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CNN 10
Tensions Between India and Pakistan Flare Up; Brave Climber Alex Honnold Climes El Capitan in Yosemite National Park Without Ropes
Aired February 28, 2019 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome everyone. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10. There are nine countries in the world that are believed to have nuclear
weapons and two of them which happen to be neighbors have just had a flare up in their rivalry. We`re talking about the south Asian countries of
India and Pakistan. Other governments are asking them to show restraint to try to calm down their tensions. Earlier this month there was a suicide
car bomb attack on Indian soldiers in a territory controlled by India. Forty troops were killed. India says a terrorist group based in Pakistan
is responsible and it accuses Pakistan of supporting the attack.
Pakistan says it had nothing to do with the bombing but on Tuesday India launched air strikes in Pakistani territory for the first time in almost 50
years. India says it was targeting a camp run by the terrorist group. Then on Wednesday, Pakistan says its air force shot down two Indian fighter
jets that had flown over territory Pakistan says it controls. India confirmed it has lost one plane but said it had shot down a Pakistani jet
too. We don`t know exactly what happened with the planes but we can tell you about a problem that`s existed between these two countries for years.
It`s a dispute over a territory named Kashmir. It`s located on the northern borders of Pakistan and India. Both nations control parts of
Kashmir but both nations claim that the entire territory should be theirs. It`s by no means a new dispute. It`s caused fighting and wars between them
for decades including the violence that we`ve seen this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`re neighbors with a shared history but a fractured present. Seventy years ago, British rulers sliced a giant Indian
empire into two countries a new Hindu majority India and Pakistan home to mostly Muslims. From the 18th century through independence, the British
empire in India stretched from Afghanistan in the west to Burma in the east. That by the 1940s anti-colonial sentiments swirled in many British
colonies around the world including India.
Demands for India`s independence grew led by freedom fighters Mohandoas Karamchand Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammaed Ali Jama who favored a
separate state for India`s Muslim minorities. India was burning. Communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims spiraled out of control. Calls to end
British rule were reaching boiling point. On that back of a costly second World War, Britain lacked the will and the means to defeat the independence
movement. Britain decided to quit India. In March 1947, Naval Officer Lord Mountbatten was appointed the Viceroy of India to oversea the handover
of power.
He assigned British lawyer Cyril Radcliffe to draw the partition line. In just six weeks, he finalized a plan to divide India along religious lines.
There would be a new India, a secular India though it`s where the Hindu majority would live and a separate country called Pakistan for Muslims. On
midnight of August 14th, 1947, the British Empire officially transferred power to India and Pakistan. After nearly two centuries of colonial rule,
India became a sovereign nation and Pakistan was born.
Jama became head of the newly formed Pakistan. Nehru became the first prime minister of India.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps. India will awake through light from freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The partition saw one of the largest human migrations the world has ever seen. Millions of Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan
headed to India. Millions of Muslims migrated to Pakistan, in trains, (inaudible), on foot. In a matter of months at least 10 million people
moved across the borders. At least 1 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs died in communal attacks as they crossed the border. Tens of thousands of
women and girls were abducted. Families were divided.
Twenty-four years later in 1971, the east wing of Pakistan split away to become a separate country called Bangladesh. The west side remained as
present day Pakistan. India and Pakistan have fought four wars since 1947 mostly fueled by disputes over the northern Himalayan state of Jammu and
Kasmir. Both countries claim it in its entirety but only control parts of it. Though both sides have attempted to restore peace many times, they
remain hostile, nuclear armed neighbors even today. Malika (inaudible), CNN, Amritsar, India.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these landmarks would you find in Yosemite National Park? Chimney Rock, Landscape Arch, Crater Lake or El
Capitan. El Cap as it`s also known is a famous feature of California`s Yosemite National Park.
It`s 3,200 feet tall. Its walls are just about vertical. It was once believed to be impossible to climb but that changed in the late 1950s
according to Encyclopedia Britannica when an expedition to install petons and drilling holes for ropes help a climber named Warren Harding make his
way up El Capitan. Two years ago, history on the mountain was made again when a 33 year old climber free soloed, meaning climbed it without any
ropes as CNN.com puts it. If he slips, he falls. If he falls, he dies. The film that won this years Academy Award for Best Documentary was based
on this climb.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX HONNOLD: When I know when I`m doing and I`m climbing well then it feels meditative and very relaxing and beautiful. But if I don`t know what
I`m doing and I, you know, start to hesitate, start to get scared then it can be an nightmare.
Typically watching for so long it`s scarier than doing it. Because when you`re - - when you`re doing the climb, you know how comfortable you feel.
You know how control you feel. You know, as when you`re watching you have no idea how the person feels and so you kind of fear the worst.
When you drive up off the left foot and do the thumb press, that`s the worst hold on the entire route. So you get maybe half your thumb on the
hold. As it turned out, when I had the experience it was probably good that it was so high off the ground because I had done so much now. I was
so deeply in the zone I guess. You know, I was basically performing so well that by the time I got there I felt incredible and I just executed it
perfectly.
Basically the last five or six hundred feet, the last 200 meters are - - get easier and easier as you go and so it really feels like you`re sort of
sprinting to the finish line and it`s like beautiful. And you`re just like, ah, this is so nice. You know, you can sort of, like, relax more as
you get closer and enjoy it more as you get closer to the top. And so when I came over the summit, I mean, I was just like this is awesome. Yes. It
was incredible.
It is definitely a physical challenge to - - to climb El Cap but compared to the - - the standards of the day, I mean the challenge isn`t really - -
or the main challenge isn`t physical for - - for free soloing El Cap. It`s definitely a bigger mental challenge than physical. I think regardless of
the film, regardless of any media accompanying it, I mean at some point I can just have a picnic with my family. Look at the wall and go that is the
wall that I climbed once. That`s, you know, I mean, it`s - - it`s - - it`s deeply satisfying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: In Japan there`s a restaurant that challenges you to eat more noodles than you thought possible. The small bowls of soba noodles are
refilled as soon as you eat what`s inside and this lady managed to take down 300 bowls of them. That`s the equivalent of 20 regular sized bowls of
noodles so anyway you do the math it`s a lot ya`ll. The restaurant says its record was set when someone ate 570 small bowls or about 38 regular
bowls of soba in one sitting.
Finding someone to break that record would be like finding a "noodle" in a haystack. Critics might call that "glutenis". Supporters might say it`s
worth "weating" for but if you`re up for a challenging "bowl" game and you`re bringing a "souped" up appetite. It`s tough to beat a lunch that
all you can "weat". I`m Carl Azuz and that`s CNN.
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