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Residents In Jackson Without Water For Nearly A Week; Record- Breaking Heat Suffocates Western U.S.; Zaporizhzhia Power Plant Loses Connection To Last External Power Line. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired September 04, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: Hello. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Sara Sidner, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with the water crisis in Mississippi's capital. It has been nearly a week now since thousands of residents in Jackson, Mississippi, have been able to have clean tap water. A major water treatment plant began failing last Monday after it was damaged by flooding.

But when will people they're finally have clean water to flush their toilets or brush their teeth or take a shower? FEMA is now saying it is too early to know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNA CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Where we are focused right now from FEMA is being able to make sure that we can provide and support the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency with bringing in safe drinking water, bottled water, supporting their operations. But more importantly, bringing in our Federal partners that can really understand what it is going to take to bring this plant back to full operational capacity.

We're providing temporary measures to help increase the water pressure so people can at least flush their toilets and use the faucets. The longer term and the midterm about how long it is going to take to actually make it safe to drink, I think that we have a lot more to learn about what it's going to take to get that plant up and running. This is not okay for the residents of Jackson, Mississippi.

And so our focus needs to be on what is it that we need to do today, and in the coming days to make sure that when we get safe drinking water back, but that we make sure that this does not happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Such a travesty. Yesterday, city officials said most Jackson residents should now have some water pressure after the water plant made significant gains. Only a few remaining pockets in South Jackson may still have low or no water pressure as repairs continue on that water plant.

CNN's Nadia Romero joins us now from Jackson. Nadia, there's a little bit of encouraging news, but it is still such a -- just an indictment on the situation there in Jackson for the residents who cannot drink the water coming out of their taps.

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara it seems like such a simple thing. You turn on the faucet, water comes out you're able to drink it, right? But that's something that hasn't been happening here in the City of Jackson since the end of July, and this isn't the first boil water advisory that they've been dealing with.

We are standing at a water distribution site, the largest one set up by the State and you can see that cars have been lining up all day, some 500 of them have since noon today and every one that comes get two cases of water, and you can see the National Guard there loading up the cars for people as they make their way.

This has been the operation for the past couple of days now, because this may be the only clean drinking water for residents to use. This has always been a twofold problem. The first being that the water pressure was damaged by recent flooding. And so two pumps were broken and people weren't getting any water pressure.

Then if you weren't getting water, it was coming out brown and yellowy. So, now you have water, but you still can't drink it.

The problems though here are long term and they will not be fixed with a Band-Aid. Listen to the City's Mayor warning everyone that there could be more problems in the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR CHOKWE ANTAR LUMUMBA, JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI: Safe, drinkable, reliable, sustainable, and an equitable water treatment facility is a much longer road ahead. But as I have always warned, you know, even when the pressure is restored, even when we're not under a boil water notice, it's not a matter of if these systems will fail, but when these systems will fail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: And we know that this water treatment plant that services the City of Jackson has ruptures, leaks, and that's something that can continue to happen, Sara.

So, there are these moments where you want to celebrate these small victories, but you can't when you see people coming just to get water to be able to feed their families, to brush their teeth, to cook with.

And on top of that, Sara, the School District couldn't be in service. Kids had to do virtual learning because they weren't able to flush the toilets at elementary schools, so they have set up these sites where you can come and pick up meals -- Sara.

[15:05:04]

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Nadia Romero there from Jackson, Mississippi. Those pictures reminding us of what happened in Flint in 2016.

Meantime, there is a suffocating heatwave endangering people out West right now. More than 40 million people are under heat alerts.

Intense dangerous temperatures are gripping areas from Southern California all the way to Idaho. This holiday weekend already is seeing record breaking heat in the triple digits, and it could get even hotter tomorrow.

Chris Nguyen is in Santa Monica. Chris, how are folks handling it there? Usually it's cooler there, but I understand it's been hot, hot, hot right near the beach.

CHRIS NGUYEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Sara. The temperature here in Santa Monica is just shy of 100 degrees. Behind me, you can see the umbrellas lined up on the beach and that's a good thing, kind of sort of because that means less people are at home using electricity. Instead, they're out here taking advantage of the Pacific Ocean.

State officials have issued a Flex Alert once again asking the public to conserve energy, especially between the hours of 4:00 and 9:00 PM.

Governor Gavin Newsom believes that today and tomorrow could be the most challenging for the State's power grid as many folks here in California deal with the longest heatwave of the year here in the Golden State. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my gosh, you walk out of the store with an ice cream cone and it melts in your hand. This is ridiculous. It was 108 going through Mojave.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But I needed to hurry up and get out here to this beach area. before it got smoldering hot, like closer to a hundred. I'm going to really enjoy myself. I'm going to go over here and get into this nice cool water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And as these temperatures climb, so does the fire danger. In fact, there are two major wildfires burning right now in Siskiyou County, that's up in Northern California.

So far, more than 10,000 acres have burned. Dozens of structures have been destroyed and more than a thousand people remain under an evacuation order -- Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Chris Nguyen, a devastating situation there with those fires, but also, that heat is really dangerous, but it isn't stopping millions of Americans from traveling this holiday weekend, and that's despite the summer of slowdowns and cancellations that have been plaguing the airlines.

Now, those airlines are making some changes. But are they enough to stop leaving passengers frustrated? CNN's Pete Muntean has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With flight cancellations by the thousands, passengers demanding refunds and pilots picketing at airports across the country, the Labor Day travel Rush is shaping up to be a dramatic end to a summer of travel struggles.

On Tuesday alone, more than 800 flights were canceled nationwide, mostly for bad weather. The new summer long tally, more than 45,000 flights canceled by U.S. carriers since the start of June.

MELISSA HABEDANK, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA: It is staggeringly frustrating because you can be there about ready to board and it's like, "God, not again. Really?" Can't just something -- can something be on time?

MUNTEAN (voice over): New tools for passengers are coming just in time for the holiday rush. The Department of Transportation is rolling out a new online dashboard, laying out what each airline owes you if you're delayed or canceled.

The Federal government has been flooded with complaints from fed up fliers up 270 percent in June, compared to pre-pandemic figures. Thirty-eight State Attorneys General just wrote Congress to say an industry that received billions in Federal pandemic aid has failed their customers.

PETE BUTTIGIEG, U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: This summer too many flights have been delayed or canceled.

MUNTEAN (voice over): Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is getting some results from airlines. Many have now rewritten your tickets fine print in plain language, in some cases improving when you can get hotel and meal vouchers.

On United Airlines, you were entitled to a meal voucher after a four- hour delay, but now, it's after three hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of the airlines have really upped their game and I think committed to some consumer protections in writing that they hadn't previously.

MUNTEAN (voice over): Pressure on the airlines is also coming from their workers, off-duty pilots from Delta, United, Spirit, and American Airlines protested across the country Thursday insisting cancellations are the carrier's own creation, and passengers are caught in the middle.

CAPT. WESLEY REED, AIRLINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: We understand that frustration because we live it every day.

MUNTEAN (on camera): Frustrations are high and so are ticket prices. Travel site, Hopper says airfare has jumped 23 percent compared to the same weekend last year, up 20 percent compared to the same weekend back in 2019 before the pandemic. In all, Hopper anticipates 12.6 million Americans will travel domestically by air over the Labor Day weekend.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Wow. Those high prices aren't stopping people from traveling.

Coming up, in Ukraine, shelling continues around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant despite the presence of international inspectors from the IAEA. We will have a live report from Kyiv straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:14:26]

SIDNER: Now, shelling out the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine this weekend has again forced the shutdown of a reactor, one of only two that was still operating and this is despite the presence of international inspectors who arrived at the site on Thursday.

Ukrainians and Russians blame each other for the continued attacks at that nuclear plant. CNN's Melissa Bell is in Kyiv.

Melissa, what can you tell us about the situation there at this hour?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is extremely worrying because remember that when Rafael Grossi, Sara, the head of the IAEA was at the Zaporizhzhia Plant last Thursday, he explained that he had two really big concerns.

[15:15:08]

BELL: One was to do with the plant's workers and the difficult situation they find themselves in being in the hands of Russian forces, but also the power supply. That is the most dangerous thing to do with this plant.

It isn't so much that the shelling will damage reactors, it is that an electricity outage could have a catastrophic impact on the ability to cool those reactors. And so, when it had been briefly cut on August 25th, President Zelenskyy had spoken about the fact that Europe had been one step away from a nuclear catastrophe.

Now, it is damage that was caused this weekend, more shelling that took place, taking out one of the last two remaining reactors, but also cutting the last external power supply that the plant had. It had four before the war began, it was down to a single one. That one was damaged in the shelling on Saturday. So, an extremely worrying situation.

There is a reserve power line that allows the energy to leave the plant through a thermal power plant and for electricity to come to the plant through that same line. But clearly, being down to that reserve line, an extremely worrying situation.

Now, Rafael Grossi, however, says that at least his men on the ground, the six inspectors still there have been given fast, reliable information and he says he hopes that that will make a big difference.

There is some good news from Ukraine, however, this evening, Sara, and that is for the Ukrainian counteroffensive. It began nearly a week ago and we hadn't been hearing very much from it. Journalists haven't yet been allowed to get access. There are no images. But we have heard tonight and seen this picture tweeted by an aide to President Zelenskyy, an image of the Ukrainian flag being placed on the roof of an important 5,000-person strong town to the north of Kherson.

So good news there from the officials here in Kyiv -- Sara.

SIDNER: Melissa Bell in Kyiv, thank you so much for that update.

Let's bring in Jim Walsh. He's an international security analyst and research associate at the Security Studies Program at MIT.

Jim, this is Europe's biggest nuclear plant. What does it tell you that it is now down to one reserve line to export power?

JIM WALSH, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE AT THE SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM AT MIT: Yes. I think that's -- there's a reason why the Secretary-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency highlighted that fact, Sara, above all others. The transmission lines, the access to energy. Why? It's a little confusing. I thought Melissa did a great job of explaining it.

So yes, a nuclear power plant exports energy that then goes to a grid that is used by households, you know, for running appliances, or whatever. But a power plant depends on taking electricity in. Why? It has pumps that pump water that keep the plant cool.

It has other things going on to keep the spent fuel, the waste products that are very, very hot, that have been removed from the plant to keep those cool until their temperature goes down.

So, if the plant loses access to electricity, which is what happened with Fukushima, right, it was the floods that took out the power supply that led to that problem. That's what they're concerned about.

And so if there's a shell that takes out that last transmission line, then this really escalates in terms of the concern.

SIDNER: You know, we have seen the devastation that it has caused, you talked about Fukushima, where radiation is still in the soil there. You also had, you know, Chernobyl, which is in Ukraine, formerly of the Soviet Union.

When you look at this, I mean, how much danger might there be for something like a meltdown? How close could we be to that?

WALSH: So the good news here -- yes, I'm sorry. The good news here is that it has some structural safety features. Again, that's why IAEA is on the ground. They're responsible not only for snooping around on proliferation, but for making sure that civilian nuclear power is safe. And I think the danger in the near term is that, you know, by accident, miscalculation, stupidity, you know, they lose that last transmission line. But there's another long-term danger, and I think you almost allude to it there.

So, what are Russia's long term interests? I think their interest is to keep the plant, to grab it themselves, and to control that energy to make Ukraine pay for any energy that comes out of that plant. But the paradox here is that there is another danger, let's say they start losing the war, and they're forced to withdraw. What will they do with the plant?

And I think there's concern that if, ironically, if they start losing and are forced to withdraw, they may be tempted to sabotage the plant as they have wreaked havoc elsewhere for no reason and Ukraine simply to punish the Ukrainians.

So, we've got some short-term issues, but then ultimately, it will depend on Russian intentions and that could go badly.

[15:20:05]

SIDNER: You know though, if they do something like sabotage or they, you know, blow up this plant, they cause a meltdown, doesn't that hurt Russia as well? I mean, it's not like things, you know, this energy just stays in one place. The fallout is far and wide, isn't it?

WALSH: I agree with you, but that assumes that their intention is carried out with competency, that they thread a needle between dismantlement or shutting it down and making a mistake that somehow compromises the integrity of the plant.

Listen, imagine the circumstances in which they do that. They're going to either do it themselves, or they're going to order the plant with the local Ukrainian plant operators to do things they know are dangerous, you know, you just don't want to get anything close to that.

Again, their intention, I would guess, if they're forced to give it up, is not so much to cause a nuclear accident, it is to prevent the Ukrainians from ever being able to use the plant again. You know, if you can't have it, nobody can have it sort of mentality.

The question is whether they are actually competent enough to pull that off, and whether we want to live in a world where it even gets to that point.

SIDNER: Yes, it is sort of a sick idea that you would use something like this against regular civilians, because that's who it powers as well.

The reports from the inspectors, from the IAEA is due earlier this coming week. What do you expect that that report might say?

WALSH: Well, I think it'll be an interesting balance. If the report is made public, you know, they're going to -- the IAEA is going to be in a delicate situation. What if the Ukraine plant operators have told them something that's of concern, and then they say that and then their Russian captors punish them for that?

You know, the IAEA is on the ground now, and let's make no mistake about it. That is better, that reduces the risk of bad things happening in the near term. I'm thrilled with that.

The question is, will that presence continue? Will the Russians kick them out over some made up excuse? You know, how are they going to delicately handle information that is leaked to them that points the dangers and problems without exposing their sources?

So, I think the writers of their report and the Secretary-General have some tough challenges on how they handle this information, in addition to collecting it.

SIDNER: Yes, and you just made a really good point here. Look, Russia is in control of this plant, but there are Ukrainians who are running it, because they know how to do it, the Russians did not, they needed to keep them there. So information, getting it from very good sources is a tricky thing and the IAEA is there and having to thread that needle.

But as you say, you think things are safer with the IAEA there than if they were not.

Jim Walsh, thank you so much for all of that insight. Very helpful.

WALSH: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Still ahead, stunning new data on just how much the pandemic may have impacted students in America. Why some educators say they're not surprised.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:23]

SIDNER: There is troubling new information about how the pandemic affected childhood learning across the entire United States.

Math and Reading scores for nine-year-old's in the U.S. fell by a level not seen in decades.

CNN's Gabe Cohen looks at how far this age group is falling behind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): New test results from the National Assessment of Education Progress show Math and Reading scores for nine-year-old's in the U.S. falling sharply between 2020 and 2022, the worst drop off for Reading since 1990, and the first ever decline for Math.

MIGUEL CARDONA, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: That is very alarming. It's disturbing, but it's not surprising, keeping in mind a year and a half ago, over half of our schools were not open for full time learning.

COHEN (voice over): Students who are already struggling in school showed the most dramatic drop off.

MARTIN WEST, HARVARD EDUCATION PROFESSOR: Some colleagues of mine estimate that that amounts to about nine months' worth of instruction.

COHEN (voice over): Martin West is a member of the Board that oversees this test.

How long could it take these students to catch up?

WEST: In my view, it is going to take a number of years before students are able to make up this lost ground in full.

NICHOLE, TEXAS TEACHER: I have students that are coming into fourth grade that are performing two and three grade levels below where they should be.

COHEN (voice over): Nichole is a fourth and fifth grade teacher in Texas who asked us not to show her face fearing retaliation.

NICHOLE: I don't know that I can make up two years of growth in one year.

PEGGY CARR, COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS: I don't think it's over yet. We will have to do better than what we were doing before the pandemic.

COHEN (voice over): Schools nationwide have been trying to hire more staff, including tutors and psychologists.

WEST: I think the first step is simply to make up some of the lost instructional time that could come through extended school days. It could come through after school programming and tutoring, or it could come through summer school programs.

COHEN (voice over): But with teacher burnout and a shrinking pipeline, many schools face a teacher shortage especially in rural areas and those with more low-income families and students of color.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: That was CNN's Gabe Cohen reporting there.

The Federal government is pumping more than $100 billion in relief funds into schools. It's requiring them to spend at least 20 percent of that on learning loss.

With me now to talk more about this is Salman Khan. He is the founder and CEO of the Khan Academy, a nonprofit focused on supporting low- income students and people of color.

When you look at this data, I mean it's really disturbing. We knew that students were having a really hard time because they were no longer in school, but is this proof that virtual learning doesn't work for most children because that's how kids were learning during the pandemic for the most part.

[15:30:05]

SALMAN KHAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, KHAN ACADEMY: I think what is its proof of, the physical in-person, the human-to-human connection is essential, and I think it's also evidence to your point of, I would say, the flavor of distance learning that we had to do, and it's no one's fault, but that we had to do it in an emergency situation was suboptimal.

So you know, now, I think if we have another pandemic, we know better ways of doing it, but the real task ahead is how do we make sure we can mitigate these losses?

SIDNER: The Federal government has talked about how much money, $100 billion that it's kind of putting towards schools, and they're earmarking 20 percent of that, a huge chunk of money to deal with learning loss, but this is no easy task, because some students are so, so far behind. Do you think that's enough to address the problem? Is that the answer to the problem?

KHAN: It doesn't hurt to have the resources, but you know, it's really an old problem that's gotten worse. Even before the pandemic, your average classroom would have about three grade levels in it, so that in a traditional teaching model, a teacher has difficulty of "Okay, do I help the kids who are falling behind, or do I stimulate the kids who are in the middle or moving ahead?" And now post-pandemic, the results we just saw, that spread has increased. There is now five grade levels.

All students have suffered. That's what the data shows us. But the kids at the bottom who are already underperforming have fallen even further behind. So, the spread has grown.

And so a lot of these notions of "Hey, let's just teach to the middle, let's just work every student, lockstep through material" isn't going to work anymore, and that is why people are focused on learning loss, people are talking about things like tutoring.

But this is resource intensive. We've never done it at this scale. And what we just try to emphasize with teachers, with District Superintendents, with parents is that there are resources. They are not going to solve all of the problems. But, we work with many districts, the Khan Academy tools, parents can access them right now, it's free, it's not for profit. You know, there's no cash to it, and we just had a result come out from the pandemic where students were able to put in at least 30 minutes a week, so not a huge amount of work into it.

They are growing, depending on the grade level, they grew thirty, forty, fifty percent more during the pandemic in Math than their pre- pandemic peers in national norms.

So, there are solutions. There's not for profit platforms, like schoolhouse.world where people can get free tutoring, literally free tutoring. It leverages volunteership, but these are some of the best tutors on the planet.

So I think solutions like that, we have to get the awareness out. They exist, and then we are trying to partner with School Districts in any way, shape, or form to actually mitigate and accelerate.

Some of the school districts that we worked with during the pandemic, actually saw accelerated gains, because they were able to do the personalization, they were able to make sure kids had strong foundations.

SIDNER: Yes, it is getting to know the kids. It's hard when you have twenty, thirty kids in your class, right? And then when it's virtual, it is virtually impossible to engage every child that needs the help.

I do want to talk about KhanAcademy.org. I've gone on there before in the past, and it is -- it's free. And it is really interesting and I've learned some things. You can then teach an old dog new tricks. But there is a real worry about another crisis that has been going on for some time. It isn't just the pandemic, the pandemic has just exacerbated it -- and that is teacher shortages. How much is that going to play in damaging the growth of student learning?

KHAN: I think the teachers are the most important actor in a child's education. You know, there is a small subset and we see them on Khan Academy, a small subset of kids who could take a tool like Khan Academy on their own and run with it.

But the great majority of students need caring adults, adults who are expert at the pedagogy, expert in the material who are guiding them or motivating. So our role is -- there's a lot of variables here -- it is how can we make the teachers life easier? They have twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five kids in the classroom, five grade levels all in one classroom? How can the teacher personalize to the student without having even more on their plate? What tools can we give them make their life easier?

I think between that and there's a bunch of other variables around compensation et cetera, we have a shot, but it's not going to be easy.

SIDNER: Difficult time for teachers, especially difficult for students, and never mind the parents.

Salman Khan, thank you so much for joining us at this hour.

KHAN: Thanks for having me.

SIDNER: Coming up, authorities in Michigan are investigating how this missing voting machine from the State would end up for sale on eBay. Details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:48]

SIDNER: They brought us some of the most compelling images and important stories of our time across the globe. And now, the new CNN film "No Ordinary Life" takes a behind the scenes look at five trailblazing combat camerawomen who repeatedly risked their lives to bring you the unvarnished truth about events shaping our world. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYNDE STRAND, FORMER CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: That particular night, I knew that was the night -- I just felt in my bones -- that the government was going to shut this down.

You're it, you're the one that's going to see it and you're the one that's going to record it. That's why you're a journalist. So, we stayed. We started to get the reports that the tanks were coming.

There's flames in the distance and we're starting to hear bullets cracking down the street and not just zing-zing, but pretty heavy fire and bodies coming into the square.

We snuck around the back and started talking to the kids as they left.

Do you think anybody got killed?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Off course, I'm sure. Very sure. Many students were killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:12]

SIDNER: Those shocking images back in 1989, and joining us now is the director of "No Ordinary Life," Heather O'Neil; former CNN photojournalist, Maria Fleet, and former CNN photojournalist Cynde Strand, who also served as CNN's Executive Director of International News Coverage.

I have worked with both you ladies, thank you. Thank you so much for joining me.

Cynde, that footage from your clip was so important in informing everyone what was going on that you couldn't see, other than that video in Tiananmen Square that has become so famous. Why did you decide, "I want to put myself on the line."

Anything could have happened to you at that time. There were literally tanks in the streets. What made you decide, "This is what I want to do?"

STRAND: Well, you know, that particular night, many journalists had already left the square and the sound person I was with, Kit Schwartz (ph), we were together thinking, "Look, if we don't go, if we don't stay, who else is going to document this?" And we know there was one other crew in the Square that night.

And, you know, so many people were killed around the Square and in the roads leading up to the Square, but what we witnessed that night was the government beating the students off the Square. And once again, it's just so important to be there, it's so important to get that footage and to be -- to have something that shows accurately what's happening in a place.

And that night, it was just -- I couldn't do -- I couldn't make another choice. As a journalist, I just had to be there.

SIDNER: I'm curious, Maria. This is a job that for a very long time, has really been kind of reserved for men, and when you all were doing this, it was pretty much a man's game, if you will. What was it like as a woman breaking into this role, and going to the frontlines?

MARIA FLEET, FORMER CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST: Well, you know, it was -- it was kind of a man's world at the time, and it was very unusual to see a television camerawomen on the frontlines and CNN was very unusual in that CNN field that so many of us, five of us going to these frontline combat situations.

I think, you know, we -- you know, we were -- I think there was some skepticism about us, as we arrived on the scene in these really tough situations, I think some of our male counterparts took a look at us and said, "Hmm, are they going to be able to cut it out here in these really dangerous situations?"

But, you know, we just had to prove ourselves just like you do in any profession. We were serious, we had to show that we were serious about what we were doing. And we were professionals. And so that's what we did, and eventually, you know, we did prove ourselves and they sort of accepted us into their ranks, the guys accepted us into the ranks of that very unusual and kind of a small band of traveling journalists that cover these tough frontline situations.

SIDNER: You and Mary Rogers, who I've worked with a lot, and you Cynde Strand. You know, you guys elbowed your ways in because I've seen the power by which you get in there.

Heather, you're also a CNN veteran yourself. You worked with these women over the years. What was it about this story that said to you, this has to be done. I need to tell the story that a lot of people who certainly don't work at this company don't realize that these women were trailblazers.

HEATHER O'NEILL, DIRECTOR, "NO ORDINARY LIFE": They were. I mean, honestly, you think about the body of work, you know, this is going on, you know, for decades now, I mean, from Tiananmen Square all the way up to the Arab Spring, and it was just such an incredible, you know, acknowledgement of their work and their contribution and they're all just completely fierce.

I always knew this was a great story the minute I met Mary Rogers in Baghdad in 2006, and then got to know these other women. And it's just -- you know, I think viewers know their body of work and I wanted to make a film that introduced the women who are actually behind the camera.

SIDNER: And speaking of which, Maria we are going to take a look at some of the footage that you shot around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FLEET: People often said that our images look different that they could tell. There was something different about the images that we, as women made. I can just tell you that we were really good camerawomen.

We were really good photographers, and I think we did see things that other people didn't see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:45:06]

SIDNER: You talk about those images and they are beautiful even in the worst conditions. What do you think the next generation will look like? The next generation of female camerawomen?

FLEET: You know, I'm very excited about the next generation actually, because there has been sort of a democratization of the means of storytelling, and so, the stories that people see in their community or you know, in marginalized communities that we may not have access to, because the means of storytelling are so much more available, people shoot documentaries on their phones for goodness sake.

And so I look forward to being able to see a lot more stories from women, from other communities that we haven't heard from before, and I think you know, we're just going to be seeing a lot more of revealing stories that we haven't seen.

SIDNER: There are stories about Margaret Moth who has passed away now, the fierceness of her job and her life, Mary Rogers, Cynde Strand, Jane Evans, Maria Fleet, all of you women who went out there on the frontlines, and Heather O'Neill, what a beautiful rendition you have done here, a lot of folks are going to be really, really, really surprised at just how fierce these women are.

I thank you all -- Cynde, Heather, and Maria for coming on.

And be sure to tune in the all-new CNN Film, "No Ordinary Life" premieres tomorrow at 10:00 PM Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.

Now an emotional tribute to a rock and roll icon.

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SIDNER: There they are, the Foo Fighters performing at packed Wembley Stadium last night to honor their late drummer, Taylor Hawkins. His 16-year-old Shane taking his dad's place on the drums as the band played their hit song "My Hero."

It was the first Foo Fighters performance since Hawkins died suddenly back in March, and it's the first tribute of two tribute concerts planned in his honor.

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[15:51:49] SIDNER: This next story, for lack of a better word, is bananas. A Dominion voting machine used in the 2020 election went missing and was then sold for $1,200.00 on eBay. How did it end up on the internet?

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has that story.

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DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Harri, what's in the box?

HARRI HURSTI, BOUGHT VOTING MACHINE ON EBAY: That is a device which can be configured either to be a voting machine as a DRE or ballot marking device.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): This box should not be here on Harri Hursti's kitchen table in Connecticut.

HURSTI: Yes, I have been asked not to open it so that if it's a part of criminal investigation, it is preserved as evidence.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Hursti is an elections expert. He bought this voting machine for $1,200.00 on eBay.

EAN HUTCHISON, EBAY SELLER: As far as I was aware, it was a completely legal sale on my end.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): The eBay seller is Ean Hutchison, an Uber driver in Ohio.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): In your eBay ad, you wrote, "Dominion ImageCastX voting machine from Michigan, own a piece of history. This voting machine was one of thousands used in the 2020 U.S. presidential election."

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): But how did an Uber driver in Ohio get his hands on a Michigan voting machine? He bought it from Goodwill online.

HUTCHISON: I saw a listing for what looked like just an industrial touchscreen computer, and I got to looking through the pictures, and in one of the pictures I saw on the bottom corner of the screen. It said "Dominion Voting." So, I just, on a whim bid on it and I was the only bidder and I won the auction.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): So how much did you pay for the voting machine?

HUTCHISON: I paid $7.99.

HURSTI: I'm really surprised about this. I mean, $8.00. He made a good profit.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): It turns out someone dropped the voting machine off at this Goodwill in Northern Michigan, who that person is remains a mystery, but the Goodwill put the voting machine for sale up on its website.

HUTCHISON: I wasn't even aware that they were supposed to be sold, let alone donated to Goodwill.

HURSTI: It is shocking that only when we started asking, does it belong somewhere? Only after that they realized it has been stolen.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): They, being the Michigan Secretary of State's Office.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): One of Michigan's voting machines showed up on eBay.

JOCELYN BENSON (D), MICHIGAN SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, we immediately referred it to law enforcement.

O'SULLIVAN: Clearly, it has raised some issues about the chain of custody in how these machines are secured.

BENSON: We basically have 1,600 jurisdictions. Typically in between elections, clerks have the responsibility of securing all election equipment and protecting it from attempts illegal attempts to access it by unauthorized individuals.

O'SULLIVAN (voice over): Michigan is one of several swing states where authorities are already investigating unauthorized access to voting systems by people who are trying to prove the false claim the 2020 election was stolen.

BENSON: There is a nationally coordinated effort to try to interfere with our elections that's manifesting itself at the local level in incidents like these in Michigan. What you really have are individuals who don't seem to understand the technicalities of the elections process or election security, trying to gain access to machines to keep the misinformation alive.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): What do you say to the voter who is skeptical, who is watching this and saying, they lost the voting machine in Michigan.

[15:55:08]

BENSON: Well, a couple of things. One, Michigan's elections are secured before every election. We test every machine for accuracy. We've never seen even with this unauthorized access to machines any actual evidence of any challenges or wrongdoing or lack of security in the process.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): And police, of course are now trying to figure out how that voting machine got to this Goodwill in Cadillac, Michigan.

Goodwill telling us that they process thousands of items every week here in Northern Michigan, and it's not even clear really if Goodwill knew that this was actually a voting machine when they put it for sale on their website. It kind of looks like just a big monitor, a big screen.

Of course, lots of security concerns about this which is being investigated, but just a reminder, you never know what kind of deals you will find at a Goodwill or on eBay.

Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, Cadillac, Michigan.

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