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Pakistan Conducts Airstrikes on Terror Targets Inside Iran, Escalating Tensions; Ecuador Faces Surge in Gang Violence; Prosecutor Investigating Attack Is Assassinated; Ukraine's Military Struggles with Ammunition Shortages Against Russian Forces; President Biden Urges Congress to Pass Funding Bill for Ukraine; Prolonged Communications Blackout in Gaza Amid Ongoing Israeli Attacks; Yemeni Soldiers Say Houthis are Becoming Emboldened; Maersk CEO Warns Red Ship Shipping Disruptions May Last Months; Study: Greenland Ice Sheet Has Lost 5K+ Sq. Km. Since 1985. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired January 18, 2024 - 00:00 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 INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Coming up on CNN.
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MATTHEW MILLER, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: There must be consequences for those attacks.
VAUSE (voice-over): After another round of U.S. military strikes on Yemen's Houthis, the Iran-backed militants remain defiant, though. Their attacks on commercial shipping set to continue. The prosecutor investigating a brazen attack on a TV station in Ecuador has been gunned down and killed in broad daylight. And the closer scientists look at the rate of Greenland's ice melt, the worse and more ominous it seems.
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VAUSE: U.S. forces have again targeted Yemen's Houthis the fourth time in less than a week. According to U.S. Central Command, more than a dozen pre-emptive strikes destroyed Houthi missile launchers, which were loaded, ready to be fired, and deemed an imminent threat to commercial and other shipping in the Red Sea. At least one U.S. warship and one U.S. submarine, the USS Florida, fired Tomahawk missiles. Just hours earlier, the U.S. announced the Houthis would be redesignated as a global terrorist organization because of their ongoing attacks on shipping in the region, which began shortly after Israel declared war on Hamas.
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MILLER: For the past several weeks, the United States, with allies and partners, has made clear that there must be consequences for those attacks. And today's designation follows on our military action last week to hold the Houthis accountable for their actions.
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VAUSE: But so far, military strikes by the U.S. seem unable to prevent further attacks by the Houthis on commercial shipping. The U.S. vessel was damaged earlier on Wednesday. According to U.S. Central Command, a one-way attack drone hit a bulk carrier ship in the Gulf of Aden. No one was hurt, and the ship continued on with its journey. But this marks the Houthis' second direct hit on a U.S. ship just this week.
And just in this hour, another regional escalation with Pakistan striking what it says were terror targets inside Iran, according to a Pakistani security official. Iranian state media reports at least seven people were killed, three women, four children, citing the deputy governor of Sistan and Baluchistan province in southeastern Iran. This comes a day after Tehran launched a strike on Sunni militants inside Pakistan.
CNN's Sophia Saifi is following all of this. The U.S. is also following all of this. What do we know about the target that was hit? This is obviously retaliation. And the other question here is what comes next?
SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: John, I mean, this is definitely an escalation. Pakistan seemed to have been quite unaware when those Iranian airstrikes happened within Pakistan. Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has only just released a statement calling this operation death to the freedom fighters.
They have said in that statement that they have told and shared information with Iran multiple times that there were militants operating within Iran, Iranian territory that were then attacking Pakistan. And they had to then go ahead and do these precision strikes within Iran, which, according to security forces, sorry, security officials, were about seven different targets within Iran itself.
So this is definitely an escalation. Pakistan has specifically in that statement also said that, yes, it respects Iran's territorial integrity. However, it has to make sure that Pakistan's security is not violated. It's called by Iran a brotherly nation. And this is something that was expected, considering the fact that these the strikes by Iran happened inside Pakistan very late on Tuesday night. We hadn't heard anything back from the military at all. There was complete silence. We're still not hearing much from the military. It's the government that is making these statements.
The Pakistani government, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs also recalled the Iranian -- recalled its ambassador from Iran back to Pakistan and asked the Iranian ambassador not to return to Pakistan. It's also suspended all high-level visits between both countries. So, we're just going to have to wait and see whether this is it, whether it's a tit-for-tat for what Iran did on Tuesday night and what has happened, that what Pakistan has done today is going to be an end to this escalation in this part of the region.
[00:05:09] I mean, we do know that stuff is happening in the Middle East with regards to Iran, but this is something that's now bleeding into South Asia. So, we're going to have to wait and see whether this ends or whether this escalates further. John.
VAUSE: Sophia, thank you for the very latest news. Sophia Saifi reporting in live from Islamabad. Karim Sadjadpour is a leading expert on Iran as well as a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He joins me now from Washington. Welcome back. It's been a while. It's good to see you.
KARIM SADJADPOUR, SENIOR ASSOCIATE, CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT: Likewise. Thank you, John.
VAUSE: So, the U.S. focus rains very much on the Houthis. There's been another round of military strikes on Houthi missile launches this time in Yemen. And earlier Wednesday, the group was relisted as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Here's White House National Security Spokesperson John Kirby.
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JOHN KIRBY, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: If the Houthis cease the attacks, we can see that the U.S. is going to be a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, certainly reconsider this designation. If they don't, as the president said, we will not hesitate to take further actions to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce.
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VAUSE: Well, until this point, neither military nor diplomatic pressure seems to be having much impact on the Houthis and their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea. So, you know, why not go after their sponsor? Why not go after Iran?
SADJADPOUR: You know, John, the Biden administration is in a delicate position. On one hand, they want to de-escalate with Iran. At the same time, they want to deter Iran and curb Iranian support for these proxy groups. And the challenge is, if you're constantly signalling to an adversary like Iran, we don't want to fight, we just want to de- escalate, that inadvertently serves to embolden the Iranian regime, because they think, well, America doesn't want to fight, we can continue to support our proxies to, to cause mischief. And so that is the balance that Biden needs to strike between in trying to deter Iran and de-escalate at the same time.
VAUSE: Well, on Tuesday, U.S. Central Command released details about the seizure of a shipment of weapons bound for the Houthis in Yemen. The head of CETCOM saying this, it is clear that Iran continues shipment of advanced lethal aid to the Houthis. This is yet another example of how Iran actively sows instability throughout the region in direct to the resolution 2216, as well as international law. So, in this instance, what is more likely to lead to escalation? And this is to your point earlier, allowing Iran off the hook for supplying weapons which threaten commercial shipping and the global economy, or enforcing the sanctions which the United States and other allies put in place years ago to prevent Iran from doing precisely what it's doing right now.
SADJADPOUR: If you don't censure Iran and its proxies for their adventurism and support for terrorism and disruption of global trade and free flow of oil. Then there's no cause for them to continue to pursue those activities. So, you absolutely have to be firm with Iran. We have a four-decade case study of dealing with the Iranian regime, and this is a regime which tends to only compromise and back down in the face of pressure.
And you have to remember, this is a regime which is arguably the most dominant power in today's Middle East and the countries which they dominate are essentially five failing states, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza and the Palestinian territory. So, this is a regime which wants to see instability because they thrive in instability and filling power vacuums.
VAUSE: We also heard from Iran's foreign minister. He was at Davos. He was speaking in all earnestly or in a very earnest way to say about Iran's concerns for maritime safety. Here he is.
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HOSSEIN AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN, IRANIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (through translator): The security of shipping and maritime navigation is a serious focus of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But the safety of the Red Sea today is tied to the situation in Gaza. We will all suffer and be hurt if the genocide and crimes of Israel in Gaza are not stopped and different front lines remain active.
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VAUSE: It takes a lot of chutzpah to pull off that statement. But just taking a bigger view here, what does success look like here for Tehran? What do the clerics and the mullahs and the elites in Tehran consider a win here out of all of this?
SADJADPOUR: Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has had three clear and consistent goals which haven't changed. Number one, they want to evict the United States from the Middle East. Number two, they want to replace Israel with Palestine. And number three, they want to team with anyone who shares their goal of trying to bring down the U.S.-led world order. And so whether that's these regional proxies like the Houthis or North Korea or Venezuela or Putin's Russia, that is Iran's goal.
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We may say that is a fanciful goal and unrealistic. But 20 years ago, when the Taliban looked like they were defeated forever, you would have said it's also fanciful for the Taliban to ever think that they can come back to power. So, Iran is firmly committed to these ideological goals. And they know they're not a superpower to defeat the United States. But I think they gradually want to try to wear down both the resolve of the United States and Israel. VAUSE: Karim, good to have you with us. Thank you, sir. Good to see you as always.
SADJADPOUR: Thank you so much.
VAUSE: For more than five days now, Gaza has been almost totally cut off from the outside world with a near total communications blackout. This has been the longest stretch without Internet and cell phone service since the war began, leaving Palestinians with no way to call for help amid ongoing Israeli attacks. CNN's Nada Bashir has more details now. And a warning, the images in her report are disturbing.
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NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Relentless strikes piercing the night sky over Khan Yunis. Gaza once again plunged into eerie darkness. Endless tragedies on the ground, obscured by the longest communications blackout imposed on the strip thus far. What little video is still able to reach the world paints a troubling picture. At the al- Nasser hospital in Gaza's south, not only one of the last still functioning here, but also where the World Health Organization says some 7,000 people were sheltering.
Families yet again have been forced to flee. Civilians and patients seen here carrying their children and belongings. As Israeli forces who said they were targeting a Hamas rocket launched against the IDF from the hospital complex, close in.
AMR TABASH, JOURNALIST (through translator): There is heavy fire at the al- Nasser (ph) hospital and in the vicinity. We're seeing huge violent bombings here. We've been trying to share video of what is happening from the highest point at the hospital. But as you can see, the bombardment is severe.
BASHIR (voice-over): Israel maintains it is targeting Hamas infrastructure and tunnels where hostages are said to have been held, which Hamas denies. As the sun rises in Gaza, the death toll also climbs. Families carrying the bodies of those who did not survive the night. My life, my life, this mother cries over her child. Tiny bodies wrapped in shrouds, carried in the arms of bereft parents.
Now amongst the more than 10,000 children said to have been killed in a war they had no part in. Those figures, provided by the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, grow more shocking with each passing day. More than 24,000 people killed in just over three months. Israel says that some 9,000 Hamas fighters were among the dead, though CNN is unable to independently verify this claim.
UMM MUHAMMAD ABU ODEH, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN: These were peaceful people. They were sleeping in their homes. The Israelis told us to go to the south, so we came. But there's no safe place in Gaza. Not in the south, not in the north, not in the middle. Every area is being struck. Everywhere is dangerous.
BASHIR (voice-over): The vast majority of Gaza's 2.3 million population are now internally displaced, concentrated in the south, where Israel's bombardment is only intensifying. The unfolding catastrophe in Gaza, now characterized by the UN's humanitarian office, as a stain on the world's collective conscience. A war, they say, conducted with almost no regard for the impact on civilian life. And now, with little aid getting into the strip, a war that is pushing Gaza past the brink of famine. Nada Bashir, CNN, in Beirut.
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VAUSE: Well, signage of how violent Ecuador is. The prosecutor who was investigating an attack on a TV station last week by those armed gangs has been assassinated. Cesar Suarez was gunned down in broad daylight in Guayaquil Wednesday. Ecuador has struggled with the surge of gang violence since one of its top drug lords escaped from prison this month, leading to a state of emergency and a nationwide crackdown on crime. CNN's David Culver reports now from Guayaquil.
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DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ecuador already under a state of emergency, and yet another spark of violence here, this time involving a prosecutor who was investigating a terror-related case. Now, this prosecutor was gunned down in his car as he was headed to a court hearing. The prosecutor also happened to be the same individual who was looking into that television station that had been really just invaded, essentially, by 13 armed men who went in in the middle of a live broadcast, and they had not only guns with them, but also explosives.
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At one point putting a dynamite in the front pocket of one of the news anchors. They caused terror inside that station for more than an hour. But the fact that that was broadcast live across this city and then amplified really through social media around the world is what really sparked a lot of concern and fear more than anything else. Folks for several days refusing to leave their home, kids doing virtual learning, not going to school and in the days since we've started to see folks slowly emerge from that wanting to get back to normal life.
But what played out for that prosecutor being shot and killed Cesar Suarez is an example of this still ongoing internal armed conflict. That's how President Noboa has labeled this and he says his focus is to neutralize these terror groups. Now you need to take a step back and look at why this is going beyond Ecuador.
Folks might just say that's an isolated issue with a country that unfortunately was seen as an island of peace and is no longer. But it's bigger than that. And President Noboa has hit on this. He's called on the U.S. to help out. To help when it comes to resources for armed forces, for police, everything from jackets to helmets to ammunition. And his argument is that if this isn't stopped here in Ecuador that drugs in particular could continue to flow north into the U.S. and cause even more chaos for Americans.
Beyond that, though, you have to think if you're destabilizing this country, then you have folks here who for many years have been very content here and suddenly will start to think what we need to pack up and go somewhere else. Where will they go? The argument is they'll go north and they'll add to the crisis at the U.S. southern border. For that reason, a lot of the officials here are calling on the international community to step in and to halt the violence here in Ecuador, one that has really caused a lot of concern, a lot of fear and one that is not expected to end anytime soon. David Culver, CNN, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
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VAUSE: Ukraine's military supplies are dwindling and straight ahead, troops on the front line speak to CNN as they wait for the West to provide more ammunition.
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VAUSE: U.S. President Joe Biden called on Congress to swiftly pass a massive funding bill for Ukraine, stressing it's vital for protecting the free world.
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VAUSE (voice-over): The president met with congressional leaders at the White House Wednesday to try and find a way out of a weeks-long impasse. Republicans say any new funding for Ukraine is linked to tighter border security. Senate Majority Leader Democrat Chuck Schumer came away from the talk saying he is more optimistic than ever before about reaching an agreement with Republicans.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (R-NY): There was tremendous focus on Ukraine and an understanding that if we don't come to Ukraine's aid, that the consequences for America around the globe would be nothing short of devastating.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): We understand that there is concern about the safety, security, sovereignty of Ukraine, but the American people have those same concerns about our own domestic sovereignty and our safety and our security.
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VAUSE: A presidential advisor to in Ukraine warns any slow solutions to the war will have disastrous long-term impacts not just on Ukraine but the rest of the world. And while Ukraine waits for more aid from the West, troops on the front lines are forced to ration ammunition for weapons that are often decades old. CNN's Fred Pleitgen reports now from eastern Ukraine.
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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Battle is already in full swing when the artillery unit gets their orders. Their battle cat Sioma (ph) follows the commander to the U.S.- provided M777 gun, and they get to work. PLEITGEN: So, the soldiers have now been given a target and they're working as fast as possible to fire as many rounds as accurately towards the Russian positions.
PLEIGTEN (voice-over): Three rounds, that's it. The commander tells me ammo shortages are a real problem here. There is more of a deficit, he says. When we were in Zaporizhia direction, we used 50 to 60 shells a day. Now it's 20 to 30 maximum. The resupply truck only brings a few rounds. And with U.S. military aid ground to a halt, things could get even tougher for the Ukrainians soon. We're near Marinka on the eastern front. The Russians recently managed to take Marinka after essentially annihilating the entire town with their artillery. Moscow's forces face no ammo shortages, the Ukrainians say, after getting around a million artillery rounds from North Korea in the past year.
Even as we prepare to leave, the position is under Russian fire. We drive away, constantly watching for Russian drones and possible artillery impacts. Different day, different front line, similar problems for Ukraine's forces. Major shortages. We're in the battle zone near Avdiivka with a special forces unit called Omega. It's 22 degrees below freezing. They want to fire artillery rockets at the Russians, but lacking Western arms, they've mounted a Soviet-era launcher on a U.S.-made pickup truck. They set up fast, but then this.
PLEITGEN: So, one of the issues that the Ukrainians have using this very old technology is that sometimes it simply doesn't work. It's very cold right now. They think something's frozen, and it's just not working.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): All they can do is de-rig and leave before the Russians see them. We wanted to strike at the enemy's positions, but unfortunately, sometimes it happens. The equipment does not work, he says. Technology does not stand still. See, in this war, the technologies from the West are giving very good results. The unit later did manage to fire three rockets after troubleshooting for several hours. Delays that can be costly in a war where Ukraine is already badly outgunned. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, in eastern Ukraine.
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VAUSE: When we come back, we'll have the very latest on U.S. strikes in Yemen, plus a rare report from the region's vital waterways, where the Iran-backed Houthis are attacking commercial shipping.
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VAUSE: Welcome back everyone. I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN Newsroom. More now on our lead story this hour: U.S. Tomahawk missiles have hit more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen. U.S. officials say the pre-emptive action of the U.S. Tomahawk missile attack on the U.S. Tomahawk strikes hit missile launchers used in attacks on international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Reports by Houthi media have confirmed the strikes. The Iran-backed Houthis control a large part of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and the port of Al Hudaydah.
Earlier on Wednesday, they struck a U.S.-owned and operated vessel in the Gulf of Aden, the second time this week. The U.S. says the Houthis will be relisted as a global terrorist entity, triggering sanctions. Houthi leaders say their attacks on shipping will continue while Israel continues its war in Gaza. These attacks have meant a number of shipping companies have scaled back their routes in the Red Sea. ITN's Rohit Kachroo visited the region and Houthi-controlled territory inside Yemen for this report.
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ROHIT KACHROO, ITV GLOBAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice-over): We're off the coast of Yemen, heading through the Gulf of Aden. It's the latest target of the Houthi missiles. A few dozen miles from here, a U.S.- owned vessel was hit this week. This is a vital artery, but less busy than it should be, because these calm waters have become an unlikely front line.
KACHROO: You can draw a line to here from Washington or from Gaza, from Tel Aviv or Tehran, because this stretch of old conflicts and new campaigns. And what happens next will have consequences for all of us.
KACHROO (voice-over): It was that attack nearby which today led the U.S. administration to officially classify the Houthis as a terror group. But within minutes of that announcement, 50 miles from where we were, another American-owned commercial vessel sailing from Egypt to India was hit by a drone. Again, the Gulf of Aden was the location. Tonight, the Houthis said they were behind the attack, a response perhaps to America's announcement today.
JOHN KIRBY, COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: The Houthis ceased the attacks. We can certainly reconsider this designation. If they don't, as the president said, we will not hesitate to take further actions to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce.
KACHROO (voice-over): The rubble is old. You're looking at the results of fighting with the Houthis, who control territory north of here. The crisis at sea is just another chapter in this desperate decade in Yemen. The Houthis say they're doing what others won't, responding to Israel's attacks in Gaza. And although we heard universal support for Palestinians today, many believe the missile attacks will make matters worse for all.
UNKNOWN (through translator): Our priority is to support Gaza and our country. We support Gaza, but the Houthis are backed by the Iranians. This regime is Iranian, not Yemen.
KACHROO (voice-over): But at Davos today, Iran's foreign minister said it was in Israel's power to end the attacks against ships. And it gave it this ultimatum.
AMIR-ABDOLLAHIAN (through translator): If the genocide in Gaza stops, then it will lead to the end of other crises and attacks in the region. KACHROO: Gaza is the issue. And Iran's public attempt at arm-twisting today is a source of frustration for Yemeni soldiers fighting the Houthis, who fear their rivals are becoming emboldened. This drone operator just back from the north says they're stoking the conflict to win support at home.
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The Houthis must have known the potential consequences when they began attacking vessels consequences when they began attacking vessels. The crisis over shipping routes is about much more than commerce, and the potential for escalation may well be growing.
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VAUSE: Thanks to ITN's Rohit Kachroo for that report.
U.S. officials are warning American merchant ships to avoid transiting through the Red Sea. Now, major maritime insurers are refusing to cover American, British and Israeli vessels in the region for war risk.
And the CEO of shipping giant Maersk says shipment delays and price hikes could, in turn, impact the global economy.
CNN's Richard Quest spoke to Vincent Clerc at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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VINCENT CLERC, CEO, MAERSK: The level of threat today is really, really hard to assess on an objective basis. And I completely understand that, for us, this is really about guaranteeing the safety of our crew, of our ships, and also of the cargo that our customers are trusting us with.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: So, where you're going to have to take the long way round, which is down and around. It adds about ten to 14 days, depending on the -- as I understand that.
CLERC: That is correct.
QUEST: Correct me. But what does it add in terms of cost?
CLERC: So actually, the exact cost of it is something that is really unfolding and that we're trying to get our arms around.
You have different levels of cost. The first one is it takes about 8,000 miles more to get from China to the U.K. South of the Horn. That takes these couple of weeks. That means that we have ships that suddenly have to sail full throttle. That means more emission, more fuel.
It means also that they will not be, despite that, back on time in -- in China. That means also the containers take longer time to turn. So you just have costs piling on here. And the longer this is going to last, the more this is going to cost.
QUEST: So how much of that cost can you pass on? I mean, I suppose if it's already on the high seas, you can't. But freight costs are going up. We know that. Is that you pushing them up? I don't mean you personally, but you know.
CLERC: I think, actually, we have, thanks to maritime law, actually -- who makes -- has anticipated cases such as this one, you will have, actually, the possibility to adjust the freight that is on the water for the extent of transit time.
And that's also what -- what has been in -- what is in the process of being applied.
But further to that, there is a lot of costs that are going to pile on the longer this takes. And initially, we thought this was going to be a fairly short disruption. Now, I think our base case is more going towards month of disruptions. And that means a lot more cost.
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VAUSE: That was Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc, speaking to Richard Quest at Davos.
We'll take a break. When we come back, with Greenland's massive ice sheet melting even faster than scientists had first thought, the consequences could be severe. And perhaps not too far away.
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VAUSE: Yet another major study has raised concerns about the speed at which Greenland's ice sheet is melting.
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The ice sheet is only one of two remaining in the world. New research has found it's shrunk by nearly 5,100 square kilometers since 1985, a lot more than scientists had expected.
If it melts completely, it could raise the global sea level by more than seven meters, have an impact on climate and currents.
Icebergs are shrinking, as well. This one in Antarctica, known as A23- A, currently the world's largest iceberg, more than twice the size of London. But new images show cavernous holes, huge cracks forming as it moves to warmer water, with the erosion being made worse, yes, by a warming planet.
Richard Steiner, a marine biologist and conservation scientist, joins us now from Anchorage in Alaska, where they know a thing or two about ice sheets and ice melt.
Good to have you back, Richard. Thank you for being with us.
RICHARD STEINER, MARINE BIOLOGIST AND CONSERVATION SCIENTIST: Thanks, John. Good to be with you. VAUSE: OK. So here's how NASA describe what's happened to Greenland:
"For the 1985 to 2022 period, the ice sheet was estimated to have lost about 1,140 billion tons, more than 1,000 billion metric tons -- 21 percent more -- more mass lost than the previous assessment."
That's an area three times the size of London. That's according to "The Daily Mail." Reuters went with about the size of the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, while "The New York Times" quoted the European Space Agency: roughly equivalent to an ice cube taller than Mount Everest, covering an area larger than Manhattan.
None of which is particularly helpful in trying to understand how serious this is and what it actually means for the planet. So that's why you're here. What's going on?
STEINER: Well, it's -- we have two very spectacular, very extremely worrying events -- one at the top of the planet and one at the bottom of the planet; one in the Arctic in Greenland, one in the Antarctic with the A23-A iceberg breaking off -- simultaneously reported here. And we should be extremely worried about this.
These observations keep confirming and reaffirming the dire situation we're in and that things are actually worse than was previously expected by the scientific models.
And, you know, in Greenland, the situation -- we already knew that Greenland had lost ice. The increasing rate of ice loss was about six- fold over the last 30 years.
But this new study, the NASA study, basically confirmed that it was even 20 percent more than that by measuring the terminus retreat, the ice, the glacial terminus that were already in the fjords.
So it's worse than we thought in Greenland. And you know, the impacts of this are pretty profound when you start thinking about it, that sea -- one is sea level. Sea-level rise has gone up about six to eight to nine inches over the past century.
If we get our climate, our carbon act in order, it will continue to go up another two feet or so over this century. But if we don't reduce emissions, it'll go up about seven or eight feet this century.
So sea-level rise is a real concern from both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheet.
But a more important issue immediately is the slowing down of these deep ocean conveyor belt currents that drive the global ocean circulation. They ventilate the deep ocean. They -- they help absorb carbon from the atmosphere and heat from the atmosphere.
And if these things slow down, which they are -- the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation has been measured to slow about 15 percent. The Antarctic deep water has slowed about 20 -- 15 to 20 percent. That these things slow down, it could actually shut down a lot of this very potent ocean circulations. And that could have consequences for climate across the planet. VAUSE: Because that's what I want to focus on here, because what AMOC -- A-M-O-C, as they call it. It's a mega ocean current, right?
STEINER: Right.
VAUSE: And what seems sort of an open question, at least at the moment, is this. All this extra freshwater which is going into -- into the ocean, could that be a tipping point which triggers the collapse of that ocean current? You know, maybe it could be 2025. There were some predictions it could be 2050. Maybe it never happens.
But should we be doing everything possible to avoid this even being a possibility, because the consequences, if that does happen, are so severe?
STEINER: Absolutely, absolutely. Without question. And this current we believe has shut down before, about 13,000 years ago. There's evidence that AMOC actually shut down from a short-term warming event.
But you're right. With this -- with the Gulf Stream drifting Northwest, or Northeast over to Europe from the U.S. The water was evaporating at the surface, leaving this very dense saline water that -- that sunk. Very dense and sunk down the largest waterfall on earth, down the Greenland -- South Greenland shelf into deep water.
And that's kind of what drove the whole deep-water Atlantic overturning current. And because there's so much freshwater going in there and in the Antarctic, as well, that thermohaline circulation has slowed down.
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And that's a real worry. That can affect weather, not just in Europe, which was kind of the premise of "The Day After Tomorrow," that fantastical Hollywood movie. The premise was not wrong. It was just, you know, a fantastic depiction of that.
But it could also affect drought and flood situations far distant, in the Himalayas and in Africa and such like that. It could have profound impacts on climate throughout the world.
So we need -- we know these currents are slowing due to this enormous input, hundreds of billions of tons of freshwater every year off of Antarctica and the Greenland ice sheet.
And we know exactly how to slow that down. And that's to reduce carbon emissions --
VAUSE: Yes.
STEINER: -- to try to cool the planet back down. So we just need to do that.
VAUSE: We know what to do. We say it over and over again, every time. We know what to do. We just have to do it.
Richard, as always, thank you for staying up. Thank you for being with us. I very much appreciate it. Thank you, sir.
STEINER: Thanks for reporting the issue. It's very important, John. Thank you.
VAUSE: And thank you. Appreciate that.
Well, some unexpected medical concerns for the British royal family.
Buckingham Palace now said King Charles will be in hospital next week to treat an enlarged prostate, which is benign.
Kensington Palace revealed that Kate, Princess of Wales, underwent successful abdominal surgery Tuesday. She'll be in hospital for two weeks and likely need up to three months to recuperate.
It's not clear why she had the surgery, but a source says it did not involve cancer.
King Charles and the Prince and Princess of Wales have postponed all upcoming royal duties.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is facing criminal tax proceedings in Germany after customs officers in Munich say he failed to declare a very expensive luxury watch.
A source close to the former California governor and actor says he might be auctioning the watch, which he owns, for -- for charity in Austria.
Schwarzenegger reportedly was never given a customs declaration form and agreed to prepay a potential tax. But Munich customs officials weren't able to provide a way for him to actually pay it. So he was detained for a few hours during that process.
The source told CNN Schwarzenegger "cooperated in every step, even though it was an incompetent shakedown, a total comedy of errors that would make a very funny cop movie."
Like "Kindergarten Cop," perhaps.
I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more Arnold Schwarzenegger news and more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT starts after the break.
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