The Five Eyes; A Prisoner of Iran; Pink; The Isle of Man | 60 Minutes Full Episodes

they are five leaders of the oldest intelligence Alliance in the world and for the first time they are going public together they wanted to speak with 60 Minutes about war terrorism and the country that they believe is the greatest intelligence threat in history there is no country that presents a broader more comprehensive threat to our ideas our our Innovation our Economic Security and ultimately our national security for more than 5 years American businessman Imad Shi was a prisoner of the Islamic Republic of Iran last month Shi and four other Americans were freed in a deal that has drawn Fierce criticism because of Iran's strident support of Hamas I tonight Shi tells his story for the first time I learned a lot about myself about Humanity about what is important in life being thrown in a Cell It's the closest you come to death in order for pink to do [Music] this and [Music] this okay tighten up your stomach she showed us she does this now sink where is there is be flame flame burn because me you're going to die you got to get off I'm Leslie stall I'm Bill Whitaker I'm Anderson Cooper I'm Sharon alansy I'm John wory I'm Cecilia Vega I'm Scott Pell those stories and more tonight on this special 90minut edition of 60 Minutes war in the Middle East has the FBI tracking more potential threats of terrorism in the United States tonight the bureau's director Christopher Ray tells us his main concern is not an organized attack but lone actors inspired by the violence we met Ray Wednesday for an unprecedented interview that included him and the intelligence directors of our English-speaking allies together they know more about the threats in the world than perhaps anyone they're known as the five eyes and they have never appeared in an interview together they're doing it now because they're alarmed by China which they say is the greatest Espionage threat democracy has ever faced but given the war we'll begin with FBI director Ray on the threat of Terror at home we have seen an increase in reported threats but vigilance is is heightened right now just because of the fluid and volatile environment in the Middle East and the ways in which that could spin out uh in the US by the time we had gathered for our interview it had already spun out in the United States in Illinois a six-year-old Palestinian American boy was stabbed to death by a man enraged by the attack on Israel how do you stop that kind of thing the key that we've found in stopping it more more is trying to have the right eyes and ears out in the community and so what we need to have are people in the community when they see something starting to go arai calling law enforcement um and the attacks that we've been able to prevent over the years have almost always included somebody who's made that phone call uh and the attacks that haven't been prevented I've almost always had somebody who had that information but for one reason or another didn't make that phone call about 30 Americans were killed in the Hamas attack two American hostages were released Friday which left 10 still missing sources tell us it's unclear how many of them may be hostages Israel leads the hostage effort the FBI is prepared to help we're going to work closely with our partners uh our Israel Partners our US Embassy Partners um the whole US government to do whatever we can to ensure that those hostages uh come out safe but uh but make no mistake this is a dangerous time we met Chris Ray with his fellow intelligence Chiefs of the so-called five eyes from the left Mike Burgess of Australia David vgo of Canada Ken mallum of the United Kingdom and at far right Andrew Hampton of New Zealand the five eyes Alliance was formed after World War II to gather intelligence but this was their first public appearance ever and they did it in Palo Alto California Silicon Valley to make this point the technology secrets that are about to change the world in artificial intelligence biology and Computing are falling into the wrong hands stolen in a global Espionage campaign by China the People's Republic of China represents the defining threat of this generation in this era there is no country that presents a broader more comprehensive threat to our ideas our our Innovation our Economic Security and ultimately our national security we have seen efforts by the Chinese government directly or indirectly trying to steal intellectual property Trade Secrets personal data uh all across the country we're talking everything from Fortune 100 companies all to small startups we're talking about agriculture biotech healthc care robotics Aviation uh academic research we probably have somewhere in the order of 2,000 active investigations that are just related to the Chinese government's effort to steal information but all countries spy Mike Burgess of Australia yes absolutely all country spy our country spy all governments have a need to be covertly informed um all country seek strategic Advantage but the behavior we're talking about here goes well beyond traditional Espionage this scale of the theft is unprecedented in human history and that's why we're calling it out they were calling it out this past week in private meetings with 15 top Silicon Valley Executives and Stanford University this is not just about government secrets or military Secrets it's not even just about critical infrastructure it's about academic research in our universities it's about promising startup companies people in short who probably don't think National Security is about them Ken mallum is director general of MI5 the UK's FBI so we see the theft happening in a range of ways one is that we see employees within those companies being manipul ated often in the first instance they are not aware of what is happening we have seen for example the use of professional networking sites to reach out in sort of masked disguised ways to people in the UK either who have security clearance or who are working in interesting areas of Technology we've now seen over 20,000 examples of that kind of disguised approach to people in the UK who have information that the Chinese State wishes to get its hands on you have um the biggest hacking program in the world by far bigger than every other major Nation combined stolen more of our personal and corporate data than every nation big or small combined are you saying that it is a threat to the way of life of democracies it is a threat to our way of life uh in in a number of ways the first is that when when people talk about stealing Innovation or intellectual property that's not just a Wall Street problem that's a Main Street problem that means American jobs American families American livelihoods and the same thing for every one of of our five countries directly impacted by that theft is not some abstract concept it's it has Flesh and Blood kitchen table consequences here's one example when China stole the technology secrets of one American wind turban Company the company lost its competitive Advantage Sales collapsed and it laid off nearly 700 workers when you encounter a company that isn't sure that it wants to cooperate with you what do you tell them I would say that if you are operating at The Cutting Edge of tech in this decade you may not be interested in geopolitics but geopolitics is interested in you and you would be Reckless not just with my secrets but with your own company's viability with your shareholders Capital if you didn't think about what that means we all came into these meetings with the mindset of we want to figure out how we can better help protect you your Innovation your intellectual property they all came into the conversations with ideas of ways they can help us help them the intelligence Chiefs told us Chinese companies are overseen by the Communist party and for many Espionage is a sideline on behalf of the PRC the People's Republic of China is the Chinese government building industrial sites in your countries that are actually covers for Espionage operations David vgo of Canada we have seen in the past uh acquisition of land acquisition of of different uh companies where you when you start to dig a little bit further you realize that it's uh there is another intent and we have seen and blocked attempt by the PRC to acquire uh locations near sensitive strategic assets of the country where we knew that the ultimate purpose was for spying operations and director Ray have you seen that in the United States we've seen a variety of efforts by uh Chinese businesses some cases State own Enterprises some cases ostensibly private companies attempting to acquire businesses land infrastructure what have you in the United States in a way that presents security concerns including investigations recently of Chinese companies purchasing land and building plants near US military bases we welcome business with China visitors from China academic exchange what we don't welcome is cheating and theft and repression political repression is another Target of the five eyes they told us they're fighting China's meddling in elections and violence aimed at silencing Chinese dissidents living in their countries we had a case that we that was indicted not that long ago where there was a an actual Congressional candidate who was very critical of the Chinese government the efforts were initially to try to see if they could come up with dirt on the candidate to derail his candidacy then to try to concoct dirt just fiction uh about the candidate and then if that didn't work there was even discussion about the candidate befalling a a horrible accident that candidate was Yang Shawn a Chinese American who served in the US Military and protested China's Crackdown on Hong Kong last year he lost the Democratic nomination in a New York Congressional race in court filings prosecutors say a Chinese agent hired an American private investigator to discredit Yang and left the investigator a voicemail saying violence would be fine beat him until he cannot run for election is that the threat of violence in the United States that we Face from the Chinese government we have seen over and over again efforts to really stop at almost nothing to intimidate people who would have the audacity here in the United States where we have freedom of speech to express criticism of the regime while we have the Allies around the same table let me ask this question the catastrophy in the Middle East Russia's invasion of Ukraine Chinese Espionage on a scale that's never been seen before are all of you stretched too thin I think one of the strengths of the five eyes partnership is that we share some really fundamental values as countries and as as agencies Andrew Hampton of New Zealand part of how you respond to that is by working together as like-minded countries part of how you respond to it is partnering across our own countries as we've talked about with Community groups with the private sector they're our biggest strength for its part China said this about the five eyes point of view we firmly oppose the groundless allegations and smears toward China mi5's Ken mallum told us never in his his nearly 30 years in intelligence has the threat been so complex Iran Russia terrorism but it was China that was the first to get the five eyes around this table and before the eyes of the public I mean essentially what you have with the Chinese government is the autocracy and oppressive regime of uh you know East Germany combined with the cuttingedge technology of selat Valley and the combination represents a a daunting first ofit kind threat for the United States and for our allies you seem to be saying that the Chinese government is running a criminal Enterprise well I would say the Chinese government if they want to be a great nation it's time for them to start acting like one uh and that includes abiding by its own commitments not to steal Innovation that includes not exporting repression to other countries that includes working with all of our countries and all the other uh countries that we work with all the time who have common threats like cyber crime fentanyl trafficking money laundering uh it means not working with criminals uh but rather working to uphold the rule of law now Margaret Brennan on assignment for 60 minutes for more than 5 years 1,000 975 days American businessman immad Shi was a prisoner of the Islamic Republic of Iran he spent much of that time in the country's most notorious prison in a dreaded Ward run by Iran's revolutionary guard last month Shi and four other Americans were freed in a complicated deal involving $6 billion dollar in restricted Iranian oil Revenue the deal Drew criticism at the time for granting Financial Rel belief to a regime the US government considers the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism it drew even more scrutiny after Hamas which is financially supported by Iran attacked Israel two weeks ago with more than 200 hostages remaining in Gaza including some Americans shi's ordeal is a stark illustration of the difficulties and perils involved in bringing American citizens home this story uh should have never happened but I didn't waste 5 and 1/2 years Margaret I learned a lot about myself about Humanity about what is important in life being thrown in a Cell It's the closest you come to death Imad Shi is a dual citizen of the US and Iran he left Iran at age 13 before the 1979 Islamic revolution in the US he went to college met his wife bah and started a business representing us chemical companies in the Middle East and later worked for private Equity Firm in Abu Dhabi by 2016 with their daughters off to college Imad bah who is also Iranian American decided to travel to Iran and ReDiscover their Roots Iran had just agreed to a landmark deal to limit its nuclear development in exchange for sanctions relief which made Shi think the country was full of opportunity his father thought otherwise he said to me he said Amad you don't know this country people like you will duel nationalities they pick these people up once in a while for whatever use they have for them and I said Dad give me a break you know I've never been in the US government nothing and I guess if anybody asks me in one sentence what have you learned from this experience I would say listen to your dad the couple both in their 50s began spending time in Iran Shi found work Consulting for an Amsterdam based company investing in Iranian businesses was there anything that suggested to you that you were a Target that there was going to be a problem you know I thought I have a better chance of getting hit crossing the road by a motorbike when I was there I did not see this coming just past midnight on April 23rd 2018 about 15 armed agents showed up at the family house in teron gentleman walked in he said this is an arrest warrant for you and for your wife on what grounds he wouldn't tell me at the time around 2:30 in the morning they said okay get ready we are taking you and my wife said no you can't take him and they told her to sit down and mind her business that they'll get to her later what did that mean me I didn't know at the time so when they took me out of that house I did not know what is going to happen to my wife that's terrifying yep it's not a position you want to be in he was taken to a place in teron Iranians have long feared Evan prison to a special Ward known as 2A run by the Intelligence Division of the Islamic revolutionary guard Corps they took me to a room they told me to strip naked they gave me some blue garbs they told me this is the end of the line for you and most likely you'll never see the outside world from now on nobody will address you by your name you're are a code now 97010 was my code that's dehumanizing uh they are experts at that and then hell starts torture threats of torture and psychological torture they take you to a very small room and then they throw a giant of a human being in there who precedes to hit you to push you around to threaten to kill you and then the good cop comes in and he says look I can put a stop to this you just need to confess confess to what they said you have to confess that you are a spy which is ludicrous Shi says his interrogators threatened him with electrical shocks waterboarding and hanging but never followed through so I realized they don't want to damage their product at that point product correct why do you choose that word because that's what I was you believe you were taken simply because you were American to extract a price correct he told us some interrogations went on for 9 hours a day what did you tell them during all those hours of questioning I mean the most m mundane things the first day they kept asking me why did you go to the White House church and I'm thinking to myself Queen I know the White House doesn't have a church and then it clicked they had hacked my Facebook they had seen the pictures of us attending my daughter's events at school at the National Cathedral they had no idea the National Cathedral had nothing to do with the White House this is an intelligence service you would be surprised they had my telephone so they had gone through the list of every person I had ever met during the last 30 years of my business career who are these who are those these questions would go on day after day after day in December 2018 after 8 months of interrogation Imad Shi was suddenly released on bail his wife bah who'd never been arrested was able to leave the country Imad expected to join her soon he says he received a letter of exoneration but he wasn't allowed to leave Iran now my story takes a bizarre turn my file had been sent to the Revolutionary court it's where a gentleman by the name of Judge salavati sits also known as the hanging judge in November 2020 the hanging judge sentenced Shi to 10 years in prison under a broadly worded statute which prohibit cooperating by any means with foreign States against Iran before Shi had to report back to prison a friend came up with a plan to escape to escape and I said let's go Smugglers helped him make his way to Iran's mountainous border with Kurdistan but about 30 miles from freedom I look up and there is about 15 guys with AK-47 pointing at the car they threw me on the ground and their team leader came he opened the scarf that I they had put around my eyes and he looked away and he shook his head to his team members they were looking for somebody else they were looking for somebody but now we have round two of incarceration this Iranian propaganda photo taken in January 2021 shows him bearded and Shackled being escorted back to W 2A where he says he underwent another eight months of interrogation the second eight months I was interrogated close to 400 hours how do you stay say all those times there was never a doubt in my mind that my government would get me out that was my hope can back in Washington bah and her daughters campaigned for ahad's release and sought help from the state department which reviewed shi's case and determined he was wrongfully detained the Biden administration had been trying to broker both the release of American detainees and the renewal of the Iran nuclear deal which the Trump administration had pulled out of but the talk stalled in the fall of 2022 widespread protests broke out following the death of a young woman in the custody of Iran's morality police in Evan prison the inmates rioted and set fires the guards responded with tear gas and bullets it was happening a couple of yards from where I was sitting in my room now if I left I could be shot if I stayed I could suffocate with no good option he stayed in his cell Shi says he was rescued ironically by his tormentors a team of revolutionary guards they were pale white when they saw me they were like let's get the hell out of here because you're worth more alive than you are dead correct shortly after the fire imad's sister Netta sought a meeting with Iran's top Diplomat at the United Nations Amir s iravani she wanted to learn what was holding up a prisoner deal he acknowledged to you that there are people inside his own government that didn't want the deal to happen yeah I mean he acknowledge that and just as there are people in our government who didn't want this to happen you know we're dealing with Innocent human lives and we want to rectify the situation but for other people it's politics and it's power and they get in the way arranging a meeting with President Biden proved more difficult for Netta determined to help her brother she went to this crowded White House reception for the Persian New Year and managed to button hold the president after he spoke I told him they are American citizens who are innocent and need to come home as soon as possible because time is not on our side after roughly 2 years of start and stop negotiations the US and Iran reached a complex agreement six bill billion dollars that Iran had earned from selling its oil had been tied up in a foreign account for years due to us sanctions according to us officials Iran can use the money to buy humanitarian Goods like food and medicine once the US approves the transactions the money goes to the suppliers not the government of Iran on September 18th President Biden granted clemency to five Iranians accused of nonviolent crimes five Americans including Imad Shi were released and flown to Qatar from there they flew to a military base in Virginia where their families were waiting home I hadn't seen my daughters for five and a half six years I had missed all their graduations birthdays anniversaries with my wife um it's like being born again we had thought we were going to be freed so many times and this was it since his release imad's making up for lost time with his family he's also had time to reflect you think to yourself what was this all about why did they do this to me and to my family for 5 years and the short answer is hostage taking a statecraft if you are an American yes an Iranian American no Iranian American Italian American American do not go to Iran Less Than 3 weeks after shi's release Hamas which is financially backed by Iran attacked Israel as Israel counterattacked in Gaza some us lawmakers have called for blocking Iran's access to the 6 billion the White House insists no money has been released so far and sources told us the arrangement has not changed when you watch the news right now and you see what has happened in is Israel not just about the people killed but the hostages that have been taken what is that like for you I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have your daughter your son your wife your father being taken hostage and I cannot believe what their families are going through I just wish them a safe return home 2023 has been a year of soldout Stadium concerts but only one of the women breaking attendance records has built a global brand singing upside down highflying stunts are only part of her appeal Alicia Moore is known as much for her party anthems as her Powerhouse voice and if the name is unfamiliar it's because she's best known by her one-word professional identity pink pink f famously has no filter and fans who have followed her 25-year career have come to expect her to share every detail of her sometimes troubled story do I have this right you're willing to talk about anything any question is fine there's no offense taken yeah it's all I'm I'm open to all of it a lot of people in your world thrive on protecting privacy you're an open book why I guess I look at it in a very specific way if I'm a mystery to you how can I expect you to connect with me and if I'm a person that's desperate for connection then why would mystery be interesting to me I want to know you I want you to know me all right you guys want to start with b start by coming to one of her concerts we were there for her homecoming shows in Philadelphia last month One Stop on a year and a half long tour hello beautiful people she's already set attendance records in stadiums around the world [Music] and sold more than $350 million in [Music] [Applause] tickets a pink concert is part Rock rager par Broadway spectacle I'm never going to I'm never going to again with some Tinker Bells sprinkled [Applause] in she belts out her hits while flipping and flying 100 fet in the air and she does it without lipsyncing when she says she actually sings better upside down believe her now 44 or when she looks out into the crowd she sees a lot more moms and dads she calls herself and her fans the uncool kids and takes great pleasure in taking on their haters whether in her shows or on social media her message is don't mess with them or me this image that you've created you've got this famous snarl yeah right I wonder if when that started the message was this is a woman that you don't want to mess with well this is a woman you don't want to mess with is a true statement I know what certain people think of when they look at me down to the fact that I'm muscular I'm outspoken and I have short hair I'm possibly a dude definitely a lesbian people sort of put you in a box no matter what you look like and my box happens to be if you're outspoken and you don't sort of Bend to societal Norms then you're scary and dangerous and the reality is the reality is I'm the goofiest most fun loving person that will possibly kick your ass if I have to come on children these days life is less get the party started and more get these kids to bed her six-year-old son Jameson and 12-year-old daughter Willow are often on tour with her riding their shoters on stage during sound checks for the hometown show in Philly Pink's husband Motocross star Carrie Hart was there and so was her mom Judy this is our tour Library backstage there's a library where the team swaps books pink has a romantic novel she needs to return we have a little sign sheet you actually have a sign wish I had the thing but we don't have that so I've been backstage for other artists and some of the things I've seen are lot of booze lot of party cool my dressing room used to be like whiskey and cigarettes then it was ball pits and stuffed animals when she's not on the road she's home in Southern California this is where she's Alicia Moore a mohawk wearing mom who bakes sourdough and is part of the PTA she's either driving for school drop off or driving a forklift on her 25 acre Vineyard she says she schooled herself on the science of wine making by studying late to the night after her shows so do I have this correct you don't make pink Rosé I do not make pink Rosé my ganache is it looks like a white wine occasionally it's a bit Peach but you drink it I drink a lot well Biggie Smalls once said never get high on your own Supply but you sure did yes I do make a lot of wine home is also where she makes music this is my music room it's really great yeah she's a writer on most of her songs and says no topic is off limits not even the ups and downs in her marriage and you taught yourself to play on this sort of kind of I mean I can play halves of songs one of my favorite song just make you feel my love and I played this every day during Co this is a Bob Dylan song made most recently Famous by Adele it's one of my favorite songs when the rain is blowing in your face and the whole world is on your case I could offer you a warm embrace To Make You Feel My Love so I played that every day wow until I was good enough to go on stage and play an instrument she grew up singing opera and gospel in Doylestown Pennsylvania but she says tension at home made her desperate to leave she calls her relationship with her father Jim Moore complicated he served in Vietnam and passed away two years ago as a teen arguments with her mother were so bad pink says one fight got physical and her mom fell downstairs she now calls that her one regret in life you said you were the kid that other moms didn't want their kids to play with why I was a punk I had a mouth I was I had a chip on my shoulder basically I grew up in a house where every day my parents were screaming at each other throwing things hated each other and then I got into drugs I was selling drugs and then I was kicked out of the house I dropped out of high school that was off the rails what happened on Thanksgiving in 1995 Thanksgiving of 1995 I was at a rave and I overdosed I was on oh boy ecstasy angel dust Crystal all kinds of things and then I was out done too much you almost died yeah remember she says that was the end of hard drugs for her and weeks later got her first record deal as the lead singer in an R&B girl group but they didn't last long so when you're starting out the industry sort of seems like they've got you going down a path they paint you with R&B brush yes I signed to La face records we were the token white girls on a black label I was told to take etiquette classes very early on uh they wanted me to learn how to wear dresses and use the Right Fork how' that work out I went once but it didn't work what did they not like I think they were trying to turn me into something that I didn't want to be image is everything in this business using her teenage nickname pink she went solo and her first album was an orange be double Platinum success she then broadened her sound to include Rock and pop and not so subtly named her next album misunderstood it was a career defining hit selling 15 million copies around the [Music] world to the middle of nowhere to the middle of my FR you'd said in the past it felt like you were never winning the popularity contest among your peers what do you mean by that we sold 3 million tickets in the last six months but you don't really hear about it unless you went so at the end of the day do I give a who talks about me as long as the mom and the daughter or the dad who's in the pink T-shirt as well as his daughter and her three friends had a fantastic time or the gay couple that came together and felt super safe at my show because no one heckled them that's what really matters and then there's this we wanted to know how she does it singing upside down as an AS IC no less well it took a lot of childhood gymnastics classes and tortured training sessions with her aerialist coach Drea Weber okay tighten up your stomach okay ready be nice now sing where there is there is Flame come there is a Flame's to get burn just because say me going to die you got to get off I'm not just a singer I'm a gymnast I can do all kinds of things I'm physical this body like this the muscles that that scare people are it's my power right it's like I don't eat well to look good I eat well to go far fast and hard at 53 she is all muscle and make no mistake as tough as she looks about I realized that the machete that I've always carried this metaphorical machete that I've always carried that made me a really difficult kid is what makes me really good at what I did today and it makes me a Survivor do you feel like you needed that hard Edge that machete to climb as far as you've climbed in this business particularly ABS absolutely I never got a record deal because I was cute I got a record deal because I was fiery I had a lot to say and I had a voice so I'm relieved I don't have to fall back on sort of conventional Beauty and and that doesn't have to be my thing and I don't have to keep that up either as I age I don't have to be that I can be all of this she won't need a plan B anytime soon but as she told us at midnight over a glass of wine in her dressing room in Philadelphia she is planning the next [Applause] chapter it's what any self-respecting acrobatic sequin loving Entertainer would do a lot Vegas residency I would like to have the best show that Vegas has ever seen and I think that I can for a performer like me to have a stage that doesn't have to travel oh my God you can do so much so all these years in what's the hardest part about your job now I guess that I keep demanding more and more and more and more from myself physically emotionally spiritually vocally I want to raise the bar all the time and I'm sort of going against time right how do you keep out doing that I like going against societal Norms when they say a woman has to slow down become smaller take up less space calm down no absolutely not why who says why can't we ride till the wheels fall off that's what I plan on doing go backstage with pink after a concert come on get in at 60 Minutes overtime.com the last minute of 60 Minutes is sponsored by United Healthcare there for what matters once again again tonight this isn't really the last minute of 60 minutes because this Expanded Edition of 60 Minutes runs 90 minutes coming up an allnew visit to the self-governing aisle of man a jewel in the Irish sea beautiful ancient and tranquil except for once a year when motorcycles race at speeds near 200 mph through man's Villages and narrow country lanes in one of the deadliest Sports anywhere so stick around and when we come back we'll take you someplace you've probably never been I know we hadn't if you asked most Americans to point out the aisle of man on a globe it might take them a while the 30m Long Island sits in the middle of the Irish sea with England to the East and Ireland to the West it once was the seat of a Viking Kingdom today Britain's King Charles is head of state or Lord of man people born there are known as mans and the aisle has its own unique language and a tailess cat also called mans a few hundred years ago it was known as a Haven for Smugglers the Buccaneers are gone Bankers have now turned the aisle into a tax Haven but what Drew us to the aisle of man was not the beauty or the banking but a hair Rising annual event that at first glance seems totally out of place on this tiny Jewel of an island with Emerald fields and rugged coastlines dotted with ruins of medieval castles the pace of life on the aisle of man is slow even sleepy for 50 weeks of the year but for 2 weeks starting at the end of May it becomes one of the loudest fastest most dangerous places in sport it's like nothing else no matter what you've done in your life until you see a bike do the what we're doing here Nothing Compares at all like in places it shouldn't wheel it's like British motorcycle racer Peter Hickman is one of the best in the [Music] world and a 13 time winner of a race known as the Isle of Man TT short for both Tourist Trophy and time trial not long before we met Hickman we watched him fly over the first jump on the course at a place known as ago's leap we saw you go by ago's leap today and truly it was a blur it was just like like a a speeding bullet how how fast do you think you were going when you went by there ago leaps around 185 to 195 mph somewhere around there it's Top Gear besides the blinding speeds what truly makes the Isle of Man TT unique is that it is run on public roads that are open to normal traffic until just 30 minutes before racing begins on a 37m course that covers much of the island running through villages and pastures with riders taking more than 200 turns just inches from rock walls and buildings and [Music] residence you literally race through a village and it just feels like you shouldn't be doing it but we're all on the aisle of man on the AIS of man there's more to say about the TT much more but first what is it about this tranquil aisle that produces such a wild wild and improbable race the people on the island like to do things their own way Katrina Macky moved here from Scotland 15 years ago well that's a really and now teaches University students the history of the Isle of Man she told us over the centuries the blood and cultures of English Irish and Viking clashed and mixed here to create the unique mans identity the MS see themselves as you know we're not English we're not Irish we are MS from what you're telling me the aisle of man seems to always be finding its own path that streak seems to Define it yeah it still has that streak of Independence and a lot of it does come from its North Heritage the Norse vikings sailed south from Scandinavia more than a thousand years ago in search of places to conquer in 1079 Norse gelic ruler called godri croven invaded the Isle of Man for the third time Third Time Lucky for him this was the seat of the Norse Kingdom for a while for a while yeah that's right contrary to their reputation the Vikings didn't just plunder and move on on the aisle of man they established a sort of parliament called the tin Wald that still makes the laws here it is the longest continuous running parliament in the world and it is an important part of the m identity another important aspect of identity is the mans language which natives have been speaking and singing for nearly 1500 years Ruth Kagan gel works at a cultural organization dedicated to preserving and popularizing the mans language oh my God that was beautiful thank you why does it matter to to save the language my ancestors spoke Ms so for me it's it's a nice way of feeling like I'm connected I think if we were to lose Ms we'd be so much the poer for it let's try and do that all together hell Ms nearly was lost by the 1950s after more and more English speakers visited or settled on the aisle there were fewer than 200 M speakers left when a concerted effort began to revive the language and I'm going to teach you how to say jamus The Rebirth of the language has been described as sort of like a phoenix like story yeah definitely yeah it's a strong it's a resilient language and I think there's more and more Pride all the time with people embracing Ms and seeing it as a really really good thing but it is just like that the the Phoenix Rising out of the ashes it didn't die it got perilously close squidy okay we all ready belu today Ruth Kagel teaches adult Ms classes at a local pub F and this means knowledge while just a few hundred yards down the road four and 5-year-olds are learning to count in a m language immersion school n Tre it's really exciting seeing people going from having you know one or two words in their very first lesson you know you're starting to introduce yourself M Ruth you know Coos who are you you'd say Mish Bill back Mish Bill Mish bill yeah Yak well done that's good Ms has spoken when the tinal the Isle of man's Parliament meets in ceremonial session for centuries the tin Wald has charted the isle's unique path it was the first legislature in the world to grant women the vote it especially asserts M's Independence in matters of Taxation England in the mid- 17th century had raised its customs duties the a of man didn't so you have tobacco and tea and brande and rum coming from Europe and elsewhere into the aisle of man that were then taken from the island in small boats and smuggled into England or Scotland the smuggling was known as is um running the running trade or the trade yes absolutely yeah and that was very lucrative very very lucrative yeah it was at that point that the British government decided okay we really need to do something about this enough is enough yeah the British effectively took control of the aisle of man and to this day the British monarch is head of state and has the right to veto any m's law in practice that power is almost never used and the aisle of man man fiercely guards its independence you know we have our own tax laws um and the island is very very proud of that in a way what was going on in the 17th and 18th century the trade was this place was kind of a tax Haven then in in some respects I guess you could call it that and it is again today is again today yeah um most companies don't pay any corporation tax at all zero zero their level of income tax is much lower than it is elsewhere so we have a top rate of income tax of 20% we have a lot of people living on the island who are very very wealthy who pay relatively little tax on the island than they would elsewhere the isis's total population is a little more than 880,000 but many of the world's biggest banks have a branch here the owners of more than a thousand private jets avoid millions of dollar in taxes by registering them on the aisle of man just as it has tried to make its tax laws attractive the aisle of man has worked long and hard to attract tourists by the 1880s 1890s a week's holiday by the Sea had become a British institution really and by 1913 just before the first world war we were seeing 600 650,000 people visiting the island every summer huge huge huge numbers of visitors I'm among those visitors around the turn of the 20th century were a few wealthy people who brought with them new fangled machines called Motor Cars the speech they were doing were quite phenomenal according to Matthew Richardson curator at the MS National Heritage Museum these were the founding fathers of the race now known as the Isle of Man TT the TT began actually as a car race that's where we get the name Tourist Trophy from because it began as a race for touring cars uh there was no opportunity to race cars in the United Kingdom at this time because Parliament there had banned road closures for racing and you guys just said yeah sure we'll close our roads down well partly the leftenant governor was the cousin of the chairman of the royal Automobile Club sir Julian or the island man economy at that time was heavily dependent on tourists coming here and he thought that having a racing event would only bring more tourists and he was proved to be absolutely right was he ever when we come back we'll see how and why the Isle of Man TT has become a bucket list destination for motorcycle riders and racing fans from all over the world the Isle of man's unique culture and M's language set it apart but it's the race known as the TT that has really put it on the map first H in 1907 it is the most dangerous motorcycle race on Earth more than 250 Riders have been killed over the years yet every year fans flock across the Irish sea to watch and Racers clamor for an invitation to [Applause] [Music] ride like it is my life that's the thing it always has been since I was a wee boy my dad's sat me on the Hedge and I watched this bike go past and I thought that's what I want to do when I grow up super sport and super twins to the start line please Richard milky Quail was born and raised on the aisle of man a msman through and through is how he puts it in 1997 he got his wish to race in the TT and 5 years later he won it so what is it like as a msman to win the TT well I mean there's only ever been three of us that have ever done it in 118 years or whatever so I think it's a bit like when you you go to do your washing on your trousers and you have you stick your washing and you you just I'll just check the pockets before put in your you each in there and you'll find1 pound and oh yeah i' got 1010 pound rich and well if you can multiply that by a million that's what it's like to win a TT it's just like woohoo the actual prize money is min School compared to other professional sports the winner of this year's top class TT race won just over $30,000 there are five classes in all dictated by the power of the motorcycle and the number of laps Riders are constantly breaking shifting and twisting the throttle thousands of times every lap then there is the sidecar race three wheeled Contraptions that scream around the course with a driver and a passenger whose job is to throw their weight around every curve just inches off the ground you need only to look at old photos to see how the race has changed early sidecar outfits looked like what you might see on the street today they resemble angry mutant Bob sleds the first motorcycles were basically bicycles with engin strapped on today's bikes are bullets ridden by some of the top Pro racers in the world I'm trying to beat the clock not the person in front of me effectively milky Quail gave us a taste of what it's like to ride the course with a bike mounted on a simulator up towards the black do so got little this is incredible and an actual lap playing on a screen in front of him over to the left and then over to the right it takes so much physical effort to get the thing to turn through there so this is s straight now bill this is one of the fastest points on the circuit everything's a blur going by you 190 195 200 mph here this is nuts you know that right well it's it's fun though it's one he knows a lot of people won't get his definition of fun now the last time you raced as as a rider was what 20 years ago years ago oh yeah yeah yeah it nearly killed you didn't it yeah yeah yeah oh yeah it did but I mean what happened I made it one little mistake and what was your mistake I just literally entered the corner too early I just caught the rock face with my shoulder and it just snagged and it pulled me into the wall on the right and then I threw over and hit the wall on the left and yeah that's the that's the flip side of the coin is it it's just you know when it goes bad it you know it it can HT you the crash in 2003 ruptured his spleen and punctured both of his lungs among other injuries I remember I was lying in the hospital bed and a journalist came in to see me wanted an interview and stuff and he was trying to put words in me mouth like y well you you must hate it then mustn't you must it's dangerous you want must want to get it stopped and was like you are why would I want to stop it it's the best thing in the world that anyone could ever want to do why would I want to stop it just because it hurt me the only way of making this event say is to not do it you know if we're going to race sports bikes through towns and villages on public roads that inherent danger is going to be there okay guys Paul Phillips is the man who has been in overall charge of the Isle of Man TT for the last 15 years some people in our audience who are not really familiar with the race would be surprised at the the casualty statistics 250 casualty over the years six just last year you know that's got some people you know sort of howling that this race is too dangerous it it shouldn't be I totally understand that um and you know this event really doesn't embody the sort of human Spirit nobody is forced to come and do this and this event does kind of give you opportunity to kind of test themselves and push their boundaries and and live their lives to the ABS limit like the ultimate expression of free will yeah yeah even if that Free Will can get you killed so it seems yeah to be honest as a rider you don't really think about it Hickman takes his third senior TT Peter Hickman has won 13 TT races including this year's Marquee race the senior TT 225 miles over six grueling laps as a rider we have already accepted if someone's here and riding and signed up we have already accepted what that consequence is if we make a mistake yeah the course is all good all the way to Ramsey organizers of the TT have taken steps to minimize risk where they can Riders are sent off the start line at 10-second intervals to make space between them but passes with not an inch to spare still happen perhaps the most significant change has been to strictly limit the number of racers to just over 30 side car teams and 100 solo Riders how important is it just to determine that a rider is good enough to be on this course Very one of the things when I first started working on the TT was that that wasn't the case you know there were people coming here who were ill prepared now there's a strict protocol for wouldbe firsttime Racers and and milky Quail is a key part of it the AP is there see he first takes newcomers around the course in a car so then what's going to happen is then during practice week he leads them on an actual lap to see how they perform and whether they can keep up you ever have someone you're taking around and you go they're not ready yeah I remember going behind when I was behind milky CR on my initiation lab and I actually screamed in my helmet like this is crazy renie skas Brook made milky's cut an Australian now living in California he is a full-time motorcycle journalist and a part-time racer who was invited here after winning the Pikes Peak race in the US his first TT was last year when six Riders were killed there's some really awful stuff that happens here you can't sugar cut it but on the other side you know it is the most incredible place to ride a motorcycle like the Danger's up here the exhilaration is up here it's so unlike anything else you ask any motorcyclist and you say the old man Tay and they all they all know during practice week we met one of the fairies the primary means of getting to the island and watched as hundreds upon hundred hundreds of racing fans rolled off to accommodate the 40,000 fans who come to the race almost every soccer and Rugby field becomes a campground and the roads while they're open are clogged with riders the fan can run off the boat sit at the side of the road watch the hero go past half an hour later after the road's open they can ride on the same track it's the best it is the best Bill you know it's the best there's no admission fee to watch and the paddock is open to [Applause] all here fans can touch the Stars One black shirt one blue shirt but one visit to the merchandise tent thank you very much is all it takes to know that this is a commercial Bonanza for the aisle and make no mistake that's what it exists for it exists for economic reasons it exists to bring people to our Island and for no other reason it doesn't exist because we like motorbikes we do like motorbikes but that's not why it exists one rider was killed in this year's TT 46-year-old Spaniard Raul TZ Martinez that there was just one death after the six Racers killed in 2022 was a relief to organizers but also a reminder of the risk that has run through these winding roads for more than a century a lot of people don't grasp just how Wild the event really is I mean I'm a parttime racer I can steer a bike okay but I'm not the level of these guys you know I mean they do stuff that I just go I have no idea how you do it wow that's Brave yeah that's hot in your mouth Peter Hickman is one of those guys this year while winning four races he set a new alltime speed record for a single lap this makes me feel alive makes you feel alive yeah you can't just leave it like that you got expound explain what do you mean I think you can only really appreciate life if you're putting yourself into places that risk [Applause] it I'm Bill Whitaker we'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes real time updates on the Israel Hamas war on CBS mornings tomorrow

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 412,833

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, Christopher Wray, FBI, China, espionage, emad shargi, iran, Pink, entertainment, isle of man, motorcycles, racing, sports, pharma

Id: EGfG-wJdCPs

Length: 65min 12sec (3912 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 25 2023