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First Move with Julia Chatterley
At Least 36 Killed after Passenger & Freight Trains Collide; China Factory Activity Roars back in February; Paga CEO: We need to get Nigeria Working for Nigerians; TikTok Limiting Screen Time to One Hour for Under- 18s; Planet Lab CEO: We're Seeing Things as they Change in Ukraine; International Model Launches Indian-Inspired Beauty Line. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired March 01, 2023 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN HOST, FIRST MOVE: A warm welcome to "First Move", good to have you with us as always, and we're following a number of
developing stories for you this hour, including Greece in mourning. At least 36 people have lost their lives; dozens are injured after a head on
train collision near the City of Larissa.
One person has been arrested. Leaders from around the world are expressing their condolences. We'll bring you the latest on just how that tragedy may
have occurred. Plus, celebration and recrimination in Nigeria Ruling Party Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu is declared the winner of the hotly contested
presidential election.
Opposition parties though calling the whole process tented and demanding a fresh vote. We'll discuss to the numerous social and economic challenges
facing Nigeria post-election, including the physical cash supply crisis with the CEO of the Nigerian mobile payments company Paga later in the
show.
And in Asia today, China's economic rebound catching economists off guard manufacturing, especially bouncing back after the lifting of COVID
restrictions in fact, output from Chinese factories hitting its best levels in more than a decade last month. The services and construction sectors are
seeing strong growth too and better numbers to from the hard hit property sector.
As you can imagine investors applauding the news the HANG SENG spiking more than 4 percent on the first day of March trade, the SHANGHAI COMPOSITE also
as you can see that up some 1 percent. The data giving an early session boost to U.S. stock market futures too, but it's looking like a firmly
lower open now as you can see two tenths of 1 percent across the board.
However, Europe still managing to hold in the green, plenty more on this and on China's charge later on in the program but first, the latest from
Northern Greece where as I mentioned, at least 36 people have lost their lives. Dozens more have been injured after a passenger train collided with
a freight train last night. Just listen to the words of this passenger who was on board that train.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STERGIOS MINENIS, PASSANGER: It was panic for 10, 15 seconds. It was chaos, tumbling over fires, cables hanging, broken windows, people screaming,
people trapped. It was two meters high from where we jumped to leave and brief that was broken iron debris, but what could we do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Eleni Giokos joins us now with the latest. Eleni, you can just tell our viewers exactly what you know about what happened. But I think
everyone's asking the question here and with this tragedy of where were the fail safes the alarm systems that you would have hoped would have prevented
this.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Simply put there clearly did not kick in the electronic indicators that would have alerted the trains, the station
master to any danger clearly did not work. We've also just confirmed news that Greek police have arrested the station master of the train station in
the City of Larissa.
So he is currently in police custody and this is quite significant. I mean, if you think about a train, a passenger train coming up from Athens,
colliding with a freight train that is coming down from Thessaloniki, colliding head on traveling from what we heard from national state or from
state media about 25 kilometers without anyone take notice.
Without the train slowing down there is a concern that there was human error more than it could have been a technical fault of sorts and we just
heard from that passenger and you're hearing more harrowing news in fact, people are calling this the train of death. The Mayor of Tempi which is a
small town just outside of Larissa with the actual collision occurred, saying that when he arrived on site, he saw chaos.
Mostly young University Students completely confused saying that the impact felt absolutely enormous. The first two carriages, Julia, caught a light
that the heat was so intense. In fact, you can see some of the imagery and you're seeing the cranes are pulling up some of the mangled metal because
of the intensity of the fire.
It affected first responders from assisting people the third carriage is where most of the fatalities occurred. The health department the hospitals
are saying that the victims are so badly injured, that they need to conduct DNA testing they'll people outside of the hospital crying and in desperate
need of information for the people that they're looking for missing people. Around 200 People from what we also understand have been taken to a place
of safety. 72 people so injured, 6 of those 67 people are sitting in emergency and state in critical care.
[09:05:00]
GIOKOS: But this is absolutely shocked the nation in the aftermath of all this - the questions now arise. How did this happen? Why did this happen
questions about the modernization of the railway system in Greece? And of course, those electronic indicators that would normally kick in did not
respond and how did the passenger train, change track?
Those are the questions that need to be answered the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was on site. He says that they will still leave no
stone unturned to figure out what went wrong there announced three days of national mourning. And we also know that the EU Council has been flying the
Greek flag at half-mast. Lots of international reaction to this as well and people sending condolences and well wishes.
CHATTERLEY: Awful tragic events in our hearts with everybody involved Eleni, and as you said, graphic images live images there of the salvage
operation and I think the sheer power of that crash. I assume that was a piece of a carriage that we saw being lifted by cranes there. Eleni Giokos,
thank you so much for that report there.
OK to Nigeria now, Officials just declared the winner of last weekend's controversial presidential election. They're saying Bola Ahmed Tinubu has
been elected to lead Africa's largest economy despite growing outcry from opposition parties. Larry Madowo joins us now from Lagos. Well, we have a
declared winner it seems his slogan was it's my turn. And it now seems that it is the question is are these opposition parties going to accept it?
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The opposition parties will not accept it, Julia. And we've just heard that the Labor Party which was the party that
Peter Obi that youth favorite was running on is going to go to court to contest it but even more a new statement from the Nigerian Civil Society
Situation Room.
It's a collection of seven civil society organizations that are in Nigeria, they say that this election was not credible. And the criticizing the way
the Independent National Electoral Commission ruins this election with lack of organization and planning and logistical failures and lots of other
issues.
That they say meant that this election cannot pass the threshold for credibility that they had set to administer so an important statement there
what are the market where life is back to normal here in Lagos? This is a narrow market, and I want to hear from one person on Guernica. How do you
feel about the election?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel we were cheated. I think the people's mandates we are robbed of it. This is no what we looked out for we believed in
changed. We believed in the words of Peter Obi the candidate for LP. He made us believe that there's change and we know that we are ripe for
change, because we have so much potential in this country.
And, and the masses came out, we drove for that change, we all came out to vote, believing that our votes would count. And at the end of the day, what
we saw was different because even from the each of us always took a picture of appalling unit results. And what we saw and what was given to us at the
end of the day, we are totally different.
MADOWO: So you don't trust the result that the Independent National Electoral Commission has announced?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, I totally don't trust it and many people don't trust it. I'm a social media person. I've been following the trend on
Twitter. The result everybody has is totally different from what we're seeing, and people came out. So it's like, according to what we
experienced, it's not what we are seeing. So in a matter of trust is a matter of the reality. This is what I voted and this is not what I'm
seeing.
MADOWO: Here the market and cash has been in short supply since the demonetization and the redesign of the Naira notes. How are you paying for
what you hope to buy?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, right now I don't have fruits in the house. So me and my friend, we just came out to see if there's anyone that can take
transfer, or POS if any of them work because even the last time I came to the market, I needed to buy fruits, most of them said they were not going
to take transfers because before so we are taking transfers, because there's really no cash anywhere.
Most banks are closed like last week, two weeks ago, I went to a particular bank, different branches, they were all closed, so I can't even withdraw,
ATMs are not working so but the option that we had in the markets was transfers so some of the traders gave us the option of transfers.
But before the election last time I came to the market, they weren't taking transfer because they had issue of if they take transfers when they now go
to the bigger markets to get their own goods, the seller, they would not take transfer. So it's OK for like my costume I went to now on his table, I
can't find what I'm looking for. Obviously, he can't go back to market to get the things he needs. So it's a mess. It's really a mess everywhere.
MADOWO: It's a mess everywhere. Guernica. Thank you so much. And I think that explains the problem with this economy, Julia, that's she's talking
about transfers because there's no cash in the economy since this cash shortage after the demonetization.
You'll come into the market and hoping that the person you're buying from will accept a transfer from your bank account to their bank account and the
failure rate is something like 60, 70 percent. That is precisely the reason why so many people were looking for change and why as she says they are
heartbroken stormy before they feel cheated, Julia.
[09:10:00]
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I saw that. That was the standout line for me really there. I feel cheated. Larry, it's the perfect tee up because we're going
to be speaking to and the CEO of Paga, later on in the show is trying to digitize payments. But to your point about even the digital transfers if a
significant proportion of those are failing, then yes, what do you do.
Larry, great job, thank you for joining us there from Lagos! OK, interesting. We will discuss shortly on the show for now, the long battle
for Bakhmut appears to be reaching a crescendo as Ukraine's Military says Russian forces have intensified their assault on the city.
Ukraine's President Zelenskyy says Bakhmut represents the most difficult challenge across the front lines with soldiers describing the situation as
hellish. Beyond this battle, Moscow is accusing Kyiv of attempting multiple drone strikes on infrastructure deep within Russia.
Meanwhile, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is in Beijing meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It comes amid growing speculation that
China might consider sending lethal aid to Moscow for its war effort. Marc Stewart joins us now with the latest, though I think the context here is
important.
This is a leader of a country that allowed Russian troops to use his nation as a stage in their initial incursion into Ukraine last year. He talked
about intensifying relations between Belarus and China. What does that mean in practice, Marc?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Julia, I think that is the question and let's expand upon those points you've made. We have China trying to
portray itself as this in the middle peacemaker. Yet it is having a very powerful its top leadership is having a very powerful face to face meeting
with the President of Belarus.
This is a nation that not only has a longtime relationship with China, but also with Vladimir Putin, and as you rightly said, has been serving almost
as a staging point for troops from Russia to enter Ukraine yet Belarus says it is supporting a neutral peace plan from China. It is only fair to ask
questions about the sincerity of that pledge.
As far as this peace plan that Russia is proposing. It is very vague on details. It doesn't even call for the withdrawal of Russian troops that is
from Ukraine. So with all of that said, with all of that laid out the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko is showing his support for
China's so called peace proposal. Let's take a listen to some of his remarks earlier today, from Beijing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT: We can see the situation developing on the international scene. And we congratulate you on your calm
and thoughtful progress. You're following your own path. You don't stand in anyone's way and you don't react to the pity jobs coming from left and
right at the People's Republic of China.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: So we have that story playing out another storyline that's playing out. And this all of this is still allegations, concerns by the U.S.
government that China is very close or thinking about supplying Russia with lethal weapons. Finally, Julia, I do want to let you know that we are
getting some remarks late tonight from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is saying to China, you know, you really can't have it both ways.
You can't be a peacemaker, yet contribute to the fire that is fueling Vladimir Putin's flames. So that's where we are today also really quickly.
As far as the relationship between Belarus and China, we are getting some late words from Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, who says that the friendship
between China and Belarus is unbreakable, Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Interesting comments as well from Blinken, just a day after he actually gave the most pointed comments on how China will be tackled if
they didn't provide weapons, which were direct sanctions on Chinese firms and citizens so the rhetoric here certainly heating up.
Marc, great to have you with us, thank you. Marc Stewart, there! All right, turning out to today's strong data from China, virtually every sector of
the economy getting a boost last month, one thing's for sure. The highly restrictive zero COVID era is well and truly in the past.
Paul R LA Monica joins us now. Paul, great to have you with us always a dollop of caution when we talk about Chinese data however, this is so
strong. I think it probably caught policymakers and economists of God could have profound implications, but just how much stimulus they need? I think
going forward too what do you make of it?
[09:15:00]
PAUL R. LA MONICA, CNN REPORTER: Yes, that's a great question, Julia. Clearly the manufacturing rebound pound for the Chinese economy was
incredibly strong and I think it does show that the relaxation of many of those very strict policies that have been in place during the early stages
of the COVID pandemic.
Now that they are being loosened, you are seeing the Chinese economy roaring back to life. And you're seeing, you know, Chinese stocks,
rebounding as well. Remember, in February, it was a rough month, I think there were some concerns about whether the economy was starting to lose
some steam.
This data granted, it's only one data point, but this seems to suggest that the Chinese economy is not going to be slowing anytime soon. But as you
point out, you always have to take Chinese Official government data with several billion grains of salt.
CHATTERLEY: You're a little bit punchier than me there. I'll just smile sweetly. Paul LA Monica, thank you so much for that. All right, the U.N.'s
nuclear watchdog says near bomb grade level uranium particles have been found at an Iranian Nuclear Facility.
Meanwhile, our Christiane Amanpour sat down with Iran's Foreign Minister for an exclusive interview covering a whole range of topics, including the
alleged sexual abuse of anti-government protesters, while in the custody of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (on camera): When you say the Islamic Republic of Iran respects human rights, one female
protester says that she was detained inside a Revolutionary Guard facility for more than a month and raped by three different men. She went to a
cleric - afterwards, because she was having suicidal thoughts. She was so upset.
CNN spoke with that cleric. Is that acceptable? Is it acceptable for a woman, whatever she's done, to be arrested and raped? And there are many,
many, many reports of sexual abuse in this situation against women and men.
HOSSEIN AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Firstly, in the peaceful demonstrations in the fall, no one was arrested.
AMANPOUR (on camera): So you're just denying that?
AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN: However, in those protests that have become violent, some individuals, some of whom had entered around from the outside, and were
using firearms and killing the police were arrested.
You do know that the Supreme Leader actually issued an amnesty and all those who were imprisoned were released, with the exception of those who
had killed someone or being sued.
Regarding the Iranian woman that I mentioned, I cannot confirm it. There have been so many such baseless claims made on social media and in media.
AMANPOUR (on camera): OK, these are not baseless and they weren't on the internet is CNN spoke to a cleric a religious person inside your country
and got this.
AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN: We have seen some of CNN reports that are targeted and false.
AMANPOUR (on camera): That's not true. We report the facts and we report the truth and that's why you're sitting here with me, Mr. Foreign Minister.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHATTERLEY: Do not miss Christian Amanpour's exclusive interview with Iran's Foreign Minister that's Wednesday at 7 pm in Geneva, 6 pm in London,
only on CNN. OK, coming up after this a new political landscape in Nigeria. Can the newly elected President rise to the challenge of tackling the
country's economy and more, we speak to a tech business leader about how it may be done. That's next stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move", as you've been hearing, Africa's largest nation has declared a new leader after a highly disputed
presidential election. Official say Bola Ahmed Tinubu won the contest despite a growing outcry from opposition parties.
Tinubu appealed for unity in his acceptance speech. A top priority will be tackling things like economic issues, inflation, unemployment, and the
recent bank notes shortage in an economy when 90 percent of transactions are made in cash. That's something our next guest understands well and has
been working to improve and digitize now for a number of years.
Paga, a mobile money firm with 21 million unique users processes over $800 million worth of transactions each month it allows people to digitally send
and receive money and access financial services via their app, or through one of their many retail agents.
The Founder and Group CEO of Paga, Tayo Oviosu joins us now from Lagos. Tayo, great to have you on the show! It's been too long, actually and
that's entirely my fault and we back sooner, I promise. Let's start.
TAYO OVIOSU, FOUNDER & GROUP CEO OF PAGA: Yes, great to be here, Julia. Thank you.
CHATTERLEY: Good, great to have you. Let's start with the election. You obviously experienced the new digital form of voting, you've experienced
some of the concerns or delays. What do you make of it all? And do you think that people will trust the result? Will you?
OVIOSU: Yes, I definitely trust the result. I think and I hope most people do. I think there were definitely some issues, no doubt. But I don't think
it's to the scale of not trusting the results. I think that the elections are now over. I used this equipment, and it worked fine. That said my hope
is that we have a peaceful post-election.
And something amazing has happened in Nigeria. And we all have to admit it. This is the first time a third party gave the two main parties a real
serious run for the Presidency. And I think that has inspired hope for all Nigerians that their vote does matter.
And I think that would bode well in the future for more, more people coming out to vote. And I think, though that now is the time to return our
attention to the urgent issues that this next government has to address and to get Nigeria working for Nigerians again.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, I mean, we obviously have to talk about that and we will but what you said make and you make a really great point. Do you think when
we come around and obviously there's a while now and a lot of work to be done in the short term, the next presidential election.
Actually, you think lessons will be learned that people will vote more. And actually, we could see an even bigger shift in terms of more than just two
parties, incumbent and opposition fighting this out.
OVIOSU: Absolutely, I think people I mean, the fact that the President Elect, who was Former Governor of Lagos State did not win the plurality of
votes in Lagos State is a big point. And I think he recognized that in his acceptance speech and recognize the sentiment from the people of Lagos
State as well.
And this is a state that his party has dominated. So I think people will look at this and say, it may not be now but our vote counts, and we should
all come out and vote. And I certainly hope that the Electoral Commission over this next period will improve, you know, and solve the issues that
were that did come up during the cycle.
[09:25:00]
CHATTERLEY: I mean, we can talk about some of those, but the one that I think plays most into what you do and what you've been working on now for a
number of years is a de facto bank note crunch that took place in the run up with the government trying to swap bank notes and doing it over such a
short period that I think inevitably they were going to be challenges.
Talk to me about what you saw as a result for your business. And we had a lady on the show earlier just saying even trying to do digital transfers
actually was hampered over the past few weeks too. Tell us what's been going on?
OVIOSU: Yes, I think the direction of the central bank to move Nigeria to more cashless society is something I'm wholeheartedly behind. I think it's
the right policy direction. And I do think and hope that the next government continues and actually strengthens this policy direction.
Have they been some things that could have been done differently? Absolutely, what we have experienced on our platform is over 3X growth,
year over year on transactions digitally, and I think the banks have seen that they also need to improve their platforms and their technology and
infrastructure.
On our side, we have had really high uptime, and we've been able to see people coming in to look for using our platform, whether it's at our retail
agents, or directly on their mobile phone. So for us, it's been really about driving the move to digital. When we spoke last, I think we spoke
last Q2 of 2020, where we started seeing that room with people signing up.
And today and then when we spoke we were processing I think about. I think we were processing just about 30 million transactions in the year or
something like that now last year, we did 65 million transactions worth over 3.2 trillion Naira, that's about 10 percent of the total estimated
consumer spend in Nigeria, which is 40 trillion.
So that growth is continuing into this year. And I think this move to digital from the Central Bank is only going to further spirit. And I expect
that will continue to drive additional growth, whether it's from individuals trying to figure out ways to transact digitally and make
everyday payments, or businesses who want to collect payments, as well.
And the recent partnership that we have with one of the big banks here, the United Bank for Africa, is going to further help this because we've
partnered together working to issue for them to issue Visa cards to our customers. So UVA issues a Visa card to our customers with a physical card.
So now wherever Visa is accepted, you can use it where the merchant accepts Paga or not also online, you can now use the Visa card to shop online and
to receive remittances into Nigeria, which is a big deal for Nigeria. As you know, over the last three years, a lot of people have also left the
country. So this is a big opportunity. So we're really excited about the push to digital, I think it's going to stay.
CHATTERLEY: You know so much I could talk to you about you're going to have to come back and talk more in depth about the business. But you just said
something that I have to ask you about. And that is what we talked about as the brain drain of people just going elsewhere looking for opportunity.
I mean, you're also the other way, because you were born in the United States. And you chose to move to Nigeria, because you saw the opportunity.
And obviously you're talking about that now when you have seen growth. But are you finding the people that you need in order to be able to grow?
And what does this government now have to do at least in the short term to tackle some of these issues, but also stop people leaving and encouraging
brilliant people innovators to come back?
OVIOSU: Well, Julia, first of all to correct you? I was born and raised here in Nigeria, I left when I was 16 --.
CHATTERLEY: Oh 16 sorry, yes and then went to the U.S.
OVIOSU: --and but it was my formative years. And then I came back when I'm talking to my team and young folks today. I don't blame them for wanting to
leave, right?
I do think that this government, new government now has the opportunity to set in stone, some key things that will drive in investments and will drive
growth in the economy, and would make it a harder choice for people to leave because it's not easy going to Canada not knowing anyone and trying
to find a job or going to the U.K. and not knowing anyone.
So I think there are five key things that this government really has to tackle. One is to solve the electricity problem. One is to tackle the
rising subsidy, second, the rising subsidy on petrol, which is having a real impact on our dollar reserves. And then to more freely trade the Naira
right?
The more freely trade the Naira more market driven. It's going to drive investments and it's going to then create jobs, right? And then finally,
you know, enact social net for Nigerians. We don't have a social debt. There's no social security program. There's no Medicare program. I think if
you do these things, and you unleash innovation across the country, people will not look to leave right?
[09:30:00]
OVIOSU: People like me came back because Nigeria can be the giant of Africa. This country is going to be the second largest country in the world
in within the century. And it's on track to be larger than the United States very shortly. So I think we have a lot of potential.
And it's now time for the government to really get working for Nigerians right, and to open up investments to allow people to come and invest in
Nigeria more smoothly, and to create jobs locally so people don't leave.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, third largest economy, I believe, by 2050 in the world, so essential for Nigeria to get it sorted, but also essential for the region
in the world. Very quickly, because I'm now out of time, but I couldn't agree more with you on what needs fixing any desire to be part of the
leadership of the country one day and promote fixing in a different way?
OVIOSU: Maybe one day, you never say no, if your country calls you to serve. But I'm very available to - I have been to various governments and
would be again, in lending my voice and in sharing a perspective on what I think can be done.
I am hopeful that this new government will get it right. And I think and I'm hopeful that we have a peaceful transition, and that we've all focused
towards making Nigeria the giant of Africa I think.
CHATTERLEY: OK, you this conversation needs to be continued on numerous fronts and apologies once again for getting jumbled up on the journey back
and forth. We'll reconvene my friend, thank you so much.
OVIOSU: Great to be with you Julia.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you. We're back after this stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move"! No more rocking around the clock at least on TikTok the social media app and political lightning rod
announcing that it's limiting screen time to one hour per day for users under the age of 18.
Call it perhaps a much needed TikTok timeout, all this as Congress debates the new bill that would give President Biden the power to ban the Chinese
app used by more than 100 million Americans completely.
[09:35:00]
CHATTERLEY: Clare Duffy joins me now. I don't think that would be a very popular decision. But the TikTok timeout is interesting. Perhaps big kids
could use this as well. And all of this just get that conscious reminder of after one hour, Clare, what do we make of this?
CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH WRITER: That's right, Julia. TikTok has said it plans to introduce this default screen time limit of an hour for users under 18.
And this comes as TikTok has faced significant pressure to address concerns that the app could be bad for kids could lead kids down concerning content
rabbit holes or could keep kids up late at night.
The way the app is designed it's just so easy to scroll and scroll. And so this is a clear effort to address some of those concerns. There are some
big caveats here while the app will set the screen time in place, users will be prompted to enter a pass code once they've reached that one hour
time limit, and then they can continue scrolling.
Users could also turn this default feature off, although TikTok says that once users have reached hundred minutes of screen time, they will be
prompted to set some kind of limit for themselves.
CHATTERLEY: So parents could keep that pin safe and not give it to the children arguably. I just like the conscious reminder that you've been on
this social media vortex for an hour and perhaps you need to think again, Clare interesting we'll see. Clare Duffy there!
OK, an update now on the fatal train crash tragedy in Northern Greece. We've just learned that the Greek Transport Minister has resigned and
announced his resignation after the collision that killed at least 36 people and injured dozens more. Greek authorities have also arrested the
station manager in the City of Larissa. We'll bring you more details as we get them. Stay with "First Move" we're back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move"! Founded back in 2010 by three NASA scientists Planet Labs designs builds and operates a constellation of
over 200 imaging satellites in orbit, capturing daily snapshots of the world.
Its satellites revisit locations on Earth up to 10 times per day, capturing more than 30 terabytes of data daily. Some of their clients include a
number of governments, NGOs and commercial companies all around the world. And recently planets technology has been essential in tracking global
events like the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.
[09:40:00]
CHATTERLEY: Its data has been used to combat misinformation about the war and help document the emerging food crisis by monitoring wheat crops in
real time. And I'm pleased to say joining us now is Will Marshall, the Co- Founder and CEO of Planet Labs.
Well, fantastic to have you on the show. I want to talk about Planet Labs, in your own words, but I think the climate agricultural sort of beginnings
and interest for you is what made you decide to begin Planet Labs in the first place?
WILL MARSHALL, CHAIRMAN, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO OF PLANET LABS: Absolutely, and thanks for having us. Yes. So we were thinking about how can we use our
space greenery talents to help all the challenges of the world? And I think to your question about what's going on in space?
It's kind of very interesting. Lots of things are changing. There are new rockets and new satellites and billionaires talking about going to Mars.
But actually, the upshot is mainly about how it can help the earth? We're seeing rockets decrease in price by about 5X over the last 5 to 10 years.
And we've seen satellite cost performance increase about 1000 X with basically the shrinking of satellites.
And it's like the desktop, the mainframe to desktop revolution in IT a few decades ago, but having in space and the upshot of that we're having vast
new data sets about the planet, helping us to take care of it in real time.
CHATTERLEY: I love the idea that helping farmers track where and what needs to be done in terms of fertilizers. It's so much more efficient, you would
hope than having to be able to walk around the field and track the changes and understand perhaps when something needs harvest, just having these
regular snapshots, imagery for agriculture crucial in so many ways.
MARSHALL: Yes, absolutely. Agriculture is 25 percent of the landmass of the earth. And by monitoring the whole earth every day, as we do, we can
literally tell for every part of every field, how well is the crop doing? What type of crop is it? Is it wheat, or soy or what have you?
And then help the farmer determine when to add more fertilizer or when it doesn't, isn't necessary, reduce use of fertilizer, which is good for the
environment, and increased yields so very tactical help despite being coming in from a long way away.
And that's just one of many applications. Another 25 percent of the landmass of the Earth is forests. And we can help with tracking
deforestation. So we help governments track deforestation.
We help with mapping. We help with many other areas. You can imagine the use of these datasets is quite profound. It's mainly about helping people
make smarter day to day decisions with more up to date information about the changing planet.
CHATTERLEY: I mean, the uses for this are, as you've indicated, broad whether it's infrastructure, agriculture, intelligence, government, I think
energy and suddenly will you found your data being used by a whole array of individuals.
And you were working, I know, because this is how you and I met in Ukraine, first and foremost, not only to try and help the situation as far as
understanding the dangers of food security, which has been a regular conversation on this show.
But also just to be able to understand the damage to buildings; just talk us through what you were doing there. Because that obviously translates to
the work that you've more recently been doing to in Turkey?
MARSHALL: Yes, absolutely. And we're trying to help as much as we can. And we're imaging the whole world every day. So of course, we're imaging all of
Ukraine every day, and we see things change. And the broad impact, I think, is that it's helping to lift the fog of war.
No longer can anyone hide. And if that's helping operationally, with the Ukrainians, track troops to help defend their country, it's helping
operations of humanitarian organizations that are trying to get relief and aid into the country.
It's helping with the hearts and minds - as you said, it's bringing transparency, you know, we provide that imagery to places like CNN or other
news outlets to help everyone get to see. So when the Russian government said, hey, we're not bombing civilian targets. We can show the next day,
well, here are the five hospitals and schools that you bombed. And so no one can hide in this situation.
I think, to your point, also about the, you know, the other analytics that we can bring to that. We've had a couple of examples of that. NASA harvest
used our data to do this image processing to tell the crop yield in every farmer's field across all of Ukraine. How well is the wheat doing? How were
the other crops doing?
And that was important to feed to help the Ukrainian government feed the Ukrainian people. But it's equally important, as you said the food security
crisis around the world because almost half the world's poor countries get their grain from Ukraine.
[09:45:00]
MARSHALL: It's like a big exporter, to the poor countries. We could track how was it doing? Where's it getting struck? Tracking the illegal shipments
and as some journalist found illegal shipments to Turkey and Syria against the sanctions and so on. And so help get to the bottom of that, so we can
undo it.
And finally, to your point about building damage, we worked with Microsoft to do a building damage report for the United Nations Secretary General of
the building damage of all the buildings across Ukraine, to help them determine how and when they can bring the displaced people back into their
homes? Are their homes still there?
If they're damaged how much damage is there? And that's super important. And that's the power of also our data plus AI coming into the fore. So
we're trying to help as much as we can, and in yes, in myriad of ways that some of them unexpected.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, that was going to be my next question, actually, about the use of artificial intelligence and where that fits? And perhaps, we're
covering a lot of ground here. But its so mind blowing, what your data has been involved in.
It was also involved in the process of understanding what happened with the now infamous Chinese spy balloon? Talk to me about how the data was used in
the process of understanding what this was and where it came from and also the artificial intelligence component of data analytics in this?
MARSHALL: Absolutely. Yes, well, it's a fascinating thing. Of course, when we heard about the balloon, we were like, oh, can we find it in our
imagery? I mean, it's quite big balloon 70 meters across about 200 feet. So we can see that for sure in our imagery.
So we looked and, and we had some colleagues at synthetic accompany doing AI, that we quickly built a little algorithm that looked for the balloon,
and then we're able to search for it in our imagery. And they did that in just a couple of days.
And so within a couple of days, we would already know it may have not been able to find it. But we had found it. And we found it crossing the country
in a number of places where people hadn't yet found it.
And even some journalist managed to find out where it had been launched from in Mongolia, using our data and, and so yes, I mean, I guess one of
the exciting things out of that we can now go back in time and find when they were previously crossing the U.S., when did they do that last year,
the year before?
Because we always keep this snapshot and record it. We never delete those data. And similarly, across the other parts of the world, if you said, hey,
I'm in Europe, can you tell me when it if it was crossing our country, and last summer? We can go and have a look. So we can track all of these things
across the whole world through time.
CHATTERLEY: OK, I have about 30 seconds because breaking news today, unfortunately, squeezed our time well, but you again, you can come on, and
we can talk more about this. But who pays for all the help that you're providing?
Because you are a company are you managing to be to be profitable, and it's a discussion I've had with Brad Smith of Microsoft too about you take
action initially and then you sort of work out the money afterwards?
MARSHALL: Well, very much that we have the bent on trying to help the world first, but we are selling the data quite successfully, to governments for
disaster response, like with Turkey, which we didn't quite get to, but where we quickly trying to help them. We're trying to help - we sell it to
governments for intelligence. We sell it to mapping companies. We sell it to agriculture companies.
And in fact those margins on the business are quite high because when we sell our imagery, once the second time we sell it the incremental cost of
serving them, that image is very low. So we have good growth rates over 40 percent this year, and so on.
It's an exciting business data is in demand, because everyone wants to move to a sustainable economy and to a digital transformation a transformed the
economy. And the bottom line of that is data. And so we're helping with those transitions.
CHATTERLEY: Yes, and helping us address crises and understand big questions and understand big buildings in this case too. Will--
MARSHALL: And hopefully fighting the polarities here as well. Thank you very much.
CHATTERLEY: Thank you, Will! Great to have you on and we'll speak again soon. Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO of Planet Labs. Thank you. We're
back after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:50:00]
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to "First Move"! International Supermodel Pritika Swarup is looking to change the beauty industry for Indian women with her
own line Prakti Beauty. The brand is a fusion of her name, meaning loved one and - which stands for female power or energy. And she spoke to our
Chloe Melas about why representation in the beauty industry for women of color is important to both her and why she's taken on this mission?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRITIKA SWARUP, FOUNDER AND CEO, PRAKTI BEAUTY: I really started back in my childhood and then just like realizing that there was a space in the
market, through my experience in the fashion industry and I somehow specialized in beauty.
So I had the opportunity to work with all these amazing cosmetic companies, skincare companies, and then experts and seeing that space between super
you know, traditional brands like Ayurvedic and Indian brands, and then Western brands.
And no brand really had the ability to appeal to all women and really make Indian beauty accessible. So one thing I really talk about is accessibility
and just having these rituals and these ingredients and even like techniques like I mean Ayurveda runs deep so it's like you know massage
techniques, hair oiling it goes on.
But just having those is able to relate to all women and also make it easy and fun. And you know, for my generation because there are this you know,
preconceived notion of Indian beauty being very traditional and quiet and also a little bit more like older feeling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHATTERLEY: Chloe Melas joins us now. Fascinating to have a conversation with her and clearly spotting a gap in the market to sell some traditional
products, ingredients, rituals to the West and beyond?
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well Julia, first of all, the reason why I found her to be so fascinating is because she has been on the
cover of every magazine from Allure to Elle to Harper's Bazaar and Arabia, and she has this big following.
And she had also posed for several different beauty brands. And she was out shopping and looking in the marketplace and she couldn't find things that
really fed her soul. And this is why she embarked on this mighty mission. Take a listen to a little bit more of our interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SWARUP: I just wanted it to have this global appeal so that all women could benefit from these wonderful ingredients and rituals. So yes, that's kind
of what started me down this path. And that whole idea of like, why hasn't there been an Indian inspired beauty brand to reach global scale.
And then I came up with this hybrid concept really based off of just like who I am because I'm, I'm you know my Indian heritage and I've been born
and raised in America and I'm very proud of my cultural duality.
So this hybrid concept really represents women today because we're hybrids of mixed cultures and races and backgrounds and goals and dreams. So I
wanted our products and our brand to really represent women and just have this idea that you know, we're capable of anything and we don't really fit
one sort of role we are about pursuing all of our passions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELAS: The best part is that Julia she is 25-years-old. She just graduated from Columbia University in New York with honors and she is not done yet.
More products are coming out including a new serum.
And she just really wanted to freshen up that outdated outlook on Indian beauty and really combine it with the Western culture. And you know she was
born and raised in Virginia Beach and that is she's doing a great job it's really resonating with women all over the world.
[09:55:00]
CHATTERLEY: Yes, she's found a gap in the market and is pursuing it. Will it make me look like her because so Chloe I'm in? Where do I side? Where do
I get these products?
MELAS: I know, I know. I used her polish. It's so good. I know she's on to something. I think she's born - she's like, genetically gifted but yes.
CHATTERLEY: New advertising on the show. Chloe, great to have you on as always, thank you! OK, that just about wraps up the show. If you've missed
any of our interviews today, there'll be on my Twitter and Instagram pages you can search for @jchatterleycnn. "Connect the World" with Becky Anderson
is up next. I'll see u tomorrow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:00]
END
