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Secondary Education Resuming Without Afghan Girls; Drone Kills Civilians, Not ISIS; AUKUS Fallout; Pregnant Mississippi Women Dying Of COVID-19; Cuba Vaccinating Children As Young As 2; FBI Searching For Missing 22-Year Old; Hitman-Hiring Lawyer Faces Insurance Fraud And Other Charges; Bitcoin Protests In El Salvador; All-Tourist Space Flight Ends Successfully. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired September 19, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, grieving families of innocent victims demand accountability after the Pentagon admits a drone strike was the worst mistake imaginable.
Plus, another stunning twist in the disappearance of Gabby Petito. Police are now searching for her fiance, too, saying he may be in danger.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And they're back on Earth. Crew members of Inspiration4 are home after their historic three-day mission.
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BRUNHUBER: A warning from the CIA came too late to stop a U.S. airstrike that killed 10 Afghan civilians last month. According to three sources, the intelligence agency warned that there were likely civilians in the area and possibly children just seconds before the missile found its target.
The military hit the Toyota following a suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. troops and scores of Afghans at the Kabul airport. But the Pentagon now admits no one in the car was linked to ISIS-K and up to seven people killed in the airstrike were children. Children. CNN's Alex Marquardt has mar on what we're learning from Washington.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: On the heels of the Pentagon admitting Friday to a tragic mistake that left 10 Afghan civilians dead in a drone strike in Kabul last month, we're now learning that, in the final seconds before the Hellfire missile from a drone tore through the car of an aid worker, the CIA issued a warning that civilians were likely in the area, including possibly children inside the vehicle.
That's according to three sources speaking with CNN. It was the military that was in charge of the strike. And it's unclear whether the CIA knew that the military had decided to pull the trigger.
A miscommunication adding to the intelligence failure of this operation that led to the deaths of 10 people from a single family, that the top U.S. general had called "a righteous strike."
On Friday, the head of Central Command, General Frank McKenzie, which oversaw the war in Afghanistan, admitted that the civilians were not connected to ISIS, calling the strike "a tragic mistake." This is what General McKenzie told CNN when asked how it went from righteous strike to what we know now.
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GEN. KENNETH MCKENZIE, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: We knew from the very beginning there was the possibility of civilian casualties. I think we still thought we had good reason to take that strike.
And it took us gathering the facts to change that. We didn't think -- as you understand and appreciate, we didn't take the strike because we thought we were wrong; we took the strike because we thought we had a good target. It takes a little while to uncover some of those things.
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MARQUARDT: General McKenzie said they had intelligence that a white Toyota Corolla would be involved in an imminent ISIS attack. When they tracked the white Toyota Corolla of 43-year-old aid worker Zamarai Ahmadi to the compound where he lived near the airport, that's when the strike happened.
Almost three weeks later, the U.S. military now apologizing, saying it's considering paying reparations to the family as it reviews how future strikes will be carried out -- Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: And CNN's Sam Kiley reported from Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal, so for the latest, he joins me now live from Abu Dhabi.
The family of those killed in that strike, they told CNN they want justice.
Any chance they'll get it?
I mean, this is far from the first deadly mistake like this that the U.S. military has made.
Any sense that there will be accountability this time?
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, justice in the form of a prosecution, even an inquiry, certainly not a public inquiry, I think those opportunities are extremely slim to zero, effectively.
The pattern over the last 20 years, though, is that from NATO, killing of civilians during this war, not just in Afghanistan but in neighboring Pakistan, where drone strikes and airstrikes conducted by the United States killed many hundreds of civilians, there has been payment of compensation.
These compensations can range from pretty negligible figures in the hundreds and low thousands to, if they're foreign nationals, European, there's one case, I believe a European national being paid over $1 million in terms of compensation or rather, their family.
So I think the opportunities for some kind of compensation exist. The Pentagon is saying that they're looking into it. They've already admitted culpability in that they say that they did do this act.
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KILEY: And therefore, the opportunities for some kind of compensation exist. Interestingly, in the interview with Nic Robertson, that he conducted with the family, they were saying that one of the things that they wanted to do was perhaps emigrate to the United States, because one of the other side effects of this very catastrophic event that has hit this family is that those survivors have been exposed as people who have been working with and alongside the coalition in the past.
And they now feel vulnerable through this exposure, that this drone strike has done to their family. They now may feel slightly threatened by the Taliban. So there's a number of opportunities for recompense here from the United States.
And given the relative rapidity with which they've admitted this mistake out of the Pentagon, although three weeks feels like a long time, in quite probability, they're likely able to receive some kind of compensation -- Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Sam, we're hearing more and more about rumblings, you know, a growing schism between the Taliban hardliners and pragmatists.
What more do we know about this and how is it playing out so far?
KILEY: Well, it's a fascinating area. If we look back a couple of weeks to the formation of the caretaker government of the Taliban, it's entirely made up of hardliners, very heavily dominated by the Haqqani clan, who run the Haqqani Network, a network that was dominant in terms of terrorist activities in Kabul and on the road to Pakistan.
And indeed, the defense minister of the new government is high man on the FBI's most wanted list, with a multi-million-dollar price tag on his head. So you've got that high, high degree of ironclad hardliners inside the caretaker government and, at the same time, for example, on education, very mixed messages coming out.
On Friday, schools were ordered to reopen. But girls, the future of girls in secondary schools, remains in some doubt, with the Taliban spokesman there saying to CNN that they were going to allow women or young women, girls in their teens, to go to school but they still hadn't quite figured out how.
And I think that is one of the areas where you're seeing this tension between the instincts of the Taliban, which ultimately are extremely hardline, and the recognition that they know they need to moderate their messaging, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes, and we're going to hear more about that just now. Sam Kiley, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
So as Sam just mentioned, the Taliban are sticking to their line that girls will be allowed to go to school this time. Some girls in Kabul did head back to primary school Saturday as the Taliban ordered classes to resume.
But secondary schools are reopening their doors only to boys. And so far, there's no mention of when girls of that age will return to classrooms. Our Nic Robertson pressed the Taliban spokesperson to explain why.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Schools have started, boys in grade 6, to 12, have been invited. But not girls. We were told, there would be education for girls, up to higher education.
So what's happening?
ZABIULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Well, we are in the process of laying the groundwork, since girls, from grade 6, until 12, need secure transportation. And, also, there are certain rules for their class and lessons, that must be observed so that they could be safe.
We are working on this and the process would get completed and they will be allowed. We do have girls at universities, continuing their education, both in, private and government funded universities. But from grade 6 to 12, we are in the process of laying the groundwork. Work is being done on a process, in this regard.
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BRUNHUBER: But the leader of a non-profit for girls' education in Afghanistan isn't buying it. She spoke with me about an hour ago and said the Taliban's explanation doesn't add up.
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PASHTANA DURRANI, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LEARN: What were girls doing when you were not in power before that, how did they go to school? How did that work out?
The mere reason of saying -- excusing transportation as a way to sabotage girls' education and lives is not a good excuse. They need to come up with better ones.
The second thing is, when they say, OK, we're going to make it more safe or whatever, schools were safe. The only thing that was standing in between school safety and girls was you attacking the schools or other terrorist groups.
So we have to understand, when we talk about education, when we talk about girls, they should feel more safe now that the war is over, that the Taliban are in power and that there's no cross-party war going on.
So how are they justifying that right now?
I don't understand.
What sort of security?
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DURRANI: What do girls need security now from?
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BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, doctors in Mississippi are pleading with pregnant women to get the vaccine as COVID deaths rise among mothers-to-be.
Plus, the COVID vaccine still hasn't been authorized for children younger than 12 in the U.S. and other countries, so we'll go to Cuba and see why toddlers are getting the shot there. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Australia's prime minister is defending his decision to cancel an order for French-made diesel submarines and instead pursue nuclear-powered subs with the U.S. and U.K. On Sunday, Scott Morrison said he understands why Paris is upset but said the French subs no longer fit with Australia's long-term strategic goals. Here he is.
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SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: I think that they would have had every reason to know that we have deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the attack class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests.
And we had made very clear that we would be making a decision, based on our strategic national interest. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The French government is furious over losing the $65 billion contract.
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BRUNHUBER: And the language from Paris is the harshest yet. Here's France's foreign minister on Saturday.
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JEAN-YVES LE DRIAN, FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt. This will not do. Things are not going well between us. They aren't going well at all. It means there is a crisis.
And at that point, first of all, there is a symbolic aspect. We are recalling our ambassadors, to try to understand. Too, at the same, time show or former partner countries that we are very dissatisfied, that there is, really, a serious crisis between us.
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BRUNHUBER: Healing the rift with France will likely be on the agenda this week, when the U.S. President meets with the British prime minister. CNN's Jim Bittermann joins us from Paris.
So Jim, healing that rift, it sounds, from what France is saying, likely won't be very easy.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Doesn't sound like it to me, Kim. In fact, the foreign minister himself was going to be in New York next week for the U.N. General Assembly meetings.
So there may be a chance then for him to calm down the rhetoric a little bit. But it really has been severe.
In another part of that interview last night, the foreign minister said, when he was asked to compare the Biden administration and the Trump administration, he said, the Biden administration's handling of this has been Trump without the tweets, kind of a very harsh thing to say and very undiplomatic.
And he also said last night, something that I think we're going to hear more from the Macron administration, basically using this cancellation of this sub deal as an argument with his European allies that, in fact, as Macron puts it, the Europeans have to develop more strategic autonomy, less dependence on the United States.
Here's the way the foreign minister put it.
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LE DRIAN (through translator); I think that if the Europeans do not feel that they must remain in history and that if they want to remain in history, they must unite and defend their own interests together. Then their destiny will be totally different and we cannot go in this harmful direction.
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BITTERMANN: So the foreign minister last night sort of cranking up the rhetoric, if anything.
And today we're hearing from various press sources that, up in Cherbourg, where this contract was going to be executed, where the subs were already under construction, there are about 500 engineers that are basically being directly affected by this.
So it's a harmful blow to France from the commercial point of view. But it's also strategically something they really are unhappy about, the fact that they've been excluded from this security pact in the Western Pacific, which includes Britain, Australia and the United States, they're not part of it.
In fact, they have large interests in the Western Pacific, with Polynesia and New Caledonia -- Kim.
Thanks so much, Jim Bittermann in Paris.
Well, you're watching -- we're going to show you some video here.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): As police in Australia used pepper spray on protesters at another anti lockdown rally in Northern Australia on Saturday. Police say 235 people were arrested, 10 police officers injured during the protest.
Frustrations are rising after weeks of tough restrictions and lockdowns across the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is the capital. Victoria's premier Daniel Andrews says restrictions will ease once 70 percent of eligible residents receive their first COVID 19 vaccine shot. Right now about 56 percent have received their first dose.
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BRUNHUBER: More Americans could soon be eligible for a COVID booster shot after a panel of FDA advisers voted to recommend the shots for older and high-risk Americans. They've stopped short of recommending a third dose for everyone else, though a final decision is still on the way.
Now it comes as parts of the country are seeing a surge in COVID hospitalizations, driven by unvaccinated Americans. Some hospitals in Idaho, Montana and Alaska are so overwhelmed, they've had to start rationing care.
We're also seeing a devastating new trend emerge, unvaccinated pregnant people dying in higher numbers than sometimes their unborn children as well. The reality of just how dangerous COVID can be is unfolding right now
in Mississippi. The state is coming off a peak that saw an average of 3,500 new cases per day. Even now, that number is hovering close to 2,000 a day.
And since late July, at least eight pregnant women in Mississippi have died from COVID. Officials say none of them were fully vaccinated. The state is also investigating dozens of stillbirths among women infected with the virus.
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BRUNHUBER: Health officials describe the situation as a tragedy.
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DR. THOMAS DOBBS, MISSISSIPPI STATE HEALTH OFFICER: Throughout the course of the pandemic, we have lost 15 moms to COVID-19 during their pregnancy, very much a tragedy. But of that number, eight of them have been lost since the end of July.
And so, really important to consider the risk that pregnant women might have when it comes to COVID-19. We know it's -- it can be deadly for moms. And also, too, to make sure folks remember, that we have had late pregnancy loss after 20 weeks among 72 COVID-19 patients in the state of Mississippi.
That's far higher than the background rates for stillbirths that we've seen.
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BRUNHUBER: And consider these findings by the Journal of the American Medical Association Network.
It found that compared to pregnant women who don't have COVID, women who are infected are more likely to have a preterm birth, are five times more likely to need ICU care, 14 times more likely to need intubation and are far more likely to die in childbirth.
Now earlier, I spoke about those dangers with Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, an obstetrician/gynecologist and professor of global health at the University of Washington. I asked her why vaccination rates are still so low among pregnant women. Here it is.
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DR. KRISTINA ADAMS WALDORF, OBSTETRICIAN/GYNECOLOGIST, PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: This was a huge problem from the very beginning. Pregnant women should never have been excluded from the vaccine trials. And this really has set up kind of a lot of misinformation that has, you know, created this problem.
I mean, right now, as obstetricians, we are getting a crash course on how to take care of pregnant women on ECMO, which is a heart-lung bypass machine. We have never had to do this before. This is only because of COVID-19. And it just shows you just how
severely ill many of these mothers are. And this is what is so heartbreaking, when you know that, if they were vaccinated, that this could have been prevented. This is the most important thing in our field right now.
BRUNHUBER: You brought up misinformation, so I wanted to touch on that, because there have been so many false claims on social media, saying that the vaccine will make women infertile or sterile, for example.
What role is misinformation playing here?
WALDORF: Oh, it's just incredible. It's -- it's really been one of the greatest foes for public health.
The problem is when someone says, you know, vaccines cause infertility, they don't have any data to back it up. And a lot of people will just take them at their word.
When we have looked at studies and actually done rigorous scientific research, we don't see that vaccines are causing any problems in pregnancy, at all. In fact, they are the -- they are the one thing that's really protecting pregnant women and their babies.
When a pregnant woman dies, it rips the fabric of her family apart. You know, we're seeing fathers taking home their babies alone. This is so sad and also preventable. We really need pregnant women to get the message that this is not only the safest thing that they can do, it's also the most responsible thing that they can do for their families.
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BRUNHUBER: Few countries around the world have authorized the vaccine for children under 12. But in Cuba, the government says its homegrown vaccines are safe for toddlers. Patrick Oppmann has that story from Havana.
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): First comes the jab and then the tears. In this one clinic in Havana, the day we visited, over 230 children between ages of 2 and 5 were vaccinated, hospital administrators tell us.
Several countries around the world have begun to vaccinate children but Cuba is believed to be the first to vaccinate toddlers on a large scale. Even though COVID vaccinations aren't mandatory here, Laura Tijeras tells me she didn't hesitate to bring her 4-year-old daughter, Anisol, to get the shot.
"I am relieved," she says, "because a lot of people are still getting sick. And with the vaccine, we are more protected."
Rather than rely on importing vaccines from abroad, Cuba has produced its own homegrown anti-COVID drugs. The island's government says studies show they are safe even in children and have begun sending data to the World Health Organization for its approval. With the Delta variant, cases in children are soaring in Cuba.
And just since August, 10 children have died, according to government statistics, something doctors tell us they didn't expect would happen.
"It's more gratifying to vaccinate a child," Dr. Auroly Otano Orteaga says. "You put the vaccine and know they're going to be immunized and won't have serious complications or even die from COVID."
The pandemic has hit Cuba hard, with food and medicine shortages and in-person schooling canceled indefinitely. Cuban officials had said that they would reopen schools in early September. But with the surge of new cases and deaths, those plans are on hold.
Now officials say that, before they can safely reopen schools, they have to complete an island-wide vaccination campaign that includes children.
I meet Micelle (ph) and her daughter, Paula (ph), right before the 3- year-old gets her vaccine.
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OPPMANN (voice-over): "I'm very happy," she says, "more than when I got vaccinated. Vaccinating her is the biggest comfort yet."
Cuba's vaccines require three doses. So there are more jabs to come for the kids. But parents say, if it means that life can begin to return to normal for their children, then all the tears will have been worth it -- Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, police have been searching for this missing woman for more than a week.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Now they're scouring the Florida wilderness, looking for her fiance, who may have some answers but he's also disappeared.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): And the suicide-for-hire mystery involving a prominent South Carolina lawyer now only gets deeper. Well, now his housekeeper's death is on the investigator's radar. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, this morning, local and federal authorities will restart their searches for two missing people. In Central Florida, police say they will return to the wilderness of a nature reserve, looking for a man named Brian Laundrie.
Officials say he is a person of interest in the disappearance of his fiancee, Gabby Petito. The search for her has grown to include a national park across the country in Wyoming. CNN's Polo Sandoval has more on the case.
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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Police in North Port, Florida, now investigating reports of two missing persons, Gabby Petito and now her fiance, who is nowhere to be found, Brian Laundrie.
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SANDOVAL (voice-over): On Saturday, dozens of law enforcement officials searched the wildlife reserve near his home. His family called police to report they had not seen him since Tuesday and, the last time they saw him, he had a backpack, saying he was planning on taking a hike at that reserve, which, according to investigators, he had done before.
Both police and Gabby's family, they have grown increasingly frustrated with Laundrie and his parents, that they have not spoken in great detail with investigators up until Friday.
Even then police say they only addressed their son's disappearance, nothing to do with Gabby. A police spokesman says that Laundrie, at this point, he is not wanted for any crime but they fear that he could be in some danger.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. I think that's fair to say. I mean, you have somebody -- there's an enormous amount of pressure, I'm sure, on him to provide answers in what's going on here.
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SANDOVAL: Gabby's stepfather spoke to CNN Friday, saying his family is trying to stay strong, especially as their daughter's search enters week two now. The FBI is assisting in Wyoming at Grand Teton National Park with a series of ground surveys.
That is where they believe their daughter was last seen, following a lengthy cross-country journey that the couple was doing, that they documented online -- Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe describes the challenges authorities face as they work multiple missing persons investigations spanning the country.
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ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: It's obviously an incredibly puzzling case. The facts behind this one are not like anything I've really ever seen before, especially with one of these two young people coming home without the other one.
But nevertheless, the FBI is an important partner in this investigation. You have multiple sites over multiple states, literally crossing the entire country that may require some level of investigative activity.
And to do that in a coordinated way with local law enforcement and compiling the information that results from that activity in one coherent way, that's really something that the FBI does better than anyone else.
We heard just in the last report that the FBI's conducting ground surveys in the Grand Teton National Park. That, we know, was the last known destination of the two while they were still together.
They will probably do things like bring in ground penetrating radar, that is used to look for anomalies just underneath the surface, to see if there are indications that something might have been buried or secreted away.
They will no doubt be looking very closely at social media accounts, used by both of these individuals. They're prolific social media users. So there's a lot of clues and things to be mined there. So there's a lot that the bureau can do to help out these disparate and far-flung local police agencies that find themselves in the middle of this.
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BRUNHUBER: Our thanks to Andrew McCabe there.
Money, power, drugs, suicide for hire: all of that is part of a saga involving a prominent attorney in South Carolina. Alex Murdaugh is now out on bond after surrendering to law enforcement and, as Martin Savidge reports, the plot only thickens from there.
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His life in a scandalous spiral. Prominent South Carolina attorney, Alex Murdaugh, surrendering to law enforcement to face charges in an alleged murder- for-hire scheme in which he was the target. A warrant for his arrest detailed the botched murder attempt that was meant to provide his son millions of dollars of life insurance money, attorneys say.
According to court documents, Murdaugh arranged for Curtis Smith, a former client, to shoot and kill him. But the plan failed because the shot wasn't fatal.
Smith has been charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.
So far, he's not entered a plea and has asked for a court-appointed attorney.
And now another twist. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announcing the opening of another investigation involving the Murdaughs. The 2018 death of the family's longtime housekeeper, Gloria
Satterfield, who died in what was described as a trip and fall accident on the Murdaugh property.
ERIC BLAND, ATTORNEY FOR SATTERFIELD FAMILY: It was Alex Murdaugh who told the story that she had tripped and fell down the stairs over his dogs. And so they trusted him.
SAVIDGE: At the time, her death was said due to natural causes. But Hampton County corner, Angela Topper, told investigators in a letter that the death was not reported to the coroner at the time, nor was it called an autopsy performed.
On the death certificate, the manner of death of rule natural, which is consistent with injuries sustained in a trip and fall accident.
In court filing, the Satterfield family say they reached a partial settlement with Murdaugh for wrongful death.
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SAVIDGE (voice-over): But they say they never received the money they say they were due.
Eric Bland is the Satterfield family attorney.
BLAND: He hand walked into his best friend and college roommate to bring a lawsuit against himself on behalf of the estate.
Now, you know, as a lawyer of 33 years, I've never heard that, where you encourage somebody and take them to a lawyer who you hand pick and that lawyer bring claims against you.
SAVIDGE: This new development in Satterfield's death as Alex Murdaugh was already struggling with the unsolved murders of his wife and son in June. Allegations that he stole money from his family's law firm and his own admission of decades-long opioid addiction.
All of this playing out in a very public downfall.
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BRUNHUBER: El Salvador is now the first nation to use bitcoin as legal tender. But not everyone's happy with the digital currency. We'll hear from critics who want U.S. dollars instead. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Protesters across El Salvador are voicing their anger over the president's decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. The cryptocurrency rollout has hit some technical snags along the way and sparked a backlash from protesters.
El Salvador's president claims the international community is financing these protests but he's provided no evidence to back that up. CNN's Rafael Romo has more.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): They have come from across the country, bringing their best cattle in high hopes for a tidy profit.
Welcome to Aguilares, a town in north central El Salvador, where live cattle trading is a long time tradition. It is the kind of place where you look at people in the eye.
When a deal is made, you shake hands and exchange cold, hard cash.
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ROMO (voice-over): Other than feed and pasture, these cattle ranchers now have an additional worry. They know the government has legalized the new digital currency called bitcoin. And rumors are running rampant.
"The truth is that it is not that simple," this rancher says.
"What if you don't know how much it is worth or how much it will get devalued tomorrow?
"What if it goes up?
"It's like gambling."
Earlier this month, El Salvador became the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender in addition to the U.S. dollar. The president said using bitcoin as legal tender will attract foreign investment, help lower commissions on remittances and give an alternative to people outside the banking system. ROMO: Analysts for the International Monetary Fund, which provided an
emergency loan to El Salvador last year and is working on another, have warned that adopting bitcoin as legal tender poses serious risks to the country's financial stability and integrity.
When the law went into effect on September 7th, the cryptocurrency market crashed, losing billions in value. And the government's digital wallet for bitcoin has experienced several glitches that were still not fully fixed a week after the launch.
ROMO (voice-over): The younger generations and some business owners have embraced the cryptocurrency. But here in Aguilares, even those who support the president otherwise say introducing bitcoin was a mistake.
"Everything that he's done is good, at least what he had done so far," this rancher says. "But introducing this currency was not right. Which bank is backing it?" he wonders.
"You have to be patient and get information about it so that you know how you can best use it and if it is convenient or not," this rancher says. "If the president is wrong, then we're all wrong."
For now, most of these ranchers say they will stick to what they know, a cash system that has worked just fine for generations. And even though some are open to using a cryptocurrency in the future, their main worry is that bitcoin can be as volatile as this bull -- Rafael Romo, CNN, Mexico City.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, an historic day in manned space travel, as four intrepid adventurers return to Earth after three days in orbit. We'll bring you the dramatic splashdown of this first-ever all-civilian space mission, coming up.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SpaceX has splashed down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inspiration4, on behalf of SpaceX, welcome home to planet Earth. Your mission has shown the world that space is for all of us and that everyday people can make extraordinary impacts in the world around them.
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BRUNHUBER: As we mentioned, none of the four crew members of Inspiration4 have any experience as professional astronauts: 38-year- old Jared Isaacman, the founder of Shift4 payments, bankrolled the flight with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and served as commander.
He's an accomplished jet pilot and holds several world records; 29- year-old Hayley Arceneaux is a childhood cancer survivor and now works as a physician's assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the same place she received treatment as a child; 42-year-old Chris Sembroski is an engineer at Lockheed Martin and got his seat through an online raffle.
And 51-year-old Sian Proctor is a geologist with a PhD in science education. She was a finalist in the NASA astronaut program in 2009, the daughter of a former NASA employee during the Apollo era.
So those crew members were jubilant as they stepped back onto solid ground. CNN's Kristin Fisher recaps their historic voyage.
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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: You could hear the sonic boom here at Port Canaveral, as the crew of Inspiration4 made its way through the Earth's atmosphere a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule before splashing down just off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the culmination of an historic three-day trip to outer space. At times, they flew even higher than the International Space Station. And what made this mission so extraordinary is really just how ordinary the crew was.
This was the first time that there was a mission to orbit with no professional astronauts on board. They spent their time doing scientific experiments and medical experiments. But they also just played the ukulele and took pictures and drew paintings and, of course, looked out at the beautiful views of planet Earth.
After three days of that, they began to reenter the Earth's atmosphere and it's an experience that professional astronauts have described as feeling like you're inside of an animal.
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FISHER (voice-over): After going through temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, they splashed down. A crew capsule recovery ship plucked the capsule out of the ocean and then those now astronauts were flown back to the Kennedy Space Center on a helicopter, where they could celebrate with their family.
And the capsule, it will be brought back to this port, Port Canaveral, right behind me, very soon. And this really all marks the beginning of a new era of space tourism, the first time that NASA has had no part, essentially, in a mission to orbit, with people on board. That's a first -- At Port Canaveral, Kristin Fisher, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: David Livingston is the founder and host of "The Space Show" and joins me now.
Thanks so much for being on with us. Another successful voyage into space by a private company.
How much of a step forward does this one, with no professional astronauts, how much of a step forward does that represent?
DAVID LIVINGSTON, FOUNDER AND HOST, "THE SPACE SHOW": I think -- well, first of all, thank you very much for this opportunity, Kim. I appreciate it.
I think it's a big step forward. For space, for sure. But I think in many other areas, not just in space; because so much of what we do in space and learn from space translates and transfers directly back to us here on Earth, that it's hard to pigeonhole it and say, it's just a leap forward for space.
But I believe it is a huge space -- and huge leap forward. And NASA has even said that Dragon space capsule is probably the safest space vehicle that's ever been flown. So the private sector can do amazing things, private money can do amazing things, often things the government can't do. So I think it's a win-win all around.
BRUNHUBER: You say this is important for more than just space and there are examples.
What examples are there?
LIVINGSTON: First of all, our entire economy is space dependent. And some may not like that but almost everything we do with credit card, to you name it, is space dependent. Lots of medical technology that we use has come directly from space.
And what we're learning about space and other planets, through the planetary program, is helping us take better care of Earth. In fact, the entire climate and environmental movement comes from having looked back at Earth from space.
And that one picture, the blue marble, started it all. And so being able to see what happened on Venus, being able to study Mars and other planets and study what goes on in and outside of our atmosphere helps us do much better for us here.
And these four crew members did medical experiments and research on just how ordinary people, not military, not highly government trained astronauts, how they fared in a weightless environment. And this type of research could lead to advances in osteoporosis.
BRUNHUBER: Some people are saying there are increased environmental implications done by this space travel. Right now it's negligible.
But if it increases the way they hope it would, it could become a factor, as some experts say that rockets would be emitting pollutants in places where you don't normally emit them, the higher layers of the atmosphere.
LIVINGSTON: Well, with I think you would have to wait and see if that included -- everything being the same today, as it would be in the future -- should the launch rate -- so they're talking about a vastly increased launch rate.
You know, some people talk about getting launches up to 2,000 or 3,000; we barely get a hundred launches worldwide and that includes military launches right now.
But I would imagine, if launch rates are going up and as technology goes up, changes in how fuel is burned and fuels that are used -- nothing is going to stay the same as it is in 2021.
If we've gone from 100 launches a year to -- pick a number -- 500 launches a year, do you really think our technology is going to stay exactly where it is today, with fuels and chemicals and launch processes?
Everything's going to move forward and everybody's focused on cleaning -- clean energy burns, including the space community. So I think that's a specious argument.
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BRUNHUBER: We heard the director of crew mission management say, you know, this is the opening of the second space age, where space travel becomes more accessible to average men and women around the world.
The argument is that this will start for the rich and, as the costs become lower, it will be available for the rest of us, like airplane travel, cars, and so on.
Is that realistic?
LIVINGSTON: On a long timeline. I mean, I think prices will come down and things do start with the rich, just like with airplanes and cars.
But I think for prices to come down as an ordinary Joe or Mary to buy a ticket as if they're going to buy a ticket from San Francisco to Tokyo, I think that would be a long, long time coming and there would have to be an awful lot of flights taking place.
The quantity of flights would help lower the costs of these flights. So I think that's possible but probably on a fairly long timeline. But yes, I do think it's possible to achieve that.
BRUNHUBER: Still early days, as you say. Listen, David Livingston, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.
LIVINGSTON: My pleasure. Thank you very much.
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BRUNHUBER: And that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For our viewers here in the U.S. and Canada, CNN "NEW DAY" is next. And for our international viewers, "LIVING GOLF" is coming up.
