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Hollywood Studios Send Writers "Best And Final" Offer; UAW Strikers Feeling Economic Pinch; Government Funding Deadline Looms Amid House Republican Chaos; Fellow Democratic Senator Calls On Menendez To Resign; Lavrov Dismisses Zelenskyy's Peace Plan In U.N. Speech; Texas Communities Struggle With Migrants Influx; OSIRIS-REx Capsule Bringing Asteroid Sample to Earth. Aired 5-6 am ET

Aired September 24, 2023 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:29]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Ahead on CNN Newsroom.

Hollywood Studios and writers could be nearing the end of a strike that's dragged on for nearly five months. We'll look at why there may be reason for optimism.

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: Funding the government is one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress. And it's time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Millions of Americans could see their paychecks delayed as a deadline hangs over Congress. We'll look at what a shutdown could mean for the Biden administration.

Also.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And liftoff of OSIRIS-REx.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Rock samples more than four billion years old are about to land in Utah. I'll speak to a NASA research physicist who's been working on the mission.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with Kim Brunhuber. BRUNHUBER: We begin here in the U.S. where after nearly five months of

deadlock, there's hope in the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike that it could soon come to an end.

A source tells CNN that the major film and television studios sent their best and final offer to the striking writers Saturday. It comes after four straight days of intense negotiations. Both sides will meet again today.

Now, CNN's Parent Company Warner Brothers Discovery is part of the negotiations with the Union. The Writers Guild of America, which has over 11,000 members, has been on strike for nearly five months over wages, worker protections and the use of artificial intelligence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB ESTES, SCREENWRITER AND DIRECTOR: We have to win these negotiations in space. There's no option. There's no backing down. There's no getting less. There's only getting more, in my view.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Camila Bernal has been following the developments as I'm more from Los Angeles.

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CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what writers have been waiting to hear for about five months now. WGA negotiators and Hollywood studios are in the final phase of negotiations. And according to my colleague Oliver Darcy, this deal could come by the end of the weekend.

(Voice-over): The two parties spent Saturday negotiating for the fourth consecutive day. And source is telling CNN that while the heads of the four major studios, including Warner Brothers Discovery, CNN's parent company NBCUniversal, Disney and Netflix, were no longer in the room on Saturday, they were engaged in this whole process.

Now, this strike that has paralyzed the entertainment industry and has had a major impact when it comes to the economy, some estimates indicate a five-billion-dollar economic impact. And this has affected not just Hollywood, but many, many other industries.

A lot of the writers that I've talked to have said that they were ready to return to work after a deal is reached between the two parties. But WGA members still have to ratify the new contract. And furthermore, because the actors are also on strike, a deal doesn't necessarily mean that all productions will go back to normal.

But some in the industry do believe that a deal with the writers could speed up the process for SAG-AFTRA negotiations. Overall, it's been a very difficult few months for those in the industry, but it certainly hope is now in the horizon. Camila Bernal, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: And joining me now is CNN Media Critic Brian Lowry.

Thanks so much for being here. So what do you make of the fact that there seems to have been substantial progress made here? Enough hope that we're close to the end?

BRIAN LOWRY, CNN MEDIA CRITIC: Well, by all accounts, CNN's reporting and other outlets, they are very close. They've made progress on most of the key issues. There were reports that basically the lawyers were in the room today finalizing some of the key language on some of these points, which can be a little thorny. But I think the expectation is that they're -- if you were putting it in football terms, they'd be somewhere down inside the 20-yard line.

BRUNHUBER: OK, so near the goal line here. But this is dragged on and on. Why has it taken so long? You mentioned key issues. I mean, what have been the main sticking points here, do you think?

LOWRY: Well, I mean, there's several things. I think the writers and the actors were also out. Really felt like this is sort of an inflection point for the industry.

[05:05:00]

And there's been a dramatic change in the business with the shift towards streaming. There's been a lot of concern about residuals tied to streaming, work for writers specifically in terms of the number of writers employed on these shorter order streaming shows.

And also the kind of the really hard to peg issue is artificial intelligence and what AI could mean and what it can mean to production going forward. And I think there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of fear that it'll be used to replace people, digitally replace actors, use digitally written pieces.

So there's a lot of issues that needed to be resolved. And I think the writers felt that they had to dig their heels in now or they'd be doing this again in three years or six years.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. Yeah, so this is -- this is about more than just money, some, you know, an existential battle in a way when you're talking about AI. I'm just curious, it's hard to know, but do you think that if they do get a settlement here on this that it might affect other people in the entertainment industry or other industries even based on what happens here?

LOWRY: Well, I mean, I think you've seen, you know, one of the things that I think the studios may have misread is there's been the sort of rising labor tied, which goes beyond the entertainment industry. But, you know, you're seeing it with the Auto Workers now. But the media sector has been undergoing a fairly significant and radical changes for years.

You've seen it in newspapers. And now you've seen it reaching into movies and television. And just the way that programming is getting delivered, the way that movies are getting delivered has changed. And the real fear of the people who make them and work on them is that they're being left behind, that the technology is changing and they're not keeping up in terms of cashing in and sharing in it.

Of course, the studios are their business has taken a hit also. I mean, they're undergoing changes too. So it's not, you know, that everyone has a reason to be a little bit nervous, a little bit antsy about what the future holds. And I think this deal will be welcomed by everyone in the industry in terms of getting back to work. But I don't know that it necessarily solves some of these bigger issues that are going to play out over the next several years.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. In the meantime, the effects of -- the effects of this, I mean, my friends in the industry, many of them are at the breaking point here. How are folks in the industry coping now that this has dragged on for so long?

LOWRY: Well, it's been very tough. I mean, because again, this doesn't just affect writers and actors. This affects below the line people who work on the cruise. This affects restaurants and prop houses and all kinds of people that serve and service these industries and these productions. And we're talking billions of dollars in that.

I think what the writers have seen is that actually with the compensation shrinking and with shorter orders on shows and a lot of them struggling to make the kind of living they used to make when they were working on network shows that would order, you know, 22 episodes of law and order and now they're doing a six or an eight episode show for Netflix and they're -- and they're not making enough to sustain them for a year is that the -- the strike actually they were sacrificing but they weren't sacrificing at the level that they might have been 10 or 15 years ago.

BRUNHUBER: Let's hope this is resolved sooner than later. I know a lot of folks struggling there. Brian Lowry, thanks so much for speaking with us. Appreciate it.

LOWRY: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: President Biden says he'll travel to Michigan on Tuesday to walk a picket line with members of the United Auto Workers Union. We're now on the 10th day of the Auto Workers Strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. But even as the Union President says talks with Ford appear to be showing signs of progress, the strike is spreading to more GM and Stellantis facilities.

And that means the tracking workers having to get resourceful to make ends meet. CNN's Gabe Cohen has that.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My favorite toy --

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): April Kulczak's morning ritual hasn't changed.

APRIL KULCZAK, STRIKING AUTOWORKER: Your toothbrush. Which one's yours?

COHEN (voice-over): But providing for her three boys --

KULCZAK: Getting down to the bare minimum here.

COHEN (voice-over): -- just got much more difficult.

KULCZAK: I had to check my bank account every day.

COHEN (voice-over): This third generation Jeep worker and single mom typically makes about 19 bucks an hour, working an overnight shift at the Stellantis factory.

KULCZAK: Hopefully, we get back to work.

COHEN (voice-over): But with her plant now on strike, April has to figure out a way to live on her union-provided strike pay, just $500 a week, roughly half, she says, of what she's used to.

COHEN (on camera): It's not much when you have three kids.

KULCZAK: Oh, definitely not. You know?

COHEN: You're really tightening the belt right now?

KULCZAK: Yes, yes. Every dollar, every cent is accounted for, whether it goes for food, electric, gas, rent. It's ketchup and hot dogs, instead of having ketchup, hot dogs and applesauce. You know, it's just like -- it's like one less thing on the plate.

[05:10:04]

COHEN (voice-over): Close to 5,800 Toledo auto workers are striking, and many face a similar financial strain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to be out there as long as -- as long as I need to.

COHEN (voice-over): It's already squeezing neighborhood businesses like Zingers Bar and Grill, located near the plant. Factory workers typically drop in for lunch or after their shifts.

COHEN (on camera): How much is business down?

VIOLET WAGNER, BARTENDER, ZINGERS BAR AND GRILL: It's down probably about a good, like, 65 to 70%.

COHEN (voice-over): Violet Wagner has been a bartender here for more than 30 years.

WAGNER: I'm just praying that they come to some type of agreement, and that it gets better, because if not, I mean, I may have to look for other employment, as well.

COHEN (voice-over): Beyond these picketers, Toledo is home to a network of auto suppliers that are starting to feel the impact of the strike.

PROTESTERS: No justice, no Jeep!

COHEN (voice-over): With thousands already losing work, local government officials estimate a month-long strike could cost the Toledo area economy about $36-50 million.

PETE GERKEN, LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO, COMMISSIONER: This is Toledo. It's a union town. We have a great history of supporting our work force.

COHEN (voice-over): County Commissioner Pete Gerken shows his solidarity, having worked at this factory for 30 years.

GERKEN: When these workers voted to go out, they knew that. They knew that. This was not a naive audience. And they are clever enough and resourceful enough.

COHEN (voice-over): The local union is now building a food pantry, piling up donations for any struggling workers.

ERIKA MITCHELL, STRIKING AUTOWORKER: I signed up for Instacart.

COHEN (voice-over): Some, like Erika Mitchell, feel the need to line up temporary jobs, in case the strike drags.

MITCHELL: I still want to find something else to do while my kids are at school to make a couple of extra dollars to cover, you know, surprises. With kids, you never know what can happen.

KULCZAK: And when I got into Jeep, it was like yes, finally. Like, my dad did it. My grandpa did it. And now I can finally give my kids the same opportunity.

COHEN (voice-over): Like many of these workers, April says she's prepared to weather this short-term pain, hopeful an agreement can be reached soon.

KULCZAK: It's only temporary. We're going to get back to work. But it's -- I try to keep the positive mindset as much as I can.

COHEN (on camera): And other communities could soon feel those same impacts if the Union does in fact expand this strike as the Union President, Shawn Fain, has said they could do in the coming days. Gabe Cohen, CNN, Toledo, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Now to the U.S. Capitol, where the deadline for funding the government looms ever closer as chaos reigns among House Republicans. Current spending measures expire at midnight on September 30th, getting lawmakers just a few days to get a bill passed and signed by the President. Now, on Friday, the Office of Management and Budget formally notified federal agencies that they should review or update their shutdown plans.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to find agreement among his fractious caucus in a conference call on Saturday, but later admitted many hardliners were unmoved. He plans to bring several individual spending bills to the floor next week, but it's not clear whether they will pass, and even if they do, they're dead-on arrival in the Senate and won't avert a shutdown.

President Biden slammed House Republicans Saturday evening in a Congressional Black Caucus Awards dinner. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIDEN: Members of the U.S. military are going to have to continue to work and not get paid. A government shutdown could impact everything from food safety to cancer research to Head Start programs for children. Funding the government is one of the most basic responsibilities of Congress. And it's time for Republicans to start doing the job America elected them to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN White House Reporter Priscilla Alvarez has more on what the federal government is doing to prepare for a potential disruption.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: The Biden administration is preparing for a potential government shutdown next week if a short- term funding bill is not passed in the coming days.

Now, on Friday, the Office of Management and Budget formally initiated the process, essentially telling federal agencies to dust off their plans in the event of a government shutdown. That includes, for example, how many employees would be furloughed, how many would be considered essential and would have to work without pay, as well as what activities and services may be disrupted.

Now, there are some services that will continue to be at federal law enforcement activities, border protection, or air traffic control, but the White House making clear over the course of the last week that it is incumbent on Republicans to get these bills passed.

Now, we heard from Republicans on Saturday who tried to lay out a path forward and also project some confidence saying that the majority of their conference does not want to see a government shutdown happen, but the reality is that they just don't have enough votes.

And for those bills that they do have enough votes, those are dead on arrival in the Senate. So all of this raising the question that there's about whether there will be a government shutdown a week from now. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, The White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:15:00]

BRUNHUBER: Embattle U.S. Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey is now facing calls to resign from within the Senate itself. Fellow Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania became the first senator of either party to say Menendez should step down following his indictment on corruption charges. Other Democratic lawmakers and officials have also called for his resignation.

The Justice Department named Menendez, his wife and three other people in Friday's indictment and all deny any wrongdoing. The Senator faced similar charges in 2015, but that case was dropped after a mistrial. Friday's indictment alleges Menendez accepted mortgage payments, a luxury car, gold bars, and nearly half a million dollars in cash in exchange for his political influence.

Earlier CNN spoke with Conservative Lawyer George Conway. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CONWAY, CONSERVATIVE ATTORNEY: It's just stunning. I mean, you had the allegations in this indictment are just, it's just raw corruption of this sort. I mean, it's -- I mean, it's classic kind of New Jersey, kind of corruption, but with a foreign policy overlay, I mean, the man apparently was selling secret information about, you know, about the governments to representatives of the Egyptian government.

And that's not a good thing for the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. And it's just stunning. I mean, the gold bars, I mean, even in the cash in the jacket in his closet, I mean, even Tony Soprano had to sense enough to bury the cash in the backyard. I mean, it's just crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: A new surge of migrants at the U.S. Southern border has placed immense pressure on resources and not just at the federal level. Look at why at least one city is now doing to deal with the influx of thousands of migrants.

Russia's Foreign Minister rails against the U.S. and its allies in his speech at the U.N. And he levels big accusations against the West, but offers nothing to back them up. We'll have that story ahead.

Plus, a major city in Western Russia has reportedly come under Ukrainian drone fire. We'll have a live report when we come back. Please stick with you.

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[05:20:53]

BRUNHUBER: Ukraine's backup plan for exporting grains through the Black Sea is picking up steam. The U.S. Ambassador in Kyiv says three more cargo ships pass through a Black Sea corridor set up by Ukraine, the temporary route was announced last month after Russia pulled out of a grain deal brokered by the U.N. but Moscow isn't guaranteeing the safety of ships using the new route. Meanwhile, Russia is reporting a new Ukrainian drone strike in the Western city of Kursk. Nada Bashir is monitoring developments in Ukraine and she joins us

from London. So Nada, let's start there. What more are we learning about those attacks?

NADA BASHIR, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Kim, we are still waiting for more details from the regional officials following this drone attack. We have of course in similar attacks in the past over the summer and of course it is important to underscore that. Typically, Ukraine does not acknowledge or admit responsibility for any such attacks on Russian territory. But according to regional officials an administrative building was struck by a drone in the early hours of this morning causing some damage to the roof of the building but at this stage is unclear if there were any casualties or injuries as a result of this latest drone strike.

But of course, this does follow a series of attacks, a barrage of attacks by the Russian armed forces on Ukrainian territory over the weekend. We have seen dozens of aerial attacks, airstrikes, rocket attacks, targeting Ukrainian positions, causing significant damage to civilian infrastructure across a range of areas.

In fact, in the last 24 hours in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukrainian officials have confirmed that at least one person has been killed as a result of Russian artillery fire. Meanwhile, Kherson, another individual reportedly killed as a result of Russian shelling. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right, and then turning to the counteroffensive, any progress there?

BASHIR: Well, the counteroffensive is certainly still moving on and we are seeing some positive indications. On Saturday, we learned from Ukrainian officials that their air defenses were successful in fighting 14 out of 15 attempted drone attacks by Russian forces. These have, of course, become quite regular occurrence. These are Iranian- made Shahed attract drones, which we have seen used by the Russian Armed Forces against Ukrainian positions frequently over the summer. But we are also seeing some indications of progress on the front lines as well.

Ukrainian defenses officials saying their units are holding ground, holding their positions across several key front-line regions. We've seen over the weekend Russian attacks repelled in Lyman and Marinka. And in Bakhmut, reported Russian advance was brought in according to Ukrainian officials buying their own units.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's air force has said that it has successfully carried out and conducted eight airstrikes against Russian positions and assets they deemed critical to Russia's armed forces in Ukrainian territory. Of course, we did hear earlier in the week from a Ukrainian official saying that that counter offensive will continue to push ahead even in the winter months. Of course, we did see the Ukrainian armed forces facing some difficulty last winter. But according to these officials, Ukraine's biggest breakthrough is yet to come. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. Appreciate the updates. Nada Bashir in London, thanks so much. Russia's Foreign Minister on the list of flurry of unfounded

accusations in his speech at the United Nations on Saturday. The forum was the U.N. General Assembly. Sergey Lavrov spelling out Russia's take on the war on Ukraine. He claimed that Ukraine is led by a racist regime propped up by the West, that the U.S. or Britain don't want the war to end and that Russia recognizes Ukraine's sovereignty despite invading that country and trying to annex parts of it.

Lavrov was asked later when he would consider the U.S. to be at war with Russia. And here's his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): So you can call this whatever you want to call this, but they are directly at war with us. We call this a hybrid war, but that doesn't change the reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: But Lavrov didn't stop there. He also shot down Ukraine's peace proposal and railed against a U.N. brokered grain deal which Russia pulled out of in July. Richard Roth was at the United Nations.

[05:25:06]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: On a wind-swept rainy day in New York City, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov swept through the hallways of the U.N., speaking in the U.N. General Assembly and then the media at a press conference.

He had strong words against Washington and NATO allies regarding how that side of the equation is handling the conflict in Ukraine. He called Ukrainian peace proposals, which have been out there for some time, completely unfeasible.

He also commented on the Black Sea Grain Deal initiative which Russia withdrew from months ago. He was asked, has Russia officially withdrawn from that deal?

LAVROV (through translator): We are working with those who respect themselves and who will never betray their national interests because someone from Washington has told them to. We know how American diplomats travel around the world and prohibit meetings with our diplomats and with representatives of Russia in general.

I'll say the following. The U.S. is a superpower, that's clear to everyone, but to run around like this, threatening everyone only then to show one's obsession with domineering, well, it's simply embarrassing for a great nation to act this way.

ROTH: Lavrov was asked why he didn't attend the Security Council meeting on Ukraine where he would have seen President Zelenskyy. He said he has seen him before, he knows what he's going to say, he had 33 other meetings. He described Zelenskyy as looking grim. Richard Roth, CNN United Nations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: In a phone call Saturday with Armenia's Prime Minister, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has deep concern for the plight of ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. There are growing fears that the enclave's population, but 120,000 people will be displaced now that Azerbaijan has reasserted control over the contested region. Hundreds of residents who fled Tuesday's military operation are now stranded out in the open at the local airport. Speaking for the U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, Armenia's Foreign Minister said the situation inside Nagorno-Karabakh is desperate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARARAT MIRZOYAN, ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: As I speak today, 30% of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh is displaced. The entire population of Nagorno-Karabakh remains without any means of subsistence, as just limited humanitarian assistance has been able to enter into Nagorno- Karabakh. There is no food, no medicine, no shelter, no place to go, separated from their families, terrorized and scared for their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The Foreign Minister also said too few aid trucks have been allowed in and called on the U.N. to send a mission to the area.

A former tropical storm Ophelia is getting weaker after moving ashore Saturday in North Carolina, but it's still will bring rough weather to some coastal states in the coming hours. That's ahead.

Also, Mexico pledges more action on the migrant influx at its northern border. We'll look at how the country is planning to handle a large wave of arrivals. That's when we come back. Please stay with us.

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[05:31:38]

BRUNHUBER: And welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN Newsroom. Mexico says it has a plan to ease the migrant surge at its border with the U.S. Officials say they'll implement a series of measures in the cities that border El Paso and Eagle Pass, Texas as well as San Diego, California. And that includes a plan to deport migrants who are seeking entry into the U.S. and to prevent migrants from using its railway system to reach the border.

Now, Paso, Texas says it's reached a breaking point as it struggles to deal with the influx. The city's opened an overflow shelter for the unprecedented surge in arrivals. Now, this is the Governor of Texas is pledging to send more buses to transport the migrants to other cities. CNN's Rafael Romo reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Texas Governor Greg Abbott is railing against the Biden administration saying border communities are overwhelmed and overrun by the large number of migrants arriving there and calling the situation a crisis. Governor Abbott announced he had directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy additional buses to the border cities of Eagle Pass and El Paso. The purpose is transporting immigrants to what Abbott calls a self- declared sanctuary cities, which are municipalities mostly run by Democrats.

In a statement, Abbott said Texas has bused nearly 12,000 migrants to our nation's capital, nearly 15,000 to New York and an additional 8,702 Chicago. In a statement Abbott said that until President Biden upholds his constitutional duty to secure America's southern border, Texas will continue to deploy as many buses as needed to relieve the strain caused by the surge of illegal crossings.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has announced several steps being taken to address the situation, including the deployment of 800 active-duty military personnel, adding capacity to border facilities, and continuing to conduct deportation flights.

The problem goes beyond the migrants who have already made it to the U.S. Southern Border. Take a look at how these migrants are traveling through Mexico on cargo trains using bedsheets as tents to protect themselves from the sun during the long trip north.

There may also be tens of thousands of others on their way north. On Tuesday, Ferromex, Mexico's largest railroad operator, suspended service of several northbound train lines after reporting half a dozen injuries and deaths of migrants.

We reached out to the government of Panama, a Central American country, that serves as transit point for many immigrants coming from South America and other parts of the world. They told us that during the month of August, nearly 82,000 migrants crossed through their territory. And so far this month, more than 55,000 have done the same. So far this year, nearly 400,000 migrants have traveled through Panamanian territory. Rafael Bromo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: More than 15 million people in the U.S. are under threat of severe weather today. The greatest risk is from southwest Arkansas through Texas with north and central Texas in the bullseye. High winds and hail are the greatest threats, but a few isolated tornadoes can't be ruled out.

Now, there were more than 100 reports of severe weather Saturday with hail up to three inches in diameter, trees down, reports of tornadoes in Minnesota and South Dakota.

[05:35:01]

And Ophelia is now a post tropical cyclone, but it's still bringing heavy rain to mid-Atlantic States. It made landfall in North Carolina early Saturday as a strong tropical storm inundating waterways with up to four feet of storm surge.

The Coast Guard rescued five people, including three kids from an anchored sailboat Friday evening after the conditions came too dangerous to stay aboard. Across mid-Atlantic, coastal areas, thousands lost powers, high winds down, power lines and trees.

Ophelia is expected to dump more heavy rain as it moves northeast throughout the day today. CNN's Polo Sandoval has more from New Jersey where conditions have been going downhill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ophelia will continue to impact millions of Americans, specifically throughout parts of the northeast into Sunday as the remnants of the storm will continue to affect states like New York, potentially up to Maine, according to biologists. And even here in the state of New Jersey, we're on Saturday and we saw businesses up and down that iconic boardwalk actually shuttered, closed their doors because of the storm. In fact, officials had actually closed off access to the beach section, hoping to deter any individuals from actually accessing some of the coastline here.

In fact, if you look off in the distance, you can see some of those windward waves and what it really looked like on Saturday here as authorities do expect these conditions or at least similar conditions to continue into Sunday, but they certainly are hopeful that they won't be as bad as what we experienced earlier in the weekend. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, coming up, a NASA spacecraft is about to make a very special delivery from an asteroid. We'll talk to a NASA physicist about what the sample could tell us about life on Earth. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: In the coming hours, a sample of a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid is expected to be delivered to Earth.

[05:40:01]

Now, have a look here. This animation shows a NASA spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx, which is carrying rocks and dust collected from the Bennu asteroid. The capsule that will separate from the spacecraft is set to enter Earth's atmosphere at 36 times the speed of sound is due to touchdown in the Utah desert Sunday just before 11 a.m. Eastern time.

Brent Bos is a NASA Research Physicist who's been working on the OSIRIS-REx mission for 13 years and joins us now from Salt Lake City. Thank you so much for being here with us. So listen, we're making a big deal about maybe, you know, a cup of rock and dust. Why are you so excited about this?

BRENT BOS, SENIOR RESEARCH PHYSICIST: Yeah, well it's a very special cup or so. We hope maybe as much as 14 ounces coming back to us here on Earth in just a couple hours, so we're all getting very excited about that. And it's exciting because like you mentioned, this is leftover material from the formation of the solar system about four and a half billion years ago. And we believe it's asteroids like these, it was bodies like these that came together and formed, particularly the terrestrial planets, of which Earth is one.

And so once we get this material in our hands, it'll be like holding the building blocks of the early Earth. And it'll give us an idea about how Earth came to be the way it is. In fact, because of the particular nature of the asteroid we went to, which is a carbonaceous asteroid, it could also give us some insight into the theory that it was bodies like these that seeded the early Earth with organic material from which where -- from which life was eventually created.

And so it's a super exciting time for us on the project. And we -- we're really looking forward to getting our -- getting our hands on those samples.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, so you're not going to find life, but you're going to find sort of how life got a foothold here on Earth. A lot of nail biting so far, one point I understand during the collection you actually collected too much material and then just ended up sort of watching part of the cargo just, just float away.

BOS: That's correct. After we grabbed our sample back in October of 2020 we backed away, we took some images and it was sort of a good news bad news situation. We saw we had a lot of material that was collected but we had collected so much that some of it had wedged, some of the small gates that were supposed to close to help keep the material into what we call the sample head. And so we had to kind of throw out our plans. We had planned on very carefully studying what we had, figuring out the -- the exact mass of the material we had collected. And that was supposed to take place over a period of a little more than a week.

And once we got those first images down we realized, boy, it was like said good news, bad news. We got a lot of material but it's also starting to leak out into space.

BRUNHUBER: Right.

BOS: So we threw out our plans and went to this fire drill of, let's get this stuff, safely stowed into what we call the sample return capsule. And we did that in less than two days. So it was a really, it was a trying time for the team.

BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I can only imagine. And now that capsule, well, it just has to survive temperatures twice as hot as lava and slam into the earth. What makes you nervous now? What can still go wrong?

BOS: Well, we just had our Go/No Go meeting for sample return capsule release about an hour and a half ago. And everything is looking really good for that. So everybody gave a thumbs up.

They -- everybody was told to go to their console. So there'd be one more polling of the team here shortly. And we're looking at all the conditions to make sure that atmospheric reentry will go well.

If everything is still looking good, we'll be giving the command to the spacecraft to go ahead and release the sample return capsule. And then it's all just in the hands of the design we did, you know, more than seven years ago now. And hopefully it all will work and we'll have our samples here shortly before 9 a.m. Eastern Time.

BRUNHUBER: Just must be so nerve-wracking. All right, so let's say it arrives safely. Everything goes well. How do you open it and examine it, make sure it doesn't get contaminated, make sure you don't lose any of that microscopic material?

BOS: Yeah, so we're hoping that we won't actually see anything for a few days. It'll get collected. The sample return capsule will hopefully land intact. That's the plan. And then it will be carried via helicopter to a staging area at the test range, which is where the samples are landing. And we won't get our actual eyes, hopefully. Everything goes well.

We won't get our eyes on the samples until they actually get flown to Houston, to the Johnson Space Center, where we archive all of our planetary material. That's where the Apollo moon rocks are currently held and some other material we've collected from the solar system over time, including some samples from another asteroid that the Japanese Space Agency has lent us.

[05:45:00]

And so we won't -- hopefully, we won't see any samples ourselves from next couple of days. The whole thing will go under a dry nitrogen purge to make sure it doesn't get contaminated. And then eventually it'll get opened up in a lab under very controlled conditions in Johnson Space Center.

BRUNHUBER: It's like Christmas coming and then you can't open your presents until New Year's. It must be frustrating. All right. So listen, it's not just -- you know, the wonder here isn't just what you're delivering. It's your -- your OSIRIS-REx. I mean, that's not the end for that mission. It just keeps going, right? It's -- it's dropping this off and then it goes on. What's its next stop?

BOS: Yeah, so if everything goes well this morning, then the spacecraft will execute a divert burn, which will keep it from colliding with the Earth. Because right now we're on a -- we're on an intercept course with Earth, but everything goes well. We're going to command a divert burn that will send us back into orbit around the sun. And the mission then OSIRIS-Rex will come to an end. We'll -- we'll get a new name called the OSIRIS-APEX. And that's because we're going to fly to another near-Earth asteroid called Apophis. And we're going to go rendezvous with that asteroid and study it similar to the way that we did venue.

Unfortunately, we can only collect one sample. We've already done that. So we won't be collecting any samples from Apophis, but we'll be studying its activity as it comes close to a flyby to Earth in just a couple of years. And you actually be able to see it depending on where you are on the

ground. You'll be able to see this particular asteroid in this in the sky. So that'll be another legacy of OSIRIS-REx will be this OSIRIS- APEX mission.

BRUNHUBER: Just unbelievable. The science involved in all of this, all the precision. Listen, the clock is counting down. We wish you all the best of luck in getting all that material back to Earth safely. NASA physicist Brent Bos, thank you so much for speaking with us. I appreciate it.

BOS: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: And we'll be right back.

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[05:50:52]

BRUNHUBER: Well, I guess it had to happen, some of the shine is off Deion Sanders inaugural season at the University of Colorado. Oregon dominated the game from start to finish Saturday, handing Coach Prime his first loss of the year. And Oregon was out to prove a point. The offense scored five touchdowns in the first half. All the ducks defense shut down the Buffalo's high-powered offense until the game was well in hand. Final score 42-6.

Here's coach Sanders following his first loss at Colorado.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEION SANDERS, COLORADO HEAD FOOTBALL COACH: It's a good old fashioned buck kicking. There's no excuses, no nothing. Their coaches did a heck of a job preparing their team. Obviously we didn't.

One thing that I could say honestly and candidly, you better get me right now. This is the worst we're going to be. You better get me right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: The woman who could go down in history as one of the greatest female athletes of all-time has one more international soccer master play before retirement.

On Saturday, Megan Rapinoe was asked about some of the highlights of her 17-year career. She mentioned her team's athletes for LGBTQ rights and racial justice. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGAN RAPINOE, U.S. WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM: I'm incredibly proud of everything that we've done on the field. Obviously, we've been, you know, a really special generation of players. But I think it says a lot about us that everything on field I feel like kind of pales in comparison to what we've achieved off the field. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And Rapinoe's farewell international match will be later today in Chicago.

Well, listen, action packed Saturday at the Rugby World Cup in France. Matches like the one between Ireland and South Africa garnered fans attention. That match was built like a boxing heavyweight title fight and delivered on the hype. CNN's Patrick Snell reports.

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PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Well, Saturday's play at the Rugby World Cup headlined by a showdown at the Stade de France as top ranked Ireland looking for their first ever World Cup title against three- time leading South Africa.

What a thrilling contest this would be. Tight, tense occasion. It would be Mack Hansen with the first try of the match for Ireland. It's just past the half-hour mark in this game, 7-3 Ireland at that point. But the world champion so often don't know the meaning of the word defeat and it would be Cheslin Kolbe who goes over to get his country right back into it on 51 minutes. 8-7 in favor of South Africa Johnny Sexton penalty on 59 minutes making it 10-8 in favor of the Irish and they would hold on to seal a very famous victory 13 points to eight in the end. It's their 16th straight test victory and a very big statement of intent indeed from Ireland.

Elsewhere at Saturday, England thrashing Chile 71 points to nothing in Leal with one man making all the headlines in this one. Take a bow the young English winger Henry Arundell who runs in five tries no less for the 2003 winners England who made 12 changes from the starting lineup against Japan scoring 11 unanswered tries including those five that I mentioned from the youngster. That -- that feet in itself equaling an England record will be against the lowest ranked team in the tournament who are playing at their first ever World Cup, but certainly a special weekend for that young man right there. A thrilling conclusion to the Portugal Georgia match which ended 18 points apiece in to lose Portugal with a great chance to win this one when Nuno Sousa Guedes has this last-minute penalty. The angle is not good for him. It's a good effort, the tensions were mounting there, come so close. But ultimately the kick was not quite good enough heartbreak for him. It would have been Portugal's first ever World Cup victory.

Meantime, we can tell you the French Captain Antoine Dupont widely regarded as one of the best players in the world right now has undergone surgery on the facial fracture he sustained during the host nation's win over Namibia on Thursday.

[05:55:01]

France, one of the pre-tournament favorites, left reeling by the news with the 26-year-old Dupont set to, at the very least, miss France's last pool, a game against the Italians next month, and also most likely a potential quarter-final clash against Ireland or South Africa in mid-October.

Dupont sustaining the injury in the 46-minute at the start of the match, and a head-to-head clash with Johan Deysel, who's initially yellow guard, was then upgraded to a red. France say he will remain part of their World Cup squad, though Dupont himself, taking to X on Saturday to say he's hit, but not sunk, adding the show must go on. Of course, we wish him all the very best in his recovery at this time.

And with that, I'll send it right back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Just about a week left in Major League Baseball's regular season, and the Colorado Rockies aren't going to the playoffs, so as part of an annual tradition, they sent their rookies out to get coffee for the vets.

The players dutifully picked up some 25 coffees and some donuts, and on the way back to Chicago's Wrigley Field. They got a little distracted, as you can see, by a cute little puppy, you can blame him. And they paused for photo with a bride and groom, making the couples big day even more special.

All right, before we go, Festival Goers in Plains, Georgia received an unexpected surprise on Saturday. The sight of a black SUV carrying former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter at the Annual Peanut Festival. Now, Carter, of course, was a well-known peanut farmer in Plains before entering politics. The Carter Center noted that the former President, who has been in hospice care since February, turns 99 next Sunday.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN Newsroom. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers in North America, CNN This Morning is next, for the rest of the world, it's Startup Trail.

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