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Tentative Deal Reached Between Writer's Guild and Hollywood Studios; No Budget Agreement Still Warning of U.S. Government Shutdown; France Withdrawing Troops from Niger; Russia and Ukraine Attack Each Other with Drones. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 25, 2023 - 02:00   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 HOST: We begin with breaking news from Hollywood. The Writers Guild of America says it has reached a tentative agreement with major television and film studios. And that means that after nearly five months, the writers' strike that brought the television and film industries to a standstill could be coming to an end, while the union could authorize members to return to work as early as Tuesday, even before the agreement is officially ratified.

Well, the exact terms of the deal have not been made public, but the use of generative artificial intelligence in production was reportedly one of the final sticking points. Well, this could pave the way for Hollywood to restart many productions that have been halted since May 2nd. CNN media critic Brian Lowry joins me now from Los Angeles. Brian, what more do we know about this and did everyone get what they wanted?

BRIAN LOWRY, CNN MEDIA CRITIC: Well, we don't know the details, but the WGA did put out a statement calling the deal exceptional and saying basically that there was something for everyone in the Guild. And that's not a small thing because the Guild represents a diverse collection of writers, everything from veteran show runners to people with just a few credits, television writers and film writers, their interests are not always completely aligned.

So, there were a lot of different moving parts. And what they're basically saying is they made progress that will satisfy all of those constituencies.

HARRAK: And Brian, is the expectation that this deal will be approved?

LOWRY: Yes, almost certainly. It's very, very rare for the membership to go against the board in this situation. I think people are eager to get back to work. I think that if the Guild has achieved tangible progress, which by all accounts, it sounds like they have, everyone will be ready to get back to work.

Of course, that the next question is, that the Screen Actors Guild still doesn't have a deal. They will follow the blueprints of this deal in negotiating their deal but they have a few issues that are unique to them that will still have to be hammered out.

HARRAK: Such as?

LOWRY: Well, you know, there were certain issues such as writers don't -- there was a concern about the number of writers employed on streaming shows That's not an issue for the actors. That was for the writers. But at the same token, A.I. applies differently to writers and actors.

For writers, they were concerned about using A.I. to generate written material. For actors, there's all kinds of questions about using digital effects and A.I. to replicate their images. So that's the kind of thing that'll need to be -- the language, they can't just copy and paste the language on something like that.

HARRAK: And what impact has the strike had on studios?

LOWRY: Well, it's impacted -- really had a sweeping impact on the entire region in Southern California. But the studios, you know, the studios have put on a very brave face in the early going of this especially. They talked about how they were saving money because they weren't producing things. There's probably some truth to that. But, you know, if you're in the business of producing movies and TV shows, at some point you have to be producing movies and TV shows.

And that had ground to a halt and they were seeing gaps in their release schedule in the not too distant future. So, I don't think the studios have felt a lot of pain yet. But I think if they had allowed this to drag on much longer, you would have seen the repercussions for them much more tangibly.

HARRAK: All right, Brian Lowry, thank you so much.

LOWRY: Thank you.

HARRAK: Now, to the Canadian auto workers, which have narrowly approved a new contract with Ford, even as their U.S. counterparts continue to walk the picket lines. Striking United Auto Workers members carried signs as cars drove by honking their support Sunday outside a Ford plant in Michigan.

The new Canadian deal includes a key concession the U.S. auto workers are demanding. the restoration of a pension plan. While UAW President Sean Fain says his union has made progress in negotiations with Ford, he did not mention any progress on the pension issue.

Well, meanwhile, back here in the U.S., Congress is getting dangerously close to a government shutdown.

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There are just days left for lawmakers to come to an agreement to fund the federal budget before the money runs out on Saturday. If that happens, some government operations would completely stall with non- essential employees put on furlough. Essential employees would still have a job but wouldn't get paid. U.S. National Parks could possibly close and other essential services like border protection, law enforcement and air traffic control could face problems as well.

Well, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked through the weekend pushing a short-term deal that would temporarily fund the government until the end of the year. But hardliners in his own party are still not willing to compromise.

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REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): The holdouts keep saying to Kevin McCarthy, don't bring bipartisan bills to the floor. We don't want you to use Democrat votes to try to avert a shutdown. But they're using Democrat votes to try to cause a shutdown. And these individuals, these Republican holdouts are voting with Nancy Pelosi.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): We should have separate, single-subject spending bills. Kevin McCarthy promised that in January. He is in breach of that promise. So, I'm not here to hold the government hostage. I'm here to hold Kevin McCarthy to his word.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRAK: Well, two new national polls are reflecting the mood of American voters for 2024 presidential election. And the poll by NBC News shows a very tight race between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. It finds both are tied at 46 percent. Meanwhile, a poll by The Washington Post and ABC News suggests Trump has an advantage over Biden. It shows Biden trailing Trump by 10 percentage points and maybe an outlier.

For more, I'm now joined by Michael Genovese. He is a political analyst and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. And he's also the author of "The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution." So good to have you with us. House Republicans, you know, struggling to agree on a spending bill to fund the government. Can House Speaker McCarthy find a way out of this and avert a shutdown?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, this is another manufactured crisis as ill-advised as it is unnecessary, but it's the annual descendant of madness. Every budget season we do this where we play chicken and we see who blinks. The last time it led to a shutdown was Donald Trump, 2018-19. It was about a month long, caused a lot of economic disruptions.

The Speaker himself is in trouble. He's in a box. He could get a deal tomorrow, as you reported, if he'd only work with the Democrats. But if he works with the Democrats, that means that a small number of people on the right wing of his caucus will get his job, will throw him out of office. And so, you know, he's being held hostage by just a couple of spoiled children who are throwing a temper tantrum because they're not getting their way.

And I admit, I did that too when I was seven years old. But it's time for the grownups to take over. It's about to face a shutdown. And that would have tremendous implications, all of which are negative.

HARRAK: How much of this is about the spending bill and how much of this is really about an internal power struggle taking place within the Republican Party?

GENOVESE: It's about both. Some for some, and there are some very serious fiscal conservatives in the Republican Party who have for years been talking about and even voting to try to limit the budget expenditures. So, there are some honorable people who are doing what they just believed to be the good thing to do for the country. There are also those who are just being petty and partisan and being narrow- minded and being childish about it.

And so, you've got both of those things in the Republican caucus. And what's fascinating is the fights that we normally wouldn't see are breaking out into public. We see a number of Republicans, especially the moderates, who are calling names clown, insane at the right wing of the Republican Party. So, there's a real battle going on in the Republican caucus.

HARRAK: What impact does Donald Trump have on these calls for a shutdown by some of the members of the far-right caucus?

GENOVESE: Most reports suggest that Donald Trump is egging them on not to get a deal, to shut down the government. As I said, he shut the government down a few years ago and he wants to basically undermine President Biden, maybe hurt the economy, maybe hurt Biden politically. And it's a way for Trump to sort of get back at Biden, whom he's been digging at for, well, since he left office.

HARRAK: Okay, well, let's talk about the White House. What is the position of the White House and can Democrats bail out McCarthy?

GENOVESE: Democrats, of course, are ready to bail him out, but there will be a price to pay.

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I mean, it's not going to come easily or cheaply. We could get a deal tomorrow if the grownups would sit down. If Kevin McCarthy and some of the Democrats and some of the White House folks would sit down, they could hammer out a deal as they do almost every year after the game of chicken. But again, the big difference is that the Republican right wing is much more feisty than it usually is and Kevin McCarthy is on very thin ice because he's only got a slim majority to hold onto the speakership. And so that's really a combustible combination and it may explode in his face.

HARRAK: Well, that means that Kevin McCarthy's position is basically between a rock and a hard place. I mean, he has no good options.

GENOVESE: That's right. It's a lose-lose situation for him. If he gets the budget through, that's a wonderful thing for the country, but it's a bad thing for him politically. If he can't get it through, it's a bad thing for the country and probably a bad thing for him as well. He's skating on very thin ice. HARRAK: Michael Genovese, thank you so much.

GENOVESE: Thank you.

HARRAK: Coming up, France continues to support Niger's democratically elected president weeks after he was deposed in a coup. We'll tell you about Paris' next steps in the country. That's ahead.

Plus, Ukraine's president says his country will be getting more aid from the west. Details on what he described as a historic deal with Washington.

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The U.S. defense secretary is in Africa for his first time in that role, discussing regional security with allied nations. Lloyd Austin beginning the trip in Djibouti where he spoke with that country's president and the president of Somalia about their fight against terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab. Well, Austin will visit U.S. troops in Kenya on Monday and will focus on building stronger relations with Angola later in the week.

And months after Niger's military overthrew the democratically elected president in a coup, France is announcing that it will withdraw all its military forces from the West African nation. Some 1,500 French troops are stationed in Niger to assist and counter terrorism missions in the region. French President Emmanuel Macron says he is taking immediate steps.

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EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE (through translation): In the coming hours, our ambassador with several diplomats will return to France and we're ending our military cooperation with the de facto authorities of Niger.

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HARRAK: While Niger's military junta welcomes France's withdrawal, saying "Imperialist and neocolonialist forces are no longer welcome on our national territory."

Joining me now from Washington, J. Peter Pham, is a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a former U.S. Special Envoy for Africa's Sahel region. Sir, so good to have you with us. A dramatic end to the French mission in Niger in what have been tumultuous two months. French ambassador is now being repatriated. Was the situation simply just no longer tenable?

J. PETER PHAM, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW, THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Well, one would argue it was probably no longer tenable, especially for Ambassador Sylvain Itte some time back. In addition to all the baggage that being a French ambassador these days carries in Africa, he particularly had gotten somewhat into the muck with doing something probably most of us are tempted to do from time to time, but probably no better than to do, which is, you know, people will troll you on social media, you shouldn't probably respond to them. And he had done that on a couple of occasions and put a few things out there that were intemperate, to say the least.

HARRAK: Now, and his diplomatic community, I understand, was also lifted. I mean, he was in a very difficult situation, basically holed up in the French embassy. Some French analysts, in reaction to these developments, say they feel let down by what they perceive as a lack of support from the United States, which, as you know, also has a presence in Niger. What do you make of that criticism?

PHAM: Well, you know, countries, you know, should stand by their friends, but they also shouldn't follow them blindly over a cliff. And that's what France has actually been asking the United States to do. And I know from dealings with my French friends, both when I was in government and outside, that they certainly wouldn't follow us over a cliff. So, you know, to be quite honest, I think it's a little bit of sour grapes.

The fact is, nothing would be gained by the U.S. simply pulling out. The protests that have occurred in Niger have been directed specifically at the French, and there's a history to this, colonialism and what came afterward. They've not been directed at U.S. forces, nor the U.S. embassy. In fact, the new U.S. ambassador was permitted to arrive there just less than a month ago. So, there's no reason to leave in a huff-and-puff just because the French are being asked to leave.

HARRAK: You referenced there the U.S. ambassador three weeks after the coup leaders ousted the democratically elected president, President Bazoum. The U.S. then went on to install this new ambassador, Kathleen FitzGibbon, to Niger. Was that the right signal to send at that time? I mean, has the U.S. by doing that de facto recognized the coup leaders by appointing an ambassador? And what does it say about President Biden's value-based foreign policy?

PHAM: Well, two things. One, Ambassador FitzGibbon has not presented her credentials to the coup leaders. You know, that's a discussion for another moment. But the U.S. Embassy has, for a variety of reasons, both the Biden administration waiting eight months after the last ambassador retired to nominate a successor, and then the politics in the Senate where Ambassador FitzGibbon, who's a friend of mine and someone who has a deep experience and knowledge of Africa, eminently qualified, ultimately unanimously confirmed by the Senate, was delayed for a year.

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So, that post had been vacant for too long and one could argue that at a time like this, it needs a leadership of a confirmed ambassador more than ever. So, I think there's nothing wrong with sending her out there. And as far as the reality, we have to deal with reality. The reality is this is one area that unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, was one of the few successes where insecurity actually had gone down. The violence this year and last year is at levels that have not been

seen in five years. So, we've made some significant gains there. Not everything is perfect. Obviously, there's a coup there. But on the other hand, given what's going on in the region with malevolent actors coming in, sometimes you have to make the choice of the least bad option.

HARRAK: Least bad option. Let's -- final thought from you in a few words. What does the exit of France from Niger mean for President Bazoum, the democratically elected leader, and does this mark the end of an era?

PHAM: Well, I think, to be quite honest, if something had been done more effectively in the first days by France, which President Bazoum appealed to, or by ECOWAS, perhaps it'd have been raised (ph). But very rarely can coups be reversed this far, you know, afterwards. And, you know, I've known Mohammed Bazoum for more than a decade. I regret what's happened, but one also has to deal with the realities one has and, you know, try to work from there to a better position that serves the interests of the Nigerian people and that of the United States and other international partners.

HARRAK: J. Peter Pham, thank you so much.

PHAM: Thank you.

HARRAK: As the diplomatic standoff continues between India and Canada, dozens of protesters took to the streets in New Delhi Sunday to protest against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, chanting anti-Trudeau slogans. Meanwhile, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada says intelligence gained by the Five Eyes network led to Canada's public accusation that the Indian government may have played a role in the assassination of a Sikh separatist activist on Canadian soil.

India denied all allegations, calling them absurd and motivated. The Five Eyes is an intelligence-sharing pact between the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Still ahead, reports of aerial attacks in Ukraine and Russian Hill territories. We'll tell you how both countries are responding.

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HARRAK: Welcome back to all of our viewers around the world. I'm Laila Harrak and you're watching "CNN Newsroom." Ukraine and Russia are accusing each other of launching aerial attacks overnight. Russian officials say they have destroyed several Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and occupied Crimea, but a few of them damaged buildings in the Kursk region. In the meantime, Ukraine says Russia fired more than 30 drones -- excuse me -- and missiles on the Odessa region.

Officials say most were shot down but Russia did hit Odessa's port infrastructure and caused a fire at a hotel that was not in operation. And while the attacks happened after the Ukrainian president wrapped up a trip to the U.S. and Canada where he secured additional support including an agreement between Kyiv and Washington to produce weapons together.

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VOLODOMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translation): We have a historical decision by the U.S. to jointly produce weapons and defense systems including air defense. This is something that was an absolute fantasy until recently. But it will become a reality. We will make it a reality.

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HARRAK: CNN's Clare Sebastian is following all the developments from London. Good day, Clare. A terrifying night in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa. What more can you tell us?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, good morning, Laila. I think, look, it's important to understand the context around Odessa because this Ukraine's third largest city has been under pretty regular bombardment since July when Russia pulled out of that Black Sea Grain Initiative. We see this morning the damage, fairly significant. A passenger terminal was destroyed according to Ukraine, a hotel nearby, fires, also granaries hit as well, grain storage facilities.

So, clearly this is part of a pattern. Odessa has been hit multiple times now. This comes as Ukraine is trying to unilaterally provide safe maritime corridors for ships to get its grain out to world market. It also comes as Russia itself is exporting record volumes of wheat, so essentially profiting from the fact that this disruption is causing Ukraine to export less wheat onto global markets. So critical to view it in that context.

This is not a military target. This is an attack on Ukraine's economy. And as I said, more grain infrastructure hit this morning, Laila.

HARRAK: Thank you, Clare, for contextualizing that for us. Now, President Zelensky, just back from the U.S. and Canada, announced a joint weapons production deal between the United States and Ukraine. What exactly do we know about this deal?

SEBASTIAN: Yeah, we don't exactly know what format this will take at the moment. President Zelensky, of course, calling it historic. He actually said on Friday that several cooperation agreements had already been signed by one of his ministers when they were in the U.S., that cooperation had essentially already started.

President Biden said that the U.S. would host a conference in the fall to bring together, you know, representatives from Ukraine's defense industry, U.S. defense industry, and governments as well so that they could figure out the sort of format of this.

We've seen things like this with European defense companies, joint ventures being set up in Ukraine, working together on various things.

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And obviously, for Ukraine, a key priority is now in the medium and long term to really bolster its own defense industry to create a deterrent, and also so it can be less reliant on its Western allies. So I think that is the kind of thing we're looking at here, Laila.

HARRAK: Alright, Clare Sebastian reporting. Thank you so much. Ethnic Armenians living in the break-away Nagorno-Karabakh region have started arriving in Armenia. The Armenian government says more than two thousand refugees have now entered the country so far. Tens of thousands more could follow after Azerbaijan reclaimed the Nagorno- Karabakh region this week.

The area is home to 120 thousand ethnic Armenians who have rejected Azerbaijani rule. Azerbaijan has said that it will guarantee their rights but experts have repeatedly warned of the risk of ethnic cleansing. The conflict between the two sides has raged off and on for decades. Well in this latest bout, Azerbaijan's short offensive ended with Armenian fighters agreeing to surrender. Russia, an ally of both countries, brokered the cease fire. Armenia's prime minister now says his country's interests were not protected.

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NIKOL PASHINYAN, ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Azerbaijan's attacks on Armenia in the last years clearly show that the external security structures Armenia is a part of are not effective from the perspective of Armenia's security and state interests.

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HARRAK: Well officials say at least two hundred people were killed and four hundred others were wounded in Azerbaijan's military operation. Chinese tech giant Huawei is unveiling new products. The company is looking to bounce back after US sanctions attempted to cripple its smartphone business. The latest from Beijing ahead.

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HARRAK: The Chinese tech company Huawei is holding a new products launch, and it comes as the US and China battle over the export of key components in devices such as smartphones. Huawei has remained tight- lipped on its new devices as it faces sanctions from the US. CNN's Beijing Bureau Chief Steven Jiang joins us now. Good to see you, Steven. How important is this event for Huawei?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Yeah Laila, this event actually just kicked off a few minutes ago, I think we'll find out what exactly they're launching very soon. But the expectation, of course, is a series of new phones, wearables, tablets and earphones. But the focus, of course, will be on the new phones because, as you know, they used to be the world's second-biggest smartphone maker. But then that part of their business almost got wiped out because of

the severe US sanctions imposed on the company basically starting in 2019, cutting off the company's access to advanced chipmaking tools that use any US technology because Washington has deemed the company to be a national security threat. That's something the company has long denied. But after laying low for a few years, just last month, actually coincidentally, or maybe not, while the US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo was visiting China, they suddenly launched a new phone model, Mate 60 Pro, that apparently, with 5G capabilities.

That means the company has somehow found a way to work around all those export controls. And experts who have took apart the phone found the domestically produced advanced chip in it, along with two South Korean chips by the company Hynix. Now Hynix told CNN they have no idea how their chips got in the new Huawei phone because they have severed ties with the company because of the US sanctions.

But all of that developments obviously alarmed a lot of people in Washington with Raimondo herself saying she was upset when she learned about the launch when she was in China, with a lot more members of congress obviously calling for even stricter export controls targeting China, not only Huawei, but the Chinese chipmaker SMIC that made that chip I just mentioned.

But all of that also pointing to the loopholes of the sanctions so far. But for the Chinese, obviously they consider this a milestone moment in their tech history, in Huawei's company history. Very excited about this and with, as you can imagine, a lot of nationalist fervor running online as well, Laila.

HARRAK: Alright, Steven Jiang, thank you so much. We'll check in with you a little later. Now, for US space agency NASA, it's an unprecedented achievement. A four billion-mile journey has brought to Earth samples from an asteroid that could reveal secrets about life on our planet and the solar system. The capsule containing rock and dust from the asteroid Bennu landed exactly as expected in the Utah desert on Sunday, a textbook operation.

Well NASA is taking extraordinary measures to keep the samples pristine, including keeping them in a clean room so they can be examined free from any Earthly contamination. The capsule was dropped into the atmosphere from the spacecraft OSIRIS-REx, which scooped up the debris and is now on its way to another asteroid. CNN's Space and Defense correspondent Kristin Fisher has more.

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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft left Earth back in 2016. Since then, it has traveled more than four billion miles to the asteroid Bennu and back before finally releasing a capsule over the United States on Sunday morning. Inside that capsule is about half a pound worth of rocks, dust from the asteroid itself. And this is really the first time that NASA has ever done anything like this.

This capsule re-entered the Earth's atmosphere traveling about 27 thousand miles per hour. It hit temperatures of about five thousand degrees fahrenheit before finally touching down at a very gentle 11 miles per hour in a remote stretch of the desert in Utah, with the help of some very big parachutes. From there, the recovery team swooped in to make sure that the capsule was intact and safe and not leaking any toxic fumes. It was deemed to be intact and safe.

And so from there, they moved it to a clean room. And from there, they're going to be transporting it to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where they will open up the capsule for the public to see, and it's also where scientists will be spending the next few years studying what is inside. And this is important because scientists believe that ancient asteroids like Bennu contain the seeds of life.

That this asteroid, in a way, perhaps might have acted like a seed when it, or an asteroid like it, hit the Earth and had molecules like, you know, water, carbon, things like that, which then seeded the Earth and then proved to be the genesis for life as we know it.

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So there's a very important scientific component to this, but there's also the planetary defense component because Bennu is an asteroid that has a very small chance of actually hitting planet Earth in the year 2182, but that is about more than 150 years from now so scientists have time. But again, a very small chance, but it's enough to where NASA wanted to get an up-close and personal look at the asteroid itself. Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: And finally, a programming note. We want to tell you about a change coming today in our program lineup. CONNECT THE WORLD with Becky Anderson is moving forward an hour, so it's now starting at nine AM Eastern Time, two PM in London and five PM in Abu Dhabi. And our evening lineup remains the same with AMANPOUR, ISA SOARES TONIGHT and QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.

Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Laila Harrak. For our international viewers, WORLD SPORT is up next, and for our viewers in the United States and Canada, I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM right after this break.

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HARRAK: Communities on the US-Mexico border say the current migrant surge could be driven by two factors. They say misinformation and an increase in kidnappings in Mexico, among other things, could be fueling the crossings. An official with an aid organization working near the border says it could also be due to the threats and extortion in some Mexican towns. She says people enter the US side out of fear for their lives.

Well the surging numbers at the border are raising political pressure on the Biden administration to stem the tide. Cities like El Paso, Texas, say they are nearing a breaking point, as about two thousand migrants arrive every day. CNN's Rafael Romo looks at how Mexico is trying to provide some relief with a new response to the border crossings.

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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are so many immigrants arriving at US border cities, that local officials are having to resort to desperate measures. For example El Paso had to open up an overflow shelter for four hundred people, but that may not be enough considering that local officials there say two thousand migrants are arriving to the city of nearly seven hundred thousand people. Mayor Oscar Leeser says the city has only so many resources and right now they are stretched to the limit.

Or, in his words, a breaking point. The mayor expressed his concerns only a day after Mexico made an agreement with the United States to deport migrants from its border cities to their home countries. Mexican officials also agreed to take a total of 15 actions to deter migrants from taking the perilous trip north, including negotiating with origin countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Nicaragua, Columbia and Cuba.

Allowing US border patrol agents to expel migrants to Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, submitting a daily report of the number of migrants on cargo trains in Mexico traveling north, and establishing checkpoints on railroads and highways. These actions can't come soon enough for border leaders like Leeser, this is how he described the situation his city is facing right now.

OSCAR LEESER, EL PASO MAYOR: The city of El Paso only has so many resources and we have come to, what we look at, a breaking point right now. And so we have to look at different resources. One of the things that we're doing is that we're preparing for the unknown. We have a broken immigration system, and this is a system that we have to work within.

And until it's fixed, you know, we seem to be doing the same thing over and over again. They keep turning us money, we keep trying to find shelter, and we try make sure people are off the streets, make sure our community is safe, make sure they're safe. But at the end of the day, the immigration system has not changed.

ROMO: And as this is happening at the border, it appears the Mexican president is willing to work with the White House. Alicia Barcena, Mexico's top diplomat, said at the UN Friday that Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants to meet with President Biden in November in Washington to discuss migration, drug and firearms trafficking.Barcena also said that Mexico is currently dealing with its own migration challenges, including the daily arrival of about six thousand migrants to its southern border. Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRAK: A US Democratic senator is facing growing calls to resign over corruption-related charges. Bob Menendez and his wife have been accused of accepting bribes including gold, cash and a luxury vehicle in exchange for the senator's influence. Members of his own party have acknowledged that the charges are serious, and some are urging him to step down. CNN's Polo Sandoval reports.

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POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well New Jersey Democratic lawmaker Frank Pallone now becoming one of the latest to call for the resignation of New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. In a statement, Pallone wrote that though Menendez is entitled to his day at court, he wrote that it is still difficult to see how he can inadequately serve, given the seriousness of these allegations that came to light last week.

Pallone now becoming the sixth out of nine house Democrats from New Jersey to call on Menendez to step down. Not on the list, Rob Menendez, which is Menendez's own son. He actually represents New Jersey's eighth congressional district. He wrote that he still has, quote, "Unwavering confidence in his father."

However the list of those who do not certainly continues to grow almost by the day. Here's some more elected officials who spoke out on Sunday, calling for Menendez's resignation. Including one member of the house of representatives on the Democratic side who said that she fears that this could potentially affect her chamber as well.

[02:50:04]

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I do believe that it is in the best interest for Senator Menendez to resign in this moment. As you mentioned, consistency matters. It shouldn't matter whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, the details in this indictment are extremely serious. They involve the nature of, not just his, but all of our seats in congress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You think he should resign?

REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): Absolutely. I think that, you know, everyone has been calling for his resignation. I think that the body of allegations are certainly of the kind that makes very difficult to do his job.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): He stepped down from being chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. That's a serious step. I think Senator Menendez is going to have to think long and hard about the cloud that's going to hang over his service in the United States Senate.

SANDOVAL: For his part, Senator Menendez maintains that he will not be stepping down. We initially expected to hear from him on Sunday during his annual Heritage Hispanic Month event. However, that was postponed by his office. We have reached out to Menendez's representatives to try to find out why that happened. Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRAK: Italian media is reporting that a murderous Sicilian Mafia boss who was on the run for three decades before his capture has died. Reports say Matteo Messina Denaro was being treated for colon cancer when he died in a hospital in central Italy. He was arrested in Palermo in January after a 30-year manhunt. Messina Denaro was serving multiple life sentences for the murder of two anti Mafia prosecutors, for fatal bombings across Italy in the 1990s, and for the torture and murder of the 11-year-old son of one of his enemies.

Florida has unveiled a new high-speed train service called Brightline Rail. It will travel between Orlando and Miami with a stop in West Palm Beach, at speeds of over two hundred kilometers an hour. CNN's Pete Muntean takes us onboard and tells us how the company plans to expand.

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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The trains are polished. The stations are ready. And for the first time, passengers are seeing this 125-mile-per-hour view. The latest extension of Florida's Brightline is now open, linking Orlando International Airport to West Palm Beach in two hours, then onto an existing service in Miami. Our cameras were the first onboard for the final preps before the grand opening.

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Brightline.

MIKE REININGER, CEO, BRIGHTLINE HOLDINGS: It's super exciting.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Brightline CEO Mike Reininger tells me this 10- year-long effort is only the start. These trains are fast, but Brightline's next project promises even faster speeds, above two hundred miles per hour. Brightline West would run along Interstate 15 in California, from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, cutting drive time in half.

REININGER: We internally talk about this as version 1.0. Brightline West will be the first true high-speed rail system built in America, ever.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Plans put Brightline West on par with high speed trains in Italy, and close to the top speed of Shanghai's maglev. In Japan, bullet trains are clocking speeds of more than 370 miles per hour.

RAY LAHOOD, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: High-speed rail is coming to America.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): Ray LaHood served as transportation secretary during the Obama administration.

LAHOOD: This is not a pipe dream, this is reality.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The bipartisan infrastructure law has devoted $66 billion to rail projects. Brightline wants a $3.75 billion grant to break ground on its new project soon. But as a different high speed rail project in California is stalling, and costs are soaring, not everyone is onboard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This gives high-speed rail a bad look.

JOHN DUARTE, US REPUBLICAN REPRESENTATIVE: This, Mr. Secretary, is a useless project.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): As it opens in Florida, Brightline is offering two classes of service. $79 one way in its main cars. $140 one way in its premium cars. There are power outlets in every seat. And the bathrooms, way bigger than the airlines.

JIM MATHEWS, PRESIDENT & CEO, RAIL PASSENGERS ASSOCIATION: A lot of people are going to go to Florida, and maybe they ride that train and they start to say, hm, this is what trains can be like.

MUNTEAN (voice-over): The current American standard, Amtrak's Acela, can reach 150 miles per hour, but only in a few small segments of the northeast corridor. For travelers who have already embraced rail, higher speeds can't come soon enough.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We definitely need it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: High-speed rail would obviously be amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It would be nice if I could get here in half the amount of time. That would be great.

MUNTEAN: Clearly the hope is this is not the end of the line for high- speed rail. Brightline West is planned to open by the LA Olympics in 2028 and I asked Brightline CEO where else we could see projects like it. He said city pairs that are too short to fly and too long to drive.

[02:55:02]

Think Houston to Dallas, or Seattle to Vancouver. A lot of possibilities. Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

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HARRAK: Well as the curtain comes down on one of the greatest women's soccer careers in history, Megan Rapinoe ends her last game with the US women's national team as a winner. The squad defeated South Africa two-nill in the friendly match Sunday in Chicago. Rapinoe got a standing ovation as she left the field. Well the 38-year-old has won the golden boot, golden ball and the ballon d'or during her career. Her last regular season league game takes place in Seattle on October 6th.

Now, an Ethiopian runner has smashed the women's marathon world record. Tigist Assefa finished the Berlin Marathon in just 2:11:53. And that result shaved more than two minutes off the previous record, though the time still needs to be ratified. By the marathon's halfway point, she was a minute inside the world record pace, finishing well ahead of all of the other athletes. She says while she did think she could break the world record, she didn't expect to break it by such a wide margin. Congratulations to her.

Now, some special guests showed up at Oktoberfest on Sunday. Players from the Bayern Munich Football Club paid a visit to the traditional German festival even though they have a game this week, player Thomas Muller said it will be okay because he and his teammates won't drink too much.

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THOMAS MULLER, BAYERN MUNICH PLAYER: We can be here at the Oktoberfest with an easy feeling and just enjoy the moment, even if we play in two days. Therefore, in some moderation, but we are allowed to have some fun.

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HARRAK: Now Oktoberfest is the world's largest beer festival. Organizers say 3.4 million people have shown up so far, and it doesn't end until October 3rd, so you can still go. Okay, thanks so much for your company. I'm Laila Harrak. Do stick sound, we'll be back with more news in just a moment.

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