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Connect the World
China Says It's Considering U.S. Trade Talk Proposals; April U.S. Jobs Numbers Beat Forecasts; Mike Waltz Out as National Security Adviser Amid Signal Scandals; Aid Ship Bound for Gaza Issues SOS After Alleged Drone Attack; Boy Seen in Viral Video; Prince Harry Loses Appeal Against Downgraded Security; U.S. Urges India and Pakistan to Show Restraint; Physician and Author Behind "Early Medical" Speaks About Longevity and Life Expectancy in the Modern World. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired May 02, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:28]
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, you're watching our second hour of the show from our Middle East programing headquarters here in Abu
Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson.
The time is 6:00 p.m. here. You're looking at the live U.S. markets. It's 10:00 a.m. in New York, reacting to better-than-expected U.S. jobs numbers
moving up slightly right now. And this comes as China says it is evaluating whether it will start trade talks with the U.S. as massive tariffs on
millions of goods destined for American stores kicks into gear.
President Trump ousts his National Security adviser as Mike Waltz is caught up in a new Signal controversy. He was photographed using the app in a
Cabinet meeting a day before he was moved aside and tapped to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
And the United States is urging India and Pakistan to show restraint amid sky high tensions following a terror attack in Indian controlled Kashmir
last month.
We begin with a subtle but significant sign out of Beijing. China softening its tone at least on trade talks with the United States, saying it is
considering proposals to begin negotiations. The U.S. president, Donald Trump, has been saying since last week that the U.S. has been talking with
China, but Beijing has denied that. And Mr. Trump has yet to bring down the massive tariffs that he's imposed on Chinese goods.
CNN's Marc Stewart live in Beijing.
So where do things stand? Do we have any sense how soon we may see talks begin? Just explain where we are at at this point.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good to see you, Becky. Look, this is unusual. We started hearing messaging from the Chinese government at around
8:00 in the morning even though it's a national holiday. But the government said it was assessing or evaluating the possibility of having trade talks
with the United States, making it very clear it was responding to overtures from messaging from the United States.
It's not something initiated by China, but making it very clear it was coming from the American side. Now, just how this will unravel, I honestly
cannot tell you, but China has made it very clear that it's in it for the long haul. And the last thing China would want to do, especially President
Xi Jinping, is appear to be caving in to the United States and having the U.S. dictating what it can and what it cannot do, dictating the terms.
Expect China to be very hard line in all of this.
In fact, I think China will again emphasize this idea of playing the long game in all of this. In fact, if we look at Chinese social media, over the
last few days, there has been a lot of government messaging, very pro- nationalist in spirit. There was a video that was released on X saying that China will not kneel down and making remarks about being a bully. So China
is going to remain very defiant. Yet we are starting to see this moment of diplomacy.
Something else, Becky, you talked about the markets off the top. We both like watching the markets. We're fascinated by it. We saw all of the major
indices here in China did close with gains in the green. That includes South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. Perhaps investors are seeing this as a
positive sign because we've been at such a stalemate. It's just not a good look when the world's largest economy and the world's second largest
economy are at a point of tension, especially over these fiscal and financial matters.
So, Becky, all eyes on China. This holiday ends next week. We'll see if we get more word from Beijing.
ANDERSON: I know you'll keep your ears to the ground on this one and talking to your sources. It's very good to have you there, Marc. Thank you.
Those U.S. stock markets then with a double dose of positive news today, getting a slightly -- a slight boost in early trade after the release of
April job numbers in the United States. And those numbers better than forecasts. The U.S. economy adding 177,000 jobs last month. Analysts had
predicted that number would be around about 135,000. The unemployment rate remaining steady at 4.2 percent.
[10:05:00]
These numbers are, let me remind you, clearly a backwards looking preliminary as economists warn Americans to brace for the impact of those
Trump tariffs.
Well, Matt Egan back with us now, and I'm sure you'll be interested to have just heard that conversation that Marc and I have been having. So watch
this space as far as where those talks, if any, go between the U.S. and China. Meantime, the markets today also looking at these numbers, these job
numbers. It's been a week of sort of tech earnings releases. These numbers, though, were always going to be closely watched today.
Just break them down for us. And I'm really interested in the nuance behind these numbers, Matt.
MATT EGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, as you know, there's been so many recession fears that have been dominating the conversation for the
past month or so. But thankfully, those recession fears, they are not showing up in the government jobs report, at least not yet. If anything,
it's been dominated by another R word and that is resilience.
Let me run you through the key numbers. As you mentioned, 177,000 jobs were added in the month of April. That is a solid number in any environment, but
particularly right now, that's roughly in line with March, which was revised significantly lower. The unemployment rate at 4.2 percent, that is
a relatively low number.
When we look at the trend of job gains for the past year or so, what stands out is how relentless the hiring has been. And in fact, when you Zoom in
and you just look for the last three months, basically since the tariffs have started, if you were asleep, you wouldn't even know that we were in
the middle of a global trade war, and there had been extreme turbulence on Wall Street because hiring continues.
Now, when we dig into where the jobs are, we've seen more than 50,000 jobs were added in health care, leisure and hospitality. That's bars,
restaurants, hotels also adding more than 20,000 jobs last month alone. What's notable, though, is look at manufacturing, losing 1,000 jobs. That's
significant, especially when you consider that tariffs are supposed to be propping up manufacturing.
And not shockingly, the federal government losing jobs. Again, this is actually the third straight month where federal government employment is
down. And that comes, of course, as DOGE and Elon Musk have just taken an ax to the federal workforce.
Now, when we look at the market reaction, this is one of those nice times, Becky, where investors are saying, look, what's good news on main street is
also good news for Wall Street. In fact, let's look at the S&P 500 up more than 1 percent today on track for its ninth straight gain. We haven't seen
a win streak like that since 2004. I think when we try to sum it up and think about where we are right now, this is more evidence that the jobs
market remains resilient.
Despite all of that uncertainty, the hard economic data continues to beat the weak surveys. It also suggests that despite what the president posted
on Truth Social today about interest rate cuts, there's really no need for the Fed to come to the rescue right now.
I think the trillion-dollar question, though, Becky, is whether or not this is the calm before the storm because the economy has not felt the full
brunt of this trade war yet, and many economists fear that when it does, it's going to hurt the jobs market. But for now, it is not showing up in
the economic data. And that is good news.
ANDERSON: Thank you, Matt.
EGAN: Thanks, Becky.
ANDERSON: Providing some nuance there. A good deep dive.
In the first major staff shakeup since taking office in January, President Trump has removed Mike Waltz from his role as National Security adviser.
Instead, Donald Trump wants Waltz to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Now, CNN's sources say that Waltz had been on shaky ground and lost most of his influence inside the White House after he inadvertently added a
reporter to a group chat on Signal about U.S. Military strikes in Yemen. Vice President JD Vance says that's simply not true and called Waltz's move
a promotion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JD VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So he wasn't let go. He is being made ambassador to the United Nations, which of course is a Senate
confirmed position. I think you can make a good argument that it's promotion.
The media wants to frame this as a firing. Donald Trump has fired a lot of people. He doesn't give them Senate confirmed appointments afterwards. What
he thinks is that Mike Waltz is going to better serve the administration, most importantly, the American people in that role.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, on Wednesday, Waltz was photographed appearing to use Signal during the president's Cabinet meeting just a day before he was
removed as National Security adviser, whether or not that is a promotion remains to be seen.
Let's bring in CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger.
A promotion to U.S. representative at the United Nations? I mean, really?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's a nice argument. I don't think it's one that's likely to hold. Look, the National
Security adviser is, with the possible exception of the secretary of State and the secretary of Defense, the most powerful national security position
in the U.S. government.
[10:10:11]
You could argue it's more powerful because the National Security Council is the place that brings together the competing interests of the State
Department, the Defense Department, the intelligence agencies, and then routes issues to the president for decision. It's the one that formulates
overall presidential policy and then spreads it out to the departments for implementation.
And over the years, National Security advisers from Henry Kissinger to Brant Scowcroft to Condoleezza Rice and Steve Hadley, to Jake Sullivan in
the Biden administration had been among the most influential officials inside the U.S. government. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is an
ambassador, obviously a very senior one, who reports to the secretary of State.
ANDERSON: So just have a listen to how Donald Trump described Marco Rubio on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Marco Rubio, unbelievable. Unbelievable, Marco. When I have a problem, I call up Marco. He gets it
solved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: He used to call him Little Marco, right? He's dropped that. Marco Rubio apparently is now his name. Does that suggest Rubio may hold on to
this National Security advisor role for a while? And I wonder, and I'm sure our viewers are thinking the same. I wonder how that fits in with Steve
Witkoff's massive portfolio at this point.
SANGER: That's right. Well, first of all what we hear is that Mr. Rubio has said he would hold this job for up to six months, but no longer. We'll see
if that sticks. Really interesting question about whether or not the secretary of State should serve in this job simultaneously with becoming
National Security adviser. It's only been done once. That was with Henry Kissinger at the end of the Nixon administration and through the Ford
administration.
It didn't work out so well. Exactly because of what I said before about adjudicating between the competing interests. You end up with somebody
who's running one of the larger and more influential departments, the State Department, also having their finger on the scales when it comes to the
question of adjudicating those disagreements.
And so it can lead to all kinds of different conflicts. And then there's just the time element. The secretary of State flies around the world,
sometimes a hotspot, sometimes to building up relationships. The National Security adviser stays in the situation room or in his office down the hall
or her office down the hall from the president making sure that policy is developed correctly, constant set of principals' meetings, that is the
meetings of the president's senior advisers, making sure the policy is executed. It's a really hard thing to do both at the same time.
ANDERSON: Well, I mean, this is an administration which doesn't do things the way that others have done. I mean, you know, they may argue that he is
perfectly --
SANGER: Well, that's certainly true. Yes.
ANDERSON: I wonder how this shakeup, though, does reflect on the -- yes. How does it reflect on the major diplomacy that the U.S. is undertaking
right now? And again, I allude to Steve Witkoff's very busy file on Ukraine, on Iran.
SANGER: Sure.
ANDERSON: Those talks at present, indirect and stalled or postponed, and then Gaza, of course.
SANGER: Right. Those are the three major areas. And of course, those are areas that the U.S. secretary of State, one would normally expect, would
play a very active role in. So far, we haven't seen any indications of real tension between Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Rubio. But it certainly does raise a
lot of questions. And what's left out of that is the hardest set of negotiations to come yet. And that is China.
Now, some people believe this is actually what Mr. Witkoff would be better suited for, given his business background. He's got no government
background in the past. A lot of people said to us yesterday when the speculation was around that Mr. Witkoff would become the National Security
adviser, that he'd hate the job. It's basically one of coordination among different bureaucracies, places he has not been.
ANDERSON: Right.
[10:15:01]
SANGER: He likes getting out and negotiating directly with Vladimir Putin or with the Iranian foreign minister. So we'll have to see how that sorts.
But, you know, China raises the question, who's going to put together that policy? Mr. Waltz really didn't have time to put out the beginnings of a
China policy.
ANDERSON: Yes.
SANGER: And it's all been, you know, overshadowed by the tariffs.
ANDERSON: Yes. We hear this hour that China, at least in principle, seems to be readying itself for talks on those tariffs at this point. So perhaps
that file will get very much busier very quickly.
It's good to have you, sir. Thank you.
Still to come, two months since any food or aid entered Gaza, we're going to take a look at the impact of Israel's total blockade of the Palestinian
territory now facing a human-made famine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, today marks two months since any food at all was allowed into Gaza two months since Israel last let in a single truck of
humanitarian aid. Today, two million people are facing famine. Some international organizations say Israel is using or they accuse Israel for
using starvation as a weapon of war, which of course is a war crime.
Well, an aid ship bound for Gaza in the face of that blockade issued an SOS shortly after midnight on Friday, going into Friday morning. The Freedom
Flotilla Coalition says it caught fire in an alleged drone attack.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond, with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: The freedom flotilla coalition said that a ship that was preparing to head to Gaza to try and block or to
try and break, rather, the blockade that has been in place there for two months now on any humanitarian aid. They say that this ship was targeted by
two Israeli drone strikes, and it is now in a position where it has been taking on water and sinking.
Maltese authorities said that 16 people were on board. The flotilla group said that there were actually 30 people. They posted -- the flotilla group
posted this video of the ship in flames and said that the generator at the front of the ship appeared to have been the target, that there was a large
hole in the ship as well, and that the ship was therefore taking on water.
Now, we cannot independently verify what caused those flames, but you can hear in one of the videos posted by the group that there is some kind of
explosion that goes off that appears to have set all of this off. And notably, the Israeli military now declining to comment on this situation
even as this flotilla group and others are accusing Israel of being behind this attack. And it's also important to note that Israel does have a
history of intervening to block these types of flotillas from reaching Gaza.
[10:20:07]
Notably, back in 2010, Israeli naval commandos boarded a ship that was headed for Gaza, killing 10 people in what made international headlines. An
Israeli Air Force C-130 plane was also spotted hours before the attack just off the coast of Malta. These are transport planes that are also capable of
carrying out surveillance. It was flying at a low altitude, but of course, we cannot -- right now we don't have enough information to directly connect
it to this incident.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, that's Jeremy reporting from Israel.
A young boy in Gaza surrounded by rubble and waving for help following an Israeli airstrike. Harrowing images that went viral last week.
Well, now, CNN's Abeer Salman reports after CNN spoke to him and his mother in hospital following that attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABEER SALMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seven-year-old Ali cries out for help amid the rubble caused by an Israeli airstrike on a residential
building in Gaza last week. The moment shot by Palestinian journalist Mahmoud Shalha went viral. Days later, CNN spoke to Ali and his mother at a
nearby hospital.
NUHA SHETO, ALI'S MOTHER (through text translation): He is all I have now.
ALI FARAJ, SURVIVOR (through text translation): I love you, mom.
SHETO (through text translation): I love you too, my darling son.
SALMAN: The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas militant, and prior measures were taken to minimize risk to civilians.
FARAJ (through text translation): I was playing with my father, then I fell asleep. After I fell asleep, I don't know what happened. I fell, I feel
quietly then I saw my mom and started waving to her.
SHETO (through text translation): I went down the stairs to find my son on the rooftop, beside with my husband, and my daughter Saud torn into pieces.
I told paramedics that my son is alive. Go to him. My husband and my five daughters are gone. My brother and his four children are gone. My sister
and her three children and father are gone. Mohammed, my cousin's son, is gone. They are all gone.
SALMAN: More than 16,000 children have been killed since the war began, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
SHETO (through text translation): What's their fault? They are all children. I swear to God all are children. Where are the human rights?
Where are the rights of children?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Abeer Salman reporting.
Let's get you up to speed on some of the other stories that are on our radar right now. And Australian voters head to the polls tomorrow for a
federal election. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is polling slightly ahead of the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, whose ratings have suffered in
recent months amid widespread comparisons with U.S. president Donald Trump.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency has labeled the far-right AfD party an extremist group that threatens democracy. The move permits authorities
to monitor the party by recruiting confidential informants and intercepting communications. AfD got the second highest vote tally in February's federal
election.
Russell brand was granted bail in his first court appearance over sexual assault charges. The British comedian-actor was charged last month with
rape and sexual assault. The historic charges relate to four separate women from more than 20 years ago.
To a legal defeat in the United Kingdom for King Charles's youngest son. The Duke of Sussex has just lost his appeal against a security downgrade.
Prince Harry's security arrangements were altered by the British government after he gave up his formal duties as a royal. His lawyer argued that that
downgrade was unfair. The Court of Appeal disagreed. Well, that ruling coming down just over an hour ago.
CNN's Nada Bashir is outside the court in London with the very latest.
Can you explain what was in that decision and how the judges involved wrote it up?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the court has been very clear in its decision rejecting Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex's appeal against the
decision taken by the British government to downgrade the level of security provided to the Duke of Sussex and his family while in the United Kingdom.
Now for Prince Harry, this has been a deeply personal issue. He has been very clear and vocal in his criticism of that decision, taken by the Home
Office and authorities in charge of the security details provided to members of the royal family and other notable figures traveling within the
United Kingdom. That decision was taken, of course, shortly after Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, made the decision in 2020
to step down as working members of the royal family and to relocate to the United States.
[10:25:13]
Now Prince Harry's legal representatives have long argued that the Duke of Sussex and his family still require that highest level of security detail,
which is, of course, funded by the British taxpayer. And Prince Harry has been very vocal around his concerns for the safety and security of his
family while traveling. They do, of course, have their own private security detail while in the United States. Of course, they do reside permanently
now in California.
But the legal representatives for the Home Office have stated in court that Prince Harry's protection privileges have not necessarily been revoked, but
rather they have been downgraded, and that security detail would be provided on a case by case basis based off the fact that they have now, of
course, stepped down as working members of the royal family, but also, of course, because they do not reside in the United Kingdom permanently.
So that decision has been upheld now by the Court of Appeal here in London. And of course, this is a deeply personal issue for the Duke of Sussex,
who's long campaigned against press intrusion within his personal life and the personal lives of the royal family, and, of course, has expressed
frequent concern over that intrusion and what that would mean for the safety and security of his family, including his wife Meghan, the Duchess
of Sussex, and his two young children, Archie and Lilibet.
ANDERSON: Any response from the duke's team?
BASHIR: We are still waiting to hear from the Duke of Sussex. Of course, previously, representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been
quite forthcoming in expressing frustration and concern, particularly, of course, in previous court cases that we've seen where the Duke of Sussex
battling British tabloids for their intrusion into his personal life as we've seen over recent years -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Thank you, Nada.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson.
Ahead on the show, as tensions simmer between India and Pakistan, the U.S. vice president voicing words of caution. What he is saying as he weighs in
to what is this spat between nuclear armed neighbors is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. I'm Becky Anderson. Here are your headlines.
And Beijing softening its tone on trade talks with the United States. The Chinese Commerce secretary says that officials are currently evaluating a
proposal put forward by the Americans to begin negotiations.
[10:30:09]
Up to this point, China has flatly denied it is engaged in talks which U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed are happening.
Well, a better than expected jobs report in the U.S. helping stocks rally at the open on Wall Street. The U.S. economy added 177,000 jobs in April,
42,000 more than forecast. Unemployment remains steady at 4.2 percent. Economists say the numbers do not reflect what will be the full impact of
President Trump's tariffs.
Donald Trump looking for a new full time National Security adviser after removing Mike Waltz from the position on Thursday. The president has tapped
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to temporarily fill that position and wants Waltz now to serve as ambassador to the United Nations.
Well, the U.S. is urging India and Pakistan to show restraint in the wake of what was a terror attack in the Indian administered area of Kashmir.
Here's what Vice President JD Vance is saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: Our hope here is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way that doesn't lead to a broader regional conflict. And we hope, frankly,
that Pakistan, to the extent that they're responsible, cooperates with India to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their
territory are hunted down and dealt with. That's how we hope this unfolds. We're obviously in close contact. We'll see what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, those terrorists killed 26 people last month. The vast majority of those people were tourists. The massacre sparked limited
military operations from the nuclear armed neighbors and has, of course, raised fears of a wider regional conflict.
Well, Nic Robertson is connecting us this hour from Islamabad.
Good to have you here. We're going to be hearing from a senior adviser to the Indian government in just a moment. But I want to remind people what a
high level Pakistan official told me yesterday, Nic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ATTAULLAH TARAR, PAKISTANI INFORMATION MINISTER: The Indian government so far has not been able to pinpoint a single group which was involved. You
see, they will have to tell the world who was involved. You can't just say that Pakistan is behind this. And our prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, while
speaking to the Passing Out Parade at the military academy, said that we're open to a fair and just and impartial investigation, meaning thereby that
we have clean hands. Nobody who is involved would offer a fair investigation into the matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, the deadline for the attack that that gentleman announced, Pakistan had credible intelligence on, has now passed of course. You're in
Islamabad. What are you hearing on the ground there?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There's still an expectation that India is still going to attack. I won't put a figure on
it, but there are figures that are being bandied around here. But there's an expectation very clearly that India will attack. And if they do, that
Pakistan will respond. I think those two things from the Pakistani perspective are very real.
I think certainly what U.S. Vice President JD Vance has had to say is language and diplomacy that actually is some language that we don't sort of
hear so much from JD Vance, who's normally hear him being quoted for very strong language. But the perception here in Pakistan is that that language
is going down very well. It's very helpful. The United States is seen as being very helpful, very evenhanded in their diplomacy with India and
Pakistan at the moment.
And that's reflected also in conversations that have been had over the past couple of days with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth
talking with his Indian counterpart just a couple of days ago. There's a real feeling that that U.S. policy at the moment is the right policy and
that the diplomacy is -- that they're talking about is the right way to go. But the concern about what could happen and the tensions that still exist
are very real.
And I think to put a sort of a clearer point so we can understand exactly what's happening here, think about this. That the U.S. diplomatic outreach
grew and its stature publicly in its language and its speed late Wednesday, that on Wednesday, it seems the U.S. took a decision to engage publicly in
higher profile, stronger language, clearer diplomacy between Pakistan and India. Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth, and now JD Vance. And at the moment,
there's no product from that intervention. But it's taken as well-meaning on this side.
[10:35:07]
ANDERSON: And coming, of course, in the wake of that announcement by the Pakistani information minister, who we spoke to yesterday, an announcement
at 2:00 in the morning suggesting that Pakistan had credible evidence at the time that there would be an attack by India on the country within 24 to
36 hours.
Now, of course, as I said at the beginning of this part of this show that deadline has now passed, you've just got the view out of Islamabad from Nic
there.
Earlier, I spoke to Kanchan Gupta, who is the senior adviser to India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It followed my interview, of
course, on Thursday with Pakistan's minister of Information, ensuring you get to hear the perspective of each side in this standoff. This is what Mr.
Gupta had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KANCHAN GUPTA, SENIOR ADVISER, INDIAN MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING: Clearly the government is sufficiently concerned with what
has happened. Some immediate steps have been taken and actionable points are being discussed. Now whatever could be done immediately has been done,
including putting the Indus water treaty in abeyance.
ANDERSON: The allegation that Pakistan has, quote, "credible intelligence" that India was going to launch a military strike on Pakistan within 36
hours is a serious allegation. I'm not asking for the operational details. I'm just asking whether there are plans afoot at this point, which include
retaliatory strike on Pakistan.
GUPTA: Nobody in India talked in terms of a 24 to 36 hour framework. This is something which emanated from Pakistan. It is their, quote-unquote,
"credible intelligence input." And how credible their intelligence is we know because of past incidents. So what they wanted was to push alarm
buttons so that the world would sit up and take note and come rushing to their aid.
Now, that has not happened either. I don't think anybody is buying their story any more. It's a case of the boy crying wolf once too often. For all
practical purposes, we have pulled the iron curtain down between India and Pakistan.
ANDERSON: I interviewed the Pakistan minister of information in the past 24 hours. Take a listen to what he told me with regard the allegation from
Indian authorities that Pakistan was behind this attack.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TARAR: The Indian government so far has not been able to pinpoint a single group which was involved. You see, they will have to tell the world who was
involved. You can't just say that Pakistan is behind this. And our prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, while speaking to the Passing Out Parade at the
military academy, said that we're open to a fair and just and impartial investigation, meaning thereby that we have clean hands. Nobody who is
involved would offer a fair investigation into the matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Does India have evidence to support your claim and why haven't you accepted the offer for a neutral, independent investigation into this?
GUPTA: So there are three parts to it. Whatever evidence we had, we have, I understand and there have been meetings at very high level between the
foreign minister and his counterparts, between the foreign secretary and mission heads posted in India. And our information has been shared with
them.
The second part is there is no change in the Pakistani script between, say, the Bombay bombings of 1990s and the Pahalgam attack a couple of days ago
now. So I am not particularly bothered about Pakistan repeating itself ad nauseam about a fair inquiry, fair investigation. And which brings me to
the third point that India knows best what happened. India has been suffering because of Pakistan's policy of sponsoring terrorism.
The U.S. government has sufficient evidence. The U.N. has sufficient evidence. It's all on record. The Europeans have sufficient evidence which
is on record.
ANDERSON: You haven't actually, with respect, answered my question as to why it is that India isn't prepared to launch or be part of an independent
investigation.
[10:40:00]
GUPTA: Now, if Pakistan feels sufficiently offended by that accusation, it should come up with evidence to prove that it is not involved.
ANDERSON: There has been a lot of diplomatic back and forth between India and the United States since this incident, and since this escalation began.
Secretary Rubio encouraged, quote, "India to work with Pakistan to de- escalate tensions and maintain peace and security in South Asia." And we've had JD Vance, the vice president, also weighing in.
What signs that India is efforting a de-escalation at this point between India and Pakistan?
GUPTA: India has no compulsion to act in a manner that is in the interest of Pakistan. Whatever India does will be in India's national interest, in
the interest of India's national security, in the interest of India's national sovereignty. So the question of saying that I have to work towards
de-escalating, meaning, I must calm down. I must not feel angry that 26 of my citizens have been killed, is an absurd proposal.
ANDERSON: Should India's Muslim communities fear reprisals? What are you going to do as a government to ensure that there are no reprisals against
those communities?
GUPTA: The Muslim in India does not see himself or herself as a Pakistani. The Muslim in India does not see himself or herself as a somebody who's
insidious and wants to create havoc. We may have our own problems like communities around the world, but we do not allow those problems to stand
in the way when we face the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: The position from a top level Indian official on what is, it seems, you know, a growing or certainly not seeing any de-escalation, so a
real sort of concern between India and Pakistan at present.
Well, up next, improving your health so that you can live longer. My interview with the pioneering doctor in our "Intelligent Future" series.
That is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Well, technological advancements make the headlines almost daily on this show. And to further explore the biggest ideas and innovations,
we've launched a new series on how technology is revolutionizing our world today and reshaping the way we will live tomorrow.
In this our second episode of "Intelligent Future," "Early Medical" founder and author of "Outlive," Dr. Peter Attia, explains what health and
longevity mean in this day and age.
[10:45:02]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER ATTIA, FOUNDER, EARLY MEDICAL: The strategy is to work backwards. It's to reverse engineer from the desired end state. If you want to live
longer, you have to ask the question, what is required to do that and how does one train for those today?
ANDERSON: Peter Attia, welcome. Thank you. Good to have you here in Abu Dhabi. You are one of the biggest names in longevity science. You're a
physician, you're an author of a best-selling book "Outlive." You're a podcaster. You are a disruptor. You tell me who Peter Attia is today, 2025.
Who are you?
ATTIA: Thank you for listening to today's (INAUDIBLE). If you're training, you're still probably the one exception. Everything you said I agree with.
I guess it depends who you ask. I don't think of myself in any of those terms. Typically I just think of myself as -- I guess I do think of myself
as a physician and probably an entrepreneur and a father. I would say those are probably the things I most identify with.
ANDERSON: What does longevity mean to you?
ATTIA: I think it means threading the needle of figuring out how to live a longer life but, placing as much, if not slightly more emphasis on
maintaining, if not improving the quality of life as one ages.
ANDERSON: So what is your approach to managing our aging?
ATTIA: It stems probably from my background as an engineer, which is to sort of try to take complicated problems and then break them into slightly
more manageable problems. And so starting with the lifespan equation, it starts by asking the question, well, if living longer is part of the goal,
what stands in the way of that? So that means you have to understand how people die. And we have a really good, clear understanding of how people
die.
People die most commonly from chronic diseases today, at least in the developed world. If a person says they want to live longer, they have to
have a strategy to manage chronic disease. And there are basically two strategies. One is live longer with chronic disease and one is live longer
without chronic disease or delay the onset of chronic disease.
And I've analyzed both of these, wrote a chapter about it in my book. And the answer is pretty clear. If you want to live longer, you have to live
longer without chronic disease. You have to delay the onset of chronic disease. Now, it's not that you can't, once chronic disease sets in, rely
on medicine to extend life, but the real win is in delaying the onset of whether it be cancer, dementia or heart disease.
On the health span side of things, I think the strategy is to work backwards. It's to reverse engineer from the desired end state. So if the
desired end state from a physical standpoint is to achieve certain metrics late in life, you have to ask the question, what is required to do that?
How much will each of those parameters decline? And how does one train for those today, just like an athlete does?
ANDERSON: "Outlive" is an amazing read. It talks about the art and science of longevity. There were two other things that really struck me. It's this
concept of Medicine 3.0 and then this concept of ignore your emotional sort of well-being or intelligence or, you know, make up at your peril.
So firstly, for those who may be unfamiliar with Medicine 3.0, just give me a sense of what you mean by that and how it fits in to what many people
would consider sort of traditional health care, and then how are emotional well-being, you know, is important to consider.
ATTIA: So, you know, the current system of medicine, as I describe it as Medicine 2.0, for historical context, it's worth understanding Medicine 1.0
and how Medicine 2.0 evolved and how remarkable it was. Medicine 2.0 doubled human lifespan in the span of five generations, which is kind of
amazing. But Medicine 2.0's playbook is largely being able to treat problems when they arise. And that has largely failed in solving the
problem we're now trying to solve.
The longevity problem as described. And so for that I argue there needs to be an evolution of medicine, that evolution is Medicine 3.0. So Medicine
3.0 is effectively the system that will solve the problem we just described. So it's a system that treats health span on equal footing to
lifespan. It's a system that places its emphasis on the prevention of chronic disease rather than the treatment of chronic disease.
[10:50:03]
It's a system that focuses very heavily on personalized and evidence informed care, as opposed to exclusively evidence based population care and
as population care. And as you've noted, it's a system that addresses things like emotional health as opposed to just mental health. And so for
all of these reasons, it's obviously, you know, a very different system that needs to kind of exist in parallel to Medicine 2.0, but probably not
inside it.
ANDERSON: Abu Dhabi has got a very clear, healthy longevity vision for 2030, and its substantial investment in the development and deployment of
A.I. across sectors, including the healthcare sector. And it seems to mirror the work that you've done and are doing in Medicine 3.0.
Can you talk a little bit about what's going on here in the UAE, very specifically in Abu Dhabi, and where you see those similarities, those
synergies?
ATTIA: Well, I think the UAE is incredibly well-positioned for several reasons. The first is it -- from a data perspective, it has an advantage
that many other systems don't have which is they're able to integrate medical records in a way that is very difficult or cumbersome in the United
States, for example. They also have been collecting data, health data in more sophisticated ways than many have.
I just learned today, for example, that when kids are in school, in first grade, fifth grade, ninth grade, they're actually getting health data on
them. I think the second piece that's, you know, very difficult to replicate outside of a place like the UAE is you have the highest level of
commitment to a -- to solving this issue without sort of the bureaucracy that can sort of get in the way in other places.
So if there's a commitment to public health, if there's a commitment to the use of tools like A.I., you're dealing with a situation where these changes
can be made, you know.
ANDERSON: When we think about the potential for scaling the work that you do now, the first criticism you'll hear is that this is very elitist. It's
expensive. You know, it's fine for a very small cohort of people, but this isn't realistic to a wider population. Is it? Going forward, what's its
future?
ATTIA: Well, I think in the current way that I personally deliver health care to my patients, I think that's a very valid criticism. It's not
scalable the way I'm doing it, where Peter Attia and his team of doctors are administering it in this certain way. And so it's been our objective
for some time and it's our objective right now to figure out a way to democratize this process. And obviously, that can only be done through
digital software solutions that rely initially on some A.I. and eventually on a lot of A.I.
And so as we -- I think we're just now at the cusp of where the tools are good enough to help us do this. And I suspect that in three years, we'll be
sitting here having a very different discussion about how for, you know, about the cost of a cup of coffee a day, people are able to access from me
what only, you know, my patients can today.
ANDERSON: Thank you very much indeed.
ATTIA: Thanks for having me.
ANDERSON: It's great to have you here. Thank you.
ATTIA: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:55:21]
ANDERSON: Well, CNN has exclusive reporting about witnesses who could testify in the criminal trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs. The trial is set to
begin on Monday in New York, and CNN has learned at least four of the likely witnesses against Combs are people who have already filed civil
suits against the music mogul. The witness list has not been made public, but three individuals familiar with the case spoke to CNN under the
condition of anonymity. Combs has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking.
Well, that's it for CONNECT THE WORLD. Stay with CNN. "ONE WORLD" is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
