Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Madoff Suicide Pact; Thailand's Worst Flood in 50 Years; No Money for Weight Loss Surgery; Predicting Weather May Get Harder; An Old Building With A New Use; Talk Back Question; Sharks At Risk Around the World

Aired October 27, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Want to get you up to speed.

We're getting new video in to CNN from eastern Turkey. Now, it's really quite incredible.

Reuters reporting that rescuers pulled a man out of the earthquake debris today. He had been stuck under the crumbled concrete for more than 100 hours. Officials in Turkey say the death toll from Sunday's earthquake rose to 523 today. Amazing.

Bernie Madoff's wife, Ruth, is going public now with the couple's desperate plan. It was Christmas Eve 2008, just days after Bernie Madoff's arrest for conning investors out of billions in the biggest Ponzi scheme ever. Well, Ruth Madoff tells "60 Minutes" that she and her husband swallowed a handful of pills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUTH MADOFF, WIFE OF BERNIE MADOFF: I don't know whose idea it was, but we decided to kill ourselves because it was so horrendous, what was happening. We had terrible phone calls, hate mail, just beyond anything. And I said I just can't go on anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: In a few minutes I'm going to talk with Diana Henriques from "The New York Times." She has interviewed both Madoffs.

Well, your 401(k) probably has a little bit more jingle in it today. Stocks surging on news of a debt deal in Europe. Right now, the Dow is up 297 points.

Last night, eurozone leaders hammered out what they hope will be a long-term solution to the debt crisis. It forces banks to take a 50 percent loss on Greek bonds. It also increases the amount in the eurozone bailout fund to $1 trillion or more.

Well, consumers stepped on the accelerator in the third quarter. That's right. New spending helped drive the gross domestic product, up 2.5 percent. That is almost double second quarter growth, but still considered modest in some ways. GDP measures all the goods, the services that are produced by American workers.

This Iraq War veteran, he is dealing with a serious head injury today. Scott Olsen's skull was fractured during the police crackdown on Occupy Wall Street protesters in Oakland, California. Now, police fired tear gas canisters, beanbags, but it's not clear what caused Olsen's injury.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDRA OLSEN, MOTHER OF INJURED PROTESTER: We want our son to be OK. We're just worried about that end of it, and there isn't going to be long-lasting brain damage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Olsen's parents, they are on their way to the Bay area right now from their home in Wisconsin.

Well, there is a new development concerning the wild animals that were set free in Ohio last week. You may recall the animal preserve's owner, Terry Thompson, he opened their cages and then killed himself. Well, his widow, Maryann (ph), wants the six surviving animals back. The sheriff's deputies killed the 49 other animals. Well, Columbus Zoo has been caring for the surviving animals, but says it has no legal way of actually keeping them.

Thousands of people are rushing to get out of Bangkok today. The river that runs through the heart of the Thai capital, it's expected to put much of that city under water over the next couple of days. Monsoon floods have killed 373 people this season alone.

All right. So, Jack the cat, he has been found.

He disappeared at Kennedy Airport in New York. That was late August. But he just turned up this week when he fell out of a ceiling in terminal 8. That's what we've been told.

Jack, who became famous on Facebook while he was missing, came down with a nasty liver ailment during his misadventure, and he's now in pretty bad shape, they say. But his vet says that the illness is treatable. Good for Jack.

A closer look now at the shocking new revelation from Bernie Madoff's wife, Ruth. Now, she says she and her husband tried to commit suicide as their lives crumbled around them. She says they took a handful of pills on Christmas Eve, 2008, before her husband was going to be in prison for investment fraud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MORLEY SAFER, "60 MINUTES": What did you take?

MADOFF: I think Ambien. SAFER: How many?

MADOFF: I don't even remember. I took what we had. He took more.

SAFER: Did you leave notes?

MADOFF: No. It was very impulsive, and I'm glad we woke up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Diana Henriques is a senior financial writer with "The New York Times," and she has interviewed both Ruth Madoff, as well as her husband, about the suicide pact.

If you would -- you also wrote a book about the scandal in "The Wizard of Lies." Tell us first about Ruth Madoff's story. You've interviewed her, you've gotten to know her.

Do you think -- what has she told you? Is this plausible?

DIANA HENRIQUES, SR. FINANCIAL WRITER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I think it is plausible. It gives us a good barometer of the emotional pressure she was under in those first two weeks.

You put your mind back, that was really a crazy time. They were caught in a firestorm of publicity, something she'd never experienced before.

When I spoke with her about this failed suicide attempt, it seemed genuine, it seemed authentic to me. And it's hard to think of any reason why she would concoct a story like that if it hadn't actually happened.

Madoff himself is far more careful. When I e-mailed him in prison, he said only that suicide crossed his mind, but he decided he couldn't abandon his family. But I do find Ruth's account very convincing.

MALVEAUX: What kind of people are the Madoffs? You've gotten a chance to talk to them several times. You've exchanged e-mails very recently, you say, and you've also interviewed Bernie Madoff in prison. Are these the kind of folks that are motivated by remorse or guilt or grief, or you think they're just trying to get attention?

HENRIQUES: I think it's very important to distinguish between Ruth and Bernie, because they are very different people. Bernie Madoff obviously is an arch criminal, a master manipulator, one of the most fluent liars I've ever met, and obviously a man who was able to inspire trust in a lot of people who should not have trusted him. But Ruth Madoff is among those people who trusted him.

She had been raised in a relatively sheltered way. She met Bernie when she was 13. She married him when she was 18. She loved him all her life.

That's a very different profile from a con artist like Bernie Madoff.

MALVEAUX: And Diana, what did Bernie Madoff tell you about his life in prison now?

HENRIQUES: Well, he seems to be making a good adjustment, although I should say that he has been grieving ever since the death of his son Mark to suicide. The news this week about Mark's widow's memoirs being released have troubled him. He actually told me in one e-mail that his psychologist told him not to watch those interviews, but he did anyway, and he was -- he openly admits that he holds himself responsible for his son Mark's death.

MALVEAUX: And when you say he regrets that, is he mourning his loss, or what is he doing about that? Is he apologizing to the other family members, his daughter-in-law?

HENRIQUES: He has extended apologies to them. He's not a man who admits either failure or wrong very easily, and I can understand that anything that he might say to them would be of very little comfort, really. But whether or not he will ever be able to extend his remorse beyond his family, to the lives of the other victims that he has affected all around the world, is something I think remains to be seen.

MALVEAUX: And Diana, so far, he has not done that in any of the exchanges you've had with him? Has he offered any kind of apologies or anything?

HENRIQUES: You know, he does. If you looked at the written words that we've traded in e-mails, he seems very remorseful. The two prison interviews I did with him, he seemed to be more in denial, really focusing on the dollars and cents, on the arithmetic of this gigantic fraud, rather than on the shattered lives and the terrible dislocations that he created.

So he's a complicated guy. He's a very complex man. And I don't -- just speaking personally, I did not feel that he truly felt the kind of remorse more generally that I could see he felt for his son.

MALVEAUX: All right, Diana Henriques. Thank you so much. Excellent reporting, as always. We appreciate it.

HENRIQUES: Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Here's what's ahead "On the Rundown."

Hour by hour, floodwaters are rising in Bangkok. People who live there are being told, get out.

Also, states that have spent millions covering obesity surgery for government workers are now saying no more.

Plus, Wall Street protesters hold a different kind of demonstration for an Iraq War veteran seriously injured during a protest in Oakland.

And a fight over funding in Washington could ground the next generation of weather satellites.

And finally, we get an up-close look at sharks, the fight to save them from over-fishing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. Today's question: Are there too many presidential debates?

Carol Costello joins us for more from New York.

Carol, come on. I mean, you called me a political geek the last hour, but I think there are a lot of people like me who love these things, these contests. You learn more about these folks. Yes?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I love them, too, but I'm not so sure about everyone else in America, because it seems that every time you turn around, there is another Republican debate, eight so far, and at least another dozen to go. It's fair to say there are more debates this election cycle than ever before.

One candidate, Rick Perry, appears to be saying enough is enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates. It's pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and your concepts with a one-minute response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Coincidentally, Perry's campaign spokesman says his guy may be skipping some future debates and prefers answering questions directly from the voters, or maybe Perry just prefers not to have debate moments like this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERRY: Is it the Mitt Romney that was on the side of -- against the Second Amendment before he was for the Second Amendment? Was it before he was -- before the social programs from the standpoint of he was far standing up for Roe vs. Wade, before he was against Roe vs. Wade? He was for Race to the Top. He's for Obamacare, and now he's against it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was so painful. Lots of voters witnessed that unfortunate moment. And I'm talking lots of viewers, lots of voters.

And that's the thing. Lots of viewers equal eager networks hungry to host more and more debates.

So, the question is, with so many debates on tap, when will voter fatigue set in? And is Rick Perry right? Are voters really learning anything new in these debates?

So, the "Talk Back" question today: Are there too many presidential debates?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.

MALVEAUX: I'm biased, Carol. I say never. Never too many.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: My God, there's going to be 18 or more. It's crazy.

MALVEAUX: OK. Well, we'll see what folks have got to say.

Thanks, Carol.

Well, tens of thousands of people in Thailand's capital city are heading to higher ground as floodwaters sweep through the streets. Evacuation orders are in place all across Bangkok, and the weekend could be even more devastating.

CNN's Sara Sidner, she reports the water has started to drain from Bangkok's famous Grand Palace, but that's not the case in other areas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When it comes to the rest of the city, especially the northern part of the city, the water is rising there. We noticed it was much higher today than it was in yesterday, when we were in the same area, which was around where the domestic airport. That airport, of course, has been closed for a couple of days.

We also managed to go up in a helicopter today with the U.S. Navy and Marines, who have been making daily rounds trying to get a real look from above at exactly where this water is coming from, where it's going to, and how quickly. What we saw is a lot of damage and water slowly seeping in, slowly pushing into Bangkok.

What we heard today from the flood control command was basically that the city can no longer hold off a deluge of water that is coming and overflowing riverbanks. And so, much of Bangkok will see some kind of water.

The prime minister saying, look, it could be anywhere from 10 centimeters, which is about four inches, to a meter, which is about three feet. No one knows exactly how high this water is going to get and exactly how far it's going to push in. But now the worries are that it will go a lot further than they had hoped.

Residents being told now in the eastern part of the city to please evacuate. Other residents have already left. More than a million people have gone out of this city, booking hotels in places where they know they will be high and dry. What we have managed to do is talk to also residents who are trying to deal with this on a daily basis. We talked to one such resident who usually works at the airport that has been closed, and now she is sleeping there.

Here's what she had to say about the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (through translator): My property, it's all damaged. It's all gone now. And now I have to rent a house.

SIDNER: And people who make like her less than minimum wage, or just at minimum wage, this is really a hardship. Very difficult for people to deal with all of their belongings that have been swept away.

And of course you had mentioned there have been hundreds of people, more than 300 people, who have died in these floodwaters. The big concern now is that Bangkok, one of the most developed and populated cities in Asia, will now see more water flooding in, and they want to make sure that people are prepared for it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: A lot of people turn to weight loss surgery to get their weight under control, but starting next year, one state is not going to pay for it anymore. We're going to tell you where and why.

And if you're not getting enough sleep these days, like a lot of us, maybe part of the problem is where you actually live. A new survey using numbers from the CDC ranks the most sleep-deprived cities.

Number five, New York. The city that never sleeps has the highest cost of living in the country.

Four is New Orleans, still slowly recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Three is Oklahoma City, hit hard by the recession.

Two, Birmingham, Alabama, recently ranked one of the least healthy cities in America.

Can you guess what the most sleep-deprived city in America is? That answer in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Want to update you on a story that we're following. This is out of Turkey.

This is after, as you may recall, that earthquake, 7.2, that hit Turkey, in eastern Turkey. That was on Sunday. Well, now, 100 hours after the quake hit, there is a young man who's been rescued.

I want to bring in journalist Andrew Finkel to talk a little bit about some of the details that we are getting about this rescue mission that just happened and a little bit more about this young man.

What do we know, Andrew?

ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST: Well, as you say, it's a long period after the earthquake. The earthquake was four days ago, so it's a miracle really to discover anyone still alive. But they haven't abandoned the efforts, so what we know is that people are still sifting through the rubble, still trying to find people, survivors.

In most cases, what they're finding instead are dead bodies. However, in this particular instance, clearly there has been signs of life, and the operation continues -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Andrew, I understand we have very little information about this man, but that he is 18 years old. Perhaps that helped him in some way, that he's a young man, survived 100 hours under the rubble. It's really quite unheard of.

But do we have any other information about him or about how he was pulled out?

FINKEL: Not yet, but there have been equally remarkable cases of rescues. There was a 2-week-old baby who was dragged out of the rubble 48 hours after the quake occurred, along with her mother. The nation held its breath as a 13-year-old boy was believed to be alive. And then it was a great deal of sadness when it turned out that he had internal injuries and didn't survive those.

But so far, well over 150 people have been rescued alive from the rubble, so there is still hope for this particular person -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And Andrew, because this young man was just rescued now, after 100 hours, is there more optimism there? Are people somewhat feeling a little bit better that perhaps they can still bring people out alive now?

FINKEL: Well, I think the expectation and certainly the statistics from previous disasters show that, yes, there still may be one person, two people, five people still about to be rescued, but really, at this stage of this event, I'm afraid most of the news will be bad. And indeed, the death toll has been rising every so slightly over the days. It's now over 530 people known to have died, and that number may indeed increase -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Well, certainly our condolences to their families, and certainly a big thank-you to those rescue workers and ordinary folks who are just out there combing through all the debris and rubble to actually be able to pull out a survivor now after 100 hours.

So, on to another story. Do you live in a sleep-deprived city? Well, we've got a map of where the sleepiest Americans live.

What city ranks number one? Detroit. You might say a lot of the city's residents are stressed out these days. Detroit has a 14 percent unemployment rate. It ranks among the top 20 cities for foreclosures. And if you want to get weight loss surgery in Georgia, and you don't even have the money to pay for it, well, now that's too bad if you're a state worker. Starting next year, Georgia's no longer going to cover the surgery for its employees.

Our CNN's Elizabeth Cohen, she met two women who say it's a big mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALICE MCCORMACK, RETIRED EDUCATOR: This is blood pressure medication.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alice McCormack weighs 305 pounds, and she has high blood pressure, sleep apnea, arthritis, acid reflux. She says she's tried for years to lose weight, but nothing has worked.

(on camera): How many different weight loss programs do you think you've done in your life?

MCCORMACK: It's hard to even count. Probably an outside guess, 10 to 20.

COHEN (voice-over): McCormack thought she'd finally found a solution: weight loss surgery.

MCCORMACK: As I get older, it becomes more and more imperative that I find an answer.

COHEN: A retired public school educator, she is insured through the state of Georgia. High costs are causing changes in medical coverage everywhere, and starting in January, the state will no longer pay for weight loss surgery. That doesn't leave McCormack enough time to complete the pre-surgery requirements.

(on camera): Weight loss surgery is expensive. Over the past two-and-a-half years, the state has paid for about 1,600 people to get the surgery, to the tune of $30 million. The state says they just can't afford it anymore, they're on a tight budget.

(voice-over): CNN legal contributor Holly Hughes got the surgery when she was a county employee. This is what she looked like then.

HOLLY HUGHES, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: I started at 296. Right now I am 151 and I'm 5'3. So I still could probably drop about 20 pounds to be safe.

COHEN: To her, the state is being shortsighted.

HUGHES: It is frightening to me that you're going to stop all of these state employees from having access to the surgery. In the long run, it's going to cost the state more, because these are folks who are going to develop diabetes if they don't already have it, sleep apnea, acid reflux. I mean, things that can kill you.

COHEN: McCormack still hopes that one day she'll be able to get weight loss surgery.

(on camera): Could you afford it on your own?

MCCORMACK: It's about $25,000, so it's about the price of a fairly decent car. No, right now. I don't see myself doing that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Elizabeth Cohen, she joins us, along with Holly Hughes.

Holly, you look great, by the way. We had no idea. You look fantastic.

I want to start off with you, Elizabeth.

Is Georgia the only state where we're going to see this cutting down on this, cutting back, and not funding this type of procedure?

COHEN: You know, right now, there are six other states that don't fund weight loss surgery for their employees. And we're going to show you a map here. So there are the states. And the other ones do fund it. The other ones, if an employee needs it, they do pay for it.

It's interesting. In Missouri, Suzanne, they paid for weight loss surgery for employees, then they stopped. And then they started again because they said that they realized that they were actually saving money if patients got the weight loss surgery and their blood pressure -- high blood pressure went away, diabetes went away.

MALVEAUX: And Holly, I mean, what was it like for you? I mean, how was your health -- was your health really changed because of this procedure, this operation?

HUGHES: Well, since I've had it, absolutely. Luckily, I didn't have any co-morbidities. I had not developed diabetes yet, I didn't have sleep apnea, but I was getting there.

I was 40 years old, you know, and I just looked around one day and said, I need to focus on this weight loss. So, for me, the benefit, of course, is I will not develop those horrible diseases. I have a lot more energy, and it's mental.

A lot of it is your mental health. We look at this and we say it's a physical procedure, but when you're overweight, there's two kinds of weights. There is the weight you carry, and then there's the weight to, when I lose this weight I will do something with my life. I will get this job, I will go for that, because you're more confident, and you go out there in the public and do things like that.

So what it does is it frees up -- you've accomplished that dream. That's done. Check it off the list. Let's go do something else.

And that, the benefits of the mental health, is just amazing. So it's -- you can't go wrong. MALVEAUX: So, Elizabeth, other people who might be thinking, I've got to get this weight off, I've got to lose this, are there other ways they can do that are short of having this procedure?

COHEN: There certainly are. There are plenty of people who are able to lose weight without having surgery. But then there are also plenty of people like Alice in our story who tried for decades and failed.

And there is an interesting study in "The New England Journal of Medicine" just out today that shows that when people lose weight, the hormone that tells you, come on, you need to eat, you need to eat, that hormone goes up because your body is losing weight, and your body says to itself, oh, wait a minute, we might starve, so that hormone goes up and tells you to start eating again.

The hormone that tells you to stop eating goes down. So your hormones are working against you when you're trying to lose weight. And for some people, that's insurmountable.

MALVEAUX: That's a real struggle for a lot of folks.

Well, Elizabeth, thank you.

And Holly, way to go. We had no idea. Way to go.

All right. Here's a rundown of some of the stories that we are working on.

Next, the winds of change across the Arab world, they keep blowing, from Syrians risking their lives for change, to women in Yemen burning their veils. I'm going to talk to my friend who is an Egyptian journalist about all of that.

Then, as Europe deals with its debt crisis, there is a congressional committee here in the United States up against a tight deadline to get a debt deal in place by the end of next month. We're going to talk about what would happen if that doesn't happen.

And later, why a lack of funding could knock out America's ability to forecast the weather in the long term.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEUAX: The Syrian city of Homs looked like a war zone yesterday. A leading activist group says 17 people were killed across the country in clashes between the government and opposition forces. The violence came as Syria's embattled president, Bashar al Assad, hosted Arab League ministers at a meeting aimed at stopping the bloodshed.

While the Arab Spring revolution is being fought in Syria, an Islamic party in Tunisia is waiting for confirmation that has won a majority of the votes in the country's first free democratic elections. Now that's significant because Tunisia was the first country to overthrow its dictator. The uprisings that became known as the Arab Spring. Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan and Syria, virtually the entire Arab world exploded in similar protests against poverty, unemployment, tyranny. Change is still sweeping the region.

Yemeni women defiantly burning their traditional veils yesterday in protests of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters. Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy . She joins us from New York to discuss the changes that are underway in the Arab world.

And Mona, first of all -- first I want to point out these images of Yemeni women defiantly burning, torching these traditional veils, give us the significance of this act here in a pretty conservative Islamic country.

MONA ELTAHAWY , EGYPTIAN JOURNALIST: Right. I think there are many levels to the story, Suzanne. It is important first of al to remember just how many Yemeni women have taken part in the revolution that's being going on now for an amazing eight months against Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Secondly, these women were demonstrating not so much the veil itself, they were demonstrating the violence that the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime has unleashed on them. And they're calling it -- it is a tribal practice to say that we reject this violence and we demand protection against this violence.

And thirdly, I think it's also a reminder of the central role women play in Yemen that we saw recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee when it awarded (INAUDIBLE) a Yemeni female journalist its Nobel Peace prize.

MALVEAUX: And Mona, you used to wear a head scarf in Egypt when you were younger. Can you explain to folks the importance of this act behind this? What does this act mean? Is it a symbolic thing that they are burning these veils?

ELTAHAWY: it is a symbolic tribal practice to burn your veil as a woman as a way to protest violence and as a way to demand protection from the men folk around you.

Now these women in Yemen clearly haven't need protection for a long time because they have been very involved in their revolution. But over the past few months the Ali Abdullah Saleh regime has particularly targeted women and children as a way to discourage them from joining the protests in the streets. And the women have defiantly objected by continuing their protests.

So, this symbolic burning of the veil is not to say we reject the veil but to say we reject this violence and we demand an end to the violence.

MALVEAUX: And Mona, this cease-fire the government has called for in Yemen, many protesters on the ground see that as a joke because there are still people being killed and being injured. What do you suppose needs to happen to turn this thing around?

ELTAHAWY: Clearly, what needs to happen is Ali Abdullah Saleh must step down. This is what people have been calling for the past eight months.

He has very little credibility with these hundreds of thousands of protesters who have been on the streets for eight months now. They don't believe anything he says. Every time he talks about a cease- fire, or even more importantly, every time he talks about stepping down according to a deal that's been put together to help him establish immunity, people laugh because they don't trust him anymore.

MALVEUAX: Real quick, let's turn here the corner here to Libya. Many celebrated the fact that Moammar Gadhafi was killed. But Human Rights Watch has made an alarming discovery recently. They're discovering mass graves revealing that there are dozens of revenge killings on both sides from the supporters and haters of Gadhafi. Are you concerned about what is happening in Libya here?

ELTAHAWY: Right. I think what's the most important thing to happen in Libya or what must happen in Libya is the recognition that a new and free Libya, a Libya free of Gadhafi, must be based on justice and not revenge.

Unfortunately, these cases that have come to light through human rights organizations and through journalists must signal to Libyans that in order to build a country that's better than the one that Gadhafi left behind for them, they must stress the values of justice and not vengeance. And they must investigate all of these cases, because just as we condemn the human rights violations that Gadhafi unleashed on them for 42 years, we must also call for justice and a respect for human rights in a new Libya.

MALVEAUX: All right, Mona Eltahawy, good to see you. Thanks again.

ELTAHAWY: Thanks, Suzanne.

MALVEUAX: A so-called super committee has a month to come up with more than a trillion dollars in deficit reduction. We're going to talk about what is at stake if they don't reach a deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEUAX: So, a debt deal in Europe brings relief on Wall Street. Stocks rallied at the opening bell on news that European leaders had reached an agreement. Right now, the Dow Jones up by 307 points. The European debt crisis threatened the global economy, could have helped push the U.S. back into recession.

So, under the plan, Greek bond holders will write down the value of that country's debt by 50 percent. The deal also strengthens a bailout fund for the European Union. And it calls for banks to increase their reserves. Lawmakers in Congress are under the gun now to deal with the debt crisis here in the United States. The so-called super committee has to come up with a plan to reduce spending by $1.2 trillion. The panel -- six Democrats, six Republicans -- faces a deadline November 23. If there is no deal, automatic spending cuts are going to take effect.

So, let's bring in our own Alison Kosik from the New York Stock Exchange. Alison, what kind of cuts are we talking about if there is no agreement?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Okay, so Suzanne, if there is no agreement, the cuts I'm about to tell you about would be felt across the country. And this is coming from the director of the Congressional Budget Office who explained it to the super committee yesterday. What he said was, defense spending would be cut by 16 percent by 2021, and that is really a massive reduction for the Pentagon.

Also, so-called non-defense discretionary spending would be cut by 15 percent. I know you are wondering what is discretionary. These are areas that affect our everyday lives, like infrastructure projects, like roads, higher education, involving Pell grants, basic research, funding that goes to state and local governments.

Now an automatic cutback means programs that would be scaled back or that state and local governments would have to come up with their own money so obviously these programs could wind up suffering.

Now, if you're wondering why this automatic trigger would be going into effect for these across-the-board cuts, it was really designed to be this draconian to give the committee an incentive to reach a deal. But the question is, is that incentive really working? Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: You've got to wonder if it's enough. When you've got $14 trillion in national debt -- so $1.2 trillion, is that really going to be enough?

KOSIK: And that's really a good question, Suzanne. It is only enough to get by for now. You ask experts who say you know what we really need? We really need $4 trillion to $6 trillion in cuts.

But some analysts, they don't even think that the super committee will get a $1.2 trillion plan together. Look at how things are coming out right now. Republicans refuse to raise taxes. Democrats, they don't want to cut Medicare or other entitlement programs. But they still have to get it done, right?

Both -- experts are saying both are needed, that there has to be this compromise, everybody has to play nicely in the sandbox, and they don't have much time. We've been talking about how this European debt deal has kind of came many to the wire. You have to hope this doesn't happen again here in the U.S. Suzanne?

MALVUEAX: Yes, playing nice in Washington. We'll see how that goes. Okay, Alison, thank you. KOSIK: Oh, yeah.

MALVEAUX: Predicting severe weather beyond just a few days could get a lot tougher soon. We'll find out what's threatening a new generation of weather satellites.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: So right now forecasters in the United States are able to predict severe weather well before it actually happens. But all that could change because there's a funding fight in Congress. Chad Myers.

Chad, what does this mean for us in the -- you know, I -- what does it mean for the future?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Isn't there a fight over everything now? I mean the budgets are getting cut. They're getting trimmed or trying to get more accurate forecasts, trying to get better satellites up there. A satellite goes up tomorrow morning and it's a great satellite. It's a brand-new polar orbiting satellite. It will change the way we forecast a little bit.

MALVEAUX: Really?

MYERS: Its life expectancy is five years. And here's the rub. The next satellite's not going to go up until 2018. Now I can do the math. And if the life expectancy is five, plus 2011, we don't quite get there.

MALVEAUX: Right.

MYERS: That could leave a hole. And eventually there just going to have to figure it out. You know, the Congress is going to have to figure out, they're going to have to figure out where the money comes from. They're going to have to figure out exactly where it goes. Does it come out of something. Does it go into something.

Here's what the satellite looks like, because it's actually quite cool. We're just going to zoom in. Whoop, there it is.

MALVEAUX: There you go.

MYERS: I couldn't find my guy. There it is. Cool satellite goes up tomorrow. It goes up in California. It will eventually keep moving from the launch pad on up to about 500 miles into space. But 500 miles into space is going to be enough for it to go around and around and around and eventually keep going across the poles and then down to the South Pole, North Pole, South Pole, North Pole. But as it does that, the earth rotates underneath it. So you actually see the entire world in 24 hours as it rotates around as the satellite goes.

Now, we all hope that this thing works because this was one of the biggest severe weather events -- severe weather seasons we've had in a very long time. Today is the six month anniversary of Tuscaloosa, where over 100 people lost their lives. Birmingham.

MALVEAUX: Right. Right.

MYERS: And then next month, it will be the six month anniversary of Joplin. Another 100 and something people lost their lives there. So we could get more severe weather. We just need more coverage with these satellites.

MALVEAUX: Yes, we need Congress to get their act together.

MYERS: We just need longer warrantees on our satellites.

MALVEAUX: Yes, OK. Well, hopefully this will all be resolved. Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Sure.

MALVEAUX: Today's "Talk Back" question, are there too many presidential debates? Joseph says, "no. Any candidate that doesn't want to attend any of the debates does not deserve any votes." More of your responses up ahead.

But first, CNN's reporters, anchors, producers, well, we cover stories around the world. It means we also get some great tips (INAUDIBLE) the best restaurants, hotels, travel spots. In this week's "Travel Insider," we're off to San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dan Simon in San Francisco. One of my favorite places in the city is here, downtown at the historic ferry building.

I love coming out here on a nice day and checking out the views. For more than 100 years, this place has been used to ferry people to different communities across the San Francisco Bay. But now the ferry building is used for all kind of different things.

Inside, the major theme is food. High-end gourmet food. From fruits and vegetables, to caviar, to olive oil, to cheeses. It's really a foodie's paradise in here.

But I think I like it outside even better. A few days a week they have a farmer's market. And this is the freshest stuff you can possibly imagine. I usually like to grab a sandwich, sit down at one of the picnic tables and have lunch.

So that is the ferry building. Restaurants, shops, good people watching. I think it's one of the best places San Francisco has to offer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: You've been sounding off on our "Talk Back" question. Carol Costello is here with your responses.

Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Suzanne.

The "Talk Back" question today -- are there too many presidential debates?

This from Linda. "Being president of the United States is hard. You have to be able to speak intelligently with other world leaders. If you can't do that as part of the job that I'm interviewing you for, then withdraw. You can't represent me."

This from Mary. "Are you kidding? Where else can you see that much angst, sniping, confusion and churlish behavior outside of professional sports? It's almost like watching hockey without having to pay for the ticket."

This from Cylinda. "The debates are allow us to learn things about the candidates we otherwise would not know. No, there are not too many debates. And participation should be mandatory."

And this from Karen. "No, keep them coming. It's great comedy with a healthy dose of, oh, no, this person may run the free world!"

Most people, I have to say, Suzanne, like the -- they like the debates. They think there can't be too many.

MALVEAUX: Oh, there you go. There you go! I'm with them. OK, smart people.

Carol, I want you to check out something before you go. This is a story I guess it's kind of, you could call it, fast food. So this woman, they call it a crazy fast hand cake lady. Pretty much sums up. This is the latest YouTube sensation. She works at a bakery in China and she's getting famous for this. Her ability to toss these cakes at record speed into that little bag there. I think it's in the wrist. Huh, what do you think (INAUDIBLE)?

COSTELLO: Is that in real time?

MALVEAUX: Totally! We did not speed that up, Carol. That's real. As you can see, the one beside her is just kind of like -- she looks like she's in slow motion, but she's just looking at her like, what the heck? What are you doing?

COSTELLO: That's really impressive.

MALVEAUX: It is. It is.

COSTELLO: I'm going to try that at home.

MALVEAUX: Everybody's got a skill, huh? So you've got to celebrate. All right.

COSTELLO: Awesome. That's some awesome hand-eye coordination, baby.

MALVEAUX: All right, Carol, we'll see you in a bit.

Commercial fishing takes tens of millions of sharks out of the oceans every year. We're going to find out why this is not good for the environment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Colorado's first snow of the season tops the stories making news across the country. A thick blank of white covering autumn leaves in Denver. About five inches of snow came down on Wednesday, knocking out power to thousands, believe it or not. Denver had a record high of just 80 degrees just two days earlier.

Well, in Washington state, a power supplier decided it was easier to demolish this dam than to install a passageway for fish to get around it. It was about $70 million cheaper, as well. The 12-story Condit Dam on the White Salmon River was built back in 1913.

So, shark attacks, they make good headlines, right? But the odds of being bitten by one pretty slim. Instead, these predators have something to fear from humans. Our CNN's Kaj Larsen explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAJ LARSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shark populations are crashing around the world. Millions die by finning to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup in Asia. Roughly a third of all shark and ray species face some threat of extinction. Without them, the marine food web could start to unravel.

Marine biologist Luke Tipple is on a mission to protect sharks. We met up in the Bahamas.

LUKE TIPPLE, MARINE BIOLOGIST: Actually the marina that we're in right now was one of the first shark-free marinas in the Bahamas.

LARSEN: Sharks are an apex predator, which means they're at the very top of the marine food chain. They grow slowly, mature late and produce few young, making them vulnerable to overfishing.

TIPPLE: We're supposed to have a certain number of sharks to be able to control all of these animals which are below them. So what we do is we take out that apex and we allow a lot of other fish to breed beneath them. They basically annihilate everything below them, and that leads to tropic collapse, which means we don't have healthy ocean systems and we won't be able to pull food or product from there anymore.

LARSEN: The Bahamas ban commercial shark fishing and that's helped lure more divers and tourist dollars to the islands.

LARSEN (on camera): I'll be back with both of these. All 10 of these.

LARSEN (voice-over): Luke and I jump in to see some sharks up close.

LARSEN (on camera): Wow. They were right there.

TIPPLE: Uh-huh.

LARSEN (voice-over): But outside of sanctuaries like this one, sharks remain at risk.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Kaj Larsen's full report, "Hunting Down Sharks," part of this weekend's CNN Presents, Sunday night at 8:00 Eastern.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye, who's in L.A.

Hey, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne, thank you.