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Israeli Military Says Gaza City Offensive Will Take "Months"; Kirk Shooting Suspect Makes First Court Appearance; New York State Judge Dismisses Terrorism Charges Against Luigi Mangione; Chilean Mother Reunites With Twin Daughters After 45 Years Through DNA Search; U.N. Inquiry Finds Israel Committing Genocide In Gaza; U.N. Commission: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza; Russia, Belarus Wrap Up Major Joint Military Drills; Trump Makes Unprecedented Second State Visit to U.K.; Remembering the Legendary Robert Redford; Study: 24k-Plus Heat-Related Deaths Across Europe; Octopuses Favor Certain Arms for Specific Tasks. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired September 17, 2025 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LYNDA KINKADE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Lynda Kinkade. Ahead here on CNN newsroom, Israel lays out a timeline for its ground assault to occupy Gaza City as tens of thousands of Palestinians flee.
The suspect in the Charlie Kirk assassination has his first court appearance as prosecutors push for the death penalty.
And U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for his second state visit to the U.K. look at the implications for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Lynda Kinkade.
KINKADE: We're beginning Gaza, where Israel's ground assaults occupy Gaza City is underway. The city is home to nearly half of the enclave's port population, about 1 million people. Israel's military says it expects that this offensive could take several months to complete the first timeline the IDF has given.
The Israeli prime minister is facing mounting criticism both abroad and at home. Benjamin Netanyahu will be meeting with the U.S. President at the White House later this month. It will be his fourth visit since Trump's second term.
In Jerusalem, protesters are calling for an end to the war and the release of all hostages. The families fear the new incursion will put their loved ones in further danger and prevent a deal to bring them home. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has the details, but a warning. Some of the images. You're about to see a graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The invasion of Gaza City has begun, at least according to the Israeli military. Israel says its ground forces are moving toward the heart of the city with some 20,000 troops committed to conquering and occupying it.
But as smoke rises over its skyline, CNN has yet to independently confirm that ground forces have pushed into the city center from above. The Israeli military did deliver a terrifying night of bombardment, sending rescue crews into bombed out buildings.
Outside Al Shifa Hospital, one child after the next is hurried into the emergency. All are bloodied and covered in soot. Through tears and obvious signs of shock, doctors and nurses work to treat and comfort these young victims.
There is no comforting those in the hospital's courtyard, where relatives arrive to discover their loved ones are among the 82 killed overnight. My daughter, check her. My daughter, she's killed. This mother cries out in disbelief. Someone check her.
As the military escalates its assault, it says some 350,000 people have fled Gaza City. Israel wants to displace all of the city's population of about 1 million people, drawing accusations of ethnic cleansing.
Israel says it is trying to move civilians out of harm's way as it takes on a Hamas force of just 2 to 3,000 fighters, according to an Israeli military official. But not everyone has the means or the ability to leave, including this pregnant woman.
I don't want anything. All I want is to go south to escape death, she says. We're all injured and ill. It's difficult for us to move. For the first time, an independent United Nations Commission concluding in a 72 page report that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a conclusion Israel categorically rejects.
CHRIS SIDOTI, U.N. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION MEMBER (through translator): This is no minor matter. The extremity of what is happening is such that we could come to no other reasonable inference than genocidal purpose.
DIAMOND (voice-over): The global outcry blunted by diplomatic cover from the United States, which is now backing Israel's invasion of Gaza City and casting doubt on prospects of a negotiated ceasefire.
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, as you saw, the Israelis have begun to take operations there. So we think we have a very short window of time in which a deal could happen.
DIAMOND (voice-over): That rapidly closing window, driving hostage families into the streets, fearing their loved ones will be caught in this latest Israeli assault. Their government doesn't seem to be listening. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:05:00]
KINKADE: I want to welcome retired Major General Mark McCauley. Thanks so much for joining us.
MAJ. GEN. MARK MCCAULEY (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Thank you for the invite.
KINKADE: So Gaza is burning. That's how Israel's Defense Minister described this offensive in Gaza City. The U.S. reportedly urged Israel to make this operation swift, yet Israel now says it could last months.
What does that suggest about the objectives here and Prime Minister Netanyahu's willingness to defy US and international pressure?
MCCAULEY: I think there is some value to the facts that we just put on the table. Yesterday we heard from our Secretary of State here in the United States using the term a concise and targeted war, which would be expeditious and hopefully one that would fissure away once over.
But to the Israelis credit, the Israelis have come back and said that is not possible. That with a type of conflict in an urban area, a congested urban area with some of the greatest density of any urban area in this world, you can't move concisely. And we can go into a whole number of reasons for that.
One of the biggest reasons is the threat. Not only the threat, but the actuality of injury and death to the multiple number of Palestinians who are in Gaza City. They have no place else to go. And as a result, that makes conducting this sort of combat operation amazingly different.
And there's a lot of things we could talk about, but I guess that's the beginning of that type of conversation. I agree. This thing's going to go on for a couple of months.
KINKADE: And this war has already been going on for years. From a military standpoint, how effective Israel actually been in degrading Hamas's capabilities? And how effective how is that effectiveness being assessed?
MCCAULEY: Fair statement. I was going to lay out what we've seen thus far in the movement into Gaza City. As your team has reported, there are what are called three divisions. Those are major units within the Israeli IDF. And two of those units are pushing in from the east, driving up through what can be called corridors.
The corridors don't necessarily mean that you've got a road or a superhighway. It just happens to be an opening to which these divisions will spread out almost on what you call a compass card, a couple of degrees separating each one of the smaller units as each one of the units go for either what we call high value targets, which would be communications centers, possible locations where the hostages have been reported to have been seen, Hamas leadership weapons caches. Those are high value targets. Or each one of these smaller units from the main Israeli force will drive right to the center of the city. The next action once that's accomplished. And I say this is, again,
very, very challenging. You move from block to block. This is not hit the accelerator on the Merkava tank and drive straight to the center of the city. Because of all the risks, and especially, and we bring this up, the risk to the civilian population that remains in Gaza City. And that is one of the most intractable issues and the most difficult to reconcile with this conflict.
KINKADE: Yes. There are hundreds of thousands of people still in Gaza City as this operation gets underway. If you were advising the IDF, what would you tell them to minimize civilian casualties?
MCCAULEY: Oh, gosh, you know, if we could answer that question. And I say that with the greatest sincerity, you really have to talk in my world, in the world of strategy and military operations, urban warfare is the most dangerous and difficult type of conflict. And because, as you and I have just discussed, the presence of civilians who will be sacrificed and lose their lives unnecessarily, they might have absolutely nothing to do with this conflict.
It's not their conflict, but that's the problem. Can you do it once again, using Secretary Rubio's term concisely? It sounds so sweet. Something that we in American armed forces, started to use in the Iraqi war. Everything's pinpoint, precision targeting. Now we're in an urban environment. It's just plain ugly.
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So what can the Israelis do? I suspect you're putting me in the position maybe of an IDF commander. The key is to go again, slowly, carefully, with observation and to work backwards and take a breath before you launch those artillery rounds or run those HPV drones with the warheads into an area in which you have not confirmed that there are indeed Hamas operators in there.
KINKADE: Yes, it is. We will no doubt talk again as this operation unfolds. Retired Major General Mark McCauley, thanks so much for your time.
MCCAULEY: My pleasure.
KINKADE: Well, the 22-year-old accused of killing conservative political activist Charlie Kirk appeared for the first time in court by video link to hear the charges against him. Tyler Robertson showed no emotion Tuesday as the Judges read the seven charges which included aggravated murder and obstruction of justice. CNN's Ed Lavendera has more from Utah.
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ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As prosecutors formally filed the criminal charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson for the shooting death of Charlie Kirk here in Utah, they also released new details that we have not heard before in the investigation, details uncovered since the shooting took place here on Wednesday of last week. And that includes a series of text messages between Robinson and his
roommate who officials and authorities here in Utah say was involved in a romantic relationship with his with this roommate.
JEFF GRAY, UTAH COUNTY ATTORNEY: You weren't the one who did it, right? Robinson, I am. I am. Roommate, why? Robinson, why did I do it? Roommate, yes. Robinson, I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out.
LAVANDERA: We also learned that it was Tyler Robinson's mother who also noticed him first from the pictures that authorities here were released of him at the campus and started the conversation with her husband. And it was the parents that convinced, through another family friend who was a retired sheriff's deputy, convinced the 22-year-old man to turn himself in to authorities.
It really paints a picture of just all of the compelling text message evidence that we have seen officials be able to accumulate in the last several days. One of those messages also was a note left under the keyboard in their apartment. Robinson texted his roommate to say that he needed to go immediately drop everything and go look under his keyboard. And that was the note that included the words that he had a chance to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do this.
So they have in several different forms, prosecutors have a confession to this crime by Tyler Robinson, although prosecutors say it will be up to the judge whether or not to admit these details in this evidence in a later date.
The suspect, Robinson did make a brief court appearance. He was declared indigent, would get a court appointed attorney to help him through the case here. But prosecutors still maintain that they are going to continue seeking the death penalty in this case. Ed Lavendera, CNN, Orem, Utah.
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KINKADE: The New York judge has dismissed two terror related murder charges against the man accused of killing former UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But Luigi Mangione still faces possible prison time for another charge of murder in the second degree. CNN Kara Scannell has the details.
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KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm outside Manhattan Criminal Court where a New York state judge just threw out two terrorism charges against Luigi Mangione. He's accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside of an investor conference.
Now, when this judge read this ruling from the bench and he said that there was legally insufficient evidence, you could hear cheers from some of the supporters outside that are behind me right now erupting into applause, happy that the judge threw out these two serious terrorism charges. Mangione is still facing murder in the second degree and other
charges. But the judge said that there was legally insufficient evidence to support the two terrorism murder charges. He wrote in his opinion that there was no indication in the statute that a murder committed for ideological reasons, in this case for greed or any inequity within the health insurance industry, fits within the definition of terror without establishing the necessary element of intent to intimidate or coerce.
The prosecution had argued that Mangione was trying to coerce and intimidate the civilian population, Those workers at UnitedHealthcare and other health insurance companies. But the judge finding there was just not enough evidence in the record to support that.
[01:15:02]
So those two charges are out, but Mangione will still go to trial on murder in the second degree charge. That charge, though, faces a lesser penalty. The terrorism charges would have meant a mandatory life in prison sentence if convicted. The murder in the second degree charge is 25 years to life if he's convicted.
Mangione is still facing those federal charges where the Justice Department is seeking the death penalty. But the judge saying here he did not see at this point any reason to throw out the entirety of the state case because of those federal charges. And he also gave an inclination that he might have this trial go first. The Mangione's lawyers are trying to push for the federal trial to go first because of the seriousness of the charges.
But the judge here saying that this trial could take maybe two months and he thinks that it could go before any of the legal arguments are even over in the federal case.
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KINKADE: Thanks to Kara Scannell. Still to come, a Chilean mother and her twin daughters separated for more than four decades. Hope their long awaited reunion will result in more of this. Their story next.
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KINKADE: Welcome back. A family in Chile is celebrating a joyful reunion after being caught up in a decades long national nightmare. Chilean officials are seeking justice for families like theirs who were ripped apart in the 1970s and 80s when thousands of babies were stolen from their mothers and sold into adoption in other countries. CNN's Rafael Roma reports.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were no words needed for this hug that had to wait over 45 years. It is the cry of a mother who for decades feared her twin daughters were lost forever. Their story begins in 1979 when Chile was under the dictatorship of
General Augusto Pinochet and a young single 18-year-old mother gave birth to twin girls.
Maria Veronica Soto says after a routine doctor's visit, a government clinic took her then 8 month old babies from her, accusing her of not feeding them properly. Soto says the birth certificate was altered to say that no parent had shown up to register the babies.
According to Chilean officials, from 1973 to 1990, during the dictatorship, thousands of babies were stolen from their biological mothers and sold into adoption mainly to foreign couples from the United States and Europe. In Chile, they're known as the children of silence.
Maria Veronica Soto says she never lost hope of reuniting with her daughters. That's why praying for a match in 2020, she sent a genetic sample to a DNA bank in the United States designed to help connect children with their lost biological parents.
MARIA VERONICA SOTO, BIOLOGICAL MOTHER (through translator): And I said in this little envelope goes all my hopes of finding my girls. And so it was.
ROMO (voice-over): It took five years, but finally across the Atlantic, one of the twins children decided to take a DNA test In Italy, the country where they were raised. The son of one of the twins sent her mother's DNA cent temple to the bank and it was confirmed as a match that led to a long distance phone call in this emotional reunion.
ROMO: In June, for the first time in the country's history, a Chilean judge announced he was prosecuting individuals alleged to have stolen babies in the South American nation. The judge charged and issued arrest warrants for five people who he said should remain in pretrial detention for criminal association, child abduction and willful misconduct.
ROMO (voice-over): No investigation can ever do justice to the decades this mother spent apart from her twin daughters.
SOTO (through translator): God heard me so many times I asked the moon and the stars about my daughters. And they too asked, where's mom?
ROMO (voice-over): Soto and her twins say both families were deceived, their family in Chile and their adoptive parents in Italy, who didn't know the girls had been taken away from their biological mother.
MARIA BEATRICE MEREAU CHESSA, BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER (through translator): So many emotions and very happy because we finally found our mother. And now we will enjoy these moments, which are few, but it is really worth it because we found her again and we want to be with her, with the family, all the brothers, all the uncles, all the cousins, everybody.
ROMO (voice-over): Even though she spent nearly half a century apart from her twin daughters, Soto considers herself blessed. There are many mothers, she said, who have yet to find their long lost children and others who died waiting for a reunion like hers that never materialized. Rafael Romo, CNN.
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KINKADE: Still to come, President Trump is on his second state visit to the U.K. as the country grapples with some domestic turbulence. We'll have a closer look at the political climate next.
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KINKADE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
Israel is responding forcefully to an independent U.N. inquiry, which concluded that the country is committing genocide in Gaza. The 72-page report was released Tuesday by a commission set up by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
It found Israel has been committing four acts of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
The Israeli government rejects the findings, calling the report distorted and false.
The chair of the U.N. commission spoke to CNN's Isa Soares about the report.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAVI PILLAY, CHAIR, U.N. INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY: We were the first and only ones who condemned Hamas right up front on the 10th of October. The Hamas attack of 7th October, we said, must be investigated because they have committed criminal acts, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
And we would readily provide evidence in support if there was a judicial process against Hamas for those crimes.
The point is, we can't -- this particular one is specific to the genocide issue. There shouldn't be any expectation that we should artificially, for the sake of some kind of balance, keep bringing in Hamas every time we speak about the Israeli security forces.
You see, I don't see these as two equal parties. They are occupier and occupied.
ISA SOARES, CNN HOST: I wonder then commissioner, what difference, if any, you think this report will have? Will it move the needle at all in bringing an end to the war in Gaza?
I ask this because our viewers will know this. Earlier this month, the International Association of Genocide scholars, I should say, said Israel's committing genocide in Gaza.
In July, a pair of Israeli -- leading, I should say, Israeli human rights group became the first Israeli organization to make the claim that the country, their country, was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
And then in December of 2023, South Africa, of course, accused Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice. Yet the Israeli government firmly denies these accusations.
What are you hoping, Commissioner, will come out of this report?
PILLAY: There is much despondency right now, just all around, the public is extremely disillusioned about the value of the U.N. system, the value of international justice, international law for justice and accountability.
You know, so everybody's concerned. So am I. We don't have any better mechanisms than the institutions we have now.
So when the United Nations Human Rights Council passed resolutions giving us a mandate to these -- to do these investigations, we do it and we do a thorough job so that one day there will be justice, there will be people who will have to answer for these crimes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: Well, Russia and Belarus have wrapped up their military drills. State media showed Russian President Vladimir Putin listening to the briefings from defense officials as he watched the drills from Western Russia.
Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has been showing off their latest military hardware in the war games over the past five days.
Belarus has also invited a delegation of U.S. military officers to observe.
The Zapad-2025 drills come at a period of heightened tensions between Russia and NATO, taking place days after Russian drones flew into Polish and Romanian airspace.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Ukraine's president will quote, "have to make a deal" to end Russia's war on the country, suggesting Volodymyr Zelenskyy was a hold up in striking a peace agreement. Russia has maintained its massive demands to end the war, including taking over the entire Donbas Region and insisting that Ukraine never join NATO.
President Trump says he may have to get personally involved in mediating the talks.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The hatred between Zelenskyy and Putin is unfathomable. I think I'm going to have to do all the talking. They hate each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: U.S. lawmakers are looking to move soon on new sanctions that would target countries that trade with Russia. The bipartisan resolution would allow President Trump to impose up to a 500 percent tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian gas, oil and uranium.
U.S. Senate Republican Lindsey Graham predicts there will be a breakthrough this week.
Well, economic issues will be on the agenda during the U.S. president's second state visit to the U.K. He'll be meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as the King and Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Those meetings will coincide with more anti-Trump demonstrations and Britain's own domestic turbulence as CNN's Nic Robertson explains.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Days before Donald Trump's unprecedented second state visit, one of the U.K.'s biggest anti-immigrant rallies ever.
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ROBERTSON: Right wing and populist, an estimated 150,000 people attended, according to police. They listened to Elon Musk, among others, rail against the British government.
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: You either fight back or you die.
ROBERTSON: Not the messaging the U.K.'s beleaguered Prime Minister Keir Starmer, would hope for. At his meet with the U.S. president seven weeks ago, Trump spiky about immigration.
TRUMP: This is a magnificent part of the world and you cannot ruin it. You cannot let people come in here illegally.
KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much for --
ROBERTSON: That meet went relatively well. But a lot has changed for Starmer since.
His deputy Angela Rayner quit over tax irregularities nearly two weeks ago.
ANGELA RAYNER, FORMER DEPUTY FOR BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER: So help me God.
ROBERTSON: And last week, Starmer was dragged into the Epstein scandal, firing his ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson over his praise for the convicted sex offender.
Starmer's judgment, questioned on both counts.
His biggest political rival, Trump friend, right wing populist Nigel Farage, joyous.
NIGEL FARAGE, U.K. OPPOSITION LEADER: I think there is every chance now of a general election happening in 2027. And we must be ready for that moment.
ROBERTSON: Small solaces for Starmer -- Farage's Reform U.K. Party is nowhere near ready. And Trump unlikely to want Epstein mentioned.
But the gild is coming off, Starmer less the winner-type Trump likes, appearing more like a leader on borrowed time. His Labour Party reportedly plotting a replacement, although not until next year.
Meantime, Farage building Republican support. At a congressional hearing two weeks ago, trash talking the perceived lack of freedom of speech in the U.K.
FARAGE: And you would be doing us and yourselves and all freedom- loving people a favor if your politicians and your businesses said to the British government, you've simply got this wrong.
ROBERTSON: Starmer knows while Trump is starstruck by the U.K monarchy, his White House is ill-disposed to the government.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat. If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you.
ROBERTSON: Starmer counting on splashy trade talk announcements to jolly (ph) Trump and critics along. Monday announcing a so-called Golden Age of nuclear cooperation with major new power plant deals to turbocharge the special relationship.
STARMER: Yes, so this is a letter from His Majesty, the King.
ROBERTSON: Yet despite his many domestic failings, Starmer seems to play Trump meets just right.
Praised at home for surviving the encounters, even bringing home the bacon.
STARMER: This is truly historic.
ROBERTSON: Nic Robertson, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Well fans, friends and costars are mourning the death of Hollywood legend Robert Redford. We'll have a look at the illustrious career of the leading man, award-winning director, and environmentalist when we come back.
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KINKADE: Welcome back.
Friends and former colleagues are paying tribute to actor, Robert Redford. He died on Tuesday at age 89. In a statement shared with CNN, Redford's costar in several films, Jane Fonda, said quote, "I can't stop crying."
Barbra Streisand, Meryl Streep, Mark Ruffalo and many others are also mourning the loss of the academy Award-winning director and environmentalist.
CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: From romance and sports to journalism and politics, Robert Redford influenced culture throughout his remarkable life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much can you tell me about deep throat?
ROBERT REDFORD, ACTOR: How much do you need to know?
WAGMEISTER: In "All the President's Men", he played Bob Woodward, half of the now-iconic reporting duo that uncovered Watergate.
REDFORD: Supposedly, he's got a lawyer with $25,000 in a brown paper bag.
Follow the money.
I just felt that I was a very fortunate to be there at a glory point for journalism that saved our First Amendment.
WAGMEISTER: Born in Santa Monica, California in 1936, Redford later moved to New York to study acting. His breakout came on Broadway in 1963's "Barefoot in the Park", a role he reprised on the big screen with Jane Fonda.
JANE FONDA, ACTRESS: If you don't give me a real kiss, I'm going to give you back your pajamas right now.
REDFORD: Then what?
PAUL NEWMAN, ACTOR: What's the matter with you?
REDFORD: I can't swim.
WAGMEISTER: Redford's first blockbuster came with 1969's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Even in the 60s and 70s, his leading man looks made him a heartthrob.
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REDFORD: I was kind of feeling trapped because I couldn't go outside the box of leading man or goodlooking leading man.
WAGMEISTER: He starred with Barbra Streisand in 1973's "The Way We Were". The following year, earning his first Oscar nomination for "The Sting". His first Oscar win came in 1981 as a director for "Ordinary People".
He forged a prolific career behind the camera while creating unforgettable characters on screen in "The Natural", "Out of Africa" with Meryl Streep, and later with Demi Moore in "Indecent Proposal".
GLENN CLOSE, ACTRESS: Always very, very authentic in his passions, which was Native Americans and their art, the environment and the Sundance Institute.
WAGMEISTER: That institute led to the Sundance Film Festival, which Redford established in Utah, where he lived since 1961 to nurture independent filmmakers. Now it's one of Hollywood's most important film festivals.
In 1989, Redford started the Sundance catalog to showcase jewelry and clothing from artists inspired by the American West.
Though passionate for the environment, Redford said he never considered a life in politics.
REDFORD: I don't think that I would be a good politician because I don't find compromise that easy.
WAGMEISTER: During "me too", Redford stood up for women, telling me on the red carpet for his final film, 2018 "The Old Man and the Gun", that he welcomed the movement.
REDFORD: The fact that women now have a voice that's going to be heard and they're going to raise it louder and louder, I hope, because they've been pushed aside for so long.
WAGMEISTER: Though he left the limelight, Redford's legacy stands at the top of Hollywood -- an artist, advocate, an innovator for multiple generations.
REDFORD: When you're being raised, you want to make the most of your life. I mean, I guess that's what I decided. I want to make the most of what I've been given.
WAGMEISTER: Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN -- Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Joining us now is "New York Times" movie critic Alissa Wilkinson. Good to have you with us.
ALISSA WILKINSON, MOVIE CRITIC, "NEW YORK TIMES": Thanks. It's so good to be here.
KINKADE: So Robert Redford was a legend. His career spanned decades, from the charming outlaw in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" to the slick conman in "The Sting" and even the morally-complex villain in the Marvel films -- "Captain America, the Winter Soldier" and, of course, "Avengers Endgame". This was one of his last roles in a feature film. Let's play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REDFORD: May I ask you where you're going?
CHRIS HEMSWORTH, ACTOR: The luncheon in Asgard. I'm sorry, you are?
REDFORD: Alexander Pearce.
ROBERT DOWNEY JR., ACTOR: He's the man above the folks behind Nick Fury.
REDFORD: My friends call me Mr. Secretary. I'm going to have to ask you to turn that prisoner over to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KINKADE: What does his range say about not just his talent, but his willingness to challenge himself with different kinds of roles?
WILKINSON: I think his career is really interesting that way. You know, Redford definitely had those amazing movie star looks, and he always came off as a really intelligent, kind of ruggedly handsome star and could have really coasted in those kinds of roles.
But you see him playing all kinds of different roles. Sometimes he's, you know, a CIA analyst who's trying to crack the case, and sometimes he's a journalist who's trying to, you know, bring justice in the face of power.
And sometimes he's the romantic lead who's wooing the leading lady. And he's kind of, you know, a complicated man.
And so you see all these different kinds of roles, and it really shows that he was interested in embodying different kinds of masculinity, I think. And it's one of the reasons that I think people think of him as the quintessential Hollywood leading man, the quintessential Hollywood star.
KINKADE: And his legacy is enormous. He founded the Sundance Institute to support independent filmmakers. How did that move change the landscape of American cinema? And can you point to filmmakers today that clearly trace their roots back to Redford's vision for the Sundance Film Festival.
WILKINSON: Sure. So he founded the Sundance Institute in 1981. And the institute and the festival have been linked, although they were created separately at first.
So the Sundance Institute brings filmmakers and eventually artists, theater makers, writers, actors to gather to be mentored by established artists, to work on screenplays, to, you know, kind of bring their visions to fruition. And one thing that was always really exciting about the Sundance
Institute is that Redford's idea was that it was really important to make sure that artists who either had maybe a challenging artistic vision that maybe didn't fit within the Hollywood mainstream, or who didn't fit at all, the kind of artists who often get the funding or, you know, get the chance to make work.
[01:49:46]
WILKINSON: It was important that their voices and their stories got told as well. And that would extend to, you know, scripted work to documentary to things that kind of lived in the middle.
KINKADE: And we've heard from so many wonderful actors and activists today paying tribute from Leonardo di Caprio, who's also a well-known environmentalist, to Jane Fonda, one of his leading ladies. How do you think Robert Redford might want to be best remembered?
WILKINSON: You know, I was lucky enough to be around him a few times In, you know, at the Sundance Institute in different activities that I was there for. And every time I heard him speak, and every time I saw him interact with artists, I saw the care that he had for the individual person and their individual perspective.
Whatever that perspective was, he really wanted to foster that and make sure that people felt like they were being heard and that their creativity was something that was valued.
While also a strong commitment to the truth and a strong commitment to looking for the ways that, you know, we can bring that truth to a larger audience and make sure that people are exposed to it.
So I think that for him, you know, that's what Sundance was about. That's what being part of the film world was about. That's what being an activist was about.
And those things are all very much woven together. And it's been really beautiful today to see all of these people really reflecting that back in their remembrances of him. And also to, you know, remember how much that was woven into his on-screen roles and also into all the work that he did off-screen.
KINKADE: Robert Redford was 89 years old, and our thoughts are with his friends and family.
Alissa Wilkinson, thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.
WILKINSON: Thank you.
KINKADE: We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
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KINKADE: Welcome back.
Extreme heat across Europe caused more than 24,000 deaths in recent months, according to a new study. Experts say climate change is a major factor, causing nearly 70 percent of those deaths.
CNN meteorologist Chris Warren walks us through the details.
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CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The study conducted by Imperial College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine focused on heat deaths across more than 800 European cities, representing about 30 percent of Europe's population.
It estimated about 24,000 heat deaths, and they found that climate change was responsible for an overwhelming majority of those deaths.
Looking at a map of Europe showing climate change's impact, the temperature impact seeing an increase, a larger increase in temperatures more than two degrees Celsius with some of the darker red showing where already hot areas getting even hotter because of climate change.
And it was a very hot summer. Europe's deadly summer heat -- June, July, August was the fourth warmest on record. Western Europe had its hottest June on record, and southeast Europe recorded July heat waves and extreme fires.
The Mediterranean region absolutely baked through much of August. Spain recorded its most intense heat wave on record. So it was a very hot summer.
And a big reason for that was the weather pattern, what we call a heat dome. So it's a big area of high pressure and with some rising air, it gets capped, essentially, there's like a lid on the atmosphere and that air is forced back down.
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WARREN: And high pressure is sinking air and that sinking air warms up even more by compression. So just the heat builds on top of itself.
You also have clear skies, which allows more sun in and produces more warming. So it was an extreme summer with warmer than average temperatures. The darker red shows us where it was much warmer than average. And again these are areas that are hot anyways.
So going forward, if things don't change, if things stay the way they are, we can expect to see even more heat-related deaths and cities are highly vulnerable to heat waves because the cities themselves can absorb more heat, retain more heat -- they essentially trap the heat.
And in Europe, 70 percent of people live in cities, and that number is expected to go up to 80 percent by 2050.
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KINKADE: Our thanks to Chris Warren.
Well, researchers have learned something quite interesting about octopuses. Just like humans, they favor certain arms for certain tasks. And while all eight limbs are equally versatile, the four up front tend to do much of the exploring.
CNN's Shannon Hodge explains.
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SHANNON HODGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just like we have dominant hands, octopus have dominant arms.
Scientists tracked 25 wild octopuses and found they favor their front arms for most tasks. Between standing, walking and grabbing prey, each arm can do everything.
But the animals often play favorites. Showing decision making in how they use their limbs.
ROGER HANLON, MARINE BIOLOGIST/BROWN UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR: The coordination of eight arms and the adaptability of conforming them to such different shapes and tasks is really impressive.
HODGE: It turns out an octopus' arms are able to act semi- independently from its central brain. Each arm has around 100 suckers, and every sucker has thousands of neurons for taste and touch.
HANLON: Most people think the octopus is a visual animal, but the way the animal really works is that most of the body is represented by the arms and the suckers.
HODGE: This state is not only interesting from a scientific perspective, but it could also help engineers design flexible, sensing robotic arms for search and rescue missions.
HANLON: The application would be crushed buildings where people are trapped under the building and for example, we need to find them and deliver drugs or communication devices to them.
Can we translate that biology to making things? That's what this is all about.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KINKADE: Very interesting.
Well, thanks so much for joining us. I'm Lynda Kinkade.
Stay with us. CNN NEWSROOM continues in just a moment with Rosemary Church.
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