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Officials: At Least 400 Dead After Israelis Strikes In Safe Zone; Kamala Harris And Donald Trump Set To Face Off In High-Stakes Debate; Ukraine Recruits Prisoners To Beef Up Forces; Democrats Dismiss Republican Report In Afghanistan Withdrawal As "Politics"; Apple Unveils First iPhone With Generative AI Tools, iPhone 16 and 16 Pro; New Apple Watch Could Detect Sleep Apnea and Apple's New Airpods Could Double as Hearing Aids; Legendary Actor James Earl Jones Dead at 93. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired September 10, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:33]

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world, and to everyone streaming on view -- on CNN Max, I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong.

Just ahead, well, dozens of people are dead, and a desperate search is now underway for victims buried under the rubble in Gaza after an Israeli strike on a humanitarian zone sheltering displaced civilians.

Counting down the hours to debate night, Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump set to face off in Philadelphia in their first ever presidential debate.

And Apple embraces A.I., unveiling a new iPhone designed for artificial intelligence. But does it live up to the hype?

ANNOUNCER: Live from Hong Kong, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Anna Coren.

COREN: We begin in Gaza, where officials say at least 40 people are dead after an Israeli air strike on an area which was supposed to be a safe zone for displaced Palestinians. A desperate search for survivors is underway, but Gaza Civil Defense says crews are facing great difficulty in retrieving victims due to the lack of resources.

Israel says it was striking Hamas terrorists operating a command center embedded in the humanitarian zone, and it took steps to prevent harm to civilians.

But a Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson says there was no advance warning of the strike. Hamas denies its fighters were present in the area.

For more, let's go to CNN's Paula Hancock in Abu Dhabi with the latest Paula, what are you learning? PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anna, this is

an area that's been designated a humanitarian area by the Israeli military. It's where thousands of Palestinians have moved to in the past months, trying to find a safe area and also being evacuated from other areas where operations were ongoing.

So, it's an area where we have seen Israeli strikes in the past. This particular one happened in the early hours of today, the early hours of Tuesday morning, and we understand from the Gaza civil defense, they say eyewitnesses believe there were five strikes and there are three large craters which have been left.

Now, the Civil Defense says that there were about 200 tents in this particular area, and at least 20 of them have completely disappeared. They fear that there are entire families that are buried in the sand.

Now we can see from the images coming through to us that people are trying to get to any survivors and those who have lost their lives with their bare hands, the officials there saying they lack the heavy equipment which is needed to carry out a significant search and rescue operation.

Now, from the Israeli side, the Israeli, the IDF, along with the Air Force and the security agency say that they carried out this targeted operation on this area because they say there was a Hamas command and control center that had been embedded inside the humanitarian area. They say that they did try and mitigate civilian casualties, that they used precise munitions, aerial surveillance and additional measures.

Now, we've heard from the Gaza civil defense that there was no warning to the civilians in the area before these strikes took place, and we understand that afterwards, many fled the area as well, trying to find another area that they would believe to be safe.

But it's worth stressing that this was a humanitarian area designated by Israel as a place where those they are telling to evacuate needed to move to. So, as I say, three large craters, we believe at this point, the officials on the ground saying they fear that there are entire families buried in the sand. At least 40 deaths we are hearing at this point. Obviously, information is still coming through that could change, and officials on the ground believe more than 60 have been injured, bearing in mind that the health infrastructure in Gaza has been decimated, and fears that there are dozens more that are still missing.

But as I say, this is not the first time that this so called humanitarian area has been targeted by Israel. Back in mid-July, they -- the Israeli Defense Force carried out a strike to try and target a Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif who they believe later that did, in fact -- was in fact killed in that particular operation.

[02:05:19]

At that point, more than 90 Palestinians were killed. So, we have seen these Israeli strikes, even in this area that the Palestinian evacuees are supposed to move to when there is a significant Hamas target that Israel believes it needs to eliminate, Anna.

COREN: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi. We appreciate the update. Thank you.

In less than 24 hours, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will meet face-to-face for the first time on a debate stage in what has the potential to be an election defining moment.

The Democratic presidential nominee arrived in Philadelphia on the eve of the debate after days of preparations for the high stakes showdown.

In an interview released on Monday, Harris said she predicts Trump is going to lie and use his old and tired playbook to attack her personally.

Meantime, the Trump campaign spokesperson says Trump is "going to be himself," while previewing some likely lines of attack, including that Harris, "owns everything from this administration."

Both candidates are hoping to sway still undecided voters when they meet Tuesday night in Philadelphia as the race for the White House remains tight.

Well, CNN correspondents are in Philadelphia covering both campaigns. Kristen Holmes will have a report in just a moment on the Trump team. But let's start with Priscilla Alvarez who is following the Harris campaign.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris arriving to Philadelphia on Monday for what will be her first face-to-face encounter against former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night. Now, that debate, one that the vice president has been preparing for for weeks and over the last several days, was in Pittsburgh, where her and her team did mock sessions, as well as reviewed policy books to, again, try to identify where the former president has flipped on issues, something that she's likely to mention during the debate on Tuesday.

But her debate team is also preparing her for possible insults, derogatory comments and name calling from the former president and the vice president suggesting in an interview that she is well prepared for that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He plays from this really old and tired playbook, right? Where he -- there's no floor for him in terms of how low he will go and we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now a close Harris ally tells me that the vice president is also keenly aware that this is also an opportunity for her to try to appeal to a large audience of voters, especially those persuadable and undecided voters, and doing that by presenting a vision and policies, especially on issues like the economy, which up until this point, she has lagged behind former President Donald Trump on in the poll.

So, her team both preparing her for what may be insults from the former president, but also trying to keep her focused on policy.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Philadelphia.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Trump campaign held a preview call on Monday, going over some of what seems to be Donald Trump's debate strategy, or at least what he plans to use as attack lines against Kamala Harris. We heard from Jason Miller, Matt Gaetz, the Florida representative, as well as former Representative Tulsi Gabbard. Not surprising, all of them have been helping Donald Trump with his preparation, even though, of course, Donald Trump himself doesn't call it preparation.

Here's what we heard Miller talking about in terms of what you might hear from Donald Trump on Tuesday.

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JASON MILLER, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: Another opening I do want to point out here that Harris has clearly created with all the flip flops within the ill-fated interview with Dana Bash, is Kamala said that her values haven't changed, which really opens the door to talk about, what are those values, what has Kamala Harris stood for over the years going all the way back to the beginning. And with the point being, these are dangerously liberal policy positions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: He also alluded to potential surprises, which is unclear what exactly that would be, especially given the fact that, remember, there is no live audience here, so it's kind of limited in what those surprises might play out to be.

He's also asked about what exactly the preparation looked like. We were told on that call, something that we've heard time and time again from Donald Trump's senior advisers, where they essentially say that everything Donald Trump does is a part of preparation, talking about interviews, short or long, going and speaking before a town hall, getting asked questions at the New York Economic Club. These are things they call his kind of preparation.

We also know he sits for what they call policy sessions to talk to some of those senior advisers about policy, but also about how to pivot to the issues that they believe will help Donald Trump win in November, like immigration, like crime, like inflation.

[02:10:03]

The biggest question we are hearing from a lot of Donald Trump's allies is, will he be able to control his temperament though. All of this preparation is for not if he shows that he lets Kamala Harris get underneath his skin, that is what I have been told by number of allies.

However, as we have seen time and time again, this is all going to come down to Donald Trump and how he chooses to present himself when he takes the stage on Tuesday.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, Philadelphia.

COREN: Well, tune in for special coverage of the ABC News presidential debate simulcast here on CNN. It will air this Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We will replay the debate on Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. Eastern, that's 7:00 a.m. in London.

Russian officials say their forces have intercepted more than 140 Ukrainian drones, some of them heading for Moscow.

Images on social media appear to show what looks like a fire in a residential building in the Moscow region. Local officials say at least one person was killed as a result of the attack, and three more were injured. The Russian Defense Ministry says 144 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight, including 20 over the Moscow region. Local officials say some of the drones landed just 38 kilometers south of the Kremlin.

Well, after 2-1/2 straight years of war, Ukrainian forces are losing morale, and many of them are losing their lives. Well, right now, Ukraine is trying to repel Russia's advance on the key military supply hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, but they're not having much success.

Fred Pleitgen has the latest from the embattled city and a warning, his report contains graphic video.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Ukrainian troops sweeping into a village on the eastern front, but these aren't career soldiers, they are ex-convicts who volunteered from prison, got some basic training and were thrust into battle.

Vitaly, 41-years-old, 10 years in jail for theft and violent assault now, assaulting Vladimir Putin's army.

VITALY, EX-CONVICT, SHKVAL COMPANY IN 59TH BRIGACE (through translator): We have a goal. We have a task and we must do it. We're never confused, always focused. You need to be very quick there.

PLEITGEN (voice over): The ex-convicts are part of Ukraine's 59th Brigade. They are camped near the frontline, rudimentary, but a lot better than jail.

Our conversations remain basic about survival or death.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He who has a strong spirit wins. He who has a weak spirit dies.

PLEITGEN (voice over): Many are dying here on both sides. The 59th Brigade gave us this video showing Russians fleeing a burning house as the ex-convicts attack.

But Vitaly admits they are suffering casualties.

VITALY (through translator): We were moving into a position and my buddy was blown apart as soon as we went into the field.

He was dismantled. It's hard to watch, but what can you do? You can't help.

PLEITGEN (voice over): Their deal is simple, fight, survive and become free men.

VITALY (through translator): I need turn the page of my life. I have five children after all. I need to think about my kids a little bit and about myself. My life was a mess.

PLEITGEN (voice over): Company commander Oleksandr says his men performs some of the most dangerous assaults around here. Oleksandr was a jail warden and many of those here, his inmates.

He recruited them and says the traits that put them in jail now keep them alive.

OLEKSANDR, COMMANDER, SHKVAL COMPANY IN 59TH BRIGACE (through translator): The convict subculture is used to surviving. They survived in very harsh conditions and they will make every effort to survive.

PLEITGEN (voice over): This unit is part of Ukraine's force defending the key logistic hub of Pokrovsk.

PLEITGEN: Pokrovsk is now one of the main frontline towns in the war in Ukraine. As you can see, the streets here are virtually deserted. At the same time, the Russians are hitting this place with really heavy munitions, everything from artillery shells to large rockets.

PLEITGEN (voice over): After major advances, the Russians are knocking on the door here. Shells and rockets constantly impacting especially in the evenings and that's when the medics from the 68th Mountaineer Brigade start receiving most of the heavy casualties.

They show us this video supplied max pro armored vehicle hit by a Russian drone. Two killed, four severely injured. Casualties in Ukraine's military already badly outmanned cannot afford the medic who goes by the call sign Barbarian tells me.

"BARBARIAN", MEDIC 68TH BRIGADE: (through translator): There are fewer of us. One of us matches 20 Russians, but we lack training. The training period is very short. We lack equipment. They took the initiative in the sky. I mean, drones.

[02:15:11]

PLEITGEN (voice over): And Russian drones are also lethal at night, so we leave Pokrovsk as darkness falls, Ukrainian troops heading towards the front hoping to keep Putin's army away from this key city. Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in London for talks with British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. They'll be discussing a range of issues, including the war in Ukraine, de-escalation in the Middle East, and security in Europe.

Lammy says the talks are meant to deepen the economic and security partnership between the U.S. and the U.K. as part of the two countries special relationship.

House Republicans are out with a scathing report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Why the White House is pointing the finger at the Trump administration, just ahead.

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COREN: In a controversial move, Germany will start imposing stricter controls at all nine of its land borders, while giving officials more power to reject migrants at border crossings. It's an attempt to address concerns over immigration and to confront public anger and fear following recent fatal knife attacks where the suspects were asylum seekers.

A Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS confessed to an attack at a street festival last month that killed three people. The tighter measures will begin in a week and last for six months.

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NANCY FAESER, GERMAN INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): This will serve to further limit irregular migration and protect against the acute dangers posed by Islamist terror and serious crime. We are doing everything we can to better protect the people in our country against this. This includes the far reaching measures I am taking now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Well, Germany's center left ruling party is hoping the new measures will curb rising support for the far right, which is campaigning heavily on the immigration issue.

The Biden administration is blasting a House committee report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Republicans insist it's not political despite adding Vice President Kamala Harris's name more than 200 times since their initial report.

CNN's Manu Raju has the details.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: House Republicans releasing a scathing report about the withdrawal from Afghanistan, placing the blame directly on the Biden administration, or they say, Biden-Harris administration, about everything that went draw -- went wrong in that chaotic withdrawal from America's longest running war. In fact, saying in this report, "The Biden-Harris administration

prioritized optics over the withdrawal of the -- over the security of U.S. personnel," and also saying it, "misled and in some cases directly lied to the American public about the withdrawal."

Republic -- Democrats dismissing this report, saying it is all politics aimed at undercutting Vice President Harris on the eve of the presidential debate.

[02:20:06]

In fact, this report mentions Kamala Harris's name a total of 251 times. That is much different than the interim report that Michael McCaul, the chairman of the committee, put out before Harris was a nominee. In that report, her name was just mentioned just twice.

But McCaul contending this has nothing to do with politics, saying that the next time there's such a withdrawal, there may be much changes to American policy and criticizing the Biden administration in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): It's a historic document. It's not a political document. It was a document designed to get to the truth. This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions. Some say Saigon was the worst. I say this was for many reasons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, the White House pushing back on this report and also noting that -- contending that it was Biden whose hands were tied over this issue because of the agreement that the Trump administration had inked with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan, saying that Joe Biden had a decision to make essentially follow through with that plan, or essentially keep that war running and say they had to do this because of that agreement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISOR: The Trump administration cut a deal called the Doha agreement that mandated a complete U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and yes, that included Bagram Air Base.

President Biden, for his part, faced a stark choice when he came to office, abide by the flawed agreement and end America's longest war or blow up the deal, extend the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Republicans say this investigation is not over yet. There plans to be more potentially hearings, potential subpoenas for some of those decision makers who they say did not cooperate with this committee's investigation.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

COREN: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling is a CNN Military Analyst and a former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and seventh army. He joins us now from Florida. Lieutenant General, wonderful to see you.

Obviously, a lot to unpack. But firstly, what do you make of this highly politicized Republican report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and do we learn anything new?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think you put it right in the right condition, Anna, when you said highly politicized, it is a highly politicized report. Many people knew it was going to come out from, primarily those in the Republican Party, the members of that committee. It's been answered by the Democrats.

And unfortunately, because there has been so many other investigations into the actions of both the Afghan war, but also the final days of the evacuation operation and the chaos that pursued that, there's not going to be much additive, in my view, to this.

Having skimmed through both the reports, both the Republican report and the Democratic rebuttal to it, I didn't learn anything new. Truthfully, there has been several after actions conducted by both the Department of Defense, the military and the State Department, as well as Central Command, and they are covering all the things. They know what they have to learn from what occurred during this chaotic couple of days.

But there's also the issue of the entire war. You know, how many mistakes were made, what do we learn in terms of lessons, how do we try and polish those things so we don't repeat those kind of tragedies in the future.

COREN: I want to talk about the lessons. But firstly, I really like your opinion on, you know, the fact that perhaps this was always going to happen.

You know, I was in Afghanistan for the U.S. withdrawal of Bagram, which happened the month before the ultimate pullout. I don't think anyone fully understood how quickly everything was unraveling.

You know, worst case scenario from intelligence at the time was that the Afghan government would fall in six months. It happened within weeks. And some would argue that as soon as the U.S. said it was pulling out, that this was always going to happen, no matter whether it was Democrats or Republicans that were in power. Would you agree with that?

HERTLING: I most certainly would. And when we say, when the announcement was made that we were pulling out and it looks serious. Remember, the first announcement by the members of the Trump administration was that it would take place by the first of May. The new president, President Biden, delayed that several months, primarily because, as he knows, the military has to take action. You have to not only get equipment out, but you have to get people out. And I think when we're talking about coming on the cusp of the two

administrations and the transfer of power from one to the other, there seemed to be a lot of confusion. And I think the Biden administration made it perfectly known that they weren't getting the kind of information that they needed from both the Trump State Department and Department of Defense, and that caused problems in terms of the final withdrawal in the end state.

[02:25:13]

So yes, it's difficult, you know, having done or prepared for not having a head execute a noncombatant -- a noncombatant evacuation operation, what's called a NEO, I know how difficult those missions are.

And when the government falls apart and when the local security forces turn pale and run, which is what happened with the Afghan army and all the security forces and the Taliban was gaining ground over the several weeks preceding the evacuation. All of those led to the kind of chaos that you're showing on the screen right now.

COREN: Well, as you're saying, I mean, this was a government that was a -- the Afghan government was a house of cards, and it did not have the backing of its military. Was there an intelligence failure here? You know that the U.S. governments, that's plural, Obama, Trump and Biden, were propping up a charade?

HERTLING: Well, you know, it's a combination of a couple things, I think, partly intelligence, although, having talked to some of the people in the intelligence community, there was a back and forth within the communities, different agencies, talking about what actually was happening inside of Afghanistan.

I think some of the generals were at fault as well. You know, when you're a general and you're in charge of a mission in a different country, you want that mission to succeed. So, sometimes common cultural bias overtakes you.

But there was also a strategic political failure from early on in the war, after things changed, and there was a competing demand in terms of what exactly the strategy was, what was the desired end state, once the culture became known inside of Afghanistan, knowing that that President Ghani could not pull this nation together no matter how much training his security forces got, it became very problematic.

COREN: Lieutenant General, obviously, the timing of the release of this report, you know, less than two months before the election. This is designed to hurt Harris, even though it was President Trump that did the deal with the Taliban. Will this hurt her? Will this stick?

HERTLING: Yes, I think it may with Trump supporters. And there certainly has been a drum beat by the Republican Party. I've been watching on Twitter or X over the last several days, they were prepared for this rollout. They wanted to use it to hurt the Biden campaign, and -- excuse me, the Harris campaign and the Biden-Harris administration. But again, it's not being very truthful in terms of how it's

portraying it. If you do a complete military analysis and a political analysis, you can find fault with many of the things that occurred during the history of the war in Afghanistan, but just rolling it out at this time and sticking one party with the blame, I think is contrary to what we attempt to do as a nation when we see our mistakes, the things that we made and we try and get better.

COREN: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, great to get your analysis. Thanks for joining us.

HERTLING: Pleasure to be with you.

COREN: It's a new era for the iPhone. Just ahead, we'll do a deep dive on the new artificial intelligence tools Apple has built into the iPhone 16.

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[02:30:25]

COREN: Generative artificial intelligence, from an enhanced Siri personal assistant to a new camera control with visual intelligence, the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro will come with an array of new AI capabilities.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In mail, it'll be easy to quickly survey your inbox. Instead of seeing the first couple of lines of your emails, you'll see summaries that convey the most useful information and you'll be able to create new emoji simply by typing a description, giving you the perfect response for your group thread. If you come across a bike that looks exactly like the kind you're in the market for, just tap to search Google for where you can buy something similar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Starting from $799, the phones will be available for pre-order starting Friday. Already up for grabs Apple's latest Airpods and Apple watch, their upgrades include a clinical-grade hearing aid feature and a tool to detect sleep apnea.

Well, those features are awaiting FDA approval. Well, joining us now to discuss this and much more, Josh Constine, a partner at venture capital firm SignalFire, which builds AI. Great to see you. Tell me what is so impressive about the new Apple iPhone 16, and will it be attractive enough for people to upgrade?

JOSH CONSTINE, VENTURE PARTNER, SIGNALFIRE: Well, I think the most magical feature is that your wallet is going to get thinner, but your phone is going to stay the same. There's just not a lot going on this year with the big iPhone Watch? Sure, you're going to get a new camera action button which really turns the phone more into a true camera and you are seeing some slight other upgrades, but nothing monumental and the design is staying very similar.

I think the biggest disappointment is that apple was really planning this iPhone around it's Apple Intelligence AI features but many of those have been delayed until later this year, or maybe even next year. So, it's not quite clear why everyone should upgrade this time.

COREN: Well, Apple's AI platform, Apple Intelligence is part of the rollout of this new iPhone, as you say. I mean, how does Apple's version of AI match or compare to that of its competitors?

CONSTINE: The thing is that Apple was really caught flat-footed by OpenAI and ChatGPT. It's now scrambled to actually integrate ChatGPT in a future version of iOS but because of that, it's been scrambling to launch new features. And so it made a bunch of big announcements earlier this year, but it just couldn't get them done in time. It's the same thing we saw happen to Google. It also had to sort of rush out new features trying to stay up-to-date with OpenAI, and then Google ended up rolling back a bunch of those after a bunch of scandals.

So Apple is much more of a perfectionist when it comes to hardware and software, so rather than launch something half-baked, it is delaying them, but we'll see if that ends up impacting sales.

COREN: Well, let me ask you this. Will it future-proof the device for AI?

CONSTINE: Yes, some of the Pro models of the iPhone 15 and all the current ones are going to be much more capable of running AI on the device, on Edge as they say, which means that not only is it much faster, but it actually preserves your privacy because you don't have to send all of your information back to Apple servers. And some of these features will be useful, things like summarizing your email, but a lot of the writing tools, for instance, you can already get elsewhere from apps like Grammarly, which already let you do typo and grammar corrections wherever you like to write in text messages, email, docs, or wherever else.

So, Apple does feel a little bit slower to the market here. But as always, it makes often the most convenient and capable approaches to new technologies. So, we'll see if some of these exciting features like being able to search through your photos by specific descriptions of them, or being able to actually remove or add things into photographs, or even make your own imagery with its new Image Playground will excited people enough, especially those who never got around to trying out ChatGPT and OpenAI as other powerful artificial intelligence features.

COREN: Well, just tell me about the new Apple Watch. You know, the fact that it focuses on health monitoring, sleep apnea detection, responding to emergencies such as a fall, I mean I would say that that is attractive, and then the Airpods. They have hearing aid features; that will certainly appeal to a lot of consumers.

[02:35:00] CONSTINE: Absolutely. I think the new apple watch, there's a beautiful new black model and it's really designed for treating sleep apnea, which is massively undiagnosed. A lot of people don't even realize that they have it. And so, if it can help you sleep better, that's going to be a huge win. And Apple's -- the Apple Watch already has a massive lead over all other wearables in the market. And I think the new Airpods will be especially helpful for anyone with older parents who have hearing problems and don't necessarily want to go get a clinical-grade hearing aid that usually ends up unused and left in a drawer. Because people bring their Airpods everywhere, that could be really helpful.

But I think Apple has really realized that it's already got the best- in-class products in a lot of places. And so, maybe it's just trying not to screw things up. Maybe it actually finally realized that it's not selling a phone as much as selling a camera that can text. And so, you might need last year's iPhone telephoto lens to tell the difference between the models, but there are so many fan boys and fan girls out there that always want the latest technology that they're going to get the new one no matter what. And one nice thing is that the new iPhones, the bigger models and smaller models actually have the same features, so just if you have smaller hands, you're not left as a second-class citizen with a weaker iPhone or a weaker camera anymore.

COREN: Well, that sounds good to me. I might just check it out. We'll see. Josh Constine, great to speak to you. Thank you for joining us.

CONSTINE: My pleasure, thanks for having me.

COREN: Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: A legendary voice on stage and screen has fallen silent. Actor James Earl Jones died Monday at age 93, according to his agent. Jones is known as the booming voice of Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" films and Mufasa in "The Lion King", as well as so many other on-screen roles. CNN's Randi Kaye remembers him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tonight, he owns the most famous voice in America.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That most famous voice belongs to none other than James Earl Jones.

JAMES EARL JONES, ACTOR: This is CNN.

KAYE (voice-over): For decades, Jones was the voice of CNN. He first recorded those three words, "This is CNN" in 1989 to mark CNN's upcoming ten-year anniversary.

EARL JONES: It was so short. I mean, it took five minutes, right? And I forgot it.

KAYE (voice-over): But perhaps his most famous line is this.

EARL JONES: No, I am your father.

KAYE (voice-over): Darth Vader was originally played by different actor, but the way Jones tells it, Director George Lucas decided he needed a more sinister voice.

EARL JONES: He called me and said, you want to do a day's work? And I say, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A day's work?

EARL JONES: 2.5 hours, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's all?

EARL JONES: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the Darth Vader language is in two-and-a-half hours?

(LAUGH)

EARL JONES: Yeah, few thousand dollars. I went home.

KAYE (voice-over): How did he master Vader's voice?

EARL JONES: The key to Darth Vader is a narrow band of expression, no inflections. He is not human.

KAYE (voice-over): His movie credits extend well beyond "Star Wars."

[02:40:00]

Jones also appeared in "Field of Dreams", "The Lion King" and "Patriot Games" to name a few -- all of this from a man who struggled as a child to speak. He opened up to Larry King in 1993 about his childhood stutter.

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: You were a stutterer?

EARL JONES: Yeah, a stutter and stammer. I still am. And you'll hear me tonight, sir. I'm sure. I just -- I think it you -- come on.

KING: And so you stayed silent?

EARL JONES: It was so embarrassing and painful to talk because the kids in the back row would laugh and it was painful for the stutter. And I just decided to go mum.

KAYE (voice-over): In fact, Jones hardly said a word from age six to age 14. But after a teacher helped him write and read poetry --

EARL JONES: And he discovered I wrote poetry and he got me to read my poetry in front of the class. And when I did, I didn't stutter. KAYE (voice-over): Jones eventually found his distinctive thundering voice and those vocal cords of his launched a career he had never imagined. Not just Hollywood, but Broadway too, he won three Tony Awards, including one in 1969 for his role in "The Great White Hope".

EARL JONES: It is your wish coming true, huh?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never this, never this, John.

KAYE (voice-over): He may not have done it all, but for James Earl Jones, he had done enough.

EARL JONES: That is OK. It is something that happens to all of us.

KAYE (voice-over): James Earl Jones was 93.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: CNN's Randi Kaye reporting there. Well, tributes to James Earl Jones are pouring in from around the world. NASA posted on social media, "Today, we look up to the stars and remember the great James Earl Jones. As Mufasa, he reminded us that those stars will always be there to guide us."

"Star Wars" creator George Lucas wrote "James was an incredible actor, a most unique voice both in art and spirit. For nearly half a century, he was Darth Vader, but the secret to it all is he was a beautiful human being. He gave depth, sincerity, and meaning to all his roles."

And Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the early "Star Wars" films posted simply, "Rest in peace, dad."

He truly was a legend. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I'm Anna Coren. "World Sport" is up next. Then, I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more of "CNN Newsroom." See you then.

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