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Biden Arrives at G20 with Domestic Agenda Stalled; House Democrats Delay Crucial Infrastructure Vote Again; Social Media Giant Changes Name to "Meta" Amid Backlash; France Plays Hardball in Fishing Row with U.K.; COP26 Faces Daunting Task as Climate Crisis Deepens; Big Oil Executives Testify Before U.S. House Committee; U.N. Security Council Calls for Return to Civilian Rule in Sudan; NASA Urges Framework for Disclosing Evidence of Alien Life. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 29, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:45]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, I'm John VAUSE. Coming up this hour on CNN Newsroom. U.S. ally 0:00:49 and Stephens about to be put to the test as President Biden arrives in Rome, ahead of the G20 Summit. We are live in Italy with the very latest.
And with his major spending bill stalled in Congress, Biden will arrive empty handed at the next summit climate talks in Glasgow.
And when that very big question comes, have we discovered extraterrestrial life, NASA wants a plan in place for how it is as.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with John VAUSE.
VAUSE: Leaders from the world's richest economies are now gathering in Rome ahead of their weekend summit. And even before they meet, a lead copy of the final communique reportedly talks about climate change as an existential threat. And according to Reuters commits the so-called G20, the urgent action to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The final wording is subject to negotiation and could still change. But it does set the stage for more detailed action at the U.N. Climate Summit just days later in Glasgow. But reaching consensus will be difficult when the President of France has been at odds for months with the Prime Minister of Australia over the sub controversy, which cost France a $60 billion defense deal. Britain and France are locked in a dispute over fishing rights. The leaders of China and Russia won't even be there.
The U.S. President left Washington without a final deal in Congress. He's almost $2 trillion economic and environmental bill, which includes measures to deal with climate change. The President delayed his departure for Europe to plead with Democrats to support the bill. They did not we've left Biden to announce a framework for an agreement. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: This framework also makes the most significant investment to deal with the climate crisis ever, ever happened. Beyond any other advanced nation in the world, over a billion metric tons of emission reductions, at least 10 times bigger on climate than any bill that has ever passed before. And enough to position us for a 50 to 52% emission reductions by the year 2030.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: President Biden is expected to discuss the climate crisis with Pope Francis at the Vatican in just a few hours. The Pope along with other religious leaders have appeal to those world leaders to reach an agreement quickly on fighting climate change.
Let's head live to Rome. CNN's Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman. They talked about climate change, this is very important stuff but also this is a very personal meeting with Joe Biden, as a catholic, very public about his faith.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there have been deep divisions within the U.S. Catholic community over President Biden's stance on LGBTQ rights, as well as abortion with some conservative bishops, demanding that he not be given Holy Communion because of his political stance.
Now, even though he personally opposes abortion, he agrees to it as a policy of for the government. And therefore, that has been a major point of division within the Catholic community. And, of course, Pope Francis has made it clear that he opposes this conservative approach within the Catholic community in the United States that he believes that some Catholic bishops are going straying too much into politics, and not focusing on social justice issues. And the environment which Pope Francis has been quite outspoken about. He has called for instance, for extractive industries to stop destroying the planet for arms manufacturers to stop producing arms and that sort of thing.
So, it's going to be an interesting meeting between President Biden and Pope Francis. This is the third time they have met but the first time, Joe Biden has met Pope Francis as President of the United States. John.
[01:05:00]
VAUSE: The other big issue Which I guess could put Joe Biden at some odds with Pope Francis is over the pandemic and vaccine distribution around the world which many religious leaders have called out as being inaccurate also to officials from the WHO, and the United States has been already the world's largest amount of vaccines to poor countries. But it's still not enough. And many still say that until these vaccines are distributed this pandemic will continue. And the U.S. has been criticized for that. So how will this issue be discussed between these two men? WEDEMAN: Well, we've heard Pope Francis recently calling on pharmaceutical companies to stop using the patent to deny manufacturers, pharmaceutical manufacturers in the developing countries, the right to produce in his, what he is advocating, which seems logical is that in order to beat the coronavirus pandemic, any company capable of producing the vaccines should be able to do it without this intellectual property right fetish that is so popular in the West. And on that there does seem to be a profound disagreement between Pope Francis and most of the leaders of the G20 countries who seem to be more interested in the corporate interests of these pharmaceutical companies, then, let's put it quite bluntly humanity. John.
VAUSE: Very blunt. Ben, thank you. Ben Wedeman, Senior International Correspondent in Rome. Thank you, Ben.
Well, congressional Democrats in Washington are still bickering over President Biden's trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, and they've delayed voting for the second time in two months. That's despite the U.S. President's direct appeal in a closed-door meeting before he left Rome. He pitched them on a framework for a separate logic climate economic package. But House progressives say that framework is not enough. And they will not budge on infrastructure unless the bigger social spending bill moves with it.
CNN's Phil Mattingly picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BIDEN: I think we haven't started. I know we have historic economic framework.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden rolling the dice on his entire presidency.
BIDEN: No one got everything they wanted, including me. But that's what compromises.
MATTINGLY: With no sign yet. It's a bet that will pay off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are too many members for the bills to pass, too many no votes for the bills to passed today.
MATTINGLY: In a coordinated push to jumpstart his two-part multitrillion-dollar agenda by traveling to Capitol Hill this morning to lay out the key elements of a $1.75 trillion economic and climate package. Not hedging on his view of the stakes of the moment, as he prepared to travel to Europe for two summits with world leaders. Biden according to sources in the room telling Democrats it's not "hyperbole to say that the House and Senate majorities in my presidency will be determined by what happens in the next week."
REP. NANCY PELOSI, (D) HOUSE SPEAKER: Let's do it in a timely fashion. That's not just keep having postponements and leaving any doubt as to when this will happen. MATTINGLY: And unequivocal challenge to progressives who have refused to support that bill until the economic and climate package is not just an outline, but a full proposal.
ILHAN OMAR, U.S. HOUSE DEMOCRAT: Our members are still in the same position they were they need to see legislation and they need to see that pass.
MATTINGLY: Biden publicly and private, urging Democrats to focus on what's in the proposal, not what's been left out or the mechanics.
BIDEN: Any single owner, this framework was fundamentally be viewed as a fundamental change in America. Taken together they're truly consequential.
MATTINGLY: And includes hundreds of billions of dollars for childcare and universal pre-K, health care and affordable housing. And just days before he arrives at the U.N. Climate Change Conference.
BIDEN: This framework also makes the most significant investment to deal with the climate crisis ever, ever happened.
WILLIAMS: But it's a proposal that also drops some of the most coveted pieces of Biden's agenda, from paid family and medical leave to Medicare expansion for vision and dental coverage to free community college and a proposal to lower prescription drug prices.
BIDEN: I know it's hard. I know how deeply people feel about the things that they fight for.
MATTINGLY: All in an effort to secure the support of centrist Democratic Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Two senators who after days on end of negotiations, still haven't explicitly endorsed the framework, with Biden boarding Air Force One for Rome without a clear path forward with Pelosi, unrelenting and a singular focus. The time for action is now.
PELOSI: For those who said I want to see text, the text is there for you to review for you to complain about, for you to add to or subtract from, whatever it is, and we'll see what consensus emerges from that.
[01:09:58]
MATTINGLY (on camera): Despite hours of negotiation, pressing by Speaker Nancy Pelosi by White House officials, by top Democratic leaders there simply was no pathway to having the votes or a full agreement in hand within the day. It was a disappointment for White House officials. It was disappointment for Democratic leaders who thought hope to some degree, even though they didn't have a full deal, even though they didn't have the votes lined up, they could muscle something through. That clearly is not the case. Progressives once again standing in the way pushing things further off into the future.
White officials taking some solace in the fact that progressives did line up behind the framework, but still significant details left to go and clear urgency still for a White House, particularly as the President arrives in Rome. Phil Mattingly, CNN, Vatican City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: After Rome comes Glasgow with world leaders will confront the climate crisis only. And that's a COP26. And coming up here a closer look at climate change and big oil, and a decade's long disinformation campaign to discredit climate science and defect playing for their role in rising carbon emissions.
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For Facebook, will Meta make everything better? The social media behemoth will now officially be called Meta platforms. The new name was announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his future vision for the Metaverse which does not exist yet. And no one really knows what it will be apart from some vague, totally immersive virtual space. But Facebook will still be called Facebook, Instagram still be Instagram, and on and goes. And even though the company is in the midst of the biggest crisis in its history, Mark Zuckerberg will still be CEO and nothing else will change. And that's the critics is the real problem, which will take more than a new name to fix. We have more now from CNN's Paula Newton.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a corporate event that seemed to have the vibe of a budget sci-fi flick.
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: All right, perfect.
NEWTON: Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and head of all things Facebook introduced the Metaverse.
ZUCKERBERG: Together, we can finally put people at the center of our technology and deliver an experience where we are present with each other.
NEWTON: What is it put simply an immersive way to connect online for both business and pleasure using virtual and augmented reality and Zuckerberg is all in, rebranding Facebook's corporate name to Meta, it's from the Greek word beyond, he says --
ZUCKERBERG: Your devices won't be the focal point of your attention anymore.
NEWTON: Now if Meta is the future in the present, the Facebook brand on the site and the app won't change. What Zuckerberg is trying to pull off is more profound than that.
SHEERA FRENKEL, TECH REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: He is trying to take control of what he thinks is going to be the big next wave of technology. And the question is going to be whether the world accepts that, whether people in spite of all of the controversy and in spite of all the crises that have hit Facebook in the last month are going to want to put their trust in Facebook. NEWTON: Despite accusations of a toxic business model and dangerous follow to match, Zuckerberg strategy of plowing ahead with ambitious market domination has worked.
ZUCKERBERG: Our mission remains the same.
NEWTON: And in rebranding, Zuckerberg has nothing substantive to say on how Facebook can become a safer social media space, especially for teenagers and young people.
ZUCKERBERG: I know that some people will say that this isn't a time to focus on the future. And I want to acknowledge that there are important issues to work on in the present. There always will be.
FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: During my time at Facebook --
NEWTON: In recent months, former Facebook employees have provided evidence that Facebook was aware of its role in disseminating the misinformation that breeds and spreads on its social media platforms. In a statement, Zuckerberg said the documents released were cherry- picked to present a misleading narrative about the company.
Frances Haugen, she fears the same problems will occur and Facebook's new Metaverse.
HAUGEN: I was shocked to hear recently that Facebook is rebranded -- wants to double down on the Metaverse and that they're going to hire 10,000 engineers in Europe to work on the Metaverse. I think there's a view inside the company that safety is a cost center. It's not a growth center, which I think is very short-term in thinking.
NEWTON: What is not short-term the insidious effects of Facebook social media platforms worldwide, regulators have so far failed to create and enforce laws that prevent the worst abuses online, those powered by algorithms and AI that can efficiently disperse misinformation and hate. To that Zuckerberg has added a new challenge, the potentially even more invasive Metaverse. Paula Newton, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: To San Francisco now, Josh Constine, the Principal Investor and Head of Content for venture capital fund SignalFire. Josh, welcome back. Good to see you.
JOSH CONSTINE, PRINCIPAL INVESTOR & HEAD OF CONTENT, SIGNALFIRE: Thank you so much for having me.
VAUSE: OK, so Google did something similar back in 2015, the search engine was still Google, but they announced the umbrella company would be called Alphabet. So, with that in mind here's a little more from Mark Zuckerberg.
[01:15:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZUCKERBERG: Our mission remains the same, still about bringing people together, our apps and their brands, they're not changing either. And we are still the company that designs technology around people. But now we have a new North Star.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. A north star is probably a good idea because the Old North Star kind of, you know, the jig is up about maximizing profits, spreading hate racism, dissipation, keeping users engaged for longer online. But in the real world, you know, Metaverse has anything really actually changed in substance the way this company does business?
CONSTINE: A Facebook by any other name will still try to collect all of your data. Nothing here is really changing when alphabet made its name change, it was trying to hide massive cost centers of its moonshot division. But with Facebook is trying to disconnect itself from its toxic brand. It knows that if it wants to have a chance at appealing to Gen Z and the users of tomorrow, it can't be tied to its parents social network name, it has to be something new and fresh. And by using the name Meta, it makes us think about the Meta in the company every time we think of the Metaverse.
VAUSE: Zuckerberg doesn't really know exactly what the Metaverse will be. But here's how he sees this virtual space kind of working. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZUCKERBERG: All right, perfect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Mark, hey, what's going on?
ZUCKERBERG: Whoa, we're floating in space, who made this place? It's awesome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right? It's from a crater, I met in L.A.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This place is amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We know this is a fantasy world of Mark Zuckerberg's creation within his own mind, because he's hanging out with friends fall in space. If this thing actually happens, in some way, we'll just end up being kind of like a zoom conference call but with better graphics?
CONSTINE: No, what the Metaverse is going to be is an embodied internet. Imagine an internet of apps and websites that you could actually walk inside of in 3D, much more similar to the virtual games and worlds that we use today on console platforms like the play station or Xbox. But instead, you're going to be able to buy goods create a virtual identity and take it with you from site to site. The same way that you might bring your credit card data from one app to another today on the internet. And Facebook was smart to use this very basic name that's so connected to the Metaverse. Facebook is very shrewd with how it colonizes namespace using names like pages, groups, marketplace and messenger to take over those concepts. And now it wants to do the same with the Metaverse knowing that this is going to be an explosive new area of business that will create a bloom of new companies similar to the way that we saw a huge new wave of apps arrived when the mobile internet became mainstream.
VAUSE: OK, well, some people have been very scathing about this rebranding. Here's part of a piece by Allison Morrow, Senior Editor at CNN Business. "Let's not let this Black Mirror-esque gobbledygook distract us from the very real hell Facebook has wrought in our non- augmented reality. No amount of corporate re-branding should let Zuck or anyone else off the hook for the real tangible harms, their product has manifested and continues to propagate without consequence."
But will distract if nothing else is meant to Zuckerberg get out of jail free card?
CONSTINE: I mean, I think Instagram was Zuckerberg free card, you know, the Facebook already owns WhatsApp, Oculus, Messenger. And most people don't know this, it's actually only 38% of people that understand that Facebook owns Instagram. Only 29% of people know that Facebook owns WhatsApp. So, it's already doing a good job of distracting by acquiring companies and building those as its brand. But with this new wave of product development in the Metaverse, activists and regulators have to keep their eye on both the present and making sure Facebook doesn't get away with any of the transgressions it's already committed. But they also need to be here to help us shape the future of this virtual world because otherwise we could end up being indebted to Facebook permanently or having it tax our every move or collect data on everything we do inside of these virtual worlds.
VAUSE: And what we've seen from Facebook over the years when it's acquired Instagram or WhatsApp, hasn't developed those apps, but rather bought them as, you know, ways of growth. What can it buy to get the Metaverse because it's not out there yet, it has to develop the Metaverse, right?
CONSTINE: Facebook has actually tried to buy several other companies in this space including Unity, which is a game development engine which will help companies build products for the Metaverse. Facebook wants to own the scaffolding, the underlying infrastructure of the Metaverse because it got screwed over by the fact that Apple and Google owned the mobile architecture because it had to have its apps on iOS and Android. It had to pay those taxes out to those companies on every purchase, everything, every -- all the money spent through Facebook and it wants to have a new chance of getting to control its own destiny but that doesn't mean it's going to be any safer for us users and so we need to be careful about what data we give away and making sure that we always keep protection of what matters most to us, not only our data, but our social relationships and our time because our attention is really what matters. It's all an attention economy. So, make sure to preserve yours and use it where you really believe it's important.
[01:20:26]
VAUSE: Time is valuable, use it wisely, Josh, thank you, good to see you.
When we come back, new COVID infections globally, once again on the rise and increase being driven from just one region. So why is Eastern Europe outstep with the rest of the world?
Also, after France seized a British fishing trawler, London now looks set to some of the French ambassador as a dispute over-fishing rights continues to escalate.
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VAUSE: Well, for the first time in two months, new COVID infections worldwide are on the rise. The World Health Organization reports the number of COVID deaths are also up. But the increase is being driven from just one region. Europe and the head of the WHO says there's one reason why and that's vaccine inequity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TEDROS GHEBREYESUS, WHO DIRECTOR-GENERAL: It's another reminder that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. The pandemic persists in large part because inequitable access to tools persists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Europe accounted for almost 60% of new cases worldwide last week. Every other region either plateaued or declined. France is now playing hardball in its dispute over fishing rights with U.K. An issue here is the number of vessels allowed to fish in each country's waters in this post Brexit world. CNN Melissa Bell has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a British fishing boat seized by the French on Wednesday, one of two that was stopped and fined as part of tightened controls by the French in the English Channel amid a war of words over fishing rights that has lasted for months.
CLEMENT BEAUNE, FRENCH MINISTER OF EUROPEAN AFFAIRS (through translation): We need to use the language of force since that seems to be the only thing the British government understands.
BELL: Back in May, French fishermen protested just off the Channel Islands. Many angry have not been given the licenses they need to fish in British waters. The U.K. government says it's granted 98% of European license applications. But according to the French government, French boats, fishing and coastal waters have been disproportionately affected.
GABRILE ATTAL, FRENCH GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN (through translation): What we see today is that almost 50% of the licenses to which we are entitled are missing. The situation is unacceptable. And I'm saying clearly our patience is reaching its limits today.
BELL: The retaliatory measures announced by the French government on Thursday will come into effect next week, preventing British fishing boats from offloading produce at nearly all French ports but also seeing extra customs checks on all goods heading to or from the United Kingdom. And that could mean the sorts of freight congestion that we last saw just before Brexit came into effect.
[01:25:16]
GEORGE EUSTICE, U.K. ENVIRONMENT SECRETARY: The measures being threatened do not appear to be compatible with the trading cooperation agreement or wider international law, and if carried through will be matched with an appropriate and calibrated response.
BELL: Yeah, Brexit may be a done deal, but the fallout means there's no sign of calm waters on the horizon. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, still to come, China's Xi Jinping will be a no show at the G20 Summit in Rome. But he'll still make an appearance via video. Also head big oil bosses and U.S. lawmakers face off over disinformation campaigns and climate change. And we should note this is just the beginning.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN Newsroom. U.S. President, Joe Biden has arrived in Rome ahead of the G20 Summit of the world's wealthiest countries. But he arrived without an agreement from lawmakers in Washington on his sweeping social agenda, including plans to fight climate change.
The President will meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican a few hours from now. After the G20 he travels to Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26 Climate Summit. China's President Xi Jinping will not attend either event. Instead, he'll appeal briefly at the G20 by video link.
CNN's Selina Wang following developments first live itself from Tokyo. It does beg the question how much of an agreement can you get on issues like climate change when the world's biggest producer of carbon emissions when the leader won't be there?
SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John, well, many climate watchers say that by not having Xi Jinping there in person at the G20 or at the Climate Summit in Glasgow that this severely undermines any possible transformational outcome or change and that perhaps it means that the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter does not have many more concessions to make.
Beijing has not publicly given a reason for why Xi Jinping cannot attend these meetings in person. But we do know that he has not left China in more than two years ever since the pandemic started. And she is dealing with yet another surge of COVID-19 cases at home. Since October 17 China has logged more than 200 COVID-19 cases, which, John, is low by international standards, but in China where they are still pursuing this zero tolerance COVID-19 policy even a few cases can lead to drastic action like mass testing and lock downs.
China still has its borders closed and it does still Have a long and strict quarantine for all international arrivals.
[01:29:41]
So perhaps it was decided that optics wise, it was best if Xi Jinping did not leave the country.
Now, China instead, Xi Jinping is going to be holding this virtual speech. He's also going to be likely holding virtual meetings bilaterally.
But one of the biggest productive parts of the G20 is these face to face meetings on the sidelines. And that's not going to happen.
Take a listen to what U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: President Xi has chosen not to attend the summits. He's chosen not to leave China at all in calendar year 2021 to see any leader. That's of course his choice.
So I'm not going to characterize the decision-making he's making. All I can say is from the U.S. president's perspective, President Biden does believe it's important that he have the opportunity to have a face to face engagement with Xi Jinping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WANG: Sullivan said the next best option is for the leaders to have a virtual meeting. The White House did announce earlier this month that Xi and Biden had agreed in principle for a virtual meeting. The question is how much progress can be made as increasing tensions are being inflamed. Whether it's around Taiwan, or Hong Kong, the South China Sea, and Chinese human rights record.
The White House has emphasized that these lines of communication are critical to avoid any accidental conflict and to responsibly manage this relationship, John.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Selina, thank you. Selina Wang, live for us there in Tokyo. Appreciate it.
After the G20 come COP26 in Glasgow. President Biden will travel directly from Rome and once there issue an urgent call for global action.
Here's CNN's Phil Black. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): These are just some of the biblical events the world has seen and experienced in 2021 -- extreme floods, fires, droughts, and record temperatures across the U.S. and around the world. Proof, scientists say, we are already living in a climate crisis.
TODD STERN, FORMER U.S. LEAD CLIMATE NEGOTIATOR: It is here. I mean it's upon us. People see that. People feel that.
BLACK: Todd Stern led U.S. climate negotiations through the Obama administration, and helped forge 2015's Paris Agreement.
That breakthrough document includes a critical promise. All countries will work to keep the global average temperature increase within 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.
STERN: We've got a hell of a long way to go.
BLACK (on camera): Because the reality is, at the moment, we are nowhere near to being on track to keep things below 2, let alone on 1.5.
STERN: We are not near -- we're not near being on track, but we are getting better.
BLACK (voice over): Better ultimately, isn't good enough. At the Glasgow climate conference, each country will be judged on whether it is cutting emissions sufficiently to ensure that crucial 1.5 degree target is still achievable.
The scientific consensus says the goal is now slipping beyond reach. And the consequences will be disastrous.
BOB WARD, GRANTHAM RESEARCH INSTITUTE ON CLIMATE AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Without action to curb greenhouse gas emissions, we could see temperatures go well beyond 3 degrees of warming by the end of the century, something that the earth has not experienced for three million years, long before humans were on the planet. It would be a very, very different world.
BLACK: U.S. leadership, through example, is vital at Glasgow to boost other countries' ambitions. The Biden administrations' plan is bold. Have U.S. emissions by 2030, hit net zero carbon by 2050.
WARD: That's fantastic, but it needs to demonstrate that they can deliver that. and the lack of agreement at federal level and indeed in many states -- to the outside world looks like that will be a major challenge.
BLACK: Success also depending on big, new commitments from China. The world's biggest polluter is responsible for more than a quarter of global emissions. China's long term goal is becoming carbon neutral by 2060. STERN: So it's quite important that China move much more than they
have. Again, there is -- that long term goal is pretty good but between now and 2030 they haven't pledged really anything.
BLACK: The urgent challenge for China and many developing countries is to stop burning coal for electricity while still rapidly growing their economies and lifting populations out of poverty.
The issue is going to be a key focus at Glasgow, along with finance from rich countries to help poorer countries, make the change.
But even before the conference opens, it is clear, there are tensions over some countries' unwillingness to offer detailed, ambitious commitments.
[01:34:52]
JOHN KERRY, U.S. CLIMATE ENVOY: We are behind. And we have to stop the BS that is being thrown at us by a number of countries that have not been willing to sign up to what Great Britain has signed up to, we have signed up to, Japan, Canada, the EU -- that is, to keep 1.5 degrees alive.
BLACK: It's expected Glasgow will deliver progress but will it be enough? As frequent extreme events demonstrate the growing dangers of failure, scientists are sure, there is now very little time left to prevent climate change, on a devastating scale.
Phil Black, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For the first time ever, chief executives from big oil appeared before the U.S. Congress to answer what Democrats called a disinformation campaign on climate change.
But the bosses of Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP America, and Shell all denied a decades' long effort to mislead and confuse the public about their role in global warming, denied discrediting the science and the scientists.
CNN's Rene Marsh has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENE MARSH, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The Democratic chairwoman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Carolyn Maloney, announcing on Thursday that she will subpoena all six major oil companies and their trade organizations for internal documents that the committee has been requesting.
That includes detailed funding information to understand the industry's financial payments to so-called shadow groups, and documents outlining their corporate strategy on climate change.
Take a listen. REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D-NY): Unfortunately, none of the six entities
have produced a substantial portion of the key documents that the committees requested. Instead, they produce reams of other documents, many of which were publicly available.
MARSH: Well, this is the first time we've ever seen these major companies be held accountable to this extent for their role on climate change and the misinformation campaign surrounding it.
Now there were some other key moments during this six-hour hearing. All of the companies acknowledged climate change. They all denied spreading climate misinformation.
At one point, Shell CEO, she acknowledged climate change but she refused to answer whether or not climate change is an existential threat.
They all told Congress that they support policies that curb emissions, but all of these companies continue to fund trade organizations like the American Petroleum Institute or API, which is the most powerful lobby for the industry. And API has been hard at work spending millions of dollars to undercut clean energy solutions like electric vehicles and methane gas regulations.
So although the company are saying they support these sort of green policies the trade organization that they fund is actually actively working to undercut those policies.
Rene Marsh, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Michael Mann is distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University. He's author of "The New Climate War".
And Michael, great to have you with us.
MICHAEL MANN, PROFESSOR, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Great to be with you.
VAUSE: Ok, now your book "The New Climate War," it documents how fossil fuel companies have muddied the waters about climate change for about 30 years, tried to deflect for their role in this climate crisis.
So with that in mind, I want you to listen to part of the testimony from a guy called Mike Wirth, CEO of Chevron. One of four big oil companies summoned before lawmakers in Congress. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE WIRTH, CEO, CHEVRON: While our views on climate change have developed over time, any suggestion that Chevron has engaged in an effort to spread disinformation and mislead the public on these complex issues is simply wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A similar line came from all of the other executives as well who appeared. Have at it.
MANN: Well, you know, fossil fuel interests for the better part of the half century now have been funding front groups and organizations that played a critical role in attacking the science of climate change, attacking scientists like myself. Undermining public faith in the science and the scientists. And pretty much doing everything they could to prevent any meaningful action on climate.
And so, here we're just hearing a new form of denial. They've gone from denying climate change to denying that they denied climate change. And to denying that they've engaged in underhanded efforts for decades, to try to block meaningful action on climate.
VAUSE: During this hearing, Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna said that these oil executives were essentially facing a very stark choice. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Today, the CEOs of the largest oil companies in the world have a choice. You can either come clean, admit your misrepresentations and ongoing inconsistencies, and stop supporting climate disinformation.
[01:39:55]
KHANNA: Or you can sit there in front of the American public and lie under oath.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: It would seem they chose to lie, just like the bosses of big tobacco chose to lie about nicotine and addiction during a similar hearing in 1994.
But why make that choice?
MANN: Well, I guess they figured they've backed themselves into a corner. They're so heavily invested now in fossil fuels. So much of their net assets are buried in the ground in the form of proven fossil fuel reserves.
And if they're not able to access and sell those assets, they know they're going to go under. And so they've backed themselves in a corner and it's unfortunate because if they had taken a more enlightened path decades ago, recognized what their own internal scientists were telling them because back in the early 1980s ExxonMobil's own scientists and internal report described the potential consequences of continued fossil fuel burning as catastrophic.
If ExxonMobil executives had listened to their own scientists and had steered a different path back then, we would all be better off and they would still have a viable business model.
VAUSE: This House committee says that between 1990 and 2018 these four companies -- Exxon, Shell, BP and Chevron -- reported profits of close to $2 trillion, adding this, "We are also concerned that to protect those profits, the industry has reportedly led a coordinated effort to spread disinformation to mislead the public and prevent crucial action to address climate change."
And the issue here is not just what has happened in the past, but it's what the fossil fuel industry is doing right now. They're lobbying against parts of the Biden administration's plans to cut carbon emissions. This is ongoing.
MANN: Yes, and you know, this is what I describe in the new climate war. It's this evolution from denial because you can't deny climate change anymore.
People can see that it's happening. We've all been experiencing the devastating consequences of climate change. So they know they can't deny that it's happening anymore.
And instead they have engaged in a variety of other tactics, even more insidious tactics, in their effort to keep us addicted to fossil fuels, and to prevent us from transitioning to clean energy.
And that consists of dividing climate advocates, deflecting attention away from the needed policies, systemic changes, to individual behavior. As if it's just a matter of the you and me changing light bulbs.
They don't want policies that will hurt their bottom line but which are ultimately necessary if we're going to achieve the reductions in carbon emissions that are necessary.
And they've been promoting false illusions. They've been engaging in denial tactics like claiming that we can just engage in a massive carbon capture and seek restoration. Or geo engineering, manipulating our planetary environment in some other way to try to cover up the effects of carbon pollution. What could possibly go wrong?
VAUSE: Michael we'll leave it there. We're out of time but thank you very much for being with us. We really appreciate it. Thank you.
MANN: Thank you.
VAUSE: A very quick programming note now. We'll have extensive coverage of the COP26 Climate Chance Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, November 1st through to the 12th. Please stay with us here on CNN everyday for that.
And for all the latest climate news and COP26 developments please head to our Web site, CNN.com/climate.
And we will take a short break here. When we come back on CNN NEWSROOM: despite a deadly crackdown on protests over the military takeover in Sudan, the unrest and the demonstrations are expected to continue to grow.
Also with the existence of UFOs now recognized and not ridiculed, NASA wants a plan in place for how to tell the world, yes, we have discovered alien life.
[01:43:49]
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VAUSE: International pressure on the leaders of a military coup in Sudan continues to grow. The U.N. Security Council and other world leaders calling on the military to free prisoners and return the country to civilian rule.
At least 11 people have been killed as confrontations between soldiers and protesters turned violent.
CNN's Larry Madowo has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Friday is Day 5 of the military takeover of Sudan. It's the largest round of civil disobedience against (ph) that turn of events, expected on Saturday when huge protests are planned across the country.
They're organized by some of the same organizations -- activist groups, the Sudan Professionals Association -- that was behind the popular protests that led to the ouster of Omar Al-Bashir from power after 30 years back in April 2019 and some of the same local resistance committees.
They also forced the military into power sharing agreement with the civilians in what was called the sovereign council, that is part of what was dissolved (ph) on Monday for the rest of the government.
So what's happening now? The Friends of Sudan, this is a group of countries that supported the power-sharing agreement, they have condemned the coup and demand release of the many ministers who were arrested on Monday and whose status we're still not sure of.
Those countries include the U.S., the U.K., the United Nations, European Union. Arab nations did not sign on to that Friends of Sudan statement. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar have not gone all the way to condemn that coup. On the other hand, the military ruler of Sudan, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has now appointed a new foreign minister, Ali al-Sadiq. He's a former ambassador and he's met in Khartoum with other western ambassadors in the city and gave them quote, "his assurances and commitment of a full return to civilian rule", election in 2023, and the long delayed parliament.
Whether that will happened, people are skeptical.
Larry Madowo, CNN -- Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Well, For decades the Pentagon not only refused to acknowledge UFOs were real, but those who reported sightings were ridiculed but not anymore.
When we come back, with increasing talk that discovering extraterrestrial life may happen soon, NASA wants to plan as to how to tell the world.
[01:48:14]
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa. Got it. Got it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) is that thing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you box a moving target?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I took an auto-track.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, ok.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my gosh, dude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. What is that man?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at it fly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's a U.S. Navy video from 2015 recorded off the coast of California, when a so-called unidentified aerial phenomenon, the new UFOs, that the pentagon refused to acknowledge until recently.
Since declassifying a report on unexplained sightings in June, the U.S. military admits it doesn't know what the objects are.
But confirmation of their existence and their physics-defying capabilities have sparked a lot of speculation about the possibility of confirming alien life in the near future.
NASA believes this might be a good time to work out how best to break the news to the world even when it happens.
Its chief scientist cautioned in the "Journal of Nature", our generation could realistically be the one to discover evidence of life beyond earth. With this privileged potential comes responsibility. The magnitude of the question of whether we are alone in the universe and the public interest therein, opens the possibility that results may be taken to imply more than the observations support or than the observers intend."
Marik von Rennenkampff is a former analyst with the U.S. Defense Department and since leaving government has worked extensively on issues and research into alien life.
Marik, thank you for being with us. We appreciate your time.
MARIK VON RENNENKAMPFF, FORMER ANALYST FOR U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT: John, thanks so much for having me. It's my pleasure.
VAUSE: Ok, so when that moment arrives, if it arrives in our lifetime or later. The question will be asked have we discovered extra terrestrial life?
Chances are it won't be a yes or no answer, but rather something akin to, it's complicated. So how does NASA plan to provide the extra context here and why is this needed?
VON RENNENKAMPFF: That's a fantastic question. And boy that is the age-old question.
John, I did want to maybe take a second to acknowledge a fairly momentous development in the search for extraterrestrial life. And that is, last Tuesday, NASA administrator Bill Nelson spoke passionately at a forum at the University of Virginia about NASA's mission to search for otherworldly life, extraterrestrial life.
And within 30 seconds of discussing NASA's charge to search for otherworldly life, he brought up those exact videos. Those encounters that your viewers just saw video of. And I think that is a pretty significant development.
That is the first time that the head of NASA has explicitly tied UFO sightings, UAP sightings and encounters that our military aviators are reporting to extraterrestrial life.
So I think I'll start with that. That is a fairly significant development. I think that deserves a little more attention than it may have received in the media as of late.
VAUSE: So with that in mind, with this question of how they will announce if we found alien life. There does seem to be this slow to the drumbeat, or this push, if you like, and this momentum towards building some kind of announcement that there could be something, you know, imminent is I guess, a relative term.
But there was an expectation that this could happen maybe in our lifetimes, if not, you know, maybe sooner.
VON RENNENKAMPFF: I think that is plausible. You know, some very smart scientists at the SETI institute -- that's the Search of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, have wagered that by I think 2036 that we will find evidence of extraterrestrial life.
Whether that is in our own atmosphere, which is shocking that that is now a possibility that our senior officials are openly discussing. Or whether that is light years away in another galaxy, further in our own galaxy and discovered through novel methods that we don't know yet.
But it's a remarkable possibility and I think it's going to be, if it does happen, I think we all can agree that it will be an earth- changing and shattering development that will change humanity forever.
VAUSE: There is a big difference though between discovering an extraterrestrial life and that other big question of are we alone in the universe because one could be a molecule which is alive, the other is a conscious, living being, I guess.
VON RENNENKAMPFF: That's well said. And there's gosh, there's a good chance that we will explore moons of Jupiter or Saturn, or other planets within our solar system and have just small, like you said, very, very small microbial, bacterial remnants of what may have once been life.
And I think that is important to keep in mind. This could be very, very incremental. This could not be the massive shock of UFOs landing on the White House lawn. In fact, it's probably unlikely. But that's just my speculation.
But you're right, there is some nuance here. The discovery of life could take many different shapes and forms.
[01:55:03]
VAUSE: And what we've seen in the past few years is sort of mainstreaming of UFOs or UAPs as they're now called. Last year, the U.S. government approved the establishment of an Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force. The mission of the task force is to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.
And there's been all this talk recently, you know, from others that we could detect life on another planet. So what was the shift? When did it go from, you know, a ticket to crazy town, if you like, if you have seen a UFO, to suddenly being legitimate?
VON RENNENKAMPFF: John, you ask a very, very good question. And the short answer is, for much of the Cold War, the government was actually concerned that mass UFO sightings would overwhelm intelligence and reporting channels and actually put the United States at risk -- if for example, the Soviet Union were to launch a sneak attack. The fear was that the Soviets could overwhelm these reporting mechanisms with UFO reports and have basically a surprise advantage in the war.
Now that the cold war is over, that dynamic is basically no longer there. It does not exist anymore. So it really came down to a series of encounters and videos that your viewers saw. Or basically what really catalyzed this in many ways -- we have naval aviators that are highly trained. That the U.S. government spends millions of dollars to train. They're reporting seeing objects that they cannot explain, that according to them and their sensors, defy commonly understood laws of aerodynamics and physics.
So, when they are reporting near misses and near collisions, this become a safety of flight issue. And an actual personal safety issue for our pilots. And more than that, when we have these objects appearing to operate with relative impunity in restricted airspace, the government started taking this seriously and rightly so, in my opinion. I think we want to get to the bottom of this, to understand what these objects are.
VAUSE: Absolutely. It's life Jim, but not as we know it. Keeps coming to mind.
Marik von Rennenkampff in San Francisco. Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.
VON RENNENKAMPFF: Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it.
VAUSE: Ok. And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. The news continues after a very short break with Kim Brunhuber.
I'll see you next week.
[01:57:28]
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