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Ukraine Counteroffensive Pushing Further South; Russia Recovers Bodies, Flight Recorders From Plane Crash; Trump Pushes For Trial Delay; U.S.' Next Mission To ISS; Spain Football Kiss Controversy; Hawaii Lists 388 Missing From Wildfires; Alarming Die-Off Of Emperor Penguin Chicks; Trump's Trial Schedules; Madagascar Stadium Stampede Kills 12. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 26, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm Laila Harrak.
Investigators have found the flight data recorder from the flight that killed Wagner's leader.
SpaceX and NASA getting ready to launch four astronauts into space.
And Spain's women's football chief refuses to resign.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Laila Harrak.
HARRAK: Ukraine says it's expanding its foothold in the Russian defenses in the south, near Robotyne.
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HARRAK (voice-over): Ukraine says its troops are having more success. Some military bloggers conceding Russian troops are under pressure.
Kyiv says at least one person was killed and two others wounded in Russian strikes across southern Ukraine over the past day.
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HARRAK: Russian authorities said Friday the materials from Wednesday's plane crash are being tested. The crash occurred two months to the day from Yevgeny Prigozhin's attempted mutiny. The Kremlin vehemently denied it may have been involved.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
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HARRAK: For more on this CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now live from London.
What more have you learned?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Russia's investigative committee now, undergoing genetic testing, as you mentioned, to determine the identities of the 10 individuals found at the crash site. They also have obtained flight recorders.
They are examining that to determine what took place exactly. There are a few question marks here. This comes shortly after Putin broke his silence on this plane crash. Speaking of Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, without confirming his death.
But Putin saying at the time in a public statement that he was a man who had made serious mistakes in life but also described him as talented. Now you mention, that Putin's government has vehemently denied any accusations, any finger-pointing that they have any involvement in this crash, calling it an absolute lie.
But we know, in recent years, from the Salisbury poisonings here in England to the poisoning of Navalny, there have been a series of incidences where people have mysteriously died or been poisoned who are critics of the Kremlin.
So for some, especially for critics of the Kremlin this plane crash won't necessarily have come as a surprise. It will have raised eyebrows, absolutely. But in many ways, Prigozhin has been an anomaly. The man who defied President Putin, quite --
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ABDELAZIZ: -- literally launched a rebellion against him and somehow got away with it.
Now, of course, we are dealing with the plane crash site.
The question here, of course, will be, can a Russian investigative committee, can a government backed body independently, transparently, work without interference and provide honest and clear answers on what took place?
To Western officials, I think, the answer to that question is absolutely not. You can expect that U.S. intelligence officials and their allies are digging into this on their own. They have already proposed that an explosive device was on the plane.
But it is unclear how this plane had crashed. There will be a lot of allegations swirling around this and possibly never any clear answers.
HARRAK: Salma Abdelaziz reporting in, London thank you so much.
The Kremlin would not say whether Mr. Putin would attend Mr. Prigozhin's funeral. Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there is uncertainty on the timeline for identification procedures. And President Putin has a busy work schedule. Still, ordinary Russians have begun mourning the mercenary leader.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shocked, if not surprised, supporters of Russia's Wagner mercenary leader, have been paying their respects, laying flowers and lighting candles at makeshift memorials across the country.
For all his violent and foul mouthed outbursts, often critical of Russia's military leadership, Yevgeny Prigozhin struck a chord. Especially with people like Daria here in St Petersburg, who told me how strong and interesting she found his personality.
He always stood up for his fighters, she said, in the special military operation, what Russia calls the conflict in Ukraine.
CHANCE: Are you sad that he is gone?
CHANCE (voice-over): "I'm only sad they were so vile to him," she answers.
It's a bitterness many Russians now share.
CHANCE: This photograph here, I think, probably one of the last ones of Prigozhin. And it says in Russian, in this hell, he was the best, speaking about him in the past tense.
Some people have laid patches, Wagner mercenary group patches from the side of their uniforms, because a lot of the people that are paying their respects here today are either members of Wagner or they're families of members of Wagner.
The organization's known for its cruelty. And this hammer here, it's very heavy. Pick it up. It's got Wagner written on it. Look, it's become a potent symbol of just how ruthless Wagner was, because it was with a tool like this that they executed someone they regarded as a traitor and they filmed it happening absolutely gruesome.
But that video consolidated Wagner's image as a ruthless, hyper violent organization that would do anything to protect the motherland.
CHANCE (voice-over): Even staged that dramatic uprising in June, marching troops toward Moscow in the biggest challenge to Kremlin authority for decades.
Many Russians suspect Prigozhin's presumed death in this plane crash was cold-hearted revenge. But the Kremlin denies involvement. And few Russians dare say otherwise, at least publicly.
Some of my closest friends are Wagner, says this man, who asked us to hide his identity at the memorial. They're just Russian people, he tells me, who thought they were doing the right thing. They can't talk for Prigozhin, he adds.
CHANCE: Who do you think is responsible for his death?
Who killed him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
CHANCE: No comment?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
CHANCE (voice-over): These are dangerous times in Russia to throw allegations around -- Matthew Chance, CNN, St. Petersburg.
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HARRAK: Joining me now, Masha Gessen, a staff writer at "The New Yorker" and the author of "Surviving Autocracy."
A very good day, Masha, good to have you with us.
Does this mean now that the Russian president is secure in his position and has cemented his grip on power?
MASHA GESSEN, "THE NEW YORKER": Well, you know, it's always easy to say it was inevitable after it's already happened. But this may be the one case where that's totally appropriate.
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GESSEN: From the moment that Putin called Prigozhin a traitor on national television, exactly two months to the day before his death, he was a dead man walking. So it was just a matter of time and also macabre guessing, how he was going to be gotten rid of?
Was there going to be death by poisoning?
Murder by defenestration?
Or murder by airplane?
Which has also happened in the long history of Soviet and post-Soviet murderers. So this appears to be murder by airplane.
HARRAK: But the Kremlin is forcefully denying any involvement in the crash.
What is your read on the messaging coming out of the Kremlin since his presumed death?
GESSEN: The message is the same as we have seen with every political assassination, that the Kremlin has been involved with. The Kremlin always denies involvement. in this particular case Putin has also paid homage to Prigozhin.
And, you, know it is, of course, possible; it's always possible that something was an accident, that we all expected Prigozhin to be killed. But it just so happened he and his top commander were both killed in an accident.
It just seems extremely unlikely. And the Kremlin, which is known for always denying its involvement and known for always lying about everything, is not going to dissuade us.
HARRAK: Does this mean that Putin is prepared to lose the Wagner Group and does it create any instability in the short term?
GESSEN: So what has happened is that an extremely dangerous rogue unit has been decapitated. That is certainly good news for the Kremlin.
HARRAK: Next month Russia will hold regional elections.
In light of these developments and the ongoing war in Ukraine, what is the significance of these elections?
Will there be an even greater clampdown on dissent?
GESSEN: I hesitate to call them elections, because what do you call something where there is no freedom of media (ph), there's no freedom of choice, there is no information flow and the outcome is preordained?
It is not an election. It is a ritual. But it is a ritual that always functions on a hinge point for Putin's regime. And this has been the case since he basically dismantled electoral mechanisms nearly 20 years ago in 2004.
So for nearly 20 years, Russia has been staging something that they call elections but is not actually an election. But it always serves to both as an excuse to crack down and as a kind of source of anxiety for the ruling party, for Putin himself, which, is itself, an excuse to crack down.
So everything adds up to additional crackdowns. I also wouldn't be surprised, if the plane crash in which Prigozhin apparently died, is also used as a pretext for further crackdown because it is quite likely that Russia is going to blame terrorists, possibly Chechens, possibly even liberals, possibly everyone at the same time for this plane crash and for Prigozhin's death and use that as a pretext for further crackdowns.
HARRAK: In conclusion, Putin seems to have weathered the Prigozhin mutiny. Time will tell whether it's the war in Ukraine. He faces multiple crises.
At this point do you think anyone or anything can challenge him?
GESSEN: Prigozhin demonstrated that it is not impossible that a close ally of Putin would get so fed up, that they would rise up. This was new. This was something that he showed the world, that he showed the people of Russia and that he showed Putin himself.
By establishing precedent, it made another coup or another mutiny more likely. But also by establishing precedent, it made Putin more paranoid. Part of the reason for Putin's longevity is that he is extremely paranoid.
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GESSEN: He always fears threats to his authority, to his hold on power more than he needs to. He fears protests, which are toothless in Russia. He fears everything. So the likelihood of a coup is higher than it used to be but the likelihood of a successful coup, I think, is lower than it's ever been.
HARRAK: Masha Gessen, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us.
GESSEN: Thank you.
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HARRAK: Meanwhile are keeping an eye on the latest mission to the International Space Station, which is scheduled to launch in less than 15 minutes. The Falcon 9 rocket will blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with four crew members on board.
The original launch was abruptly called off on Thursday night, so this will be the second try for U.S. space officials. The crew will join seven other astronauts who have been at the space station since March.
Without further ado, let's go straight to the Kennedy Space Center, where we are joined by Heather Scott.
So good to have you with us. The mission has been delayed by about 24 hours.
How are things looking now?
HEATHER SCOTT, NASA PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER: Good morning, Laila, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you. Everything is on track, all the milestones have been achieved as we progress through the launch preparations. They are gearing up for the final steps as we get ready for launch.
HARRAK: What makes this mission so unique?
SCOTT: It is incredible that this is the first time, on a commercial crew mission, that we have four astronauts, representing four different space agencies and four different countries. So we are very excited to capitalize on this international partnership.
HARRAK: Space travel has come so far but it is still fraught with risks.
SCOTT: Absolutely and I think that is what you saw with the scrub last night was the opportunity and for SpaceX to go back and look at some data, to be sure that everything is safe to fly.
And that is what we do is provide that safe and reliable transport to and from the space station. So it was worth the time to look at the data again and we are going to make a go of it this evening or this morning. And the crew is already on board the Dragon spacecraft and they are ready to go.
HARRAK: Exciting times.
For the astronauts for the mission, what kind of impact does a delay like that have?
SCOTT: They are used to rehearsals, so I think that they would attest to the fact that it was just another attempt to get them ready. This is not anything new to them, when it comes to preparations when they arrive. They know of the potential possibilities and so they were ready for whatever was going to happen.
The scrub happened before suitup. And so, I think what you see now is that they are so excited to be aboard their spacecraft and ready for their mission.
HARRAK: All right. I am told we've got to leave it there, Heather Scott, thank you so much for joining us, I appreciate it.
SCOTT: Absolutely, thank you so much.
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HARRAK: The election subversion case in Georgia is moving on to its next phases. Now that former Donald Trump and all 18 of his codefendants have turned themselves in, the Fulton County district attorney is preparing to begin sharing evidence as part of the discovery process.
But a lot still remains up in the air, like when the trial will start and whether all of the defendants will be tried at the same time. Katelyn Polantz reports.
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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Now that Donald Trump has been arrested in Fulton County Jail, on charges on here in the state of Georgia related to the 2020 election, there is going to be a road to trial, just like in his three other criminal cases.
In this situation, there are already defendants of Donald Trump, co- defendants of Trump, Sidney Powell, Ken Chesebro, both attorneys saying they want things to move very fast. They want the opportunity to clear themselves very quickly.
And the district attorney wants a trial to begin for them or at least for Chesebro and others in October. A judge seems to be in agreement with that. Donald Trump, however, he does not want that at all. He wants to drag things out, given that he's running for president. And it is very time consuming to be a criminal defendant, to have to
sit through a trial. But as of this moment, that is the big question, what happens there.
The next thing that is the big question is that are all of these people going to be tried together?
There are 19 defendants in this case. There are many possibilities for Trump to remove himself from the others -- or try to. And there is going to already be a hearing --
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POLANTZ: -- on Monday about this particular issue. Mark Meadows, the former chief of staff, is arguing that he should have his case moved from the state court into the federal court because he was a federal official at the time, working under Donald Trump.
Wouldn't have been doing the things he was doing in or after the 2020 election if it had not been because of his role in the White House. Others are asking for that same sort of protection. So a federal judge is going to look at that and look at each of those arguments, fake electors, Jeffrey Clark as well as Meadows and make determinations.
Does the whole case move from state to federal court?
Do each of these defendants get their own separate cases rather than where the district attorney has charged this, in the state of Georgia?
So there's a lot of complex legal proceedings ahead of us. Witnesses to be put under oath on display as part of these hearings, minitrials, if you will. And all of this will reflect exactly what Trump will be facing not here in the long term just in Georgia but also could play in to the cases being billed against him in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Another proceeding that could be going to trial before the election next year -- Katelyn Polantz, CNN, Atlanta.
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HARRAK: Well, of course, there's been a lot of reaction to the mug shot itself. Reporters asked President Biden to weigh in on the photo.
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QUESTION: Have you see Donald Trump's mug shot yet? (INAUDIBLE) --
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did see it on television.
QUESTION: What did you think?
BIDEN: Handsome guy. Wonderful guy.
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HARRAK: Meantime, Trump's team says the former president wanted to look, quote, "defiant" in his mug shot.
Thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh protested Friday to mark six years since they fled a brutal crackdown in Myanmar.
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HARRAK (voice-over): Some grew emotional as they reflected on the hardships they faced. Myanmar's crackdown on the ethnic minority in the country and is under investigation as genocide at the International Criminal Court.
Rohingya also face discrimination in Bangladesh but efforts to repatriate them to Myanmar have stalled. Many are demanding a safe return to their homeland.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We have suffered immense depression back home. The military and the militia raped our daughters in front of their fathers, slaughtered the fathers in front of those daughters. In my village, I've witnessed scores being killed by them. I cannot forget those incidents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Living under the tarboard shanties for years is an unimaginable and painful thing we are experiencing. There is now a food shortage as well. The next generation will have no future in here.
We do not know what to do, it has been six years and we don't know how many more to wait.
HARRAK (voice-over): More than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar into Bangladesh in 2017. The U.N. says the ongoing humanitarian crisis is growing worse because of cuts in international food aid. Poor living conditions and rampant lawlessness plague many camps.
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HARRAK: And an apology surrounding slavery comes from the family of one of Britain's long serving prime ministers. Charlie Gladstone is a descendant of four-time British prime minister, William Gladstone, who was himself the son of John Gladstone, one of the largest plantation owners in the Caribbean.
Charlie Gladstone traveled to Guyana for a samry (ph) Friday, where he apologized for his family benefiting from Africans being enslaved.
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CHARLIE GLADSTONE, DESCENDANT OF PRIME MINISTER WILLIAM GLADSTONE: To the people of Guyana, we, the undersigned, descendants of Sir John Gladstone, (INAUDIBLE) wish to offer our sincerest apologies for his actions in holding your ancestors in slavery (INAUDIBLE).
We understand that we cannot change history. But we believe that we can have an impact on the world in which we live. And in apologizing for the actions of our ancestors, we hope to work toward a better future.
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HARRAK: The apology comes as Guyana commemorated the 200th anniversary of a rebellion by enslaved Africans. The Gladstone family also plans to fund additional research into the impact of slavery.
They urge other descendants whose families benefited from slavery, to have conversations about their ancestors' crimes.
Now we are just minutes away from the launch of the latest mission to the International Space Station.
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HARRAK (voice-over): Still ahead, live coverage of the liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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HARRAK (voice-over): You are looking at live images from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where a new mission to the International Space Station is set to launch any minute now.
The Falcon 9 rocket carries four crew members, coming from the U.S., Japan, Denmark and Russia. They will join seven other astronauts who have been at the station since March. During their stay, they will conduct experiments related to future space missions beyond low Earth orbit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. (INAUDIBLE) full power. And liftoff. Go, Falcon. Go, Dragon, Go, (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy, (INAUDIBLE). (INAUDIBLE) range.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stage one propulsion is nominal.
Nominal power and telemetry. Stage one throttle down. Falcon 9 (INAUDIBLE). Max Q, stage one throttle up. Copy one bravo. And back shell (ph) is underway.
HARRAK (voice-over): A live look there at the rocket taking off, heading to the International Space Station. It has already been to the ISS and the mission is on again.
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HARRAK: All right now. We turn our focus to Spain's football chief facing growing pressure to resign after he forced a kiss on a player at the Women's World Cup. But in a defiant speech on Friday, Luis Rubiales refused to step down
amid the growing outrage after a video showed him placing the unwanted kiss on one of Spain's star players, Jennifer Hermoso. Here's what he had to say about that.
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LUIS RUBIALES, SPANISH FOOTBALL PRESIDENT (through translator): Do you really think I deserve this persecution or my resignation to be called?
Is it so serious that I need to leave, having done the best management in the history of Spanish football?
Do you think I have to resign?
Well, I'm going to tell you something. I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign. I will not resign.
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HARRAK: Hermoso released a statement, saying in part that she felt vulnerable and a victim of an impulse driven sexist out of place act. Spain's women's soccer team gave an ultimatum ,saying they refused to play until Rubiales is out.
I'm going to bring in now Al Goodman, standing by in Spain.
Is this Spanish football's #metoo moment?
AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A senior government official, the head of Spain's government sports council said as much. Spain has been making gains in terms of parity and working conditions for women versus men, recently, especially under the leftist government under the four years which has a ministry of equality in women's football in particular it has been an issue.
They are getting less pay, they're saying they're getting not as good as equipment, not as good facilities. There were protests about that, about a year ago. But the team pulled together and they won this World Cup just last Sunday, 1-0, over a very good English side.
But then the shift, the whole focus after the initial celebration, has shifted over to Rubiales' decision not to leave under pressure. So here is what the head of Spain's sports council had to say.
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VICTOR FRANCOS, PRESIDENT, SPAIN'S HIGH COUNCIL OF SPORT (through translator): I think we are in a position that this could be the #metoo of Spanish football. And for this to be a change. And therefore the government wants to warn about it, wants to be very forceful when it comes to saying that there are things that cannot happen again.
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GOODMAN: He also said that the woman's team, which won the World Cup, the first victory for Spain in this tournament, did not deserve to have this happen during this week. The focus shifting away from a celebration about them and their achievement, over to Mr. Rubiales.
HARRAK: What next now for Spanish FA chief Rubiales?
Is his position tenable?
GOODMAN: Many people think not. In fact, there were widespread reports in Spanish media that he was going to resign. He had announced to his staff that he was going to resign Thursday night. And that was what was expected at this meeting on Friday.
But it did not happen. So the government moved ahead as it said and they cannot, the government by itself cannot fire the head of the federation. They have to go through the sports tribunal, which is what they did.
The government sent over two complaints, one for an abuse of power and one for abusing the dignity of sport, which according to Spanish media will do an early meeting this week.
If the tribunal comes back and says these are grounds at least for a suspension, it goes back to the government. And the sports council can go ahead with that. The decision by Mr. Rubiales not to resign has further fanned the flames.
Other footballers, the goalie and the captain of the winning men's team in 2010, leading a pack of others, saying that this is an embarrassment and this has to change now.
HARRAK: Al Goodman reporting from Madrid, Spain, thank you so much.
Greek police are going after dozens of people who may have deliberately set some of the fires burning across Greece. We will have a report from one scorched forest after the break.
And we will have the latest from Hawaii following the devastating fires in Maui, with a change at the top for emergency crews and encouraging news on people thought to be missing.
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HARRAK: Welcome back to our viewers, all around the world. I'm Laila Harrak. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Dozens of people have been arrested in Greece on arson related charges as wildfires north of the capital, Athens, continue to rage out of control. Officials say at least 79 arrests have been made in connection to fires across the country, which have left at least 19 people dead.
Those fires have burned more than 130,000 hectares across Greece. They are officially the largest ever recorded in the European Union bloc. CNN's Eleni Giokos is covering the story for us from one fire-damaged forest in North Athens.
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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Greece has been battling hundreds of wildfires over the past week. Now I'm in Parnitha. This is a beautiful forest now turned into coal and dust and ash and air that's barely breathable. This is known as the lungs of Athens.
This is what it's supposed to look like, virgin forest untouched and absolutely beautifully green. This forest would help regulate temperatures in Athens and clean the air.
We've seen fires raging across the mountain since Tuesday afternoon, heroic efforts by the men and the women on the ground, working relentlessly nonstop with very little sleep. We've also heard many helicopters and airplanes towering above us all day long, trying to put out the blazes.
Now in terms of the overall destruction, the E.U. is estimating that it's about 1.3 billion square meters but the Greek government says it's too early to quantify the actual damage. This is for the whole of Greece.
Now in terms of one of the biggest fires in Alexandroupolis in the Evros region, it's estimated that 73,000 hectares have been damaged. There 19 people lost their lives. The Greek government have also arrested 79 people for potential cases of arson.
In terms of short-term and long-term concerns, when you see a forest like this going up in flames, flooding and landslides, longer-term effects, warming temperatures, a much hotter city for Athenians and tourists alike -- Eleni Giokos, CNN, Parnitha, Athens, Greece.
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HARRAK: Maui County in Hawaii has a new interim emergency administrator, after the previous official resigned, citing health reasons. He had been severely criticized for not sounding emergency sirens as the terrible wildfires swept in, killing at least 115 people.
Maui County's mayor says the new official has invaluable experience. Meanwhile, officials say 100 people listed as missing in the fires are reported to be safe. The development came after authorities released on Thursday a list of 388 people believed to be missing.
They say that triggered hundreds of calls with information on people's whereabouts.
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HARRAK: But officials say the missing list is partial and the death toll could still rise.
Wildfires in Canada's Northwest Territories have forced the evacuation of yet another entire town. This time it involves the 4,000 people in Hay River. This comes as Canada is experiencing its worst wildfire season on record.
During the past week, the number of people forced from their homes increased to more than 50,000. Another 20,000 who left the city of Yellowknife are still being warned not to return. More than 300 members of the Canadian armed forces are being deployed to fight the flames.
Ecuadorians have voted to stop oil drilling in a major national park, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. And parts of the Amazon rain forest. The Ecuadorian state oil company has been drilling since 2016, producing tens of thousands of barrels a day. Rafael Romo is in Ecuador with more.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): Yasuni National Park, Ecuador, a sprawling 2. 5 million acres or 1 million hectares in the Amazon rain forest, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. One of the most biodiverse places on Earth as well as Indigenous tribes living in voluntary isolation.
But Yasuni is also an area rich in oil, especially one section of the park known as block 43, with revenue earning potential the government wanted to control. It was an environmental dilemma for an oil producing country, the dilemma voters faced in last Sunday's vote.
In the end, nearly six out of every 10 voters chose to protect the Yasuni.
"We have saved the greatest biodiversity that has been recognized, nationally and internationally," the leader of the Indigenous community said.
In 2007, then president Rafael Correa, proposed the international community give Ecuador $3.6 billion to leave the Yasuni undisturbed but the plan failed.
In 2016, the Ecuadorian state oil company began drilling in block 43, an area that is only 0.01 percent of the national park but produces more than 55,000 barrels a day or 12 percent of Ecuador's total production.
Over the last decade, environmental groups pushed for a referendum to protect the Yasuni, collecting signatures to comply with legal requirements.
ROMO: Last September, Ecuador's electoral court here in Quito finally ruled that 750,000 signatures collected eight years before were valid. That paved the way for the referendum that the Yasunios, an environmental group, have been calling for.
The group says that the oil must be kept underground and the Amazon rainforest untouched.
ROMO (voice-over): Celebrities joined their cause, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who called the Yasuni "a global biodiversity hot spot."
"The people and wildlife living here are threatened by the fossil fuel industry," he added.
Ecuadorian energy minister Fernando Santos said earlier this month that depriving his country of the funding generated would be, quote, "catastrophic." He estimates Ecuador could lose $1.2 billion a year in revenue, assuming a price of $60 per barrel.
The energy minister said oil in the Yasuni could last another 25 years. Some voters agreed that Ecuador should continue tapping its largest oil reserve.
"Ecuador needs those resources to make ends meet," this voter said.
But most were convinced by environmentalists, who say preserving the Amazon is more important than any money that could be made, like drilling in one of the richest ecosystems in the planet -- Rafael Romo, CNN, Quito, Ecuador.
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HARRAK: A new study says melting sea ice likely caused a massive die- off in emperor penguin chicks in Antarctica last year. Eighty percent saw no chicks survive in 2022. The sea ice that penguins rely on to raise their young broke up too soon and chicks either drowned or drifted away.
Bill Weir says the effects of climate change are happening faster than many expected.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This is a real indication, sort of a warning to all species, including us, that it is time to adapt or die and you've got to make it quick.
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WEIR: This is staggering to ecologists, who have studied these, to see entire colonies collapse like this. We never could've imagined it. It is just one more indication of this changing planet and the heat waves we are seeing around the world often exist at the bottom of the world as well. These little, adorable creatures are trying to warn us.
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HARRAK: Well, a separate study found that emperor penguins, along with 65 percent of Antarctica's native species, could be extinct by the end of the century, unless things change. The United Nations' next climate change conference, called COP28, does
not start until November but with severe weather events everywhere, world leaders are already making plans to deal with the climate crisis. Becky Anderson has a preview.
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BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): Big occult (ph) flooding, wildfires spreading a mile a minute and heat waves testing the limits of survivability, these are the new realities the world faces as we come to grips with the climate crisis.
We are now just under 100 days away from the next United Nations climate conference. COP28 will kick off in Dubai in the UAE on November 30th, joining world leaders from nearly 200 countries and crucial negotiations.
The UAE and the United Nations have laid out four key priorities: fast tracking the energy transition, focusing on lives and livelihoods, inclusivity and fixing climate finance.
MAJID AL SUWAIDI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, COP28: We have been traveling around the world, engaging with many different stakeholders, talking about what are the challenges they face. And it comes down to a desire to take action.
But in many cases that means we need to provide the finances for them to do so. Particularly in the developing world, where they are trying to grapple with development challenges, we need to make sure that finances made more available, more accessible and, importantly, more affordable.
ANDERSON (voice-over): According to the International Energy Agency, annual investments in clean energy for developing economies need to more than triple in order to prevent the Earth from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Developing economies account for more than 80 percent of the world's population but less than half of the investments in clean energy are going to those countries. Back in 2009, richer countries promised to reach $100 billion in funding per year by the year 2020 for poorer nations to support climate actions. That goal has not been reached.
HARJEET SINGH, GLOBAL POLITICAL STRATEGY, CLIMATE ACTION NETWORK: The fact is the Western countries only made promises but they have not really delivered. Living in a multipolar world is why many developing countries are looking to the UAE and China and other big players, like India, who actually have a genuine cooperation.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Leaders across the world are acknowledging that much more funding is needed -- and fast.
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translator): We need to radically inform the governance of the international financial architecture, so that is more efficient, fairer and better adapted to today's world. ANDERSON (voice-over): The UAE has faced criticism for its own
dependence on fossil fuels ahead of this year's conference. COP28 president designate Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber is the CEO of a national oil company, ADNOC. ADNOC plans to spend $150 billion in oil and gas expansion in the next five years.
But even Al-Jaber has conceded that the phasing down of fossil fuels is, quote, "inevitable" -- Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
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HARRAK: Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, as the Georgia election subversion case presses forward, we get insight into how Donald Trump plans to navigate an increasingly crowded calendar.
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HARRAK: Donald Trump is looking to capitalize on the media attention from his arrest and booking in the Georgia election subversion case. The former U.S. president slapping his mug shot on T-shirts and mugs as part of a major campaign fundraising push.
His team seeking to delay the trial, while the Fulton County district attorney pushes for a speedy trial. Trump's calendar is becoming increasingly crowded between campaigning and multiple criminal and civil cases. Kristen Holmes reports on how his lawyers and advisers plan to handle it. All
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Four of president Donald Trump's team has had multiple conversations on how to navigate if there is potential trial or trials while he is campaigning for president in 2024.
Most of the advisers that I talk to say they do not believe that it will happen. They do believe that the lawyers in their legal maneuvering will be able to delay these trials. But they are not entirely positive that is the case, particularly as these dates start to mount up.
I will show you what the calendar is now as it stands. These dates are subject to change. But October 23rd, 2023, is the proposed trial date for Georgia. Then you look at January, the 2nd is the potential trial for the 2020 election charges; the 15th is both the Iowa caucus and potentially the E. Jean Carroll civil trial.
March 5th, Super Tuesday; the 25th, Stormy Daniels hush money trial. This gives you an idea why exactly they are having these kinds of conversations. When they talk about this, one thing they hope for is making this a media spectacle and capitalizing on it.
That's something former president Trump is good at doing. They were happy with how the coverage went on Thursday. They felt they dominated the airwaves and sucked the life out of many of the other candidates, even though they were having their republican primary debate the day before.
They talked about how former president Trump's good on capitalizing on when he has media attention, showing the fact that yesterday that he was going on Twitter, putting out his mug shot, for the first time since January of 2021.
This is something people were speculating about. He is continuing to grasp onto the media narrative. They hope he can do that during these trials, Even though they say that it might help them politically, I have talked to a number of Trump's allies and Republican operatives, who say they believe this endless media coverage, no matter how Trump spins it, is just going to be exhausting for voters.
Of course, we are still in these unprecedented times and it's going to be a waiting and seeing game. But right now that is how they are preparing -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington.
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HARRAK: And we will be right back.
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HARRAK: A crush of sports fans trying to get into a stadium in Madagascar has left at least 12 people dead.
They were trying to enter the venue for the opening ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games. Dozens more were injured, the prime minister says that 11 of the survivors are in critical condition. It is not clear what caused the deadly incident.
The older son of NBA superstar LeBron James is expected to make a full recovery after suffering a cardiac arrest. The family says Bronny James will return to playing basketball for the University of Southern California, in the very near future.
The 18 year old was hospitalized for a few days in July, after suffering a cardiac arrest during practice. Doctors say the health scare was probably caused by a congenital heart defect, which can and will be treated.
Now the director of the British Museum in London has announced that he is resigning. It follows the launch of a police investigation, earlier this month, after items from the museum's collection were found to be missing, stolen or damaged.
In a statement, Hartwig Fischer said the institution did not respond comprehensively when it was warned about the thefts in 2021. Mr. Fischer said that he was ultimately responsible for that failure.
That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Laila Harrak. We will pick up our coverage after a quick break.
