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France Says Russia To Allow Inspections Into Nuclear Plant; Ten Million People Under Flood Watches In AZ, NM And TX; Southern CA Residents Asked To Stop Watering While Pipeline Fixed; Extreme Temperatures Force Chinese Factories To Shut Down; At Least 20 Dead After Terrorists Attack Upscale Hotel In Somalia; Vanessa Bryant Testifies Crash Photos Caused Panic Attacks, Anxiety; Victim Testifies 20 Years Later About R. Kelly Sexual Abuse. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired August 20, 2022 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: And the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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MATTINGLY (voice-over): Russia and Ukraine accusing each other of bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear disaster.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): It's unacceptable that Russia puts all of us on the verge of a nuclear catastrophe of a global scale.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- as were propose the plants, the problem will be solved.
MATTINGLY: The west coast bakes under sizzling hot conditions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going for periods of long time without rainfall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're experiencing unprecedented challenges across the entire region as it relates to drought. In California, the worst drought in 1,200 years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll drive this lake down to elevation 1,000. That is 100 feet above dead pool. And you're at the bottom of the martini glass.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Prosecutors now have less than one week to submit proposed redactions to the judge so he can decide what might be released publicly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think Judge Reinhart is going to protect the identity of confidential informants.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even as his legal problems are mounting, his hold on the Republican Party is tightening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: I'm Phil Mattingly in Washington. Pamela Brown has the night off. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We begin this hour in Ukraine as it wrestles with a terrifying fear of a nuclear disaster. It is now almost six months to the day since Russia launched its unprovoked invasion.
New video from Ukraine's Ministry of Defense right here says this is a successful strike destroying a rare Russian radar complex in southeastern Ukraine.
Ukraine is about to get more U.S. help in its fight against Russia. The Pentagon saying it'll now send another $775 million in aid.
Including ammunition for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Howitzers, different types of missiles, anti-tank and mine-clearing equipment, plus dozens of drones and different vehicles.
A lot of the fighting right now is centered at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant. Ukraine says Russia is launching attacks from there because Ukraine wouldn't risk firing back and hitting a nuclear reactor. Russia claims Ukraine is targeting the site.
And while there's no way for us to verify either side's version of what's happening, satellite images we've analyzed suggests no sign of attack.
Meanwhile, there's word Russia has agreed to allow international nuclear inspectors into the plant. That's according to French President Emmanuel Macron's office.
It says, after a phone call, the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, now supports letting inspectors in.
CNN's Sam Kiley in Zaporizhzhia with the latest.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Phil, there's no doubt that, certainly from the point of view from the French president, extracting a concession from Vladimir Putin.
An agreement no less that would be necessary or desirable to have the International Atomic Energy authority visit the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is a success, but it's actually a repeat of existing Russia position.
The real problem is that the power station is effectively on the front line. The international community want to see it demilitarized. It's going to be difficult to get inspectors in there, very dangerous for them.
The Russians are -- we know, because we've witnessed the results with our own eyes -- firing rockets out of that location. The Russians are claiming the Ukrainians are firing back. That claim
is undermined by our own analysis of satellite imagery, which would indicate there hasn't been any significant shelling of that location for just over a month.
And, indeed, recent eyewitnesses that I've spoken to personally, who have escaped from the town next to the nuclear power station, who say it is the Russians themselves who are orchestrating low-level mortar attacks and similar false-flag operations to try to make the Ukrainians look bad.
Now, that is only their claim again. We've not been able to get in there because, of course, international journalists are very rarely admitted to any of the Russian-occupied areas.
Nonetheless, this is just yet another indication of how tense this could all be, and how dangerous because of the work.
Best situation could be a low-level leak if there was a nuclear strike. The worst-case scenario, according to nuclear experts, is a nuclear meltdown -- Phil?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: The worst case, almost an understatement.
Thanks to Sam Kiley for that reporting.
Shifting to the domestic front, nearly 10 million across the southwest are under flood watches today. As much as seven inches of rain could fall in some regions, raising concerns of flash flooding.
I want to bring in meteorologist, Gene Norman.
Gene, who's most at risk with these warnings?
GENE NORMAN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Phil, it's people in Utah, sections of Colorado, as well as New Mexico and western Texas. And the calling card of these storms is they're slow movers. And that's the reason for the flash flood threat.
You can see some little red boxes here on the radar display. And you see as those storms move through there, they're not moving through very quickly. That's the reason they're dumping lots of heavy amounts of rain. And those red boxes mean there are flash flood warnings in those areas.
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Now, the flood shift - rather, the flood threat will shift to the east tomorrow thanks to the remnants of potential tropical cyclone number four.
It's about to make landfall. But the moisture from it is going to move northward and feed even more rain threats especially for Texas and Oklahoma. So this system didn't have a chance to become any kind of named
system. All that we have are tropical storm warnings for sections of extreme south Texas.
But watch what happens. As that moisture moves northward, it collides with a front and a parade of storms will come marching across from Oklahoma, north Texas, into Arkansas and Louisiana.
And because of that, we could see four to six inches of rain. In some cases, we could see up to 10 inches of rain.
That's the reason why the Weather Service just posted new flood watches for the areas that you see there in green.
And we're also tracking a different storm threat. This one, sections of Illinois under a severe thunderstorm watch until 9:00 Central time.
Those storms are eventually going to make it to the northeast, but they won't really make that much of a dent in the drought.
MATTINGLY: Yes, the diversions between the heat, drought and serious concerns of rain and flooding.
Gene Norman, filling us in as always. Thanks so much, my friend.
And in southern California, there's very real concern about the water. More than four million people in Los Angeles County are being asked to stop watering outdoors while officials fix a leaky water pipeline.
Now, that could take up to 15 days next month, all in the midst of prolonged drought conditions.
The critical 36-mile pipeline imports water from the Colorado River, which supplies millions of residents in huge sections and farmland across the region.
CNN's Mike Valerio joins me now from just outside of L.A.
Mike, the drought, the repair not a great time for this to be happening. Fill us in what's actually going on right now.
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Phil. Well, this is the prep work. These critical repairs are going to happen just after Labor Day, September 6th until September 20th. Again, essential repairs needed for this huge megalopolis.
And we chose this spot, Phil, because we can see part of the expanse that'll be impacted by this water pipeline shutting down. In our immediate foreground, we have Culvert City, California, about 40,000 people just in our field of view here.
And as we zoom a little farther, to the right of these skyscrapers, we find Beverly Hills with a population just north of 30,000.
Phil, these are just two of the several dozen communities that are going to be without Colorado River water for the middle part of next month.
And as we look, Phil, at this green, lush landscape, this is all thanks to aqueduct river water that's been pipelined in here for the better part of a century.
Because we have more of these disruptions, you're going to see homeowners, like in the next few seconds, who are tearing out their lawns and putting in native desert plants that use far less water.
You also hear a sound bite of our potential future. Watch.
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DOREEN JANSEN, HOWEVER WHO RIPPED CUT LAWN: Although I didn't want to say good-bye to my beautiful lawn -- it was like a park -- I realized that the grass wasn't going to make it. So I decided to change the landscape and put in some arid plants.
BILL MCDONNELL, WATER EFFICIENCY MANAGER, METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: What we want is, in the future, people to be walking down the street, taking their dog or kids for a walk, and when you do see a yard that's turf, that's not the normal. That's the avi normal. So we want something a little different.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VALERIO: Bill McDonald, who, as you just heard from right there, he says, to put this in perspective, a lawn has about 11, 12 sprinkler heads. That's the equivalent of 11 or 12 shower heads in these drought conditions that would be watering your lawn.
To incentivize people to essentially stop that, Phil, our CNN reporting has shown, over the past few days, there are more and more municipalities that are paying people between $2 to $6 to rip out their lawns, to put in native desert plants or artificial turf, which needs no water, to help out with this dire situation in the Colorado River.
A story, Phil, that stands out, our colleague, Paul Vercammen, went outside of Palm Springs, California, interviewed a man expecting a check for $24,000 for taking out his 4,000 square-foot lawn.
So all of these changes, large and small, are, hopefully, officials are saying, trying to meet the while we have this dire shortage and more repairs in the coming months -- Phil?
MATTINGLY: Yes, Mike, hopefully. But the moment seems quite big, dire and some degree of acute at this point.
VALERIO: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Mike Valerio, great reporting from outside L.A. Thanks so much.
People in parts of China are sweating through one of the most searing heat waves ever in that country. The extreme temperatures are putting a huge strain on the country's power grid.
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And officials have ordered factories in parts of China to shut down operations for about a week to help conserve energy.
But as CNN's Selina Wang tells us, the shutdown could mean supply chain problems that could be felt way beyond China's borders.
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SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): A scorching heatwave grinding work on the world's factory floors to a screeching halt.
As China battles its worst heatwave on record, factories in the key manufacturing hubs of Sichuan Province and Chongqing City (ph) have come to a standstill.
For about a week, power is being saved for its more than 100 million residents amid a crippling crunch. But the diversion threatens an economic jolt.
It hits factories for semiconductor companies, like Intel and Texas Instruments and suppliers of Apple and Tesla.
Most importantly, Sichuan is rich in one of the world's most important commodities, lithium.
DENNIS IP, PURE SEARCH, DAIWA CAPITAL: Sichuan produced like 30 percent of the lithium hydroxide for China. So we think that this is going to affect the EVM supplies in the short run. Very likely, we are going to see the lithium price going up.
WANG: Lithium is essential for technologies like electric cars and smartphone batteries.
While experts say the impact will be minimal if the shutdown only lasts a week, if they drag on, it threatens to snag already strained global supply chains and take up prices for global consumers.
The power cuts are yet another headache for factories after COVID- related shutdowns. It could encourage the U.S. and Europe to move more of their battery supply chains back home.
SUSAN ZOU, ENERGY METALS ANALYST, RYSTAD ENERGY: Also kind of strengthens people's belief that you can't rely on China too much for the battery materials processing.
WANG: This is China's strongest and longest heatwave on record, lasting for more than 60 days, pushing temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in some regions.
It's put extreme pressure on the power grid because of spikes in air conditioning use and hydropower plants that are struggling to meet demand. Droughts are sweeping across the country. Parts of China's longest
river, the Yangtze, and other reservoirs, have completely dried up.
Fire trucks are sending water to places struggling to get enough drinking water. Villagers line up with their buckets.
In the south, the heat and droughts are ravaging crops, impacting 159 million acres of arable land.
Many regions are taking desperate measures. Central Hubei province is firing rockets into the sky with chemicals to help clouds produce more rain.
Videos of staff pouring ice cubes into swimming pools have gone viral, as did this woman's video diaries showing her bag of live shrimp cooked after she was outside for an hour.
Office workers are sitting around giant ice cubes to cool down because of power cuts.
Some cities are operating subway stations in near darkness to save energy. Other residents are sleeping in subway stations to take refuge from the heat.
China's heatwave is expected to get worse, so all of this might be the new normal.
Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.
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MATTINGLY: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. And up next --
(GUNFIRE)
MATTINGLY: -- at least 20 people are dead after terrorists blasted their way into an upscale hotel in the Somali capital.
Also ahead, a brand-new slide at a public park in Detroit forced to shut down just hours after opening for being just a little bit too quick.
We'll be right back.
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MATTINGLY: At least 20 people are dead after a gunman attacked an upscale hotel and took hostages in the capital of Somalia. The al- Qaeda linked terrorist group, al Shabaab, tonight, claiming responsibility for the terrorism, which is still raging 24 hours later.
CNN's Larry Madowo is covering this story for us.
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LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is being described as the longest-ever hotel siege in the history of the al Shabaab.
(GUNFIRE)
MADOWO: Gunmen from that terrorist group who were able to essentially breach the security defenses of the Hyatt Hotel by detonating large explosions outside the gate and they made their way into the hotel opening fire against guests and staff.
The death toll is likely to rise because at least one hospital where the wounded have been sent have received some in critical condition and some bodies. When the situation is over, the death toll could be much higher.
Some people have been rescued by security forces from the hotel, but there are people that remain unaccounted for.
Family members, loved ones gather outside the hotel waiting for word that a linked counterterrorism force was in the hotel engaging with these fighters from the al Shabaab.
And there's been condemnation from the U.S. embassy in Mogadishu, from the U.S. attorney general's spokesperson.
The al Shabaab have been righting the Somali government for longer than a decade. They are trying to overthrow the government so they can establish a really strict form of Islamic Sharia Law there.
The U.S. thought it was enough of a threat that, back in May, President Biden ordered a redeployment of U.S. troops in Somalia. This reverses a previous President Trump decision at the end of 2022 to withdraw U.S. troops there.
The U.S. forces have in recent weeks carried out several air strikes against the al Shabaab. About a week ago, the most recent, killing about 13 al Shabaab fighters.
The U.S. estimates the terrorist group has between 5,000 and 10,0000 fighters in the country. And one U.S. official has described al Shabaab as al Qaeda's largest global affiliate.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
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MATTINGLY: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Kobe Bryant's widow takes the stand in an unusual case involving crash scene photos. I'll discuss it with CNN legal analyst, Loni Coombs, up next.
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MATTINGLY: The widow of basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, gave emotional testimony in court as part of her lawsuit against Los Angeles County.
Vanessa Bryant broke down in tears multiple times while answering questions about close-up photos officials took and shared from the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, daughter and seven others.
CNN's Natasha Chen was in the courtroom and has the details.
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NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We heard tearful testimony from Vanessa Bryant on Friday as she told heartbreaking stories of new panic attacks she's never had before.
But that she started experiencing that after she found out through an "L.A. Times" article about a month after the crash that L.A. County sheriff's deputies and county firefighters had taken and shared close- up images of her loved ones remains from the crash site.
She talked about the moment she found out about that, how she was with family and had to run out of the house so that her daughters would not see her fall apart.
She said that she felt in that moment like running and screaming and jumping into the ocean but, quote, "I can't escape my body. I can't escape what I feel."
She also talked about disturbing messages she would get from strangers online. One of them was even shown to us in the courtroom, a direct message on Instagram from someone using helicopter and flame emojis and threatening to leak the images of Kobe's body.
Vanessa Bryant is a co-plaintiff in this case. She's been sitting next to Chris Chester, who also lost his wife and daughter in the same crash.
Both of them have described this fear and anxiety that these photos could someday surface and that it's a feeling on top of the grief that they already felt from losing family members.
The county and defense has emphasized that neither of them have ever seen any of these photos surface on the Internet.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva was on the stand later in the afternoon. He stated that his highest priority was to stop these photos from getting out. In other words, to not let the horses out of the barn.
And so he asked the deputies to delete the photos in question instead of waiting for a formal proper investigation to go through.
Now, the plaintiffs' attorneys asked him, does he know for a fact that they were all deleted? And he said, I believe that they were deleted. When further pushed on that, he said, quote, "Well, god knows, and that's about it." Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Thanks to Natasha for that reporting.
Joining me now is Loni Coombs, CNN legal analyst and former L.A. County prosecutor.
And I want to start with it was very clear how visceral and emotional the testimony of Vanessa Bryant was. At one point, she clasped her hands to her face, very detailed in kind of what she's gown through.
Do you think her testimony did enough to prove emotional distress? Or how much of a role will that have in trying to prove this case?
LONI COOMBS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Phil, I think her testimony was very effective in proving that. Look, she described how she found out these graphic photographs were taken of the human remains of Kobe and Gianna.
And it wasn't from the media or the paparazzi or the fans she worried about. It was from the first responders. These were the people she trusted and specifically asked to protect their loved ones.
They were the ones that took these photographs on their personal cell phones, kept them, and then disseminated them to at least a dozen people. We don't know how many. And they talked about them in crass and crude ways, like they were a pile of meat.
I think anyone listening to that, Phil, you or I or the members of the jury are going to hear that and think, if that was my child, my spouse, how devastated and outraged and angry and traumatized we would be.
I think it was very relatable and effective testimony.
MATTINGLY: Yes, can't even start to grasp the horror of that moment what they've gone through.
Now, the crash photos weren't just shared amongst officials on the scene. The Los Angeles fire captain also shared the photos at a party. Will that impact the jury here?
COOMBS: Yes, I think this is important testimony, Phil, because the testimony was that this was at a cocktail party.
There was a big group of fire officials around this fire captain. They were looking at the phone kind of like it was a party trick, talking excitedly about them, trying to get other people to come look.
One of the officials walked away and quoted as saying, "I just saw Kobe Bryant's burnt-out body and now I'm going to eat dinner."
It's very offensive. But it's something the jury can look at and say, look, these were just low-level deputies who didn't know what they were doing. This was up the chain of command. This is the brass doing this. This is apparently like a common practice.
And that's what the plaintiffs have said, this is something that was a widespread practice. This is part of the culture. And it's behavior that needs to stop.
MATTINGLY: Yes, it's unsettling to say the least.
I want to shift gears to some degree to R. Kelly.
One of R. Kelly's alleged victims testifies 20 years later about his sexual abuse, including some recorded on video that allegedly started when she was just 14 years old.
The woman had previously denied being the girl in the video but now changing her story. Kelly was acquitted in 2008 because the woman did not testify.
Could her testimony now lead to a conviction?
COOMBS: Yes, it very well could be. She's going by the pseudonym Jane now. And this is a witness the prosecution has wanted for years.
Back in 2008, the prosecution received this videotape of R. Kelly having sex with what appeared to be an underage girl. They believed it was Jane.
[20:29:55]
But at that time, she refused it. She said, no, that's not me. So when they went to trial, the jury said, look, we don't know who the girl is, we don't know how old she is, so they acquitted him.
However, Jane said, in 2019, after that devastating documentary Surviving R. Kelly came out, the prosecutors came back to her. She said it took three interviews before she finally decided that she was going to come forward and tell the truth.
Now, she was cross-examined about this by the defense saying, oh, sure, you've lied about this all these years, and now you're coming forward is because you want money, right? And she said, no, I know, I can sue for compensation. I haven't decided if I'm going to or not. But it's because I've decided I no longer want to carry his lies.
And Phil, it really made the point that she was 14 years old, she said when this started. He groomed her for the sexual relationship. It went on for years that he had sex with her hundreds of times while she was still a minor, and that he taught her to keep it a secret. And during that 2008 Prosecution, she says, he paid her and her family to stay silent. And that's part of the charges here an obstruction of justice charge.
MATTINGLY: Yes, no, absolutely, it's a story that just continues to develop despite always seen in the last several years. Loni Coombs, thanks so much for your expertise. I really appreciate it.
COOMBS: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: Now, from teacher shortages to anxiety over school shootings. Back-to-school time is also palpable stress time for kids and parents. The founder of Moms Demand Action joins me next.
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PHIL: The start of the new school year is shaping up to be even more hectic than usual with many districts facing severe shortages of teachers and bus drivers. Add that to the anxiety parents are feeling about school shootings, how safe their kids are in class. An Oklahoma mom has gone viral on a TikTok with a training session for her young son rehearsing what to do in case of an active shooter. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CASSIE WALTON, MOTHER OF A 5-YEAR-OLD: The teacher called over the intercom and says it's not a drill, everybody go in the corner, and be really quiet and still. So, what do you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get in the corner, be very quiet and still.
WALTON: Now, show me how you use your bulletproof backpack. OK, good job. If a teacher says, Weston, you don't need your backpack, let's get in the corner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd say, no, I need it. It's bulletproof.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action. And Shannon, that post has gotten well, over a million views with many responding, it's heartbreaking that you would have to teach your 5- year-old this kind of stuff. I think one of the things-- you always say why, right? Why are we still having this discussion? Why is this a reality? But it's almost more jarring to know that it feels inevitable to some degree at this point that there will be a school shooter, there will always be other school shootings. How are kids supposed to grapple with that as they go back to school?
SHANNON WATTS, FOUNDER, MOMS DEMAND ACTION: Well, they shouldn't have to, right? Back-to-school should not mean back-to-school shootings. This is not an act of nature. This is an act of cowardice by our lawmakers. That's the reason we have a twenty times higher gun homicide rate than any pure nation. And let's be clear, it's also why we have gun violence on school grounds.
We just put out a report that shows that last year was the deadliest school year on record since we started tracking and quadruple the number of gunfire incidents in any year that we've been tracking these crises. So, I think we should all be outraged, especially parents who put their kids on buses in the morning and really have to wonder if they'll come home alive. That isn't acceptable. We can never allow that to be the new normal.
And it's why, as an organization, we've been working on this legislatively, electorally, and culturally and we have to keep working to elect gun sense champions to office who have the power to stop this crisis.
MATTINGLY: So, I mean, you bring up an interesting point, because they're -- the most substantive gun-related legislation in 30-some- odd-years, maybe more than that, since '94, I believe, was passed and signed into law. There were Democrats who were pushing for that legislation acknowledging it didn't go far enough, but perhaps this was a start, this would start the process, this would build momentum. Republicans making very clear, even those that signed on, this is it, we're not going any further than this.
What's your take on where things stand right now in terms of whether there's momentum for more or whether we saw all that we're going to see on the legislative front?
WATTS: Oh, I think this was an incredibly important first step. And the fact that we had fifteen Republicans sign on to this bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the legislation that we have been working on for a decade, it's the first gun safety legislation to pass in nearly 30 years. It included $1.3 billion for evidence-based school safety efforts, including training and implementation. This is just the first step. There's so much more that's needed.
But look, when you break the logjam on an issue that has been polarizing only in the U.S. Senate, right? This is something that the 90 percent of Americans and gun owners and Republicans and others support common sense gun laws, like a background check on every gun sale. This is a very important first step and I think it's just the beginning of getting all lawmakers on the right side of this issue.
MATTINGLY: Yes, and it was a critical first step, and one I don't think a lot of people expected was a possibility. Shannon Watts, I know your organization worked a lot in making that first step happen. Thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it.
WATTS: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: You're in -- you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. And there's a new effort to change the world through music. Next, two hip hop artists and an entrepreneur's mission to get more people singing about saving the planet. They join me live to explain coming up next.
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MATTINGLY: From Marvin Gaye to Billie Eilish, Bob Dylan to Donald Glover, musicians had been singing about the planet, the environment probably since the beginning of music. Now, there's a new push to make songs about climate cool.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KRISTEN WARREN, HIP HOP ARTIST: In Eden we could be take care of you and me. While waters swell and rise please ease your Mother's mind.
MYVERSE, HIP HOP ARTIST: Dear Mother Earth, where do we begin? To change all this mess left for us to fix. We made aesthetics be the reason that this threat exists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Those are performers MyVerse and Kristen Warren, singing about climate change at a TED Talk. Yes, that was a TED Talk stage in New York. Now, it's part of a new effort by Samir Ibrahim, the CEO and founder of a company called Sun Culture. This company helps farmers in Kenya grow crops with solar-powered irrigation. Now, Ibrahim is asking musicians to spread the word about saving the planet.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMIR IBRAHIM, CEO AND CO-FOUNDER, SUNCULTURE: Now, imagine of instead of rapping or singing about Maybox or Cadillacs, the most influential hip hop artists in the world made electric vehicles aspirational.
(END VIDEO)
MATTINGLY: And, Samir Ibrahim joins me now live from Nairobi, Kenya. Kristen Warren and MyVerse are with us from Orlando. Guys, Kristen and MyVerse, let me start with you guys. How did this come about? Because it was fascinating to watch, it was a great performance, but how did you actually get to this point?
MYVERSE: Hi, you all! I actually met Samir through a project that we did a few years back where it was called Pitch and Flow and it was eco-friendly companies that team up with rappers and those rappers pitch their company to a crowd of people. And so, we met through that. And then, he had the brilliant idea of speaking on how hip hop and be influential.
And so, he was like, MyVerse, I need you to be part of this. And I felt, you know, I couldn't do this without my girl, Kristen Warren. And so, yes, we all linked up. And so, Orlando in the house, let's go.
MATTINGLY: And Kristen, how long did it take you guys to actually put this together? I know artists always have different processes in terms of how they write, how they work together, how they kind of vibe together. How long did it take you guys to actually get this together?
WARREN: Wow, I think it was -- it actually was a pretty quick process for us. By the time she had reached out to me, she had already written her first verse. And she sent it to me and asked if I could write a hook for it. And so, it was just a couple of days really --
MYVERSE: Yes.
WARREN: --that we worked together on this. And I-- MYVERSE: It's like a week.
WARREN: Yes, it -- was it -- yes.
MYVERSE: It's like a week.
WARREN: But I sent it to her, and then she -- I sent it to her like before the weekend, and then by Tuesday, she was like, hey, let's lay it on the studio.
PHIL: It's-- as somebody who writes, it's offensive to me that you guys can work that quickly and create something like that. Samir -- I mean, in the most positive way.
MYVERSE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Samir, I wanted to ask you, in your -- in your TED talk, you really kind of mentioned that you highlight the power of hip hop and the influence it's had. You know, whether it's Grandmaster Flash, Snoop Dogg. And I was reading the-- you know, Snoop Dogg, I think bumped the sales of Seagram's Gin after gin and juice up by like 20 percent in the immediate aftermath of that.
So, is that the effect you think this can have? Is that what you're going for here that all of a sudden, as you noted, you know, electric vehicles become the aspirational thing? Do you think it's possible?
IBRAHIM: I do, right? This is -- you know, hip hop, like I said, is always taking these complex topics and made them mainstream and influence our behavior and then the voice for the underrepresented. We're just asking hip hop to do that for the most important topic of our generation. And it's how do you -- how you take this sort of topic, climate action, and make it aspirational. And I think that hip hop is a way to do that. It makes it aspirational, it makes it cool, it makes it something that we all want to be a part of because our favorite artists want to be part of that. So, yes, I very much believe that they can do 20 percent plus.
MATTINGLY: And Kristen, you know, what kind of feedback have you gotten from the actual TED Talk experience, from the performance, from what you guys have actually laid out here?
WARREN: Well, the response has been incredibly positive. And just a lot of people that have been moved, and asking, like, how can they help towards the cause of --
MYVERSE: (CROSSTALK)
WARREN: -- you know, helping the environment, addressing global warming. So, the response has been really overwhelming and really beautiful.
MYVERSE: It has.
WARREN: I mean, I say like, you know, people of the culture, they see the purpose of what we're doing, and they see the message of -- and the effort that we're trying to put in towards this. Obviously, you know, there's going to be there, the people that are-- how do I say it without being rude because we're on national T.V.?
MATTINGLY: No, no, go ahead. Be rude. Be rude. That's totally fine.
MYVERSE: Oh my God.
WARREN: Like, there's people that, you know, that they're just going to be like, oh, it's-- what are you talking about, there's not a problem. And it's just like, you're not going to convince me to not be better to my planet. You're not going to convince me to want to leave something for the next generation and have breathable air. So -- you know what I mean?
MATTINGLY: Yes.
WARREN: So, you know, you have your people that are trying to convince you that no, it's OK, keep -- you know, keep the same habits you have and that -- but from the culture, we're getting a lot of respect for it and it's inspiring a lot of people. So --
PHIL: Can I ask you? Is the intent though -- is the intent to some degree to try and pierce, you know, the wall, those who you didn't want to be rude about have or are you trying to more just draw more engagement from those who kind of are already with you on it?
(20:50:10)
(CROSSTALK)
IBRAHIM: Everybody, right?
MYVERSE: You know, my thing is--
IBRAHIM: --and hip hop and music --
MYVERSE: Yes.
IBRAHIM: Go ahead -- go ahead Natalia.
MYVERSE: Well, like, just what he was saying, it's not even more to be disputed, it's more about the solution. You know what I mean? What can we do to get a solution? And I feel that, you know, this is the first step towards being able to make more music about climate change. And not just climate change, because there's -- you know, there wasn't enough time, you know -- or enough things to touch on, enough topics to touch on to put into that almost three-minute song.
To be honest with you, you know, Phil, you had said, your envy us how it's fast for us to write. To be honest with you, that second verse took so long to write because there's so much -- there's so much to talk about, and so many things that we can touch on as far as like, climate change. And not just climate change, just bettering your habits, so --
MATTINGLY: Yes, and -- but that's really an interesting point. Samir, I kind of want to ask you about that, right? Like, there's so much you could get into here but still making music that resonates with talented people, obviously, who are great writers. How do you -- you know, you said that their songs about climate change, you said they're not -- aren't nearly enough, but you don't want to just only do songs about climate change, right? There's something about getting things to actually hit, getting things to actually lock in with people.
How do you find that middle ground? What's the nuance here, in terms of an artist that actually resonates with as Natalia was saying, like with the culture that actually lands as opposed to just becomes kind of a thing that people know you're doing?
IBRAHIM: Yes, it's -- you know, we talked about this before. And you have to make good content first, right? You have to make things that people want to listen to. And Hip Hop is interesting and mass media is interesting in general because we sort of, it's a tool that's been used to talk about problems, solutions.
We're sort of -- we're sort of asking, how do you use Hip Hop forward to what it's always been used for and just tweak the solution set and tweak the problem set because the issue is that, there's just too many people don't have the information they need to understand what's going on and are unaware of the individual and collective actions they can take to help solve the problem.
So, we can sort of make really good music that talks about simple actions people can take. And I think it hits. I think you make good music with dope artists and people will listen to it.
MATTINGLY: Yes, there's a pretty-- the chemistry, the equation is pretty effective over time. That's -- it's very clear.
MYVERSE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Kristen, MyVerse. I would be remiss if I didn't ask, although if somebody asked me to do this, I would say absolutely not and I would run away. Could you share anything either from what you guys did at the TED Talk or anything else and give a little bit of a flavor for folks who maybe haven't watched what you guys did on stage.
MYVERSE: Oh, all right.
WARREN: He want us to sing the song.
MYVERSE: OK.
MYVERSE: All right.
MATTINGLY: Yes, just a little bit, a little bit.
MYVERSE: Wing it.
WARREN: OK.
MYVERSE: Dear children, I hope you listen. This is Mother Earth. From beyond your birth, I been here when the Sun emerged. I fed you from me for no love returned, to see you grow up and be undeserved. In other words, let me nurture. Don't let them deceive. You're self-sufficient because you get it from me. That light bill from the sun paid definitely. Don't let them hustle you your power because the energy is free.
WARREN: Blessed creatures fall and die, wildfires in their eyes. Stop waiting for a sign. Please ease your Mother's mind.
MYVERSE: Let's go.
WARREN: I can't believe it.
MATTINGLY: Guys that was --
MYVERSE: I love how you didn't put us on the spotlight.
MATTINGLY: I know. I know. No, like, in all honestly, as I was saying it, I was like if somebody asked me to do this, I would never talk to them again. I hope you don't do the same thing to me. Guys, I'm going to be honest, like one, folks who are watching it. If you haven't seen what they did on stage, if you haven't watched TED Talk, you really should. Like, it's really fascinating and dynamic, both performance from them and kind of walkthrough.
Samir, I've read about your work for a while now. Great to actually talk to you. Kristen, Myverse, thank you for letting me put you on the spot and being good sports about that.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTINGLY: You guys are incredibly talented and we're really grateful you guys came on. So, thank you so much.
IBRAHIM: Thank you, Phil.
MATTINGLY: All right, we'll be right back
(COMMERCIAL BREAK).
(20:55:00)
MATTINGLY: A brand new slide at a public park in Detroit forced to shut down just hours after opening when kids started catching way too much air. See for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, keep your hands in. Hey, I don't know, baby. They --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no. No, no, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Now, luckily there were no reports of injuries for those of us -- four or five parents watching that, among the riders who gave the six-lane metal slide a try, but it was clearly not an experience for the faint of heart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was going down way faster than I thought it was. Gravity hurts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you were going down the slide, what was going through your mind?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Man, I'm going to die.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: It's not funny, but it's a good response. Officials at the Belle Isle Park said they'll be making some adjustments to slow the ride down. Let's say so.
Thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Phil Mattingly. I'll see you again here tomorrow night starting at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. "EXTRAORDINARY" with Fareed Zakaria is up next.
