Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Turmoil In Washington Leaves Kyiv In Limbo; Iran Morality Police Accused Of Assaulting Girl Over Hijab; House Paralyzed Until Republicans Unite Around New Speaker. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired October 05, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:37]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church. just ahead. Turmoil in Washington leaves Kyiv in limbo. Why America's aid to Ukraine could hinge on who's chosen to replace Kevin McCarthy and speaker of the U.S. House.

Search and rescue efforts underway in India where at least 14 people are dead and dozens more missing after flash flooding cut off roads and washed away bridges. We're live from New Delhi.

And just a year after the death of Mahsa Amini sparked widespread protests. Iran's morality police are again accused of severely beating a young woman for not wearing a headscarf.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. We begin this hour in Washington where the fallout from the historic ouster of U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is rattling Capitol Hill. The race is on to find his replacement after Tuesday's stunning vote removed him from the top leadership post. Several names of possible successes have emerged. But so far only House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Representative Jim Jordan have officially jumped into the race.

Until a new leader is chosen, House business is on hold and that means the turmoil even froze aid to Ukraine into jeopardy. 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GARRET GRAVES (R-LA): I'll be really candid. I think if we had stayed together in the meeting last night, I think that you would have seen fists thrown and I'm not being dramatic when I say that there is a lot of raw emotions right now.

REP. STEVE WOMACK (R-AR): Yesterday was different. There was anger. There was frustration. And frankly, there was desperation going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Manu Raju has more from Washington.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The unprecedent 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 do -- unite a badly divided House Republican Conference. One in which there are raw emotions, feelings bad will. Mostly directed towards U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz. Someone who led the charge to House Speaker McCarthy and got the support of seven other Republicans.

Eight 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 this House go from here? It is unclear. The House is in the 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.

Speaker -- two speaker candidates. One of them, the 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 a -- become the conference's nominee to be elected speaker. Once they have a majority of votes next week, we'll expect that vote to happen. Then there'll be a vote on the House for. 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 warn, could come back to haunt them in November 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): I think it makes the House Republican rebels look foolish. They look unserious. I think they look like they're more interested in fighting than governing.

REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): Mr. Gaetz is only doing this for himself. And I believe that he should be looked at for an expulsion. I have not made up my mind on if I would vote to expel him. This guy doesn't have his ducks in a row. And that's what you see with people who lie. They can never keep their story straight. And that's what Matt is 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 -- I think it's going to be incredibly tough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, as part of the discussions for speaker of the candidates is the issue of the motion to vacate. [02:05:00]

That was what Matt Gaetz used to push out Kevin McCarthy. One member could actually call for vote seeking the Speaker's house dirt. 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 a spirit of instability that the party cannot afford.

But some of those hardliners who have used to -- threaten to use that tactic and align themselves with Matt Gaetz say they will not support a speaker of 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 and its war against Russia.

All showing how much concern there is and how we need to divide the rows within 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.

CHURCH: I'm joined now by Michael Genovese. He is a political analyst and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. And he is also the author of the Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution. A pleasure to have you with us.

MICHAEL GENOVESE, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: Always great to be with you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, in the wake of that historic vote to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership roll, the House has been paralyzed until of course that post is filled. Republican Representative Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan have now made it clear. They're running to replace McCarthy. Which one will likely win in this deeply divided caucus, which will require 218 votes to secure the speakership?

GENOVESE: I think Steve Scalise is the early favorite, and I think it's overwhelming. He's the majority leader, well known, served in leadership. He's liked and trusted by most of the Republican caucus. Jim Jordan is one of the rebels and so he might be more of a fire eater and might cause more trouble the way -- not quite the way Matt Gaetz does. But he's more of a risk. So, I think Steve Scalise is going to be -- is the insight favorite.

CHURCH: And whoever does become speaker, promises and compromises will need to be made, of course to get votes. And one of the big issues at stake is Ukraine. Jim Jordan has made it clear. He opposes any new funding for the war-torn nation, which could of course change the trajectory of that war. So, what about Scalise? What would he likely do when it comes to Ukraine?

GENOVESE: Scalise is a legislator. He's a dealmaker. He's a bargainer. And so, he would, in many ways, I think, be more ideally suited to the speakership than was Kevin McCarthy in the sense that he knows he has to reach across the aisle now and then. Has to make deals. He He's not been too open about what his stance is on the Ukraine issue. But he's got that issue. He's got basically 40 days until November 17th to face another shutdown.

So, there's a lot of things on the table and they've got to get to him really quickly. The irony, of course, is that they vote the speaker out in the next day that they go on recess until the end of the week. So that -- it's not a good optic, it doesn't show that you're interested in governing. So, they have a lot of recovery to do.

CHURCH: Yes. And of course, not only do House Republicans need to select a new leader, they also have to find consensus for funding the government by mid-November or, of course, this country will again face the risk of a government shutdown. How likely is it that this can be achieved with Matt Gaetz and the seven other hard-right conservatives pushing against any compromise?

GENOVESE: I think Matt Gaetz did not do himself any favors. He's the sort of the head of the Children's Crusade who likes to cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble. And I think his is days may be numbered in the caucus. There's been a really harsh reaction by moderate and even conservative Republicans against him. They want to govern, they want to lead. What they're showing now is they can't govern it.

They have -- they're masters of chaos. And it's a circus atmosphere. And so, you know, it is the party of Trump. But they have to find a way to govern. They couldn't really do it under Matt Gaetz. I think -- I think his days are really numbered. And I don't think he has much of a future in that party, at least not for the next couple of years.

CHURCH: Interesting, because I wanted to ask you, how likely is it do you think that Matt Gaetz will be punished for his actions as some Republicans are pushing for and what might the consequences be given Gaetz has frozen the house as a result of this grandstanding essentially?

GENOVESE: Well, you don't reward someone for burning down the House. You would punish them. And the punishment could take a lot of forms. Certainly, the least they could do is take offers committee assignments.

[02:10:02]

At worst they could throw him out of the Republican caucus. The Republican conference. That's gotten pretty far and I think that might be a step too far. But they can't just let him go off scot-free. So, you'll see some consequences to Matt Gaetz's actions.

CHURCH: Michael Genovese, many thanks for joining us. Appreciate.

GENOVESE: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: U.S. President Joe Biden says the prospect of aid for Ukraine running out does worry him but he's expressing confidence that leaders of both parties in Congress support Ukraine and will come together to approve more funding. In the meantime, he says his administration is exploring other means to help Ukraine. A senior adviser to Ukraine's president is criticizing what he calls Western conservative elites for suggesting that military aid should be suspended.

And a former government minister says any delay would mean more Ukrainians are killed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TYMOFIY MYLOVANOV, PRESIDENT, KYIV SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: What is painful for me to hear and listen to is this argument that this is not good use of money for the U.S. You know, 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.

So -- but what was the mean if this aid is not forthcoming? Well, the cities will not be defended. Air defense will not be there. Civilians will die. Russia will have more time to dig in and make it difficult for Ukraine to get the territory back. Russia will have more time to torture civilians and commit all kinds of war crimes on occupied territories and the list goes on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And with funding from Congress in doubt, the Biden administration is already resorting to other plans. It has started transferring thousands of seized Iranian weapons to Ukraine. The munitions were being sent illegally from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to Houthi rebels in Yemen. And the U.S. has for months been weighing how to legally send the weapons to the Ukrainians.

They include more than a million rounds of ammunition, assault rifles, anti-tank missiles and propellant and fuses for rocket-propelled grenades.

Ukrainian soldiers on the frontlines are anxious to get their hands on whatever weapons they can to fight off the Russians.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): 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 grand launcher would be more effective firing large salvos.

It's not very precise, the soldier named Alex (ph) 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 ADF 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.

PLEITGEN (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.

PLEITGEN (voiceover): Battery commander Miron (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 10 times for every round we fire. Sometimes it's one to 100. The Russians are constantly taking aim at this area. Though the Ukrainian say they're making gains pushing Vladimir Putin's army back. Even using combat helicopters close to the front line.

Kyiv it needs more ammo to sustain its offensives both here in the East and in the South. The U.S. budget impasse could mean further delays. On top of that NATO's warning, its members are running dangerously low themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started to give away from half full or lower warehouses in Europe, and therefore the bottom of the barrel is now visible.

PLEITGEN (voiceover): For the Ukrainian artillery troops, that means rationing will probably continue all while trying to support their advancing soldiers on the ground.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Both Ukraine and Russia report intense fighting along the southern front. A Ukrainian spokesperson says Russia enforcers suffered losses and manpower and equipment in the Zaporizhzhia region. And more than two dozen Russian soldiers have surrendered in the past few days. Ukraine claims Moscow has sent elite airborne troops to join the battle. But gains have been slow and incremental between 106 meters in some areas.

Ukraine has been working to hollow out Russian defensive units with long-range artillery. And Russia has sentenced a journalist who protested the war in Ukraine on live T.V. to 81/2 years in prison. But it won't hold much weight because she's 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 living safely in France.

On Wednesday, a Russian court found her guilty of spreading false information about Russia's military. That's a charge the journalist says is absurd and insane. She says the Kremlin's propaganda is harming all Russians, including her family. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARINA OVSYANNIKOVA, RUSSIAN JOURNALIST: They testified against me today and it was shock for me. The problem is that my mommy is the same age with Putin. And my mommy belief on this -- beliefs on this Kremlin propaganda and they -- she should say you're a treat of Russia and you must go to jail because you start to speak publicly against Putin. And it's very hard, it's very difficult situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Ovsyannikova says despite the fallout she does not regret her protests, saying she made a very difficult but the only correct moral choice for which she has paid a deep price.

The death toll keeps climbing up the devastating floods in northeast India.

Still to come. Emergency workers are scrambling to find dozens who are still missing. We'll have a live report.

Plus, four straight months of record-breaking heat around the globe has put 2023 on track to be the hottest year ever recorded. We'll have details for you just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: The death toll from catastrophic flash flooding following heavy rains in northeast India has risen to at least 14 people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

More than 100 others are missing and at least 26 people have been injured in Sikkim state where search and rescue operations are underway. For more, Vedika Sud joins us live from New Delhi. So, Vedika, what is the latest on this deadly flash flooding?

[02:20:02]

VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Well, at least 14 dead, more than 100 Missing including 22 army personnel from the spot. This is the Himalayan state of Sikkim that we're talking about. A remote area in the north east of India. We're also talking about more than 20,000 people being displaced, more than 2000 have been evacuated. And those numbers unfortunately will be rising. According to the Sikkim government, Rosemary, there's been massive damage to infrastructure and property in northern Sikkim, especially.

Now I'm going to really try to simplify and break this down for our viewers. What essentially happened in layman's terms is there was a cloudburst after which a lot of water went down and particularly gushing down after the water levels increase there. And that then seeps into low lying areas, impacting bridges, impacting homes and impacting so many people. Now, what we do know is that there will be rains for the next two days. This is going to be huge challenge for the rescue teams out there. With the rains, it's very difficult to really go and find those people who have been missing. We don't even know what the numbers are at really when it comes to the infrastructural damage that this cloudburst has caused. Like we all know, the Himalayan belt is an ecologically sensitive belt. You and I have spoken so many times about the flash floods that have happened in this area, be it in the state of Uttarakhand or other parts of this region.

This is yet another one. Now the government is trying all it can. There are a lot of rescue teams on the spot. But news is trickling in at a very slow pace because of this being in a remote region. Plus, with the rains coming in. At this point, I want to very quickly also go to satellite image that has been shared by the Indian Space Research Organization. It's actually a stunning image there if you have a look at it.

On the -- I think it was the 28th of this month, yes. 167 hectares of water was seen present in that lake holding it. And then just a day after the flash floods, you can see it down to about 60 hectares. That's the kind of water that has been released due to the cloudburst that then led to what is called a glacial effectually in this area. A glacial lake outburst as it's called when the water goes up in a glacial area, it then gets released.

The impact will be felt over days and weeks. Of course, it's going to take long for the infrastructure to be put back in place. But for now, the immediate concern, Rosemary, is where are the people who are missing. We're talking about more than 100 including army personnel who will trying to help at the spot. Back to you.

CHURCH: All right. Our thanks to Vedika Sud joining us live from New Delhi. Appreciate it. We are tracking Typhoon Koinu as it moves through the South China Sea. The storm made landfall in southern Taiwan just hours ago, battering the island and parts of the Philippines with torrential rain and strong winds. While the heaviest rain has fallen in Taiwan's mountainous regions. Most of the island is under some sort 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.

Resilient officials are promising to send emergency aid to the Amazon interior. As severe drought threatens to dry up the region's vast river network. Some half a million people depend on those rivers to fish and to travel for much needed supplies. Well, over 100,000 of them reportedly are already experiencing the worst effects of the drought, including fish dying off in large numbers.

The government says it will prioritize shipments of food, water, fuel and medicine and dredge to key rivers to improve navigation.

European climate scientists have released their latest monthly snapshot and it's not good. Last month was easily the hottest September ever recorded. It pretty much guarantees this will go down as the hottest year on record, a sobering reality facing world leaders when they meet at the U.N.'s annual climate conference in December.

CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers has more.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. June, July and August all were the hottest June, July and August on record. So that made the warmest summer ever since we've been keeping track. So that's the entire globe. And not just one spot, there were warm spots, there were cool spots. But September did something remarkable and not in a good way. September was 1.75 degrees Celsius. 3.15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Warmer than a pre industrial September on record. So that's how far now we are above where we should be when it comes to pre industrial levels. June, July and August now in September, all breaking records has put 2023 so far above the old record that we're likely not going to get down below the old record.

[02:25:09]

And 2023 will eventually become the warmest year on record. I know there are still more months to come. But there's not much that's really going to change this, the last four months. Now, all the warmest on record. And there's September and it doesn't look like it's very warm. But all of these are July and August. This September of 2023 is in the top 20 months of all time, not just top 20 Septembers because it's number one in September, but the top 20 months of all time since we've been keeping track.

CHURCH: A teenage girl is hospitalized right now in Iran under suspicious circumstances. What human rights activists, state media and her parents are saying about her injuries. Back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Iran's so-called Morality Police have been accused of assaulting a teenage girl for not wearing a headscarf. She's now in the hospital and the circumstances surrounding her injuries are extremely murky. Now this comes a little more than a year after another young woman died in Iranian custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly.

CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has the details.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Iranian activist 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 headscarf. Activists say that Armita Garawand has been in a coma since Sunday according to the activist opposition group IranWire, she was admitted to hospital with head trauma.

We've 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 headscarves in that video. Moments later. It goes on to show a group of girls carrying Garawand out of 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. [02:30:00]

We have not been able to confirm its authenticity. 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 from the videos that they saw that she was assaulted. But it is important to point out, we don't know the conditions under which this interview was conducted, and in the past, UN and human rights groups have told us that the families of protesters killed during last year's protests were being coerced and pressured into making 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)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM ANCHOR: Now to Italy where investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a bus to plunge from an overpass, killing at least 21 people and injuring 18 others. Footage from nearby cameras captures the moment the bus went through the railing, but we have to warn you, the footage is disturbing.

The bus crashed through the guard rails, and plunged off this overpass near Venice before catching fire. Investigators are still looking into the cause of that crash, but prosecutors told a local CNN affiliate that so far there are no signs the driver hit the brakes before the crash, or that it hit another vehicle, or had problems with its battery. One doctor says the injured victims are being reunited with their families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEDERICA STELLA, DOCTOR (through translator): The injured are all young people. Family members are arriving at the hospital. Since all patients are foreign, family members need to come from their countries of origin. They're coming little by little.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Spanish Coast Guard says wooden boats carrying nearly seven hundred migrants arrived on the Canary Islands on Wednesday. The arrivals coincided with the EU reaching an agreement on how to deal with the increase in irregular immigration. The 27 member states have been looking to revise their asylum policies since 2015, when more than a million migrants reached the EU and caught many countries off- guard.

And their efforts took renewed urgency with the recent arrival of thousands of asylum seekers on the Italian island of Lampedusa. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is being criticized for his handling of the recent influx of migrants there. His chief of staff says upwards of six hundred are arriving into NewYork on a daily basis. The uptake comes as the Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott has been ramping up his controversial program of busing migrants to Democratic led cities.

Adams also says migrants are being misinformed, thinking they will arrive in New York and automatically get jobs and good housing. He is currently traveling throughout Latin America, hoping to counter that misinformation, but immigration advocates say the trip is a waste of taxpayer money, and that Adams should focus on the crisis back home. Well the pink tax, or higher cost that women in the US pay for their health care, may be hurting their health. We'll have details in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:35:54]

CHURCH: Two new reports show that women in the United States are paying more than men for health care through what's called a pink tax, and it may be impacting their health. The first report from a financial services firm found that women with health insurance through their jobs are paying more out of pocket costs than men with similar insurance. For example, breast cancer screenings often cost more than many other cancer screenings.

The second report by the nonprofit Susan G Coleman organization finds the high cost of breast cancer treatment is a significant financial burden for patients, and it may be hindering the success of their treatment. Joining me now is Dr. Ann Hester, a board certified physician and the author of Patient Empowerment 101. Thank you so much for joining us during this breast cancer awareness month.

DR. ANN HESTER, BOARD CERTIFIED PHYSICIAN & AUTHOR, PATIENT EMPOWERMENT 101: Oh it's my pleasure.

CHURCH: Now, it has to be said, you tragically lost your mother and grandmother to this disease, and are eager of course to limit the number of women dying from breast cancer. It is a disease diagnosed every 29 seconds across the world, accounting for 12.5 percent of all new annual cancer cases globally, making it the most common cancer in the world. So what steps can we all take to try to detect this disease early, which is critical of course?

HESTER: Well, getting a mammogram is important. There are other very important things. So a lot of people think that they just have to wait for the diagnosis but there are things that everybody can do to decrease the risk of breast cancer, and they're very simple. Number one, alcohol intake. Limit it or don't drink it at all.

No more than one drink per day for a woman, and preferably none. And also, studies are showing that smoking can increase your risk. The next thing is to exercise regularly. If you get out five times a week and you walk 30 minutes, that can not only decrease your risk of breast cancer, it decreases your risk of heart attacks and diabetes and so forth. And also your weight matters.

Ladies who lose excess weight after menopause can decrease their breast cancer risk. So there are things that we can do to decrease our risk. And even with those things, we can look for early detection because cancer caught very early has close to a 99 percent cure rate, and so be proactive, and don't just wait for it to come knocking at your door.

CHURCH: Exactly. And of course, breast cancer has a high cure rate if it's detected early, but still the disease climbs around 685 thousand lives globally each year. So how often, and when, should women get mammograms? And what guarantee do those screenings give us, particularly of course 3D mammograms for those women with that dense tissue?

HESTER: Yes 3D mammograms are my preference. The American Cancer Society recommends that ladies between the ages of 40 and 44 can start their annual mammogram. By the age of 45 they should do a mammogram every year up to at least age 54 and by the time they get to age 55 they can choose to do it yearly or every other year. My personal preference would be to continue to do it every year, because this has such a high cure rate, you don't want to risk missing something that can take your life.

CHURCH: And of course, for many women, mammograms, breast cancer tests and treatments are just financially out of their reach, aren't they? With some having to choose between screenings or putting food on the table. So what happens to those women?

[02:40:00]

HESTER: I would recommend that they Google low-cost, or free mammograms in their area. There are certain societies and other organizations that will provide ladies with free mammograms, or mammograms that they can afford. And so you might be surprised that the cost of an out of pocket mammogram may not be as much as you think. It may be as low as $150, or even less than that.

So if you look at something that has the potential to take your life or something that could cost you $150, $200 if you don't get any assistance, overtime it is certainly worthwhile to save up and make sure you get that done. I have seen so many cases of brutal breast cancer. There's just nothing that compares to it.

CHURCH: And as a physician, you have of course seen a lot of suffering due to breast cancer, including the loss of your own mother and grandfather. So what message do you have for all the women watching right now about this disease?

HESTER: There are a lot of things that have already been put in place that will make it more difficult for women. We can't fix it overnight, but what you can do is do everything you can do to decrease your risk, and be able to pass the information on to your children and your friends. I don't fear breast cancer. My mother had it, but now with the 3D mammogram, and the other modalities, the chance of a cure is so high, all we have to do is take those steps. CHURCH: Dr. Anne Hester, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

HESTER: Thank you.

CHURCH: And on a lighter note, high fashion is soaring even higher. Italian luxury brand Prada will help design NASA's new space suits for the Artemis Three mission to the moon. The fashion house is collaborating with Axiom, a Texas-based commercial space company that NASA tapped last year to modernize its spacesuits.

The Artemis Three mission is currently planned for 2025, the first crude lunar landing since the Apollo program more than 50 years ago. The crew will also include the first woman, and the first person of color to go to the moon. And thanks so much for joining us, I'm Rosemary Church. WORLD SPORT is coming up next and I'll be back in 15 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM. Do stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:00]

(WORLD SPORT)

[03:00:00]