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Supreme Court Conservative Seem to Side with Website Designer Opposed to Working with Same-Sex Couples; Kremlin Blames Ukraine for Drone Attacks in Russia; World Reacts to Reports the Iranian Morality Police Being Disbanded. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 06, 2022 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.
Polls are set to open soon in Georgia's critical runoff election to decide the final seat in the U.S. Senate. It's expected to be a tight race and both incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker spent Monday making their final pitches to voters.
Thousands of people are still without power after an alleged gunfire attack on two electrical substations in rural North Carolina. Authorities say the attacks were intentional and targeted and the FBI has now joined the investigation.
NOBILO: A website designer who does not want to work with same-sex couples has taken her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. And the conservative justices seem sympathetic to her argument. CNN's has her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Supreme Court now poised to decide whether certain businesses can refuse to work with same-sex couples on the basis of free speech.
ERIC OLSEN: Granting such a license to discriminate would empower all businesses that offer what they believe to be expressive services, from architects to photographers to consultants, to refuse service to customers because of their disability, sexual orientation, religion, or race.
SCHNEIDER: Colorado web designer, Lorie Smith, who openly declares she's selective and websites she'll design, brought the case. She's asking the Supreme Court to rule she does not have to comply with a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating against same sex couples.
LORIE SMITH, REFUSED TO DO BUSINESS WITH SAME SEX COUPLES: The state of Colorado is forcing me to create custom unique artwork expression, communicating and celebrating a different view of marriage. A view of marriage that goes against my deeply held beliefs.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): But the liberal leaning justices expressed concern that if creators can choose their customers, discrimination could run rampant. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson asking whether a mall photographer could say only white kids can sit on Santa's lap and Justice Sonia Sotomayor asking about interracial or physically disabled couples being turned away.
JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: So, I doesn't really, there's no line on race. There is no line on disability, ethnicity, none of the protected categories, in a public accommodation law.
KRISTINE WAGGONER: The First Amendment is broad enough to cover the lesbian website designer and the Catholic calligrapher. The line is that no one on any side of any debate has to be compelled to express a message that violates their core convictions.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Justice Samuel Alito took that argument even further.
JUSTICE SAMUEL ALITO: So, if there is a black Santa at the other end of the mall and he doesn't want to have his picture taken with a child who's dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, that black Santa has to do that?
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Smith says she's in the business of expressive speech and while she's not opposed to working with same-sex couples in other areas, she argues she should be able to choose the messages she promotes, an argument some conservative justices seemed to side with.
JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH: So, the question isn't who, it's what?
WAGGONER: Always.
JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH: Why are you right about how you characterize website designers? Why are they different from say restaurants?
WAGGONER: Because they're creating speech. In those other examples, speech is not at issue.
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): The Supreme Court sidestepped this same issue four years ago, ruling in favor of a Colorado baker, who refused to make wedding cakes for same sex couples, but on very narrow grounds that only applied to that case.
PROTESTER: Our rights are not up for debate!
SCHNEIDER (voice-over): Now, the stakes are much higher, with concern building among LGBTQ advocates that a ruling for the website designer could be a harbinger for other adverse rulings.
PHIL WEISER (D), COLORADO ATTORNEY GENERAL: If there were to be a loophole of the kind discussed, people with disabilities, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, others, could find themselves without access to the marketplace. SCHNEIDER: Now there is currently no case before the Supreme Court
that would eliminate the right to same-sex marriage, but still there is concern that conservative justices could be receptive to overturning that precedent. After all, it was just a few months ago that they overturned Roe v. Wade and in that opinion Justice Clarence Thomas said this court could overturn other precedents including the right to same-sex marriage.
Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Now Ukraine be appears to be turning to a new tactic to counter Russia's brutal nine month war. Moscow accuses Ukrainian forces of launching three drone attacks on military bases inside Russian territory in the past two days.
NOBILO: Surveillance video captured the early morning explosion at one base in the city of Engel about 800 kilometers southeast of Moscow. Another video shows the same last -- you're seeing it here from another angle -- the port city is home to a strategic Russian bomber base. .
FOSTER: And Russia claims it intercepted another drone over another field. Satellite images show the damage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IGOR KONASHENKOV, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): As a result of the fall and explosion of the wreckage jet drones at Russian air fields, the whole skin of two aircrafts was slightly damaged. Three Russian technical servicemen who were at the airfield, were fatally wounded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Meanwhile, Russia has launch launched another missile barrage cutting off water and electricity in cities across Ukraine. The capital Kyiv and the southern port of Odessa were amongst the worst affected. Authorities reported at least four people were killed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says maximum efforts are underway to stabilize the country's power grid. Ukraine's air force claims it intercepted more than 60 of the 70 Russian missiles launched on Monday.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Every Russian missile shot down is concrete proof that terror can be defeated but we still cannot give complete security to our sky. There were several hits. Unfortunately, there are victims.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Let's bring in CNN's Scott McLean following the latest developments from here in London. Scott, during the course of this all, it's very unusual that we would see any form of attack on the Russian territory. What more do you know about these drone attacks?
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so the kind of attack on Russian soil that has been getting more common, quite common over the past couple of months since the war began, really, has been just inside the border of Russia. So, case in point, we saw one even just this morning in the Kursk Region. An oil tanker was hit there according to the local governor, no casualties.
So, that is what we would commonly see, the Ukrainians have not taken responsibility. They have not raised their and said this is us for any kind of these attacks on Russian soil. But even still, the two attacks that you outlined earlier, these drone attacks are ones that do not fit this kind of pattern. And the reason that they don't fit the pattern is because they are located so far inside of Russian territory. We are talking about hundreds of kilometers and this is the kind of range that Ukraine doesn't actually have, at least within its publicly stated arsenal of drones.
A little bit of context for you, of course, the U.S. has been the biggest supplier of arms to Ukraine but one of the weapons that they have not given, they've been extremely hesitant to give to the Ukrainians, are these long-range drones. And for two reasons, one reason is they don't want the Russians to steal the technology on those drones if they were to fall into their hands. But more importantly perhaps, is that they don't want Ukrainians using them to target sites deep inside the Russian territory. Because they're worried that Moscow would see this a substantial escalation of the actual war.
But it seems the Ukrainians may have the technology to do this on their own now. At least this is what we're seeing from a Ukrainian state-owned arms manufacturer. It's called Ukroboronprom.
[04:40:00]
And in October it posted on Facebook a picture of a drone that it said that it was developing and wrote this in part.
Range -- 1,000 kilometers, weight of the warhead -- 75 kilograms. We are completing the development. We tell almost nothing to anyone -- it is necessary, believe me -- but this nothing has been successfully deployed on the battlefield and this nothing is being successfully tested again and again. You may say it's not enough. We agree, that is why we prefer to work 24/7, rather than to fill up the media space with boisterous statements.
So, just two weeks ago -- less than two weeks ago, I should say -- the company posted another statement on Facebook saying that it's begun testing these drones just on Saturday. Posted again saying it had completed several stages of the testing. But again, no statement point blank saying that, look, these drones are actually being used.
And one of the things I'd mentioned quickly, guys, is that an adviser to President Zelenskyy tweeted a few hours after the drone strikes saying in part, the earth is round. If something is launched into other country's air space, sooner or later unknown flying objects will return to departure point. So, weave into that what you will, pretty cryptic. He's not officially taking responsibility for any of these drone strikes but I me, he might as well have.
FOSTER: Yes.
NOBILO: Scott McLean, thank you so much.
MCLEAN: You bet.
NOBILO: Ahead on CNN, the U.S. and protesters respond to reports that Iran is scrapping its morality police and reviewing its hijab rule.
NOBILO: Plus, a memorial service for the four university students killed in Idaho. What friends had to say about their loved ones coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Police in the U.S. state of Idaho are considering whether a murdered college student may have had a stalker before her death. It's the latest threat that police are following in the investigation into the stabbing deaths of four university students.
[04:45:00]
NOBILO: On Monday police said surveillance footage showed two men following one of the victims at a local shop but neither are currently tied to the murders.
A memorial service was held for the students on Sunday. The surviving roommates of the students wrote letters about their friends that were read aloud at the service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My life was greatly impacted to have known these four beautiful people. People who changed my life in so many ways and made me so happy. I know it will be hard to not have the four of them in our lives, but I know Zana, Ethan, Mattie and Kaylie would want us to live life and be happy. And they would want us to celebrate their lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: A community in Texas is mourning a 7-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped from the driveway of her home and killed. A prayer vigil was held on Monday in honor of Athena Strand with many attendees wearing pink in her honor. The county sheriff said it's believed she was killed within an hour of her disappearance but the cause of death is still under investigation. Her body was recovered on Friday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOBBY DEAN, WISE COUNTY RESIDENT: Out here you let your kids go outside. You actually encourage it. You know, get off the TV, get off the devices and go out and play. But your worries are snakes and falling down or maybe flipping an ATV over. You never worry about something like this, like a monster coming in and taking somebody.
We love Athena. We hate what's happened to her but she's going to make a difference. Her memory will live on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: A driver working for FedEx was arrested and charged in the case. Tanner Horner allegedly made a delivery to the Strand home when she vanished.
NOBILO: After months of antigovernment protests, claims by an Iranian official that the government abolishing its morality police and reviewing its hijab law, are being met with skepticism by activists and other countries. The U.S. says there's nothing to suggest Iran is improving its treatment of women or ending the deadly crackdown on demonstrations.
FOSTER: Meanwhile, some Iranian businesses were closed on Monday as part of a nationwide strike called ahead of Wednesday student day. That's the anniversary of the 1953 killing of three university students by the Shah's security forces. But today's protesters had called for a strike against the current ruling government.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now with more on this developing story. Salma, as you've mentioned it's been very difficult to verify actually what's happening in the country. But we've had conflicting reports. Activists, at least, for their parts are saying that they're very skeptical and that they don't believe that these changes are happening.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, I think this is a consequence of the very opaque nature of covering Iran, right. Very limited press freedoms. International journalists aren't given access. So, you saw these headlines yesterday -- mainly in the Western media -- about morality police being abolished or shut down. Activists have been quick to push back on that. And you can understand why.
Because it gives you the illusion or the sense that maybe the Iranian government, the Iranian authorities are responding to the demands of people on the streets. They say, that is absolutely not what is happening. Yet in some ways the morality police have not been patrolling the streets in the same way during the three months of demonstrations. But that means other branches of Iran's security apparatus, those that are even more brutal -- according to activists -- are the ones that are cracking down.
Remember, rights groups say hundreds have been killed, thousands have been arrested. We've had a CNN investigation that show reports of torture and sexual assault at the hands of authorities by some of those that were detained. So, really serious and brutal crackdowns. And these protests continue, right. This movement continues.
Currently there are the three-day strike. We're in day two of that strike. It culminates in in a big day tomorrow -- student day as you mentioned. And businesses across the country have been told to shut their doors in protest and shop keepers are willing to do this. I want you to take a listen to one on the street of Tehran.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This is a legitimate demand and they should be heard. If society is divided and they regularly attack each other and create issues every day. Not only will the situation not improve, but we will go backwards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: So, you can see despite the huge sacrifices, the huge consequences that these demonstrators are facing, they are continuing to come out strong. And you have an Iranian government that just doesn't know how to stem the tide.
NOBILO: It is incredible bravery. Salma, thank you so much for joining us.
FOSTER: Still ahead, saying good-bye to the star of sitcoms and the silver screen. Hollywood remembers actress Kirstie Alley.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: The tributes are pouring in for actress Kirstie Alley who died after a brief battle with cancer. Her children made the announcement on social media saying she fought with great strength and was surrounded by family.
Alley starred in a long list of movies and TV shows. She is best known for her Emmy winning role as Rebecca Howe on the sitcom "Cheers" in the late '80s and early '90s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRSTIE ALLEY, ACTRESS: I gave them a million and one ideas to promote "Cheers." My marketing major really paid off today. They couldn't take their eyes off me.
TED DANSON, ACTOR: Were you writing something down before you went in there?
ALLEY: Yes, I jotted down a few notes.
DANSON: Were you using a fountain pen?
ALLEY: My lucky fountain pen.
DANSON: Make that your leaky fountain pen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Alley won two Emmys during her career. She famously made fun of her struggle with her weight in the Showtime comedy "Fat Actress." And then went on to appear in the reality show "Dancing the Stars" and "Celebrity Big Brother."
NOBILO: Alley co-starred with John Travolta in the hit 1989 movie "Look Who's Talking" as well as two sequels Travolta said their relationship was one of the most special, he's ever had. Kristie Alley was 71.
NOBILO: Now for the royal bombshell many are bracing for. The highly anticipated documentary "Harry and Meghan" was set to hit Netflix this week. The streaming service dropped a second trailer on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: It's really hard to look back on it now and go, what on earth happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You hear that: That is a sign of hearts breaking all around the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's becoming a royal rock star.
PRINCE HARRY: And then everything changed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:55:00]
FOSTER: Well, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared their story in what Netflix has called an unprecedented and in-depth series. The first three of six episodes will air on Thursday. We'll bring it to people live.
NOBILO: Yes.
FOSTER: Well, not quite live but an hour after.
NOBILO: Yes, and you've already been bringing it until late last night.
FOSTER: Yes.
NOBILO: The publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary have chosen their word of the year and it's actually two words. It sounds like something out of the "Lord of the Rings." And they are goblin mode. Which is a bit like what you sounded like this morning because you were working late last night on the Harry and Meghan documentary. The slang term describes a state of being that is quite unapologetically self-indulgent, lazily, slovenly or greedy -- like eating takeout in bed and not showering. Behaviors that became popular during pandemic lockdowns.
NOBILO: These are like things that people don't brag about. We're just unapologetic about them now. Isn't that the point?
NOBILO: Yes, I guess the pandemic facilitated doing that more often and maybe people never felt guilty about doing it once or twice a week. But then were in more frequent goblin mode. NOBILO: And they were seeing each other at home out of work
presumably.
NOBILO: Yes, exactly, being public.
FOSTER: It seems that people are concerned with trying to better yourself apparently and it was chosen by the public for the first time racking up 93 percent of the vote and I hadn't heard of it.
NOBILO: I hadn't heard of it either. What's your goblin mode entail?
FOSTER: Goblin mode tends to be when I get up and there are a ton of things that get dumped on me and I just don't get dressed until I've done them all. Sad but true.
Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster
NOBILO: "EARLY START" is next right here on CNN.
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