Return to Transcripts main page
First Move with Julia Chatterley
EU Parliament Removes Vice President Amid Bribery Probe; GAVI CEO: We are Working to Increase Coverage of Family; GAVI CEO: We have to be Prepared for new Outbreaks; Yum Raises Long-Term Guidance with 5 percent Unit Growth Target; France and Morocco Face Off in the Chatterley Cup. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired December 14, 2022 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN HOST, FIRST MOVE: A warm welcome to "First Move". Great to have you with us on this game day for both football and the
Federal Reserve! France and Morocco hoping for everlasting World Cup acclaim Croatia. We England fans especially truly feel your pain.
And from the U.S. Central Bank a softer economic landing remains its same. The hope is today's rate hike will be a little more team which really is
the waiting game for both Fed watchers and game watchers. Today the World Cup semifinal match and today's Fed action beginning at exactly the same
moment 2 pm Eastern time, five hours from now.
In the meantime, U.S. futures with a change to Europe stocks are softer as you can see slightly there as we wait. It follows U.S. gains though on
Tuesday and a positive tone set across Asia so a little unchanged here for the U.S. stock market futures.
A less aggressive half point Fed hike appears a virtual certainty, especially after Tuesday's a softer consumer inflation read, but a lot of
course is riding on rate projections for next year, which will also be released similarly, inflation information from the U.K. too. Price rises
there easing from 41 year highs to a year over year rate of fewer than 11 percent, last month.
That's still a huge ouch, but fresh price hikes for food and drinks at restaurants and pubs while cup gatherings have clearly been taking a bite
out of budgets later in the show. We'll also hear from the largest restaurant chain in the world that's Yum Brands. So think KFC and Pizza
Hut.
The CEO David Gibbs will join us to talk about the global inflation challenge and their growth plans too. We spoke Tuesday at the New York
Stock Exchange as you can see there. Also today, Sam Bankman-Fried, Former FTX Chief has been denied bail in the Bahamas and is set to remain in
custody until February.
All this after a damning hearing into the FTX collapse on Capitol Hill Tuesday with the current head of the firm calling the scandal a case of
"Plain Old Embezzlement" the U.S. Senate kicks off its FTX hearing one hour from now.
And the probe into whom on Capitol Hill benefited from millions of dollars in FTX political donations is just getting started. With apologies to
Shakespeare, Sam Bankman-Fried what a tangled web he allegedly weaved much more on this story in just a few moments.
But first, Ukraine suffering a new wave of drone attacks on the Capitol, Kyiv, but President Zelenskyy says Air Defense Systems prevented further
damage to the power grid. Will Ripley is in Kyiv with all the latest.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: People were woken up to the sound of explosions in the early morning hours here in Kyiv. And
central Kyiv actually a short distance from where I'm standing. Some people were up already and getting ready for work when they heard that very, very
distinctive sound of the drone engines followed by explosions.
One of the drones actually caused, you know, a huge hole in the side of a building there was damaged people have their apartment windows shattered.
And yet Remarkably, the Ukrainian Military says that in this drone attack on Kyiv, the first in a number of weeks here in the central area, there has
been no significant damage to the power grid on top of what they're already dealing with. There are rolling blackouts continuously affecting people who
live here in Kyiv.
And affecting people who live all over Ukraine the power grid is far from stable, it's going to be quite some time, as crews continue to work to try
to repair these facilities. That is continuously damaged by these Russian attacks.
Weaponizing winter targeting the power grid trying to make civilians lives miserable as the temperatures plunge ever colder and the official start of
winter is just days away. Even though in this instance, the Ukrainians did shoot down, they say 13 drones fired from Russia. These are Iranian made
drones that explode upon impact.
There were incidents just within the last week where some of the drones did make it through. For example, in the Southern Ukrainian region of Odesa,
1.5 million people were plunged into darkness last weekend, when out of 15 drones that were launched by Russia, five of them did hit their targets.
They are certainly welcome news here in Kyiv that the reporting by CNN that the Patriot missile defense systems will be arriving at some point in this
country.
But of course that comes with its own set of challenges and risks including threats from the Russians. That this will make NATO and the United States
complicit in escalating this war. Will Ripley CNN, Kyiv.
CHATTERLEY: And to China now, they're easing tight COVID restrictions after years of strict controls. Unfortunately, though, COVID is spreading with
it. Our Selina Wang hit the streets of Beijing to find out how people are responding to both reopening and rising cases?
[09:05:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): China is starting to unravel a zero COVID policy. But instead of crowds out celebrating this is how
reopening is going in China. Closed shops, empty streets, people avoiding each other, because for the first time since the start of the pandemic,
COVID is spreading like wildfire in Beijing.
People now either have COVID or they're scared to get it. So I just spoke to the shop worker in the store. And he told me that he's the only employee
without COVID, which is why he can still come to work. And he says I am the only customer who has come into the store all day.
The only crowds I'm seeing in Beijing outside of hospitals like this and pharmacies. So he says his fever has gone down, but he still has a cold,
hoping to buy medicine, but he's worried they don't have any stock because there are long lines forming outside of pharmacies across the country.
People are trying to stock up, but stuff is selling out.
You know, for years, China has been demonizing COVID, playing up the risks of long COVID. And now suddenly, state media is publishing headlines every
day, saying COVID is not a big deal. It's whiplash for a lot of people, because just weeks before, if you got COVID, your whole community would
have gone into hard lockdown. This is such a major and sudden change.
WANG (on camera): So China is finally opening up. How do you feel about it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel is pretty great. I wish they could have opened up earlier.
WANG (on camera): Has business been very slow or difficult?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you can see there are not that many customers, other people just got the virus.
WANG (on camera): Are you scared about getting COVID?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm worried about my parents and my grandparents a little bit.
WANG (on camera): People are relieved though, that you no longer have to go to a quarantine facility if you get COVID. Getting sent to one of those
rundown facilities was such a big source of anxiety before and these health QR codes that have been used for years to track and dictate where we can
go. Well, the government is now saying that you don't need them to enter most public places. So I don't need to scan my code. It feels surreal
though, that I can literally just walk in.
So she said I can only do online delivery so you can't even sit inside or order inside and Shake Shack. So outside the Starbucks they have a sign
saying you need to show a 40 hour COVID test. Even though the national rules don't require it in Beijing, you still need a recent PCR test in
order to enter restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues.
The way less places now to get COVID tests of the city and the lines are short because most people are just staying at home but just a week before
access exact same location. This was packed with people waiting in line. So behind me is a graveyard of COVID testing booths. It's like almost
overnight in Beijing. They removed all of these testing locations and here are the remnants.
After years of harsh lockdown, the government is finally letting people manage their own health, but people don't feel ready and experts say the
country isn't either. The country hasn't vaccinated enough of the elderly population and hasn't improved the health care capacity enough. So this
reopening it's going to continue to be messy and uneven. Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: And a court hearing is taking place in Brussels over an alleged EU corruption probe. Greek MEP Eva Kaili was one of four people arrested
last week. The European Parliament removed her as Vice President on Tuesday.
Belgian police are investigating allegations of payments made by Qatar to EU representatives. Joining us now is CNN Anna Stewart. It's an astonishing
and embarrassing I think corruption scandal for the European Parliament. It's also pretty complicated. Anna, can you make it simple for us. What do
we know and what's happened?
ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: I can try my very best. There was a pre-trial hearing or there was this morning, but we're actually not even sure if all
four of those arrested appeared in that but that was essentially to determine whether or not. They will be remanded in custody or they were
arrested in relation to this investigation that's been going on for over four months now by Belgium federal prosecutors into allegations of
corruption.
The allegations being that EU officials within the parliament were paid for or received substantial gifts, essentially to give influence to a Gulf
nation state they didn't name it, but of course, we have seen wide reports that this is Qatar and I can get on to their response shortly. You are now
looking at pictures though related to the house raids of huge amounts of cash that were recovered from reigns of hotel rooms, houses, apartments,
you were looking at a suitcase I think many cases.
This is nearly 1.5 million Euros worth of cash recovered. Now we know that Eva Kaili is one of the people that were arrested. She was one of the Vice
Presidents of the European Parliament. She had that title stripped from her yesterday following her vote.
[09:10:00]
STEWART: She's also been evicted from her political party in Greece from her political party in the EU. We don't yet have confirmation for the other
three names but we have comment from her lawyer from yesterday. He said her position remains that she is innocent and that she has nothing to do with
bribery from Qatar.
Now that brings me to Qatar. Qatar was not named by the Belgian prosecutors as the country alleged to be buying influence in the EU. It has been widely
named in media reports and by some EU officials, for instance from the checks. We have this from Qatar, they say the State of Qatar categorically
rejects any accusations of misconduct and they go on to say they think these claims are baseless and gravely, misinformed.
Now all this hugely damaging for Qatar not least they are hosting the World Cup right now and allegations of course of human rights abuse. We know that
as recently as November 21, Eva, Kaili, for one actually defended Qatar on that front in a plenary session. Its interesting looking back at her
comments now and the reaction from the EU has been one frankly, of shock.
We had the President of the European Parliament earlier this week, saying that the institution is under attack. We you know, several offices in
Strasburg have been sealed up by those investigating all this going on. And it was very interesting from the President of the Parliament when she said
Europe would rather be cold than bought which certainly suggests perhaps that this could relate to the energy crisis that Europe finds itself in,
Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, wherever the checks and balances. There's going to be questions asked I think and we'll continue to follow this story. CNN's Anna
Stewart there, thank you for that! FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has spent the night behind bars after a judge in the Bahamas denied him bail. He now
faces extradition, of course to the United States.
Let's get straight to Carlos Suarez in the south Bahamas with the latest. Carlos, good to have you with us! He's obviously going to fight that
extradition as well. He said yesterday, I believe in court. No surprise given the charges that he faces in the United States. What more do we know?
CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Julia, good morning. The 30-year old he spent his first full night in a Bahamian prison after a
Chief Magistrate here in Nassau denied him bail. The judge said that she had no decision or she had no other way of putting it.
She felt that SBF had accessed too much money and therefore he was a flight risk. And as you said at the same extradition hearing, SBF told the court
that he was going to fight extradition to the U.S. And you can kind of understand why if he's found guilty of the charges in the U.S. Bankman-
Fried faces up to 115 years in prison.
At that very same extradition hearing the 30-year old also told the court that he is taking several prescription drugs for a number of health issues
including depression as well as insomnia and attention deficit disorder. His attorney was concerned that if he was denied bail and was remanded to
prison that he would not be able to access some of these prescription drugs.
The judge in the end said that he was going to have access to a lot of these medications once he was taken into custody. Again, right after that
hearing yesterday, he was allowed some time with his parents and as well as his attorneys, but then he was brought to this prison here, where he's
expected to remain until at least February. That's when his next scheduled court hearing is taking place with regards to his extradition to the U.S.,
Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Will watch for more developments in this too. Carlos, great to have you with us! Thank you Carlos Suarez there, joining us from the
Bahamas!
OK, straight ahead, the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, a critical player of course in the fight against the pandemic after the initial
emergency response. We'll talk about transitioning to the next stages. Plus, a bite sized look at the future for Yum Brands. The CEO of the
world's largest restaurant chain joins us next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move". Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has helped vaccinate half the world's children against some of the world's
deadliest diseases. It's also played a crucial part in the COVAX initiative shipping over 1.8 billion COVID vaccines around the world.
And now it's looking to the future and beyond the emergency response to the pandemic from 2024 and that date matters. Gavi plans to end support for
vaccine delivery in 38, middle income nations. Though the 54 poorest nations of the world will still get access and help with delivery costs.
The priority for the next year is on targeting at risk populations and boosting coverage overall.
Joining us now is Gavi CEO, Dr. Seth Berkley. Dr. Berkeley, it's always a pleasure to have you on the show. I have to say, it's not often board
meetings like this managed to break news and the details here the timing, the dates are vitally important to understand. Just explain what your
future plans are?
DR. SETH BERKLEY, CEO, GAVI: Well, first of all, just to thank you for having me on again and to say that the critical issue here is we want to
make sure the world is continued to be prepared for COVID outbreaks. I know most people are tired of COVID and tired of the virus, but the virus I
don't think is done with us. And so the critical issue here is how we make sure countries continue to get their coverage up, but particularly to focus
on those high risk groups.
So in 2023, we will continue the work we've been doing up until now working with each country to get their vaccines up, but also to do boosters. And
the good news is we're at 81 percent coverage of health care workers and 66 percent in the elderly, that's really too low. So this is going to be the
focus.
And what the board meeting was discussing is should we be thinking about a longer term program? And the answer is we don't know yet what the
epidemiology is? But the idea would be that we would certainly continue through 24 and 25, providing vaccines for the lowest income countries.
And for the higher low income countries, the ones you talked about, the idea would we would still make vaccines available. We would provide some
subsidy for them, but we would have them cost share those vaccines, but no decision is firmly being taken. That was what the board was discussing.
We will now go out and talk to countries, as well as trying to understand better what the epidemiology is? Are we going to see a set of future waves
going on as we've seen over the last few years? And how does that affect countries desires to have vaccines?
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean, this is the key. So just to be clear, once again, in 2023, you'll continue as you have been from 2024. Then it's a case of if
some of these middle income nations want to access these vaccines. They can still do so at the sort of Gavi saw the COVAX subsidized rate.
But you're not just going to automatically continue to follow the plan because we have to be in a situation when we transition from and I know
you've said this as well in recent days, the emergency response to the pandemic too. OK, what does the new normal look like? And you just add
these COVID vaccines into a broader program for vaccinations around the world and fit for these kinds of countries.
[09:20:00]
CHATTERLEY: I think the initial headlines suggested you were stepping away and I think we have to be very, very clear that and as you're saying,
that's not the plan. What I want to ask though is to your point, have you discussed with some of those middle income nations, like Indonesia, Egypt,
for example? What that plan, at least are the proposal for that plan in 2024 looks like and are they comfortable with it?
BERKLEY: Well, the first thing is the unfortunate part of misinformation that was put out.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
BERKLEY: We're dropping them no decision has been taken on that. The idea of discussing this at the board was to say what might make sense if the
epidemiology stays the same. And so what we will do now is, now that we've had a discussion with the board.
We will go out and have the conversations with all the countries. And by the way, the point here is even in 24, and 25, we will still provide some
financing. You know, we may even provide full financing if it turns out that makes sense, but now we need to sit down with countries and have those
discussions, what are they want to do?
What does it look like on their side? What are the barriers to them? And lastly, the critical thing here is we've seen routine coverage dropped by
about 5 percent over the last two years. We need to get that up.
And one of the reasons it's dropped is because people are focused on delivering COVID vaccines. We need to make sure they deliver COVID vaccines
and routine vaccines. And that's why getting it back into a routine system is so very important.
CHATTERLEY: Yes and I want to talk to you about that. I just want to get a quick comment while we're talking about NOVAVAX, which was one of the
producers of the COVID vaccine. And I don't know what you can tell me now because I'm sure much of this is with the lawyers, but you obviously paid a
lot of money to them upfront and what you've said as a consequence.
Perhaps we can call it that the sort of disagreement between you and them is that they were never going to be prepared on time to provide the
vaccines that you required and as a result, you want some of the money back? It sorts of makes sense to me and I think to those looking at this.
What can you tell us about that disagreement, if anything?
BERKLEY: Well, I think you've basically said about what I can say Julia. The issue is NOVAVAX said that we had breached the agreement with them. And
we were quite clear that we had not breached any obligations under our agreement with them, and that they had had these regulatory delays.
And therefore, it was clear that they wouldn't be able to meet their commitments. And as a result, we expect them to return the advance payments
that were made. And that's where we stand right now and we will continue with following that up.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean that there's a balance somewhere between being paid for intellectual property and research, but also for the work that you guys
do to get vaccines around the world and while we wait for a decision on that. I do want to move on to the future. I saw that you've announced
support for the first malaria vaccine, which actually that gives me goose bumps given the number of children, young people in particular that we lose
around the world to that.
You've also believe been delivering or agreed to deliver cholera vaccines to Lebanon as well. In addition to all the things that we've discussed, the
vaccines for diseases that I know, polio, measles that dropped off to some degree in the pandemic, and we have to get back up to speed with these too.
BERKLEY: You're absolutely right and one of the challenges is we're living in a new era because of climate change, because of overpopulation, because
of the movements of people. We're going to see more and more outbreaks and so what we have to do is be prepared to get routine vaccinations back up to
a very high level to protect against diseases, but also to be prepared for new ones. We have three public health emergencies of international concern
right now, COVID, m-pox, as well as polio.
And of course, we're just finishing an Ebola outbreak in Uganda and Cholera outbreaks across the world and so it has become more challenging for
countries. And the good news is countries have built resilient health systems, resilient immunization systems, but we really have to beat those
up so that they're prepared to provide interventions whenever it's necessary to try to control these infections.
After all, vaccines are the most cost effective way to prevent disease, and therefore we want to make sure they can be made available everywhere that
they are needed.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and to your point, I know you wrote an Op-ed about this as well the impact of climate change on healthcare outcomes and that shift and
actually using the COVAX model that's been created here. Perhaps, to try and tackle some of those and it's something I want to get you on to talk
about specifically again.
[09:25:00]
CHATTERLEY: But what I did notice in the minutes from that board meeting as well was manufacturing capabilities across Sub Saharan Africa in
particular. And perhaps what we learned from the pandemic and the need to boost that in the coming years to protect perhaps against the next
pandemic. And provide them with the capabilities to keep step with what's produced in the West. That's going to be a priority too, I believe, and an
important one.
BERKLEY: Yes, absolutely. So let me just elaborate a little bit on that. So the really amazing news is we had a COVID vaccine, 327 days.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
BERKLEY: I mean most people were predicting 567 years. Great news, but at the same time, people predicted that there would be 2 to 3 billion doses
maximum capacity in 2021. And we ended up with over 11 billion doses produced. So the good news is people were able to scale that manufacturing.
The bad news was we had a lot of nationalism, and therefore, countries were shutting down and not sharing and so we ended up if you look at Africa.
Africa absorbs a lot of vaccine, it has a large population and yet only 0.1 percent of the world's vaccines are made on the African continent.
So rightly African leaders said, well, yes, it's true that there's enough vaccine around the world, but in an emergency, we have to have the
capability to produce our own and so there is an effort now to try to build capacity. And of course, that has to be capacity that works all the time.
In peacetime, it has to produce regular vaccines.
CHATTERLEY: Right.
BERKLEY: So that in a pandemic, it's ready to pivot to the pandemic and so it's about making sustainable systems there, and making sure they fit into
the ecosystem globally. So that they can, you know, be viable during peacetime and selling vaccines to Africa, but also to the rest of the world
and that's what we're going to be working on.
CHATTERLEY: I mean you have a lot of competing causes to tackle. Thank you for your work and thank you for your time today and our chance to set the
record straight on perhaps some of the miscommunication over your plans for the future. Dr. Seth Berkley sir thank you so much as always, the Gavi CEO!
BERKLEY: Thank you Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you; we'll speak soon more "First Move" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move". And a cautious open on Wall Street this Wednesday as expected as investors not likely to place any
major bets until the Fed announces its latest rate hike and Fed Chair Jay Powell takes questions of course, too from the media.
A half point interest rate rise is expected today after four straight jumbo hikes of three quarters of a percent. The hope is that inflation continues
to ease in the New Year allowing the Fed to completely wrap up its rate hike campaign inflation of course and its effect on consumer's front and
center on the minds of fast food chains like yum brands.
Shares of Yum are holding up well in challenging times up nearly 20 percent over the past six months. Famous food brands that include KFC, Taco Bell
and Pizza Hut, the world's largest restaurant chain by store count operates more than 54,000 restaurants across 155 different countries and
territories.
98 percent of them are owned by franchisees. And I sit down with Yum CEO David Gibbs at the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, as the company held
an Investor day; I started the interview by asking him what his message was to investors.
DAVID GIBBS, CEO, YUM! BRANDS: Well, we had a great meeting with the investment community today. And as you said, we talked a little bit about
what's happened over the last 25 years, because it is our anniversary of being a public company, 25 years. During those 25 years, we outperformed
the S&P 500 by a factor of five times, so great chapter of growth in the rearview mirror.
But of course, we're a team that is looking forward, not backwards. So one of the exciting things we share today is that we're raising our guidance as
we go forward to guide and we're growing faster than we did during those last 25 years, based on two things, our progress on digital and technology
and the ramp up in development.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I was going to say the question to be instantly there was OK, that was great, now what. It's not just about the growth, though, that
you're talking about raising targets for it's also about the operating profitability because this is crucial too, whatever phase of growth you're
in for a company and however big you are.
GIBBS: Of course, our business is a franchise business.
CHATTERLEY: Right.
GIBBS: Remember, we're 98 percent owned by franchisees. We wake up every day concerned about our franchisees profitability is if they're not making
money, the business grinds to a halt. Thankfully, they're doing really well right now. And when they make money and an economics make sense, they build
a lot more stores.
And that's why you're seeing the growth that we're having right now on the development front. These are very confident in the future of the company
and we are getting great returns from building new stores.
CHATTERLEY: I mean this is one of the things that blew me away, just listening to some of the statistics. And I'll give it to you; you're
opening a new store every two hours. This is franchisees opening new stores, let's be clear, it's their capital, it's their investment. Is the
big sort of longer term vision still to have a further 100,000 plus restaurants open around the world? And I'm doing this with wide eyes.
GIBBS: Yes, well, we talked a lot about what could be for our company. And if you look at the math, you know, some of the numbers are astonishing. The
reality is sometimes investors are concerned that maybe we're running out of opportunities, nothing could be further from the truth, we have so much
wide space to build new units all around the world. And you're seeing that in the numbers now starting to be reflected as we ramp up development. Even
though we've got brands that are 50, 60, 70 years old, their best days are ahead of them.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, you ask some of the most recognizable restaurant brands in the world, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, for example. I mean, I think just
about anybody, wherever you are on the world has seen one of these restaurants at one time or another. And you're operating across what 155
different countries.
I think for me and the conversation almost has to split into the third of your businesses in the United States. And then the two thirds of the
business that's outside of the United States, even just on a basic level to talk about growth. I mean, I was looking at some of the stats for India,
for the Middle East.
And in KFC, the growth that you're seeing there just to pick one brand and sort of a couple of locations is, again, astonishing to use the word.
GIBBS: We're excited because our growth is widespread. It's not a pocket of growth, lifting our business. It's widespread across multiple countries.
But as you said, we have a couple of areas that are really on fire like India, for example, just over the last 12 months, we built 400 new units in
India, we're now at 15, 1600 stores in India and growing fast. We're going to grow even faster from there, so lots of excitement about India.
CHATTERLEY: How big might that get? I mean, do you even have sort of a target for how many restaurants you can open in the next one two years, for
example there?
GIBBS: Well, what we guided today was our target for development is 5 percent of our score base, which is a good healthy number for a business of
our size. But of course we have the mindset of relentlessly pursuing growth. No target is a stopping point for anybody in our company. I can
assure you of that. We are always looking to beat every target we have.
CHATTERLEY: And so, if a franchisee comes to you and says look, we think this is a great opportunity wherever I'm in the world we can use in
different example. What kind of process do you go through to say this is somebody that we trust to open a franchise because it's still your brand
even if it's their capital?
[09:35:00]
CHATTERLEY: This is something, particularly at this time, in an economic cycle where perhaps there are greater challenges, be it inflation, be it
capital availability, wherever you are in the world for the most part, how are those decisions?
GIBBS: Well, you're exactly right. The most important decisions we make are, who we want to partner with. We have 1500 franchisees around the
world, we are really proud of our franchisees and the capabilities that they bring to the table. Our franchisee base is a little bit different than
others in our space, they're much larger.
So our average franchisee has about 35 stores compared to a lot of other brands where you might have five stores per franchisee. That means they
have more capabilities, they have more access to capital, you know, they can build a professional organization to grow their business that served us
well during these uncertain times.
CHATTERLEY: OK, so that's a critical factor. So even if you don't necessarily have a perfect sense of the market, they do in terms of what
their business can sustain in terms of growth.
GIBBS: Exactly. That's why we have the franchising model; we have these local partners that are, you know, tapped into what's going on in their
market, their consumers how to navigate the challenges. And I think part of the reason why we've been so successful over the last few years with all
the challenges thrown our way.
CHATTERLEY: I mean there's been some great deals, a deal of amount of them. And let's be clear, what about China? Because we're talking about China a
lot on the show in terms of the relaxation of COVID restrictions and the restrictions on consumers, the shift to online delivery, whatever it is for
a restaurant business has been incredibly challenging for businesses and for individuals. Is there opportunity here? Are you still cautious? What's
your sense?
GIBBS: We're enormously excited about China. As we have been since the day we entered, obviously, given the population size and the growth we've had
there were really, you know, the leading restaurant brands by a mile in China, that as you know, we separated out our China business into a
licensed organization that we still have a relationship with them, but they run that business.
They're a publicly traded company, also on the New York Stock Exchange. So we try not to comment into quarter too much on what's going on there. But
we are very confident in the management team that is on the ground running that business and how they're navigating all the extreme challenges that
they're facing.
One of the things that demonstrate the skill that they have is just how many stores they've been building just over the last few years despite
these challenges. So they've stayed true to their mission to grow their business, they're getting great results from building stores. And we're
very confident in the future of giant.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, it comes down to your point, I think once again, about trusting the management and trusting that people on the ground making these
decisions. OK, we have to talk about food price inflation; we have to talk about labor costs as well.
But I want to do the thing that I mentioned earlier in the interview, let's break it down and talk United States specifically. And then we can perhaps
talk about the rest of the world. Talk to me about your franchisees is saying about managing those costs and perhaps what they're saying about the
outlook, what you feel about the outlook?
GIBBS: Certainly, that's part of the challenge of operating in this environment, some stuff that we haven't seen typically. But we're getting
through this and tremendously successful that you can see in the Taco Bell business. For example, in the US, if you want to break down the U.S., Taco
Bell in the U.S. their margins today are the same as they were before the pandemic.
Now, that's despite enormous inflation on food costs. And on labor, they've been able to figure out ways to save money and other parts of the business
to shore up the P&L and to pass on some price increases to consumers and still remain an incredible value.
We share today how strongly sales are up at Taco Bell. So we can navigate just about any environment in our business. That's one of the beauties of
our business, and particularly, you know, our brand is that we can navigate inflationary recessionary times you name it, and adjust our business to
thrive because we're always there for consumers. If they don't have a lot of money in their pocket, they can still have a great experience at our
brands.
CHATTERLEY: But as you pointed out, it comes down to that value proposition which is at the ethos of this kind of sort of restaurant brand and
obviously, as diverse as you are. And just very quickly, do you expect to see some of the easing, whether its labor costs or food price inflation
into 2023? Or is that just lack of visibility?
GIBBS: We've commented a couple of times that we do think we're past the peak when it comes to the inflationary pressures. And I guess today's CPI
numbers may have confirmed that. So we're feeling a lessening of labor pressures and a reduction in our pressures on our food costs. So we're
optimistic about 2023. But we're prepared for any scenario that's the beauty of our team is we can thrive in any environment as long as we're
prepared.
CHATTERLEY: Yum, celebrating its 25th anniversary with lots of enthusiasm about the future. And from KFC and Taco Bell to what you might call the
taggings and - World Cup semifinals. Morocco and France battling it out later today, more than just a culinary clash of course.
Whoever wins today's match gets a ticket to Sunday's all important World Cup finals. Time again for today's Chatterley Cup too, our ongoing look at
how the stock markets of rival teams stack up. And in today's face off both French and Moroccan stocks are hardly piping hot.
The - down some 6 percent over in France this year. Morocco doing worse in fact its markets on an even lower boil down at 15 percent since January.
And Amanda Davies joins us now from Doha.
[09:40:00]
CHATTERLEY: Amanda, I saw you earlier whooping it up with some very excited Morocco fans and we have to talk about that game but we should also hand it
to Argentina and Messi to announcing this is officially his last World Cup.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, I mean, I always think there's a caveat with that. He says as far as he is concerned, from last night,
Sunday is his last game in an Argentina shirt at a World Cup but you just never know, do you? I mean, we've seen evidence of what he was doing last
night.
He absolutely can still perform it and still doing it. But if he was to lead Argentina that one step further to the victory on Sunday, you could
absolutely understand why he might decide age 35 years of age having won the one trophy. He hasn't word to finally call it a day.
But it was such a privilege Julia, I unfortunate I get to go to some of the biggest and best sporting events in the world and see the biggest stars do
what they do. But last night in that context, seeing Messi with those moments of brilliance, it really was something special and you could see
just how much it meant to him and his teammates.
They are working so fantastically as a unit. Their confidence has built and grown since that opening defeater to Saudi Arabia, and you can understand
why the fans were confident after the game last night. But there's a whole lot of Moroccan fans collecting in the souk here behind us. And they are
keen to cause an upset at this party.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I'm so excited. I'm so excited about the final whichever way it goes. Because I think to your point, teams, is the word here. They
really are all of these teams now playing in incredible fashion, I think. What's your bet on the match later? Do you think Morocco can do this?
DAVIES: Yes, I mean, I think the Romantics would - Morocco to do it, and that fans have traveled in their numbers. And what it means not just for
them as a country, but for Africa, for the Arab nations here in the first Middle Eastern world carpet, you know, really is a script that the
tournament organizers would have loved to have written as much as Morocco themselves.
They've defied the odds from the word go, even if they haven't surprised themselves, you know, this is a team that have confidence. That is what
will lead Greg Rowley, when he came in just three months ahead of the start of the tournament instilled in this team. France say they're going to be
given a run for their money, Morocco will absolutely be trying their hardest.
CHATTERLEY: We'll see, Amanda Davies, looking forward to it. You're lucky to be there. Thanks for joining us there from Doha. And that's it for the
show. If you've missed any of our interviews today, they'll be on my Twitter and Instagram pages, search for @jchatterleycnn. Marketplace Asia
is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:00]
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, MARKETPLACE ASIA: I'm Kristi Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to Marketplace Asia. On today's show, we go inside
South Korea's burgeoning space industry. Plus in Japan, using AI to fight cancer with the growing cancer diagnostics market and one entrepreneur is
unexpected inspiration to push the technological bar.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Second time lucky South Korea successfully launched it's newly space launch vehicle in June.
HANCOCKS (on camera): What was the atmosphere?
KO JEONGHWAN, HEAD OF SPACE ROCKET DEVELOPMENT: Someone was praying and someone else screamed out we were hugging and shaking hands.
HANCOCKS (voice over): Less than two months later, the successful launch of the country's first lunar orbiter Danuri.
HANCOCKS (on camera): So when you looked around when you realize that was the first success, what was everybody doing?
JEONGHWAN: Crime.
HANCOCKS (voice over): 2022 was a phenomenal year for South Korea's aerospace industry. President Yoon Suk Yeol plans to double the space
development budget over the next five years. And will establish an aerospace agency next year, Korea's equivalent of NASA, Qatar.
YOON SUK YEOL, PRESIDENT, SOUTH KOREA: Countries with a space vision will lead the world's economy and will be able to solve problems that humanity
is currently facing.
HANCOCKS (voice over): With Nerys launch, South Korea became only the seventh global power able to launch a satellite weighing a tunnel more, a
collaboration of some 300 companies to create a completely homegrown rocket, costing about $1.5 billion since 2010.
JEONGHWAN: We have our third launch scheduled in the first half of next year. I think we'll be launching roughly once a year for now.
HANCOCKS (voice over): KARI, Korea Aerospace Research Institute says future launches will carry smaller satellites for scientific purposes. Experts say
military reconnaissance satellites could also be launched.
LANCE GATLING, PRINCIPAL, NEXIAL RESEARCH: The existence of an indigenous space launch vehicle this class allow South Korea to put its own militarily
significant reconnaissance satellite into an orbit that allows them to gather a lot of information about the world around them.
HANCOCKS (voice over): Seoul's Minister for Science and Technology believes future success in the aerospace industry depends on buying from the private
sector.
LEE JONG-HO, MINISTER OF SCIENCE & ICT, SOUTH KOREA: In the future, I think big companies will be able to take the lead in research and development
related to space. We're exploring companies and public research institutes working together from the design stage so that R&D can be commercialized
and industrialized naturally.
HANCOCKS (voice over): The Danuri probe is set to reach lunar orbit by mid- December, a four and a half month journey culminating in a study of the moon that will last a year.
KIM DAE-KWAN, DIRECTOR OF LUNAR EXPLORATION PROGRAM, KARI: But the thing is the polecam, polecam is polarizations --as opposed --is the first time to
take the whole polarization image of the moon. Not only near side but also the far side.
HANCOCKS (voice over): It's here on the far side. Inside the moon's permanently shadowed craters where scientists hoped to find frozen water
considered key to the future of space exploration. Water, namely hydrogen and oxygen can make rocket propellant to send spacecraft from the moon
further afield in the solar system.
South Korea as part of the Artemis accords, a series of non-binding multilateral agreements between the U.S. and other governments, an American
led effort that hopes to return humans to the moon in 2025. And later, expand space exploration to Mars and beyond.
DR. MALCOM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST IN DEFENCE STRATEGY AND CAPABILITY, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: I think that South Korea is blazing
the trail for establishing a mature and robust Space Exploration Program. That could one day for example, see South Korean astronauts standing on the
lunar surface alongside American or Australian or Japanese astronauts and operating an international lunar base under the Artemis accords.
HANCOCKS (voice over): The potentials are exciting but returning to the present Danuri has transmitted some test data before its lunar exploration
mission begins, successfully sending video and photos.
[09:50:00]
HANCOCKS (voice over): And interestingly, the music video Dynamite from K- pop band BTS. So what's next?
DAE-KWAN: So we're going to plan the next mission for the landing. Until now the target launch a year is 2031.
HANCOCKS (voice over): A lunar landing that Cho Namsuk wants to be part of.
HANCOCKS (on camera): Did you have dreams as a boy of being an astronaut?
CHO NAMSUK, FOUNDER, UNMANNED EXPLORATION LABORATORY: I like to make robots and my hobby was stargazing. When I first saw the moon as a child, I
thought it would be meaningful and amazing to send my robot to that moon.
HANCOCKS (voice over): And that's exactly what he's pitching to do. Hoping his space exploration robots will be chosen for the next lunar mission, a
rover who will gather material and intelligence on the surface of the moon. Space startups are few and far between in South Korea.
But with this year's successes and the government's pledge to pump serious money into space exploration, there's a hope the industry will be next to
take off.
JONG-HO: Korea's national power has grown tremendously over the past few decades. And in light of this increase in power, it's perhaps only natural
that the country has needed to develop its space capabilities, industry and technologies correspondingly.
HANCOCKS (voice over): Paula Hancocks, CNN Seoul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
STOUT: Artificial Intelligence computer systems built to work like the human mind to take on information assess it and make a decision. But a
machine can process much more data at a much quicker rate. And whether you're aware of it or not, AI is at work in almost every single industry
from retail to construction and increasingly healthcare.
Take diagnosing cancer. In most cases, doctors or technicians look for cancer by taking a sample of tissue and examining the cells under the
microscope. This can be a long and pain-staking task. Earlier this year, we met an entrepreneur in Japan who was working on an AI technology that could
diagnose cancer faster and more accurately, and his inspiration might surprise you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT (voice over): In this bakery, there's more than just pastry magic at work. These checkout machines can tell the difference between a croissant
bun and muffin and price items automatically by using artificial intelligence. The technology comes from Hisashi Kambe, he is a computer
engineer based in Nishiwaki in central Japan.
For over a decade, Kambe Software Company Brain Co focused its AI scan system on retail. But this changed in 2017 when a doctor contacted Kambe
with an ambitious suggestion; adapt the bakery AI to diagnose cancer.
HISASHI KAMBE, CEO, BRAIN CO: The first thing he said was the bread looked like cancer stem cells to me. And we decided to do research together.
STOUT (voice over): Globally, about 10 million people died of cancer in 2020. That's nearly one in six deaths. In almost half of these deaths
happen in Asia researchers say, often because the disease is only discovered and treated after it's too late according to one industry
analyst.
VIKRAM KAPUR, PARTNER APAC HEALTHCARE AND LIFE SCIENCES, BAIN & COMPANY: I think there's broadly a need for larger scale screening programs. The other
big challenge is a clinician capacity perspective. We are woefully under supplied with patients with radiologists when it comes to imaging
diagnostic when it comes to having the right sort of pathology tests and capacity to do them.
[09:55:00]
STOUT (voice over): Spotting cancer early may be one of Asia's biggest healthcare challenges, but Kambe believed he was destined to take it on. He
recovered from early stage colorectal cancer, the year before starting his research.
KAMBE: I thought that if I can be of any help in the early detection of cancer, it would be enough for my life work.
STOUT (voice over): That work is off to a good start. The hospital in Kobe is training this system to diagnose bladder cancer. In the lab, the machine
takes a picture of a microscope slide and analyzes the cells shape, size, color and texture. It then identifies ones that are likely cancerous and
the technician confirms the results with their own eyes.
KENJI KITA, CHIEF CYTOTECHNOLOGIST INSTITUTE OF PATHOLOGY: I think that AI can reduce our workload. And if we work with it, we can more accurately
recognize whether a cell is malignant or not.
STOUT (voice over): Brain Co says technology is over 99 percent accurate and allows the technician to review four times as many cases a day. The
company plans to bring the AI system to market by spring 2023. It will have competition including in the Asia Pacific region.
Lunit in Korea has built algorithms to detect breast cancer in mammograms, qure.ai in India to detect lung cancer and X-rays and CT scans. Tech giants
like IBM, Microsoft and Google are also investing in this growing space. As companies push the technological bar, some experts argue we need stronger
scientific and regulatory framework, more peer reviewed literature and larger datasets to prevent sample bias.
And more people willing to get tested in the first place, even in markets with accessible cancer screening programs like Japan according to some
experts.
KOTA KATANODA, NATIONAL CANCER CENTER, INSTITUTE FOR CANCER CONTROL: Japan has a good cancer screening system but participation rate is still low and
the screening system is not well organized.
STOUT (voice over): But Kambe is a firm believer in being early, Brain Co is already training the AI to diagnose more types of cancer, not to replace
the human eye, Kambe says but to help sharpen its perspective.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STOUT: The market for cancer diagnosis is set to surpass 250 billion U.S. dollars by 2030 by some estimates, so there may be more solutions like
Kambe's in the future. And that's it for today's program. Thank you so much for watching. For more on these stories and others just check out our
website go to cnn.com/marketplace Asia, I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong, we'll see you next time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
