Return to Transcripts main page
iDesk
Iraqi and Syrian Refugees Board Germany-Bound Trains; Migrant Crisis Could Bring Schengen Area into Question; Soldier Killed, Dozens Injured in Ukraine Protests; Records Not Available to Prove Debris is from MH370; Thai Police Rewarded for Bombing Investigation; Sex Traffickers Tattoo Victims to Show Ownership; Obama to Address Climate Change in Alaska; MTV Video Music Awards Bring Several Crazy Moments; Aired 10-11 ET
Aired August 31, 2015 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
[10:00:00]
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Hi, there, welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center.
We begin with new border controls, wider chaos and deepening humanitarian concerns in Europe's growing migrant crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): German Chancellor Angela Merkel now says if E.U. countries can't agree on the fair distribution of responsibility for
refugees, the freedom of travel among member nations could be called into question.
Hungary appears to be putting procedure aside by letting some asylum seekers board trains bound for Germany but only those from Syria and Iraq.
For more on the situation now in Hungary, Arwa Damon reports from Budapest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It does seem as if finally there has been something of at least a shift in regulations and
those who can prove that they are from Syria and Iraq are being allowed to purchase tickets and board the trains for Austria and Germany. That is
what we were told by the officials that are in the train station and that is what we have been witnessing throughout.
The masses that were camped out here are now up there, waiting for their tickets. Many of them packing up; they're also putting on in some
cases the last clean shirts that they do have, all of them very relieved. But at the same time a bit anxious. They're afraid that something is going
to possibly go wrong and they're going to end up being sent back here because the conditions here for them have been absolutely miserable.
They've been camped out in this train station for days. There's no proper place to shower. A lot of them are running out of money. We've
witnessed many of them, especially the mothers, having completely and understandably nervous breakdowns because they simply can't take it
anymore.
But there has been a bit of respite when it comes to the Syrians and the Iraqis. But then you have all of the other nationalities that are here
-- Afghan, Pakistanis, people from Bangladesh, Myanmar and various African nations -- they're not being allowed to board these trains just yet.
So they continue to remain stuck in limbo at this stage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Arwa Damon there.
Well, E.U. officials will be holding an urgent meeting on the migrant crisis but not for another two weeks. Atika Shubert is in Berlin with more
on the German chancellor's latest warning.
Hi, there, Atika.
What did Angela Merkel have to say?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, she essentially said that Germany is doing what it can to take in refugees; this change of policy now
allowing for Syrian and Iraqi nationals fleeing the conflict there to have their refugee asylum applications processed directly here.
Now that throws the doors open to these refugees. But the question, of course, is how do they get here?
And what we're seeing, as you heard from that reporting from Arwa, there is this rush to get on the trains, to get into Germany, this fear
that there will be a policy change that will shut them out.
What Angela Merkel is asking for is saying we're taking in these refugees; what about the rest of Europe, particularly countries like Serbia
and Macedonia, who are applying for E.U. membership and are really the transit countries where these refugees are coming through.
So Germany seems to be leading on this and it wants the rest of Europe to follow.
CURNOW: Germany leading on this; there is some sense from many Germans that they welcome many of these people. But the logistics still
very hard to work out.
SHUBERT: It is very hard to work out. And keep in mind that the interior minister here estimates that it could be as many as 800,000
refugees being accepted. That's more than double the amount last year.
So it is a lot of logistics. But we've already started to see a lot of community efforts, mobilizing to take people in, everything from
converting, for example, shipping containers into temporary homes, to even a website here that matches refugees that are coming in into flat share
apartments here in Berlin.
So there are all kinds of initiatives underway. But the problem is, of course, when you're talking about these mass numbers how to deal with
that kind of logistics and police, social services here, they're all kind of gearing up for this influx of refugees that they are already receiving,
but expecting even more of -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Angela Merkel talking about German fairness is great, but what do we need now is German flexibility, which is what you're talking
about.
But let's talk about the wider picture here, the implications for Europe. Some have warned that the Schengen area could collapse. This is a
huge challenge to the whole concept, the whole premise of Europe.
SHUBERT: Well, exactly. And what Merkel has said is that this is the biggest crisis --
[10:05:00]
SHUBERT: -- to hit Europe, even bigger, she said, possibly, than the debt crisis, which was already very crippling to Europe.
So the question is, how not only does Germany respond, but how does the rest of Europe respond? And that is the key. And what it means is
because of that free flow, that Schengen free flow of migration across Europe, certain countries are not as comfortable with this. The U.K., for
example, is talking about strengthening the borders and the ability for people to cross into the U.K., which is going to cause serious problems, as
you can imagine, with France, which already has problems with migrants trying to cross over the Channel in Calais.
So it requires a response, not just from individual nations, but from all of the member nations, not only of the E.U. but those who are trying to
get into the E.U. now, such as Serbia and Macedonia.
CURNOW: Atika Shubert, thank you so much for that update.
And of course, French officials and the E.U. Commission vice president have also been assessing the situation today at the Eurotunnel at the
French port of Calais. Thousands of migrants have been trying to make their way through the tunnel to the U.K. It's just another hot spot in
this, the biggest migration in Europe since World War II.
Ukraine's interior ministry says a soldier has been killed and at least 90 injured in clashes outside Ukraine's parliament building. This is
just some of the chaos we've seen in the past few hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
CURNOW (voice-over): Interior ministry says demonstrators threw explosives at police; protesters are angry about a bill giving greater
autonomy to separatist regions. Police are blaming members of an ultra- nationalist party for the violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Phil Black joins me now from our London bureau.
Phil, thanks so much for speaking to us here at the IDESK.
You've spent a lot of time in Ukraine.
What do you know happened today, though?
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So what we're seeing on the streets of Kiev today, certainly a violent scene, Robyn. The video shows a large
crowd; you can hear an explosion, smoke and then following that you see members of the Ukrainian security forces being dragged away, injured.
We now have been told by the interior ministry there that one of those national guardsmen was killed in the explosion and there have been dozens
of injuries, a number of them critical.
They say they've also moved to arrest around 30 people, including someone they say was responsible for throwing the explosion and who was
said to be in the possession of numerous other explosive devices as well.
These are mostly members of supporters of the right-wing Svoboda or Freedom Party. They're Ukrainian nationalists, people who do not like the
central government making any sort of concession to the separatist forces that control those regions in the east.
But today that's exactly what the Ukrainian parliament was voting on, a law that would decentralize power from the national government in Kiev,
giving greater autonomy, greater self-government to those separatists' regions.
That sort of law, those sorts of rights, is a key part of what's known as the Minsk agreement, the peace plan that was signed by Ukraine, the
separatists, Russia, back in February. It's supposed to end that crisis. But clearly it shows that this is not something that has unanimous support
within Ukraine. It passed, this vote, today, but it still must pass a second vote in the coming months.
To do that, it's got to get a total of at least 300 votes out of a potential 450 and that is by no means guaranteed -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Many scenes that are playing out in front of us now, just another indication of just how divided Ukraine is. Even if you take out
the issue of the separatists in the east.
BLACK: Yes, divided, absolutely. We talked a lot over the last year or so about the separatists, the military crisis that's going on in the
east; on one hand, the president, Petro Poroshenko, for him, that's a major problem, dealing with that military crisis; the separatist leadership
accused him of making that situation worse, not doing enough to bring about peace.
On the other hand, Petro Poroshenko is dealing with the nationalists and pressure from them as well, mostly from the west of the country. These
are people who believe that he is already conceding too much to the separatists.
Dealing with all of that, trapped in the middle and a tanking national economy as well, it shows just how divided the country is, how fractured
the political landscape is and, indeed, how precarious the situation is for this country militarily, politically, economically as well.
CURNOW: Phil Black, thanks so much. And of course, we'll keep an eye on events in Ukraine. Thanks a lot.
Well, it may be hard to prove that a flaperon found last month is part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. A French source tells CNN that the
company that made the part says its records are not sufficient to verify the debris is from the missing plane. It washed ashore, if you'll
remember, on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.
Our Richard Quest joins me now from CNN New York.
Hi, there, Richard. I think we need to be very clear here. Just because there are no records to prove it's MH370 doesn't mean it's not the
plane.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST: No, it doesn't. And logic --
[10:10:00]
QUEST: -- and common sense suggests it is from the plane. But there are these doubts out there. The actual serial number that would have been
on the side of the peace that you're looking at now, that washed off, we believe, because it was in salt water. And so that washed off.
But inside the flaperon itself there are various batch numbers for the honeycombing. And they'd hoped that the Spanish company that manufactures
that honeycombing and the inside parts would be able to say, yes, our records show.
Now the phrase that's being used, "our records are insufficient," is a little unsatisfactory, frankly, because what it's not telling us is whether
they actually have any records at all.
Do they have records? Are the records well-kept? Have the records been lost? Would the records have told them? We don't really know at the
moment.
And I think that what you're looking at, Robyn, is so far a failure of the French authorities to actually put out any form of statement about what
the current status is of this flaperon.
CURNOW: It all does seem a bit fuzzy, doesn't it?
That said, the Malaysians came out pretty unequivocally saying we believe this is the plane --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: Oh, no, no, no, they went further. They went further. The prime minister used the word "conclusively."
CURNOW: Yes.
QUEST: And he's never said why he used that word. He simply said the experts, the international group of experts in Paris have determined
conclusively it's from MH370.
So if those experts are now saying, well, wait, we can't be sure, I mean, the French have already said there's a very strong likelihood. So
nobody is saying we have a realistic doubt. That, I think, has to be emphasized. Nobody is saying that we think it's another -- there's a
potential of three or four different options here. And we're not sure which it is.
We're -- but we are in this position where we don't know and also it's got caught up in a jurisdictional issue between the BEA, which is the
investigating aviation authority, and the French judicial authorities.
And it's the judicial authorities that we're waiting to hear from. Frankly, pulling it all together, it's a dog's breakfast. It's ludicrous
that this length of time since it found and we are still scrabbling around trying to find the most basic details of what should be open and shut.
CURNOW: Indeed. Semantics, bureaucracy and none of it's at all helpful to the families who are still missing many of their family members.
Thank you so much, as always, Richard Quest.
New suspects in connection to Bangkok's deadly shrine bombing. Coming up, police hunt for a man and a woman after bombmaking material was found
during a worked raid.
Plus an explosion at a 2,000-year-old temple in Syria. How much of this ancient structure has ISIS destroyed?
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:15:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW: Welcome back.
Thai authorities have issued arrest warrants for two new suspects in this month's Bangkok shrine bombing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): Now police released images of a Thai woman and an unidentified man after a weekend raid revealed bombmaking material in an
apartment on the city's outskirts. A separate suspect was arrested on Saturday. Thailand's police chief says he's giving almost $84,000 to the
officers who help catch that man.
He said the reward is going to the police because the public didn't provide any tips.
Our Saima Mohsin joins us now from Bangkok via Skype.
We're getting a little bit more detail on who these suspects are.
Are there any connections as to -- or any questions or links as to who they're possibly linked to?
And also, a motive?
SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We still don't seem to be any closer to a motive, Robyn. But two weeks to the day since that bomb hit Erawan
Shrine, we finally have a name. This is the first time police have named anyone. This is 26-year-old Wanna Suansun. She's a young woman; in this
photograph, they show her in the hijab. We don't know how they got hold of that photograph, whether it's from a passport or I.D.
But they found it when they raided the second apartment on Sunday. Now you'll remember on Saturday night, they were at a (INAUDIBLE) an
apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok where they had raided -- arrested a man, the first suspect they had thought was the main suspect.
It turned out not to be the main suspect but associated to it.
From that apartment, they found details leading them to the second apartment and this young woman.
Now they have also (INAUDIBLE) where she (INAUDIBLE). And police have been questioning her family. Her mother has told police that she had left
Thailand for Turkey two months ago, to be with her husband.
Now, Robyn, they have also released a sketch, not a photograph this time, of the second man that they believe had been staying at this
property. They don't believe that this man is her husband but they do believe that he is also associated with this network.
So far now, they have three people they believe are part of this gang that carried out this attack at the Erawan Shrine. But only one of them
has been named so far -- Robyn.
CURNOW: So they believe there is a cell, a network, but no motive as to why they've done this.
What's the response in Bangkok? What's the mood like there now?
SHUBERT: Well, it's a very good question. There's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of anger. There's frustration as well with the
police. We've had a lot of false starts here, like I said, on Saturday they immediately told us that they had found the main suspect. You'll
remember that man that had been identified on CCTV footage with that yellow T-shirt, clearly entering with a backpack, leaving it underneath the bench
and then exiting.
When they raided the property on Saturday, they said we have our guy. That was a quote that they gave to CNN. And they believed that they had
almost smashed that ring.
They hadn't. They had spoken too soon. And we've seen a lot of false starts like this and a lot of criticism of the investigation; of course the
United States had offered help. Interpol was supposed to be helping in this. We're not really sure how much help they're really getting in any of
this because they seem to be stumbling and grasping at straws in the dark.
And today, criticism, too, Robyn, when the police took that 3 million bat, $84,000 reward for themselves because they say job done -- Robyn.
CURNOW: Still a lot of questions there. Saima Mohsin in Bangkok, thank you so much.
Women labeled like property: still ahead, how far sex traffickers will go to mark victims as their own. That's in our Freedom Project report
-- next.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:20:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW: In Syria, antiquities officials are trying to figure out just how much damage ISIS may have caused to of the country's most significant
temples.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): The militants have reportedly destroyed parts of the temple of Bel in the ancient city of Palmyra. But Syria's antiquities
chief says the columns of the main structure still appear to be standing.
These reports coming just a week after ISIS released images showing the destruction of the temple Baalshamin also in Palmyra.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: And China is cracking down on what it describes as trading malpractices and rumor mongering in the wake of the stock market slump and
the chemical explosions in Tianjin. Now state media report almost 12 -- almost 200 people have been arrested, including government officials.
A business reporter was also reportedly detained because of the articles he wrote about the market turmoil and four executives from a
financial brokerage have allegedly confessed to insider trading.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, the CNN "Freedom Project" is committed to shining a light on human trafficking. This week, we're getting a look at how some
girls have been branded by their traffickers and pimps to signify ownership.
CNN's Sara Sidner rode along on a police patrol in Los Angeles. Here's what she found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
SGT. RON FISHER, LAPD VICE UNIT (voice-over): There's two girls standing on the corner up here, monitoring traffic. So they're
aggressively hitting up cars out here in the street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Go for two. Go for two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a good shot of it right now, both of them can go. So we can all burn on this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. You heard him, boys, let's go.
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've been called all sorts of names over the years, from ladies of the night to prostitutes.
But when they're underage, police now have a different name for them.
LILLIAN CARRANZA, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: We have come a long way in recognizing that these children are victims. They are not the
suspects.
SIDNER (voice-over): These days, one of the surest ways to tell that a person has been trafficked: the marks on their bodies.
FISHER: The tattoos tell the story if they have been around long enough.
SIDNER (voice-over): On patrol with LAPD's Vanuys vice unit, Sgt. Ron Fisher says it's common to see girls with brands that signify ownership.
FISHER: The typical tattoos that a pimp will use are dollar signs. They'll a tattoo of a money bag. They'll have a crown that stands for the
whole pimping thing.
SIDNER (voice-over): Police say the girls rarely come to them for help. Instead it's when they get arrested that intervention sometimes
happens.
That is how this 15-year old found refuge from her trafficker, vice cops getting her to a safe house called Children of the Night.
SIDNER: What were you afraid of?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was scared he might kill me or he might kill my dad. He always used threats like that and he always had guns. And
there was just gang relations and it was really hard to avoid him. I was scared.
SIDNER (voice-over): At 13, when she should have been worried about homework, she was being branded, bought and sold by a friend of her drug-
addicted father.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't really know how to sleep with people because I was really young and I had never had sex before and --
SIDNER: So you were a virgin?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So.
And then he's like, he's going to teach you what to do --
[10:25:00]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- and everything. And I just went with it because I thought, OK, this is the lifestyle I'm going to live for the rest
of my life.
SIDNER (voice-over): So she thought nothing of the tattoo he insisted on giving her, his initials on her ankle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One day, he was like, I tattoo all my girls, so they took out India ink and a needle and he just did it.
SIDNER (voice-over): The mark of slavery.
LOIS LEE, ANTI-TRAFFICKING ACTIVIST: That's not the way kids see it. They belong to somebody. It's important to them. Someone's claimed me.
SIDNER (voice-over): Anti-trafficking activist Lois Lee knows how they think. For more than 30 years, her organization, Children of the Night,
has been a safe haven for sex-trafficked children.
She says, on the streets, new laws targeting sex traffickers have had some unintended consequences.
LEE: There's fewer children prostituting because the gangs control them and they serve less time for using them for other kinds of crimes.
So why would you use them for sex if you could get life in prison or 20, 40, 60, 80 years for torture and kidnapping?
Go use them for a burglary, use them for a carjacking, give them a gun so you don't go to jail.
SIDNER: But the result is the same. The kids are stuck in a horrible life.
LEE: There should be a law that anyone who uses a child in any kind of crime suffers the same penalties as if they used them for human sex
trafficking.
SIDNER (voice-over): Lee says, as horrible as that life may be, far too often the nightmare begins at home where girls are sexually abused or
neglected, making life with a trafficker seem more alluring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Be sure to join us tomorrow for part two of Sara Sidner's special reporting. You'll hear from a 17-year-old girl who says she was
sold a dream that never came true and is now left with a brand that won't let her forget.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): Ahead on the IDESK, the U.S. president heads to Alaska to talk about climate change. But critics say a decision he's made
on Arctic drilling is sending a mixed message. Stay with us.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW: Welcome to the INTERNATIONAL DESK. I'm Robyn Curnow. Here's a check of the headlines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): As the migrant crisis in Europe worsens, Hungary is now letting some asylum seekers board trains bound for Germany. But
Hungary is calling on Germany to clarify its position on allowing Syrian refugees into Germany from Hungary and denies it's allowing them to freely
travel there.
[10:30:00]
CURNOW (voice-over): French and E.U. officials have been assessing the situation at the Eurotunnel in the French court of Calais. Thousands
of migrants have been trying to make their way through the tunnel to the U.K. It's just another hot spot in the biggest migration in Europe since
World War II.
Police in Thailand are looking for a man and a woman in connection with this month's deadly Bangkok bombing. Authorities issued arrest
warrants after discovering bombmaking material in an apartment in the city's suburbs. The woman's mother says her daughter left for Turkey two
months ago.
It may be tough to prove a flaperon that washed ashore on an island in the Indian Ocean last month is from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. A French
source tells CNN the company that made the part says its records are "not sufficient" to verify the debris is from the missing plane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Climate change will top the agenda for U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit to Alaska. Now he's due to arrive Monday afternoon
local time. Mr. Obama wants to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change and the White House is offering up what it calls some
glaring examples.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): It says Alaska now faces accelerating ice melt in the Arctic, vanishing glaciers and raging wildfires. The president will
meet with people who are feeling the impact of global warming. He'll also address Arctic Nation foreign ministers in Anchorage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: A visit to Alaska is part of the leadup to this year's COP21 climate conference in Paris with the focus on two degrees Celsius. Climate
experts call that number the critical threshold to stabilize global warming.
Well, CNN Digital's John Sutter joins me now in the studio.
Thanks for coming in to the IDESK. Let's just talk about the Arctic. It really is very much on the front lines of this -- of climate change.
JOHN SUTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, very much, as the warming is happening at twice the rate in the Arctic than it is in the rest of the
world. Temperatures there have already risen about 1.7 degrees Celsius in the last 60 years, so quite a dramatic rate of increase.
There are estimates that summer sea in the Arctic could be gone as soon as 2030 to 2050. So just incredible changes happening both for the
natural ecosystems and for people living there.
A few years ago, I visited a village called Shishmaref that was considering relocating and still is because of permafrost melt and because
their coast is eroding. So I met people who are living very much on the edge of the water and live in fear that their homes will no longer be
viable. There are homes that have toppled into the ocean on the coast in the Arctic. So their costs there are very real and very present.
CURNOW: And very worrying if you look forward.
So if we have melting summer sea ice, what are the implications of that? Because it's not just environmental; there are political and
military implications here and now also economic. And the Obama administration has been called hypocritical by some for these mixed
messages they're giving out on this issue.
SUTTER: Absolutely. I mean, President Obama is really trying to create a climate legacy with this trip, I feel like. And it is very mixed.
So like on one hand he has a plan to reduce emissions from power plants that's seen as fairly bold. The U.S. has made a pretty strong commitment
ahead of those climate talks to cut emissions and to be part of this global conversation, which is fundamentally new in some ways.
On the other hand, he's opening up the possibility for Shell to start drilling soon in the Arctic, which some experts say is completely
incompatible with the goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
I mean, there are experts saying that essentially we need to leave a third of the oil that's out there in the ground, to leave half of the gas
reserves and 80 percent of coal reserves untouched if we're really going to meet that goal.
So it's a pretty bold thing to say we're going to try to stop warming at 2 degrees and there are many people who say that drilling in the Arctic
is -- flies exactly in the face of that goal.
CURNOW: OK. So then let's talk about the military, the geopolitical implications of what all of this means. Russia particularly still very
early on, the word, I suppose, potential is the wrong word here, but the potential of the Arctic.
SUTTER: Yes. It's been described as an arms race by some, all the countries that --
CURNOW: The new Ice Curtain.
SUTTER: -- the new Ice Curtain is even a better way to put it. It's opening up potential economic opportunities, not just oil and gas drilling
but also shipping lanes between Europe and Asia in particular.
And as the summer sea ice continues to decrease, I think those will become more and more prominent.
And there are many experts saying that Russia is really staking a claim to this in a way that other countries have not, both militarily and
economically. So this creates all sorts of new international political dynamics and challenges going forward.
CURNOW: And this is just one more conference that's designed to spur some sort of change of behavior or some sort of action.
Is it going to make any difference?
SUTTER: I'm really hopeful that it will. You talk to people who watch these climate talks closely and who have gone to all of the past
meetings and they say that there is a different tone about the meetings that are coming up in December in Paris.
You have the U.S. and China on board, saying that they have targets for reducing this pollution. So I do think --
[10:35:00]
SUTTER: -- the tone of it has changed. But we really will see this trip to the Arctic, what happens with drilling up there really will be key
to understanding how things come together before the end of the year, moving beyond that even.
CURNOW: OK. John Sutter, as always, thanks so much.
SUTTER: Thank you.
CURNOW: Now over the next few months, these issues will be central to CNN's climate change coverage for our Two initiative. We'll examine the
effects of global warming and look at solutions.
Of course, leading up to, as John was saying, the COP21 summit, a sustainability forum. And that forum, that's being held in Paris in
December. That's all at cnn.com/twodegrees.
Well, during his Alaska trip, President Obama will formally announce that Mt. McKinley has been renamed Mt. Denali; at nearly 6,200 meters, it's
the tallest peak in North America. The mountain's original name paid homage to U.S. President William McKinley. Denali honors Native Alaskans
who have long lobbied for the change. But some in Ohio, the birthplace of McKinley, are upset.
The U.S. Interior Department made the change official in a tweet late Sunday night, saying, "The mountain has spoken."
Well, just ahead, Wes Craven, a master of the horror film and creator of Freddy Kruger has died. And once again, the MTV Video Music Awards do
prove that they've been known for everyone has been telling us, making viewers shake their heads in disbelief. We'll take a look at some of the
most eye-opening moments just ahead.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW (voice-over): Wes Craven, the man who dreamt up the 1984 horror movie, "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream" in 1996, has died.
His family says he was suffering from brain cancer.
Craven has a master's in philosophy and writing and briefly taught English. His prolific career in filmmaking began with the 1972 movie, "The
Last House on the Left." Wes Craven was 76.
His movies still so scary that -- perhaps even more scarier, what happened at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Catty remarks, revealing outfits and perhaps an early declaration for the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Once again, the MTV Video Music
Awards were as much about the sideshows than they were about actually who won the awards.
The media correspondent, Brian Stelter, joins us now from our New York bureau.
Hi, there, Brian.
Miley Cyrus, managing to lower the tone even more, which I didn't think was possible. I mean, I didn't realize you could fashion so many
outfits out of dental floss and masking tape. But anyway, that said, social media is lapping up so-called feuds between Cyrus, Swift and Minaj.
Tell us about --
(CROSSTALK)
BRIAN STELTER, CNN HOST: Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed. And Miley Cyrus is one of a kind, I suppose. MTV wanted chaos; they wanted controversy.
And they certainly got it with Miley and her various outfits. At one point no outfit at all. There seemed to be a exposure briefly on camera. But
this is cable, not broadcast, so it's not governed by the same sorts of decency rules that we're used to on broadcast network --
[10:40:00]
STELTER: -- TV in the U.S. And the feuds were the story of the night, you know. Two pop stars, Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift, had seemed
to be battling in the past few weeks. They made up on stage in an opening act. But then a new feud started a few minutes later, Nicki Minaj versus
Miley Cyrus, apparently Nicki Minaj not appreciating what Miley had said about her to "The New York Times" -- go figure, "The New York Times," the
source of a new beef in the world of pop music.
So we'll see how this one plays out. But this is something that's sort of a win-win-win, you know, MTV gets drama; these stars get their
names out on the headlines and we all get something to talk about, right?
CURNOW: Oh, it's so tedious. But anyway, I do want to know about Justin Bieber. Apparently he cried. Well, I saw him crying after his set.
Did he miss his afternoon nap?
STELTER: Yes, it was a little confusing. People still don't know quite why he was crying. But this is what the VMAs really should be about.
There was some true artistry on display, some really impressive and some really dramatic performances. And Justin Bieber's was one of them. At one
point, he got up in his gear and he went flying. He was flying on top of the stage. Maybe that's what made him so emotional.
He also had not been to this music awards show for many years. And he's changed a lot over the years. So this was sort of a coming home
moment for Justin Bieber.
There were some other really amazing performances though, that we saw, Tori Kelly was one of them, definitely worth looking up on YouTube or
mtv.com, even though we know there are all these headlines about drama and ridiculousness at these awards shows, you do see some true artistry come
through, some really impressive musical performances. It's a reminder that the music industry, although sometimes having difficulties financially with
how they're going to pay for music, is putting out some remarkable music these days.
CURNOW: Indeed, you're right. I mean, Tori Kelly proof that if you wear clothes and can sing, you might actually be quite --
(CROSSTALK)
CURNOW: -- let's listen to her. She's actually quite good. I was impressed as well.
STELTER: And to focus on the audio instead of all on the video.
(CROSSTALK)
CURNOW: I want to play the sound of her. She was really great. This is -- I think we've got a clip. Here we are.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
CURNOW (voice-over): We heard there from Tori. That was quite powerful stuff. Also there, we have to just mention Kanye, Brian --
(CROSSTALK)
CURNOW (voice-over): -- said "yo" a lot, he rambles. He admitted to smoking something other than a cigarette and he thought he sounded quite
presidential. And after this summer maybe he's right.
(LAUGHTER).
STELTER: Well, Donald Trump has proven that anything's possible in presidential politics. Kanye West, getting up on stage for the biggest
award of the night, the video vanguard award, giving a rambling 13-minute speech, at one point even speculating about why we have award shows at all.
It got very meta and then at the end announcing he wants to run for president in 2020. That's a whole five years from now. But as Donald
Trump has showed this summer, celebrity star power does go a long way in politics in the U.S. these days. I guess something crazier could happen
than Kanye West as president and Kim Kardashian as first lady. It certainly gives us a lot to imagine, I guess, for the next five years.
But that moment from Kanye West, certainly a talker -- Tori Kelly, by the way, a YouTube star, who then made her way onto the MTV stage. So
among all the craziness, I was happy to see that as a defining moment of the music awards last night.
CURNOW: Yes, actually for music, that was quite --
(CROSSTALK)
CURNOW: -- there we go, Brian Stelter --
(LAUGHTER)
CURNOW: -- thank you very much for joining us.
I'm Robyn Curnow. And we'll be back with another edition of the IDESK in just over an hour. Thanks for watching. In the meantime, "WORLD SPORT"
is next.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
END
