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Kevin Spacey Under Cross-Examination in Civil Lawsuit; Kurdish Women Flee Iran's Crackdown to Take Up Arms Across Border; Scientists Witness One of the Brightest Explosions Ever Seen in Space. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 18, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, after Kevin Spacey is back on the witness stand and being cross-examined in a sexual misconduct trial, Actor Anthony Rapp filed a civil lawsuit against Spacey, saying Spacey touched him inappropriately back in 1986. Spacey was 26 at the time. Rapp was 14.

CNN's Chloe Melas joins us now with more. So, Chloe, Spacey denies the allegations and yesterday really gave emotional testimony on the stand. What did he say?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Good morning, Bianna. I was in the courtroom when Kevin Spacey broke down crying on the stand and, really, this was the first time that we heard from Kevin Spacey in his own words since these allegations first came forward nearly five years ago, October of 2017.

He says that the statement he released at the time in which he apologized to Anthony Rapp and also came out as gay in the same statement that he wishes he had never released a statement, that he was pressured by members of his team and that he never should have apologized for something that he says that he didn't do. He says, quote, I was accused of trying to change the subject or trying to deflect or that I was conflating an allegation with being gay, which was never my intention.

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And I would have never done anything to hurt the gay community and I was so upset that that was what happened. I understood it in retrospect.

Also, it was a big win for Kevin Spacey's legal team yesterday with Judge Lewis Kaplan throwing out a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. They said that it actually doubled up on the assault allegations that Rapp's lawyers are bringing forward.

And, again, today, things could heat up while Kevin Spacey is being cross-examined because his team is really trying to poke holes in what Anthony Rapp is alleging happened 30 years ago, especially when it comes to the floor plan of the apartment that Kevin Spacey was living in at the time. Kevin Spacey says that he was living in a studio with no walls. Anthony Rapp, his recollection, he claims that he remembers being carried by Kevin Spacey into his bedroom and being put down on Kevin Spacey's bed.

So, again, it will be interesting to see what happen this is week, and the jurors are supposed to be begin deliberating as early as Friday.

GOLODRYGA: I know you'll continue to cover this for us, Chloe Melas. And good job powering through what sounds like a marching band, or something, behind you, but it didn't let it distract you at all. That is New York for you. Thank you, Chloe.

Well, this afternoon a suspected serial killer will be arraigned in a California court. Wesley Brownlee was arrested early Saturday morning in Stockton, California. Investigators believe the 43-year-old killed six men and was on the hunt for his next victim when he was taken into custody. Brownlee is also accused of shooting a woman last year. She had survived. Police say they have not been able to establish a motive yet.

And coming up, Iranian Kurdish women who fled Iran's violent government crackdown on nationwide protests are now training to fight back. The story of these brave women who say they are ready to die for their rights.

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GOLODRYGA: Right now, women in Iran are risking everything as nationwide protests are met with a brutal crackdown by the government. But some Iranian Kurdish women are fighting back, saying that they are ready to die for their rights.

CNN's Nima Elbagir met some of them training for the battle across that border in Iraqi Kurdistan. She has their story.

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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a remote area in Northern Iraq's Kurdish region, an all-female fighting unit belonging to the armed Kurdish Iranian opposition party pack continues to train. These women have been pulled back from the frontline.

For the last three weeks the area they patrolled in the north east of Iraq has been hit by shells sent from across border by Iran. This unit is part of a larger fighting force. For every single one of these women, this war is personal.

Ressan (ph), not her real name, crossed the border with the help of smugglers just over a week ago. The city of Sanandaj, which she calls home, is in Iran's Kurdish majority western region, and in recent weeks has been likened to a war zone, according to its residents, as protests have erupted here, and across Iran, after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian. Ressan (ph), just a teenager, joined these protests.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were treating casualties but we were also, like most people, participating in the revolution, in the uprising. Everyone who suffered from the oppression of the Iranian regime came down to the street and market and defied government. I was also participating and I had no fear of death.

ELBAGIR: Ressan (ph) says that while she was dragged by her uncovered hair, she passed prone lifeless bodies. And even after she left, she says she's continued to receive information about people she knows who have died, like this man, Yahia Rahimi (ph), a newly married 27-year- old, murdered by Iranian regime forces for sounding his horn in solidarity with protesters.

What is happening with your family?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My family told them that no matter how many members of my family they arrest and for as long as they oppress my people, I will not surrender to the invading Iranian government. We are ready to die.

When Kurdish Iranian Mahsa Amini died in police custody, her name became a symbol of the oppression of women across Iran. But Mahsa is not her true name. Her Kurdish name is Zhina, a name Iranian authorities barred her family, like many other ethnic minority groups, from using. The regime only legally registers Persian names. Yet, in her last records moments, Zhina resulted to begging her captors in her Kurdish mother tongue and treaties which were ignored, reinforcing the fears of the Iran's Kurdish minority.

Iran's reach oppressed the protests within its borders is stretching far beyond them. Over the last few weeks, Iranian missiles have fallen into the Kurdish region of Iraq almost every day. The onslaught is relentless. This map shows where Iranian strikes have hit, killing at least 18 and injuring at least 63 to date.

This video filmed by a local television channel shows the moment just after an Iranian drone and several missiles struck one of the Kurdish Iranian opposition party bases, killing eight soldiers and injuring more.

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On a day on which 70 missiles, Kurdish authorities say, rained down in the space of just four hours.

This base only two years ago was on the frontline in the fight against ISIS after the pack received U.S. training. It isn't far from U.S. Central Command, CENTCOM forces. Just one day after the attack on the pack base, CENTCOM shot down another Iranian drone, which appeared, they say, as a threat to CENTCOM forces stationed in the area. And as the U.S. anti-ISIS presence in Iraq is set to continue, so is the threat Iran poses. These female fighters have vowed to fight until there is a regime change in Iran. They say they share Zhina's pain, called by a name forced on her by a repressive regime. All of them have a Kurdish name, just like her, not spoken outside of their homes. All of them say it is hard to imagine going back to how life was before.

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ELBAGIR (on camera): It is hard to imagine looking at those scenes, the place where the family is sheltering. Ressan (ph), with a weapon in her arms is incredibly hard to imagine taking all of that in. But they see themselves as the lucky ones. Despite the extraordinary risks that they have taken, despite the fact that both they and other eyewitnesses, other families that have made it to the relative safety of the Kurdish regions of Northern Iraq, and those inside of the Kurdish majority regions inside Iran, despite what they are telling us, which is that the Kurdish majority cities inside Iran are effectively surrounded. People are entrapped by regime forces. The path to safety here in Iraqi Kurdistan is so fraught, is so difficult, is such a risk. And even here, they are still not fully safe but they are so, so grateful to be here, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: I'm just so blown away by these women's bravery and determination and saying they're the lucky ones. I know they said, Nima, they said they're willing to die for their cause but they do have an ask of the world and the United States. What is that?

ELBAGIR: So many of those that we're speaking to want to know why there isn't some kind of international recognition of what is happening here, especially given how perilously close by the U.S. Central Command's own admission, some of these Iranian strikes have come to the U.S.'s own resources here in the region.

What is very clear, though, as we speak to, are saying is that the Iranian regime has found a way to internationalize its own internal conflicts. It's found a way to international the pain that the people in those streets are managing to inflict on it. And so they're asking why the U.S. isn't calling for some kind of a no-fly zone, some kind of a sterile space, some kind of acknowledgment by the regime that it needs to open up the safe corridors to allow people to travel to inside Iraqi Kurdistan. That is their obligation under international law and it is an obligation that they are currently refusing to meet, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: It is a complex situation, I know, but those are very good questions they are asking.

Nima Elbagir, incredible reporting, as always, thank you so much.

ELBAGIR: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And still ahead, it may be the most powerful explosion ever recorded in space. What caused this rare intergalactic phenomenon more than 2 billion light years away? We'll tell you, up next.

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GOLODRYGA: A spectacular show in the skies. Multiple telescopes picked up what may be the one of the brightest explosions ever observed in space. The burst is believed to be from a massive star that collapsed into a supernova.

CNN Space Correspondent Kristin Fisher is here with the details. So, Kristin, I like looking at it as just a piece of art. There is obviously a lot science behind it. So, what happened and what makes this so rare?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, It is the size and the brightness of this explosion that makes it so rare. I mean, scientists believe that this is the brightest gamma ray exposition that they're going to see for decades.

And so what you're seeing there, that is actually an X-ray image taken by the Swift Telescope here on Earth. And what scientists believe is we are seeing an explosion that took place about 2.4 billion light years away. And so the particles and light from this explosion has been traveling through space for billions of years and they finally reached Earth or were able to be detected by telescopes here on Earth last week or so on October 9th.

And so what scientists believe happened is that there was a massive, massive star, much, much bigger, sometimes they believe between 30 and 40 times bigger than the size of our sun, and it collapsed into a supernova and created a black hole. And those newborn black holes are really known for creating particles that jet through space at speeds sometimes faster than the speed of light.

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And they also produce high quantities of X-ray and gamma ray radiation. And so in addition to telescopes being able to pick up just the mere sight of this explosion from space, they were also able to detect these X-ray and gamma ray bursts.

So, what you're seeing right there, that yellow circle, Bianna, that is the actual explosion right there. That is what a telescope on Earth was able to pick up. And to give you an idea of just how big and bright it is, one of the research teams is now calling it the boat. You've heard of the goat, the greatest of all time, they're now calling it the boat, the brightest of all time.

And so they believe that this may be the biggest and brightest gamma ray explosion that we will get to see on Earth for several decades.

GOLODRYGA: Wow. These telescopes and what they're able to produce just continue to blow my mind. Really beautiful and incredible stuff there.

Kristin Fisher, thank you, as always, for breaking it down for us.

FISHER: Thanks. GOLODRYGA: And thank you all for joining us today. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts right after a quick break.

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