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French President Wants Notre Dame Rebuilt in Five Years; Billions Pledged for Cathedral Rebuilding; CNN Uncovers Venezuela's Multibillion Dollar Drug Trade; White House Officials Anxious over Mueller Report; Indonesia's Biggest Election Under Way As 193 Million March To Polls; William Barr's History Of Controversial Summaries; Meteorites Causing Bursts Of Water From Moon; 3D-Printed Heart Made Using Human Patient's Cells. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired April 17, 2019 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Rebuilding Notre Dame: hundreds of millions of dollars in pledges are already pouring in and the president wants to fast-track the cathedral's restoration. We are live in Paris.
In Venezuela, a months-long CNN investigation has uncovered a multi- billion dollar drug trafficking scheme, linked to some of the highest ranking officials within the Maduro regime.
Plus, how the White House is bracing for Thursday's public release of the much anticipated Mueller report.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, I'm Rosemary Church and this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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CHURCH: Investigators in Paris say there is nothing to show the fire at the Notre Dame cathedral was an intentional act. But it could take a long time to figure out what started it.
Inspectors say there are still some potential vulnerabilities in the building, particularly in the roof, which is largely destroyed. French president Emmanuel Macron wants the cathedral rebuilt in five years but experts say it could take three times that long.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): What we saw last night in Paris was our capacity to mobilize and to unite to overcome. Throughout our history, we have built cities, ports and churches. Many have burned, have been destroyed by wars, revolutions or human faults.
But every time, every time we have rebuilt them. I believe very deeply that it is up to us to change this disaster into an opportunity to come together, having deeply thought about what we have been and what we have to be to become better than we are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The cathedral's landmark spire collapsed into the roof during Monday's fire but the copper rooster that sat atop the spire has been recovered, intact from that rubble. CNN's senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is live this hour in Paris and he joins us now.
Good to see you, Jim. So inspiring words from Macron of unity and hope.
But is five years a realistic goal to rebuild the Notre Dame cathedral, given the centuries it took to build it?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: That's the big debate, how long it will take to rebuild it. That five-year figure is not just plucked out of the air; in fact, five years from now is 2024, which is the Olympic Games in Paris.
Clearly, the president has in mind getting Notre Dame ready for the incoming tourists. We saw earlier this morning some water being sprayed on the north tower; I'm not sure what that means. But there's still some fragility of not just the walls but the towers themselves and they're still doing some inspection about what can be saved and what cannot be.
Architects this morning having plans of how they would go about the renovation, the restructuring of the cathedral and how much can be built. One of the big debates is whether or not you build that roof infrastructure, that was called the Forest, which took 1,300 trees to build back in the day.
Whether you rebuild that with wood or you replace it with more reliable and perhaps more practical steel beams, which could take a lot less time, you could perhaps make that five-year deadline. But now the French have something to shoot for, in terms of the reconstruction program -- Rosemary.
CHURCH: And working with materials that are fire resistant might be a good way to move forward. While they're thinking about moving forward, questions are now being asked about why it took 23 minutes after that first fire alarm went off for flames to be detected. The fire wasn't reported until the second alarm went off.
What are French authorities saying about that?
BITTERMANN: Well, this is all part of the investigations, so they are not saying a lot. But the fact is that there was the 20-minute gap that you are talking about between the first fire alarm and people went up to inspect and did not see anything that looked like a fire, so there was no report of a fire until 20 minutes later.
Yes, in that 20-minute period, one can only imagine that there was a chance for the fire to spread rather quickly. Talking about liability this morning, exactly who is going to pay for the damages that have been caused.
There is a construction company that was putting up a scaffolding to redo the roof, they had not really started but they had put up the scaffolding --
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BITTERMANN: -- around the roof, getting ready for that. The scaffolding company had insurance but it's a question of whether the insurance or whether there's going to be a long, drawn-out legal battle. Probably the latter will be the most likely case.
In any case, the construction they were going to do on the roof did save some of the precious objects, including 16 statues that were on the roof, that were taken away just days ago, just before the roof construction began.
CHURCH: Very important, that issue, too. Jim Bittermann, thank you so much, joining us live from Paris.
Fundraising pledges to rebuild the Notre Dame cathedral are already closing in on the billion-dollar mark, with several French companies leading the way. The luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Group, which includes Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Marc Jacobs, has pledged $225 million dollars. Te L'Oreal Group and the Bettencourt Meyers family have pledged 226 million dollars. Another luxury goods leader, the Pinault family, has pledged to 113 million dollars and French oil and gas company Total S.A. has pledged 113 million dollars as well.
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ANTOINE ARNAULT, LVMH GROUP: Of course we thought maybe this would lead others to do the same, whichever the level and any amount of the donation. But also, we thought that whatever we do, we have to donate money but we also have to donate time.
And the second part of our donation is we propose everyone in the group to be available to the French authorities and the people that are going to reconstruct this cathedral for anything, architectural. We know how to build not only stores but we also built a big museum in Bologna a few years ago.
Creative, you never know what's going to happen during this reconstruction; maybe you'll need to wrap it up or have designers have some out of the box ideas to help.
Financial, we know how to do that. We're not saying were going to replace the states but I'm sure in the states sometimes the private sector can help and have more ideas.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ERIC SCHMIDT, FORMER EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, GOOGLE/ALPHABET: Cathedrals that we love represent the shared history of humanity. There is nothing more important than these things to understand who we were, what we have been, what we've done and where we are going.
I hope Silicon Valley in 100 years will have things of a similar nature but there's nothing like Notre Dame. It is well worth preserving, restoring, rebuilding and making even better.
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DONALD TUSK, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COUNCIL: The French capital of the European Union, I call on all the 28 member states to take part in this act. I know that France could do it alone but at stake here is something more than just material help. The burning of the Notre Dame cathedral has again made us aware that we are bound by something more important and more profound than treaties.
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CHURCH: Karen Archer is the deputy director for strategic development and communications at the French Heritage Society; she joins us from Paris.
Thank you so much for being with us.
KAREN ARCHER, FRENCH HERITAGE SOCIETY: Thank you, good morning.
CHURCH: As we have been reporting, French president Emmanuel Macron wants Notre Dame rebuilt in five years and French billionaires have already pledged nearly one billion dollars to do that. Your organization is spearheading a fundraising effort in the United States and across the globe.
How much has been raised so far and how much do you think it will take to rebuild the cathedral?
ARCHER: In terms of how much it will take, it's an open question for the moment, I think as they do those structural evaluations, we will get more precise figures. We just launched our campaign on Monday, so we've had about 500 donations from across many in the United States but across the globe.
And I think we've raised about 40,000 dollars for the moment. But that figure has changed since yesterday, so I'm not exactly up to date. But we are offering the possibility for people who'd like to contribute and many have been smaller donations, just because of a spontaneous outpouring for people who feel touched, who can't imagine not having Paris without Notre Dame.
CHURCH: Of course everyone wants to play their role, their part in rebuilding Notre Dame. How realistic, though, is President Macron's five year goal, given some experts suggesting it may be closer to 10 or even 15 years to rebuild? Are we talking about an effort to replace --
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CHURCH: -- the roof with wooden beams or should more fire resistant materials be used this time around?
ARCHER: That's an ongoing debate, which has just begun and I'm sure we will hear more about it in the coming days from different experts weighing in. Five years seems extremely ambitious. Even today, we don't know how fragile the structure as. They still have structural engineers going in and evaluating that.
And there are certain things you cannot rush. There's the possibility that the stones above the fire, even though they are standing, may have been very fragilized (sic), so they may have to be replaced as well.
So in order to respect the solidity of the monument they have to do things in order and it will take the time it takes. So we'll see.
CHURCH: And I want to ask you how surprised you were that so much of the building and the artifacts inside the cathedral were actually saved, given the ferocity of this fire.
ARCHER: Yes, we had a few pleasant surprises yesterday. The first was that the cathedral is still standing. I have to say, the moment which was the most heartwrenching for me was on Monday evening, when they were saying when the fire was still raging that they weren't sure that they could save the structure.
So it was tremendous yesterday to see the structure still standing. I've heard they've estimated about 5 percent to 10 percent of the artworks have been lost. There are others that need a lot of restoration but they were able to save many things.
They began as soon as the fire broke out, removing artifacts. And the treasury, which was in the crypt, was not damaged. So that's good.
CHURCH: Just before you go, I do want to get an idea of what goal you are setting yourselves as you raise this money and if you're going to go beyond just individuals, perhaps approach some bigger companies across the globe?
ARCHER: Yes, I think we will. We also work with a number of foundations in the United States as well. So we are open to everything. We started our campaign at our website on frenchheritagesociety.org and we've had a lot of response. We've had a lot of outreach from English-speaking countries around the world as well, as we are based in the United States.
And we are open to working with companies, with private foundations, family foundations, of course individual donors. And it will be a collective effort. I know in France, they've launched major campaigns and the French people are giving as well. And I have to say this has brought about a sense of solidarity for the
moment among the French people and the international community to really save Notre Dame. And they saw how close it came to being a pile of rubble. So it's really a close call.
CHURCH: I think you are right. It has pulled people together. The sense of unity and certainly President Macron was pushing that concept, concern and unity and hope. And I'm sure, as people are watching this, as we have this discussion, many people will want to act their two cents and put some money towards this great cost.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
ARCHER: You're welcome. Thank you very much.
CHURCH: We will take a very short break here. When we come back, the polls in Indonesia are now closed and counting is to begin soon in the world's biggest single day election. The latest from Jakarta.
Plus, an exclusive report of a multibillion dollar drug trafficking scheme linked to Venezuela's government and the military.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. The first delivery of aid from the Red Cross has arrived in Venezuela as a humanitarian crisis grips. The health minister says the shipment includes emergency kits, generators and large tanks to hold water. It's to go to hospitals struggling with power outages and a shortage of medicine.
The government calls it an achievement while the opposition takes credit for the delivery. The Red Cross is telling both to avoid politicizing the assistance.
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MARIO VILLARROEL, VENEZUELAN RED CROSS SOCIETY (through translator): We appreciate all the efforts from state and private institutions who made it possible for this aid to arrive. And we reaffirm that it will be distributed respecting the fundamental principles of our movement, especially our principles of impartiality, neutrality and independence.
We ask everyone, with no exception, to not allow the politicization of this great achievement.
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CHURCH: And while Venezuela's crisis has left many struggling to find food and water, a few are making millions in the drug trade. CNN has learned that Venezuela is becoming a cocaine courier to the United States with an extensive smuggling network through Central America. CNN international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh has this exclusive report.
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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Below is a cocaine super highway, enriching Venezuela's corrupt elite and bringing coke to American streets.
These thin lines are secret pathways from Colombia's cocaine farming heartlands below across into neighboring Venezuela. From there, billions of dollars of the drug are smuggled north in tiny planes.
U.S. and regional officials have told CNN aided by Venezuela's army and elite. The Colombian military we're with don't get any lower to stay out of the range of track and machine guns and talk to locals mostly through the leaflets they drop.
"We've stopped drug flights out of Colombia," he tells me, "but not from places we don't control."
He means Venezuela just five miles away. Below, they think they spotted a cocaine laboratory, one of many fueling Venezuela's role as a cocaine courier, which a CNN investigation has learned is booming just as the country collapses.
240 tons went from Colombia to Venezuela in 2018, up a third in one year, a U.S. official told us, which could fetch $40 billion on U.S. streets.
WALSH: That traffic happening down below one possible reason it's alleged by so many in the Venezuelan army and government are reluctant to give up on Nicolas Maduro. They're simply making too much money.
WALSH (voice-over): The trade remains mostly secret inside Venezuela. On the other side of the border here, we were able to learn more about these illegal routes in from recent defectors from the Venezuelan army border patrol and about how their officers ordered them to let cross specific trucks carrying cocaine.
For five years, this sergeant got those orders often three times a week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The cars that cross both weapons and drugs were pickups and we would be told the color and make of the truck and when, usually just after dawn or dusk.
Everything was coordinated by the brigade commander. He would send a lieutenant to tell you what needed to cross and this was arranged high up above. Those who didn't agree were swapped out automatically.
WALSH (voice-over): He fled to here, Colombia, when the pressure to comply got too much and his unit found themselves confined to base.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We were locked on the base. The general would say, everyone must be with us. Leave or speak against the government, you'll get arrested.
They had us brainwashed with food handouts.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): One night, I couldn't take it anymore. I went home and told my wife, we leave for Colombia. My son started crying and said, "Dad, what are we going to do?"
But I knew if they stayed without me, they would be captured or interrogated.
WALSH (voice-over): Venezuelan state TV occasionally shows how their armed forces crack down on the trade. Here intercepting Mexican pilots that had previously rejected allegations that they were actually running the drugs and did not respond to several requests for comment.
But a U.S. official has told CNN these flights are surging. They used to take off from the remote hidden runways in the southern Venezuelan jungle. But in the three years have moved north, a U.S. official told CNN, to reduce flying time.
They used to be three a week but last year they were almost daily. This year they have seen as many as eight in a single day, a regional official said, using 50 hidden runways.
CNN has seen a confidential U.S. radar map approximately here that shows the sharp turn left planes from Venezuela take before landing on the remove Central American coastline of Honduras before the cocaine travels north through Mexico into the United States.
Honduras is where we pick up the trail of this booming trafficking again on the coastline below, turned into a surreal graveyard of narco planes. The plane cargo they carry is worth so many millions that itself is just a fraction in a billion-dollar deal. So many are discarded like used plastic bottles all over the jungle or crammed here into one riverbed.
The troops we're with don't want to be on camera for their safety.
WALSH: Some of these have their markings torn off to make the job of working exactly where they came from even harder.
WALSH (voice-over): America's drug habit is where the money, the rot all begins. But that same open market also supplies a key part of the logistics here.
WALSH: While the fires deprive much of this plane of distinguishing characteristics but you can still see N4 there, N, meaning this plane originated in the United States.
WALSH (voice-over): Brokers, a U.S. official tells me, buy up dozens of old planes at auction in the United States and hide their ownership in shell companies to send them south to start the cocaine journey north from Venezuela. WALSH: Another N, which means another plane that started its days in
the United States.
WALSH (voice-over): It's not just traffickers in Venezuela and the U.S. making billion; the entire region is in on it. This is surely Honduras' biggest industry. The billions at stake everywhere. From this jungle road, which is actually a hidden runway, up to the Honduran president's brother, indicted last year on trafficking charges, which he denies.
"You can't stop the planes being sold or taking off," one officer tells me. So they instead just have to try and make landing harder by blowing holes in the runways.
WALSH: Just seems slowing down this multibillion dollar trade requires so many more holes to be blown in this vast expanse of jungle.
WALSH (voice-over): The amount of money cocaine brings here literally dwarfs any effort to fight it. Insane amounts of cash into some villages along this coastline that have none. In fact, the Honduran army tells us traffickers flying toward these villages often kick their cargo overboard when they think they're about to be intercepted.
Each 30 kg bundle of cocaine is attached to floats and then drifts ashore. They then pay these communities of fishermen $150,000 for each recovered bundle. It's a calculus of corruption that most officials I spoke to admit beggars belief that no police or aid operation can really hope to challenge. One that sees the collapsing Maduro government as the alleged couriers cashing in fast in a region of desperate delivery men -- Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, in Colombia and Honduras.
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CHURCH: To U.S. politics now and president Donald Trump has been saying the Mueller report will exonerate him from allegations of collusion with Russians and obstruction of justice. It is set to come out Thursday. And as Kaitlan Collins reports, White House officials are anxious.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, President Trump is telling allies he's ready for the release of the redacted Mueller report.
But inside the White House and around Washington, current and former officials say they're dreading it. The president believes Thursday's release will clear his name. But former aides fear it could be politically damaging.
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ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, TRUMP INAUGURAL COMMITTEE: There's 400 pages of information -- [02:25:00]
SCARAMUCCI: -- and someone like the president would have the sense to know that in 400 pages, there's more than syllables, there's likely paragraphs that probably are going to look not great for him or people in the administration or people in the transition.
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COLLINS (voice-over): While they aren't expecting bombshells, sources tell CNN the damage will likely be in the details. The almost 400- page report won't be based on anonymous sources but instead come from hundreds of hours of interviews with people who were closest to Trump, including statements made and details given under the penalty of perjury.
Trump is trying to define the report before it comes out, tweeting today, "No collusion, no obstruction," even though the attorney general said Robert Mueller didn't make a decision on whether Trump obstructed justice. For weeks, Democrats have called for the release of the full report.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: We have very smart people who will be reading it from the standpoint of our committees and the rest. And we'll go to the next step. It depends on what is in there.
COLLINS (voice-over): They're now in wait and see mode but they don't sound hopeful about what they'll see.
PELOSI: I respect protecting sources and methods. I don't support hiding the truth from the American people.
COLLINS (voice-over): As Washington counts down to Thursday, the White House is escalating its fight with Capitol Hill over the president's finances.
Multiple House committees issued subpoenas this week to financial institutions as part of their investigations and Trump is preparing to fight back. His attorneys told an accounting firm yesterday it would be improper to turn over the tax documents that Democrats want.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I guess the president watches your network a little bit, right?
(LAUGHTER)
SANDERS: Hey, President Trump, my wife and I just released 10 years. Please do the same.
COLLINS (voice-over): The White House also facing another fight on immigration. Today, the House Judiciary Committee requested information related to a CNN report that Trump told now acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan he would pardon him if he was sent to jail for breaking immigration laws.
Trump made the comment during a trip to the border earlier this month. And now House Democrats want to know who was there and what was said.
In a letter to McAleenan, Jerry Nadler wrote, "These allegations, if true, would represent a grave breach of the duties of the president."
COLLINS: One White House official said they did not expect President Trump to read this report page by page. Instead, his legal team will brief him on what the key findings are. But expect the president in the days after to be watching very closely to how this plays out in the media and to react accordingly -- Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
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CHURCH: "Notre Dame will be magnificent again."
That is the message for people who restored Windsor Castle after a devastating fire there, words of comfort for the French who want their gothic masterpiece to be reborn. More on that in just a moment.
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[02:30:33] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Rosemary Church. Time to check the headlines for you this hour. Investigators say there are still potential witnesses in the structure of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. But they don't think Monday's fire was intentional. French President Emmanuel Macron says he would like to see the landmark rebuilt within five years.
Ballot counting is to begin soon within and what's considered to be the most complex single-day election in history. Millions of Indonesian's voted for president as well as national, provincial and local lawmakers. More than 245,000 candidates are running for more than 20,000 seats.
Donald Trump issued a second veto of his presidency on a bipartisan resolution to end the U.S. involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen. He called the resolution unnecessary and a dangerous attempt to weaken his constitutional authorities.
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CHURCH: Well as devastating as the Notre Dame fire looked from the outside, inspectors say the damage to the cathedral's interior is not as bad as it could have been. Here is what the cathedral looks like the day after and you can see how the nave was before and how it is now. Most of it was spared. Here's where the fallen spire now lies at the foot of the altar on top of all the debris that came down with it.
And in the ceiling, two gaping holes opened to the sky. One is where the spire one stood. And French officials are worried about the sections and have evacuated nearby buildings as a result. The three famous rose windows dating back to the 13th century are all safe for now at least. But the risk of collapse is very real of this point. And that's why French officials are wasting no time securing the structure. But restoring it to its form of glory may be such an easy task. Take a look.
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JONATHAN FOYLE, ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN: We can ascertain that the roof is gone. That's clear of course. The big issue is what are the stone vaults beneath it? That may have been subject to very high temperature, can access of 1000 degrees Celsius. That's when stone start to change its chemical character to become rather more powdery. And if you squirt cold water onto red hot stones or rocks, they tend to fracture.
Typically what you have to do is color first because that roof that's gone was of course designed to funnel away thousands of tons of which rainwater every year. Secondly, get the structure engineers in to have a look and see whether there is movement, whether there's cracking its instability and the vaults whether it need reinforcement, that's another issue. That kind of massive engineering within a building of this scale is a big challenge.
But if you think about symbols cathedral only about five to six years ago, it was surrounded by scaffolding. The Windsor Castle was rebuilt after its fire. The houses of Parliament in London will be a bigger scheme in Notre Dame just to keep it standing after 180 years or so (INAUDIBLE) any sensible root now to estimating how much is going to cost to fix the floor (INAUDIBLE) firstly what the problem is and then secondly the method of fixing it.
This will be seen I think as a major episode in the restoration of a much evolve building which have been witnessed to time, the passage of time and I think we will see this as a moment where people galvanize around this fragile inheritance. Now, the scholarship and technical skills are going to be focusing on this building and we're going to learn more about it than we ever had. So I think there is always a silver lining.
No one would want this to happen. But where you see disaster met by a creative response, there's always a new generation that's invested.
[02:35:06] Love, care, attention, understanding and money into the preservation of the built environment which is a happy reminder that we all take these things very seriously and it's not to be for granted.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And Britain's Queen Elizabeth has been offering her sympathy to the people of France during this dramatic time. And she knows all about devastating fires. Back in 1992, flames tore through her beloved Windsor Castle. And our Anna Setwart met the architect who led its restoration.
ANNA STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL REPORTER: It started in Queen Victoria's private chapel late one morning. A spotlight she placed through a curtain sparking a fire that spread within minutes. Prince Andrew, the Queen's son was in the castle at the time. ANDREW ALBERT CHRISTIAN EDWARD, QUEEN ELIZABETH'S SON: I heard the
fire alarm and some two or three minutes later, when I came out of the room that I was actually in, you can see the smoke. Not as extensive as it is now but you could definitely see it.
STEWART: The inferno went on all day and into the night, destroying 115 rooms, with all hands on deck.
EDWARD: Her majesty is absolutely devastated. She is a present inside the castle helping to take stuff out of the castle, works of art and various other things.
STEWART: 225 firefighters tackled the fire with 1-1/2 million gallons of water. Finally extinguishing it at 2:30 the following morning. Restoring a 900-year-old castle was no easy task. pathway was in these any task. Francis Maid was one of the key architects for the project.
FRANCIS MAUDE, ARCHITECT: There was also clear understanding of the significance of what's left because the world of alterations some of which will not have been of the highest qualities since the day of the first construction. You want to able to keep what's good and modernizing to have this opportunity to do so.
STEWART: This project took five years and $48 million. For storing Notre Dame is likely to cost considerably more. But it can be done.
MAUDE: This is not the end. It's a new phase of Notre Dame. There will be a rebirth of the cathedral that got, remember that there have been other things that have been other things that should be brought out, remember Windsor Castle, grieve today for what you've lost, tomorrow, wake up and look forward to the future.
STEWART: As France mourns the devastation of its historic landmark, it can look to the systems of England and Windsor Castle for hope to pains taking work and dedication. It has been restored to its form of glory and continues to play a central world for the nation's major historic events (INAUDIBLE) not one but two royal weddings last year and it may host a royal christening in the coming months.
Given Windsor will soon have a new resident, baby Sussex. Like Windsor Castle, Notre Dame can emerge from the ashes playing home to the nation's future as well as its great past. Anna Stewart, CNN, Windsor.
CHURCH: And to musicians who also happen to be brothers or offering their music and their money to help rebuild Notre Dame. Celist Gautier Capucon came to the cathedral to play a tribute to the French firefighters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Amazing. And his violinist brother says he will be donating to the restoration project.
RENAUD CAPUCON, VIOLINIST (through translator): And all the profits from these concerts will be donated of course to Notre Dame de Paris. I think that as an artist, as a musician, as a Christian and as a French, this is something that was really close to my heart and so I will spend a week holding concerts. I will take my time, my energy but I think that every French person is committed to doing something and as a violinist, that's what I'd like to do.
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CHURCH: And just a reminder that we have extensive coverage of the fire and the reconstruction planet at CNN.com. And you can also find out how you can help with those efforts. Check it out at CNN.com/impact. And as money rolls in to help rebuild Notre Dame Cathedral, in the U.S. it has inspired people not to forget smaller houses of worship. Three historically black churches in Louisiana were intentionally burned down in the past few weeks.
And donations to rebuild them have skyrocketed in the last day after social media users posted about them like former U.S. Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. She tweeted, as we hold Paris in our heats today, let's also send some love to our neighbors in Louisiana. The GoFundMe campaign started by the Seventh District Baptist Association has raised more than $900,000 dollars over its $1.8 million goal.
[02:40:07] Well, Democrats don't want to rely on the U.S. Attorney General's summary or redactions of the Mueller report. Coming up. The history behind their doubts about William Barr. We're back in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, polling stations in Indonesia are to start counting ballots soon and what's considered the world's most complicated single-day election. Across the nation, 17,000 islands, 192 million people were eligible to vote, 245,000 candidates are running for more than 20,000 government seats including president. That race is a repeat of 2014 with incumbent president, Joko Widodo facing off against Prabowo Subianto.
Well, Political Analyst Kevin Evans joins us now from Jakarta. Welcome. So the world's biggest direct presidential election and the most complicated in Indonesia goes and adds legislative elections on the same day. How did voting go for the more than 192 million people? And now that the counting is about to get underway, when might we know who the winners are?
KEVIN EVANS, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the final polls closed in Western Indonesia are a few minutes ago. So they'll now be calibrating the number of voters in the polling stations. And then within the next hour or so, they'll actually start counting the votes in front of everybody, all the polling stations are open. Anybody in the village can stand around, watching, clapping and cheering as the votes go up.
We'll have it -- some quick counts will be released within the next couple of hours. Reliable polls have been very close to the final results. So I would expect we would have at least the quick count results in the next couple of hours. Certainly for the presidential election, the process of abrogating votes from the polling station to the village, to the sub district, to the district right up (INAUDIBLE) that takes quite amount we should imagine and that will take probably two to three, four weeks.
And then there will be appeals to the constitutional court by candidates who feel that the poll -- the results weren't as they had expected. And that will be completed by the constitutional reports soon after that.
[02:44:54] CHURCH: Right. Quite the process. So President Joko Widodo is again being challenged by former army general, Prabowo Subianto. Who's likely to win this presidential election? And what do each of these men stand for?
EVANS: Well, in some respects, as you mention, President Widodo has five years of track record. So, he was elected five years ago, and many respects to do with the crumbling infrastructure around the country. And there's been huge investments on roads, rail, airport, Internet, all of that sort of stuff. Significant progress made in that area.
His pledge for the next five years to focus on education and training. So, the human resource development. That's his -- that's his core pledge, I guess.
General Prabowo has been arguing the country is weak, needs to be strengthened. And so, is looking to inject the bit of -- a bit of macho power back in the state in terms of dealing with the myriad problems that the country continues to face.
CHURCH: All right, and as you say, in a couple of hours. For now, we should get a general idea certainly of where this is going in terms of the presidential election. Kevin Evans, thank you so much for talking with us. Joining us there live from Jakarta. Many thanks.
EVANS: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Well, U.S. Attorney General William Barr is set to release his redacted version of the Mueller report Thursday. Congressional Democrats have already promised to fight to see the full version of the report on the Russia investigation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke with Christiane Amanpour.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA): For the attorney general though, to say, "I'll use my own judgment about what I redact," that's not necessarily going to be the final product. American people deserve the truth. They need to know the truth. There was an assault made on our elections by the Russians.
The -- all of our intelligence community in high confidence have said that the Russians tried to disrupt our election. That is the heartbeat of our democracy. We have to find out what happened, so it doesn't happen again. And it isn't up to the attorney general who has said, basically that the president is above the law and the rest. So, he's there to redact whatever he wants. Well, let's just see what he puts forth before we make -- it can't make a judgment about something that you haven't seen yet. And so, we look forward to seeing it. And we should -- we have very smart people who will be reading it from the standpoint of our committees and the rest.
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CHURCH: And Democrats have complained about how quickly Barr wrote a four-page summary of a nearly 400-page report from the special counsel. Some of their skepticism may be based on Barr's history of omitting pivotal conclusions in a previous summary to Congress. Randi Kaye has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: October 1989, a much younger William Barr caught up in a legal battle with Congress. At the time, Barr was head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in the first Bush White House.
He had authored a controversial memo that said the FBI could forcibly seize people in foreign countries without the consent of that country's government.
PETER ARNETT, FORMER CNN REPORTER: Some officials are calling the new FBI director, the president's snatch authority. One prime target might be Panama's General Noriega.
KAYE: News of the controversial memo surprised even President George H.W. Bush.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know what it is you're -- I'll have to get back to you with the answer to your question.
KAYE: As with the Mueller report today, Barr was asked decades ago to provide his full legal opinion to Congress. Instead, Barr offered this 13-page summary of his principal conclusions. Barr reasoned that as head of the office of legal counsel for the Justice Department, he provided legal advice throughout the administration on a confidential basis. Still, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee at the time wrote this letter to Barr's boss, the Attorney General. Requesting the full memo.
"It is my understanding that the opinion is unclassified and that it does not discuss ongoing investigations or litigation. Therefore, I can see no damage that would result from disclosure."
Barr refused, wanting Congress to trust his summary. So, Barr was called to testify. As NYU law professor Ryan Goodman, first noted on justsecurity.org, Barr argued that opinions from his office had been treated in the past as confidential. But the House Judiciary chair quickly pointed out, DOJ had published other opinions up until 1985. The outrage over the memo continued. Secretary of State James Baker tried to play it down.
JAMES BAKER, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: This procedure will not be used, absent a full interagency discussion of all aspects of it.
[02:50:00] KAYE: Finally, in 1993, long after Congress first subpoenaed the full report, it was made public. Barr was long gone from his position at the DOJ. The Clinton administration published Barr's full 29-page opinion. Allowing the public to see it for the first time.
Turns out Barr omitted key principal conclusions in his summary to Congress. In it, Barr failed to disclose that his full 1989 opinion concluded that the president has the power to authorize actions that violate the U.N. Charter. Also, that the attorney general, as well as the president, have executive power to authorize overseas abductions.
PAUL SIMON, FORMER UNITED STATES SENATOR: It ought to be a very rare thing. We can't just be an international ramble and wandering around doing whatever we want regardless of international law.
KAYE: Another key omission, Barr fail to tell lawmakers that in his full opinion from1989, he concluded that the president can override customary international law. He had told Congress that the full document is strictly a legal analysis of the FBI's authority as a matter of domestic law.
Details from another time, now under the microscope. Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Egypt's president will be able to tighten his grip on power. Thanks to constitutional changes approved by parliament on Tuesday. The amendments will extend a presidential term from four to six years. And add two years to Abdel Fattah el-Sisi's current term. Allowing him to seek re-election in 2024. He will also have new authority to appoint judges and named senators to a new legislative body.
Egypt's Parliament is dominated by Sisi boosters. Supporters of the changes say, they would bolster Egypt's struggling economy. Opponents see this as another step toward authoritarianism. The amendments will be put to a public referendum next week, but are widely expected to take effect.
Well, up next, a potential medical breakthrough. Scientists, so well on their way to making a human heart on a 3-D printer. We'll show you.
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[02:54:54] CHURCH: Well, Scientists have found micrometeorites colliding with the moon at high velocity could potentially be releasing water vapor from just under the surface. Now, this has potential implications for long-term human operations on the moon as well as deep space exploration. Here is the chief NASA scientists.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MEHDI BENNA, PLANETARY SCIENTIST, GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, NASA: What we discovered is that the surface releases its water when the moon is bombarded by micrometeoroids. This is especially noticeable during meteor showers What we also found is that the surface that's released on the water is being protected by a layer, a few centimeters of dry soil that can only be breached by large micrometeoroids.
When a micrometeoroids impact the surface of the moon, most of the material in the crater is vaporized. There is also a shock wave that propagates outward. That shockwave carries enough energy to release the water that's coating the grades of the soil.
Most of that water will get released into space and that's the signature of that LADEE detects with this instrument from its orbit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Fascinating, isn't it? And Benna, says water is widespread on the moon and has spread very thin. This study could help future lunar explorers make better use of the water on the moon.
Well for the first time ever, scientists have used 3-D technology to print a heart made out of human tissue. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports on the medical breakthrough and the possibilities it brings.
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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Israeli scientists say a new breakthrough in the treatment of heart disease could be just a heartbeat away. Researchers at Tel Aviv University, say they've used 3-D technology to print a heart. They hope that heart could one day help to replace the need for human donors.
TAL DVIR, SCIENTIST, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY: So, this is the first time that their whole heart with the blood vessels and cells is printed.
COHEN: The prototype heart is only the size of a rabbit's, but scientists hope to one day use the same process to create one as large as the human heart. Researchers say it's especially exciting since the so-called ink used to print the heart comes straight from the human body which can prevent rejection.
NADAV NOOR, SCIENTIST, TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY: For the first time, we printed materials -- the cells from the human itself, and created such a complex geometry of the heart.
COHEN: Doctors say it takes three hours to 3-D print a heart like this which looks like the real thing but doesn't behave like one yet. Right now, the tiny 3-D heart can contract but lacks the ability to pump. The hope is with further development and testing in animals and then, humans, organ printers will be used in hospitals in the future to help treat patients with cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in the world. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, reporting. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Just extraordinary. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with another hour of news in just a moment. Do stay with us.
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