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CNN International: Poll: Tighter Race for Second Place as Trump Leads GOP; Influx of Migrants on Mexican Border Causing Tension Between Federal and State Officials; Satellite Images Show Nuclear Test Site Expansions. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 22, 2023 - 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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is spending the day with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Zelenskyy left Washington on Thursday night. He's expected to address Canada's Parliament later today.

Rupert Murdoch stepping down as head of Fox and News Corp. Murdoch is handing over control of his media empire to his eldest son Lachlan.

Now, new polling shows a close contest to the to be the runner up behind Donald Trump in the U.S. Republican presidential race. That suggests a sizable share of likely Republican voters are open to changing their minds about their preferred candidate. CNN's Jeff Zeleny reports from Washington.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: With the second Republican presidential debate now on the horizon scheduled for next week, the candidates are scrambling to try and distinguish themselves from one another. This really has effectively become a race for second place. Let's take a look at a couple new state by state polls that have just been released.

In Iowa, for example, which starts off the nominating process next January. Of course, former President Donald Trump holding a commanding lead in Iowa. But look at Nikki Haley. She has increased her standing there in recent weeks, and now this truly is a race for second place as Governor Ron DeSantis from Florida has fallen.

In South Carolina, the same thing. Former President Donald Trump holding a commanding lead in this race. But Nikki Haley is in second place there. Her home state, of course.

But it is in New Hampshire, where this race for second place truly is fascinating. Of course, the former president not quite as strong there, but there is essentially a four-way tie for second place. But on Thursday in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley was asked by a voter to distinguish herself from Donald Trump.

NIKKI HALEY, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was the right president at the right time. He was thin-skinned and easily distracted. He didn't do anything on fiscal policy and really spent a lot of money and we're all paying the price for it. He used to be good on foreign policy and now he has started to walk it back and get weak in the knees when it comes to Ukraine.

ZELENY: And that, of course, is a line that all of these Republican candidates are trying to walk. Distinguishing themselves from the former president without alienating some of his supporters. But one of the central reasons that Nikki Haley is climbing is because she is finding favor among moderate voters. Those voters who want to turn the page from Trump. So there is no doubt this race is starting to feel slightly different in the early voting states, but again, that debate next week, next Wednesday in California, certainly an inflection point in this race.

Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: The Mayor of Texas border town says the Biden administration has been silent as new as a new surge of migrants crosses into the U.S. illegally from Mexico. He says about 5,000 people have crossed the border in the past few days into his town of Eagle Pass, Texas, prompting him to declare a state of emergency earlier this week. He says the crossings have also taken an economic toll on the community because a bridge connecting the town to Mexico had to be closed due to the influx. And the mayor says he believes President Biden bears some responsibility for the crisis. Here is the mayor.

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ROLANDO SALINAS, MAYOR OF EAGLE PASS, TEXAS: You have all these thousands of people just walking in without any consequence whatsoever. So the word is getting out. It's kind of a come one come all type of approach and you have all these people coming. There is no consequence. And I just want to say that I think that this is unacceptable.

[04:35:00]

It's a shame that we don't have immigration reform and a solution to prevent situations like this.

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FOSTER: Well, CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Eagle Pass, where he spoke with some of the migrants trying to get into the U.S.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dozens of migrants stand in the Rio Grande, moments after forming a human chain to cross the river and through layers of razor wire, trying to reach Eagle Pass, Texas.

They tell me they're from Venezuela, among them a woman and her toddler. The danger for them is real. Two people, including a three- year-old boy, have drowned this week after being swept away in the river current. But after a nearly 3,000-mile journey, they accept the risk.

LAVANDERA: How long are you going to wait here?

They said they're going to wait here until they let them in.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The migrants tell us they've been robbed and attacked on the Mexican side of the river. After hours of waiting, the migrants figured out a way to crawl under the razor wire. In a surreal scene, one man instantly apologized.

LAVANDERA: They wanted to apologize for crossing illegally into the U.S. and that they're begging and asking for mercy. But to understand that they're coming from a country where they're persecuted and they feel like if they were to be returned home, they would be killed.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The mass influx of migrants is causing tension between federal and state authorities. Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted this video accusing border agents of cutting razor wire at an undisclosed location in Eagle Pass, allowing trapped migrants to turn themselves in. DHS officials refused to comment on the governor's allegation.

On Wednesday, about 3,000 migrants crossed into Eagle Pass alone.

SHERIFF TOM SCHMERBER, MAVERICK COUNTY, TEXAS: It's something very strange. Never thought I was going to see something like that in Eagle Pass Texas.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The local sheriff tells us smugglers are praying on the hopes of these migrants, offering to move them to other cities if they can get into the U.S.

SCHMERBER: I know this because we have smugglers coming from Houston, Florida, Austin, everywhere to pick up those immigrants. There's a connection there.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Reasons for this surge vary, but migrants we spoke to say they've grown frustrated with the CBP-1 app that processes formal applications. Many waiting months on the Mexican side for an appointment.

These two men from Venezuela say they crossed illegally because they're desperate and have been waiting three months for the appointment to request asylum. It's a risk we had to take he tells me. We know there's a chance we get deported, but it's in God's hands.

LAVANDERA: Right now, the question that local officials all along the U.S. southern border have, is whether or not this latest surge of migrants is an anomaly, a temporary problem, or is it a sign of a more sustained problem that they will be dealing with for weeks, if not months ahead. Right now, no one really seems to have a clear answer.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Eagle Pass, Texas.

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FOSTER: Still to come, new satellite images obtained by CNN point to an expansion of nuclear test sites by the three biggest nuclear powers in the world. We'll have details on that.

[04:40:00]

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FOSTER: According to new satellite images obtained by CNN, three of the world's biggest nuclear powers have recently constructed new facilities and dug new tunnels at their test sites. CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson has more on what this might signal.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's no secret that there's growing geopolitical tension between the U.S. and Russia and China. All three powers routinely conduct military exercises, clearly trying to demonstrate their strength to each other. And it stands to reason that eventually this competition would start to bleed into an area that I think many people haven't really thought about since the end of the Cold War, and that is their nuclear arsenals.

CNN has gotten an exclusive look at the serious investment that all three countries, China, Russia and the U.S. have put into their nuclear weapons testing sites.

WATSON (voice-over): The world's three most powerful militaries, the U.S., Russia and China, have all been expanding their nuclear testing sites in recent years. The evidence revealed in these commercial satellite images, obtained exclusively by CNN.

These are the Russian, Chinese and American nuclear testing. Knight Novaya Zemlya, a Russian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Lop Nur, a dried-up Salt Lake in China's Xinjiang region. And the Nevada National Security site in a desert northwest of Las Vegas. Images from each location show new tunnels, roads and storage facilities constructed within the last five years.

WATSON (voice-over): Nuclear non proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis first collected and analyzed these images.

JEFFREY LEWIS, JAMES MARTIN CENTER FOR NONPROLIFERATION STUDIES: One big factor for both the United States, but also Russia and China, is a desire to make sure the nuclear weapons that they designed and tested in the 1980s and 1990s still work.

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, RETIRED U.S. AIR FORCE COLONEL: All three countries, Russia, China and the United States have invested a great deal of time, effort and money in not only modernizing their nuclear arsenals, but also in preparing the types of activities that would be required for a test.

WATSON (voice-over): While there's no evidence of an imminent test, Russia's Novaya Zemlya site did see a burst of new construction over the last two years. On the one-year anniversary of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Russia's readiness to conduct nuclear tests.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): Some figures in Washington, we know this for a fact, are already thinking about the possibility of a natural test on their nuclear weapons. If the U.S. conducts tests, we will do so too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome. to U1a.

WATSON (voice-over): This time lapse reveals five years of above ground expansion of the UNA complex and underground facility at the testing site in Nevada. A spokesperson from the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed to CNN that it is, quote, recapitalizing infrastructure and scientific capabilities at the U1a complex.

Adding: The United States has not conducted a nuclear explosive test since 1992 and has no plans to do so.

[04:45:00]

Since the end of above ground testing, governments have used deep tunnels for their nuclear tests. Satellite images reveal a new fifth tunnel carved out at China's Lop Nur testing site, along with a growing pile of excavated debris.

Washington accuses China of dramatically expanding its nuclear arsenal.

MICHAEL CHASE, U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR CHINA: We project out to 2035 when we expect that they'll want to have about 1,500 nuclear weapons.

WATSON (voice-over): In a statement to CNN, China's Foreign Ministry also denied plans to test, saying quote:

This kind of report only speaks on hearsay evidence and hypes up China's nuclear threat for no reason.

The specter of a new nuclear test would shatter restraint exhibited by the U.S., China and Russia ever since the 1990s.

LEWIS: If you are a farmer in Ohio or a shopkeeper in Shanghai, the threat of nuclear testing isn't the test themselves. It's the fact that you are essentially agreeing to pay vast sums of money in an arms race that no one can win, but we can all lose.

WATSON: As far as we know, not one of the three countries has conducted a full-scale nuclear weapons test since the 1990s. Most recently, that would be China, with an underground test conducted in 1996. The U.S. has been conducting for years tests that it calls sub critical tests, and they're meant to ensure the reliability of existing nuclear weapons. Some of which have been around for some 30 years, longer than many people might keep a car in their garage.

But you know, investing so heavily in these nuclear weapons testing facilities does not bode well in this environment of growing geopolitical tension and mutual suspicion.

Ivan Watson, CNN Hong Kong.

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FOSTER: The UK's King Charles makes history. Speaking before the French Senate. We'll tell you about his pledge to France just ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

[04:50:00]

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FOSTER: From floods to heat waves, the world is facing the consequences of a climate crisis. Yet despite a growing need for solutions, clean tech startups grow slower than companies in other sectors, according to the research startup Genome. More now in today's edition of "START UP TRAIL."

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): As these tanks are lowered for entrepreneur, Ziad Hussami, business is on a high. He is the co- founder of Mruna, a startup that says it has developed an innovative wastewater treatment system.

ZIAD HUSSAMI, CO-FOUNDER MRUNA: Our key solution is biome web. And biome web is a nature-based solution that harnesses the power of nature to treat wastewater in a circular way.

You get most of your nutrients out here, but the hardest thing to get out is using the last bit, and that's where the plants do the work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Instead of adding chemicals, Ziad says plants such as mint and weeds help to breakdown the contaminants in the water. Mruna currently has tanks in two different sites in the UAE. As Ziad sows new dreams for his business, he says ongoing support will be key to his success.

HUSSAMI: The ecosystems have matured and they're more selective. They're not looking for things which are going to be just the pilots. Being in accelerators here, that could really tie you in with companies and persons and individuals that are, you know, vis-a-vis understands you and your product, your pains. And what it takes to implement it. Yes, I don't think you can find many places like here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): And that's one of the reasons why he moved from Lebanon to register his company in Abu Dhabi in 2020.

CHRISTOPHER SCHROEDER, CO-FOUNDER, NEXT BILLION VENTURES: In the end, what entrepreneurs really are trying to do is take as much friction out of their lives. They want to be able to move as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible. So if you have an ecosystem where you have a lot of other talent around you who wants to build. Where you have a lot of policy and regulation, which steps back and helps to unleash you. Where you have infrastructure in place at work. You've taken all that friction away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): Mruna is finding that support through Masdar City, a sustainable development just outside Abu Dhabi.

SULEIMAN AMIN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, THE CATALYST: Climate tech is still fairly new in this region. Companies like Masdar City are going to drive the growth of these companies, getting their office space here and having these kinds of meetings and introductions and networking opportunities. I think that's incredible.

Nowadays, what we're seeing is amazing kind of commitment and ambitions to climate change mitigation and the adoption of clean technologies as well. It's really important for entrepreneurs to come and explore these new markets, especially in the MENA region in the Middle East.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): With the UAE hosting the Global climate conference COP 28 later this year, and as the international community looks into adopting green solutions, entrepreneurs in the field of green tech might be a breath of fresh air.

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FOSTER: The UK's King Charles III made history on Thursday, becoming the first British morning to make a speech from the French Senate Chamber. That standing ovation lasted a minute and a half. The 74- year-old sovereign received a warm welcome. It was 231 years to the day since France abolished its own monarchy and established a Republic. King Charles alternated between French and English during his speech and praised the bonds between the U.K. and its neighbor.

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KING CHARLES, UNITED KINGDOM (through translator): I pledge to do everything in my power to strengthen the vital relationship between the United Kingdom and France, and today I invite you to join me in that effort. Together, our potential is limitless.

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FOSTER: Charles and his wife Queen Camilla, will wrap up their three- day state trip to France in the coming hours. They're currently in Bordeaux.

As the British Royals are getting ready to leave France, Pope Francis is heading to the port city of Marseille for a short visit that he hopes will draw attention to Europe's migration crisis.

[04:55:00] The 27-hour trip was planned months ago to allow the pontiff to make closing remarks at a gathering of Catholic young people and bishops. But it's now happening as thousands of migrants are arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa. One of Pope's first events in Marseille will be a visit to a monument honoring the heroes and victims of the sea.

And in the spotlight this hour. One of the world's most innovative airports is taking a big step into the future. Changi Airport in Singapore is set to go passport free next year. Travelers will be able to clear immigration using only biometric data. Singapore's communications minister says the changes will create a single token of authentication that also speeds passengers through bag drops and boarding.

Soon professors will be having to polish up on Taylor Swift. The University of Melbourne is planning to host an academic conference on the pop star in February, right before she brings Era's tour to Australia. The Swift-passion is backed by seven universities across Australia and New Zealand, and it'll cover Swift's impact on everything from fandom and pop culture to literature, the economy and the music industry.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. "EARLY START" is next here on CNN.

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