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Six People Wounded in New Zealand Terrorist Attack; Japanese Prime Minister Suga Will Not Seek Reelection; Historic Storm Hurricane Ida Slammed Northeast; Afghanistan's Future; Afghan Refugees Begin New Lives; Scenes from Afghanistan; U.N.: Weather Disasters Becoming More Frequent Worldwide; How Climate Change May Impact Vulnerable Populations; Six People Wounded in New Zealand Terrorist Attack; Sources: Afghan Women Forced into Marriages to Flee Country; Biden Launches Federal Effort to Battle Texas Abortion Law. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 03, 2021 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Hello. Welcome, everyone. I am Michael Holmes. We do begin with breaking news this hour. In New Zealand, where there has been a terrorist attack at a shopping center in a residential neighborhood of Auckland, six people are injured, some in critical condition. The attacker was killed by police, shot dead.

Now, during a news conference in the last hour, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the attacker was a Sri-Lankan national who was under surveillance by police and had been four years, and was somebody gripped by terrorist ideology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACINDA ARDERN, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: What happened today was despicable. It was hateful. It was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity, but an individual person who was gripped by ideology that is not supported here by anyone or any community. He alone carries the responsibility for these acts. Let that be where the judgment falls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES (on camera): CNN's Angus Watson is live for us this hour in Sydney, Australia. It was an extraordinary news conference because what we learned is that New Zealand police and in fact the prime minister herself knew this guy.

ANGUS WATSON, CNN PRODUCER: That's right, John. But the public in New Zealand didn't know him because there was suppression order out preventing authorities from making his name public.

The authorities there, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, saying that they had all -- they pulled all the legal -- legal levers they could to try to keep him out of the community, but there was nothing left for them to do except to keep a close watch on him.

Now, he was watched so closely that police actually saw him go into the supermarket and was able to follow him in there and then shoot him dead within 60 seconds of his violent rampage.

This man had gone in to the supermarket, in this residential area of Auckland, the New Zealand's largest city. He somehow obtained a knife from within that supermarket, presumably, it was on sale, and then he went about his attack, attacking six people, at least injuring them.

Three people are in critical condition. One person is in a serious condition. They are across three hospitals now in Auckland, Michael.

HOLMES: There are couple other things that are interesting. The prime minister went out of her way also to reassure New Zealand as if there are very few who would fall into the category of this man and also making it clear that no one should blame a religion or an ethnicity, but only the individual.

WATSON: That's right, Michael. Jacinda Ardern, as you know, was praised around the world in 2019 for her response to the terrible terror attack in Christchurch, where a shooter killed 51 people across two mosques.

She is going to have to delve into that strength again to calm the country as this terror attack happens in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. Thankfully, of course, police were able to respond to this person, to neutralize the threat, and under 60 seconds to shoot him dead, I should say.

But, of course, there will be questions now as to why the authorities couldn't do more in the beginning to prevent this attack from happening because as you say, Michael, they were aware of him to the point where Jacinda Ardern, herself, was aware of him.

Of course, that goes for the fact that, as she says in New Zealand, there seems to not be very many people on these terror watches, if news -- if Jacinda Ardern just saying then now, John -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right. Angus, thanks very much. Angus Watson there in Sydney for us.

Now, after just one year on the job, Japan's prime minister effectively stepping down. Yoshihide Suga says that he does not plan to run in the Liberal Democratic Party leadership race later this month, saying he wants to focus on dealing with the COVID outbreak in Japan.

CNN's Blake Essig is following the story for us from Tokyo. What is the latest on this and what impact will it have on Japanese politics?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Michael, look, I mean, Japan will soon have a new leader. Earlier today in an extraordinary board meeting at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, Japan's prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, announced that he would not be running for the LDP's leadership, effectively giving up the premiership.

Now, he also addressed the media about two hours ago and said that working on COVID-19 countermeasures and election activities require a tremendous amount of energy, saying he couldn't do both. He went on to say that his mission as a prime minister is to protect the life and livelihood of people and that is what he will concentrate on.

In the past two months, COVID-19 cases in Tokyo and across the country have absolutely skyrocketed.

[02:05:00[

ESSIG: And as a result, public support for the prime minister has fallen dramatically in recent months. At one point early on in his premiership, multiple polls had Suga's approval rating at nearly 70 percent. Today, it has consistently been below 30 percent.

The two biggest factors for that sharp decline in popularity had been his government' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which critics have called slow and indecisive, and of course, there is the decision to hold the Olympics against the will of the people and despite warnings from health officials that COVID-19 cases could surge as a result.

To regain support within the party, local media reports suggests that Suga had recently been planning to reshuffle his cabinet and the LDP executive team by early next week. But, it is believed that he was struggling to appoint people for post and many members questioned his leadership capabilities with political experts saying that Suga had increasingly found himself isolated in the lead up to this presidential race.

HOLMES: All right. Blake, thank you. Blake Essig there with the latest there in Tokyo.

Now, at least 46 people have now died as a result of historic flooding from Philadelphia to New York City. About half of those fatalities are in New Jersey.

Likely it would have been far worse without the thousands of rescues carried out by first responders. New York Police carried out at least 69 high water rescues in the city. Those rescues continuing into Thursday as communities from Virginia to New England now grapple with brown floodwaters at their doorsteps and inside their homes.

Tornadoes were reported across the northeast, including one that destroyed or damaged about two dozen homes in Southern New Jersey as you see here.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to visit Louisiana on Friday where, of course, Ida made landfall less than a week ago. Nearly a million homes and businesses there still without power.

For the latest across the region, here is CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Historic flooding pummeling the northeast and the race now to rescue people from their homes.

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): We are still uncovering the true depth of the loss, the human loss which is hard to imagine.

CARROLL (voice-over): Officials say they have responded to at least 500 emergency calls in just one Philadelphia county.

RANDY PADFIELD, DIRECTOR, PENNSYLVANIA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: We are still seeing ongoing flooding in the southeast portion of the state, some of which is surpassing record flood levels. There are rescues ongoing.

CARROLL (voice-over): Flood gauges show the Schuylkill River rose more than 12 feet in eight hours.

UNKNOWN: Just because the rain has stopped doesn't mean the water stopped flowing.

CARROLL (voice-over): In Bound Brook, New Jersey, waters are still high enough to completely cover train tracks and to flood the stadium. Parts of New York are still underwater. A major highway in the Bronx is now a parking lot. And here in Mamaroneck, New York, the cleanup is just getting underway. These bakery owners lost everything.

(On camera): How high was the water in here?

CHRISTIAN ESTRADA, OWNER, WESTCHESTER ITALIAN BAKERY: I would say --

UNKNOWN: What was it?

ESTRADA: -- at least six feet, almost six feet. You see where that line as? That's how tall. That's where the water went up to.

UNKNOWN: Oh, my God.

CARROLL (voice-over): It all started Wednesday night. The National Weather Service issuing a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time ever.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The report was three to six inches over the course of the whole day, which was not a particularly problematic amount. That turned into the biggest single- hour rainfall in New York City history with almost no warning.

CARROLL (voice-over): But its intensity took many by surprise. The city's infrastructure was unprepared. Dozens of people were stuck on city buses and in subway stations.

BEVERLY PRICE, STUCK OVERNIGHT IN SUBWAY: Oh, my God. I've been down here from 11:20 something.

CARROLL (voice-over): The MTA reporting 46 stations were inundated with water. Officials admitting the system was not designed for this type of record rainfall.

UNKNOWN: Anything over two inches an hour, we are going to have trouble with it.

CARROLL (voice-over): In Southern New Jersey, another disaster. Reports of a tornado there completely levelled homes. President Biden is committing his full support to the states affected by Ida and calling on Congress to invest in infrastructure.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: These extreme storms and the climate crisis are here. We need to do -- we must be better prepared. We need to act.

CARROLL (voice-over): Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HOLMES (on camera): More than 100,000 refugees have flown out of Afghanistan to begin new lives. We will hear their hopes for the future and concerns for the country they left behind. Stay with us. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Bringing you up-to-date on our breaking news. In New Zealand, the Sri-Lankan national, who arrived in New Zealand in 2011 and then went on to a terror watch list in 2016, has been killed by New Zealand police at a supermarket in the suburban of Auckland, New Zealand. A number of people have been injured by the man before he was shot dead. Injured by the man, armed with a knife, we should point out.

I'm joined now by the mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff. Phil, sorry we are talking in these circumstances. Your reaction to what happened?

PHIL GOFF, MAYOR OF AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (via telephone): Yeah. Thank you, Michael. It's pretty horrifying for us in New Zealand. We are largely a pretty peaceful country with the noble exception of the terrorist attack against the Christchurch mosque back in 2017.

The individual in this case seems to be a lone wolf inspired by ISIS ideology. He was under police surveillance because of the views that he held. But in our democracy, as in yours, you don't get imprisoned for your views. You get imprisoned for your actions.

But the police thought that he constituted a sufficient risk to have him under 24/7 surveillance, and there would only be a tiny handful of people in that category. He went into the supermarket as maybe he would normally do, to go shopping. But he then took up a knife from one of the rows in the supermarket and then began randomly attacking people. There were six people in the hospital, three in critical condition, one in a serious condition, and as I understand it, two in a more moderate condition. There is a court suppression order surrounding the individual, so the prime minister in her announcement this afternoon was somewhat constrained in what she was able to tell us about the individual. But we expect more information to be forthcoming once we can sort the court order out.

HOLMES: Yeah. And he was recently released from jail. The prime minister couldn't say why other than he hadn't done enough to stay in jail or they couldn't keep him in jail. She did seem to want to give a lot more detail but was restricted by the court order.

One thing, Mr. Mayor, that I did notice and is worth saying is that she also went out of her way, as I've heard her do before, to say the blame belongs with the individual, not a nationality or ethnicity or religion.

GOFF (via telephone): Yeah. I think that is absolutely true. We don't want people turning on Sri-Lankan citizens in our country, overwhelmingly the decent people, hardworking, honest and cooperative. And likewise, we don't want people turning on the Muslim community because most of our Muslim community comes into the same category, decent people, who make a real contribution to our country.

But we have these individuals. The man that attacked the mosque a few years ago, he had an ideology.

[02:15:01]

GOFF (via telephone): He was Australian, as it happened. He had an ideology that was white supremacist. We didn't blame Australians for that. He was a Christian, but we didn't blame Christians for that. We aren't blaming Sri-Lankans. We are not blaming Muslims for the actions of this particular individual.

His views were despicable. His actions were horrendous. He is now dead. So, I guess justice was forthcoming in that sense quite quickly. And not many people are shot by the police in this country. But the police were there as part of their surveillance. They intervened within 60 seconds. But that did not stop this man actually actively stabbing about half a dozen people. Three of them now are left in critical condition.

HOLMES: Perhaps --

GOFF (via telephone): -- individuals and their families.

HOLMES: Yeah. With also perhaps pointing out that the Christchurch attack, as you say, by the white supremacist were carried out with firearms. New Zealand has very strict laws and -- I mean, it is telling in a way that this attack was carried out with a knife. I mean, if he had access to firearms, it could've been a lot worse.

GOFF (via telephone): Absolutely. In the Christchurch mosque case, 51 people were murdered by a terrorist. And, you know, the fact that this new individual has now done so much damage to six people in a very short space of time, armed only with a knife, is indicative that, you know, a person who is motivated by hate and motivated by ideology can do a lot of damage. But with an automatic military-style weapon, obviously, he could have killed scores of people.

I don't need to tell people of the United States about the risks that individuals that are possessed by hatred can do with an automatic firearm to try and to kill people.

HOLMES: Exactly. What would be your message be to New Zealanders, Mr. Mayor?

GOFF (via telephone): Well, I think, you know, we regard this as not the norm in our society. We have a society in the city of ours (ph). You know, 40 percent of the people who live in the city were born overseas. We have 120 ethnicities. We get on pretty well actually. People of different faith and different ethnicities, we enjoy the richness of the diversity that we have.

We are not going to let this one hateful individual change the way that we think about our fellow human beings. If anything, this will make us more determined that we stand out against those who possess ideologically motivated hateful thoughts about other people on the basis of their ethnicity or their religion. There is no place in our city and in our country for that sort of thinking.

HOLMES: Well said, Mr. Mayor. Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, really appreciate your time, and our sympathies to those who have been hurt in this attack. Thank you very much.

GOFF (via telephone): Thank you very much, Michael. It is a pleasure.

HOLMES: Okay. The world is waiting for the Taliban to announce the formation of a new government in Afghanistan. One of their first priorities will be reopening that airport in Kabul.

Qatar's foreign minister says that he is hopeful that that could happen as soon as possible. The U.N. is already resuming eight flights to other cities, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar.

Meanwhile, sources report heavy clashes north of the capital between Taliban fighters and a group called the "National Resistance Front." Panjshir province is the last holdout against Taliban rule.

And for the tens of thousands of Afghans fortunate enough to escape on those evacuation flights, a new and hopefully more peaceful life begins. But those left behind and trying to escape across the border to Pakistan face a more uncertain fate.

Nic Robertson with that from Islamabad.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): As they set foot on new soil, after countless hours of travel, many of the more than 115,000 evacuated Afghan refugees relieved to be free from fear of life under Taliban control.

This 40-year-old former translator now in South Korea.

UNKNOWN: People do not believe them. We do not believe their promise. They are the opposite of humanity, especially for the women and for the girls. They are not happy that the girls go to school.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Whether it is in South Korea, the U.S., Spain, Mexico, France, Qatar, or many of the other hundred plus countries that have vowed to take them in, their new lives and dreams begin now.

UNKNOWN: We came here and we want to live for a long time in peace. Our children should have a good education here and a peaceful situation.

[02:20:03]

ROBERTSON (voice-over): At Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, those not lucky enough to make the evac flights, struggle to leave. One man crushed to death on Thursday as the crowd pushed across. Some here, though, not fleeing, fighting or fearing the Taliban, but just looking for survival.

UNKNOWN (through translator): Previously, during such change, a lot of looting had happened. So for that reason, people were scared. People were running away. Myself, I've come here with a patient for medical treatment.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): And some, coming for the most basic need, economic certainty, escaping drought and unemployment.

UNKNOWN (through translator): We are 150 families. It was tough for us to cross the border. We were oppressed and many families are stranded there. We were unemployed and hungry. We migrated here because of poverty. We need help because we don't have tents and food. We have nothing. Have mercy on us.

UNKNOWN (through translator): There was no work here. No jobs. We fled to Pakistan in disarray. We are requesting to Pakistani government to help us because we are refugees. Look at these kids. They have nowhere to go.

ROBERTSON (on camera): For now, Pakistan's message to would be refugees, in particular the economic migrants, don't come if you don't have the right paperwork. We simply can't afford it anymore. The message to the international community, engage economically with the new Taliban government and do it soon. If you don't, the trickle of suffering at the border will turn into a surging torrent.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

HOLMES: Ben Lowy is an award-winning photographer who has long documented war, including the one in Afghanistan. It's great to get you on, Ben, and talk a little bit about some of your images. So often, the images from Afghanistan are the images of war, the brutality, the civilian suffering and so on.

It is striking how many of you pictures show the beauty of the country and the character of the people, importantly. What were you hoping to achieve with your work there?

BEN LOWY, PHOTOGRAPHER: That was really an important aspect of how I got to Afghanistan. I spent close to six years working in Iraq prior to really taking a turn toward working in Afghanistan. My time in Iraq was really filled and embedded with different units, different soldiers and going on different operations and kind of really documenting the worse side of it.

After getting injured quite a few times, I had really made the point of trying to, when I went to Afghanistan, to kind of go away from that and to spend some time exploring the culture of another place as a feature. It is more trying to show another place that is in the news where it is more similar to what we understand back home rather than the foreigner, the other, that is often encapsulated in the documentary of war.

HOLMES: Yeah, absolutely and well put. I want to show people some of yours. What interested me too is some of your photos really graphically illustrate the fight against poppy cultivation, the heroin trade. Tell us more. There is one photograph of poppy being cut down. Tell us about that and how that unfolded and the impact of the heroin trade on locals.

LOWY: It's interesting. I was there for very longer story piece for "Fortune" magazine really kind of looking at the economics of the war on drugs, specifically in Afghanistan where I guess about 70 to 80 percent of opium and heroin that goes through Europe comes from Afghanistan.

And, you know, this is more close to the war side of things, but I did spend a lot of time really documenting whether it was process and how the drugs are made in drugs rehab.

And even at one point spent time with -- I guess they would say they were Taliban for the sake of saying they were Taliban but they were drug dealers. It was just for convenience sake.

And watching how certain drugs were smuggled and then going on eradication programs with the ANA when those are still operating with NATO and American funding. At some point, probably around 2010 or 2011, they stopped really working on eradication and just kind of let it go up. But I did spend a lot of time kind of documenting that whole process, from point A to point B. It was really important.

HOLMES: Unbelievable. We are looking at some and the opium den there as well. I was going to ask you too about this because despite having been to the country a few times myself, I've never seen the bodybuilders. Tell us about them.

LOWY: That was actually on my first trip to Afghanistan was for men's health magazine randomly.

[02:24:57]

LOWY: They -- it is interesting where there are certain aspects of them that don't translate over. There are certain aspects of health that were very important to Afghan culture. Under the Taliban, there were maybe two gyms in the entire country. After the Taliban left, gyms kind of started springing up left and right. There was this whole workout craze and culture that really began.

It was really interesting because there are so many interesting nuances here. They would -- because they didn't have large-scale printing for the banners for gyms, they would paint murals, famous bodybuilders. You would have Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California at the time, would be painted in his bodybuilder Mr. Olympia self on these giant walls in Kabul.

You had Ronnie Coleman who is like six-time Mr. Olympia, you know, former Dallas, Texas police officer. There are just these giant paintings of them all over Afghanistan. That is what they would advertise.

HOLMES: We just saw the one of Arnold Schwarzenegger and it is quite something. We are almost out of time, but I want to ask you, you know, having seen what happened and unfolded since your last visit there, what worries you most about how life may change there now? How the strength of the people would carry through, the people might be challenged?

LOWY: I think so much of the culture is being chased away now because people are scared. Over the last 20 years, they have had a way to build up a regimen or an infrastructure of culture that they didn't have in the 90s.

And they're starting to develop more and more, just like there are more and more bodybuilder gyms or there were karate classes for women and wrestling, any of these kinds of things where they didn't have it before and they're slowly kind of going back into that life of being able to explore many different things.

All those people who wanted to explore those things are the ones who are fleeing. Right now, myself, my wife, I have colleagues from "L.A. Times," we are all trying to help. One of the bodybuilders in the series was actually my translator. He had introduced me to all of these other bodybuilders. And we finally managed to get his family to the U.S.

We started a "GoFundMe" and I know other colleagues like Stephanie Sinclair and (INAUDIBLE) charity, everyone is trying to help everyone to get out. The problem is that everyone who wants to leave are the ones who are helping to build the country back up. And so right now, you are left with a vacuum.

HOLMES: The brain drained and you got to fear for what's going to be the long term result of that. I wish we had more time. Terrific to have a look into your portfolio, Ben. Really appreciate that.

LOWY: Thanks. HOLMES: Ben Lowy, thank you. Appreciate it.

LOWY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

HOLMES: Still to come here on the program, extreme weather events are on the rise around the world. Up next, we will discuss how the climate crisis might impact the most vulnerable populations. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN HOST: Welcome back to our viewers joining us all around the world. I appreciate your company. I'm Michael Holmes; you're watching "CNN Newsroom".

More now on the devastation across the Northeast in the United States, at least 46 people now confirmed dead after the remnants of Hurricane IDA unleashed catastrophic flooding across the region. It comes as the world has been grappling with more than its fair share of natural disasters.

A new UN report found these extreme weather events and climate disasters are becoming increasingly common and costly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES (voice over): New York declared a state of emergency as historic rainfall drains the Northeastern United States, flooding subways and cities and disrupting travel for millions of people, heavy winds and tornadoes battered houses in New Jersey, leaving some families without a home.

Also earlier this week, the Southern United States was hit by that same storm which drenched the Northeast; it had slammed into Louisiana as a Category 4 Hurricane. In California clouds of smoke from wildfires are choking the air and in Spain, intense rainstorms this week flooded several regions, gutting homes and turning streets into rivers.

If it seems like a new climate disaster is happening every day. That's because it is according to a new UN report. The World Meteorological Organization says these climate change fueled disasters are cropping up at an alarming rate. A disaster happened every day over the last 50 years. Many of them are attributable to the changing climate, causing immense suffering.

MAMI MIZUTORI, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF SECRETARY-GENERAL FOR U.N. DISASTER RISK REDUCTION: 31 million people were displaced by disasters last year. Now the number of people who are displaced by disaster is almost getting larger than the number of people displaced by conflict.

HOLMES (voice over): The UN report concluded that natural disasters have increased fivefold in those 50 years, and the economic toll of these disasters has climbed seven fold since the 1970s. In the last 50 years, climate disasters caused 2 million deaths, and over $3 trillion in losses globally. That's an average economic loss of over $200 million every single day a number that keeps rising.

Improving warning systems have prevented some deaths. But the wrath of climate change continues to grow, and will keep growing for decades.

PETTERI TAALAS, SECRETARY-GENERAL, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION: These negative trends in climate will continue for the coming decades. Anyhow, and if we are successful with climate mitigation, we could stop these negative trend around 2060s.

HOLMES (voice over): The brunt of this is faced by developing countries which in the last 50 years accounted for more than 91 percent of total deaths caused by climate calamities. The UN says the accelerating crisis can only be slowed if countries cooperate with each other, and follow through on their promises to reduce greenhouse emissions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Shyla Raghav is the Vice President of Climate Change for Conservation International. She joins me now and perfect person to talk about this. When it comes to what we've just seen, just this year, from Europe floods, Greek fires, U.S. storms and fires, is what we're seeing now a case of reaping what we have sown and what could be around the corner of things continue on this path?

SHYLA RAGHAV, VICE PRESIDENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL: Yes, well, I mean, it's really been devastating to see all of the suffering caused by all the recent extreme events here in the United States and around the world. The impacts that we've seen are indeed, actually more intense and more frequent than climate models even predicted.

And it means that the impacts of climate change are not only the new normal, but in fact, are accelerating. So the best we can do now is acknowledge that the decision ahead of us and everything we do is that we must do everything in our power to prevent these impacts from getting irreversibly worse.

HOLMES: Apart from the individual events I mean, in the broader picture, what are going to be the undoubted impacts on low lying countries like Bangladesh, the Maldives and on and on? When do we start making hard choices about where we live even where cities are currently located or communities?

RAGHAV: Yes, for low lying at all nations like the Maldives or even very densely populated ones that are most of the population resides on the coast. Climate change really isn't an issue of an economic issue. It's an issue of survival.

[02:35:00]

RAGHAV: Many places in the world will no longer be habitable under business as usual and so it's really going to cause a lot more loss and damage in particular these vulnerable communities. It's going to force migrations, and it can be a destabilizing force for many countries.

And so our discussions now really need to be not on response and recovery, but more so on preparedness and prevention, and anticipating how these impacts are going to reshape human civilization.

HOLMES: You touched on something there I think is really important climate change. I mean, when it comes to things like forced migration, food insecurity, and so on, on, on and on, it really is a global security issue and climate impacts have the potential to cause conflict.

RAGHAV: Absolutely. And we're seeing that as natural resources become scarcer, whether it's with droughts causing limited resources of water, or increased instability in food security, these are going to exacerbate conflicts between communities.

And we've even seen documented studies that have connected movements like the Arab Spring, or even the mass migration of farmers in Central America to the United States linked back to climate change. Even the Department of Defense has published studies that have shown on the significant national security implications of climate change.

HOLMES: You know there was a report this week to that point; really, there was a report this week saying air pollution is likely to affect the life expectancy of 40 percent of Indians by nine years. And right now we've got the U.S. Climate Envoy, John Kerry holding talks with China and Japan both heavily involved in coal generation, can you see meaningful global cooperation in the near term or continued national self-interest because the latter will carry a price?

RAGHAV: Yes, I think it's very, it's been very encouraging to see the United States restoring it's kind of global leadership and in having these bilateral and multilateral dialogues with countries, which is really been encouraging to see. And we know that climate change is a global problem.

It's going to require cooperation between countries, but also deploying a whole full set of systems changes in every single country. It's going to require sharing technology, ideas, innovation and financial resources, to be able to get those resources to vulnerable communities and allow developing nations to really advance and accelerate the use and deployment of new technology.

HOLMES: Yes, because those developing nations don't really have a choice the wealthy ones do when it comes to clean energy which, and something that infuriates me clean energy creates more jobs than dirty energy does, which is the stunning economic dichotomy of this. I wish we had more time Shyla Raghav thanks so much.

RAGHAV: Thank you for having me.

HOLMES: CNN Newsroom, we'll be back after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:40:00]

HOLMES: And more now on the terror attack at a shopping center in a residential neighborhood of Auckland. Let's bring in Louise Ternouth, a Reporter with Radio New Zealand. Louise, appreciate your time you're on the scene where this happened. Give us a sense of the atmosphere what people have been telling you?

LOUISE TERNOUTH, RADIO NEW ZEALAND, AUCKLAND: Yes, hi Michael. I'm on the corner of the road that leads to the New Lynn Mall, Auckland and has been cordoned off is a very high police presence in the area with armed police officers on site. It's a very somber atmosphere.

As you can imagine, we're in a level four lockdown at the moment, the streets are already quite deserted. But there is a group loitering, waiting to get into the cars which are in that car park. It's a waiting game for them. They don't know when they'll be able to get in as obviously this has now become a crime scene.

And as we understand that there are people who are still waiting to get out of that more as they are taken witness statements.

HOLMES: And just quickly, I mean, you know, you heard the prime minister, it does seem that the New Zealand government had full knowledge of who this man was in the threat he represented but couldn't do more than just watch him.

TERNOUTH: Yes. So as you may have heard on the prime minister's presser, this evening, the man was known to police he was being monitored on 24 hour surveillance. The attack has been described as an ISIS inspired violent ideology attack. It was a violent terror attack and he was a known threat to place.

He entered the store unarmed and then inside that supermarket, that's where things played out. And he obtained a knife which he used to critically ill six people.

HOLMES: And again - for people who don't know that this sort of thing happening in New Zealand is always a stunning thing. Despite what happened in Christchurch at the Mosque a couple of years ago? This is highly unusual, right?

TERNOUTH: Yes, absolutely. Obviously, we did have the terror attack down in Christchurch. But these sorts of things, as you say don't happen in New Zealand that has come out of the blue and uplift people really, really startled and really flabbergasted. We're tight knit communities here in Auckland, and level four lockdown people already are feeling quite vulnerable. This has been another extremely dark day here for us.

HOLMES: All right. Louise Ternouth with Radio New Zealand I appreciate your time there on the scene of this terror attack. Appreciate it. Thank you for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes; "World Sport" is up next.

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[02:45:00]

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: --Najibullah Quraishi we look forward to your documentary work and please stay safe.

NAJIBULLAH QURAISHI, CORRESPONDENT, PBS "FRONTLINE": Thank you. Thanks a lot.

CUOMO: All right back here at home. The Supreme Court has chosen not to block you know, some of the reporting says that the Supreme Court upheld the Texas law that's not accurate. What they did was they refused to review it yet. OK. Now, they could have, you could argue that it's not ripe yet that nobody has been hurt by the law yet.

Now the question will be what happens next? The White House is vowing a full on fight to protect Roe V. Wade, what can they do? We're going to meet somebody whose group is offering women a way around the restrictions. What is the way around? Is it legal? Is it worth it anyway, next?

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[02:50:00]

CUOMO: President Biden is stepping up efforts to protect abortion rights, really reproductive rights is a difference in the wake of the Supreme Court's refusal to block Texas's new law. Biden is launching what he calls a whole of government effort to respond to this near total ban on abortions.

Remember, at six weeks, when cardiac activity is usually detected, many women don't even know they're pregnant. The law also allows anybody, any - in fact, you want to hear an ugly example, somebody could rape, a female, the female gets pregnant, and the male who raped them can find out that they get an abortion after six weeks. Sue under the law and get a bounty of $10,000.

You can sue the Uber driver who takes them they're someone who pays for the gas, someone who helps with travel the person who or the clinic that does the procedure.

My next guest works with an organization that does just that. Anna Rupani is her name and she is the Co-Executive Director of Fund Texas Choice. They keep using the word Anna - and thank you for joining us. Pernicious that this law was drafted in a pernicious fashion meaning sneaky, harmful do you agree?

ANNA RUPANI, CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FUND TEXAS CHOICE: Yes, I mean, I will say it was sneaky. But I think if you were following the Texas Legislature earlier this year, we all knew it was coming. We were all fighting it; we were hoping it wouldn't happen. We knew this would be the impact. We knew this was going to happen.

CUOMO: Heartbeat is a - heartbeat is a play, right? They want to say heartbeat because it makes it sound like it's a person at six weeks, right. That's why it has a heartbeat, as opposed to cardiac activity, which is a big difference, because there's no fully formed organ there, because the thing is the size of a kidney bean.

But allowing people to sue and therefore enforce the law as kind of like a civil arrest kind of situation. What do you make of that?

RUPANI: It's supposed to be the chilling effect, right? It's supposed to be the harassment, the cruelty is the point. The point is to stop us from doing the work, harass us to no end, so that we can't do the work that we can't fight because we don't have the dollars to do it anymore, that we're tired, that we're get exhausted. That's the point of this law. The point is to continue to bully and harass until we won't do anything anymore.

CUOMO: So how can you help people get around it Anna?

RUPANI: The law is so vague. And so there can be bad things about that. One of the good things to be said about it is it doesn't say anything about us working with clients and helping them get out of state. And we truly believe after talking to lawyers and talking to other individuals who have read this law over and over again, policy analysts, and so forth, it, we aren't violating the law by going out helping our clients get out of state and get an abortion.

And yes, everyone's asking, are you know are you going to be sued? Or do you think you'll be sued? We probably will. And we're still going to be here? Because organizations like Fund Texas Choice, and the other eight grassroots organization in Texas are doing the hard work because there is no other choice, right?

It's either we exist and follow our mission, or we don't and we create even more barriers for pregnant folks.

CUOMO: What percentage of the pregnant folks that you deal with? Do you think this law will affect?

RUPANI: So with Fund Texas Choice, nearly all of them, when you look at the clients, we serve, almost every client is beyond eight weeks.

CUOMO: And how many of them don't even know they're pregnant until they're beyond six weeks?

RUPANI: Almost every one of them. We have a handful of clients that know they're pregnant, but for six weeks, but that doesn't - it doesn't really matter, right? Because if you find out that you're pregnant, or you assume you're pregnant, by the time you might be able to get into a clinic could be right at that mark.

And we saw the real impact of that just yesterday. We had a client who went to her clinic appointment on August 31st had a sonogram because Texas requires you to get a sonogram and wait 24 hours before getting In abortion, she went back to the clinic on September 1st, and they did a sonogram again.

[02:55:00] RUPANI: They measured embryonic cardiac activity and told her she was no longer eligible to get an abortion because her - had gone into effect. So you see two restrictive laws working hand in hand to stop folks from accessing abortion.

CUOMO: I want your take on this, you know, the game plan has always been here talk the talk, but don't walk the walk when it comes to restricting reproductive rights, because it fires up the far right. What they never did it because they're as unpopular as laws overall.

Do you think there's a chance that women when they realize that their rights have been taken from them whether or not they want to have exercise or not have that right, do you think there'll be a political backlash from this?

RUPANI: I do think so. I think we can see it from not just pregnant folks. We see it from everyone across the nation already, folks that are donating folks that are volunteering, folks that have said to us and to others, we understand there's a possibility of us getting sued, but we are willing to fight we'll do whatever we can.

We'll hope that helped folks get out of Texas will help fight in Texas. And I think there's going to be huge political backlash because the numbers - there's a study done number say it less than a third of Texans want more restrictions on abortion, and they can't it still happen.

So when - I think the politicians aren't listening to their constituents, they're just doing what they say they want to do.

CUOMO: Anna Rupani, thank you very much for your perspective. I appreciate you.

RUPANI: Thank you.

CUOMO: We'll be right back.

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CUOMO: I know a lot of people are struggling if you are able to I hope you enjoy the Labor Day Weekend I'll be off until the other side of it. Do I thank you very much for watching. This is a time with all this hardship that hopefully we tap into our idea of common cause and collective will.