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Harris Campaigns With Lizzo In Detroit, Usher In Atlanta; Trump Preparing For Rally Tonight In Battleground Pennsylvania; Early Voting Underway Across Battleground Georgia; North Carolina Voters Cast Ballots Despite Hurricane Helene Devastation; New Details Emerge Following Death Of Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar; Republicans Appeal Georgia Judge Ruling Striking Down New Election Rules; Second Nationwide Blackout Hits Cuba Amid Worsening Energy Crisis; California University Requires All Undergrads To Take Climate Course; Tributes Pour In For Liam Payne As Investigation Continues. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired October 19, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: And it's a strategy that could work with swing-state voters, particularly those in Georgia. Those Republican voters who have illustrated that they just cannot support the former president, those split ticket voters. And she's standing by that strategy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, CURRENT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is becoming increasingly unstable and unhinged, and it requires that response. I think the American people are seeing it, witnessing it in real time, and we must take note of the fact that this is an individual who wants to be president in the United States. And I think the American people deserve better than someone who actually seems to be unstable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And Fred, though the vice president hasn't spent as much time here in Georgia as the other battleground states since she launched her campaign, when you speak to her allies in this state they say that it's the work that she's been doing over several years that she has a built-in base of support here, and the organizing infrastructure on the ground in order to do well here if they consolidate Democratic coalitions like black voters, like Latino voters, AAPI voters.

And we are going to see that very much on display this evening. Usher going to come out. We see signs all over the amphitheater here that says Georgia votes early. So that is the big message we are expecting to hear from her. If you are able, get it done, make a plan, get out and vote early -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right. Eva McKend in Atlanta.

Steve Contorno, let's go to you in Pennsylvania. What is the Trump campaign strategy there?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, walking into this rally today, there are signs that say make a plan to vote, mail absentee or early in-person, certainly driving today's message. It's a little bit more difficult for Donald Trump to get that across to his supporters than it is for Vice President Harris, though, and that is because he has spent the last four years undermining many of those strategies to get people to the polls.

But it's certainly something that his campaign has put emphasis on in recent days. Yesterday, Donald Trump offering a very colorful explanation for why he feels like it's important to get his supporters out there. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Early voting is underway, so get everyone you know, and go out and vote, go tomorrow. It's just starting, go and vote. Make sure you vote and bring all our friends that want to vote for us. Tell him, Jill, get your fat husband off the couch. Get that -- get that fat pig off that couch. Tell him to go and vote for Trump. He's going to save our country.

Get that guy the hell off, get him up, Jill. Slap him around, get him up. Get him up, Jill. We want him off the couch to get out and vote. Bring your friends and get them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: So that message will be delivered today in an area of Pennsylvania that is about 45 minutes, just east of Pittsburgh. It's a big population center in Pittsburgh obviously that is going to be driving this election in this part of that regional area is Westmoreland County, where Trump won by a two-to-one margin just four years ago.

Already hundreds of thousands of people have voted in Pennsylvania and Trump's team is hoping that they can run up the margins in places like this. However, they are focusing on getting people who don't typically vote to come out in support of him. It's a strategy that comes with risks. There's a reason why these individuals don't tend to go out to show up on election day. But Trump's team is convinced that they have the magic formula to get them out there this go around and that they will make a difference in a state that could be determined by just thousands of votes -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, we shall see. Steve Contorno, Eva McKend, thank you so much.

So early voting indeed is underway in several battleground states, including the critical state of Georgia, where voters have already turned out in huge numbers, casting more than one million ballots in just four days. Former president Donald Trump lost the Peach State to President Biden by a small margin in 2020.

CNN's Rafael Romo joins me now from Gwinnett County, Georgia.

So, Rafael, what do you hearing from these early voters if anything? RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. Well, the common denominator

here is that the voters are very motivated for different reasons. Some tell us that they want to cast their ballots to vote on issues that they deeply care about. Some of the ones that they have mentioned are the economy, taxes, abortion rights, different issues that they care about. And you can see right behind me the line has extended all the way outside now, which is actually something that we didn't see earlier here.

[15:05:09]

But the reality is that this is Gwinnett County. This is the most ethnically diverse county and the entire state of Georgia. And it is in counties like this one where the 2024 election may be decided. This is Georgia, a state that has turned purple. It's a battle battleground state. So every vote matters here.

And earlier I had an opportunity to talk to a mother and daughter. They came together. Of all the things that they could have done, go for brunch, go shopping, they decided to exercise the right to vote.

I asked them, Fred, what is it that is motivating them to vote today, and this is what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM THOMAS, GWINNETT COUNTY EARLY VOTER: Abortion rights. We want to make sure that, you know, we have somebody that want to support women and abortion rights is very important to us.

ROMO: Is that the main driver for you today?

THOMAS: Yes. Yes, it is.

SY ELLIS, GWINNETT COUNTY EARLY VOTER: My main reason is to beat the chaos on the big day. To experience and just to witness to see how -- because this is a big election. So I just wanted to see, you know, a lot of young people. I just wanted to experience it but on early.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And we have an update for you, Fred. Already here in the state of Georgia, 1.2 million people have cast ballots since early voting started on Tuesday.

Now, this is Gwinnett County. It's number three when it comes to early voting. Of course, it follows Fulton County where Atlanta is located, and Cobb County, the third most populated county in the entire state -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Very fascinating. All right, Rafael Romo in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Gwinnett County. Thank you so much.

All right. Right now early voting is also underway in North Carolina, despite parts of the state still reeling from the devastation left by Hurricane Helene. Voters are making extraordinary efforts to cast their ballots.

Here's CNN's Miguel Marquez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Only the toughest vehicles.

This is a good road we're on right now.

RUS ROBISON, NORTH CAROLINA STORM VICTIM: This is a good road. This is a really good road.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Can access some areas of storm ravaged North Carolina. Rus Robison has been helping out, doing anything and everything since day one.

ROBISON: Brush cutting, landslide clearing.

MARQUEZ: Immediate needs met. Now a big new need, figuring out how to vote in an area cut off by the most severe storm damage.

ROBISON: Those that want to go, I'll 100 percent be able to get them there to vote.

MARQUEZ: Right.

ROBISON: But there will be communities that probably some people don't get to vote that want to vote.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Water swept through Jeff Auletta's home on the Cane River in Yancey County.

JEFF AULETTA, NORTH CAROLINA STORM VICTIM: We would like to early vote if we can get in. We might need an all-terrain vehicle, but we will get in to vote.

MARQUEZ: Yancey is one of 25 North Carolina counties, plus Cherokee tribal areas, in the disaster zone, where election rules have changed. 1.3 million mostly conservative Tar Heel voters live there. With over 7.7 million registered voters statewide this year, every vote critical. It's a state Trump won in 2020 by just over 74,000 votes.

How will you actually vote?

AVIN LEDFORD, NORTH CAROLINA STORM VICTIM: I will go to one of the voting stations in town. I have a truck there so I can get in and out. It's a little difficult, but I can.

MARQUEZ: And nothing will keep you from voting?

BILL MERZ, NORTH CAROLINA STORM VICTIM: No, nothing.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Bill and Diane Merz, huge supporters of Donald Trump, have concerns about voting nationwide. Here at home, they totally trust their vote will count. B. MERZ: She's got an absentee ballot, but I'll probably go in and

vote. If I have to, I'll go to town. I'll hitchhike if I have to.

MARQUEZ: With partisan anger still simmering over Trump's 2020 loss, new fears changes to election laws approved by the state's bipartisan election board, among other things allowing displaced voters to receive absentee ballots at a different address.

DIANE MERZ, NORTH CAROLINA STORM VICTIM: I'm concerned that these relaxing of some of the rules that they have is also going to invite, you know, fraud into the system. And I'm worried about the people just being able to vote.

MARQUEZ: The extreme storm claiming more than 230 lives so far here in North Carolina, around 80 are still missing. And now with winter coming, despite all the misery, something surprising.

This somehow gives you hope?

ROBISON: Absolutely.

MARQUEZ: For the country?

ROBISON: Absolutely. It's something that I worry about a lot, is if we could ever get together again as a country, as a people, you know, and get past this partisan divide. It definitely gives me hope that this encourages that for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ (on-camera): So after seeing the horrors that this storm has brought across such a large swath of North Carolina, we did not expect the positive vibes that we heard from Rus there at the end of that story.

[15:10:06]

But we're hearing that everywhere. People coming together and really having a healing effect here in North Carolina. And they hope it's something bigger that it starts to trend toward getting away from the politicization. But first days of early voting, we are seeing massive crowds at all of the precincts that we've been to. State Board of Election saying they may be on target for a record turnout on early voting.

Back to you.

WHITFIELD: Miguel Marquez, thank you so much for that.

All right. On Wednesday, be sure to watch a CNN special event in the final sprint to election day. Vice President Kamala Harris faces voters and takes their most pressing questions live. Anderson Cooper moderates our presidential townhall with Harris Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN.

All right. Next in the CNN NEWSROOM, new details are emerging following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. What we're learning as Israel's prime minister vows the war in Gaza will move forward until the end, he says. And Cuba, it's in the dark right now after a second massive power outage. This as a new storm forms in the Atlantic with its sights set on Cuba. Details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:00]

WHITFIELD: All right. We're continuing to follow one of the top stories this hour. Intense fighting is flaring up in southern Lebanon and Gaza.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more from Tel Aviv.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, days after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza, the fighting is continuing to rage on in the Gaza Strip. A dozen people killed in three separate airstrikes, according to Palestinian officials.

We're also watching as the situation in northern Gaza is continuing to deteriorate despite calls from the United States and others to ramp up the entry of humanitarian aid. We are continuing to watch the situation there deteriorate and we're also watching tens of thousands of people fleeing. According to the United Nations an additional 20,000 people have fled the Jabalya Refugee Camp where we have seen intense fighting over the course of the last couple of weeks.

The Israeli prime minister in the wake of Sinwar's killing, he has been defiant, insisting that this war will continue until victory is achieved. We've heard similar defiance, of course, from Hamas as well. This as we are learning new details now about how exactly Yahya Sinwar was killed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice-over): The final moments of Yahya Sinwar's life captured on an Israeli military drone's camera. The Hamas leader is visibly wounded. Israeli troops, who don't yet know Sinwar is the man in the headscarf, have surrounded him and he is about to be killed. But how?

After an initial exchange of gunfire, the Israeli military says this tank fired on a building and has suggested this is how Sinwar was killed. But at Israel's National Forensic Institute, the doctor who conducted the autopsy on Sinwar's body has drawn a very different conclusion.

CHEN KUGEL, CHIEF PATHOLOGIST, ISRAEL NATIONAL CENTER OF FORENSIC MEDICINE: The cause of this is gunshot wound in the head. There's a bullet in his head and there's a severe traumatic brain injury. He has injury from other sources like a missile injury in his right forearm, fallen masonry on his left leg or thigh, and many shrapnels that -- shrapnels that entered his body but only in the chest they caused the severe damage. But the cause of death is the gunshot wound in the head. DIAMOND: Asked for comment, an Israeli military spokesman told CNN

they are still working to learn all the details of how Sinwar was killed. Kugel said he is confident in his analysis.

KUGEL: We see the bullet in his head. So -- and there's no another entrance.

DIAMOND: He was also involved in the DNA analysis that confirmed the body recovered by Israeli troops was in fact Sinwar's.

KUGEL: They have a suspicion that this is Yahya Sinwar. And they sent a sample, a finger, that they cut from his body in order to make the DNA profile.

DIAMOND: Sinwar's left index finger cut off of Sinwar's body in Gaza, delivered to Dr. Kugel's lab and confirmed to be a DNA match.

This is where Sinwar was killed, in the Tal al-Sultan area of Rafah in southern Gaza. CNN has geolocated this as the building where Sinwar met his end, in an area empty of civilians and ravaged by war in recent months. In this video from the scene, emaciated buildings line a street torn up by tanks as Sinwar's body lies in the rubble. That body has now been taken to an undisclosed military site.

KUGEL: It's in the military hands. I don't know exactly where is the place.

DIAMOND: While the Israeli government decides what to do with Sinwar's body, his final moments are being seen very differently. While some see a terrorist brought to his knees --

YOAV GALLANT, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): Sinwar died while beaten, persecuted and on the run. He didn't die as a commander but as someone who only cared for himself.

DIAMOND: Others see a resistance fighter making his last stand.

MUSTAFA BARGHOUTI, SECRETARY GENERAL, PALESTINIAN NATIONAL INITIATIVE: This image will make him look like a hero for most Palestinians and most Arabs and most people who are against Israeli occupation and against the oppression that Palestinians are subjected to.

[15:20:08]

DIAMOND: In the end, he lay dead, surrounded by the rubble of a war he helped unleash.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on-camera): There are still questions about what the Israeli government will do with Sinwar's body. Some suggesting that the body may be used as a bargaining chip in future negotiations. For the time being, the Israeli military is now dropping new leaflets on Gaza urging anyone who is holding hostages in the Gaza Strip to release them promising them immunity. But of course, the fighting is still raging on and we have yet to see any movement towards an actual deal to free those hostages.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

WHITFIELD: Straight ahead, back in this country, Republicans are now appealing a Georgia judge's decision to strike down a slate of controversial new election rules that were passed by allies of former president Donald Trump. The potential implications with the election now just 17 days away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:25:26]

WHITFIELD: A big legal battle is playing out in one of the most contentious battleground states in the presidential race. Republicans are now appealing a superior court judge's decision striking down the state's new controversial election rules. The GOPis taking their case straight to the Georgia Supreme Court. The rules were put in place just weeks ago by Trump-backed election board members.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has more.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fight over Georgia's election rules is continuing. State and national Republicans announced that they are appealing a decision that struck down some new procedures for this year. Those procedures were passed by the State Election Board, which is dominated by Trump supporters.

Those new rules highly controversial and opposed by bipartisan array of election officials could have disrupted the election certification process by requiring more hand counting of ballots and by letting county officials do additional investigations before they finalize their results.

So after the Trump-backed board passed these new rules, Democrats and others went to court and judges have now stepped in to block or strike down these new procedures. Republicans now want the Georgia Supreme Court to reinstate the rules allowing for post-election inquiries. RNC chairman Michael Whatley blasted the ruling that declared those new procedures to be unconstitutional, and he called the decision, quote, "The very worst of judicial activism."

A message went out to Georgia's counties on Thursday instructing them to ignore the new rules because of the court decision. Those instructions came from the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, as well as the GOP appointed chairman of the State Election Board. Their letter told counties that, quote, "These rules and amendments are void."

All this fighting, though, has not gotten in the way of Georgians doing their civic duty. Election officials say that more than one million ballots have already been cast in the Peach State so far after four days of early voting.

Marshall Cohen, CNN, Washington.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Marshall. And now including today more than 1.3 million in Georgia.

All right. For more, we're joined now by legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, Jonathan Diaz.

Jonathan, great to see you. So, all right, help break this down even further. The Georgia Supreme Court, you know, can actually refuse, right, to take up this case, given it's so close to the election, advance voting already underway. Do you think they should be weighing in at this juncture?

JONATHAN DIAZ, LEGAL COUNSEL, CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER: I mean, I think that what's clear here is that the Georgia State Elections Board overstepped its legal authority by adopting these rules so close to election day especially when several of these rules, including the rule requiring hand-counting and the rule potentially allowing counties to delay certification, seem too clearly conflict with Georgia state law.

And so really the only purpose that these rules serve is to sow confusion and introduce chaos and delays into the post-election process. And I suspect that that's largely the point and that's why, as Marshall said in that report, a bipartisan group of election officials from across the state opposed these rules.

WHITFIELD: And so in Wednesday's ruling, the Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox, you know, voided rules including measures that would expand access for poll watchers, requiring more video surveillance of ballot drop boxes, mandating a photo I.D. and signature of anyone returning an absentee ballot. Your organization actually filed an amicus brief to the court saying what?

DIAZ: Well, our argument had two main pieces. The first was it's simply too late to be introducing new rules and regulations into the election process at this time. As we just saw, more than a million Georgians have already cast their ballots but election officials have been preparing to conduct the general election for months and introducing a brand new set of procedures that would complicate especially that critical post-election period is just not something that you want to do a few weeks out from an election. But it's more than that. The Georgia State Elections Board is a regulatory body.

[15:30:01]

Their job is to issue regulations consistent with Georgia state law to increase uniformity in election administration across the counties, and what the majority that adopted these rules did is go way beyond the requirements of what Georgia laws require and that's the job of the legislature, not of the state elections board.

WHITFIELD: So that Superior Court judge has struck down these measures, Supreme Court may or may not, you know, take this case. Does just being in this space right now potentially gum up the outcome of Georgia's participation in this U.S. presidential race?

DIAZ: It certainly introduces a lot of confusion in the process for both election officials and members of the public. You know, the rules of the road for an election are supposed to be set well in advance, and having these kind of back-and-forth judicial decisions and last- minute, I think Secretary Raffensberger called them 11th hour rule changes from the state election board, you know, is not good for voters. It's not good for election administrators.

And that's why I would be surprised if the Georgia Supreme Court steps in to reinstate these rules now because all the lower courts have done is returned us to the status quo before the State Election Board started interfering in the post-election process.

WHITFIELD: And if the Supreme Court does not take it up, well, A, I guess doesn't have to be verbalized, you know, before election day, yes, we are taking up, no, we're not, or can it just be that they just say nothing, and it's presumed that the lower court ruling stays?

DIAZ: Well, a judicial ruling from the Fulton County Superior Court is the law is binding until the Georgia Supreme Court says that it's not. So if they take up the case but don't rule until after election day, the orders as they stand now will remain, and these state election board rules will continue not to be enforced.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, Jonathan Diaz, thank you so much for breaking it all down for us even further.

DIAZ: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. And for more information about voting in your state check out the Election Center 2024 voter handbook available now at CNN.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:32:10]

WHITFIELD: This morning, people across the entire island of Cuba woke up to another day without power, a second blackout happened a day after one of the country's major power plants failed. People there are lighting fires using flash flight -- flashlights rather as officials work to restore electricity.

Our Patrick Oppmann is there. How are people managing?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA CORRESPONDENT: It's really difficult because, as you know, Fred, the longer situation goes on like this, just tougher and tougher it gets so people are saying they're having to throw food out becoming spoil. We just drove around the last few hours around Havana. We saw really long bread lines. People upset because not everyone of course so was able to get bread after waiting for hours.

So this is something that Cubans are used to. It is in an island that is all too familiar with shortages, and yet this feels very, very different. Officials say they are working around the clock to restore power. Last night, there were some pockets of the island where power had briefly been restored. They say that they've started restoring power again after -- again the national system collapsed this morning. So you do have these little pockets of electricity that people have

for a couple of hours maintaining those pockets and expanding it to the rest of the island is going to be very, very difficult because these are power plants that are old, that are poorly maintained. The Cuban government blames U.S. sanctions for the fact they've not been able to maintain them well for over a decade.

So this is a problem that really doesn't catch anyone by surprise. And then as well, because of the recent hurricanes, the government says they've been unable to bring in diesel fuel, which they need to run a lot of these power plants. Diesel fuel that's often donated by countries like Russia and Venezuela. So you really get the sense that people are on their final string here and while people remain calm, you know, the longer this goes on, the harder it gets, the more tense it gets.

And as we get into the afternoon, it's looking more and more likely that we will go another night without power and having been up all night last night, it's just not pleasant. You don't sleep well and, you know, I'm paid to do it so it's OK. But for everyone else here it's really hitting them quite hard.

WHITFIELD: Right.

OPPMANN: So hopefully it'll be restored soon and yet no indications that at this point it will be.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Very miserable and about to be even more so with day three without power there in Cuba.

Thank you so much, Patrick Oppmann. Appreciate it.

All right. In some more potentially bad news for Cuba, a new storm, Oscar, formed earlier today and is now a category one hurricane. The Turks and Caicos and southeast Bahamas are already under hurricane warnings. While small in size, Oscar is expected to bring up to 95 miles per hour in winds, heavy rain, dangerous storm surge in the Turks and Caicos before Oscar drifts west toward Cuba.

Meanwhile, there are growing concerns over fire danger in California.

CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin joins us with more on what's happening out west.

TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We continue to watch for the threat of fires in central and southern California. Nearly 16 million Californians are under a red flag warning. What's the culprit is this strong gusty wind coming in from the northeast. At times, the wind could gust as high as 45 miles per hour. And that's bringing in that drier air, which is the fuel for the fires. Good news, though, that strong dry wind will subside once we get into early next week.

Now, the eastern two-thirds of the country, dominated by this high pressure, that's leading to very tranquil, quiet weather for this portion of the country. Can't say the same for the southern high plains and the Rockies, though, an area, a weather system is moving over and it's leading to heavy rainfall for portions of eastern New Mexico going on into the Rockies. And these areas will see shower after shower and potentially strong thunderstorms move over the same area. That will lead to the pitch interval for that flash flooding.

We could also see in some areas, get this, even though it's October, we could see snowfall amounts in the higher elevations of more than two feet. Now, where it does rain and it rains nonstop, that could lead to that flash flooding event here. All that rain is moving over a burn scar, which is a recipe for the potential for flooding.

Now across the Pacific Northwest, we have our first atmospheric river event coming our way. That will be a level four out of five risk for this atmospheric river leading to very heavy rainfall across the Pacific Northwest. Maybe even some snowfall and the cascades.

Keep it here on CNN. We've got more news after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:46:37]

WHITFIELD: All right. Fast-moving wildfires, historic and devastating flooding, supercharged hurricanes, wiping communities totally off the map. Climate change is not a future threat, but a daily reality. And one California college is taking a bold move in an effort to combat it. UC San Diego has become the first major public college in the U.S. to require undergraduate students across all majors to take a course on climate change. That's about 7,000 students.

Wayne Yang is a professor and provost of UC San Diego's Muir College, named after the environmentalist writer-founder of the Sierra Club, John Muir.

All right, Professor, good to see you. You spearheaded this initiative. Why was this important to UC San Diego?

WAYNE YANG, PROFESSOR AND PROVOST OF UC SAN DIEGO'S MUIR COLLEGE: Right. Yes. Thank you so much, Fredricka. I'm one of many people on the shoulders of giants so UC San Diego actually started climate change science with the Keeling Curve. So that's Charles David Keeling who's -- that's why we know how much carbon is in atmospheres because of his work. So -- but this is really a student-driven initiative. It was the number one issue with our students before COVID.

And this requirement is unusual because it's the only time we've ever asked students for their opinion, to be honest. We don't ask them if they want to take (INAUDIBLE) sign it. But this went before our students for a vote. It was unanimous and they're trying to spread the word to other universities.

WHITFIELD: That is so fascinating.

YANG: I will say -- yes. But, you know, we've given them a big problem and we feel like we should give them every solution possible. And so we would like them to have the full backing of their education to solve climate change. WHITFIELD: I mean, there are 40 different classes that could be used

to fulfill this requirement. So what are among the things that we're talking?

YANG: Yes, I mean, any major you could study this. So if you're a business major, economics, you can study the economics of climate change, which is incredibly important if we need an economic structure that helps us solve it. One of my favorite courses is in computer science and engineering. Professor Leo Porter teaches this class that takes our devices and everywhere from the life cycle of the advice from extraction all the way to use and disposal, and how, what the carbon footprint is of every stage so that we can learn how to reduce that.

We've got biology courses in climate change. We just hosted the second Heat and Human Health Summit with all the doctors from Kaiser and the nearby hospitals. Obviously, urban planning, we can study climate solutions for regional transportation. But even in arts and humanities and writing programs so currently we have a couple thousand students reading climate optimism. So I think the idea is that there isn't one solution for climate change. There's 100 solutions. So we're hoping to get (INAUDIBLE) courses.

WHITFIELD: OK. So I mean, California, obviously, no stranger to the impacts of climate change. Is it your hope that all colleges, universities in California or even perhaps across the country will adopt similar requirements?

YANG: Yes, I would say even across the world. So as part of the COP summit on climate talks, climate education is at the fore and we're actually hoping we can take a lead role in that but I'm getting reached out -- I just got off the phone with San Diego state yesterday, from a university in Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, UC Davis, people all over the country reached out about this.

[15:50:11]

So it is a lot of excitement. We need everyone on board. Really, it's all hands on deck to solve this problem. And it's not going to come from one university, one college, or one course.

WHITFIELD: So important. What are the students telling you?

YANG: Oh, they're, I mean, you can see them glowing about it. They're always ready to talk the news actually about it. And what they're saying is that prior to this, they knew climate change is a problem. The question is, what do you do about it, and so they want to know what can their education do to prepare them for these. There's going to be future jobs solving climate change that don't even exist yet. And so we're trying to get there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Well, what an incredible start and what a great stab, you know, at being solution driven.

Professor Wayne Yang, thank you so much. All the best to you and all of your students who are now enjoying this great big new endeavor. YANG: Great. Thanks so much for your time.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

All right. Singer Liam Payne's family and friends and fans, they're still trying to make sense of the devastating loss of the singer who fell to his death this week from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires. Ruth Gibbons, the sister of the former One Direction singer, wrote a tribute to her brother in a post on Instagram saying, "Liam is my best friend. No one could ever make me laugh as much as him."

But questions now still linger as local authorities continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding Payne's fatal fall.

I'd like to bring in now CNN's Dario Klein, who is in Buenos Aires, where a whole lot of people, fans who are continuing to mourn his death, are gathered behind you. Where is the investigation going right now?

DARIO KLEIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Well, the investigation now it's going on in the prosecutor's office. They are still waiting for the toxicological analysis, which we still don't know when they would be released. We spoke with a judiciary source who told us they could not confirm nor deny that it may be this weekend they will have the results but what they did tell us, they could tell us is that the body will not be released for the family, for Liam's family before having those results on site.

So that's what the investigation is waiting for to know exactly what happened, what was going on in Liam's body before his death. While that happened here in this hotel, this sanctuary is keeping growing and growing and growing every hour, like thousands of people we can say right now have been coming to this place in front of the hotel to pay tribute, to leave candles, to write one and another and another letter to Liam, asking him for forgiveness for not being able to help him. Telling him that he could be able to save many of these girls through his music and singing his songs all the time and lighting the candles, and trying to comfort themselves being together in this place.

Ad as you said, in my presentation, looking for answers, the same answers the justice is looking right now to the investigation -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Oh, my gosh, it's terribly sad and I understand all this is happening, too, while, you know, Payne's dad arrived there in Buenos Aires, but then you just explained everything is still in a holding pattern until they get some more answers.

Thank you so much, Dario Klein, in Buenos Aires. Appreciate it.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:51] WHITFIELD: A Canadian former Olympic snowboarder is now on the run, accused of running a drug trafficking ring. In the U.S. the FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Ryan Wedding. Agents say his group moved 60 tons of cocaine a year and also ordered the killings of four people. The 43-year-old is facing murder and drug-related crime charges in the U.S.

Wedding competed for Canada in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. The FBI believes he is now hiding in Mexico.

And a big night for music. Tonight some of the most iconic names will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a star-studded ceremony in Cleveland. The honorees include Ozzy Osborne, Dionne Warwick, Mary J. Blige, Cher, and a Tribe Called Quest. Love all of them. Ahead of tonight's honors, a new exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland showcases the honorees' stage outfits and personal items. You know that's going to be fun.

And don't forget on Wednesday, be sure to watch a CNN special event in the final sprint to election day. Vice President Kamala Harris faces voters and takes their most pressing questions live.