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BP to Try Top Kill Method to Stop Leak; Gulf Fishermen Fear the Worst; Stocks Take Another Dip; Small Plane Crashes Outside Toronto; Troops Clashing With Supporters of Alleged Kingpin in Jamaica; Parliament Formally Opened; Violence and Rubber Bullets in Haiti at Demonstration; Pentagon Investigating Behavior of 10 U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan
Aired May 25, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get you to the man: CNN's chief business correspondent and the host of CNN NEWSROOM, Ali Velshi.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, you have yourself a fantastic afternoon. You've left us with lots of news to cover this afternoon.
I'm Ali Velshi. I'm going to be with you for two hours today and every weekday, taking every important topic we cover a step further. I'm going to try and give you a level of detail that will help you put your world into context. And I hope you come away with something you didn't have before.
Let's get right to it. Here's what I've got on the rundown.
Oil-rig inspectors allegedly took gifts from the companies they monitored. That information is just in from a government report. I've got details about that in just a minute.
Plus, another rough start for U.S. markets and, well, for your retirement funds, amid fears that Europe is not able to recover from its financial crisis. We'll show you what's happening and tell you whether it's time to be worried about your investments.
Also, Haiti is getting torrential rains, endangering an already- scare fresh water supply. We'll show you something that can not only purify water but generate power, too. It's our big eye. It can save lives, and it could change your life.
But first, here's new news in from the inspector general of the Mineral Management Service of the United States. Federal inspectors -- here's what it says. Federal inspectors overseeing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico accepted meal and tickets to sporting events from companies that they were monitoring. This is from the Interior Department's inspector general.
In the one case it says that inspector -- an inspector in the Minerals Management Service, MMS -- that's the division of the Department of Interior that monitors and collects royalties and issues leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
In one case an inspector in Louisiana conducted inspections of four offshore platforms while negotiating a job with the company, negotiating for a job with the company. Others in the same office accepted tickets to the 2005 Peach Bowl game. Everyone, according to a report -- this is a quote -- "Everyone has gotten some sort of gift before at some point from the companies that they regulated."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has -- has ordered a widespread shake-up of the agency and has called the report yet another reason to clean house.
What we don't know is whether any of the inspectors who had anything to do with the Deepwater Horizon rig that blew up 36 days ago were involved in taking -- taking gifts from the companies they monitored. But we'll be on top of that. As of now, all we know is that inspectors at the MMS did take gifts.
Let me bring you up to speed with what's going on, on the oil spill. It's day 36 right now for that oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A couple things are going on. First of all, you've seen these pictures before. Right? You've seen -- this is -- this is what's going on in the gulf. There's -- there's oil washing on to shore.
Congress right now is considering increasing, quadrupling the tax on -- on oil. There's a federal tax on oil to deal with oil spills. Right now it's eight cents a barrel. They're considering quadrupling that to 32 cents a barrel to deal with the cost of dealing with spill clean-ups.
Also, under pressure from the EPA, BP, which has been using this dispersant, basically a soap that breaks up the oil, they're under pressure to stop using Corexit, which is the dispersant that used, because while it disperses oil fairly effectively, it's also somewhat toxic. Although they've eased up on it. They haven't stopped using it entirely.
And the rig's owner -- so BP was the company that leased the rig. The rig's owner, Transocean, is holding a memorial service one hour from now for the 11 workers who were lost in that explosion 36 days ago. There you can see a picture of it. It was a remarkable explosion. And of course, that all led to the spill that we see today.
Here's the big issue, though. Within 24 hours, we expect BP to start the big assault on this oil spill. Everything that hasn't worked so far, they're hoping this is going to be the one that does it. It's called a top kill. You're looking at it right now. This is an animation of the top kill. Basically, there's oil in that pipe. It's coming up.
Now, what they want to do is put something into that pipe that they call mud. The mud will force the oil down. It will stop the flow. And then they put cement into that. And you see the cement going all the way down, plugging that hole for good. That's what's supposed to happen. It's supposed to start tomorrow. At least that's as soon as BP says it's supposed to start. They say in preparation for this they are speeding through a process that should take months to complete. They are doing it in much less time. This has worked before. This top kill method hasn't worked at 5,000 feet under the sea. That's the issue. They say delays are likely; success is possible but not guaranteed.
Let's go to David Mattingly, who's in New Orleans. He's following this very closely.
David, where are we now?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, just to pick up from what you were just talking about, this has worked before on land and in shallow water. It's also failed before on land and in shallow water.
And everything has changed, now that they're trying to attempt this at a mile down at the bottom of the ocean. No human hands can do anything down there. They've got all of the pieces in place. They've got everything on top of the water, in the water, on the bottom of the ocean there, on right where they need to be working. They've got all the pieces in play.
And what they're going to be doing, they're going to be using these -- these robotic devices that they have down there, carefully connecting up hoses to all the different entry points in that blowout preventer. And they're going to be doing some very delicate pressure testing to make sure that blowout preventer, where they're going to be pushing all that mud into, they're going to make sure it can take the pressure and that everything is going to work the way they figured it out.
Now, they always say, every time they make a statement about what they're going to do, they say "but we've never tried this before." So, after they do this testing, that's either going to be the confidence builder or killer to proceed with this top kill that they call.
VELSHI: David, let's talk about time lines. We think they're going to start tomorrow. They've told us that, once the process starts, if it goes well, it could take 10 to 12 hours before we get results. But the reality is we're not sure they'll be ready to start tomorrow morning. We don't know what kind of issues they'll run into on the way down. They've got to do -- it's a multi-step process.
MATTINGLY: We don't know what kind of issues they're going to run into. They don't know what kind of issues they're going to run into. So when they start making this work, after they've checked all the connections and everything today, checked all the pressure, checked all their calculations, they're going to start this tomorrow.
And first -- first things we were hearing is that it's going to take ten hours. If they run into a problem, they might back off. They might try again. They might ramp it up faster. They might try a slower approach. Everything depends on what they're doing as they do it. And they're learning as they go. And everything they learn now is going to be applied to everything they do at sub-sea level in the future.
VELSHI: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Now, what they're going to be looking at is can this BOP, this blowout preventer, take it? They're going to be looking at weaknesses that they've been able to look at, examine over the past couple of weeks, and they're going to see if it can take the pressure, if it can take the solution that they're trying to apply.
VELSHI: And the issue is there's pressure going both ways. This oil is naturally coming up from pressure in the earth, which is typical of a new well. And they've got to defeat that pressure. They've got to put something in that is going to push that oil down, because you can't just put cement into it. It will just blow out into the water.
Here's what -- I think you were on that call, a very technical call from BP. BP senior vice president Kent -- Kent Wells. Listen to what he had to say earlier today about the chances of success.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENT WELLS, SVP, BP: Once we get started, once again, this could take anywhere from a half a day to a couple of days to do it, depending upon how things go. And what I wouldn't want to do is have people think that it's more successful to take the shorter period of time.
Depending upon what we learn, it will dictate how we go about this. And at the end of the day, we have one priority, and that is to shut off the flow from the well. And we're absolutely committed to doing that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: So, David, that's what we want to know. And I think ultimately we know that, at some point, technology will defeat this well. But so much oil is coming out of here that it's creating so much damage every day. What happens if this process doesn't work? Because BP has not, by any means, guaranteed that it's going to work.
MATTINGLY: And let's state this very clearly. This is their best shot. This is their first and best option to kill this well. If that doesn't work, they've got some modifications to do.
We've heard so much about the junk shot. That's still in their back pocket. They can employ that within a couple of days if this mud doesn't work on its own. If that doesn't work, they may have to back off and try another measure where they're like sheer off that pipe at the top of the blowout preventer that's been leaking, and then put on another collection device there to collect the oil that's coming out of it.
They've got multiple plans they've been following on parallel paths, preparing for failure. But again, this is their best option. It gets harder after this if it doesn't work. VELSHI: Yes. All right. David, we'll stay on top of this with you. Thank you so much for that.
David Mattingly is in New Orleans.
The issue here, as we do know -- we do know that one day they will get this done. We know they can drill relief wells. That could take months.
In the meantime, the remarkable impact that this oil spill is having on gulf fishing and the seafood industry, in Louisiana alone, let alone the rest of the Gulf, we have to find out about this. You can expect jobs can take a hit. You can expect to pay more for seafood. Josh Levs joins me on the other side to break down how much this is costing right now. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. Down in the Gulf Coast, listen, we talked about the fish industry, the fishing industry, oysters, shrimp, things like that. You know, you buy your fish from a store. You think that it's a big industry. But ultimately, it's a whole lot of individual fishers come together, and they sell their product to a -- you know, a producer who sells it to a bigger plant or factory. So there are a whole lot of people here.
This is a multi-facetted disaster, this oil spill. It's the environmental disaster. It's those 11 men who were killed. And then it's people who fish those waters who might be out of business for a long time.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's a competitive industry. You know, I don't know if everyone realizes, but that majority of the fish, the seafood we eat in America, is imported.
VELSHI: yes.
LEVS: So that the 20 percent slice that comes from inside America is already -- these people who are trying so hard to compete with the cheaper stuff from overseas, and now they're at a worse disadvantage.
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: And I was able to do basics (ph). What I was excited about yesterday, or not excited, interested to see because this is news, is this. So we have a new step in this. I've been talking to you about what's happening in this economy...
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: ... to fishermen. But right now we have a disaster that's been declared. So what this does is it advances things for people who need help.
First thing I wanted to know, what do they get our of this? Well, boom, here's what they get: $15 million in supplemental funding -- this is all for fishermen affected by this oil spill.
VELSHI: Right.
LEVS: Another $5 million for economic development and a couple more things. Unemployment coverage, which is important because some of these people don't actually work for a company.
VELSHI: Right.
LEVS: They're individuals who go out and work.
VELSHI: That's right.
LEVS: They're going to be covered. Also, economic injury disaster loans, which is a similar idea. Loans to help these people.
VELSHI: A lot of these guys have loans on their boats...
LEVS: They need that.
VELSHI: ... for equipment that they buy. And they don't have a whole lot of cash flow sometimes.
LEVS: In a tough economy already.
VELSHI: Yes, right.
LEVS: So these are things that they're getting. And something -- every time the government announces any form of help, the first thing you always hear out of the mouth is, by the way, BP is going to cover it.
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: So I pulled up that quote from the press release from the Commerce Department.
VELSHI: Yes. We've heard this several times from senators.
LEVS: BP and other responsible parties will cover the full cost.
Any time you hear about help, it's always BP is going to cover it.
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: Well, let's see how that shakes out.
VELSHI: Yes. I'm hoping that BP -- because they've got adjusters out there dealing with the claims that people are making. But as you know from hurricanes and things like that, that an adjuster comes out does not mean you're getting a check cut for you.
LEVS: It doesn't. And the thing is that people who are probably going to get a slice of what they want, it could take years.
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: Some are getting help already. We're hearing that.
Quickly, let me just show you this, looking at numbers. This is the size of commercial fishing in that area.
VELSHI: Wow.
LEVS: Louisiana is a $2.1 billion industry. Mississippi, $205 million. Alabama, $492 million.
VELSHI: This is an industry where people make their money out of fishing? This isn't leisure fishing?
LEVS: That's right. And I put up these three states because these are the three affected by the disaster declaration.
VELSHI: Yes.
LEVS: The ones getting help are in these three states. That's just commercial fishing alone.
VELSHI: OK. All right, Josh, good to see you. Thank you for staying on top of this.
Josh Levs helping us break that down.
Stocks, by the way, are down again. You probably saw this if you were following it this morning. There are a lot of reasons why the market is down. We see some -- have seen the market take some very, very dramatic swings over the past couple of years. And again, over the past couple of weeks. We're going to steak stock of it all, straight ahead, tell you what you need to worry about, what you need to do with your portfolio when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Another tough day on the markets. What's going on? When is this going to end? Take a look at that Dow: down 211 points. It was down a lot more, actually, this morning, almost 300 points. And then it pulled back, and I thought to myself, this is going to get a lot easier. This is one of those fake-out days where it starts off bad and ends up better. I don't know what's going to happen.
But on days like this Christine and I are on high alert from early in the morning, when we know there's going to be trouble. She's standing by in New York.
Hard to keep on explaining every day why it's the same thing that's making these markets go up and down. And remember, for our audience, Christine, this is kind of how it was in September-October of 2009. You weren't sure what that day was making it happen. You knew what the big, overall picture was, but why today as opposed to yesterday and what's going to happen?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And when you look back at the -- at the fear index, you know, the fear gauges on Wall Street are running just as hot as they were back in those late days of 2008 and again in early 2009, Ali. So it's that same kind of risk aversion around the world.
I means people are selling stocks. They're buying the dollar. They're selling euro. They're selling oil, because they're actually thinking that maybe the world economy could slow down and you could use a little bit also oil, so they're selling some of those commodities that also has to do with the strong value...
VELSHI: The oil is as low as it's been in months.
ROMANS: Yes. You're seeing huge moves in a lot of different -- a lot of different asset classes, a lot of different commodities and stocks and bonds and currencies. And so everyone is-- is a little confused here.
I wanted to go back, Ali, because you used a chart last week that I loved, and I want to -- I want to look at something like that again. Let's take a big look at where we've been over the past two years.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: And if you are an investor in American stocks, you have seen an enormous ride. OK, so from the high in 2007 to that low in March 2009, you lost 57 percent of an S&P 500 portfolio. I mean, that's shocking, right?
VELSHI: Which is, by the way, the way many people invest. Right? That's -- you have a 401(k), and you've got index funds or things like that. So for a lot of people, that will look like what their 401(k) looks like...
ROMANS: Sure.
VELSHI: From October 2007 to April of -- March of 2009, you may have seen 50, 60 percent cut off your portfolio.
ROMANS: Especially if you're under, say, the age of 45 when you have to have -- you're supposed to be aggressive and have a lot of stocks.
OK. So then, from that bottom there, we hope, as you like to say, we hope it's the bottom.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: That bottom there we saw in March 2009, up until April of this year, you saw an 80 percent rally. I mean, it went from 676 to above 1,200 in the S&P 500. I'm using the S&P 500, because that's 500 stocks.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: The Dow is just 30. This is 500 stocks.
Now we've had a correction. Ten percent, actually 12 percent on the S&P 500 it has fallen since April of this year.
So you can see that the wild swings we've had over the past couple of years have been pretty monumental, and some would say once in a lifetime, this kind of movement. So there's a reason why there's so much risk aversion out there. You've got big things happening in Europe. You've got people talking about, you know, trouble on pre- implements (ph) again. You've got all of this against a backdrop of such a big rally in stocks.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: That maybe a global economic rebound was priced for perfection. And now...
VELSHI: Meaning nothing going wrong, everything going right.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: And after everything that's gone wrong, we might have thought that it was going to get worse than it is now.
Here's the issue. People keep asking me, "How do I take advantage of this or what should I do?" I think this is bit of a trader's market, meaning for long-term investors...
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: ... which is what most of our viewers are, I don't think you should be trying to play this market or get some kind of edge. This is a bit dangerous.
ROMANS: You know, and Walter Updegrave, who you and I both really like in "money" magazine, I mean, you can read his volume on CNNmoney.com. He says the very same thing. He says we'll never be able to time this market. You know? This isn't for people -- mere mortals like you and I are average investors. We can't say, "Oh, I'm going to jump into T-bills and into gold and out of -- you know, and out of the euro." You know, this -- this is the kind of stuff, you're right, this volatility shows this is a trader's market.
And it's an important time, I think, to know when you're going to retire, know what your goals for retirement are and -- you know, and what your investment goals are and not to be daunted by these day-to- day moves.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Because after, you know, that big, quote, unquote, "flash crash" a few weeks ago, a lot of people who you and I talk to, who we really trust, said that's the beginning of something, not the end of it. We could have a really kind of a rough and volatile summer.
VELSHI: OK, well...
ROMANS: So investors should be prepared for that. VELSHI: The deal we'll make with our viewers, you and me, on TV seven days a week, when this stuff happens, we'll be on top of it.
ROMANS: Sure.
VELSHI: You already get up way earlier than I do, but I'll join you some mornings.
Christine Romans. You watch us both, by the way, on "YOUR $$$$$" every weekend, 1 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, Eastern Time.
All right. I want to bring you some breaking news right now. This is coming out of my hometown of Toronto, Ontario. A four-seater plane has crashed into the roof of an office building in Markham, Ontario. Markham is just north of the city of Toronto. It's -- it's the next municipality north of the city of Toronto. It's kind of contiguous, however.
You can see emergency vehicles gathered around a two-story building in Markham, Ontario. The police there, the York regional police, cannot confirm how many people were on board that plane, but this plane has crashed onto the roof of a building.
It is very near a small airport in -- in north of Toronto. It's entirely possible this was a plane that was on approach or taking off from a small nearby airport, Buttonville Airport, just north of Toronto.
We do not have more information on this. We are on top of it, and as soon as we get any information on what might have been behind this crash, we will bring it to you.
But as of now, what we know is a four-story plane has crashed onto the roof of an office building immediately north of Toronto. In Markham, there's a sort of a secondary business district that is outside of the city. We don't know exactly what is involved in this, but we will bring it to you as soon as we have anything else.
Let me bring you up to speed on some of the other top stories we're following here at CNN.
Jamaica, wow, what a story. It's getting worse by the day. We now have reports that at least 27 people were killed, 31 wounded as security forces tried to the raid an alleged drug kingpin stronghold. Christopher "Dudus" Coke is the drug dealer wanted by the United States.
In addition, in other headlines, staffers at an agency that oversees offshore oil drilling accepted sports tickets, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and that is what we're hearing from the Interior Department. A report by the inspector general of the Interior Department, which oversees the Minerals Management Service, which is the branch that issues licenses and collects royalties from offshore oil drillers.
One inspector at the service allegedly conducted inspections of four rigs while negotiating a job with the company that owns them.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar calls the findings deeply disturbing.
On the Korean Peninsula -- Christine was just talking about this -- North Korean announced today it's cutting off all ties with its neighbor South Korea. The north is accused of sinking a southern warship last month. North Korea denies it, but a team of international investigators concluded the torpedo that sunk the warship was from North Korea.
And former mayor from -- of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, is going to jail for up to five years. He's getting it for violating his probation. A judge found Kilpatrick failed to report assets that could have been used to pay restitution that he owes.
All right. We're coming off some record highs and record lows. Sure doesn't feel like spring in some places. We're going to find out what the weather holds for us next when we come back with Chad.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: I'm liking being in Atlanta, but perhaps the single biggest valuable addition in my life is hanging out with Chad, because he tells me about everywhere I'm going and what the weather is going to be like.
I'm just downright confused this year. I moved here when there were snowstorms in Atlanta.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know.
VELSHI: And I've been confused ever since. It's boiling hot. It's freezing cold, and it's all over the country this way.
MYERS: now, you went to Atlantic City this weekend.
VELSHI: I did, yes.
MYERS: Did it snow?
VELSHI: It did not snow; it rained.
MYERS: That was the first time that you tried to go to Atlantic City...
VELSHI: That it didn't snow.
MYERS: ... that it didn't snow.
VELSHI: Exactly right. You're right. You didn't snow me. You let me go this time.
MYERS: Well, this is what you're talking about. Big trough of Jet Stream out to the west. Big ridge in the east. High temperatures, very hot and cloudy. The clouds came in. VELSHI: Yes, yes.
MYERS: If you notice that about Atlanta, it never -- don't tell anybody. It's really not Hotlanta, because the clouds come in in the afternoon, and they cool you off.
VELSHI: That's right.
MYERS: It never gets to be 100 in Georgia.
VELSHI: I've been sitting out on patios and things. Yes.
MYERS: Exactly. So it has been warm in the middle part of the country and cold other places. But that also has what's made the tornados.
VELSHI: Yes, that's right.
MYERS: You've got cold on one side, warm on the other, you're going to get tornadoes.
Something else. You may not be able to land the shuttle on time because of a huge ridge...
VELSHI: Wow!
MYERS: ... of thunderstorms that will be out here in the Atlantic Ocean, all of this wind coming onshore here for Kennedy Space Center. Some of the other sites aren't perfect either, so they may have to stay up there a couple other days. They're looking out the window. They don't care.
VELSHI: They're OK. They can manage that (ph).
MYERS: They're just fine.
VELSHI: All right. We'll be back in a little while. Are we expecting any tornadoes today?
MYERS: Maybe three or five.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: Somewhere in that -- yesterday we had 16.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Not like that.
VELSHI: All right. You'll keep us posted on that, Chad Myers.
Hey, listen, incredible, incredible thing going on in Kingston, Jamaica. This is just not a place that you typically associate with violence. Kingston is -- we're going to go globe trekking in a moment there. Government forces tried to raid the stronghold of an alleged drug kingpin. Almost 30 people are dead now. We'll tell you about it when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. We're going "Globe Trekking" right now. We're going to hit three countries. First one, very serious situation developing in Kingston, Jamaica right now. Troops are clashing with supporters of an alleged kingpin, whose name is Coke. This is a guy who the United States is trying to get extradited, but police have been clashing with thugs in the streets. It's gotten very, very serious. At this point, we're hearing that up to 30 people have dead.
Let's go to Kingston, Jamaica, right now. CNN's Rafael Romo on the scene right now. Rafael, this has developed from a low burn to a very serious situation, very fast. Almost seems like it's in danger of getting out of control from the authorities' perspective. What's going on?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: That's right, Ali. Well, in the last operation from Jamaican police against the allies of Christopher Coke, there were 27 people killed, 31 injured.
And this is just one operation, Ali. We also understand that more than 200 people have been arrested. This is as a result of an operation from Jamaican police forces against those allies of Christopher Coke, who is an alleged international drug lord believed to have ties to cities like New York in the United States and many others. Also Canada and Great Britain.
However, here in Kingston, in some parts of the capital, in some slums, he's seen as a hero, as a Robin Hood of sorts. So, he has a lot of people who are fiercely loyal to him who are willing to give their lives for him. And when an arrest warrant was issued and people learned about it, they decided to barricade this community, the slums, and protect Christopher Coke with their lives. And this is what we're seeing now, Ali. A lot of death, violence, and confusion.
VELSHI: All right. Rafael, in the pictures we're seeing, Christopher Coke is now known as well as Du-Dus (ph). There's a dog there that says "We will die for Du-Dus (ph)." So, the issue is that police are coming up not only against armed drug dealers or contemporaries and supporters of this drug dealer, they're coming up against regular folk who think that he does a lot of good for their community.
Here's my question now. These up to 30 who have been killed that we're hearing about on this attack on his compound, are these supporters of Christopher Coke, or are these people caught in the crossfire?
ROMO: No, the most recent information we have from Jamaican police is out of that 27 who died, 25 are young males who were found dead right next to the barricades when they fought with police forces. There was a firefight overnight, and that's when most people died.
As I said before, these people are those who are fiercely loyal to Christopher Coke and who are trying to do everything they can to stop Jamaican police forces from actually arresting him, to prevent his extradition to the United States where he would face very serious charges. And he could possibly face life in prison, Ali.
VELSHI: All right, Rafael, thank you. Stay on top of this for us. We will check in with you again. Rafael Romo on this developing situation in Kingston, Jamaica.
OK. Let's keep trekking around the globe. Let's move from Jamaica over to Great Britain. We've been following that election in Great Britain, the end of the Labour Party and their rule and the beginning of a new coalition government. Parliament has been formally opened, and the queen herself was seen being escorted to her thrown by Prince Philip.
This is called the throne speech. When Parliament opens, the queen reads out the priorities of the government. She unveiled plans for the new coalition government. By the way, this is the first coalition government, which means no party controls Parliament. It's a deal between at least two parties. In this case, it is two parties, first one since World War II. The Labour Party was voted out in the May 6th election.
Now there's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. They want to reduce the deficit, restore economic growth. They also want to hold a referendum on making the voting system in Great Britain more proportional, and they want to change the system so the House of Lords, which is the second house of Parliament, is elected, not appointed. A lot of pomp and circumstance as always in the British system.
Let's take it back to the Caribbean now. Another very big story that we're following in Haiti. There's violence in Haiti. Gunfire and tear gas was fired into a tent city occupied by homeless people last night. Obviously there are many, many thousands -- tens of thousands made homeless by the earthquake in January in Haiti.
Gary Tuchman is in Port-au-Prince on the phone with us now to explain what's been going on. There's a few layers. Terrible weather in Haiti. It's causing even greater suffering than before. Gary, what's going on?
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, Ali, here's the latest. The United Nations told us minutes ago that for the first time, it has fired rubber bullets at demonstrators.
Students, homeless people near the presidential palace, also near our hotel. That's how we knew about it firsthand last night. We heard pops. We ran out, and gunshots were being fired. We saw the flashes, we heard the shots. We smelled what we thought was tear gas. Turns out it was pepper spray. Either way, we didn't know who was firing.
Students were convinced it was the Menusta (ph), the U.N. forces that have been in Haiti since 2004. There's 8,300 of them. They're here to protect Haiti. Their job has gotten tougher since the earthquake. They're acknowledging now, U.N. spokesman is telling us they did indeed fire rubber bullets at a demonstration that went awry. They're apologizing. Not apologizing necessarily for the rubber bullets, but apologizing for instigating the demonstration to get worse in the first place.
They said some of their forces entered the college campus after they had rocks thrown at them, which they're not supposed to do, the U.N. forces. The students got madder. For hours, the demonstrators got more heated. At one point, they started firing rubber bullets. The U.N. forces say they have the right to do that if people or institutions are in danger, but they do admit they made it worse by entering that college campus.
Witnesses tell us at least one student was hurt by the rubber bullets, but the rubber bullets normally, in most cases, are not fatal. They're used by police departments all over the world for demonstrations. So, U.N. forces apologizing for making it worse, but not apologizing necessarily for the rubber bullets. First time they've been used against demonstrators since the quake.
VELSHI: All right. Always bad news when people are already in a tough situation face greater tragedy.
All right. Thanks very much. Gary Tuchman. That's our "Globe Trekking" for today.
Ten U.S. soldiers are under investigation on allegations ranging from drug use to deliberately killing civilians. We'll tell you what we know so far when we come back.
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VELSHI: All right. The Pentagon is investigating the behavior of 10 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Let's go straight to Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent with more on what this is all about.
Hi, Barbara.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Ali. It's not the kind of news anybody wants to report. But indeed, up to 10 soldiers now in Afghanistan under investigation.
These are soldiers that belong to a unit known as the 5/2 Stryker Brigade based out of Ft. Lewis, Washington. They've been on a very tough tour of duty for the last year in southern Afghanistan. Under investigation for deliberately killing up to three Afghan civilians, for illegal drug use, assault and conspiracy.
The Military had not publicly identified what unit it was, but multiple sources now saying it is this unit out of Ft. Lewis, and that is proving to be very interesting, Ali, because that unit has had a very tough tour of duty, possibly suffering the highest rate of casualties, fatalities, and injured in the war so far.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: Barbara, what's the implication of that? I mean, is that a training problem or do they just happen to be unluckily in places where they're getting attacked more, they're getting into more firefights?
STARR: You know, people say it's a combination of both. There has been some criticism that the unit, which was originally designated to go to Iraq, might not have really been ready to take on the insurgency in Afghanistan. But they've also been in a very tough neighborhood in southern Afghanistan, coming under a lot of attacks.
But, look, it needs to be said, Ali, the majority -- overwhelming majority of U.S. troops -- even under tremendous stress, serve very honorably in the war zone.
VELSHI: And that would be the message that the Pentagon and international forces are trying to make sure that Afghans know.
So I guess that's why this is doubly troubling because, A, the Military doesn't want this sort of thing and, B, at a time when they're trying to gain the loyalty and support of Afghans, they want the message out there that most of the troops behave very honorably, as you say.
STARR: Exactly right.
VELSHI: Barbara, good to see you. Thank you so much for joining us.
Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. We'll keep you posted on how this develops.
Now, here's an interesting thing we're going to tell you about in "The Big 'I'." This is segment we do every day about things that are sort of taking us further and giving us ideas that can help us in the future.
Old technology packaged in a very new way. We've got a mobile power plant that can be used in disaster areas to purify water and at the same time create fuel.
I'll tell you about it when we come back.
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VELSHI: Every day we do "The Big 'I'," it's the Big Idea that could change the way we live. It could really make a difference in the world and could really become a technology or an idea for the future.
Today we want to talk about a mobile power plant that purifies water. It does two things. It creates power and it purifies water at the same time. Can help out in disaster areas. Let me explain what this is about. Let me just tell you how it works, first of all. Basically it takes sunlight. The sunlight goes into this plant, which is depicted as a battery. And out of it, as it's collecting let's say rainwater in a place that's flooded or, you know, there's been a disaster and there's mud and it's dirty and all that stuff, it changes that dirty water into pure water, into hydrogen, and to oxygen.
Of course, hydrogen and oxygen can be used for other things. Hydrogen is a known source of fuel. There are many people and places that power their cars or their homes or their business with hydrogen. And oxygen can be used, particularly in a disaster area, but anywhere as a medical treatment.
So this is kind of interesting that you can take dirty water which exists in so many places and turn it into clean water, power, and oxygen for medical uses.
Let's talk more about this with Mike Strizki. He's the chief technology officer of the company that creates this called The Essential Element. And Brad Carlson, who is the chief operating officer of The Essential Element.
Let's start with you, Brad. Let's talk about the water side of this thing.
Where would you use this, under what circumstances?
BRAD CARLSON, COO, THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENT, : It could be used under any circumstances. The unit is highly mobile, lightweight. It can be airlifted. It can be towed in by a trailer. It can be pulled in by a truck --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: When I say, what circumstances, I mean what would be the "thing" that you would think, hey, we need to use this? Is it a disaster? Go ahead.
CARLSON: Disaster relief, flood relief, anywhere you need clean water, where there's any kind of crisis situation.
VELSHI: All right. Tell me a little about how it works. I gave a very rudimentary explanation. But, basically, what happens?
You've got a place where -- do you need -- where does the water source need to be, how does it go through this unit and what happens to it?
CARLSON: Well, one of the beauties of the unit is that it has very robust filter. The filter can basically clean any type of raw water. You know, filthy water works just as well as clean river water or well water.
The quality of the water is the other aspect that is important. We're getting water qualities that are virus free. You know, you're in a disaster situation, you have water from floods that you have potential sewage wastes in it, river water. The unit can filter that water and produce clean drinking water.
VELSHI: Mike, let's talk about what happens now. So you purify the water. That's fantastic. But this is powered by the sun. And you've got byproducts that can come out of this that can actually be very, very helpful for a disaster area.
Tell me about the hydrogen and the oxygen.
MIKE STRIZKI, CTO, THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENT: Basically, I live in the nation's first solar hydrogen home. I started this out four years ago and I'm living off the grid now.
So basically what I did was I packaged the technology used in the hydrogen home and made a portable application that can be used anywhere in the world. Places that you can't get diesel fuel to or you're worried about pollution.
The system is essentially simple. We're basically converting sunlight into hydrogen by splitting water into its base elements which are oxygen and hydrogen. Then we're running that back through a hydrogen fuel cell to create electricity, heat, and more water again. So it's water to hydrogen, hydrogen to water, power of the sun does the conversion. So we're essentially making our own fuel from water.
Nothing gets consumed, nothing gets transported. And this whole unit is chemical free so we don't need chlorine in order to clean the water. And we don't need -- there's no byproducts. So nothing gets delivered. Nothing gets consumed. There's no wheels to well.
So this system is unique in that it makes its own fuel. Picture the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles needing a refueling station. We've basically built the refueling station on board with and it is powered by solar energy. So we can take the energy that's used from this and we can store it for weeks, months, years from now without absolutely no emissions whatsoever.
VELSHI: Mike and Brad, hang on for one second, I just want to bring this information. We are following this BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico very closely. We have this breaking news in.
Quite remarkable, BP, according to Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts, BP will be killing its video feed. This is the video feed we are looking at, we have been looking at for some time that BP released under some pressure from a Senate committee. BP -- Senator Markey says BP is going to be killing this feed while they are implementing the Top Kill solution that is planned for Wednesday. According to a press release from Representative Markey's office, BP will be terminating the feed Wednesday morning and continue to be offline until the attempt at the so-called Top Kill is completed.
Now, last week, BP agreed to provide live footage of the spill operations. For whatever reason here, they are deciding that they are not going to see this. This is interesting, because we have been reporting that we will be able to see the effect of this Top Kill on at least this one video feed, this live feed. This is live, what you're watching on the right side of the screen. According to this, BP is going to be stopping that.
Now we have reached out to BP, we have not got a response from them yet on why they are going to go this and whether they are going to do this. Senator Markey -- Representative Markey has said, and I'm quoting from him, "No one wants to interfere with the operation during the Top Kill. With those preparations mostly done, now the world should see whether or not the strategy works and we should see in real time," which we can if they don't kill the feed.
He also asked BP to provide all 12 available feeds from the accident site. And yesterday, Representative Markey released a YouTube video showing the difference between the one feed the public has been allowed to see and the 12 possible feeds available to BP.
So we are going to be find out why BP has decided that they are going to kill that feed, but you can see this feed while it is still available on CNN.com. We will bring you up to speed on that and let you know as soon as -- as soon as BP gives us a response on this.
Gentlemen, back to you, Mike and Brad, about the essential element and about this unit, which is fascinating. Let's just talk about hydrogen for a second as a fuel. A lot of people don't know that hydrogen is a readily available fuel and that it is safe to use.
Mike, am I to understand you use hydrogen fuels to power your house?
STRIZKI: That's correct. For the last four years, I have been storing hydrogen created from sunlight in regular old propane tanks, running it through a hydrogen fuel cell and getting electricity, heat and water. I also converted all my appliances in the house to run on hydrogen as well. So my stove, my hot water heater, my dryer are all run off of renewable hydrogen. So anything we can do with fossil fuel, we can do with hydrogen.
VELSHI: Brad, what do we do with this? There is a disaster, somebody brings in this unit, how do you harness all of the stuff? Or how do you harvest all of the stuff you are getting? The clean water one is obvious, it uses solar energy to clean the water, that alone should make it worthwhile. Is it easy to use the oxygen and hydrogen put out by this unit in a disaster area?
CARLSON: Absolutely. The unit produces the hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in an onboard tank. If onboard tank is filled, we have deployable Kevlar tanks for surplus hydrogen. The unit is constantly making hydrogen. The unit produces more power than is required to run the water filtration unit in any one period of time. So constantly during that entire time it is make MORE hydrogen.
VELSHI: How big are these things?
CARLSON: How big are they? They are on a 16-foot trailer.
VELSHI: OK. So they can be, as you said, they can be airlifted, they can be taken in. Have you been able to see them in action in a disaster area? CARLSON: We have not yet.
VELSHI: OK. And you are hoping that they can be.
How is the marketing of this going? I mean, are there people who say, hey, this is something we need to have available because it can really help us out?
CARLSON: The marketing reception has been overwhelming. The interesting part about the system is we are using components that have already been tried and true. The solar panels, the electrolyzer, the inverters, the filter technology, has all been tested. It is really putting -- integrating a series of tested components into this unit and that's what makes it seriously significant and also one-of-a-kind.
VELSHI: Brad Carlson, great to talk to you; Mike Stritzki, thanks very much for being with us to explain this. We love it, it's a big idea that could change the way we do things in the future. That is part of our "Big I" segment.
Coming up, their jobs, their livelihoods, their health are all at stake. Now Gulf Coast workers are getting some money from BP. Is it enough? We will take a look, right after a break.
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VELSHI: I want to give you this breaking news we just brought you a moment ago.
Again, Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts has said that BP is going to terminate its video feed. This is a video feed we have been looking at, we have been showing to you in the bottom corner of our screen. We're actually going to bring that up to show it to you now. This is the feed of the oil that is flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. BP had said that they were going to keep this up.
By the way, according to Representative Markey, they have 12 feeds. They are allowing the public to see one of them. And now they are saying that when they go and start their Top Kill procedure tomorrow to try -- their biggest effort to try and kill this well, they are going to discontinue that feed during the duration of that procedure.
Representative Markey is asking that they continue to do -- to provide the feed. We have reached out to BP, we haven't got an response yet. As soon as we do we will try to find out exactly why they have decided to kill this feed. Representative Markey is saying in a press release he gave us that we need to see this -- the results of this -- in real time. I will give you his exact words. He says, "no one wants to interfere with the operation during the Top Kill but with those preparations mostly done, the world should see whether or not this strategy works and we should see it in real time."
We will bring you up to speed on exactly what is going on with that as soon as we hear from BP.
