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Pope Francis Speaks At G7 On Artificial Intelligence; NATO To Finalize Agreement Giving Alliance Greater Control Over Military Aid To Ukraine; Alex Jones Acknowledges "End of InfoWars" Likely In Bankruptcy Case; "The James Webb Telescope: Are We Alone?" Airs Sunday At 9PM ET/PT. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired June 14, 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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[14:32:25]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The year's G-7 summit is coming to a close and you can see here Pope Francis posing for a group photo with world leaders.

He made history earlier today, becoming the first pontiff to address the gathering of the world's leading democracies where he warned about the dangers of artificial intelligence.

For G-7 leaders, today was also about a unified call presenting a united front to counter the growing global influence of China.

Let's discuss with Josh Rogin. He is a columnist for "The Washington Post."

Josh, great to see you as always.

One senior Biden administration official said that they expected to see unprecedented unity from the G-7 in response to what they described as Chinas harmful practices. What do you think?

JOSH ROGIN, COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, Boris, unprecedented unity doesn't mean full unity. It just means a little bit more unity than we had before.

And the fact is that the United States and Europe are both facing essentially the same huge problem, which is that the Chinese government is using unfair trade practices and predatory investment to take over the industries of the future and to flood other countries with goods that are meant to destroy their own domestic industry.

And it's a big problem in there really is no unity on how to defeat it. But at least now we have sort of a roadmap and that involves some tariffs, some economic protections.

But to be honest, the U.S. and Europe are still pretty far apart on how far to go. So I think there's a common assessment of the problem, but not really a common plan for the solution. SANCHEZ: There was an interesting moment yesterday, Josh, when

President Biden and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine spoke to the press. And President Zelenskyy was asked specifically about Chinas role in helping Russia in its war in Ukraine.

And he sort of hedged and he essentially said that he believes that a respectable leader would keep his word, referencing President Xi, when Xi told him that he would not be supplying Russia with weapons.

Immediately after that, Biden came out in said, yes, he's not sending weapons, but he's sending everything that they need to make weapons.

What did you think of that moment and, more broadly, China's role with regards to Ukraine?

ROGIN: Sure. Well, there's a ton of evidence that China is sending a ton of dual-use items. You know, anything from gunpowder to microchips to machine tools, which help the Russians make weapons. And whether or not you call that lethal aid is really a distinction without a difference.

Now, Zelenskyy is in a tough spot. He can't afford to just alienate China. He needs all the friends that he can get, even the friends who are really frenemies.

[14:35:02]

And President Biden is the guy who's supposed to call out these things. So in that sense, the fact that they're saying two different things isn't really a problem.

The problem is that there's no way to convince China to stop doing this, other than to sanction them. And, there again, you have the U.S. in one place, the Europeans in a different place and the Ukrainians in a third place.

So these -- the China threat and the Russia threat are linked. And we should ideally have a link and a unified response. We're not there yet.

SANCHEZ: I want to get your thoughts on Russian President Vladimir Putin outlining conditions for a ceasefire in Ukraine today. Among those conditions were Ukraine dropping its bid to join NATO and also giving up all the territories in the east and south that Russia has clawed from them.

Those, of course, are nonstarters for the West. But I'm wondering what you think about the timing of this announcement.

ROGIN: Right. Well, the first thing to know about any Putin proposal is that Putin always lies, OK? When he's talking, he's lying. And so this offer cannot be taken at face value.

But even if you were to take it on face value, as you just said, it's a crap deal. Surrender everything and then we'll negotiate. Take all your -- give up a bunch of your territory and then we'll talk. It's obviously a non-starter. It seems pretty evident that what Putin

is doing is trying to divide the West during the G-7 by giving those Europeans who want an excuse to argue for a ceasefire on Russia's terms.

It won't work. But for certain elements of the right in Europe and in the United States, frankly, it'll be enough for them to say, oh, look, Putin's the peacemaker and Zelenskyy is the problem, even though the opposite is the case.

SANCHEZ: NATO defense ministers in Brussels also moved to put NATO in charge of coordinating Ukraine aid, giving Europe much greater control over aid and security coordination.

What did you think of?

ROGIN: You know, I think this is part of Trump poofing the Ukraine issue. When I travel around the world, everyone is worried that if Trump gets reelected that he'll pull all the Ukrainian aid.

You can't solve that problem altogether. Because the U.S. funding is essential. But at least, if you move some of this stuff to NATO, and assuming Trump doesn't scuttle NATO, which is not a 100-percent assumption that you can rely, that might institutionalize it more.

That's why Biden and Zelenskyy signed that 10-year agreement, even though who knows what happens in two years, much less 10 years.

They're trying to make this into something that's immune from the divisions and distractions and tumult in U.S. politics. And that's basically impossible, but doing it a little bit is better than doing it not at all.

SANCHEZ: Josh Rogin, thanks so much for sharing some time with us.

ROGIN: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, a bankruptcy judge giving Alex Jones permission to liquidate his assets in order to start paying the families of Sandy Hook victims. Ahead, what the families that sued him are expecting and when they could see that money.

And a full circle moment. More than eight decades in the making, wait until you see what Dr. Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, just received.

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[14:42:36]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Right-wing conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, acknowledging today that his most famous media property InfoWars, is likely to go away as part of his ongoing bankruptcy case.

A judge ruled a short time ago that Jones' personal assets must be liquidated to help pay the families of the Sandy Hook massacre victims.

He owes them more than $1 billion in damages for spreading lies on his influential show, claiming the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, never happened.

It was, in fact, one of the deadliest school shootings in American history when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.

Let's bring in CNN's Hadas Gold.

And, Hadas, the company's liquidation is the big question here, right?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This hearing is ongoing, so just in the last few hours, the judge did approve liquidation of Alex Jones' personal assets.

But the bigger question right now that the judge is considering in hearing witnesses on this is whether the parent company of InfoWars, that's known as Free Speech Systems, should also be liquidated and, essentially, dismantled to help pay off the nearly $1.5 billion that Jones owes these families for defamation and emotional distress.

And Jones himself seems to be acknowledging that this could mean the beginning of the end of his company. And he has been pushing this now for several days, several weeks on InfoWars, partly as a ruse to get more people to listen and to get more people to buy the supplements, of course, that he hawks.

Take a listen to what he said just today outside of court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX JONES, OWNER & HOST, INFOWARS: Is this the end? This is probably the end of InfoWars here very, very soon, if not today, the next few weeks or months. But it's just the beginning of my fight against tyranny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLD: Another really interesting request from the families is they have actually asked the judge to also seize Alex Jones' account on X, formerly known as Twitter, arguing that that account also acts as sort of a customer base.

Now, to be clear, even if InfoWars goes away, even if all of Alex Jones' assets are liquidated, that does not prevent Alex Jones from going on any other platform and continuing to spout his conspiracy theories and lies.

And, Hadas, are these families going -- you know, when are they going to see any kind of money from this?

GOLD: It will take some time before they actually start getting money in hand. These processes can take time.

But I should also note that even if all of Alex Jones' personal assets are liquidated, even if all of the company's assets are liquidated, it will only make a very small dent in the more than $1 that he owes them. Because all of those assets together are going to amount only to about tens of millions.

[14:45:10]

But Alex Jones will continue owing these families money, likely for the rest of his life, until he somehow reaches that more than $1 billion that he owes.

But the lawyers -- I spoke actually to a lawyer for some of the families the other day. He said the money is not really what's most important for them. What's most important is the most amount of accountability that the legal system can deliver. That the money is just one component of it.

And what they really want to do, at least for some of these families, they just want to dismantle InfoWars that, of course, caused them and themselves so much harm and so much distress.

KEILAR: Yes, that makes sense.

Hadas, thank you so much for that report.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines were watching this hour.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we want you to go enjoy it for many years, your brand-new home.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

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SANCHEZ: A historic moment in Fort Worth, Texas. And 97-year-old Opal Lee, known as the grandmother of Juneteenth, reclaiming her family's land 85 years after their home was burned down by rioters in 1939.

This is video of her taking the keys to new home just a short time ago. She was forced to flee the original property when she was just 12-years-old, moments before it was attacked by a mob.

The home has been rebuilt and furnished with support from Habitat for Humanity and several other organizations.

Also, Suntegrity is recalling nine lots of its Impeccable Skin Sunscreen Foundation after tests revealed potentially unsafe levels of mold in some bottles.

While no adverse events have been reported, customers are advised to stop using the products from the affected batches. You can find more information on the FDAs Web site.

And a big announcement from Taylor Swift in Liverpool, England, last night during the 100th show of her record-breaking Eras Tour.

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TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER: This is the very first time I've ever acknowledged to myself and admitted that this tour is going to end in December.

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SANCHEZ: That's right. All great things must come to an end. The Eras Tour is set to wrap December 8th in Vancouver.

It's already the first show in history to make over $8 billion in revenue, the highest-grossing tour of all time.

Still ahead, we have an inside look at the most powerful telescope ever built. And how it would good change our understanding of the universe.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just moments.

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[14:52:04]

SANCHEZ: Now to an inside look at the most powerful telescopes ever built. The James Webb Space Telescope, a marvel of human ingenuity, has been shedding light on the farthest reaches of space, potentially rewriting our understanding of the origins of the universe.

KEILAR: Yes, it is the focus of a new episode of THE WHOLE STORY with Anderson Cooper.

And we have CNN space and defense correspondent, Kristin Fisher, here with a preview.

Love this telescope. And I don't just say that about any telescope.

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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: It has to be the most powerful telescope ever built, right?

KEILAR: Yes.

FISHER: I mean, so much has been said about this telescope because, as you say, it is truly an engineering marvel.

But what we wanted to do is tell a story about the scientists behind it. So we spent two years following two teams, two scientific teams as they became some of the first people to ever finally get their hands and actually get to use the most powerful telescope ever built.

Here's a clip.

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FISHER (voice-over): The James Webb Space Telescope, unprecedented in science and scale.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is effectively the best time machine that we've ever created.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: James Webb is revealing the cosmic story.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where do we come from? Are we alone in the universe? These are big questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unlocking the secrets that we never knew.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well over 10,000 individuals, 10 billion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Behind schedule, over budget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's thousands of ways this can go badly and one way it goes right.

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe.

FISHER: And those other worldly images displayed on a cosmic tapestry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a historic moment for humanity and I feel we are super privilege that we can actually see this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully, we'll be able to see a reflection of ourselves and to learn more about where we came from.

FISHER: Replacing our reality and rekindling a childlike imagination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are all astronomers. As a kid, as an adult, you look up, you say, what's out there?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FISHER: And so in that clip you could see one of the astronomers that we profiled, Dan Resalavich (ph), getting kind of choked up as he walked into Webb's Mission Control for the very first time.

And you know, for a lot of these astronomers, this is the Holy Grail of astronomy. They've been waiting their entire careers to finally get to use this thing. Thirty years in development.

And it takes a long period of time, from the time you submit your proposal to the time you get selected, to the time you get awarded time on the telescope.

So what we wanted to do is not just focus on the hardware of the telescope or even these incredible images that we've gotten so used to seeing, we wanted to focus on the scientists, to get to ask, to come up with the questions that the telescope then tries to help them answer.

[14:55:08]

SANCHEZ: Yes. And it seems like you went really deep into this piece. It took two years to put this together.

FISHER: Yes, two years. Because it really does take that long for these teams to come up with a proposal, think of the right questions to ask the telescope. And then to find out if they've been accepted or rejected. And then to actually get a chance to use it.

So the thing that, of course, is just so fascinating is the fact that the questions that they're coming up with to ask the telescope are questions that cut to the core of who we are and what does it all mean, why are we here?

SANCHEZ: No spoilers, obviously, because we're going to watch Sunday night, but are we alone?

KEILAR: You're going to have to watch it.

SANCHEZ: Oh!

FISHER: I can't answer that.

(CROSSTALK)

FISHER: That would be breaking news. We'd be leading every show with that if I could --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Those pictures are so beautiful. I want to blow them up and like wallpaper my house with them. But then on the flip side, I'm afraid that the telescope is going to find something that will destroy like --

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: That's --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Like in a Tom Cruise movie.

SANCHEZ: That's quite optimistic --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: It's just a range of emotions that this thing elicits. I'm just telling you. It's amazing.

Kristin Fisher, we cannot wait.

Be sure to watch Kristen on "THE WHOLE STORY" with Anderson Cooper. That will air Sunday night at 8:00 on CNN. And still ahead, Catherine, the princess of Wales, saying there are

good days and bad days during her cancer treatment. But new details that we're learning about her fight and when she'll appear in public next.

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