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One Dead, 20 Plus Shot at Super Bowl Celebration; Greek Parliament to Vote on Legalizing Same-Sex Marriages; Gaps in Regulation in the U.S. Fertility Industry; Bollywood Star Shah Rukh Khan on His Hits and Flops. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired February 15, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with some of today's top stories. The FBI is asking people to share their videos from the Super Bowl victory celebration in Kansas City, where a mass shooting left one person dead and more than 20 injured on Wednesday. Three people have been detained in the investigation.
And in New York today, a judge will hear Donald Trump's bid to throw out his porn star hush money case. That is the indictment that made him the first former or current president ever to be criminally charged. Trump is planning to be in court for the hearing.
And --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, ignition and liftoff. Go SpaceX. Go IM-1 and the Odysseus lunar lander.
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NOBILO: The latest mission to the moon blasted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center just a few hours ago. The lunar lander is nicknamed Odie and plans to touch down on the moon next Thursday. If the mission is successful, it will be the first moon landing for the U.S. since the last of the Apollo missions back in 1972.
LGBTQ couples in Greece may soon experience the future they want for themselves in their own country. In just a few hours' time, Greece's parliament will take up a landmark vote to legalize same-sex civil marriages. The bill is expected to pass, and if it does, it will make Greece the first majority-orthodox Christian country to give LGBTQ couples the same rights that heterosexual couples already enjoy.
Elinda Labropoulou joins me now live from Athens. Elinda, tell us more about this bill and how the country is feeling?
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, JOURNALIST: We're waiting for the bill to pass, but it's going to be a difficult one because it's been an issue that has been pivoting the country for a long time now.
On the one hand, you have the activists who have been waiting a long time to see this right, as they call it, be voted in for them to have equality in marriage, something that the Greek Prime Minister has now also supported and put forward.
But he has a lot of opposition within his own party, even. And from what we understand, the battle in parliament is going to be very tough. You will be able to get it voted in, but you will have to do so with the help of the opposition, of the opposition leftist parties.
You have to understand that Greece is a southern country, a Mediterranean country, a more traditional country than most in Europe in many ways. And this is what we've been seeing in polls so far in people's response to the issue.
So while the majority have said yes to same-sex marriage, basically a step up from civil partnerships that Greece had approved 10 years ago, there's a lot of debate on what to do about parenthood, what to do about abortion. These are all issues that have been part of this legislation.
And if we understand that if this bill does go through, it will allow same-sex couples to adopt. It will give them full parenthood rights. This is something that the Greek Orthodox Church in a country that's predominantly Christian, it's over 80% Christian has been proposing very strongly. There have been demonstrations in relation to this.
Both the clergy, members of the public have come very much all around where I am now, just here in outside parliament. Five days ago, we had a big demonstration. Today, on the other hand, we expect the activists to be here to support the bill and to hope that it gets through.
Now, if this bill goes through, it will be the first Orthodox majority country that will see such a bill. This is very significant for human rights in Greece, for the region, and it's something activists here have been waiting for -- for a long time.
NOBILO: Elinda Labropoulou in Athens. Thank you.
Japan's once bustling economy is now in a recession. Its gross domestic product shrank at an annualized pace of 0.4% in the last three months of 2023. That is the second consecutive quarter of economic contraction.
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The data from the government shows Japan has lost its position as the world's third largest economy to Germany. Japanese customers have pulled back their spending as they contend with higher prices for food, fuel and other basic goods.
And the U.K. is now officially in a recession. That is according to the Press Association, which says government data shows the economy took another fall at the end of last year. GDP dropped by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. That followed a slight decline in the third quarter as well. And that's technically a recession, which is defined by two or more consecutive quarters of contracting output.
New analysis by Goldman Sachs concludes that Brexit has been a bust. The investment bank says the U.S. has significantly, the U.K., rather, has significantly underperformed other advanced economies since leaving the European Union in 2016.
It reports GDP has fallen short of similar countries by about 5%, along with higher inflation, less trade and shortages in labor. It's not all Brexit's fault, though. Goldman Sachs says the pandemic and the energy crisis are also partly to blame here.
With the increasing use of easily available genetic testing, several cases of fertility fraud are being uncovered throughout the United States. In some extreme cases, fertility doctors misled their female patients and their families by secretly using their own sperm instead of that of a donor. CNN's Kyung Lah spoke to a woman whose story reflects the loosely regulated nature of the U.S. fertility industry.
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VICTORIA HILL, DISCOVERED FERTILITY DOCTOR WAS HER BIIOLOGICAL FATHER: I mean, I'll just put it out there. I mean, I was intimate with my half-brother.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: But he didn't know.
V. HILL: We didn't know, yeah.
LAH (voice-over): They couldn't have known.
In the early 2000s, they were two teenagers growing up in Wallingford, Connecticut, a suburb like any other where Victoria Hill met her high school boyfriend.
V. HILL: This I think was junior year.
LAH: Obviously, you're dating here.
V. HILL: Yeah.
LAH: What Victoria didn't know then --
MARALEE HILL, MOTHER: My husband and I tried for a while and it wasn't working.
LAH: What was the infertility world, like back then?
M. HILL: Back then, everything was quiet, that's kept -- not really secret, secret, but it wasn't advertised.
LAH: Her mother Maralee Hill turned to a New Haven, Connecticut fertility specialist, Dr. Burton Caldwell. She says Dr. Caldwell told her he would inseminate her using an anonymous medical student's sperm. Hill got pregnant.
V. HILL: There's babe me. M. HILL: I kind of erased it in my mind that they weren't my husband's
biological children.
LAH: Until recently when Victoria took a commercially available DNA tests curious about her health history. To her shock, she found half- siblings, she never knew existed. One of them reached out, revealing their biological father is Dr. Caldwell.
V. HILL: When I opened it up, it basically just kind of put out there what you're seeing, some half siblings because we believe that the doctor did your mother's fertility treatment might be are biological father. And I just -- I just remember sitting there just being like just like -- just like, what? What is happening?
LAH: Victoria's high school boyfriend who asked his identity be concealed was also donor conceived. His parents also use Dr. Caldwell. The boyfriend took a deal in a test.
V. HILL: He texted me and it was a screenshot of the 23andMe connection. And it said you are my sister. What? We're siblings? So --
LAH: She continued to find more brothers and sisters all discovered through DNA.
(On camera): All connected to Dr. Caldwell?
V. HILL: Yeah. I've slept with my half sibling. There were four of us that we know of in the same high school. And other half sibling, we went to the same elementary school and that's just in the 23 that I know.
My children have 41 first cousins that we know of. Most which are local. So how many could there be?
LAH: Victoria's story is a worst-case scenario in the fertility field. The FDA regulates sperm and egg donations, but doesn't limit the number of donations nor the amount out of offspring vastly behind some Western countries with tighter controls. And when it comes to doctors using their own sperm without patient consent, there's currently no federal law and only 13 states with existing fertility fraud laws.
V. HILL: I consider you guys sisters or I'll say like half-sisters.
ALYSSA DENNISTON, DISCOVERED FERTILITY DOCTOR WAS HER BIOLOGICAL FATHER: A lot, more people than we know, struggle to conceive. And that's why all of our moms did what they did because they wanted -- they wanted babies. They would do anything.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For my kid's sake, I hope you get the tall genes.
LAH: Victoria and two of her half-sister say they are Caldwell's biological children, all born within four years in the 1980s, it's only through commercial genetic tests that they can track their growing numbers.
[04:40:03] V. HILL: None of us knew and every single time it comes up, we end up having to relive what that experience was like.
LAH: So, Janine, you went and saw Dr. Caldwell?
JANINE PIERSON, DISCOVERED FERTILITY DOCTOR WAS HER BIIOLOGICAL FATHER: Yes.
LAH: You snapped a picture. Why did you take a picture?
PIERSON: I wanted proof, but I still when I see that picture it's this sick feeling. I felt strongly that I had to meet him to make him and the whole situation real and tried to make it make sense.
LAH: Janine Pierson filed a civil lawsuit against Caldwell last year. It's all she can do for some sense of justice.
V. HILL: We don't want this to happen to anybody else.
DENNISTON: Right.
LAH: Dr. Caldwell stopped practicing sometime in the early 2000s, but he still lives here in Connecticut. So we decided to stop and see if we could chat with him.
OK. So, I saw Dr. Caldwell. He appears to be frail, quite elderly. I chatted briefly with his wife, who did not want to talk.
MATT BLUMENTHAL, ATTORNEY: The law is frankly way behind technology in this area.
LAH: Attorney Matt Blumenthal represents Victoria Hill, her high school boyfriend and Hill's mother. There are dozens of reported cases like this. Other fertility doctors accused of impregnating their patients, hundreds of offspring who only recently discovered the truth because of DNA testing.
BLUMENTHAL: That's been kept from them for so long. They can't do anything about it because the legal system may not provide them a remedy.
V. HILL: It's insane to me that there's just no justice, there's no recourse. The reason why I'm telling the story. I mean, for me coping, I need to make meaning of this somehow.
I am happy to be alive, but I don't want to be the product of a fraud.
LAH (on camera): Victoria Hill joined by advocates, are spending the rest of this week trying to talk to members of Congress. They are pushing for proposed federal legislation that would outlaw fertility fraud. The bill has been written. It is sitting in the House. We will be following them on their journey.
We did reach out to Caldwell's attorney one more time. He did not have any comment. Kyung Lah, CNN, Washington.
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NOBILO: New York City is suing several social media networks over the mental health crisis facing young people. The lawsuit alleges TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube are responsible for the rise in youth mental health issues including depression and suicidal thoughts. City officials say they are seeking monetary damages to pay for mental health treatment.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook says it offers tools to support kids and their parents. Snapchat says its platform is designed to help users connect with each other. TikTok and YouTube have not responded yet.
Ahead Bollywood Star Shah Rukh Khan says that -- tells CNN about some of his career stumbles appropriately and the food that he learned to perfect.
Plus, Lewis Hamilton's emotional moment as he embarks on his final season behind the wheel with Mercedes, when we come back.
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NOBILO: One of Bollywood's biggest stars took center stage this week at the world's government summit in Dubai, where he sat down with CNN. Shah Rukh Khan was voted one of the world's most influential people by readers of "Time Magazine." He's acted in dozens of movies and tv series and hosted a popular game show in India as well. But after some self-described flops, Khan returned last year to blockbuster glory. He discussed his career with CNN's Richard Quest.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Between 2018 and 2023, you just had two or three films that were not as successful. Suddenly he disappears and everybody thinks, oh, he's licking his wounds. He's feeling sorry for himself. He's -- whatever. And then he comes back in '23 with three blockbusters. What was going on in that interim period?
SHAH RUKH KHAN, BOLLYWOOD ACTOR: So you're very kind. Indians had massive flops, and they did very, very badly. And I was doing all of that. I was licking my wounds. I was not in -- you know what I did for four years, I've never said this to anyone, though I've mentioned it. But today, here, I'll tell everyone. I learned how to make the best pizza in the world. That's what I did. Honest to God. I stopped listening to stories. I stopped wanting to tell stories. I found myself and made myself a small kitchen. And I started learning how to make pizzas. And I learned what you asked me, right, to begin with, perseverance. Because to get the perfect pizza, it takes millions of square pizzas before you're able to make it completely round. So I learned perseverance, and I will make the best pizza in the world.
QUEST: Was it difficult to know now is the time to go back? KHAN: You know, I'd become indulgent. I'd started becoming too
innovative. I was looking for perfection. And I started failing. I needed to look for excellent. I needed to be unique. But I needed to look at the audience, what they want. And I'd stop hearing the crowds. I used to go where there are thousands and lacks of people waving at me, but I wouldn't hear or feel what they wanted to see of me. I was going there and waving, and I'm saying, whatever I make, I'll be innovative. So I did a film about a vertically challenged guy. I did a film about a manic psychopathic fan. And I'm like, no. People just like to see me giving hope and happiness and love. So let's get back to that.
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NOBILO: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle bundle up and head to Canada. But the pair is helping to kick off, just ahead.
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NOBILO: Lewis Hamilton is revved up heading into his final season driving for Mercedes in Formula One. And to mark the occasion, Mercedes unveiled a heavily revised car. The team says it addressed the weaknesses in last year's model, making it more secure and faster as well. Hamilton says he's very motivated to get going at the season. 39 -year-old Britain reflected on his time with Mercedes.
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LEWIS HAMILTON, 7-TIME WORLD CHAMPION: Yeah, it has obviously it's been emotional, it's very surreal to be here, given I came here in 2013, so 11 years with the team, starting my 12th, and it is such a privilege to work with a group of people where you see the work they're doing over the winter. We go through this process over the last couple of years. You see a car come together at the beginning of the year, it's the most exciting part of the season really.
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NOBILO: The 7-time world champion signed a multi-year deal with Ferrari. The season starts on March 2nd in Bahrain.
And while Wednesday was no doubt a deeply sad one for many people in Kansas City, there was a party before the shooting as the Chiefs celebrated their Super Bowl win.
The team rode through the city on a double-decker bus, including quarterback and MVP Patrick Mahomes. One fan captured video of Titan Travis Kelce pouring a drink down the Vince Lombardi Trophy and into his mouth.
A bit later, he proved his musical abilities are no match for his girlfriend, Taylor Swift. Kelce could barely stand up, let alone sing Friends in Low Places.
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An estimated one million people turned out for that parade and rally.
Stories in the spotlight this hour. Taylor Swift is ready to kick off the next leg of her record-breaking era's tour. The singer landed in Melbourne, Australia, early on Thursday.
Fans lined up at the airport to catch a glimpse of the Grammy Award Winner, who just made history with a fourth Album of the Year win. It's been a whirlwind for Swift lately, who headed straight from concerts in Tokyo back to the U.S. to catch her boyfriend Travis Kelce win the Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs. Swift will spend this weekend performing in Melbourne and next weekend she's on to Sydney.
Marvel Studios gave an unexpected Valentine's Day gift to fans on Wednesday, revealing the cast of its long-awaited "Fantastic Four" reboot film on social media.
The studio posted this image, a rendering of the new cast members posing as their super alter egos. The film will feature Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the "Fantastic Four" family. This will be the third cast to tackle those roles since 2005. It's set to hit theatres in July of next year.
And the Duke and Duchess of Sussex braved the bitterly cold temperatures in Canada at the winter training camp of the Invictus Games. The pair are spending three days in Whistler as the countdown to the games begins.
On Wednesday, they met with athletes and tournament staff. Prince Harry also tried out some of the equipment that will be used at the game set to take place next February in Vancouver.
That does it here on CNN Newsroom. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London. Have a wonderful day. Early Starts is next.
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