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Appeals Court Hearing On TX Immigration-Enforcement Law; What To Know Ahead Of Next Week's Solar Eclipse; 200-Plus Artists Sign Open Letter Against Unethical AI In Music. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 03, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:34:36]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A federal appeals court just wrapped up a hearing over that controversial Texas immigration law. This is the law currently on hold that would allow state and local law enforcement to arrest and deport people suspected of crossing the border into Texas illegally.

The question now is whether that that law is constitutional. During today's hearing, an attorney arguing for the state of Texas appeared to admit the law may have crossed the line.

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[14:35:00]

AARON NIELSON, TEXAS SOLICITOR GENERAL: What Texas has done here is they have looked at the Supreme Court's precedent, and they have tried to develop a statute that goes up to the line of Supreme Court precedent but allows Texas to protect the border.

Now to be fair, maybe Texas went too far and that's the question the court's going to have to decide.

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KEILAR: CNN's Rosa Flores is joining us now at the latest from the Fifth Circuit.

Rosa, what are you hearing?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, what stood out to me about today's oral arguments is that Texas went on the defensive, telling the court that it reached the wrong conclusion last week when it blocked the law.

Now, that was a two-to-one vote. And in the majority opinion, the chief justice practically said that this law was unconstitutional. But Texas argued that Texas is dealing with an unprecedented migrant crisis that the federal government is not doing enough. And so the state of Texas is taking matters into its own hands. And that's when Texas said, and maybe Texas has gone a little too far. But then Texas argued that, if there were aspects of this law that were invalid, that the court could actually strike those aspects of the law down.

Now, one of the aspects that has been very controversial is the deportation clause. And I want to read you what the law actually says because it's important.

It says, quote, "On a person's conviction and order requiring the person to return to the foreign nation from which the person entered or attempted to enter."

That sounds like a return, a deportation. Well, Texas argued that it went back and talked to the Texas attorney general and that what that actually means is that the state of Texas would take violators to a port of entry and then the federal government would decide what to do with that individual.

The problem with that is that's not what the law says. And that's what many critics have said about this law. it's written in a very vague way, which causes a lot of problems when you then take it to court.

Now, the chief judge, who wrote the majority opinion last week, now she was the swing vote, she was very clear about this law being unconstitutional. And based on the questions that she asked today, it doesn't appear to me that she has changed her mind.

Now, let me remind you of what she said last week. This is in part from our majority opinion. She said, quote, "Texas, some would say, seeks to fill at least partially the gaping void but it is unlikely that Texas can step into the shoes of the national sovereign under our Constitution and laws."

Brianna, meaning that S.B.-4 is unconstitutional. Now, could she change her mind? Absolutely. We're going to have to wait and see what this court comes up with.

And of course, that order could come down at any moment -- Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching for that.

Rosa Flores, in Texas, thank you.

Experts warned us during the last eclipse and, quite frankly, parents have been warning their children forever, right? No matter how tempting, do not look directly at the sun, certainly not with -- without special eyewear. We're going to talk to a doctor who saw the real-life consequences when people did not listen to that.

Plus, why Botswana is threatening to send 20,000 elephants to Germany.

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[14:42:47]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It is the year's most anticipated celestial event, the total solar eclipse. You see it right there.

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SANCHEZ: From Texas to Maine, millions will be in the path of totality on Monday. Millions more will also be able to see a partial eclipse.

KEILAR: Cooler to see it in person, even though that's a great picture we have behind us.

It's important when you check this out to do it safely. OK? Sunglasses, that's not going to cut it. Staring directly at the sun can result in disrupted vision. It can even cause blindness.

Joining us now is Dr. Avnish Deobhakta, who is an ophthalmologist in New York Eye and Ear Infirmary at Mount Sinai.

Talk to us a little bit about this because NASA obviously telling us what our parents have told us, don't look directly at the sun. Tell us about the risk.

DR. AVNISH DEOBHAKTA, OPHTHALMOLOGIST: Well, the risk is very, very, very, very strong. The fact is that this -- these eclipse rays are very powerful.

And so we had a patient who had looked at the eclipse in 2017 in New York City and the issue was that she had thought that she had been wearing the proper protection, but in fact, she wasn't.

And what occurred was that she got an eclipse-like burn in the retina. So you could actually see a crescent level of damage in that part of the eye that actually takes in the light.

So it's very important that people use the standard glasses. And by that, I mean the ISO standard glasses that everyone is sort of looking into right now.

I hope those glasses that you're wearing are the ISO standard glasses. But those are the ones that you want to look -- to use if you're looking at the sun.

SANCHEZ: I'm trying to figure out if these are the ISO standard. How could you tell if it doesn't say it on them?

KEILAR: Or even if it does.

DEOBHAKTA: Well, first, it should say that on them. So that's what I would say. Number one, you don't want to go the store and just kind of buy glasses. You want to make sure that they have an ISO labeling.

And then there are other ways to do it. You can take a light bulb and you can actually check them against a regular pair of sunglasses. And the ones that are actually protective are the ones that you need to make sure that they actually dim the light very, very cleanly.

So you can't -- you can't just grab sunglasses from a store. That's not going to protect you. [14:45:02]

KEILAR: OK, look at this one, Doc. It says "Confirms uses" -- these are the little disposable ones. "Confirms to and meets the transmission requirements of ISO."

DEOBHAKTA: Yes.

KEILAR: And these ones, by the way, I purchased off of a link from a reputable news source. And they're actually no longer available, I think, because they're such a hot item.

SANCHEZ: The truth is, I can't see anything with these on.

KEILAR: Yes, we're blind with these on. So is that a good sign? All we can see is tiny little parts of the brightest lights in our studio.

DEOBHAKTA: Yes. So that's actually -- that's how it's supposed to be. So you can't use a standard set of sunglasses. You do actually want them to be much stronger.

So I think those ones are probably good, especially if they say that they have the ISO standard on them.

SANCHEZ: So, Doctor, let's say you do something silly and you glance at the sun even briefly for a moment, how do you know -- what are the symptoms? How do you know that you might have actually hurt yourself?

DEOBHAKTA: Yes. So I say that it -- anything that you're concerned about, if you -- if you've looked at the eclipse, come in and see an eye care provider, come to see an eye specialist. Because we're going to have tools that we can use to evaluate you.

But of course, the type of damage that we're worried about is the damage where you have persistent kind of the visual field defect, is what we call it.

And what that just means is that if, after you look at the eclipse, then you start, let's say, reading, say, four or five hours later, and you start to have problems seeing certain words because there's a defect in your vision, that's the kind of thing that you really want to be concerned about and you want to come in and see us.

But it doesn't tend to happen only after a few seconds. You really have to be looking at the sun for 10 or 20 seconds, that kind of time range. But it's not just a few seconds. If you glance at it, you're probably going to be fine, but you still don't want to take that risk.

SANCHEZ: Yes, solar retinopathy sounds excruciating.

KEILAR: You don't want that.

SANCHEZ: No, you don't.

Dr. Avnish Deobhakta, thanks so much for the perspective. Appreciate your time. DEOBHAKTA: No problem.

SANCHEZ: So if you were at home, you've got to get your eclipse viewing glasses ready. This rare opportunity is not going to come around again for two decades.

You may not need eclipse glasses if you --

KEILAR: Hang out with us.

SANCHEZ: -- tune into CNN on Monday. You can hang out with us. Live coverage of the "ECLIPSE ACROSS AMERICA." It starts Monday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. You could also stream it on Max.

KEILAR: We're going to have some fun. It's going to be a good time.

And now to some of the other headlines that were watching this hour.

Convoys that were facilitating passage along a collapsed section of the Pacific Coast Highway are going to be temporarily put on hold because more rain is coming.

Look just how dangerous that looks. Access has been limited to Big Sur residents and essential workers since Saturday's landslide there in California.

Local officials say they plan to install concrete barriers down the center of the road and they're looking into ways to stabilize that cliff edge.

Also, we have some new video from the inside of an Istanbul nightclub that caught fire on Tuesday, killing 29 people. Witnesses who have been in the club before describe it as a maze with only one way in and one way out.

The fire started in the middle of the day as crews were carrying out renovations. All 29 victims are said to be construction workers and we're told the youngest was just 17-years-old.

SANCHEZ: Meantime, an odd tiff between Botswana and Germany. Botswana's president is threatening to send 20,000 elephants to Germany in a dispute over hunting trophies.

Germany has sought to ban the import of trophies over concerns about poaching. But Botswana says it's overpopulated.

Its president telling a German paper, quote, "It's very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We're paying the price for preserving these animals for the world. Germans should try to live together with the animals in the way you're trying to tell us to."

Botswana's president says that conservation efforts of caused the elephant population to explode in that country to around 130,000.

Even though they look cute on video and they seem like majestic creatures, I imagine it's got to be difficult to have those things roaming around your backyard.

KEILAR: Yes, true. But I think we haven't seen the end of this tiff.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: I'll tell you that.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We'll see if they send 20,000 elephants to Germany.

Still ahead, hundreds of top recording artists expressing concern that AI is coming for their industry. We're a little bit concerned, too. Why they say it's a threat.

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[14:54:01]

SANCHEZ: A long list of performers, including some of the biggest names in music, have signed an open letter calling for an end to what they call the predatory use of artificial intelligence in that industry.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister is live in Los Angeles with the details.

Elizabeth, what are you learning about this letter?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: This is a big deal, Boris. This is certainly the biggest show of support from the most A-lister stars in Hollywood against AI.

Now, as we know, AI has been a growing concern, not just in the music industry, but far beyond. But now we have some of the biggest A- listers speaking out against the threats on the music industry.

Billie Eilish, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl crow, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, the estates of Bob Marley and Frank Sinatra. These are huge names who are coming out to say that technology cannot replace the human work of singers, songwriters, of rights holders.

They are saying that by voice cloning and by basically mimicking sounds without permission that that can be detrimental to the livelihood of artists.

[14:55:07]

I want to read part of this open letter, which was issued from the Artists Rights Alliance.

In this letter signed by these 200 artists, they say, quote, "This assault on human creativity must be stopped. We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists' voices and likenesses, violate creators' rights and destroy the music ecosystem."

Now, some people have actually touted the technology of AI. And of course, there are good uses for it. In fact, last year, the Beatles were able to release a song and Paul McCartney used some of the voice track from John Lennon that he recorded back in the '70s.

Let's take a listen to that that.

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(SINGING)

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WAGMEISTER: Now to clarify, that was actually John Lennon's voice, but they just used the AI technology to purify his voice. So there is some innovation here.

But again, some real scary threats on artists and their livelihoods -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes, we've seen some fake AI songs that imitate artists extremely well. We'll have to see where this goes.

Elizabeth Wagmeister, thanks so much for the report.

Coming up, we're going to talk to a Palestinian-American doctor who walked out of a meeting at the White House in protest. Why he says he did it, and whether he's heard from President Biden since.

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