Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Austin: I Take Classified Document Leaks "Very Seriously"; Report; Record-Level Greenhouse Gases In 2022 Amid Climate Crisis; Cargo Container With $15M In Gold Stolen From Toronto Airport. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 21, 2023 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00]

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT CORRESPONDENT: But as the justices did that, they took pains to say that states -- individual states could still make abortion legal. Now, the main way that women and pregnancies these days in the early stages is through medication abortion, as opposed to surgical abortions.

So, if increased restrictions are put on this drug, or, you know, down the road after the merits of the controversy are heard even more restrictions are put on the drug than what's on the table right now, it would really undercut what the Supreme Court said that it -- this will be a state-to-state matter. So that's what we're looking at here.

And just so people know, the Biden administration has asked that -- again, that all it needs to do is suspend the effect of the lower court orders so the case could play out on its merits. And we'll see whether they just give us a yes or no to that, or if they themselves, try to actually address the individual regulations, which, frankly, the Biden administration says would just create massive chaos in the country, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We'll wait and see. Joan Biskupic, thank you so much for all that. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thanks, Sara. This morning, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is trying to reassure allies after several U.S. classified documents were leaked online, many of which reveal details about military operations in Ukraine. Austin met with his counterparts from around the world at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to coordinate sending more aid to Ukraine. In his opening remarks, he acknowledged the severity of the document leak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LLYOD AUSTIN, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: I take this issue very seriously. And we will continue to work closely and respectfully with our deeply valued allies and partners. As I've discussed this issue with our allies and partners, I've been struck by your solidarity and your commitment to reject efforts to divide us and we will not let anything fracture our unity.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: So, there's also new information this morning on the U.S. training of Ukrainians to use Abrams tanks. CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us from the Pentagon. What is this reporting? How far along are they in the training, Oren?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This entire process moving much faster than was originally anticipated back when the U.S. announced it would send Abrams tanks to Ukraine. The expectation then was that this could play out over months or years because the U.S. needed to acquire these tanks, upgrade them to the more advanced M1A2, get the training done, and then send them in. That was a process that would have taken a very long time.

But then the U.S. made a decision to accelerate that whole process, sending a slightly older version of the tank, the M1A1 with some less sophisticated equipment. But the goal of that was to get the tanks in faster and now we're seeing just how quickly training on 31 M1 Abrams tanks set to begin in Germany next month for 250 Ukrainian soldiers. That's troops that training will still take 10 weeks, so it'll still take some time. But we're talking about a period of weeks or a few months instead of months or longer than a year, so you see how fast this is moving.

The Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen Mark Milley said these aren't a silver bullet. One set of tanks enough for a platoon won't simply change everything for the Ukrainians. But it is part of a broader effort we're seeing from the U.S. and its allies to get in more advanced and more powerful equipment. German Leopard Two tanks, UK Challenger tanks, a refit and repair station will be set up for those Leopard Two in Poland. So, you see this broad effort to try to get these systems in so they can make a difference on the battlefield, John.

BERMAN: Getting those tanks in much, much more quickly, Oren, than we were originally led to believe. Thank you so much for your reporting. Rahel.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): And, John, now to Sudan where new this morning, we have learned that the Defense Department is developing options for Sudan and also watching the situation very closely. The defense secretary says that it has sent some forces nearby but did not reveal how many or exactly where this as the devastating impact of the conflict is mounting for people who are caught between two warring factions. And on this holy weekend of Eid al-Fitr, one man told CNN he was forced to skip prayers because he and his five children had to lie on the floor because they feared being hit by stray bullets.

Now, despite the two sides agreeing to a ceasefire for the holiday weekend, fierce fighting has continued. It comes as the World Health Organization says that more than 400 people have been killed so far. And we have just learned that a UN staffer is among the dead after getting caught in the crossfire.

Many residents have been stuck in their homes for days without electricity, medicine, food, water all running low. Around 70 percent of hospitals there are out of service because of the fighting. CNN's Nima Elbagir joins us now. And, Nima, these harrowing stories of citizens caught in the middle is just truly heartbreaking. What more can you tell us?

That those who can are attempting to leave both Khartoum and those who have access points to flee Sudan are doing so. 20,000 refugees fled into Chad from Sudan's Western Darfur region, taking enormous risks to try and leave behind everything that they know, everything that they had to have.

[11:35:11]

And one Sudanese activist whose sound bite we want the audience to hear explains what goes through your head when you're trying to take that kind of a decision. Take a listen, Rahel.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALLIA MOHAMED ABDELMONIEM, SUDANESE ACTIVIST: It's traumatic. It's surreal. It's scary. It's frightening. And it's really frightening because frankly, in the sense, as in, we don't know what's going to happen next. We don't know what steps we need to take. And if we can even take those steps during vacate, do we move -- do we go somewhere else? Do we move to another city? Do we look to leave the country?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELBAGIR: And now we are receiving reports from inside of Khartoum, Rahel, that some fleeing citizens have been stopped by armed men. Among them, we're told, Sudan's rapid support forces. There is a real fear for those who leave.

If you stay in position, you are taking a huge risk. If you are hurt while traveling, hospitals have closed down. So, only 55 hospitals in the capital have shut down.

Something like 12 of them were attacked, 15 are completely offline, and there's a real concern that they will take some time to be brought back online. Every day for those trapped in this fighting, there's a constant calculation, is it safer to leave and risk dying on the way, or is it safer to stay here and die in my own home?

SOLOMON: Risk everywhere you turn as you rightly pointed out there, Nima. Nima, you know, one thing that's been especially I think, disturbing about this conflict is it happening within Khartoum. You and I both have connections to Sudan. I was actually born in Khartoum. My parents spent years living there. For people who perhaps have not been to that part of the world, who have not been to Sudan, help us understand what that city is like.

ELBAGIR: So, Khartoum straddles the two Niles. It's at the confluence of the two Niles. And, of course, I'm biased because it's my hometown, but I never feel like I'm home until I cross the meeting point of the two Niles between Khartoum and Omdurman which is the other side of the administrative capital. And I think -- you know, there's a story that my mother told me when I called her earlier because today's Eid, and I rang to check in on them at their home in Khartoum. And I asked her you know normally Eid is such a time of festivity. And she said, you know, people are still trying to find ways. They're calling each other, they're seeking to celebrate, and then that's Khartoum.

SOLOMON: Wow. I'm so glad you share that story, Nima. Wonderful to know that people are still trying to resume celebrations even in the midst of the horror that we're all witnessing. Nima, thank you. Thank you for your reporting. John?

ELBAGIR: Thank you.

BERMAN: Eid Mubarak. This morning, a new climate report revealing alarming trends, a warming planet, and rising sea levels. Now, scientists warn we must pull billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air. CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is here. Kind of a headline, Bill.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It is a trillion-ton Godzilla in the sky. But I met some amazing people ready to fight it with everything from kelp plantations to artificial whale poop, John.

BERMAN: That, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:45]

BERMAN: So, before the break, you heard about kelp plantations and whale poop. And you might reasonably, wondering why. Well, new this morning, an annual report from the UN's climate agencies found that the last year smashed a series of climate records from rising sea levels to fast melting glaciers.

Scientists now say we must pull billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air over the next 25 years. The problem is, while there are multiple ways to do this, most are in the development stages. In Sunday's Whole Story hosted by Anderson Cooper, CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir takes a look at some of the proposed solutions including one focused on farm waste.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WEIR: You're part of the movement to basically build the oil industry in reverse.

PETER REINHARDT, CEO & FOUNDER, CHARM INDUSTRIAL: That's right.

WEIR (voiceover): After making a killing in software and becoming frustrated with carbon offsets, Peter Reinhardt helped found Charm.

REINHARDT: So, this over here is the -- is the spiralizer. WEIR: A startup that scoops up the organic waste usually left to rot and farm fields, heats it into biochar, which improves soil health, and Bio Oil which he injects down into old oil wells. How much have you injected to date?

REINHARDT: We've sequestered about 5,450 tons of Co2 equivalent. That is a drop in the bucket right compared to the 50-billion tons a year that we're emitting as a -- as a civilization.

WEIR: Confirming Peter's claim independently is tough because carbon removal verification is also brand new. But if he's right, his teeny drop in the bucket would be about half of all the carbon ever removed.

(on camera) No offense, this is awesome. But it's a couple of containers in a parking lot in San Francisco and we were in Iceland and saw what's there, and that's it in the whole world? Should I be depressed by that or --

REINHARDT: Or you could view it as an opportunity --

WEIR: I guess.

REINHARDT: -- if you want to start a carbon removal business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir is with me now. And, Bill, one of the reasons you and your reporting inspire me is because you do focus on actual solutions here, things that can be done.

WEIR: And this project, John, we spent the last year I went out looking for hope and ideas. And there are so many ways. There are so many feasible ways for life as we know it could be.

[11:45:06]

We know that there's some pain coming. That's baked in. But between his idea to pump this Bio Oil back in oil, the one thing that this hour I took away from is just the scale of the problem, a trillion tons of carbon.

That's trained cars, that's men in hardhats, and shipping ports devoted to this. It's building the oil industry in reverse.

And someone might do it with machines like Peters, someone who uses artificial whale poo to bring back fish stocks and create healthier oceans which draw down carbon. Whales themselves are carbon-capturing machines. Someone who uses kelp buoys that capture and gobble. They grow up two feet day and then sink to the ocean bottom.

There's a -- there's lots of ways to supercharge mother nature's natural carbon removal systems. And a lot of people get rich doing it. I mean, this is a trillion-dollar industry we're not talking about.

BERMAN: But that's OK -- that's OK. WEIR: I mean, absolutely. It's -- as it should be. And the thing is, there's conservationists, I think an environmentalist says we should preserve as much wilderness. And that has to be part of it.

But we also have to build stuff. We have to build a cleaner future. And that is going to create an entirely new economy for literally everything you see in your life. There's a more efficient less carbon- intensive way to do that.

BERMAN: Some of the solutions that you talked about, and we'll be talking about Sunday night feel very, very big. And also, a little distant from you and me necessarily, like I'm not going to the ocean and dropping synthetic whale poop. But for the people watching the show, you know, what are some of the things that we should be thinking about?

WEIR: Well, one of the characters I've made is Bertrand Piccard, the man who flew around the world in a balloon for the first time and then in a solar airplane. And he has his foundation where he found 1400 different moneymaking planet healing businesses.

There are so many ways to look for just in your life if you decide, maybe I could find a better poop bag for my dog and my whale that's biodegradable and support a company who's trying to do it a better way and take some plastic out of the waste stream. Those little decisions add up.

It's like piranhas. If one bites you, it doesn't matter if 1500 come at you at the same time. And that is the metaphor they use to talk about this problem. We can have bite it from every angle in our lives in ways that we don't have to suffer as a result but in a much cleaner, smarter way because the technology is there.

BERMAN: Bill Weir, thank you very much as always.

WEIR: You bet, John.

BERMAN: You open our eyes to great things. You can catch Bill's full report in The Whole Story, this Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. This is a new weekly program hosted by Anderson Cooper. One whole story, one whole hour. Sara?

SIDNER: Coming up. More than 15 million bucks in gold and other valuables vanished from a Toronto Airport. Details on what police know and what they're not sharing, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:16]

SIDNER: A high-value heist in Canada has officially stumped this morning. An air cargo container with more than $15 million worth of gold and other valuables inside was stolen from a Toronto Airport. CNN's Tom Foreman is following the details for us. Tom, you're a smart guy. How'd this happen? TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, it was -- it was -- it was a crime, Sara. That's what I thought. This plane -- this plane landed on a Monday evening -- it landed Monday evening. This container that was about five feet by five feet. And it contained, yes, $15 million in U.S., 20 million Canadian in gold, and other things that were considered valuable here.

This thing gets moved to a cargo holding facility. Now, authorities there said there are three big cargo facilities at this airport and this is a big airport -- big airport. The Canadians themselves describe it in a very Canadian way as 12,500 Hockey arenas big. It gives you an idea of how big it was.

It was moved to one of these holding facilities and then it just vanished by illegal means. That's what they describe it. Vanished by illegal means.

It contains a high-value shipment. We know that there was a lot of gold in there. We don't know what else might be in there.

We know that Canada is also the third-largest gold-producing nation in the world. But they'd been looking for this. They don't know if it was a professional job. They don't know if it was done by just an opportunist. They don't know.

But the gold has gone missing, and so far, they've given no indication that they know where it is, whether or not they have video of it happening, whether or not they have any good leads.

BERMAN: I do think that when you steal $15 million dollars, you lose your amateur status. You're automatically protected.

FOREMAN: You would think so.

BERMAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: There are also --

FOREMAN: You seem like you're automatically professional at that point.

SOLOMON: Guys, did you know gold is considered an inflation hedge? So, maybe these things -- maybe these thieves were just trying to be -- (INAUDIBLE)

FOREMAN: You're saying -- you're saying it was as an economist?

SIDNER: Yes. That's all -- that's all -- (INAUDIBLE) ---

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: (INAUDIBLE) An economist doing this. Is that what you're suggesting?

SIDNER: Yes. FOREMAN: That an economist said let me go knock off the airport here? I don't think that's -- I don't think that's very likely. I will say this though, worth bearing in mind, 1953 they had a gold heist from this very airport, one of the biggest crimes of its time, never solved.

BERMAN: Because the economists are crafty. Economists know how to hide.

FOREMAN: Yes, the economists are very crafty.

SOLOMON: Every economist that I report on, it's like e-mailing me at this moment like --

SIDNER: It's like do not throw us under the bus.

BERMAN: So, Tom Foreman brings this Canadian thing, but you're just showing me about something in Philadelphia.

SOLOMON: So, my suspicion is that this might be a trend.

SIDNER: What?

SOLOMON: Because in Philly, the great state of Philly -- the great city of Philly where I'm from, thieves got away with $200,000 worth of dimes from like an unattended trailer. So, this idea of sort of stealing metals -- again at a time of high inflation, metals, gold, are inflation hedges so there's something here. Are we there?

[11:55:01]

BERMAN: You can steal the inflation hedges.

SOLOMON: Sure.

BERMAN: I'm obsessed with the dimes. Like what do you do with 200,000 dimes?

SIDNER: Melt them --

SOLOMON: That's the question.

SIDNER: -- or something.

(CROSSTALK)

SIDNER: How do you spend those?

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE) phone calls.

SIDNER: Nobody wants dimes.

BERMAN: You nailed it.

SIDNER: It's true. All right. Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEW CENTRAL. "INSIDE POLITICS" is up next. SOLOMON: Good to be with you guys today.

BERMAN: Thank you so much for coming, Rahel.

SIDNER: Thank you for coming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)