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September now the Hottest in 2023, according to a New Report; 14 People Died in a Catastrophic Flash Flood in India; U.S. to send Seized Iranian Weapons to Ukraine; Scalise and Jordan Jumps Into the Speakership Race; French Luxury Magnate Faces Investigation; Artificial Intelligence Are Now Used by Korean Companies to Create Virtual K-Pop Stars. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired October 05, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN 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, climate crisis. A new report shows we've just had the hottest September by far, while this year is almost guaranteed to be the warmest on record.
The U.S. starts sending seized Iranian weapons to Ukraine. And --
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Defying reality, the A.I. pop stars with millions of views who never age and don't need rehearsals.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Thanks for joining us. European climate scientists have released their latest monthly snapshot and it's not good. Last month was easily the hottest September ever recorded. It's the fourth straight month of record global temperatures and guarantees 2023 will go down as the hottest year in human history.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has more.
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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. June, July, and August all were the hottest June, July, and Augusts on record. So that means the warmest summer ever since we've been keeping track. So that's the entire globe. 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 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.
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CHURCH: With us now from Vancouver, Canada is climate scientist Simon Donner, who's a professor at the University of British Columbia. Thanks so much for joining us.
SIMON DONNER, CLIMATE SCIENTIST AND PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA: Thanks for having me on Rosemary.
CHURCH: So more bad news for the planet in this latest Copernicus climate change report showing last month was the hottest September on record and 2023 is on track to become the warmest year ever. So how worried should we be about this latest data?
DONNER: Well, I mean, the latest data is confirming what scientists around the world have suspected about this year, that global warming, together with the El Nino phenomenon, are basically shattering temperature records. And 2023 looks like it will be the warmest year in recorded history, and potentially the warmest year in the history of human civilization.
CHURCH: And then of course there is the issue of warming oceans and melting glaciers, putting marine life at risk, and then the domino effect on life across the planet. So what does the data show us on that?
DONNER: Well, a lot of the warming is happening as a result of the ocean right now. So for the past three years, we've been in what scientists call La Nina light conditions in which the atmosphere is a little cooler than normal. And we've just shifted into what is known as an El Nino event.
El Nino is something that happens in the distant tropical Pacific, but the result of shifting around of currents and water temperatures in the Pacific, it's kind of like shifting rocks around in a stream. It affects the movement of air all around the planet, and as a result, affects the planet's weather. In essence, the ocean ends up putting heat back into the atmosphere.
You combine that together with global warming, and you get temperature records.
CHURCH: So what more do world leaders need to be doing right now about climate change ahead of the UN's annual climate conference in December given many politicians still don't seem to be taking sufficient action, do they, despite data like this showing that the planet is heating up faster than initially thought?
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DONNER: Well, you know, leading into COP28, the upcoming U.N. Climate Summit, the world's governments got together to work on what they call a global stock take. So this is an assessment of where we are in terms of our climate targets and everything.
And if you add all of the climate pledges up, that governments have put forward and assume the governments actually meet those pledges, which is a big assumption on its own, we're on pace for about three degrees of warming. And so that's only if governments meet their pledges. Now, of course, the Paris Climate Agreement called for avoiding two degrees of warming, or ideally 1.5 degrees of warming.
So there has been progress, if you'd asked me this 10 years ago, we might've been on pace for four degrees of warming. But, you know, three degrees isn't enough, and even getting to the three degrees requires us to actually follow through on all the pledges that we put forward. So there's a lot that needs to still be done.
CHURCH: And of course it is worth noting that solar panels and wind turbines are alternative ways of generating power from renewable energy sources and some countries are certainly turning to these alternatives to add to their electricity supply. Do you ever see a time where some countries perhaps might position themselves to rely entirely on this alternative energy?
DONNER: Absolutely. You know, there's one thing that comes out of the research on this is that the future around energy systems, there's a lot of certainty. That it looks like we're really going to be moving towards renewable electricity -- forms of electricity and then using electricity to power our vehicles and to heat or cool our homes around most of the across most of the planet.
And you see the effect on the market, you know, solar P.V. cells so photovoltaic cells the things you put on your roof the price of those have dropped about 87 percent over the past decade. And the price of battery storage, you know, for that electricity has also gone down about 85 percent.
You know, and as a result of that, the International Energy Agency is saying that within three years renewables like solar and wind may actually outpace coal around the planet. So we're seeing this transition happen. The challenge is that what we're doing right now is still kind of in the incremental phase, that we're -- You know, we're making efforts to reduce emissions.
We're really what we need are really transformational efforts to eliminate emissions. And that's gonna take a much bigger commitment from people around the world and from governments around the world. We really need the courage, the guts to look to the future, accept that we're shifting away from fossil fuels and then set the path there.
CHURCH: Let's hope we see that courage. Simon Donner, thank you so much for joining us. I Appreciate it.
DONNER: Thank you.
CHURCH: Pope Francis has made his strongest statement yet on the climate crisis, blaming deniers, rich countries and big industries that choose short-term profits over saving the environment. CNN's Barbie Nadeau reports from Rome.
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BARBIE NADEAU, CN REPORTER: Pope Francis on Wednesday released a 7,000-word encyclical letter on climate change. In it, he blamed climate deniers over the course of the last eight years since he first wrote about climate change for not doing enough to try to reverse the effects. He says, in fact, many of the effects of climate change are already irreversible.
He lays specific blame on wealthy nations, including the United States, which he says has emissions two times higher than China and seven times higher than the poor nations. He says that the opportunity of COP28 in Dubai, which will be held the end of November, first part of December, should not be a missed opportunity and that the world needs to do more, including the Catholic Church, to try to reverse these irreversible effects of climate change.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
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CHURCH: At least 14 people are dead after catastrophic flash flooding following heavy rains in northeast India.
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More than 100 others are missing and at least 26 people have been injured in Sikkim State. But rescue workers are facing an uphill battle because several bridges in the area have been swept away.
And for more, Vedika Sud joins us now live from New Delhi. So Vedika, what is the latest on the aftermath of this deadly flooding?
VEDIKA SUD, CNN REPORTER: Rosemary, at least 14 dead, more than 100 missing, including 22 Army personnel. We know now that more than 2,000 people have been evacuated and more than 20,000 people have been impacted by the flash floods which took place on the third, between the third and fourth of October.
I think it can all be summed up if we show you the satellite image that has been shared by ISRO, which is the space research organization here in India.
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It shows the level of water in the lake, in one of the lakes in northern Sikkim on the 28th of September and then it shows an image a day after the flash floods on the 4th of October. If you look at those images on the 28th there was about 167 hectares of water inside that lake and after the flash flood it's come down to just more than 60 hectares.
That's a huge amount. These are dramatic images that has been shared by ISRO. And that goes on to show that straight after the cloudburst that took place, water went gushing down the river and it's of course gone and hit the low-lying areas around the banks and it has severely damaged, according to the government, their infrastructure and property.
At this time, the focus of the relief and rescue teams will be to try and get as many people to safer land than where they are, and the rains are really not helping. It's a huge challenge, according to the Med Department for the next 48 hours. There will be torrential rains in Sikkim and adjoining areas, and that is going to pose a huge challenge to these teams.
11 bridges have been washed away. The National Highway has been destroyed to a massive extent. Now, these are very important and arterial roads and bridges that we're talking about.
I wonder once, you know, this abates, the rains, the floods. What is this area going to look like? There's been so much damage all over. There are relief camps set up everywhere. The government out there, the state government, is holding meetings and updating the Chief Minister every couple of hours.
You've also had the Indian Prime Minister go ahead and talk about the situation there. And he said he's concerned, and he has promised all help from the center as possible for Sikkim. But at this point, the situation clearly is extremely, extremely grim. Back to you.
CHURCH: Our thanks to Vedika Sud for bringing us that live report.
And 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.
Well meantime, Tropical Storm Philippe is making its way through the Atlantic Ocean with its sights set on Bermuda. The erratic and disorganized storm brought heavy rains and flooding to the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Wednesday. It's expected to pass over or near Bermuda by Friday. Philippe is expected to weaken to a post- tropical storm by the weekend when it's projected to batter parts of New England and Atlantic Canada.
Brazilian 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 two key rivers to improve navigation.
Time for a short break now and when we come back, Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines under constant fire from Russian forces. Now they're coping with a shortage of ammunition.
And there's growing concern after a teenage girl in Iran landed in the hospital. Why activists believe she was attacked over her attire.
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CHURCH: The chaos in the U.S. Congress is prompting concern from the White House to Kyiv that funding could soon run out for Ukraine, with serious consequences on the battlefield. And the Biden administration is already exploring other options. 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 front lines are anxious to get their hands on whatever weapons they can to fight off the Russians. CNN's senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen reports.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. 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 Miron 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 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.
ADM. ROB BAUER, NATO MILITARY COMMITTEE CHIEF: 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.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Eastern Ukraine.
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CHURCH: And CNN's Nada Bashir is following developments live this hour from London. She joins us now. Good morning to you, Nada. So what is the latest on this transfer of Iranian weapons to Ukraine by the U.S. as a solution to getting more munitions to the war-torn nation?
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: Well, I agree with you. We're talking about thousands of weapons, more than a million of rounds of Iranian -- seized Iranian ammunition which is said to have already been transferred to Ukraine, according to the U.S. Central Command. And that transfer is set to have taken place on Monday.
And the intention here is to alleviate some of the pressures that Ukraine is facing when it comes to a shortage in the supply of readily available weapons and ammunition to be transferred from their NATO and Western allies to troops on the front line.
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Now, of course, there have been some questions around the sourcing of these weapons, the legality. According to the U.S. Central Command, these weapons were seized back in December of last year. They were on their way, seized by the U.S. Navy, on their way from Iran to Houthis in Yemen. Now, of course, Iran is facing sanctions. It is under a U.N. arms embargo, so there are questions around the legality of transferring these weapons.
We have heard from the U.S. State Department though, they say that this in no way violates the U.N. arms embargo. Take a listen.
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VEDANT PATEL, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: In the legislative language, authorizing the Department of Defense's Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which they, of course, I'm sure would be happy to speak to you more about.
The Secretary of Defense is authorized, with the concurrence of the Secretary of State, to make available to the government of Ukraine weapons and other defense articles from the United States and other sources. This obviously is one of those other sources.
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BASHIR: Now typically, Rosemary, the U.N. would require these seized weapons to either be destroyed or stored, and they have up until this point been stored in U.S. Central Command facilities in the Middle East. But we know that there have been considerations ongoing for months now around the possible transfer of these weapons to Ukraine. As you heard, the U.S. officials believe that this is totally legal.
And as you saw in Fred's reporting, there has been a real sense of concern around the waning supplies of NATO weapons to Ukraine. We've heard from NATO officials warning that these supplies are beginning to look a bit thin on the ground. In fact, the U.S. Pentagon issued its own warning on Tuesday saying that while there are funds in the U.S. at this current point in time to fulfill Ukraine's battlefield needs, those funds could begin to run out unless urgent action is taken by the U.S. Congress with regards to the U.S. budget.
So that's certainly is a priority for the US and other NATO allies. And we've heard from experts, they say, that while, of course, this won't fulfill all of Ukraine's battlefield needs, particularly as this counteroffensive continues to grind on, this will be a boost for troops on the front line. Rosemary?
CHURCH: All right, our thanks to Nada Bashir joining us live from London.
Russia has sentenced a journalist who protested the war in Ukraine on live TV to eight and a half 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 TV 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.
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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. My mommy believes on this Kremlin propaganda and she said you are treated of Russia and you must go to jail because you start to speak publicly against Putin, and it's very hard, it's a very difficult situation.
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CHURCH: Ovsyannikova says that despite the fallout, she does not regret her protest, saying she made a very difficult, but the only correct moral choice for which she has paid a deep price.
Iran's so-called morality police have been accused of assaulting a teenage girl for not wearing a headscarf. She is now in the hospital and the circumstances surrounding her injuries are extremely murky. 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 details.
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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN 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 Geravand 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 Geravand 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. We have not been able to confirm its authenticity either. 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.
[03:25:10]
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, 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 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.
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CHURCH: Protests on the streets of New Delhi as media groups sound the alarm over what they call an attack on press freedoms in India. It comes after New Delhi police raided the homes of journalists linked to NewsClick, an independent news website that's been critical of the Indian government.
Dozens were questioned and the outlet's founder and a colleague were arrested. Police say devices and documents were also seized as part of an investigation under an anti-terror law. NewsClick describes the raids as an attempt to quote "stifle independent and fearless voices."
Chaos on Capitol Hill coming up next, the fallout from the historic ouster of the U.S. House Speaker as the race to find Kevin McCarthy's replacement heats up.
Plus trouble on the tracks for U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, why he is putting the brakes on a high-speed rail project. We'll have that and more when we come back.
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. 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 for the top leadership post 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 throws aid to Ukraine into jeopardy.
[03:30:00]
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 now from Washington.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The unprecedented move to oust Kevin McCartney as Speaker of the House has set off 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 the charge to oust 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 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, 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 the conference's nominee to be elected speaker. Once they have a majority of votes next week, we expect that vote to happen, then there'll be 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. 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 going to be incredibly tough.
RAJU: Now, as part of the discussions for the speaker candidates is the issue of the motion to vacate. That was what Matt Gaetz used to push out Kevin McCarthy. One member could actually call 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 this period of instability that their party cannot afford.
But some of those hardliners who have threatened to use that tactic, and align themselves with Matt Gaetz 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, made 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 many to divide there is 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: I'm joined now by Michael Genovese. He is a political analyst and president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Maryknoll University. And he's also the author of "The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution." A pleasure to have you with us.
MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: Always great to be with you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: So in the wake of that historic vote to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speakership role, the House has been paralyzed until, of course, that post is filled. Republican representatives 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: Well, I think Steve Scalise is the early favorite, and I think it's overwhelming. He's the majority leader, well-known, has served in leadership. He's liked and trusted by most of the Republican caucus.
[03:34:56]
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 inside 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'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 till November 17 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 the next day that they go on recess until the end of the week. So that'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: Yeah. 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 days may be numbered in the caucus. There's been a really harsh reaction by moderate and even conservative Republicans against him.
They wanna govern, they wanna lead. What they're showing now is they can't govern. 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 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 punishment could take a lot of forms. Certainly the least they could do is take him off his committee assignments. At worst, they could throw him out of the Republican caucus, the Republican conference, that's going 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. I Appreciate it. GENOVESE: Thank you, Rosemary.
CHURCH: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to rally his Conservative Party but many see trouble ahead. At this year's Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Mr. Sunak's speech focused little on some big picture issues facing the public like the cost-of-living crisis and the environment and on one of the most controversial issues, immigration. He declared the U.K. is not a racist country. Just 24 hours after the Home Secretary described a hurricane of migrants to come.
The cherry on the cake was axing the Manchester leg of a high-speed rail project in the conference's host city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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, 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)
CHURCH: Some business leaders in the U.K. are strongly criticizing the decision, calling it a blow to the country's credibility. Here's what the head of the British Chambers of Commerce had to say about the project last week when she appeared on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHEVAUN HAVILAND, DIRECTOR GENERAL, BRITISH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE: People talk about AHSD 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.
[03:39:53]
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' voices 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.
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CHURCH: Luxury, style, opulence. All the things associated with French billionaire Bernard Arnault who owns the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH. But Arnault is now under legal scrutiny in France facing a preliminary investigation for alleged money laundering. Melissa Bell has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world's second richest man is no stranger to red carpets. His name synonymous with luxury and good taste.
BERNARD ARNAULT, FOUNDER, LVMH: Luxury for me is how can you create desire?
BELL (voice-over): From Christian Dior to Louis Vuitton to Tiffany's, Bernard Arnault's luxury conglomerate LVMH includes also vineyards, restaurants and hotels, including the Cheval Blanc Hotel in the exclusive alpine resort of Courchevel.
Now at the heart of far less tasteful allegations, centered on transactions between the French billionaire and Russian oligarch, Nikolai Sarkisov. A Russian and Armenian citizen who's reported to be worth 850 million dollars, which makes him one of the richest people in Russia. He's the co-founder of a Russian insurance company, but not subject to European sanctions.
The story was first reported by the French daily "Le Monde," citing a memo allegedly drafted by the French agency responsible for combating money laundering.
At the heart of the preliminary investigation, 14 properties in Courchevel bought by Sarkisov and a loan, allegedly made by Bernard Arnault, according to the memo. Allegations described as absurd and unfounded by Arnault's lawyer who in a statement goes on to ask who can seriously imagine that Bernard Arnault who has built over 40 years the leading French and European company would engage in money laundering to expand a hotel.
In France, Arnault's name and his estimated $164 billion fortune go far beyond the ephemera fashion.
In building his group, he's cultivated relationships with the powerful, acquiring a fast media empire.
ARNAULT (through translator): The Galerie des Glaces is incredible, of course. Hosting the King of England in the Galerie des Glaces is fantastic.
BELL (voice-over): But beneath the powerful connections and the glamorous brands, the allegation lingers. How far was the world's second richest man prepared to go to make his Courchevel resort bigger and himself even richer?
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: A preliminary investigation does not imply wrongdoing by those concerned. And Sarkisov's team told "Le Monde" that the Russian businessman was not at all personally involved in the transactions linked to suspected money laundering.
Well, the pink tax or higher costs that women in the U.S. pay for their health care may be hurting their health. We will have details in just a moment.
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[03:45:00]
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CHURCH: Another labor clash is underway in America's healthcare industry. On Wednesday, more than 75,000 unionized employees of Kaiser Permanente walked off the job. Now this marks the largest healthcare workers strike in U.S. history and mostly affects Western states. Phase one will last until Saturday.
Kaiser Permanente says a number of tentative agreements have been reached during the negotiations. But a union spokesperson says workers are still waiting for meaningful action from executives. Those picketing include nurses, optometrists and pharmacists. They are demanding higher salaries and improved staffing levels, saying shortages have left them burnt out.
Well, two new reports show that women in the U.S. 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 non-profit Susan G. Komen 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 AND 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 your mammogram is important. There are other very important things. So a lot of people, they just think they 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. Limited 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 can decrease your risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and so forth. And also your weight matters.
Ladies who lose excess weight after menopause can decrease the 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 on your door.
CHURCH: Exactly. And of course, breast cancer has a high cure rate if it's detected early, but still the disease claims around 685,000 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.
[03:50:03]
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?
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.
And 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, over time, 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 is 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 grandmother. 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 that information on to your children and your friends. I don't fear breast cancer. My mother had it, but now with the 3D mammograms and the other modalities, the chance of cure is so high. All we have to do is take those steps.
CHURCH: Dr. Ann Hester, thank you so much for joining us. I Appreciate it.
HESTER: Thank you.
CHURCH: And still to come, talent, hard work and musicality are vital to being a good singer or dancer, but as you'll see, it can just be programmed. Back in a moment.
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CHURCH: It's tough to be a K-pop music star, the work's demanding and competitive, and some performers train for years before aging out or never getting signed to a major label. But what if you could use AI to create the perfect group of singers and dancers who never get old and don't need to rehearse?
CNN's Ivan Watson spoke with the company who made that a reality.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A K-pop confection.
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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.
(on-camera): My name is Ivan. What's your name?
ZAE-IN, VIRTUAL K-POP PERFORMER: My name is Zae-in.
WATSON (on-camera): Can you tell me about your band?
(voice-over): I'm from the world's first virtual K-pop girl group, she tells me.
Zae-in and the 10 other members of Eternity aren't real. Techtainment company Pulse9 created these characters and face swaps them over human actors using artificial intelligence. I'm speaking to an A.I. pop star.
[03:55:06]
(on-camera): Is this the future of entertainment?
ZAE-IN (through translator): Of course, we cannot be seen in person, but if you have a device, you can communicate with us anywhere at any time. As a virtual group, we are not limited by location. We can broadcast anywhere. The only thing we cannot do is sign an autograph.
WATSON (voice-over): And Eternity isn't the only A.I. K-pop creation.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
MAVE is another virtual girl band with videos that have tens of millions of views.
KANG SUNG-KU, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, METAVERSE ENTERTAINMENT: We captured a human's performance and turned it into 3D animation with A.I.
WATSON (voice-over): Kang Sung-Ku and Metaverse Entertainment created Maeve.
(on-camera): Designers say the goal isn't to try to replace human artists like BTS or Beyonce. Instead, they want to create something like the next generation of Siri.
SIRI, VIRTUAL ASSISTANT: I'm Siri. Your virtual assistant.
WATSON (on-camera): But in this case, it would be an avatar that sings and dances that you actually want to talk to.
SUNG-KU: They will remember you, they will know about you, and they will talk based on that information.
WATSON (voice-over): A.I. creations would theoretically develop a unique relationship with every user and be available around the clock on every device.
TYRA, MAVE MEMBER: Hi everyone, this is Tyra from MAVE.
WATSON (voice-over): And not limited by language.
Designers are programming these A.I. pop stars to interact with fans.
The technology still has a long way to go, and some programmers concede there may need to be laws to regulate these creations.
SUNG-KU: We have to be careful, actually. If somebody evil can use it, it might be a disaster.
WATSON (voice-over): Designers say unlike human celebrities, these A.I. pop stars won't age and won't ever tire out and can do anything they're programmed to do.
(on-camera): It's like science fiction, like the robots could be taking over.
ZAE-IN (through translator): Yes, like the robots that conquer the human world, we've appeared to conquer the pop music world to steal people's hearts.
WATSON (voice-over): This may be a glimpse of entertainment in the not-too-distant future.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Hong Kong. (END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Little bit creepy there, right? Thanks for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Enjoy the rest of your day. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Max Foster and Bianca Nobilo.
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