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U.S. Exchange Student Studying Abroad In France Reported Missing; Opening Statements Today In Second Oath Keepers Sedition Trial; Lockerbie Bombing Suspect Appears In DC Federal Court; U.S. Kills Two ISIS Officials In Helicopter Raid In Eastern Syria; U.S. Scientists Reach Long-Waiting Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough. Aired 3:30- 4p ET

Aired December 12, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

KENNETH DELAND, FATHER OF U.S. STUDENT MISSING IN FRANCE: And he was on -- when there was a break with school, he also went to Italy, but he did that on his own. And I wasn't aware of him not being able to make friends easily. So, to answer your question, I was not aware of that.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Carol, we know that from the reporting that he was with a host family. Has the host family been able to offer any useful information?

CAROL LAWS, MOTHER OF U.S. STUDENT MISSING IN FRANCE: I haven't spoke with the host family. So, to answer that, not really. NO, I haven't heard anything from them.

BLACKWELL: OK, do authorities -- go ahead Ken.

DELAND: I was going to say that the liaison through AIFS had spoken with the host mother, and from what I understand, her English, you know, was not so good. She was predominantly French speaking. So, we haven't had a lot of contact with that person, and there's been a little bit of a restriction as to what we have been able to find out with this case, with the privacy act in place.

BLACKWELL: Yes. You say there's been a restriction. Carol, I wonder, are you satisfied -- considering the restrictions -- with the amount of information that you are receiving from the State Department, that you are receiving from French authorities?

LAWS: I feel like I'm not really receiving any information.

DELAND: Yes, that's --

LAWS: It's been very difficult. You know, we have been -- really, someone else has been stuck in the middle to do the speaking for us, and it was -- it's been difficult to get really any information back. Names, who they actually really spoke to.

BLACKWELL: Carol, have authorities there in France, have they told you if they believe your son is still in France? DELAND: No. I can answer that.

LAWS: No.

DELAND: The answer to that question would be no. I've reached out to the embassy several times. I even spoke with them this morning somewhere between probably 4:30 a.m. I called the embassy again. There's -- there's no reciprocation of information. Again, that privacy act prevents disclosure of information. You can give them information, but they cannot give you information. I've called local -- the local police departments and the same thing is in effect in the French police departments that are local to that area in which he was last seen. So, it's very limiting.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Carol, do you believe that your son is in danger?

LAWS: I would like to not think so, but when you don't know, you just don't know. I haven't heard from him.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Ken, one more for you. You have launched this website to get any tips, to get any information. Have tips been coming in through the website, and are any of these tips, any of the information credible, leading to any solid leads?

DELAND: So there has been tips that come in, and I try to pass the tips on. I don't know how they check out because, you know, I've sent them tips to -- to my agent -- the FBI agent that I have been in contact with. And I try to forward them to the embassy, and then they get dispersed from there. I'm hoping that Interpol has gotten involved, and we've been interviewed by several news media stations, you know, and we're hoping we can with your help, and the help of others, we can get the word out there.

[15:35:00]

BLACKWELL: Well, the website is findkendeland.com. Carol Laws, Ken Deland Sr., I mean, we're showing more pictures here. Of course, if you have any information, you can go to the website. You can call authorities and they will get it to the people who need it. He was supposed to leave France in just a couple of weeks. I thank you for your time, and we'll stay in close contact until you find your son. Thank you.

DELAND: Yep, thank you very much.

LAWS: Thank you.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Such a hard time for that family.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Well, U.S. officials say they've successfully killed two ISIS officials in a helicopter raid in eastern Syria. We'll have details from the Pentagon just ahead.

[15:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Federal prosecutors are hoping to convince a jury again that members of the far right group the Oath Keepers planned to violently stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory. Opening statements are under way right now in the sedition trial of alleged three members of that group and an associate.

The far right group's founder and a senior Oath Keeper were convicted of seditious conspiracy less than two weeks ago. But these two defendants are lower level. Let's get more now from CNN's Whitney Wild. So, Whitney, what are the prosecutors saying here?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, the prosecutors are saying that these lower level members of the Oath Keepers were taking their cues from Stewart Rhodes. Who as you pointed out, was already convicted of seditious conspiracy, and that the plan from the outset was to use brute force to try to overturn the election.

Ways they did that included hopping into a golf cart and driving to the Capitol. Three defendants are accused of actually going inside. Another defendant is accused of putting together a quick reaction force. We've talked about this a lot on CNN, and the accusation here is that one of these defendants, again, put together this group with the intention that these people would go into D.C. once this -- once basically the chaos broke out, once the overturning of the election broke out, and that plan included bringing weapons to a suburb just outside Washington, D.C.

So, that's the way that the DOJ is laying out this case. They're having to make some adjustments here because they fell flat on 3 out of 5 attempts to try to convict on seditious conspiracy. So, those alterations certainly on full display today. The DOJ, again, making this case that the plan was to use brute force to try to overturn the election. Here's just one quote from some of these opening statements by the Department of Justice.

In the defendant's words, they were at war. These defendants agreed to and joined together to stop the transfer of power, and they were ready to do it by force and on January 6, 2021, they did -- Victor and Bianna.

BLACKWELL: All right, Whitney Wild watching that trial for us. Whitney, thank you.

Happening now also in Washington, a Libyan man accused of building the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 is making his first appearance in a U.S. court.

GOLODRYGA: The suspect allegedly work for Libyan intelligence during the Qaddafi regime and would be the third person charged in the attack since it happened 34 years ago this month. The bombing killed all 259 people on board flight 103 and 11 people on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland where the plane crashed just minutes into its flight from London to New York. It is considered the deadliest terror attack in U.K. history. BLACKWELL: The U.S. says it has just killed two ISIS officials during

a helicopter raid. This was in eastern Syria. According to CENTCOM the raid was a unilateral operation with extensive planning.

CNN's Oren Liebermann joins us live from the Pentagon with more. So, Oren, what do we know about who was actually taken out here?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.S. Central Command in talking about this raid and putting out information about the raid that happened early Sunday morning, identified one of the two ISIS officials they killed. Identifying him only by his nickname of Ennis. Saying he was a regional planner in eastern Syria who helped plan and carry out operations in the area. They have not put out information about the second ISIS official they killed.

They do say according to an initial assessment there were no civilian casualties as part of this helicopter raid. We have seen the U.S. putting emphasis on the coalition and the campaign to defeat ISIS, even as there's been some tension with Turkey over Turkish operations in northern Syria.

So, in that area, the de-ISIS campaign is still a priority for the U.S. They're working with their local Kurdish partners and the SDF -- the Syrian Democratic Forces -- and trying to stay focused on this campaign as they move forward. We've seen a number of raids over the past few months. Notably the raid in February in western Syria that kill the ISIS leader Haji Abdullah. So, the U.S. remains focused on this campaign and says ISIS still has the power, even in its degraded form to destabilize the region.

BLACKWELL: Oren, while we have you. I understand you've got some new reporting about Russia's ammunition supply in Ukraine.

LIEBERMANN: A fascinating bit of info from a senior military official speaking to reporters just a short time ago. One of the key questions has been especially with artillery ammunition, how much longer can Russia keep this fight going? And we got an updated estimate. According to a U.S. assessment, Russia has enough artillery ammunition that is new and serviceable artillery ammunition to last them until early 2023. So, perhaps a few more months there.

But as they've been going through thousands, if not tens of thousands of artillery rounds a day, they have had to go back the to degraded ammunition, older ammunition according to a senior military official. Some of that ammo, 40 years old. The official describing it, firing it, crossing your fingers and hoping it fires or hoping it explodes when it's landed.

[15:45:00]

So, very interesting insight there into the state of Russia's military as this is now in its tenth month in Ukraine.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, they're forced to use Soviet made artillery, as you said, decades old. Oren Liebermann, thank you.

BLACKWELL: A major scientific breakthrough that could become a major source of clean energy. We'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: A stunning breakthrough in the pursuit of clean energy sources for the first time. Scientists have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction with a net energy gain, essentially replicating the fusion that powers the sun.

[15:50:00]

GOLODRYGA: Now this discovery could eventually unleash an unlimited source of energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. CNN's Rene Marsh joins us with more details. This is stunning. I mean, scientists have been trying to do this now for decades and they finally succeeded.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, it is a big wow moment for the scientific community, and it is not an overstatement to say this is a huge deal. So, what are we talking about here when we talk about nuclear fusion.

It is two hydrogen atoms that are being fired upon by 192 lasers at this department of energy lab in California. They are firing on these two particles, hydrogen atom particles, a quintillionth of a second, once every quintillionth of a second. And the force of the laser -- which you're looking at there -- and the heat that it generates, that is what creates this energy.

And the reason why this is such a big deal is because we're talking about hydrogen atoms that at the core of creating this energy. That comes from water. You know, we have hydrogen abundantly throughout the universe so we are talking about creating an energy source that has zero carbon footprint. It is clean. And essentially unlimited.

I spoke with several scientists today who say, you know, this is a big deal because this is the birth of a new species. A new kind of energy source is being brought into existence. And this is so significant because as we've been talking about this climate crisis and the need to pivot away from those dirty energy sources, this would give us a source to lean upon.

But to give you the big picture here, the context of how soon could we see something like this powering our homes, et cetera. It's, we're still a ways away. As one scientist put it, we have the embryo now but it's like asking when will that embryo graduate from Harvard. There's still clearly a lot of work that needs to be done within the scientific community to figure out how to harvest this energy and get it to the power grid. But still, this is a very critical step and we can't get to wide scale use unless we have this step that we're seeing here today.

BLACKWELL: All right, it's a start. It is a start.

GOLODRYGA: We should note there are other scientists that didn't go to Harvard. So, it's not just a Harvard almost Jesus neglected talk original thing. State school, too. MARSH: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, the Golden Globe Award nominees are out. We'll tell you who made the cut and who didn't. That's next.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The nominations for the 80th Golden Globes were announced today.

GOLODRYGA: CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas is here with a look at some of the top nominees. So, who's in, who's out? Any surprises?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: OK, yes, there are some snubs, but I want to talk to you about who is leading the way, OK. So, there is a movie that everybody is talking about called "The Banshees of Inisherin" and it stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and it is supposedly the movie to see. Leading the way with eight nominations.

But I do want to talk about two huge blockbusters that are nominated. "Avatar" -- which comes out this weekend, I'm seeing it Thursday night. I think it's like three hours. Then you have "Top Gun: Maverick." Which I remember telling you guys telling you that that was one of the best movies I had seen last year.

But why is that significant? Because usually you see that it's more Indy films that are being nominated. It's not the big blockbusters that everybody's talking about. And that's been a criticism of awards shows, especially the Oscars in the past that, well, I want don't to watch the Oscars or I don't want to watch the Golden Globes because these aren't movies that I've seen or things that I've heard on the street from friends and family members. But maybe this is an effort to drive up viewership because ratings have really been down when it comes to awards shows.

Now want to come to TV, I know everybody's talking about "White Lotus" -- no spoilers about last night's season finale. But I will say that they were nominated along with "The Crown," Dahmer," the Jeffrey Dahmer story -- which also got a lot of criticism. But Abbott Elementary, a really great show, led the way with five nominations. When it comes to the snubs --

BLACKWELL: Yes, one big snub for me is J. Alphonse Nicholson from P- Valley. I just thought that was a fantastic performance, that he should be nominated and hopefully the Emmys will -- I mean, I guess that's out of the question as well. But that he will be acknowledged for his great performance. Love "Abbott Elementary" though.

MELAS: Oh, so good. But I do want to say this, some people are talking today about Will Smith, his movie, "Emancipation," which just started streaming on Apple. It was getting a lot of award show buzz. Not nominate, the film. He's not nominated. Now remember, the Oscar slap took place at the Oscars, the Academy Awards. But could this mean that maybe he won't see any nominations? Or the film which Antoine Fuqua, he worked so hard on that whole team. Is getting rave reviews. I hope it's not that completely overlooked.

And then you know, the best original song score. You know, you have Rihanna, you have Gaga. So, you know, I think the big question is this. Is anybody going to go to the Globes this year? Didn't air last year on NBC because of all of their diversity and ethical issues. So, are people going to go. Are they going to have presenters. I me, Jared Carmichael, who I love, the comedian, he's going to be hosting. I'm going to be sitting down with him in a few weeks. But the big question is, are people going to tune in? Is "Top Gun" and "Avatar" be nominated enough to get people to watch this year? Who's going to go?

GOLODRYGA: I mean, look, way you're selling all of this right now, I don't need to watch it.

[16:00:00]

I can just call you or watch your report after the fact.

MELAS: Maybe that's what it should be. I should be the three of us doing our own like side show --

BLACKWELL: Yes, yes.

MELAS: -- between the show.

GOLODRYGA: I like that. I think it will see.

BLACKWELL: The I'm into it.

GOLODRYGA: Yellowstone is in this year, I like that too.

MELAS: OK, see I love it when you come in with a fun fact like that. Yellowstone is good. Finally nominated. Getting his due.

GOLODRYGA: Chloe, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank, you. I hate

And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.