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Musk Vows Better Policing Against Hate Speech on Twitter; North Korea Launches Blitz of Missiles Over 2 Days; Glaciers in Yellowstone and Yosemite Could be Gone by 2050. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 03, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Because that district attorney is doing their own review --
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
CABRERA: -- to see if criminal charges are warranted.
PROKUPECZ: She's doing an investigation. That's something she's investigating but it's not really clear. And no one really understands what's going on.
CABRERA: Yes.
PROKUPECZ: And really for the parents, obviously, they just want answers, and they want accountability.
CABRERA: Thank you so much, Shimon Prokupecz.
Will Elon Musk follow through? He just told a group of civil rights leaders and others that he's committed to fighting hate on Twitter. NAACP President Derrick Johnson was at that meeting. He will join us next.
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[13:35:22]
CABRERA: Twitter's CEO Elon Musk met with a whole bunch of civil rights leaders, the Anti-Defamation League -- easy for me to say -- and others and promised that he's going to crack down on hate speech on this platform after an immediate surge when Musk took over.
For example, according to an independent watchdog group, the use of the "N" word spiked nearly 500 percent in Musk's first 12 hours as CEO.
Joining us now is the president and CEO of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson.
Thanks so much for joining us.
You were on this Zoom call with Elon Musk. Did you get the sense that Musk understands how serious of a threat this is?
DERRICK JOHNSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NAACP: Well, we impressed upon him the current political climate, the current climate in general is one of tribalism and it's cautioning many of our communities harm.
And social media platforms, like Twitter, they are the super spreader of misinformation in hateful content. So he agreed with much of what we stated.
Now for many of us, we're going to see, what is he going to do next? Is he going to keep intact the Election Integrity Unit to ensure misinformation is not into the conversation during this upcoming election and after and all the way through to certification?
Will he put in place a true content moderation council with actual authority to take down posts that are harmful to communities?
And will he take serious the message that we're sending not only from the African American community, Jewish community, Latino and LGBTQ community? Because all communities are under direct threat due to platforms like this.
CABRERA: What assurances, if any, did he give you?
JOHNSON: Well, the assurance for us is what he's going to do over the next few hours in terms of the Election Integrity Unit. Will that unit stay intact and have the necessary tools to make sure misinformation about the upcoming election is not put on the Twitter space.
Will he, in fact, empower a content moderation council with true authority and not just window dressing.
Those are clear indicators that is built an outcome from the conversation. It is great that he agreed to what we requested. Now we are watch will see if he actually does it.
CABRERA: You keep coming back to this issue of election denialism, misinformation related to elections and other issues. Did anyone ask or did you talk about the former President Trump coming back to Twitter?
JOHNSON: Well, we talked about those who have been removed from the platform.
Making sure there's a thorough vetting before anyone is placed back onto the platform to make sure those individuals, who were removed for a cause because of the level of vitriol, hate, they were spewing and misinformation, is there justification to bring them back.
If you talk about the former president, he has demonstrated that there's no justification to put him back on the platform because he has not changed his ways.
He is still an election denier, although he knows he lost the election and will still use tribalism and other racial tropes to cause division in our society and he plays to the lowest common denominator. So if Elon Musk is true, under no circumstance should Trump be placed back on the platform. And there's a whole list of others that fall into that same category.
CABRERA: What about the issue of Musk himself pushing a baseless conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi? Did anyone ask about that?
JOHNSON: Well, that didn't come up. But that's our next conversation. And unfortunately, we are living in a political space where a 72-year- old grandfather can be attacked in his home with a hammer and somehow it's part of the political fodder.
We should never be talking about this as if it's OK. And so that is definitely a part of the next conversation.
This was an initial discussion of the NAACP, ADL, Color of Change and others to establish an open line. Now it's a matter of, what are the next steps that's going to be put in place?
And like I am held to a certain standard in accountability, Elon Musk must be held to that same standard on his own platform.
CABRERA: NAACP president and CEO, Derrick Johnson, thanks so much for joining us and sharing those insights.
JOHNSON: Thank you for the opportunity.
[13:39:54]
CABRERA: What is Kim Jong-Un up to? North Korea launching a new barrage of missiles, striking fear across the region, and sparking a new response from the United States. That's next.
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CABRERA: Overseas today, a dramatic increase in tensions on the Korean peninsula after a record-setting 23 missiles launched just yesterday.
[13:45:03]
North Korea is keeping up its intensive blitz of missile launches today, including firing a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile that reportedly failed in flight.
Today's missile test marks the country's 30th day of launch events this year. And now the U.S. and South Korea have decided to extend their joint military drills that were originally scheduled to end Friday.
I want to go to senior international correspondent, Will Ripley, in Seoul, South Korea.
And, Will, North Korea says she's launches are in response to the joint missile drills between the U.S. and Seoul. But as we just saw, these launches have been happening really all year. They're now accelerating.
So what is Pyongyang's goal here? Why this surge?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think Pyongyang's goal is twofold. They're using this military drill vigilant storm as an excuse to go down their list of weapons testing.
Although Kim Jong-Un has felt emboldened this year, increasingly so, to go down that list anyway because diplomacy with the United States fell apart really beginning in Hanoi with the former U.S. President Donald Trump.
And then you have now this authoritarian alliance with Russia and China and, to a lesser extent, North Korea all having each other's back regardless of what the West says, regardless of pressure from the United States.
Xi and Putin are in no mood to work with the United States on punishing Pyongyang. And Kim Jong-Un knows that, which is why we've seen at least 30 missile launch events this year.
And we're talking about events that includes a 24-hour period and number of missiles launched. So yesterday, with 26 launches, more than two dozen, that counted as one event. That was event number 29.
Event number 30 today, the failed test of the intercontinental ballistic missile, the most powerful ballistic missile that North Korea has made that, theoretically, could hit almost anywhere in the world, including the U.S.
It was supposed to go on a trajectory over Japan but failed midflight. It only traveled about a third of the altitude that the previous successful test of this ICBM back in March accomplished.
And so, in Japan, just like in October, there were air raid siren. It was a national emergency alert. But then, all of a sudden, this ICBM disappeared, presumably having failed after the first stage of flight.
And what Kim Jong-Un has also achieved here is to strengthen the American alliances in the region, analysts say, because now with a hawkish South Korean president, who does not, like his predecessor, believe in trying to do anything possible to make peace with the North, he wants to show force.
The president there -- the statement about that, I'll read a part of it.
It says, "It was necessary to demonstrate a solid combined defense posture of the bilateral alliance under the current security crisis heightened by North Korea's provocation."
So North Korea says it's the U.S., the U.S. and South Korea say it is North Korea that's escalating tensions in the region with no end in sight.
CABRERA: Will Ripley, thanks for that reporting. To Russia now, where we just learned U.S. officials met with detained
American Brittney Griner today.
The White House saying they have been told she is, quote, "doing as well as can be expected" under the circumstances." The WNBA star serving a nine-year prison sentence.
The White House went on to say bringing her and American Paul Whelan home continues to be a top priority.
We'll be right back.
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[13:52:59]
CABRERA: Talk about horrific national tragedy if this happens, but two of this country's most stunning places could just be gone. And relatively soon.
Glaciers in Yellowstone and Yosemite National Park might disappear within the next 30 years. That's not a long time. And they are not the only glaciers melting away before our eyes due to climate change.
CNN's Rene Marsh reports it might be too late to stop it.
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RENE MARSH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some of the world's most renowned glaciers are on track to disappear in the next 30 years, whether global warming is slowed or not. A sobering finding from United Nations researchers based on satellite data.
Among the glaciers on the brink of vanishing are those in two of the most visited U.S. national parks, Yosemite and Yellowstone. Repeat photography documents the vanishing glaciers through time.
TALES CARVALHO RESENDE, UNESCO PROJECT OFFICER, NATURAL HERITAGE UNIT: Glaciers are one of the most valuable indicators of climate change because they are visible. We can see with our eyes the retreat of a glacier.
MARSH: The report finds that one-third of the planet's glaciers, identified by the United Nations as locations of significance, are set to disappear, and scientists warn the impact will be felt a world away.
RESENDE: Glaciers retreat is contributing to about five percent of global sea level rise.
The impacts of this melting can be seen in our daily lives through, for instance, floods, as well as a coastal erosion and even tsunamis.
MARSH: Glacier melt was believed to have contributed to two catastrophic floods this summer. At Yellowstone National Park, torrential rain and abnormally warm
temperatures caused a wave of snowmelt that produced a foot of runoff and dangerous flooding.
And in Pakistan, intense monsoon rainfall, coupled with glacial melt following extreme heat in the region, triggered deadly flooding.
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[13:54:57]
MARSH: So runoff from glaciers are an important water source for agriculture, irrigation and hydropower. Especially in already drought- prone straights. So the impact, again, very far-reaching.
The authors of this report make it clear the main action needed to counter the melting and save other glaciers is cutting greenhouse gas emissions Ana?
CABRERA: Thirty years. That's something.
Rene Marsh, thank you.
Houston Astros made World Series history. Four Astros pitchers took the mound last night against Philadelphia and they threw the first combined no-hitter ever in a World Series game. The teams are now tied at two games apiece. Game five is tonight in Philadelphia.
That does it for us. Thanks for being here. I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place.
As always, the news continues with Victor Blackwell and Bianna Golodryga next.
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