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CNN International: Khan Removed from Office after no Confidence Vote in April; Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan Shot in Foot at Rally; This Hour: U.S. & Korean Defense Chief Meet in Washington; Living Oceans: Turning the Tide; Earthshot Prize: Finding Solutions to Repair our Planet. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 03, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Max Foster breaking news into CNN. We've learned that gun shots are being fired at a rally held by Pakistan's ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan. And we understand from a spokesperson that he's been shot in the foot, let's go to Sophia Saifi in Islamabad, Pakistan, you've been speaking to officials, Sophia.

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: Hi Max, yes, this has only happened within the past 40 minutes. It happened live while Imran Khan was on the seventh of his long march towards the capital of Islamabad. It happened when according to officials, as well as the authority members who were with Imran Khan have told us that shots are fired at the container, this massive truck that he was moving in.

And you have to understand that he was surrounded by he's been surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people at these rallies. We know that there have been injuries. We've also received a confirmation that Imran Khan itself has been injured however; we've seen rituals of him being moved from one vehicle to the other.

We know some asset owners and senior PCI leader that Imran Khan has been shot in the foot. And he's being escorted immediately to the nearby city of Lahore, to be sanded. We also know that there have been other senior PCI leaders who have been injured.

This again was caught all on live TV that's been a live stream throughout of Imran Khan's rallies. He has said in the past few days, while he started his journey that we've been afraid that he would be assassinated and that there was a threat to his life.

This is of course, an ongoing story moving story, we're still waiting to have more information about who fired the shots. What, what has happened to the person who fired the shots and what is going to happen? Once we get more information about what exactly has happened in the town of Gujranwallah in between Lahore and the capital of Islamabad, Max?

FOSTER: We're looking at the only video we have so far as you say, it's only just happened. These are images of Imran Khan being carried there towards a car. Then we see you know a higher shot of him being put inside the car and he looks mobile. So at the moment this doesn't that life threatening but we're also going to have to hear from the hospital, aren't we, he's been taken away from that town. Isn't he for treatment in Lahore, I gather? Do we know whether or not, I mean, is there any way of telling whether or not Imran Khan was definitely the target here?

SAIFI: Not at the moment no, like I said he has said in the lead up to his long march, which has been calling for our elections that he's been targeted and he's afraid for his life. And he's also his close party leaders have said that there have been threats within various extremist groups within the country.

That has been, you know, plotting to adapt Imran Khan that he's been the target. We had been looking into those reports that has so far in the days towards the days leading up to this incident, trying to find out whether this is - in fact correct.

We'll have to wait and see. I mean, it's like charged the atmosphere in Pakistan is already very charging yet. He's injured; he's certainly been shot in the foot. And we still have to wait and see how life threatening that could be.

But we do have to realize that there has been this ongoing, charged political atmosphere between various parties that hold power in this country. There was a vote of no confidence in April. Let's go back to where it all began. Imran Khan was Prime Minister.

He was ousted; he's been leading multiple rallies against the establishment. He's spoken out against the military. He's spoken out against the United States. He's spoken out against the current government, who he says is corrupt. And there's been a long history of these kinds of incidents in Pakistan.

I mean, only about 15 years ago, in October, they interviewed Benazir Bhutto's convoy was --in a horrific suicide attack, in which many people died. Benazir survived that attack, only to be assassinated three months later in the city of Rawalpindi.

So there have been concerns around the security using an extremely popular leader here in Pakistan. There have been many, many thousands of people who've been coming out to these rallies that he's been holding on as long march towards it. Somebody started out a week ago and we will just have to wait and see whether there will be further protests when people come out on the streets, how is this going affect?

[08:05:00]

SAIFI: And will this slide a cinder to what's going on with regards to how to charge and how angry so many people already are in this country? Max?

FOSTER: So tell us a bit more about this long walk, basically going with his supporter's right up to Islamabad to try to reassert himself. I mean, what was he planning with this long walk?

SAIFI: So this long march, he's been calling for early elections ever since he was ousted. He's been saying that I want a free and fair election if he does not believe that the vote of no confidence that took place against him that led him to be ousted was democratic.

We consistently called for early elections early general election. He has also said, he said that's the main goal of this march. He said that the reason he's taken out this march is for it to be a peaceful protest. With people from all across the country from the north to the south, much more towards the north of Pakistan, there have been rallies being taken out from the south and Karachi.

There have been rallies that have been led by Imran Khan himself from Lahore, now that he's been in Gujranwallah, there's also been rallies coming in - from the province that borders Afghanistan into the Capital.

This was supposed to culminate at some point next week; we think thousands of people come out. It's been an extraordinary week here in Pakistan, there have been journalists, and this was a high.

There was a journalist who's critical of the military establishment very pro-Imran Khan was recently murdered in Kenya. We had an extraordinary press conference by the Director General of Pakistan, very Secretive Intelligence Services, the ISI this come out, I criticized Imran Khan.

This is completely never - this is the past, and in fact, some mystery that that happened. So like I said, it's been an extraordinary time. And yes, there have been shots fired up his convoys. Again, we can't really confirm whether there are any deaths, we do know that there have been injuries.

But aside from that, because of everything that's been happening in the country in the past couple of months, as well as just in the past week, it's a very charged atmosphere. People are already out in the streets for Imran Khan.

And people have already been wondering what will be that one event that will lead to something that cannot be controlled by the security agencies and by the authorities in this country, Max?

FOSTER: That's a very chaotic scene. Lots of people appear to be there. It will take time, of course for the authorities, the police to investigate this. But the supporters of Imran Khan clearly saying this is an attempt on his life, people talking about an assassination attempt on his life. We're not going to get clarity on that, though, are we? Until you know, the police have got a proper chance to look at all the footage and try to figure out exactly what happened here.

SAIFI: Exactly. And you know we do know that the current government has already said in many, many different statements that they put out that Imran Khan's rally will cause violence. They have called it a - March, which in English translates to a bloody March. There have been injuries and death of a young boy who got transferred in the current void that was leading towards Islamabad in the past week as well.

We'd have to wait and see how this investigation unfolds because, again, this is a country that is very polarized and much politicized in terms of like how things are unfolding. There have been many cases filed against Imran Khan.

There's always been a lot of pushback from Imran Khan to the current government itself. There is an economy which is suffering. And again, we just have to wait and see like we said when that clarity comes and how this will unfold in the minutes and hours and days to come.

FOSTER: OK, Sophia in Islamabad. We'll be back with you as you go and try to gather more information from the officials there. But Imran Khan apparently shot at a rally in Pakistan.

Minutes from now the U.S. Defense Secretary expected to meet with his South Korean counterpart in Washington and meeting made even more urgent by North Korea's latest move, a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile has been launched.

A government source in Seoul says the test was a failure with a powerful missile falling into the sea, but it succeeded in provoking more tensions and alarm.

[08:10:00]

FOSTER: The missile test triggered these alerts in parts of South Korea with people urged to find shelters. Washington and Seoul have extended joint military drills indefinitely because of Pyongyang's actions.

They use suspected ICBM tests coming just one day after Kim Jong-Un's regime filed nearly two dozen short range missiles. Let's check in with CNN's Will Ripley in Seoul, it really feels like tensions are ramping up here, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are and with this failed launch of what's believed to be North Korea's most powerful known missile that was on 17. In many ways, Max, the North Koreans actually learn more from failure than they do from success.

But one thing if I know the North Koreans and I've been to that country many times, they will try again. Now whether that next ICBM launch in tab happens in the coming days in the coming weeks or months, they will certainly try to learn from whatever went wrong with this was on 17 launch, and they will try another launch.

So let's take a look at the trajectory of today's launch versus the successful test launch with the Hwasong-17 back on March 24th. Back in March, it was the highest altitude and longest duration of any North Korean missile ever launched.

It went up more than 6200 kilometers it traveled a distance of more than 1000 kilometers although it could have gone much further had the trajectory been different. You know, they do a higher altitude and shorter distance so that it can splashdown in the waters closer to North Korea and not splashdown in the waters near the Mainland U.S. even though this missile was designed to hit the Mainland U.S. Back on March 24 it was in the air for 68 minutes. This time it was in the air for much shorter and it only reached about less than a third of the altitude record that was set back in March. According to CNN's report - this is North Korea's 38th launch event this year.

But if you add up the number of missiles that they've launched in total, it's well over double that number. Most of the missiles have been ballistic missiles. Also in this barrage that we saw yesterday it was cruise missiles as well.

So let's show you the difference between ballistic missiles and cruise missiles ballistics they traveled many times the speed of sound, they are powered by a rocket or multiple rockets. They go up into space before coming down for reentry. And then they use gravity to actually pull them towards the surface.

They travel at the speed many, many times the speed of sound. And in the case of these hypersonic glide vehicles that North Korea claims they've been testing. Sometimes these can actually change direction on their way down.

So they're going very fast multiple times the speed of sound and it's almost difficult if not impossible to shoot down there, shoot them down if you don't know exactly what their trajectory is.

Now cruise missiles, they operate basically like a jet engine. They have airplane controls or at least similar to airplane controls. They are maneuverable but they stay inside the Earth's atmosphere and they are much easier to shoot down.

Cruise missiles are not banned under UN Security Council resolutions. Ballistic missiles are banned. So when North Korea launches a ballistic like this ICBM that is a major violation of UN Security Council resolutions. And that's one of the reasons why the United States and South Korea say they are going to extend indefinitely.

These are incredibly a large scale training exercises that have been underway since the beginning of the week. You're talking about 240 war planes and thousands of troops from the U.S. and South Korea in this operation vigilant storm.

Let me read you a quote from the South Korean Air Force a statement on this. They said it was necessary to demonstrate a solid combined defense posture of a bilateral alliance under the current security crisis heightened by North Korea's provocations.

So if they keep on the exercises Max, North Korea likely keep on with their own provocations and anyone's guess where this is going right now.

FOSTER: OK, Will Ripley back with you as you get more updates, thank you. Now still to come, could these help with your mental health and you study suggest they might, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:15:00]

FOSTER: Welcome back. Now could magic mushrooms be good for your mental health? A new study, a major study says yes. So this is the magic mushroom within magic mushrooms is a compound. And this compound can actually reduce depression if combined with therapy according to this study. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now from New York to explain exactly how this works. It sounds remarkable Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It does Max and there's been sort of this crescendo of studies in this area of psychedelics for some time, MDMA and ecstasy and ketamine. But as you point out psilocybin, this was a synthetic version of magic mushrooms was what was really being studied here trying to look at people who have what is known as refractory depression, meaning they have depression, they've tried things to try and treat their depression didn't work.

The United States for example, 9 million people have depression, 3 million are treatment resistant. So that's what they really focused on here, Max. And let me show you the results of the study here. They basically give a single dose of the psilocybin 25 milligrams, which is a high dose, a micro dose is one milligram to give you some context there.

And what they found is that three weeks when they studied this, again, they found that 37 percent of people saw their depression scores drop off by 50 percent or more. Again keep in mind; these were people who are not responding to conventional medications.

29 percent roughly were in remission at three weeks, at 12 weeks that dropped off, but you still had about 20 percent of people in remission at that point. This is what's getting people's attention, Max. In this study, you had 79 people with that highest dose. But there were some 230 people around the world in 22 countries who were trialed on different doses. And these are the sorts of results that are seeing.

FOSTER: It's fascinating, Sanjay, thank you so much for bringing us your insight on that. Of course a lot of work to be done on those studies now but interesting start, now the state of our oceans right now they are under threat. A CNN hosts a Call to Earth Day to raise awareness, do stay with us.

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FOSTER: Now our fast Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface and contain 97 percent of all the water found on our planet, but yet the world's oceans are under threat like never before.

Across the globe inspiring people are fighting to reverse the damage. Today CNN is hosting its Second Annual Call to Earth Day focusing on those efforts. CNN's David McKenzie is live for us at a beach in Cape Town, South Africa, David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max it's really one of the most beautiful spots on the planet here in Hout Bay in Cape Town. Real privilege to be here, this is why Call to Earth is so important because as you say the oceans are critical for human survival.

[08:20:00]

MCKENZIE: Now that might sound like a very sweeping statement. But the oceans ability to suck in heat to mitigate global warming is hugely important. Of course, also, it's a carbon sink, that allows us some kind of chance to get below those 1.5 degrees of warming.

And that is before you even talk about the bounty of the ocean, just where I'm standing every morning and every night fishermen go out. And across the world, of course, it's the same thing. But here in South Africa, as in many parts of the world, there is a large amount of people who feel disconnected from the ocean who feel that their communities are either kept off because of housing prices and Millionaires Row, or they don't feel any deep connection because it can be a dangerous place.

We here are standing close to the Sentinel Ocean Alliance, it was started by a pro, Big Wave Surfer, Frank Solomon, he thought that the area needed people to get educated, we spoke to one of the ocean educators.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE (on camera): So many people in this country haven't always had access to the ocean. Why is it important to introduce people to the ocean, and explain what it's all about?

KHOLOFELO SETHEBE, SENTINEL OCEAN ALLIANCE: To be honest, I'm one of those people that grew up not having access to the ocean. And I feel like it is important to give the kids of today, or the youth of today access to the ocean because they need to understand how beautiful the oceans are that the ocean can bring more to them.

MCKENZIE (on camera): But there are people living in formal settlements who don't feel necessarily welcome here all the time. So why is it important to change that?

SETHEBE: So it's very important to change that because this is not only the ocean for a certain group of people is the ocean for all of us.

MCKENZIE (on camera): And when the kids first arrive, compared to when they've spent a few months with you what is the difference you see?

SETHEBE: We see a lot of difference. When the kids arrive the first thing when I asked them to pick up plastic that they see in the garden or somewhere, oh, no, I'm not going to pick it up. It's not mine. Why should I be the one picking it up? Why is this one not picking it up?

So we see that behavior, because they're not, they used to not picking up something that is not theirs. As long as it's not mine, I'm not going to pick it up. So you see a lot of behavioral change, because now that they know the ocean. They understand the ocean, they're connected to the ocean, and they see the value of protecting and it.

MCKENZIE (on camera): What is the message you'd like to give?

SETHEBE: One piece of advice that I'd like to give to the world is that, you know, we have to come to an understanding at some point that our oceans, you know, they give us life; we need to protect our oceans so that we can keep on living.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKENZIE: And in just a short moment, those kids will be arriving Max to get the part of the eight weeks of training here. It really shows you this education can make a difference, can get people really interested and feel that this amazing resource behind me is something they can be part of and feel connected to, Max.

FOSTER: David McKenzie in Cape Town, thank you. Well, the Earthshot Prize is on the lookout for big environmental ideas, including ways to safeguard the oceans. It was co-launched by the Prince of Wales. You can see him here with the Princess of Wales visiting Earthshot award winning project early this year.

And joining us now is the Earthshot prize CEO, Hannah Jones, thank you so much for joining us. It's very easy to get depressed by this issue. But a good example there of how there are solutions if everyone does get involved.

HANNAH JONES, CEO, THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE: Absolutely and thank you for having me on. We are filled with optimism. We feel a great sense of urgency. And we see great optimism and that's because of the Earthshot Prize, we scour the planet and the ocean for solutions that if scaled could help to repair the planet.

And every day we are given solutions that we see inspiration and being driven by determined people from around the world who want to make a difference. And in the oceans in particular, we're seeing some really exciting solutions that could make a huge difference, like the one you just showcased Coral Vita in the grand Bahamas.

FOSTER: Yes, just describe what's happening in these images we're seeing that we got from you.

JONES: Well Corel Vita sets out to address a major problem in the seas, which is that because of heating and acidification, corals are dying. And that may sound to some of us as so what, what the corals do for us, well corals are obviously like the bed of how marine life prospers.

You see huge diversity, swimming and feeding and living in the coral reefs. But from a human perspective, I was confronted with something really powerful. When I went to the grand Bahamas what became so clear is the coral reefs are also protecting our communities from violent storms and hurricanes because they act as a buffer for low lying Islands.

[08:25:00] JONES: And if you have healthy coral reefs along with the mangroves, they in particular again to protect communities for the grand Bahamas weren't protected and really felt that devastation. And so the more we can do to protect the coral reefs, it's good for the ocean and it's good for the communities that live beside them.

FOSTER: Yes, I - ask about the Prince of Wales. Obviously, he founded this amazing organization, you're heading towards Boston, aren't you for the next big ceremony. Give us a sense of what he and you hope to get out of that?

JONES: Well, it's an incredibly exciting time for us because tomorrow we will be announcing our new round of finalists. So watch this space to see the next 15 finalists as we head to Boston and where we will unveil the five winners of 1 million pound each award in oceans, biodiversity, clean air, waste free world and climate change.

And we want to really spark the world's imagination. The Prince of Wales, Prince William founded the Earthshot Prize based on the inspiration of President Kennedy's moonshot challenge to the American people with the goal of spurring innovation and inspiring a mindset that we could make the seemingly impossible possible and that's what we're there to do.

FOSTER: OK, Hannah, thank you so much for joining us. Hannah Jones from the Earthshot Prize, we will be looking at those entries tomorrow, we'll be right back.

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