just in their home now, but also a sizable contingent in Germany as well into
dreamland.
That's a consolation for Austria. But as far as Turkey are concerned, that final save there, one of the world class saves. Tomorrow when you're at
work and people are saying, did you see that saved last night? It's a Turkey keeper, Mert Gunok, saving from the Christoph Baumgartner who was
left with his head in his hands. The Turkish players now looking forward to a quarterfinal tie against the Dutch.
They were impressive too. Maybe not in quite the same way. I'll show you a little bit of what they did earlier on because they were 3-nil winners
against Romania. And it was the best performance of the tournament so far, Julia.
In the first three games in the group stages, they were stuttering, they couldn't really get started. My goodness, did they get started this
afternoon. Three stylish goals. This is the last of them. He ran the length of the pitch did, a substitute, Donyell Malen, and he came off to stick it
away with a plump. A wonderful performance from them. But as I say, Turkey's going to be a very, very different proposition in the last day.
[18:55:00]
Let's take a look at that last eight now, because there are some wonderful ties, and I think we're going to have to cancel all leave for this weekend
on Friday and Saturday. The biggest one is the Spanish against the Germans. Will you be watching that one, Julia?
CHATTERLEY: Of course, I will. Of course, I will.
LEWIS: There's also the England game on the weekend, around about 4:00 p.m. U.K. time. That's going to be a big, big opportunity for Gareth
Southgate and his players to do well. A lot of talk in the English U.K. newspapers in Wednesday's papers, suggesting maybe England can go all the
way, even if they play badly, and maybe the fans, 60 million fans back home in the U.K. won't be too unhappy with that. We'll wait and see. But it's
quite far way to go.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, really, we can fail upwards. I'm not sure I can watch that game. I'm not sure my heart can take it, Darren.
LEWIS: You and me both, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. Darren Lewis, thank you so much for that. Sir, always a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you.
And that just about wraps up. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow. Have a wonderful rest of day or evening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:00:00]
END
