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Ukrainian Forces Running Short On Vital Munitions; C3S: Last Month Was Hottest September Ever Recorded; Investigation Underway Into Deadly Incident Near Venice; Protests in India after Journalists Homes Raided; Teen Girl Assaulted by Iran's Morality Police; Pope Francis Urges the Church to Open Its Doors to All; House GOP Scramble for New Speaker after McCarthy Ouster; Scientists Examine Sample Collected from Asteroid Bennu; Korean Companies Using A.I. to Craft the Perfect K-pop Stars. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 05, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN, one of the next shipments of military assistance for Ukraine will come from Iran. A million rounds of ammunition seized by the U.S. navy.
Climate scientists was stunned by just how much hotter this past September was compared to a year ago, shattering a record by a record margin.
And for NASA, asteroid surprise, a sample collected from a near earth asteroid runneth over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Thank you for joining us with CNN Newsroom. We begin with the chaos in the U.S. Congress and the impact it could have on Ukrainian fighters on the frontlines of the war with Russia. A multibillion dollar funding bill for Ukraine is in limbo after Republicans ousted the speaker of the U.S. House, Republican Kevin McCarthy. And now concerns are growing in both Washington and Kyiv that any delay in military assistance will have serious consequences on the battlefield.
In the meantime, the White House has authorized the transfer of more than a million rounds of Iranian ammunition and other weapons seized by the U.S. navy. Iran's Revolutionary Guard was behind the shipment, which was destined for Houthi rebels in Yemen in direct violation of U.N. Sanctions. For months, the weapons, which include assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and propellant and fuses for rocket propelled grenades, has been stored at a U.S. military base in the Middle East, while officials in Washington worked on the legal process of sending the stockpile to Ukraine.
Publicly the U.S. president says he's confident aid for Ukraine will be approved by Congress once the House elects a new speaker. But privately administration officials warn that approval is needed within weeks. While the President is also concerned about any delay, he believes a majority in both parties still support assistance for Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can support Ukraine in the next tranche that we need and there is another means by which we may be able to find funding for that but I'm not going to get into that now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Electing a new House Speaker could take a week, probably longer, resulting in weapons and ammunition shortages on the front lines. Those problems could be more pronounced though if one of the leading candidates for speaker is chosen.
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REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I'm against that. What I understand is at some point we're going to have to deal with this appropriation process in the right way and we're going to try to do that in the next, what are we down to 41 days. The most pressing issue on Americans mind is not Ukraine, it is the border situation and it is crime on the streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Right now though Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines just need to get their hands on whatever weapons they can in this fight for their life against the Russians. CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, has our report.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): The artillery troops need to move fast. Russian drones might be in the air, line up, calibrate, fire. Three rockets, that's it, even though this Grad launcher would be more effective firing large salvos.
It's not very precise, the soldier named, Alex, says. It also depends on the weather and the range. It would be good to have more precise rockets or guided ones. But the Ukrainians are running short on even these unguided Soviet era rockets, and ammo shortages are a problem across the battlefield here in eastern Ukraine. Soldiers from the 80th Airborne Assault Brigade have a quick snack, then get ready to fire their western donated howitzer. The American 105 millimeter shells, a valuable but increasingly scarce commodity.
(on camera): The Ukrainians call this the sniper rifle of their artillery because it's so accurate. But it also illustrates one of the big problems they have. They have plenty of barrels to fire from, but not enough ammunition to fire.
(voice-over): Battery Commander Muron (ph) telling me the lack of shells means his forces are badly outgunned here. It's hard to give precise numbers, he says, but I think they fire ten times for every round we fire. Sometimes it's one to 100. The Russians are constantly taking aim at this area, though the Ukrainians say they're making gains, pushing Vladimir Putin's army back, even using combat helicopters close to the front line.
Kyiv says it needs more ammo to sustain its offensives both here in the east and in the south. But the U.S. budget impasse could mean further delays. On top of that, NATO is warning its members are running dangerously low themselves.
[01:05:00]
ADMIRAL ROB BAUER, NATO MILITARY COMMITTEE CHAIR: We started to give away from half full or lower warehouses in Europe, and therefore the bottom of the barrel is now visible.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): For the Ukrainian artillery troops, that means rationing will probably continue, all while trying to support their advancing soldiers on the ground.
Frederik Pleitgen, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.
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VAUSE: Joining us now is Matthew Schmidt, associate professor of National Security at the University of New Haven and former professor of Strategic and Operational Planning at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. It's good to see you.
MATTHEW SCHMIDT, ASSOC. PROF. NATL. SECURITY, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAVEN: Good to see you, John.
VAUSE: OK. Let's start with the Iranian ammunition standard round for the Soviet era AK-47s, which is used by the Ukrainian military. But just for context here, so far, the U.S. has sent Ukraine 300 million rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades, more than 400,000 mortar rounds, more than 200,000, 152 millimeter artillery rounds, 100,000 rounds of long range artillery ammunition, nearly 250,000 antitank munitions, more than 8,000 short range air defense missiles. You get the idea here.
In the grand scheme of things, a million rounds may seem like small beer overall, but maybe the big takeaway from all of this is what it says about the shortage of ammunition stockpiles in the United States and NATO countries.
SCHMIDT: Yes, I think the most important thing here is that the Department of Defense sent a letter to Congress just a few days ago saying, look, we're about to run down our own stockpiles of this ammunition if we continue to provide this ammunition to Ukraine. Therefore, what we need is money from Congress to pay American defense firms to create more ammunition, right?
So this isn't about a line that is necessarily if it gets crossed, the U.S. won't have ammunition. But it's about legal authorities. There are laws that say the United States must maintain X amount of this ammunition and if it falls below that, the DoD has to stop sending arms, has to stop sending this ammunition to Ukraine or anywhere else.
VAUSE: Yes. And the problem we have is this high burn rate of ammunition, especially artillery fire. The Russians are firing an estimated 10 million to 11 million rounds last year, with one Western official saying Russia may be able to increase production of artillery in the next couple of years to about 2 million shells annually, about double previous expectations.
The Ukrainians have been firing off about 6 to 7,000 rounds in some days and often, sometimes more. The Americans can only produce maybe 11,000 rounds in a month of artillery shell, at least at one ammunition plant. So, you know, they essentially can't keep up this rate of artillery fire. Clearly, no one was ready for a war to drag on this long. So when they run out of the artillery fire, which has been a defining feature of this war, then what happens?
SCHMIDT: Well, the thing to keep in mind here is that the Ukrainians are using less fires, right, less ammunition, but they are more accurate, right. They can get away with using less to some degree. But in the end, quantity matters, right? And at some point, the Ukrainians will burn through enough artillery ammunition that we can't supply it without dropping below our legal minimums. And that's what's going on right now in the debate in Congress and getting this funding going on. It's all tangled up on the political side, not the money side not the money side. The money is there, but the politics are constraining it.
VAUSE: So in terms of who actually owns this 1 million rounds of ammunition which was seized from Iran by the United States. The Wall Street Journal reports the U.S. obtained legal ownership of the ammunition in July after the Justice Department filed a civil forfeiture claim against the Iranian guard forces. But there is a U.N. protocol on firearms, which is small arms that are in surplus, obsolete, seized, surrendered, or otherwise removed from circulation should be destroyed.
So is there any legal issues here which remain unresolved? And if there's not, does this now open the door to further shipments of weapons which have been seized by the United States from countries like Iran?
SCHMIDT: There is a legal question. It is contested. And the United States simply says, we don't believe that it applies to us. We don't believe that those who are claiming it is contested are correct. And in the end, there's no court that's going to hold the United States accountable to any kind of decision here. So the United States has possession, which is nine-tenths of the law, and they'll ship the weapons where they want to.
VAUSE: And we have this Ukrainian aid, you mentioned this, they now call it in limbo because of chaos within the U.S. Congress. High level Ukrainian officials have been trying to remain -- remind lawmakers and the American public, you know, this is not charity for Ukraine. It's an investment. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TYMOFIY MYLOVANOV, PRESIDENT, KYIV SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Supporting Ukraine is actually in the interest of the United States. And it's just, you know, Russia is the enemy in the doctrine. U.S. uses $800 billion in defense budget annually, and Ukraine is a tiny fraction of it has been able to stop the Russian aggression.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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VAUSE: Just purely in terms of economics, the impact on the American economy, U.S. financial support for Ukraine could go on at this current level for a very, very long time. The problem seems to be it's not about the money, it's more about the politics.
SCHMIDT: That's absolutely right. If anything, the war in Ukraine has been propping up the American defense industry. You have defense firms that are, in fact expanding production in order to supply the ammunition that we've been talking about this evening. But this is about perception. And there are large portions of this country, both Democrat and Republican, but more Republican, that don't perceive the war in Ukraine as being important to American national security and don't perceive it as being as important as American domestic issues. And that's what's going on right now in Congress.
VAUSE: Matthew, good to have you with us. Matthew Schmidt there. Appreciate your time.
SCHMIDT: My pleasure.
VAUSE: Not only was this past September the hottest on record, it shattered that record by a record margin. New data from European climate scientists show an average temperature were 1.75 degrees Celsius, higher than preindustrial levels before the world started burning large amounts of fossil fuels. With June, July and August also the hottest on record, 2023 is on track to be the hottest year ever.
In terms of what this actually means in reality. Take a look at this. The lower black line on the graph shows how sea ice in Antarctica has been shrinking for years. It's now 9 percent below average for this time of year. Joining us now live from San Francisco is Kristina Dahl, principal climate scientist at The Union of Concerned Scientists. It's good to see you again.
KRISTINA DAHL, PRINCIPAL CLIMATE SCIENTIST, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: You too.
VAUSE: So after the hottest June, July and August, the hottest September really came as no surprise. But it kind of did because of the way it broke that record. And again, another graph, it shows this past September hottest on record by a margin of 0.5 degrees Celsius or 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit. Or there's one climate scientist posted on X this month was, in my professional opinion as a climate scientist, absolutely gobsmackingly bananas. So explain why, you know, the breaking this heat record by this big of a margin is so stunning as well as so concerning at the same time? DAHL: Yes, I really couldn't have described it better myself. So we knew that we had the hottest June on record, followed by the hottest July on record, followed by the hottest August on record. But this September broke the past record by a larger margin than any of those other several months that we've had this year. And it's just incredibly unusual to break a record by half a degree Celsius. It's a very -- it sounds like a small amount, but when you consider that's the whole global average, it's very significant and it's very worrisome.
You know, we will always have warmer years and cooler years. That's sort of natural in our climate. There's a lot of variability, but years like this are truly exceptional and unfortunately, will become more of the norm in the future.
VAUSE: Where are we at in terms of the current rate of warming compared to where we thought we would be at this point? And now we're looking at this sort of accelerated warming, if you like. What does that mean for all the forecasts which have been made about where warming should be? Are they all just wrong now? Do they need to sort of reassess everything?
DAHL: Yes, well, it's actually really interesting. A recent study looked back at how climate scientists have modeled our climate over the past several decades, and our climate models have gotten better and better over those decades. But really, if you go back to the models that scientists were using back in the 1980s, early 90s, they fairly accurately predicted where we would be in terms of the global average temperature at this point.
Now, what a lot of scientists are watching very closely in the next couple of years is whether we start to cross this threshold of warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius or more above the preindustrial average. And that's a significant threshold because beyond that, we see the impacts of climate change really start to accelerate and mount. So the latest model suggests that we could cross that threshold sometime in the early 2030s, so, you know, really only a decade or so from now.
VAUSE: You know, the sort of gobsmacking part of this report is that September has been hotter than July in the past. So is that the new normal if we make no effort of taking carbon out of the atmosphere, you know, the ceilings become floors, if you like?
DAHL: Yes, well, I hesitate to call it a new normal because that implies that we're at some sort of plateau or steady state. And the reality is that as long as we keep burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, we will see this sort of heat escalate year over year, a decade over decade. And so it's important that we not think of this heat as normal, but really see it as a warning about where we're headed in the future. Because the reality is that this could be the coolest September the planet sees for the rest of our lives.
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VAUSE: Wow. And according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the extreme month that would be September has pushed 2023 into the dubious honor of first place on track to be the warmest year and around 1.4 degrees Celsius above preindustrial real average temperatures, so very, you know, close to 1.5. You know, the goal has been to contain global temperatures, you know, below this 1.5 degree increase. In a perfect world, we can do that. We know what to do. But in a real world, what are the chances?
DAHL: You know, it is technically still possible to keep warming to that 1.5 degree limit. But even if we put our all into it as a globe, as a species, it's still a very difficult goal to reach. Now, that said, even if we know that it's difficult to meet that goal, potentially impossible to meet that goal, we still have to be aiming for it, because every 10th of a degree here matters. And so if we miss that 1.5 degree goal, we should be aiming for 1.51, then 1.52, really sticking as close to that as we possibly can is still the best course of action. So even if we miss it, there's no way that we should be giving up. In fact, we should be doing the opposite and doubling down and keeping our eye on that goal.
VAUSE: Well, COP 28 is coming up soon, so I guess we'll see what happens there. But, Kristina, thank you so much. Really appreciate you joining us tonight.
DAHL: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Well, we're tracking Typhoon Koinu as it moves through the South China Sea. The storm is battering Taiwan, parts of the Philippines with torrential rain and powerful winds. While the heaviest rain has fallen in Taiwan's mountain regions, most of the island has done some kind of weather advisory. Koinu is forecast to skirt the southern coast of China as it loses strength over the weekend. It could reach Hong Kong as a tropical storm or depression by early next week.
At least 14 people are now believed to have died in catastrophic flash flooding from heavy rains in northeast India. More than 100 others remain missing. At least 26 have been injured. Search and rescue operations are ongoing. One local official says the floods have had a huge impact on property as well.
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UGYEN TSHERING GYATSO BHUTIA, MEMBER, SIKKIM LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY (through translator): Until now, buildings have been damaged. Property has been damaged. Some people have been reported missing, but a report is yet to come. All the machinery of the government is working.
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VAUSE: Officials report, 11 bridges have been washed away, slowing down rescue efforts. The Dalai Lama has offered his condolences, along with a number of other top Indian officials.
Still ahead here on CNN, trouble on the tracks for the U.K. Prime Minister. Why he's putting the brakes on a high speed rail project? And also ahead, the sample runneth over. The good news for scientists as they look at the sample brought back to Earth from an asteroid called Bennu.
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VAUSE: It seems hard to swallow, but Britain's Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has presented himself as a radical candidate for change, this year's conservative party conference in Manchester. Sunak, though, spent a little time on some big picture issues, like the cost of living crisis and the environment, and one of the most controversial issues of all, immigration. He declared the U.K. is not a racist country. Just 24 hours earlier, the Home Secretary described a hurricane of migrants to come. Sunak also announced the acting of the Manchester leg of the high speed rail project. He's in Manchester right now.
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RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: And so I am ending this long running saga. I am canceling the rest of the HS2 project. And in its place, we will reinvest every single penny, 36 billion pounds in hundreds of new transport projects in the north and the Midlands across the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Business leaders in the U.K., though, are strongly critical of that decision, calling it a blow to the country's credibility. Here's what the head of the British Chamber of Commerce had to say about the project last week when she appeared on CNN.
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SHEVAUN HAVILAND, DIRECTOR GENERAL, BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE: People talk about HS2 being really important because it cuts commuting times. Well, that is important, but actually it's way more than that. It's new capacity on the line to move freight, to move goods and take lorries off the roads. It is infrastructure build that, for local economies, has a multiplier effect of four times.
We have got quite a lot of economic challenges and we are a year away from a general election, so it was a really important time for businesses voice to be heard, and that is about a functioning public realm, planning a grid that works. Infrastructure build is crucial to get the economy going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The infrastructure project was intended to boost railway capacity and cut travel times between England's three largest cities. For more details, here's CNN's Bianca Nobilo.
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rishi Sunak chose a jarring location to announce that he was axing a major part of Britain's flagship infrastructure project in Manchester, one of the main cities that would have benefited from the high speed rail link. And his speech took place inside an old train station, no less. So this is the route that HS2 would have taken. This leg in gray on the right was already scrapped back in 2021. And today, a further scaling back saw the leg between Birmingham and Manchester in red also scrapped.
So all that remains of the new line is from Birmingham to London, the rail project was first announced 13 years ago and since then, projected costs have almost tripled. You can see here the latest estimates of around 100 billion pounds or $120 billion. So Sunak says that the facts have changed, citing that the shift in work habits since the COVID-19 pandemic means that the costs won't bring the same benefits.
So he's promised to redirect 36 billion pounds earmarked for this project into local transport projects instead. But politicians of all parties and businesses, including Manchester United Football Club, have called this a major act of economic self-sabotage, damaging to our international standing as a place to do business. This flashing is a giant red warning light from the region that's been the Tories ticket to election success lately.
Now, you probably remember that after Brexit, the U.K. government promised a global Britain, which hinges on its reputation as a stable and future focused place to invest. But that does seem to be going off the rails. Britain, a pioneer of the modern railway, has now canceled part of its key infrastructure project. This off the back of Sunak delaying net zero climate targets just days ago, angering car manufacturers and environmentalists. And we can say the same for tax cuts.
The Prime Minister is focusing on cutting inflation instead. All the while, transport, health and labor strikes continue week after week, exacerbating that sense of instability in the economy. But one thing that has to arrive on time is a general election, which must be called before the end of next year. Sunak's speech really kicked off the long campaign for that. But with his party lagging around 20 points behind in the polls, there's a lot that he'd need to do to get on that winning track.
VAUSE: In Italy, investigators say there are no signs the bus driver was attempting to break before the vehicle plunged from a Venice overpass, killing at least 21 people on Tuesday. Prosecutors say there's also no indication another vehicle was involved. Investigators are now checking a video of the incident, and CNN's Ben Wedeman reports there are disturbing images in the footage.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: CCTV catches the moment at 7:38 p.m. Tuesday, when the bus crashed through an overpass guardrail outside Venice. What followed was an apocalyptic scene, in the words of the city's mayor. The electric powered bus plummeted 15 meters, about 30 feet onto railroad tracks, then burst into flames. At least 21 died from the fall or the resulting inferno, including two children with more than a dozen injured.
The bus caught fire, and so we had first extinguished the flames in order to get inside, says the spokesman for the fire brigade. We carried out a rapid intervention which allowed us to save 15 people, but unfortunately, we could do nothing for the victims.
Most of those victims were on their way to a tourist camp on the outskirts of Venice, among them Ukrainians, Germans, French, Croatians and Austrians. The Venice prosecutor has launched an investigation into the crash, using videos of the crash to determine if other vehicles were involved, and also looking into the possibility the driver, a 40-year-old Italian national who also died in the crash, may have suffered a health issue.
So far, there's much speculation, but little else that provides clues to why this disaster happened.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Rome.
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VAUSE: Russia has sentenced a journalist who protested the war in Ukraine on live television to 8.5 years in prison. It may not hold a lot of weight because she's actually living in exile in Europe. Marina Ovsyannikova staged this daring protest on Russian state T.V. right after Russian forces invaded Ukraine. She escaped house arrest last year and is now safely living in France.
On Wednesday, a Russian court found her guilty of spreading false information about Russia's military, a charge which the journalist says is absurd and insane. She says Kremlin propaganda is harming all Russians.
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MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, RUSSIAN JOURNALIST: They are living in another information reality. If you came in Russia, you start to thinking on another way. My Russian relatives, they are thinking Russia is surrounded of enemies. They believe Putin, and they thinking I'm traitor.
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VAUSE: Ovsyannikova says she does not regret her protest, saying she made a very difficult, but the only correct moral choice, which she has paid a deep price.
There's a reason why India is ranked 161 out of 180 in the world. Press Freedom Index, maintained by Reporters Without Borders. Tuesday saw another police raid on journalists, this time linked to a news organization which has been critical of the government. CNN's Vedika Sud has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: There's been widespread condemnation from journalists and activists here India over the raids conducted by the Delhi police on the offices of a news website that has often been critical of the Indian government.
On Tuesday, the Delhi police raided homes of 46 journalists and contributors linked to a news company called NewsClick. Police say the founder of the media outlet and a colleague have been arrested and an investigation is underway in connection with a controversial antiterrorism law that critics have called draconian. Under this law, it's difficult for an individual under investigation to receive bail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking in Foreign Language)
SUD: Students, journalists of society groups and political opponents have organized protests across Delhi, Wednesday, to express solidarity with those questioned and arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From here, we want to send this message to the government that the more power you will use to, you know, come down on independent journalists, on media, on people, on common citizens, the power the people are going to fight back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that terrorism charges can be leveled against a news organization and its 76-year-old founder and editor can be sent behind bars sends a message to the media as a whole India that you exercise your freedom of the press at great risk.
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SUD: Responding to a question on Tuesdays raids, India's Information Minister Anurag Thakur said he didn't need to justify the actions of the police.
ANURAG THAKUR, INDIAN INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): If anyone has committed anything wrong, agencies are free to carry out investigations against them on the set guidelines.
SUD: Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, India's press freedom ranking has fallen dramatically. This year, the country was ranked 161 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Indexes published by Reporters without Borders.
Tuesday's crackdown comes almost eight months after the Indian Tax Department raided the BBC's offices in New Delhi and Mumbai after it aired a documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in the Gujarat 2002 riots.
Vedika Sud, CNN -- New Delhi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up here on CNN, Pope Francis says the Catholic Church needs a big tent approach, and to be more inclusive. So why is that getting pushback? We will tell you when we come back.
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VAUSE: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
It seems Iran's so-called morality police may be back at it. Brutally enforcing the country's strict dress code. Rights group and activists say a 16-year-old girl was severely beaten, and is now reportedly in a coma in hospital because she wasn't wearing a head covering. She was riding in the metro in Tehran. Iranian state media released this edited footage that does not reveal what happened when the girl on that train.
More details now from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh.
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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Iranian activists groups are accusing the morality police of assaulting the 16-year-old girl in a Tehran metro station for not wearing the mandatory hijab or the head scarf.
Activists say that Armita Geravand has been in a coma since Sunday. According to the activists operation group, Iran Wire, she was admitted to hospital with head trauma.
We have not yet been able to independently verify this information. State affiliated media posted a video of a group of girls seen entering the metro train. Some of the girls entering appeared not to be wearing head scarves in that video.
Moments later, it goes on to show a group of girls carrying Geravand out the metro train placing her on the platform before the train leaves.
No altercation can be seen in this edited video that was posted on state media. We have not been able to confirm its authenticity.
[01:34:52]
KARADSHEH: The CEO of the Tehran Metro told state media that there was no physical or verbal interaction between members of his staff and Geravand. The Iranian government has not yet responded to our request for comment. And Geravand's parents told state media in an interview that they were told That their daughter hit her head after fainting from low blood pressure while she was on her way to school.
The parents say that there was no signs for the video that they saw that she was insulted. But it is important to point out, we don't know the conditions under which this interview was conducted.
And in the past, U.N. and human rights groups have told us that the families of protesters killed during last year's protests were being coerced and pressured into make statements supportive of the government's narrative. A journalist who went to that hospital to report on Geravand's
condition was briefly arrested on Tuesday and she was released later on according to her newspaper.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Pope Francis says the Catholic Church needs to be more welcoming and more inclusive and to avoid politics. Speaking at the start of the first global gathering of Catholic leaders in four years, the Pope urged church leaders to open their doors to everyone.
For the first time ever, laypeople and women were allowed to attend this event and vote. Conservative cardinals warned being more inclusion may lead to a dilution of their faith. They balk at the Pope's suggestion that same sex couples could receive blessings by priests.
But other more liberal voices within the church are highlighting the hypocrisy of that doctrine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. JOE MCDONALD, IRISH CATHOLIC PRIEST: I have blessed a (INAUDIBLE). I have blessed a sick parrot, I blessed a horse donkey, but I can't bless two men or two women who love each other. There's something not quite right about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: With us now from New York, Father Edward Beck, faith and religion commentator and a published author as well. And it's good to see you. It's been a while.
REV. EDWARD L. BECK, FAITH AND RELIGION COMMENTATOR: Thank you. Yes, John. Good to see you as well.
VAUSE: OK. So the Pope's comments about possible blessings for same sex unions, it's framed sort of more - almost in the negative in a way in terms of what the church should not do. He said we cannot be judges who only deny, reject and exclude. And he's, you know, talking about, you know, putting a blessing and guidance, if you like, in a sort of a pastoral sense.
It's important to note that he reaffirmed the church's doctrine on marriage is being between a man and a woman.
And on many of these issues, you know, it seems Francis sort of is trying to have almost like a (INAUDIBLE) play. He supports the established doctrine but then he goes on to say maybe it's time we look at, you know, how we view these issues. How we deal with these issues on a practical basis.
Is that what we are looking at here? BECK: Yes. John, remember, this is in the context of the Synod, this
three-year kind of process of Synod that just opened today officially, in a meeting in Rome. We have like over 400 participants. For the first time lay people can vote including women. 25 percent of those voting will be laypeople at this Synod and participating.
So the comments are in the context of questions he got from five retired conservative cardinals, saying he reaffirmed that marriage is just between a man and a woman. And he said yes of course. However, he opened the door to say, same sex blessings of unions is something we want to discuss because he said today in his opening homily, the church needs to be welcome tutti, tutti, tutti -- everyone, everyone, everyone.
And so his real vision is to open the inclusive element of the church. And so he's not going to say, that we are going to sanction gay marriage, the church will not be doing that. But we need to allow people who are gay, and others who feel excluded to be more included, and maybe this blessing of unions is a step toward that.
VAUSE: You mention this gathering in Rome of bishops and others, and boy are they looking at some of the biggest, the most difficult, controversial issues which are facing the Catholic Church.
So along with this issue of same-sex union, there will be priestly celibacy, married priests, ordination of female deacons as well as extending sacraments to divorced people.
And you mentioned this. So Pope Francis has sort of indicated this position, this sort of big tent approach if you like.
And you said the quote, saying the church should avoid becoming a rigid church, which arms itself against the world and looks backwards. It should avoid becoming a lukewarm church which surrenders to the fashions of the world. Church doors must be open to all, all, all." Which is I think is the tutti, tutti, tutti quote.
So I guess Francis seems to me anyway, (INAUDIBLE) are wrong, it seems he's trying to influence, you know, church practice as opposed to church doctrine.
[01:39:52]
BECK: That is very true. It's perception. Is the church being perceived as rigid, and archaic, and closed? Or is it open to people? Is it inclusive? And that's really been the message of Francis.
It's about mercy, it's about you have to get everybody in, not decide who is out. So it very much is, a tone and a perspective, and Francis has really made some real shifts, but not a lot of changes in doctrine. But really a way of looking at it and saying it's not really about law and legality, the way many would interpret the church. It's about mercy, and compassion and forgiveness and inclusion.
Now within that structure, obviously, you have certain standards and certain laws et cetera. But that is not really his focus. His focus is really the inclusion of the church.
VAUSE: Well, Some of the Pope's biggest critics, have already been speaking out. You mentioned the letter that was written before the Synod began. One of the authors of that letter is Cardinal Raymond Burke. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARDINAL RAYMOND BURKE (through translator): The upcoming sessions of the Synod of bishops certainly contains statements departs strikingly and gravely from the perennial teaching of the church.
First of all we must publicly affirm our faith. And in this the bishops had the duty to confirm their brethren.
Today bishops and cardinals need a great bill of courage to confront the grave errors that come from within the church itself. The sheep depend on the courage of the shepherds who must protect them from the poison, confusion, errors and divisions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: How much opposition does Francis face, especially from, you know, American cardinals who seem to be very conservative. And has the Pope reached a point now that he'll say (INAUDIBLE) he's prepared to have this fight?
BECH: I mean you brought up something before John, really interesting, the same sex blessing that they're opposed to.
Now bishops in Germany and Belgium have already begun to do this, going against really what many in the church have wanted. And they are doing it to push the agenda to say you know, as priest, yesterday was the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, John. Ok. And all over the world, Christian churches blessed animals.
So we are saying that priest can bless animals, I know priest who have blessed guns. And you're saying priests can't bless people who want to have a loving relationship and ask God to help strengthen their commitment and their resolve in their relationship?
I mean it sounds kind of ludicrous in many ways. So I think Francis is trying to say, the perception is that the church is closed. And what he's saying is we have to really decide how to get everybody in. In under the same tent.
VAUSE: Yes. It's going to be an interesting couple of weeks. And of course, this will decide the direction of the church for many years to come.
Father, thanks as always. It is great to have you with us. Thank you, sir.
BECKL Thank you, John.
VAUSE: When we come back, chaos on Capitol Hill, the fallout from the historic ousting of U.S. House Speaker, as the race to find Kevin McCarthy's replacement heats up.
[01:43:02]
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VAUSE: Republicans in the U.S. House are now scrambling to find a new speaker after Tuesday's stunning vote to remove Kevin McCarthy. Several names of possible successors have emerged but so far only House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Representative Jim Jordan are officially in the race.
Until a new leader is chosen, House business remains on hold. And so now, anger is building among some Republicans who are lashing out at members of their own party over the chaos caused by McCarthy's ouster.
CNN's Manu Raju has more now reporting in from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The unprecedented move to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House has set up a leadership scramble. Behind the scenes his successors are trying to see if they can unite a badly-divided House Republican Conference, one in which there are raw emotions, feelings, bad will mostly directed towards Congressman Matt Gaetz someone who led this charge to House Speaker McCarthy and got the support of seven other Republicans, 8 in total, voting with Democrats to push McCarthy out of the speakership, something that has never been done before in American history.
But now where does the House go from here. It is unclear, the House is in a state of paralysis. It cannot move forward until a speaker is named, meaning no legislative action at all. The House is out of session until next week.
In the meantime behind the scenes two candidates have emerged. Two speaker candidates, one of them is House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, along with the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jim Jordan. Both of whom are trying to secure enough support to become the conference's nominee to be elected speaker.
Once they have a majority of votes, next week we will expect that vote to happen. And then there will be a vote on the House floor.
But that is the tricky part getting 218 votes in the House. More than four Republicans could be enough to scuttle that entire effort. That is the problem that Kevin McCarthy ran into time and time again in the narrowly divided House.
But no question about it, many members pointing fingers at those eight Republicans for a state of chaos that they warned could come back to haunt them in November 2024.
REP. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): I think it makes the House Republican rebels look foolish. They look unserious. They look like they are more interested in fighting than governing.
REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): Mr. Gaetz is only doing it for himself, and I believe that he should be looked at for an expulsion.
I've not made up my mind. And if I would vote to expel him, this guy doesn't have his ducks in a row. And that is what you see with people who lie, they can never keep their story straight.
That is what Matt's doing right now. He's going to continue to lie.
RAJU: What do you think of the chances of your party retaining control of the House next year, given all this disarray?
MILLER: I think it's -- think it's going to be incredibly tough.
RAJAU: As part of the discussions, from the speaker candidates is the issue of the motion to vacate, that was what Matt Gaetz used to push out Kevin McCarthy, one member actually called for a vote seeking the speaker's ouster. There are a lot of members who I spoke to who want the speaker candidates to try to raise the threshold, to make it much harder to force such a vote, warning that keeping it at one member creates an instability that their party cannot afford.
But some of those hard-liners could threaten to use that tactic and align themselves with Matt Gaetz to say they would not support a speaker candidate that did that.
The other big issue, a policy issue, Ukraine aid. Jim Jordan told me that he does not support more funding for Ukraine. A big question mark for Ukraine, especially if Jordan becomes elected speaker amid the divisions among House Republicans about how to move forward, and whether to provide aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia.
All showing how much concern there is, and how much divide there is in the GOP about simply how to govern at this time when there is no speaker, the House is in a state of paralysis, and Republicans are badly divided about how to move forward from here.
Manu Raju, CNN -- Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Scientists are now getting their first look at samples collected from a near earth asteroid called Bennu. Just like lucky children on Christmas morning, they were surprised to find an embarrassment of riches.
CNN's Tom Foreman has details and what the samples could reveal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not often that you hear people say things are going too well these days. But that is what NASA is saying, as it's opening up this pod, returned from an asteroid, way out there on the way to Mars so they can look at the sample that has been brought back.
[01:49:46] FOREMAN: They were hoping to get a little bit here and there, but now they got what looks like about a half pound of material, retrieved from this asteroid, by this space probe, called Osiris Rex.
Now, this has been a long journey. It's taken years. It's going billions of miles ultimately. But this material that has been brought back from Bennu, this asteroid out there, is from a period of time that scientists say would correlate with the beginning of the solar system.
By studying this, they believe they can find out all sorts of details about when the planets were forming, when the sun was first coming into being, some four and a half billion years ago.
And they think they might be able to find some organic material on all this. They just want to look at over and find out. They say their samples are running over basically because they got so much more than they expected.
All important work and remarkable that it happened this way. Remember this probe collected the sample from this asteroid out there, a sample from an asteroid so poorly held together, if you or I tried to stand on it we would sink right in.
They brought the sample back released at about 63,000 miles away, it came flying back to earth close to 30,000 miles an hour, and now is sitting in a lab and they are analyzing that material from so far out in space. Trying to find clues to our own origin here on earth. Really a remarkable achievement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back here on CNN, there is once a time when it all came down to talent and sheer hard work. But what if a K-pop performer can be programed by A.I.? Are they truly great? Are they even real?
More on that in a moment.
(CROSSTALKING)
VAUSE: Could real life K-pop performers be replaced by A.I.? It's an industry where many are called but few are chosen. Most washing out and the grueling demands beneath a total dedication, and just coming up way short in terms of talent.
But what if the perfect group of performers could be created by artificial intelligence? Forever young, always perfect, no need for rehearsal.
CNN's Ivan Watson spoke with the company who made that possibility a reality.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A K-pop confection. This video by girl group Eternity racked up 6.5 million views on YouTube in nine months. But not all is as it appears here.
My name is Ivan, what is your name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My name is Jane.
WATSON: Can you tell me about your band?
"I'm from the world's first virtual K-pop girl group," she tells me.
Jane and the ten other members of Eternity are not real. Tech-tainment (ph) company called Pulse9 (ph) created these characters and face swap them over human actors using artificial intelligence. I'm speaking to an A.I. popstar.
Is this the future of entertainment?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Of course, we cannot be seen in person. But if you have a device, you can communicate with us anywhere, anytime. As a virtual group, we are not limited by location. We can broadcast anywhere. The only thing we cannot do is sign an autograph.
And Eternity is not the only A.I. K-pop creation. May (ph) is another virtual girl bandwidth videos that have tens of millions of views.
KANG SUNG-KU, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, METAVERSE ENTERTAINMENT: We captured human performance and then turn it into 3D animation with A.I.
[01:54:51]
WATSON: Kang Sung-ku and Metaverse Entertainment created May. Designers say the goal is not to try to replace human artists like BTS or Beyonce. Instead, they want to create something like the next generation of Siri.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm Siri, your virtual assistant.
WATSON: But in this case, it would be an avatar that sings and dances that you actually want to talk to.
KANG: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will remember you, they will know about you, and they will talk based on that information.
WATSON: A.I. creations will theoretically develop a unique relationship with every user and be available around the clock on every device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi everyone, this is Tyra from May.
WATSON: And not limited by language.
Designers are programming these A.I. popstars to interact with fans. The technologies still has a long way to go, and some programmers concede that there may need to be laws to regulate these creations.
KANG: We have to be careful actually. If somebody evil can use it, it might be a disaster.
WATSON: Designers say, unlike human celebrities, these A.I. popstars won't age and won't tire out and can do anything they are programed to do.
It is like science fiction. Like the robots could be taking over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, like the robots that conquer the human world, we appeared to have conquered the pop music world to steal people's hearts.
WATSON: This may be a glimpse of entertainment in the not-too-distant future.
Ivan Watson, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: 27 years after rapper Tupac Shakur was shot down on the Las Vegas ship his suspected killer faces court for the first time. Duane Keith Davis was arrested last week and was set to enter a plea on Wednesday. His attorney was unavailable, so the hearing has been delayed for two weeks. He's expected to plead not guilty.
Davis has said in the past he was the front seat of the car when shots were fired from the back seat into Shakur's car in the 1996 murder.
Tupac was a trail blazing rapper who's remembered as one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all-time.
Well, it is that time of the year when fat matters but only if you're a bear and living in Alaska, where it's fat bear week. The Katmai National Park calls the contest an annual celebration of success, as bears fatten up before hibernation and become full-on chonky beasts, full chonk for short.
Rangers create tournament style brackets putting these binge eaters of salmon against one another, the champion will be crowned next week.
For those who would like to play along at home, head to FatBearWeek.org and click which big lug you would like to see win. More than a million votes were cast during last year's competition.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Please stay with us. More CNN NEWSROOM after a short break with my friend and colleague, Rosemary Church.
See you back here tomorrow.
[01:57:54]
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