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Twitter Goes Public; Philippines Braces for Typhoon Haiyan; New Pakistani Taliban Leader; Eurozone Crisis; Iran Nuclear Talks; Fukushima Decommissioning Process Beginning; Debating Nuclear Energy; Blueprint: Water Recycling Shower; Women in Film; Parting Shots: Pope Embraces Disfigured Man
Aired November 07, 2013 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ATIKA SHUBERT, HOST: Tonight, the little bluebird that flew -- Twitter shares nearly double in price, as a frenzied first day of trading draws to a close. We'll explore how the social media site hopes to make money and how it's changed the world in just seven years.
Also ahead...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART BRAND: Can you be an environmentalist and pro-nuclear?
In light of climate change, can you be an environmentalist and not be pro- nuclear?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: So can going nuclear save the planet?
A new film debates the merits of nuclear power nearly two years after the Fukushima tragedy.
And how a new test hopes to raise the profile of women on the big screen.
Well, you could call it hash tag ring. As it went public, Twitter got off to a good start on the New York Stock Exchange. There's less than an hour until markets close, so let's look at how the stock has done today.
It started with a bang, trading at just over $45 a share. That was a 73 percent jump from its offering price of $26 a share. And now, it's at roughly $47 a share.
Alison Kosik has had the bird's eye view of the New York Stock Exchange since it opened.
She joins us live -- Alison, what can you tell us about the excitement on the trading floor today?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, Atika, the -- the excitement has died down quite a bit from, uh, when -- when Twitter started trading this morning. But certainly the stock price has not died down.
And I want to get more analysis.
We're with Mark Newton.
He's with Greywolf Execution Partners.
What are you thinking at the stock prices?
We're looking at $48 -- over $48 right now.
Is this insane, as one trader told me it is?
MARK NEWTON, CHIEF TECHNICAL ANALYST, GREYWOLF EXECUTION PARTNERS: I don't think it's sustainable. I mean it's gotten parabolic very quickly. I mean a lot of people had -- had placed estimates at about 12.5 times revenues at the IPO price, which was $26, which, even at that price, was more expensive than Facebook. And now it's almost double that on day one.
So on the first day, anything can happen. You can see stocks trade up. And there are a lot of people involved in stocks that just want to own the name. They don't care about the fundamentals. They want to participate, potentially, because they might have missed Facebook. And they say I don't want to miss this one. I want to be involved in Twitter.
But it's not sustainable, I don't think, given their current model for revenues, both based on next year and also on 2015. If they were to do a billion dollars next year, then they'd probably be about 80 percent more expensive right now than Facebook and LinkedIn at current levels.
KOSIK: So needless to say, the -- the comments that we're hearing, that it is a little bit insane to see this price isn't so far off the mark?
NEWTON: It's very insane, to say the least. And the market, right now, is showing increasing signs of peaking out. And so Facebook -- or, uh, Twitter, is one of the few stocks that's actually showing very good signs of strength on a day, otherwise, when a lot of stocks are hitting new lows.
KOSIK: How is this IPO different from Facebook?
NEWTON: Well, Twitter got started at a very early stage of infancy. So they have no established revenue streams right now and -- and earnings growth.
And so that makes them, um, you know, potentially more of a lucrative speculative investment. They could potentially grow for years to come and have triple digit revenue growth, whereas Facebook is already more established. So a lot of people have discussed that already. But that's the thing that people are looking at -- how can this company trade in the future based on their revenue growth?
And if we can earn triple digit revenues for -- for years to come, then it might, potentially, be a good long-term investment at current levels.
It's just that near-term, there's just too much speculation. And when we've seen this over the last couple of months, where a company has come public and they double and then they start to stall out.
And so my thinking is you might need to undergo a little bit of consolidation before you can see the stock make further -- much further progress from here.
KOSIK: Isn't it a plus, though, that there is that room to grow?
NEWTON: It's very much a plus. And they have the same cost structure as, really, a lot of other social media companies, where they set up the infrastructure, the users come in and actually drive the content.
And so if they, you know, generate profitability at the same levels as Facebook and LinkedIn, then I think that, you know, they will be profitable, in terms of earnings, within a few years to come, which means that, you know, dips at this point would still be good buying opportunities, in my opinion.
KOSIK: OK, Mark Newton, thanks so much for your time -- Atika, this is an inter -- interesting stock to watch. It certainly held its own for today. But as Mark said, he's questioning how sustainable it really is -- Atika.
SHUBERT: Yes, maybe just a little bit too much excitement there.
Thank you very much, Alison.
The question on everybody's mind, of course, is how Twitter will make money.
How do we know the company -- we do know the company already has huge reach, of course. Twitter says it has more than 230 million monthly active users sounding 500 million Tweets per day.
But despite those numbers, it's had hefty losses. For the first nine months of this year, Twitter's losses increased to $134 million.
Well, Samuel Burke is in New York with the answers -- Samuel, how does Twitter make money, anyway?
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Atika, advertisement, advertisement, advertisements.
Let me show you my own Twitter page, what I see when I log onto this social network every day, like I do.
Now, what you'll see is that on the left side of my page, right there, you're seeing is, is a box that's called Who Should I Follow?
And it's big companies paying for their names and their Twitter accounts to appear right there.
In this case, you see a bank.
Now, over on the right side of the page, those are -- that's my feed. Those are the Tweets from all of my friends, companies I follow and news organizations.
But look, that first Tweet that's there, that's from a big car company. I don't actually follow that company, but they've paid to have that Tweet be the first feed -- the first Tweet in my feed. And that's called a promoted Tweet.
It looks like -- just like a Tweet. It looks like it's from a friend, but it's actually from a company.
So that's how these -- this company, Twitter, is making money.
Of course, if you live overseas, if you're not in the United States, you probably don't see nearly as many ads. And that's been a criticism of Twitter, that in the United States, there's a lot of ads, but where you are, Atika, you're not seeing nearly as many ads as I'm seeing over here.
SHUBERT: So I mean I have to ask, if it's not profitable yet, now why do analysts think it will be profitable in the future?
What are they betting on?
BURKE: It's all about the size of their user base -- hundreds of millions of users.
What advertiser would not want hundreds of millions of people looking at their ad every single day?
But let's put that in context for you, because compared to Facebook, for example, Facebook has 1.19 billion users. That's way more than face -- than Twitter. And that's why Twitter did not price their shares nearly as high as Facebook.
So let's compare that, $1.19 billion, to Twitter's 232 million users. That's a lot less, but still, it's a huge amount. Many companies would kill to have that type of user base.
But that said, Twitter has to be very careful, because there are other tech companies out there that we don't hear about nearly as often, but also have large user bases. For example, WhatsApp. A lot of our viewers will know that application. For $1, it allows you to send free messages. That has 350 million users -- 100 million more than Twitter.
So Twitter has to innovate. They have to get more revenue streams, they have to get advertising with a lot of companies or else they'll lose out to some of these other companies, which already have more users than Twitter.
SHUBERT: Yes, will that little blue bird make money?
I guess we'll find out.
Thank you very much, Samuel Burke, for giving us the answers on that.
Well, seven years of 140 characters and Twitter has changed how we communicate.
Let's look back at some of its biggest moments.
It started with a simple Tweet. "Just setting up my Twitter," said co- founder, Jack Dorsey, in March, 2006. And then in 2007 came the now ubiquitous hash tag symbol. It created searchable threads of conversations.
But it all changed from everyday Tweets to an information hub in 2009. Disputed elections in Iran prompted citizens to take a stand. Protesters used Twitter to spread the word and the phrase "Twitter revolution" was born.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twitter has been used in a major way. If you just look at Monday, Ayesha, Iran election, hash tag iranelection is the number one top trending term. Now, what that means is from all the people sending messages from their mobile phones, jumping onto their computers, sharing information, they're talking about this more than anything else.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: And, of course, celebrities didn't miss the chance to promote themselves, either, on Twitter. They gained millions of followers. Actor Ashton Kutcher was one of the first and threw down a very famous challenge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ASHTON KUTCHER, ACTOR: If I beat the CNN to a million followers, I will literally go and ding dong dish Ted Turner's house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: Sadly, he narrowly outpaced CNN.
And, of course, it's become a way for politicians to directly engage with their people. U.S. President Barack Obama took social media to the next level by hiring a special team just to run his Twitter account.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM JULY 9, 2011)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Earlier this week, we did something that's never been done here at the White House. We had a Twitter the White House. I even sent my first live Tweet as president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: And the world of news, of course, owes a lot to Twitter. And networks like CNN can now see firsthand what people are saying. In 2011, it gave us a new way, for example, to report the Arab Spring.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM JANUARY 28, 2011)
MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Social media played such an integral part in the past week in organizing a lot of these protests. In Egypt, people were really reliant upon that to get the message across.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: And it's created a new culture of customer service, as consumers can now directly Tweet companies of complaints.
And last but not least, a papal seal of approval. In 2012, Pope Benedict became atpontifacts (ph), the first pope to do so.
So who is the most popular on Twitter?
Well, the most followed person on Earth is pop star Katy Perry, with 46.7 million followers. She recently edged out fellow pop sensation, Justin Bieber.
Find out who all the top Tweeters are on the social network and how they've rocketed to such popularity. Well, check out our photo gallery all online at CNN.com/international.
And don't miss the closing bell on Wall Street. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS will have all the details straight after this show at 9:00 in London today. And it will be hosted by Max Foster.
Still to come tonight, taking the first step -- Iran and six world powers appear to be making progress at yet another round of nuclear talks. We'll be live from Geneva.
Plus, forced out -- Greek police evict deviant -- excuse me -- defiant staff at the former public broadcaster.
And the Philippines braces for a direct hit from one of the strongest storms on record. We'll be tracking the super typhoon right after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SHUBERT: You're watching CNN and this is CONNECT THE WORLD with me, Atika Shubert.
Welcome back.
People in the Philippines are bracing for a super typhoon, which is one of the strongest typhoons in recorded history. Thousands have already been evacuated ahead of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which is expected to make landfall later on Friday morning.
But the outer bands of the massive storm have already reached the Philippines.
Well, Jenny Harrison joins us live from the CNN International Weather Center with more on this very powerful storm -- Jennifer.
JENNY HARRISON, ATS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Atika. This is just a phenomenal storm. I just want to show you the latest satellite image and also show you the strength, of course, of the winds -- 350 kilometers an hour, 195 miles an hour. As we've been saying, one of the strongest storms ever, and certainly the strongest storm this year.
The tropical storm force winds extending 240 kilometers from the center. And, of course, already for several hours now it really has been blanketing most of the Philippines.
Is it just a matter of hours before the eye really begins to come onshore and make landfall, probably about three to four hours from now. And, of course, it really is going to impact the Central Philippines.
It's moving very quickly to the west at about 40 kilometers an hour. That is good news, can you believe, amongst all of this. But even though it's going to be making landfall across the Central Philippines, it really isn't going to lose a lot of its power. So still staying as a super typhoon. Right now, we've got some gusts at about 380 kilometers an hour.
And even when it comes out the other side, we're still expecting it to have winds at about 250 kilometers an hour.
We're not really getting much in the way of good reports right now. You can see a couple of numbers, 13 and 19. But you can see the yellow as the tropical storm force winds extending really across much of the Philippines. The redder, the darker shading of some areas already feeling winds maybe as strong as 100 -- 120 kilometers an hour.
This I want to show you. It's Friday. I've just paused it, 4:00 a.m. local time. And just watch the numbers go up as, of course, the storm comes onshore and actually works its way across the Central Philippines.
But all the while, much of all these different islands will feel the impact. And then eventually, it really will be all throughout Friday, it is not going to be until about 3:00 a.m. Saturday, local time, that the storm really clears away from the Philippines.
But even then, those tropical storm force winds will likely be felt across the Philippines.
So those are the winds.
What about the rain?
Well, again, the storm is moving quickly, but we are going to see torrential amounts of rain from the storm system. Remember, the type of topography we're talking about. So we're looking at land slides, mud slides, flash floods, as well, some areas picking up maybe 200 millimeters or more. But as well as that, it's about the storm surge.
What we have with a storm like this, the northern side of the storm is where it's always worse, because you have got the power of those winds as well as the speed of the storm coming in. Right now, it's moving at 40 kilometers an hour.
So all of that combined is what then pushes all this water onshore. So this is the concern. And to give you an idea, just look at this. So, of course, again, bearing in mind the topography, 5.3 meters likely in Matarinao Bay. And that is 17 feet in terms of the water level that could literally push onshore, 4.5 meters in Tacloban City. This is where a lot of the evacuations have taken place.
But of course, where do you go in a situation like the Philippines?
So people have just been moved to higher ground if they can. And that's really all that they can do. And then way to the north, in Manila, even here, there is the possibility of storm surge, as well, maybe 1.4 meters.
So all of this is just going to be taking place, obviously, the early hours, but really throughout Friday is going to be the worst case possible for all the people in the Philippines.
They're going to monitor this very, very closely, Atika, of course, literally hour by hour, almost minute by minute, as this storm gets closer and closer.
SHUBERT: Yes, thank you very much for staying on top of that.
Jenny Harrison at our International Weather Center.
Well, Iran is meeting with six world powers in Geneva to break a decade- long deadlock on Iran's nuclear program. The country's foreign minister told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that progress has been made and that an agreement is possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Javad Zarif, inn foreign minister:
I believe that it is possible to reach an understanding or an agreement before we close these negotiations tomorrow evening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: We'll have more on the talks and Christiane's news making interview with Iran's foreign minister and a live report from Geneva, just ahead.
Now, here in Britain, three top intelligence officials took their turn in the hot seat today in an unprecedented public hearing. They're being grilled over allegations they, too, were tapping citizens' Internet communications.
Now, the claims follow leaks by former NSA contractor, Edward Snowden. But the head of Britain's foreign spy agency hit back at the allegations, saying that Snowden's leaks were harming counter-terrorism operations to the benefit of the enemy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIR JOHN SAWYERS, HEAD OF FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE, MI5: The leaks from Snowden have been very damaging. They've put our operations at risk. It is clear that our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee. Al Qaeda is lapping it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: Now, the head of domestic intelligence, Andrew Parker, went on to talk about the threat the conflict in Syria poses to the UK. He said hundreds of Britons sympathizing with the rebel cause are going abroad to fight and becoming radicalized.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDREW PARKER, HEAD OF DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE SERVICE, MI5: Syria has become a very attractive place for people to go for that reason, those who support or sympathize with the al Qaeda ideological message that I mentioned. We've seen low hundreds now of people from this country go to Syria for periods and come back, some large number still there, and get involved in fighting. And this is partly because of the proximity of Syria and the ease of travel there, but, also because it's attractive as what they would see as a jihadi cause.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: Now, earlier this week, we showed you how foreigners are smuggled from Turkey into Syria. You can watch Nick Paton Walsh's exclusive report by logging onto CNN.com/international.
The widow of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has told CNN she believes her husband was murdered. Her comments follow the release of a new report by Swiss scientists that found significantly higher than expected levels of the radioactive poison, polonium, in Arafat's personal effects. Suspicions he was poisoned have lingered for years, but scientists could not give a definitive answer as to whether that is what was -- that's what killed him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCOIS BOCHUD, DIRECTOR, LAUSANNE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL INSTITUTE OF RADIATION PHYSICS: Can we say with certainty that polonium was the cause of the death of President Arafat?
The reason, unfortunately j the answer, unfortunately, it's clearly, we cannot give a clearly defined answer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SHUBERT: A new leader of the Pakistan Taliban has been named less than a week after it was -- its former chief was killed in a drone strike.
And as Jonathan Mann reports, he is linked to one particularly heinous attack.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His name is Maulana Fazlullah. Terror experts dubbed him Mullah Radio because of the extremist broadsides he's broadcast over the airwaves. He's blamed for thousands of deaths in countless attacks in Pakistan's Swat Valley before he was pushed out by the military.
The Pakistani Taliban say he is now their leader and potential peace talks with the government are off.
Instead, the group says it will focus its attacks on Punjab Province, already the scene of so much bloodshed and home to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who had campaigned publicly to get the Taliban into talks.
The Taliban blames Sharif for the drone strike that killed their former leader. And having chosen Fazlullah, they aren't just vowing more brutality, they're reminding the world of an earlier example.
Pakistani authorities believe Fazlullah, based in Afghanistan, was behind the failed attempt on the life of student activist, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot and nearly killed in Swat in 2012 for championing girls education and speaking out against the Taliban.
REHMAN MALIK, FORMER PAKISTANI INTERIOR MINISTER: The investigations, of course, according to the investigation leads, this conspiracy assassination plan was made across the border in Afghanistan. Of course, Maulana Fazlullah, who had fled away when we took action in Malakand Swat. And this was conspired there.
MANN: Malala's ordeal, courage and remarkable recovery have made her more famous. And her campaign for girls education more prominent in Pakistan. Now age 16, she's been traveling the world promoting her cause and her autobiography.
But Taliban officials recently reaffirmed that she is still a target.
And this is the new face of the Pakistani Taliban, a man reportedly hard enough to plan the cold-blooded killing of an unarmed teenaged girl.
Jonathan Mann, CNN.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SHUBERT: To the U.S. now, where the national Food and Drug Administration has taken a step toward effectively banning trans fats from the food supply. They have said the source of trans fats are no longer generally recognized to be safe.
Now, trans fats are currently found in all sorts of popular processed foods and have been linked to an increase in the risk of heart disease.
But what are they exactly?
Well, they're also known as partially hydrogenated oils, or vegetable shortening. They increase the shelf life and the flavor of foods. But health experts say they are known to increase LDL and reduce HDL, or good cholesterol.
Trans fats are commonly found in processed foods, including frozen pizza, microwave popcorn, but also coffee creamers, canned frosting and stick margarine.
Well, the Olympic Torch has arrived at the final frontier at the International Space Station. It was flown into space by...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- Soyuz spacecraft and the International Space Station.
SHUBERT: It was flown into space...
(CROSSTALK)
SHUBERT: -- by three international astronauts on board a Soyuz spacecraft. And in case you're wondering, the flame is not lit during the trip. But on Saturday, two Russian cosmonauts will take the torch outside for a spacewalk.
Now, it's all meant to promote the 2014 Winter Games, which begin in Sochi, Russia on February the 7th.
Live from London, this is CONNECT THE WORLD.
Coming up, off air and now offline -- why Greek police moved in to get ERT out.
And as Japan gets set to begin a dangerous mission at the disaster-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, we'll give you a look inside.
That and more when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SHUBERT: You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD live from London.
Welcome back.
I'm Atika Shubert.
The European Central Bank has slashed its key interest rate for the first time in six months. It's not .25 percent lower, standing at 0.25 percent.
Now, the surprise move is intended to ward off deflationary in struggle European economies. But while markets welcomed the new, the euro dropped.
Here you can see a snapshot of the the trading day, with the euro dropping by almost 1 percentage point. It now stands at approximately 1.33 euros to the dollar.
Now, one country suffering most from austerity measures is Greece. In June, the government shut down the public broadcaster, ERT, as part of its cost cutting measures. But defiant staff refused to leave until police forced them out this morning.
Elinda Labropoulou has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELINDA LABROPOULOU, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Greek police clashed with former staff of closed public broadcaster, ERT. The employees were among 2,600 people who suddenly lost their jobs five months ago, when the government shut down the TV and radio network as part of cost cutting measures.
(AUDIO GAP)
LABROPOULOU: Many refused to leave and have been occupying the building ever since, delivering their broadcasts online.
But in the early hours of Thursday morning, riot police were given the go- ahead to lock the gates and evict those holed up inside.
ADRIANNA BILL, JOURNALIST (through translator): We were expecting this, but not in the middle of the night. This is how fascism works, slyly and in darkness. They came in darkness so no one would be around in evicting colleagues. I feel like they have raped me. They have violated my home. They have violated my life.
LABROPOULOU: In a show of defiance, the evicted staff began broadcasting in front of police lines via ERTOpen.com.
The government says it closed ERT because of chronic corruption and mismanagement of funds and is planning to set up a smaller state-owned broadcaster.
(on camera): Police have been guarding the gate since the building was stormed, adding to the militant atmosphere.
The battle is more political than ever, between a government trying to show that its cutting costs (INAUDIBLE) and the people, backed by unions and opposition saying they just want their money back.
(voice-over): The shutdown of ERT prompted public outcry in June and threatened to plunge Greece's government into crisis when a left-wing party withdrew its support from the governing coalition.
Athens is now struggling to strike a difficult balance, as it undergoes this week its latest bailout review to consider whether or not even more financial help -- and pain -- is needed.
Elinda Labropoulou, CNN, Athens.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SHUBERT: The latest world news headlines just ahead.
Plus, is a deal near -- Iran and six world powers are in talks to find a way of ending a decade of deadlock. We'll be live from Geneva.
Plus, a man who thinks nuclear power could be the answer to climate change. The environmental argument, coming up.
And off to the silver screen -- how a new test will determine whether -- whether or not a movie is female-friendly.
All that and more when CONNECT THE WORLD returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SHUBERT: This is CONNECT THE WORLD, the top stories this hour. Twitter is flying high on Wall Street. The microblogging site started trading on the New York Stock Exchange and nearly doubled in price. It has since settled down a bit but remains up about 75 percent from its initial offering price of $26.
A massive super typhoon is heading for the central Philippines. Thousands of people have been moved from low-lying areas and hillsides that are vulnerable to landslides. The Philippines' president warned of a possible calamity but says the country stands ready to respond.
Three top British intelligence officials took their turn in the hot seat today in an unprecedented public hearing. They're being grilled over allegations they were tapping citizens' internet communications.
And Iran says it is making headway in its talks with six world powers in Geneva. The country's foreign minister said that Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia, and the US have accepted the proposed framework of Iran's plan. Javad Zarif also said that he expects an agreement on the details by the end of talks on Friday.
Well, Karl Penhaul is covering the talks and joins us live now from Geneva. Karl, what's the atmosphere like there? What is it that's changed that's allowed this progress to move forward?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think first of all, talking about what has allowed this is on the one hand the election in the summer of President Hassan Rouhani in Iran. And the Americans would also have us believe that it's this increasing ratcheting up of pressure, where using economic sanctions that has also bludgeoned Iran to the talks table.
But it's been quite notable that since yesterday evening, when we talked to a senior US administration official and today, the optimism has also increased. The US administration official told us that she believed that this was the first time in years that Iran was taking this type of negotiations seriously, and she said that Iran was not simply using these talks as a way of buying time.
And then, just a few moments ago, as many of you might have seen, the Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he believes a draft agreement could be in place and ready to be signed as early as tomorrow.
Now, that is good news. We should bear in mind, though, that all sides are talking about a two-step agreement. There will be a first step that will be followed by implementation and some confidence-building, and then several months down the line, product of continued negotiations, a final agreement. But certainly a lot of optimism that a paper could be signed tomorrow, Atika.
SHUBERT: So, a lot of optimism, and you mentioned those first steps, confidence-building. What are those steps likely to involve? Has there been any indication of what that might be?
PENHAUL: Well, of course, the devil is in the detail, isn't it? And really, talking to a spokesman for the European Union today, he said the key issue here revolves around uranium enrichment.
Now, of course, the concern here is how pure is the uranium that Iran has been enriching? Because the uranium that is needed for a civilian, peaceful nuclear program is enriched to around 5 percent. The kind of uranium that is then used for other purposes, including nuclear weapons, is enriched to a much higher level of purity, and it is that that all sides really want to stop.
On the one hand, the United States has said that they want to halt to all Iranian enrichment. There are UN resolutions also backing that. But then, in that interview that Foreign Minister Zarif gave to Christiane Amanpour, he said that there wouldn't be a total halt to enrichment. Let's listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: There won't be a suspension of our enrichment program in its entirety, but we can deal with various issues, various issues are on the table, some of the issues that you mentioned are on the table. They are part of these negotiations and we hope that we can reach an accommodation where the concerns of all sides are met.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PENHAUL: But it could be that the negotiating parties here tomorrow in this draft agreement allow Iran to continue some form of low-grade uranium enrichment in exchange for halting all higher-grade enrichment.
And then, possibly, later on down the line, maybe even as part of this first step, but maybe as part of a final deal, then Iran may also go and agree to international demands to close certain of its nuclear facilities.
What, of course, is Iran looking for? Certainly looking for something in exchange. And in this first step, what Iran will be looking for is some relief from those economic sanctions that have been imposed on its oil and banking sector that are really crippling its economy right now, Atika.
SHUBERT: Well, some cautious optimism, it sounds like, but we're going to have to wait for those full details to come out tomorrow. Thank you very much, Karl Penhaul for us, live in Geneva.
And you can watch the full interview with the Iranian foreign minister later tonight an "Amanpour" at 10:00 in London, 11:00 in Berlin.
More than two years since the second-worst nuclear accident in history, cleanup operations are still ongoing at Japan's Fukushima power plant. But the dangerous process of removing fuel rods from the crippled reactor is now about to begin, and this is seen as a major step in decommissioning Fukushima. CNN's Paula Hancocks got an inside look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the final checkpoint: only authorized vehicles are allowed past this point.
Arriving at the plant, the first thing we see are the huge water tanks that hold the toxic water that's been used to keep the reactors cool.
HANCOCKS (on camera): We're actually inside the plant now, and where we're off to is to get the hazmat suits and the protection before we go into the more contaminated areas.
So here you can see all the journalists getting ready. This is, effectively, what the workers have to go through every single day.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): There are strict rules about what we can and can't film. But this is the part of the plant TEPCO wants us to show: reactor four.
HANCOCKS (on camera): You can't get much closer to the heart of the Fukushima disaster than this. This is what TEPCO has brought us here. We are in the reactor four building, the building that suffered that hydrogen blast in the days after the disaster, and this is the cooling pool. Inside there, there are 1500 spent fuel rods.
And what the company's doing over the coming days is to remove those fuel rods to a more stable location, they say. They insist it is a routine operation, they've done it many times before.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): The fuel rods will be removed and transferred to a pool 100 meters from the damaged reactor building, an operation TEPCO is calling a milestone in the recovery effort.
Officials say they do not believe the fuel rods were damaged by debris falling into the pool after the explosion, but they won't know for sure until the operation begins.
"The large piece of debris have been removed from the pool," the plant chief tells us. "We used an underwater vacuum cleaner to move the smaller pieces, but there may be tiny pieces left."
Nearby, we're shown the water storage tanks up close. Recent leaks have made the issue of contaminated water one of TEPCO's immediate concerns. These tanks can hold a total of 400,000 tons of water, 370,000 tons of space have already been used.
In this building, the effort to process the toxic water to remove some of the radioactive elements is ongoing, and on the ocean front, barriers are being built to protect the plant from another tsunami and to stop an estimated 300 tons of toxic groundwater seeping into the Pacific Ocean every day.
HANCOCKS (on camera): These yellow and pink tags that you can see mark where this barrier is. It's effectively liquid cement that they have injected all the way along here to try and keep the contaminated groundwater within the power plant itself and not seeping into the Pacific.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Stopgap measures continue in tandem with the delicate but essential operation at reactor four, a key step in the effort to stabilize the plant. Paula Hancocks, CNN, inside the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: Incredible. Well, just as Japan hurries to clean up the site of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters, a fresh debate is opening up about the potential of atomic energy. A provocative new film, "Pandora's Promise," asks whether nuclear could, in fact, be the solution to climate change.
The documentary tells the story of five environmentalists on their journey from fiercely anti-nuclear to passionate advocates. Its Academy Award- nominated director, Robert Stone, spoke to Becky Anderson a little earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The nuclear industry is a death industry. It's killing people and will for the rest of time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've avoided looking at the whole picture and only looked at the questions that seemed to prove that nuclear power was dangerous.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Are you telling us, all our fears about nuclear and the safety of nuclear energy are wrong?
ROBERT STONE, DIRECTOR, "PANDORA'S PROMISE": I'm telling you my fears about nuclear energy and safety are wrong. We've had 50 years of nuclear power, we've got 440 reactors operating all over the world, and in that time, we've had three significant accidents, only one of which, Chernobyl, which was a crazy, Soviet-era designed plant, has had any mortality associated with radiation release.
And even there, according to the best science we have from the World Health Organization, less than 60 people have died. So, in terms of the amount of energy that's produced, clean energy, nuclear power is actually the second- safest source of energy on the planet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Assuming that the world continues to develop, we can have 10 billion people living high-energy, resource-intensive lives. We've accepted most of the basic ideas of the environmental movement, we're all going to start using renewables.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go solar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really took us getting clear about how big the gap was between fossil fuels and renewables for us to take a second look at nuclear.
ANDERSON: Has Germany got it wrong, for example, when it's given up its nuclear option in favor of renewables going forward? Have they got it wrong?
STONE: Well, look, I don't think it's a zero-sum game. We need everything we can to throw at this problem. What Germany has done is remarkable with its wind and solar program, they've got 5 percent of their energy coming from solar, about 7 percent from wind. And half the world's supply of solar panels are installed in Germany. They've done incredible progress.
But that means there's still 95 percent of their electricity is still coming from something other than solar. And unfortunately, they're shutting down their nuclear plants and building more coal plants. They're the -- their CO2 emissions are actually going up.
And their per capita CO2 emissions are twice that of next-door neighbors in France, who deploy nuclear power to the point where 80 percent of the grid is nuclear.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Assuming that the world continues to develop and that China and India and Brazil become rich countries over the next half century or century, how much energy is the world going to use?
ANDERSON: What do you hope your film will achieve?
STONE: Nuclear power wasn't even discussed in newspaper articles and magazine stories, news stories about clean energy and what we do about climate change. Now, it's very much back on the table.
If you do the math, in a world that's adding the energy equivalent of adding a new Brazil to the planet every year, there is no way -- there is no way we are going to displace fossil fuels within the time we have left to do this with renewable energy. We need everything on the table.
And environmental groups are stuck in the past, and I think they're completely out of touch with young people and the new realities that we live in today, and the new technologies in nuclear that they completely ignore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you be an environmentalist and pro-nuclear? In light of climate change, can you be an environmentalist and not be pro- nuclear?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: A surprising debate. The team at CONNECT THE WORLD wants to hear on these views from you, facebook.com/CNNconnect, have your say. And you can also tweet me @AtikaCNN.
Well, live from London, you're watching CONNECT THE WORLD. Chick flick or not? How a new test will determine whether or not a movie is entirely focused on men or not. More on that later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SHUBERT: Welcome back to CONNECT THE WORLD, I'm Atika Shubert. Well, water covers 70 percent of our planet, and while that sounds plentiful, almost a fifth of the world's population suffers from water shortages. Studies show that an average ten-minute shower uses up to 150 liters of water, and this has prompted one designer to tackle the problem one shower at a time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEHRDAD MAHDJOUBI, DESIGN GRADUATE, UNIVERSITY OF LUND, SWEDEN: I'm Mehrdad Mahdjoubi, and I'm a graduate from the School of Industrial Design at Lund University here in Sweden.
When I was studying, I was encouraged to start questioning the way we use our resources on our planet. The design that brought forward is a shower that is recycling water instantly, which allows for saving in water more than 90 percent and saving the energy more than 80 percent, where at the same time we're increasing comfort and hygienic levels of the water.
The water comes out from the top, gets in the drain. Inside, it's purified to drinking water quality, and it's pumped back up. So, we have a recycling loop. For a ten-minute shower, you would only need about 5 liters of water while in a regular shower, you need 150 liters of water. It's 30 times as much water.
The recycled water is already heated up, so you just need to top off the heating a little bit, which allows really big energy savings. Since my graduation two years ago, I formed a start-up, and we moved into this business incubator in Malmo, and one and a half years later, we made our first installations.
Part of the Scandinavian culture and lifestyle is to have a refuge moment at the sea, so what people do is they go take a dip in the sea water, then they go and take a hot shower, then they go to a variety of different saunas.
This has been a tough testing environment, because people are quite much dirtier here than they are at home. They come in from the sea, they have seaweed, they have plankton, they have algae. It does work. It has been really positive to have it here.
Nille Juul-Sorensen is a designer who designed stations in Malmo, which is being used by thousands of people every day, and it's enhancing their lives, which is exactly what I want to do as a designer.
NILLE JUUL-SORENSEN, DIRECTOR, DANISH DESIGN CENTRE: Hi, I'm Nille.
MAHDJOUBI: So, here it is.
JUUL-SORENSEN: Ooh.
MAHDJOUBI: So, the water comes down and it's being collected at the drain.
JUUL-SORENSEN: Recycled again and gets purified --
MAHDJOUBI: Exactly. And then pumped back up.
JUUL-SORENSEN: This is one of the products which is more than a product. We can do whatever shower, but I think it's also about the technology. And the technology is so fantastic, instead of spending 12 liters of water a minute when I'm showering, I can spend 5 liters for weeks. And that change is so dramatic.
MAHDJOUBI: Here is our filtering system, which is purifying the water.
JUUL-SORENSEN: Yes?
MAHDJOUBI: Just pull up the handle, pick it up. And then you put it in again. Less than ten seconds.
JUUL-SORENSEN: OK. And I send this back to you?
MAHDJOUBI: Yes, exactly. And we recycle that one.
JUUL-SORENSEN: OK. I think everybody should be forced to have it.
(LAUGHTER)
JUUL-SORENSEN: This is one of the designs that could go from being a design object to be a culture. Because I think in Scandinavia, we're so good at making designs or systems and they will be a part of our culture. That's how we do things.
I think things like this will be natural in ten years. It will be all over. And if you start this, then you start a movement, because how can I actually go home to my wife and say I didn't buy this one?
Is there somewhere else where this will be a really disruptive technology? Who are the most spenders of water? Where is that? Car washing, clothes, all these --
MAHDJOUBI: Humans.
JUUL-SORENSEN: Humans, yes. So, it's just to find out, how can you transfer this technology, because there will be new things to design.
To him, it's not about designing nice objects. To him, it's about saving water, doing something. My interest is not about the objects. My interest is the system, and I see here a young, talented guy who is doing both, which is really cool.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHUBERT: Coming up after this short break on CONNECT THE WORLD, a three- step test to determine if a movie is gender-biased. We'll discuss the criteria when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SHUBERT: Well, we've already got age ratings on films. Now, certain cinemas in Sweden are introducing a new one to highlight gender bias. If a film passes at test known as the Bechdel Test, cinemas will award it an A rating to show it's not entirely focused on men.
Now, the Bechdel test was dreamed up by US cartoonist Alison Bechdel, and it first appeared on this page of one of her comic strips in the 1980s, and it came about when two of her characters were trying to decide on a film to watch.
And, well, this is how it works. It's a basic pass or fail test with three rules, all of which must be met. First, the film must have two named female characters in it. Second, those characters must be seen to talk to each other. And finally, they've got to talk about something, anything, other than men.
Well, to help me put some leading movies through the test, I'm joined by women's rights activist Caroline Criado-Perez. So, let's take a look at some possible films that may or may not pass the test. First, we've got "Gravity," which is just out in theaters now. That actually, as it turns out, fails the test because, of course, it's only got one man character and one female character.
CAROLINE CRIADO-PEREZ, WOMEN'S RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER: Yes.
SHUBERT: So, unfortunately, there fails already the fact that it doesn't have two named female characters. And then we have "Star Trek," which is a film that also fails the test because it doesn't have two female characters having any discussion besides that.
But we do get a pass for "Wolverine," ironically, a movie about the X-Men where, apparently, there are more than two female characters having conversations there.
So, you get a variety of films, and I'm wondering, is this the best way to judge films for gender bias? What do you think?
CRIADO-PEREZ: Well, it's certainly a way. Maybe not the only way, but I think one of the most interesting things about the Bechdel test is how many films fail.
And it's such a low bar, the idea, all you need is two named characters who are women talking not about men. That's absurdly low, and the idea that such a high proportion of films fail is really quite concerning. So, I think it's really good that they're doing this just to highlight the problem that we have.
SHUBERT: But it's interesting, because a film like "Gravity," for example, is a film that I think many probably would see as a feminist film. It features an -- a woman who's an astronaut repairing a space station in a very stressful, challenging situation, but it fails the test. So, are there some -- is it too blunt of a test, basically?
CRIADO-PEREZ: Well, it's difficult for me to comment on "Gravity," having only seen the trailer. So --
SHUBERT: That's a good point.
CRIADO-PEREZ: -- I don't know how she's portrayed, if she's really portrayed as a complex character of if she's just portrayed as a stereotypical sort of woman character. So, I don't know.
I think that, obviously, in certain films, maybe the test isn't as applicable. If you've only got two named characters anyway, then obviously, then it's not relevant --
SHUBERT: Right..
CRIADO-PEREZ: -- whether there are two female characters. But I think generally, what you tend to have in films is an ensemble and you've got quite a few men. You'll have a lead male and a lead supporting character.
And the fact that this the test that she'd come up with saying you need to have two named characters who talk to each other about something other than men suggests how often you have two female characters talking about men, or having female characters and they're not named at all.
It is something that I -- I actually sort of noticed quite a lot recently. A lot of films that I really enjoyed growing up, and I go back to them and I just sort of think, where are the women?
SHUBERT: Where are the women?
(LAUGHTER)
SHUBERT: No, it's totally true. And statistics actually bear this out. I think they showed in 2011 a study in the United States showed that only 33 percent of the roles were for women, and of those, only 11 percent were the protagonists.
CRIADO-PEREZ: Yes.
SHUBERT: So, it really goes to show, where are women in film? And do you think a test like this is going to make the audience go, wait a second, actually, I'm not seeing more women?
CRIADO-PEREZ: Well, I think it will, actually. Because as I -- the really I mentioned films that I used to enjoy growing up, and actually do still enjoy, was because it was before I'd really been aware of the idea that perhaps women weren't being represented.
And once you start noticing that, once you start realizing that every time you go to see a film, every time you watch a really great series on TV, you're not seeing yourself represented. You're just seeing men talking to each other.
SHUBERT: Exactly.
CRIADO-PEREZ: It gets a little bit wearing and a bit sad.
SHUBERT: Well, that's just it. But hopefully, the Bechdel Test will raise awareness on that.
CRIADO-PEREZ: Hopefully.
(LAUGHTER)
SHUBERT: Thank you so much for joining us.
CRIADO-PEREZ: Thank you.
SHUBERT: An in tonight's Parting Shots, we have a picture that truly tells a thousand words. Take a look at this. This is a photo of Pope Francis embracing a disfigured man, and it has gone viral. It was taken on Wednesday in St. Peter's Square and it captures the pope's compassion.
The Catholic News Agency says the man suffers from neurofibromatosis. It's a genetic disorder that causes severe pain and creates thousands of tumors throughout the body. Comments on social media sites have compared the encounter to the Biblical passage of Jesus embracing a leper. A very powerful photo.
I'm Atika Shubert and that was CONNECT THE WORLD. Thank you very much for watching.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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