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Russian Rocket Kills 22 At Ukraine Train Station; Rohingya Genocide, Five Years On; Ukraine Marks Independence Day And Six Months Of War; Los Angeles Raising Concerns for the Homeless; Prince Harry and Meghan Adopts Mistreated Beagle; New Study Shows Doppelganger Appear to Have Genetic Similarities. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 25, 2022 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:26]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church. Just ahead. Nearly two dozen people killed by a Russian rocket strike on a train station marring Ukraine's Independence Day.

From unbearable heat to mass flooding across the globe. It seems weather extremes are becoming the new norm.

Plus, the Rohingya genocide. An abject failure by the international community. Five years on why there's still no justice and no plan to set these stateless refugees free.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur is my guest this hour.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: A deadly attack on a train station in eastern Ukraine darkened and already somber Independence Day, fulfilling the warnings from Ukrainian officials that Moscow would strike hard on the holiday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says at least 22 people were killed in Wednesday's missile attack, including an 11-year-old boy. It was one of several missiles strikes reported on the same day Ukrainians marked 31 years of independence from Soviet rule and six months since Russia launched its invasion.

Well, concern is growing over the situation at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant under Russian control since March. We are now learning that since that time, three workers have been killed and 26 others detained by the Russian military. That is according to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights who is calling for protection for the plant's personnel.

Meantime in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the First Lady visited a memorial and pay tribute to those killed in military action since the war began. In an emotional address Wednesday, Mr. Zelenskyy pledge that Vladimir Putin's war of choice would end with a Ukrainian victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We will definitely make the occupiers pay for everything they have done. We will without any doubt evict the evaders from our land. No trace of this whatever remain in our free Ukraine. Let's make this our way to victory. There will be victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to speak with the Ukrainian leader in the coming day. The conversation follows the U.S. announcing nearly $3 billion in additional military aid to Ukraine. One of the largest packages since the war began. After six months of relentless fighting advanced weapons from the U.S. and allies are credited with stalling the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

We get more now from CNN's Sam Kiley in Kyiv. A warning though some images in his report may be disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Dawn. Ukrainian Independence Day outside Kharkiv marking 31 years of freedom from the Soviet Union, but not from Russia. Flags but not people are out in Kharkiv marking six months since Russia's invasion amid fears of renewed attacks on cities here. And the threat became real with a brutal strike on a train station. Vladimir Putin assumed that Zelenskyy's government would be swiftly toppled in a Russian onslaught. Many in the West agreed with him.

BORIS JOHNSON, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: We were filled with foreboding because we just did not see how this innocent and beautiful country could repel an attack by more than 100 battalion tactical groups when the suffering and the casualties would be so immense, but you did.

KILEY: Russians were held up in their assault on Kyiv. Then driven back their retreat from the capital revealing atrocities in Irpin and Bucha. Switching tactics back to the 1940s, Russia gave up on the capital to focus on breaking Ukraine's national will, with wholesale bombardments of cities concentrating on Kharkiv, Mariupol. Millions fled to safety outside the country overland clogging roads and railways.

[02:05:05]

Led by the U.S.-Ukraine's allies eventually sent better artillery. Then rocket launchers, drones and shared vital intelligence. Too late to help save Mariupol but new weapons have slowed the Russian advance in much of the East, where soldiers now refer to fighting in towns like Severodonetsk as a meat grinder.

KILEY (on camera): Massive amounts of American money and equipment, fulsome support from countries like the United Kingdom have contributed to Ukraine's successes on the battlefield. But they're still not getting the strategic weapons that they need. Fast jets, long range rockets, killer drones.

KILEY (voice over): Without them, Ukrainians now face a crippling war along fixed front lines, not a victory Putin would want. But when he might accept to prevent democracy that's taking root on his doorstep in Ukraine spreading into his own home, Sam Kiley, CNN Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And CNN's Scott McLean is following developments. He joins us now live from London. Good to see you, Scott. So, this deadly train strike is exactly what Ukrainian officials have been warning about. And now there are concerns Russia will strike more civilian targets. What is the latest on this?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Rosemary. Ukraine's defense minister said yesterday that the volume of incoming rocket attacks on Ukraine yesterday and on Tuesday, confirmed the fears of Ukrainian officials who had been warning people not to attend mass gatherings to mark Ukraine's independence on Tuesday, thinking that if there were to be a strike on a civilian target, there simply would not be enough time to evacuate a large group of people.

Remember, depending on what part of the country that you're in it could be mere minutes between when you hear those air raid sirens go off and when they might actually touchdown. And civilian sites have not been off limits by any stretch in this war. Just last month, you'll remember, in Vinnytsia, two missiles struck down in the city center. There was not a military site in at -- all in that area.

The --what justified, or the Russians said that the justification for that strike was the fact that there was a meeting amongst military personnel they said in that area, so it doesn't even take a physical military site for the Russians to justify their actions in that area. Infrastructure sites obviously had been common as well. Typically when the railway has been hit, we're talking about tracks talking about electrical substations.

But obviously as we saw yesterday, in Sam's piece that rail station in the Dnipropetrovsk region also being hit. The latest death toll is 22, including one child as well. Ukraine is also trying to get on with their domestic football, their domestic soccer as well, but this is proving difficult also. One game in the Lviv yesterday took 4-1/2 hours to complete because there were four separate air raid sirens that the players had to go down and take shelter during.

Obviously there were no fans at any of these games anyways. President Zelenskyt, Rosemary, has long said that his country desperately needs beefed up air defense systems in order to prevent this kind of terrorization of the interior of his country. But obviously even with that, there are simply no guarantees of safety.

CHURCH: Yes, of course. And Scott, what more are you learning about preparations for sham Ukrainian POW trials? MCLEAN: Yes. We're learning that the stage is literally set for these trials. And that is because the latest pictures out of Mariupol shows actual steel cages on a stage in Mariupol, in the Mariupol Philharmonic Hall, the U.N. had warned that the Russians may begin these trials of prisoners of war on or around Ukraine's Independence Day. It's not clear when or if they may have started already.

But there's a huge concern about trials taking place in occupied parts of Ukraine, not least of which is the fact that the people actually running these occupied regions. They haven't signed up for the same kind of international treaties that most other countries have. And so, these prisoners of war have very little protection in the way of international law. And so, the expectation of a fair trial is there is no expectation of a fair trial especially -- that is especially true if you are a foreign soldier fighting on behalf of the Ukrainians.

We know that there are British citizens and others who have been facing death sentences in the Donetsk, in the occupied parts of the Donetsk region. The U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said yesterday that these were show trials, they're illegitimate, a mockery of justice and really an attempt to deflect responsibility from Russian atrocities. And one other point Rosemary is that look, what to do with prisoners of war, this is also a bit of a dilemma for the Ukrainian's case in point the very first Russian soldier who was sentenced by Ukraine for war crimes initially got a life sentence that was reduced by a key of appeals court to 15 years.

He was the one who pulled the trigger. But all of the soldiers that he was with at the time, they were all sent back to Russia in prisoner swap. So, of course, you don't want to necessarily convict everyone because you need some soldiers to trade for your own, who are in Russian hands right now. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yes. Scott McLean joining us live from London with that report. Many thanks.

Air-raid sirens keep sounding across Ukraine as Russia continues to target civilian areas with missiles and shelling. But elsewhere, Ukraine's military has largely stalled Russia's advance in the east. Retired U.S. Army General Spider Marks spoke with CNN's Jake Tapper about how the war has evolved since late February.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER MARKS," CNN MILITARY ANALYST: If we look at it right now, clearly, what you see is they've had this presence in the vicinity of Kharkiv all the way down into the Crimea, and over here to Kherson obviously, Odesa still remains open. That's absolutely necessary. Let's go back to the start of all this on day three of the war. As you can see, there were three -- four major avenues of approach into Ukraine.

Right here and then clearly in an effort to reinforce the Donbas and then up from Crimea, the intent being is to get up to the Dnieper River and then advance after they took Kyiv. And then maybe create this rump of Ukraine over here that this might have been the advance. But what really happened, let me show you what was really dangerous at one point, if we can see March 13th, Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

MARK: So we're into this thing about a month, Kyiv is really at risk. You've got these two incredible pincer movements that are coming in. And that's when the Ukrainians really lit it up, became incredibly creative in the way that they were fighting the Russians. That really brought us back to this where the Russian said, we can't make this happen. We're going to have to concentrate down here in the Donbas area.

TAPPER: Interesting, very interesting. I want to talk to the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant if we can, because Zelenskyy "Russia has put the world on the brink of radiation catastrophe." A nuclear expert tells CNN that significant damage is actually unlikely. There are 15, 15 reactors in Ukraine. How is Ukraine protecting these resources?

MARKS: Yes. What most folks don't understand is the number of nuclear facilities that are there. As you can see them, they're highlighted here, and six at the Zaporizhia facility which is the one that's been under focus where there's been Russian control, but it's been very haphazard in terms of that.

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: But they've also been in there firing out from there as almost tempting the Ukrainians to bomb their own nuclear power plant.

MARKS: Which is what the Russian intent has been all along. So what has happened has clearly Chernobyl has been inactivated for years. These are safe because the Ukrainians still own them. This is the area that causes the greatest concern.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Retired U.S. Army General Spider Marks Speaking to CNN earlier.

Well, the U.S. military is trading attacks in Syria with what it claims are militia backed by Iran. It started last Monday and has escalated since. CNN's Oren Liebermann has details from the Pentagon.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: One U.S. service member was injured in a rocket attack on two different bases in Syria used by U.S troops as part of the Defeat ISIS coalition, according to U.S. official familiar with the details of the attack. And it's worth noting this comes less than 24 hours after the U.S. carried out a series of strikes on bunkers used for ammo storage and logistics by Iranian-backed groups in the region.

So, this appears to be an ongoing back and forth between U.S. troops in Syria and Iranian-backed groups that operate in the region. On Wednesday night these two bases in northeast Syria came under rocket attacks from several rockets. According to that U.S. official one service member was injured with minor injuries, at least two others are being evaluated for minor injuries.

In response, the U.S. carried out a series of strikes against the origin of the attack. The official says three vehicles were destroyed, as well as two or three people who carried out the attack killed as a part of that U.S. response. That's according to an initial assessment. So of course, we will have to wait and see if that's updated as the U.S. has a better clarity on what's happened.

Now again, this comes after the U.S. carried out a series of strikes on nine bunkers in northeast Syria used by Iranian-backed groups, despite Iran's denial and any involvement in that area and condemning U.S. attacks in that region in the U.S. operation here. This has continued that U.S. strike a response to what happened a week ago. Two different attacks last Monday, on facilities that house U.S. bases in Syria, one a drone attack, one a rocket attack.

So we're seeing this ongoing back and forth play out. On Wednesday at the Pentagon and the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said the U.S. has the right to defend itself and will continue to do so and that's a completely separate issue the defense of U.S. troops and assets from the Iranian Nuclear Deal and ongoing in the background of all of this.

[02:15:12]

The U.S. sees them as separate. The negotiations to try to wrap up the nuclear deal are one part here and that doesn't affect the operations. The actions and the responses, the U.S. says are necessary to defend its troops in Syria. Oren Liebermann CNN in the Pentagon.

CHURCH: Fighting has resumed in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, ending a five-month ceasefire. The hostilities mark a big setback and attempts to begin peace talks between the government and Tigrayan forces. Each side blames the other for the violence. The U.N. chief says those caught in the middle are paying the highest price as more than 90 percent of the Tigray region is in desperate need of aid.

Fuel to deliver food and medicine is in short supply and the World Food Program says malnutrition has skyrocketed. A blistering heatwave is sweeping across China with drought conditions threatening local livestock and crops. Power is being rationed in some provinces, and some cities are calling in plains for cloud seeding to induce rain. And as drought conditions continue, it's getting harder for some areas to access drinking water.

So let's go live to Hong Kong with CNN's Kristie Lu Stout has more on this. Good to see you, Kristie. So we have been covering the industrial and economic impact of the extreme heat in China. But how has this record breaking heatwave affected ordinary people across China?

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, the human suffering in China is immense. A record breaking heatwave has been literally scorching huge parts of the country since June affecting some 900 million people. And across the country, people have been scrambling to find ways to cope through the extreme heat, to cope through the power cuts that are in place in order to ration electricity.

And as for China's farmers, they are trying desperately to save their livestock and their livelihoods.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STOUT (voice over): Pile upon pile of dead poultry at a chicken farm in Sichuan, China, and the farmer is devastated.

I watched them die she says through tears. The temperature was so high yesterday. Yet they cut out the power. Her livestock and her livelihood, the latest casualties in China's ongoing power crunch and sweltering summer that is China's hottest ever on record.

Across the country, farmers are struggling to save their livestock and crops including this corn farmer collecting a wilted harvest. As huge parts of China bake under a heatwave that has lasted more than two months, riverbeds like this Yangtze River tributary run dry. Wildfires have broken out like these blazes in Chongqing which authorities say are under control. And factories across Sichuan and Chongqing have shut down in a desperate bid to save energy.

A record breaking heatwave has been scorching China's since mid June, affecting some 900 million people. People are scrambling to find ways to manage the heat as well as the power cuts.

In this state media video, villagers and Sichuan's Chongqing county find shelter from the heat in 2000-year-old tubes. Elsewhere in the province people crowd onto a bridge at night because it's too hot to sleep at home. And in this video from Chongqing we see the subway running in complete darkness. The lights have been switched off to save electricity.

STOUT (on camera): This map from China's National Weather Service underscores the intensity and scale of a prolonged heatwave that is stretched from June to August. On Wednesday morning China issued a red alert heat warning, that's the highest level to at least 147 cities and counties as where temperatures could surpass 40 degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

SOUT (voice over): Authorities have advised people to avoid outdoor activities and take protective measures against heatstroke. And yet in Chongqing , millions have been ordered to line up outside at night for mass COVID-19 testing. Even China's zero-COVID policy is at the mercy of the country's worst heatwave on record. Through tears the chicken farmer shows her dwindling livestock, she says only the small chickens are left. How can I not be sad and not shed tears she weeps. This is what I have left. Who can bring me justice? Waiting for justice as she surveys all she has lost during China's cruel blistering summer.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And Rosemary so many people in China are suffering right now and the zero-COVID policy and China's just adding another layer of misery for millions. I want to show you this additional video that we have from Chongqing in which we see people apparently waiting in line outside in the daytime for mandatory COVID test.

[02:20:11]

Authorities have said it is a requirement for up to 10 million residents to go out for this COVID test and as you've been reporting, the temperatures in the daytime and Chongqing have reached or exceeded 40 degrees Celsius. That's 104 degrees Fahrenheit, brutal conditions. And we also have this additional video also from Chongqing in which we see residents there in this heat hopping on motorbikes to race up the mountains to assist the firefighters as they put up blazes that have been triggered by the extreme heat in China.

Earlier this week we reported that authorities were able to put some of these places under control, but new wildfires have emerged in Chongqing and these brave residents are doing what they can to help them. Back to you.

CHURCH: It's a nightmare scenario. Kristie Lu Stout bringing us up to date on the situation from her vantage point there in Hong Kong. Many thanks. And still the calm, torrential rains and rising floodwaters are threatening countries around the world. We will take a look at the damage so far and whether there's any relief in sight. We're back with that in just a moment.

CHURCH: More than 100 children and 15 workers had to be rescued from a Mississippi daycare center after floods in the area. Rescue workers are scrambling to rescue those stranded due to flooding after heavy rain in the region. Wednesday was the wettest day of August on record for the city of Jackson since Hurricane Andrew slammed the city back in 1992. And your floods continue to wreak havoc in Sudan.

More than 150,000 people have been affected so far this year. Double the numbers since this time last year. The country's southwestern region alongside the River Nile has been hit the hardest. The United Nations reports that as of now torrential rain and flash flooding have killed more than 80 people.

Pakistan will get emergency humanitarian aid from China in the midst of heavy rains and deadly flooding there. Officials say at least 900 people have died, more than a third of them children. China is sending emergency cash and other supplies like tents for those displaced by the monsoons.

Let's turn to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri who joins us with more on this. And Pedram, so many parts of the world are underwater right now. What are you seeing?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: You know, the forecast doesn't look any better here across Pakistan. That's the biggest concern right now for me, Rosemary, when you look at the two million people in the past six weeks or so that have been impacted across this region certainly doesn't help to see additional rainfall in the forecast but upwards of almost 100,000 homes have been destroyed roadways across Pakistan, about 3000 kilometers worth of roadways are in essence driving from London to Istanbul, that amount of roadways had been damaged or destroyed as a result of these rains that have now exceeded some 300 percent of what is considered normal in the month of August.

The wettest July in 30 years just played out across Balochistan, across southwestern Pakistan. And notice rainfall amounts of exceeding 200 to 500 percent of normal in an area certainly, that is not accustomed to taking on this much water in such short duration. And the forecast continues to bring in the monsoonal moisture, that greater amounts there than what has played out across parts of India.

Now the energy has shifted a little farther towards the north across Islamabad. So we're getting a little bit of break in the southern tier of Pakistan. But the story continues with flooding across areas of Sudan. Rosemary noted, about twice as many people impacted this go around and this time last year, we know this is the wet season. We know we expect monsoonal rainfall across portions of Pakistan and wet weather across this region of the world.

And you'll notice July and August are the wettest time of year across this region. But the rainfall far exceeding that 150 to about 200 millimeters that you expect and it is forecast to continue the next couple of days across nearly the entirety of South Sudan. It's certainly not helping the situation with just the amount of rains in store here. Anytime you see the color yellow, that's indicative of 100 plus millimeters in store in some of these communities.

Now into Mississippi, historic rainfall in Jackson on Tuesday. We saw also historic rainfall on Wednesday, consecutive days there that have buckled the roadways. Rosemary here conditions are beginning to improve in the next day or so. So it's better weather in store across this region.

CHURCH: All right. Well, that is some good news. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri bring us up to date on that situation. Appreciate it.

Well, Thursday marks a grim anniversary since the beginning of a brutal crackdown on Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims. We talk to a U.N. official.

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CHURCH: A gruesome crackdown but no justice in sight. Thursday marks five years since Myanmar launched a brutal military campaign against Rohingya Muslims. Hundreds of thousands of them fled to neighboring Bangladesh often living in crowded camps. No one has been held accountable for their systematic persecution in Myanmar. A U.N. fact finding mission said the military campaign included the acts of genocide.

But the World Court at The Hague cleared the way to start a genocide case only last month, and the proceedings are expected to take years.

Tom Andrews is the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Myanmar and he joins me now from Windsor, Connecticut. Thank you so much for being with us.

TOM ANDREWS, U.N. SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR: Thank you so much, Rosemary.

[02:30:00] CHURCH: So, five years on since the junta raped and murdered thousands of Muslim minority Rohingya and burned down their villages in Rakhine State. A million refugees (INAUDIBLE) in Bangladesh, what are conditions like for all of those people in Cox's Bazar, has anything change for the better?

ANDREWS: Things are very, very difficult, Rosemary. I was there late last year last year in December and I've heard reports of those who have been here as recently as just a few weeks ago. Things are grim. People who are living, the Rohingya, not only are they living with extraordinary trauma of watching their homes destroyed, family members murdered some with just extraordinary violence, just horrific, not only do they live with those memories and that -- and those scars but they are living under very, very difficult conditions. No livelihood opportunities. Health care an issue. Education. Conditions, just basically the conditions.

They want to go home. But the fact of the matter is, conditions within Myanmar, within the Rakhine State, where their homes were are horrible, and their lives would be in danger. In fact, there are hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in Rakhine State in Myanmar right now, and their conditions are absolutely horrific.

So, it is a horrible situation, a grim situation. And conditions for the Rohingya regardless of where they happen to be, wherever it be in Bangladesh or in Myanmar, at least, in Bangladesh they are not under attack. I can't say the same in Myanmar. There are concentration camps there. I've been to them. Hundreds -- thousands and thousands of people living under horrific conditions, literally at the point to the gun.

So, things are bad. Things are grim. And it is a very, very horrible situation for the Rohingya five years after these horrendous attacks in 2017.

CHURCH: Yes, it is. And, of course, these words can't be said lightly, modern day genocide. That is what happened in Myanmar. And the world seems to have forgotten about the Rohingya. There has been no justice and no action plan to set them free. Do you consider this an abject failure on the part of the International Community?

ANDREWS: Absolutely. That is exactly what it is. The Rohingya deserve justice, those who murdered, then those who committed genocide against, those who sought to strike them from the face of the earth, and committed unspeakable crimes to them, they have yet to be held to account for these crimes. And those who have suffered so much, the Rohingya, have yet to see any kind of reparations for the -- for what they have been through or for what they've gone through. So, they deserve a lot more than what they've received.

In fact, just basic humanitarian aid and support. The International Community has failed there too. The conditions they are living in Bangladesh, the International Community has simply not come through with the kind of support that is required to support those who run for the very lives and now are living under horrific conditions. So, from the point of view of accountability and the point of view of justice and from the point of view of meeting on responsibilities to provide basic humanitarian support, the International Community has failed on all three fronts.

CHURCH: So, what can and must be done to safely repatriate these people? Is it even impossible?

ANDREWS: Well, it's going to be very, very difficult, Rosemary. It's -- it really is. I mean, ultimately, you need to change conditions in Myanmar for the Rohingya to go where they want to go. Mainly, they want to go home. But they cannot go home under these conditions.

Remember, the man who is now leading the military junta that is -- committed the coup last year, he personally oversaw the genocidal attacks against Rohingya in 2017, Min Aung Hlaing, the very person. So, you are going to be hard-pressed if you are a member of the Rohingya community to go back to a country and live the under the rule of someone who is responsible for the genocidal attacks against you and against your community.

So, the fundamental bottom line here, Rosemary, is that we got to bring the pressure to bear to change what is going on, the horrific conditions going on in Myanmar. And put economic, diplomatic, political pressure on the regime and those who support the regime so that is simply no longer sustainable for them to continue their reign of terror. That is really the bottom line.

[02:35:00]

But in the meantime, we can be pursuing justice, the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice, we can be providing basic humanitarian aid, doing a much better job than what we've been able to do -- or willing to do as an International Community. So, there are immediate things that we can do that we are not doing.

But ultimately, the things that we need to be doing is changing those who are able to relentlessly attack not only the Rohingya now in Rakhine State in Myanmar but people throughout Myanmar. This horrific, horrific junta under the -- let by Min Aung Hlaing, the man who was behind the genocidal attacks against the Rohingya.

CHURCH: Tom Andrews, thank you, sir, for talking with us. We appreciate it.

ANDREWS: My pleasure, Rosemary. Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: Voters in Los Angeles are being asked to weigh in on a proposal to fight homelessness. Just ahead, on "CNN Newsroom," why hotel owners are raising the alarm.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, the hotel industry in Los Angeles is raising concerns over a new proposal to address the growing homeless crisis. If voters approve it in a referendum in March 2024, every hotel in Los Angeles would have to offer vacant rooms to homeless people, who would stay alongside paying guests. But as CNN's Nick Watt explains, many people say, this is not the answer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): In Los Angeles County, more than 60,000 people are homeless on the average night. And more than 20,000 hotel rooms like empty on the average night. See where this might be going?

STUART WALDMAN, PRESIDENT, VALLEY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE ASSOCIATION: It's insane. It isn't going to solve the problem.

KURT PETERSEN, CO-PRESIDENT, UNITE HERE LOCAL 11: We think this is one part of the solution. By no means do we think this solves the homelessness crisis. But do hotels have a role to play? Of course, they do.

WATT (voiceover): So, the union he leads, which reps hotel workers, gathered enough signatures and Angelino's will vote on a bill that would force every hotel in town to report vacancies at 2:00 p.m. every day, then welcome homeless people into those vacant rooms.

MANOJ PATEL, MANAGER, MOTEL 6: Honestly, would you check into a hotel knowing that the chance of your neighbor to the left or right is a homeless individual?

WATT (voiceover): Manoj Patel voluntarily rent some rooms to homeless people who are vetted and paid for by local church. But he is against this bill that would make that mandatory.

[02:40:00]

PATEL: We barely are surviving, number one. Number two, we have to think of the safety of our staff. And a number three, we are not professionally or in any of the ways equipped with any of the supporting mechanism that the homeless guest would require.

WATT (voiceover): Services would be provided remains unclear. Also unclear, the funding. And hotels would be paid, fair market rate.

PETERSEN: It's up to the city. I mean, they did it during Project Roomkey.

WATT (voiceover): The Pandemic Era Program now winding down that inspired this bill by placing more than 10,000 people in hotels that volunteer. Shawn Bigdeli among them.

SHAWN BIGDELI, RECIPIENT, PROJECT ROOMKEY: Well, first of all, it's a blessing. It's a great room. The technology is not up to par. But, you know, what technologies do you have in a tent?

WATT (voiceover): This bill would also force developers to replace housing demolished to make way for new hotels and hotel permits would be introduced, as well as making every hotel from the Super8 to the Biltmore accept homeless people as guests.

BIGDELI: I don't think that's a good idea.

WATT (on camera): Why not?

BIGDELI: Maybe for some. But, you know, there's a lot of people with untreated mental health and some people do some damage to these poor buildings, man.

WATT (voiceover): This happened in Manoj Patel's motel.

PATEL: And she marked all walls. Curtains she burned. Thank God there was no fire. Even marked the ceiling.

WATT (voiceover): Opponents of housing, the homeless and hotels fear this and fear tourist could be put off from even coming to L.A.

WALDMAN: I wouldn't want my kids around people that I'm not sure about. I wouldn't want to be in an elevator with somebody who is clearly having a mental break. The idea that you can intermingle homeless folks with paying normal gas just doesn't work out.

PETERSON: We don't want to head backward into the segregated south, but that's kind of the language that they are talking about. There is a certain class of people less than humans, animals, they also describe them, to be honest with you, they don't seem to understand who the unhoused. We're talking about seniors, students, working people. That is who the voucher program would benefit the most.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATT (on camera): So, it's about 18 months before this will be on the ballot here in Los Angeles. And expect plenty of months lingering (ph) between now and then. Some opponents of this bill, well, they claim that the union is only pushing as a negotiating tactic, as leverage. The union tells, that is false. That they just want to hold the hotels accountable and make sure that they're playing their part and trying to solve this problem here in Los Angeles, which appears to only be getting worse.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

CHURCH: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have a new family member, a seven-year-old mother beagle who had been mistreated. Harry and Meghan adopted Momma Mia after she was rescued from the Envigo breeding and animal testing facility in Virginia. Momma Mia is one of thousands of beagles that have been saved or are in the process of being removed from the plant.

She wound up at L.A.-based Beagle Freedom Project. Its founder says that when Harry and Meghan visited, Momma Mia made a beeline for them and they instantly fell in love. Shelters and rescue groups nationwide are finding homes for the beagles who have only lived in captivity. The Envigo facility is shutting down after more than 70 animal welfare violations were discovered. And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. World Sport is up next. Then, I'll be back with more news from all around the world in about 15 minutes from now. You are watching CNN. Do stay with us.

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[02:45:00]

LEMON: OK. Do you have a doppelganger somewhere in the world? You might. Actually, we all might. Doppelgangers are people who resemble each other, they look like twins but are not related. New study shows that doppelganger appear to have genetic similarities. However, there are other big differences in their physical makeup and the physical makeup of their bodies.

So, Charlie Chasen and Michael Malone are doppelgangers who are featured along with others in an article in the "New York Times." And they join me tonight along with Dr. Manel Esteller. He is a director of the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain. Or Barcelona, if you want to say it that way. He is also the co-author of the study on doppelgangers.

Good to have you in the studio. Thank you, guys for joining us.

Charlie, I will start with you. You are not twins. You are not related. What it is like to have a doppelganger?

CHARLIE CHASEN, DOPPELGANGER: You know, it is really interesting, because we -- you know, we've have known each other a long time. Michael and I go way back. And it's been like a source of a lot of fun for us, because over the years if we have been mistaken for each other all over the place, all over Atlanta, and there has been some interesting situations that have come out just because people thought we were the other person.

And so, for us, it's just been a lot of fun. And another way -- since we're already good friends, another way for us, to -- you know, to be even, you know, better friends and to bond more, we've got this between us that not everyone else has. I mean, everybody has a doppelganger probably, but we actually know ours and we know each other well.

LEMON: Yes. I have one too. I mean, people call me Anderson Cooper all the time when they see me on the street.

CHASEN: I see the resemblance.

LEMON: Michael, how did you guys actually meet? When did it click that you guys looked alike?

[02:50:00]

MICHAEL MALONE, DOPPLERGANGER: We met because Charlie joined a band and he was playing guitar for a band and I started gusting with this band. And we started because the social circles were converging on each other. We just became friends. We didn't see it in each other. And we just liked each other as friends. And, you know, just the friendship grew until -- then people were -- started pointing out to us, you guys look like brothers, you look like brothers.

In fact, I met a set of friends here in Atlanta years ago, because they asked me, do you play guitar with Monkey Juan (ph)? I said, no, but my friend Charlie does. So, because our -- you know, we were brought together by music or social circles and it's been great ever since.

LEMON: So, here's a question to the doctor. I'm so glad you are here. Tell us more about this, because you decided to study people who sort of looked alike, right, and who aren't related. You recruited 32 people who participated in the photo project by a Canadian artist. They took some DNA. They took DNA tests. They use facial recognition software. So, then, what did you discover after you did all of that?

DR. MANEL ESTELLER, CO-AUTHOR OF STUDY ON DOPPELGANGERS AND DIRECTOR, JOSEP CARRERAS LEUKEMIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE: So, we look at these people that they share the same faces. In fact, the first time I see them in people or in reality, and from these people would -- just to biological material and analyzed their DNA. And in this DNA, we were able to see that these lookalike humans, in fact, they are sharing several genetic variants, and these are very common among them.

So, they share these genetic variants that are related in a way that they have the shape of the nose, the eyes, the mouth, the lips, and even the bone structure. And this was the main conclusion, the genetics put them together. And other factors are different, and that's the reason they are not completely identical.

LEMON: So -- but is it because they -- do they have similar DNA, right? But that doesn't mean that they are related?

DR. ESTELLER: No, they are not. In fact, in each case, we're going back almost 100 years ago, and there is no common ancestry. They are not related at all. They are not family.

LEMON: So, just similar codes, right?

DR. ESTELLER: Yes, similar codes just by random chance. In the world right now, there are so many people, that eventually, the system is producing humans with similar DNA sequences, and that is the reason. And now, with the internet, you can find this lookalike in the world in an easier way.

LEMON: OK. This is what I'm saying as I'm looking at this, because I've always said for years now, there are only so many faces.

DR. ESTELLER: Yes.

LEMON: Right? And I see people all the time, and I go, hey, I do not -- they look like someone else.

DR. ESTELLER: Yes.

LEMON: This is what you told the "New York Times," you told the "New York Times," essentially, there are so many people in the world, the system is repeating itself.

DR. ESTELLER: Yes, yes.

LEMON: So, I have a doppelganger out there.

DR. ESTELLER: Yes, absolutely. I think all of us has, right now, somebody that looks like us, a double in this case. And it is due to the fact that there are so many people in the world that is very likely that you have these people (INAUDIBLE). Some people fully, 100 percent identical. These are the twins, the real twins, the brother twins. And there are people, 90 percent, 80 percent, 70 percent, 60 percent. So, these lookalike in our article, they are close to 80 percent. So, they are like -- almost like natural born twins.

LEMON: It is amazing. I'm looking at the pictures. The pictures are rolling behind the doctor in the wall behind him. I can't help but look at them, and these people look so much alike, but they are not related.

DR. ESTELLER: Yes.

LEMON: Charlie, your ancestors hail from Lithuania and Scotland, while Michael's hail from the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas, not even in the same part of the world.

CHASEN: Not at all. You know, we had a theory -- it sounds like the doctor just said, that we -- even just 100 years back we don't have any sort of connection. We had this theory for a while that there might be some Scott or Irish that would be connecting us a couple hundred years ago, but it sounds like that is not even true. So, you know, yes, we don't have common ancestry at all.

LEMON: Michael, you guys have been friends for 25 years now, do you have a bond?

MALONE: Correct. Yes.

LEMON: Do you guys have that whole twin sort of language and --

MALONE: And we like a lot of the same things and we are just real comfortable. We are great, great friends. And we have been through a lot together. Great stuff, a lot of tough stuff. That is what makes friends. And, you know, it's -- this is just, like Charlie said earlier, one thing to just bring us closer together and it's made me realize that we are all connected, we are all connected because, you know, humankind probably started on the whole thing. But we're just very, very interconnected.

LEMON: Charlie, congratulations. I understand you got married last week and Michael was the first person you called.

CHASEN: That is true. And I have to tell you, Don, we haven't made a big deal about it. And so, the "New York Times" article pretty much put that out in the air. So, it's -- we are saying it live on TV. Here we are.

[02:55:00]

LEMON: It is amazing. Doctor, this is fascinating stuff. Fascinating stuff. These people, I'm sure they look at each other and say, I don't like anything like them.

DR. ESTELLER: Yes, yes, yes. But they recognize each other.

LEMON: They do.

DR. ESTELLER: And -- well, you mentioned about this connection that twins have --

LEMON: Yes.

DR. ESTELLER: -- these people, like they have something similar. Like -- because genes involving faces, maybe they share other genes that relates to the taste or things they like, it is possible.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you, all. I appreciate it. Be well.

DR. ESTELLER: Pleasure.

LEMON: Fascinating.

CHASEN: Thank you very much.

LEMON: And listen, I want to thank the Dr. Francois Brunelle (ph) for the pictures. Great pictures of lookalikes who we've been showing. He is a photographer. I am sorry, the photographer. So, thanks for watching everyone. Thank you, all.

CHASEN: Thank you.

LEMON: Appreciate it. Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

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