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Connect the World
U.S. Lawmakers Hear Testimony on FTX Collapse; Scientists Work to Harness Energy from Nuclear Fusion; French Official: $1B Pledged to help Ukraine Through Winter; HRW: Russia Apparently Used Clustered Munitions in Kherson; Croatia & Argentina Face Off in First Semi-Final Match; "Splendours of Uzbekistan's Oases" on Display at the Louvre. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired December 13, 2022 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Welcome back to "Connect the World". I'm Eleni Giokos. I'm in for my colleague Becky Anderson. Great of
you to join us! Now already in disgrace and under arrest, there are more dramatic developments for Sam Bankman-Fried the Founder of the bankrupt
Crypto Currency Exchange FTX has been indicted on eight criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy.
The Former Crypto Celebrity was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday and U.S. prosecutors have announced criminal charges. He also faces civil securities
fraud charges. All right, right now a House Committee is holding a hearing on the collapse of FTX. The company's new CEO John J. Ray III is
testifying. Ray took over for Bankman-Fried last month. I want you to take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN J.RAY, FTX CEO: The FTX group's collapse appears to stem from absolute concentration of control in the hands of a small group of grossly
inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals who failed to implement virtually any of the systems or controls that are necessary for a company
entrusted with other people's money or assets.
(END VICEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right. Anna Stewart is live with us now. Anna has been listening to this hearing, what are we learning?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Utterly extraordinary. We are now on to the Q&A in the House Committee Hearing. And honestly, it's hard to know
which nuggets to pull out of what John Ray was saying, as he's kind of going through the books or lack of books really, at FTX.
He says these are quotes literally there was no record keeping whatsoever employees would communicate in terms of invoicing and expensing on Slack.
He then goes on to say that QuickBooks was used. This is a nice tool for basic accounting for small businesses, not for a multibillion dollar
company. And he says there was really just one person controlling this, you know, no board for multibillion dollar companies sorry.
And he also said when he compares it to Enron and other bankruptcies, and restructurings that he's had to oversee. He said the difference with this
one is he's dealing with essentially a paperless bankruptcy, very difficult to track and trace all the assets. And as you can see, the Q&A here is
ongoing. We're learning so much about it.
We already had the written statements, of course. And there's a lot unfolding in terms of the charges we're seeing against SBF from a variety
of investigations and an appearance we're expecting from him today.
GIOKOS: Exactly. I mean, it's so interesting; some of that detail, John Ray and his team had actually alluded to a few weeks ago when they initially
took over the company. And I have to say some of it was really shocking and even messaging over these platforms that would eventually expire.
So that people wouldn't be able to trace some of the things that they were requesting at management level. The question now becomes what happens next?
SBF was meant to be testifying today. He got arrested overnight. We've got all these charges coming through. So what is the protocol here?
STEWART: Right. So we are as of today expecting the extradition hearing to be taking place around now in the Bahamas that could see SBF of course sent
back to the U.S. to face all these charges. We have this testifying in committee hearing that we're having right now.
And then what happens next? Well, we have had common actually from Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyer, which says Mr. Bankman-Fried is reviewing the
charges with his legal team and considering all of his legal options, I don't know how many options he has.
But just to remind people of how many charges he is facing. This is the unsealed indictment in terms of the criminal charges that are eight against
him from the U.S. conspiracy counts to defraud investors, lenders and the United States to commit commodities and securities fraud and money
laundering and violate campaign finance laws.
Then you have the Commodities Futures Trading Commission's charges. Then you have the Securities Exchanges Committee - Commissions charges, there is
a lot going on. There is a lot for us to watch. It's very interesting getting some of the color that we're getting right now from John Ray the
guy restructuring the company just to try and unpick it. But you know we'll be looking forward hopefully to a trial where we'll get a lot more Eleni.
[11:05:00]
GIOKAS: Yes, we have been hearing a lot from SBF over the past few weeks after the implosion of FTX. Some of the things that he was saying, you
know, saying that he wasn't aware of what was going on? He's really sorry. In the meantime, investor's depositors sitting with money that they cannot
access or assets they can't access. I think we have some of those sounds. Can we play some of that? Do we have that team?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAM BANKMAN-FRIED, FORMER CEO, FTX: I don't think I tried to do anything wrong. I don't know of FTX deposits being used to pay off Alameda
creditors. I didn't knowingly commit fraud. I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as
competent as I thought I was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: Well, I wasn't as competent as I thought I was. I didn't think I was you know, committing fraud. Interesting, right? Because all of this is
also going to be used as evidence in this case?
STEWART: Yes. Imagine being the lawyer for a client who keeps talking ever since the implosion of FTX. He has been speaking to media outlets he's been
tweeting has been DM'ing journalists he even spoke on a stage virtually from the Bahamas, he hasn't stopped talking about what happened.
Of course, the risk legally is that there could be an inconsistency with when what he said, and the evidence that may come out as these
investigations go on as it goes to trial. So that is a major risk. And I think that might have sped up the whole process, frankly, with all of these
regulators and authorities wanting to sort this out rather quickly because he hasn't stopped talking.
It's probably not working in his favor. We're not hearing much from him now. We do wonder whether we'll see him at this, of course extradition
hearing in Palmer's in the coming hour. It's just nonstop Eleni. It's been most classic story and actually the most interesting part, perhaps the fact
that SBF let's not forget.
Only around six weeks ago, was the poster boy of crypto currency. He was the legitimate face of crypto exchanges. FTX was a well-regarded one of the
biggest exchanges in the world. This downfall has been so swift.
GIOKOS: So swift, and I mean, if you look at the Twitter universe, and see what people are saying, you know, people talking about contagion, they
worried. In fact, I'd actually watched a few of his past interviews and I have to say this before I say goodbye to you.
That, you know, when he was asked about the regulatory environment, I think a few weeks just before this implosion happened, he said and he was
boasting 37 countries to regulate FTX and more than 90 regulatory bodies overseeing the company.
So I'm curious to see how the regulators are going to play a role in this conversation, right and where the loopholes the shortfalls, were in this
entire story? Anna Stewart we'll be catching up with you as the story evolves progresses over the next few days. Thank you so much.
All right, moving on to markets now. Wall Street and European stock markets are roaring higher, and that's after U.S. inflation cooled considerably in
November. U.S. consumer price growth slowed to 7.1 percent last month. And you can see how markets are reacting here. The DOW Jones is up six tenths
of a percent slightly softer than what it was a short while ago. But we've officially entered into a bull market territory in early trading.
UK, also a higher we've got the DAX in Germany sitting 1 percent in the green as well. Now the latest numbers are showing us that inflation is
easing and the world's biggest economy. The U.S. President just spoke from the White House and he says this is a major reason to hope for better days
ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: In a world where inflation is rising at double digits, many major economies around the world
inflation is coming down in America. In fact, this new report is the fifth month in a row where annual inflation has fallen in the United States.
Inflation outside food and energy, a key measure of that economists use also fell. Make no mistake prices are still too high. We have a lot more
work to do. But things are getting better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right, now to a story that could one day change the world as we know it for the first time in U.S. history all in history, U.S. sciences
have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction that resulted in a net energy gain.
And that's something scientists had been working on for decades. That could be a major step in helping to end the world's dependency on fossil fuels.
It has been described as akin to bottling the sun producing energy in a way that's millions of times more efficient than burning fossil fuels at its
core is an intense nuclear reaction but not the type that's common here.
[11:10:00]
GIOKOS: On Earth, humankind mastered nuclear fission in the 20th century splitting the atom that gave us previously unseen amounts of power, but in
the process created waste that can remain dangerous for thousands of years and can be used to manufacture the most destructive of weapons the world
has ever seen.
Now, nuclear fusion creates energy in an entirely different way. Unlike fission, which splits apart heavy elements like uranium, fusion fuses,
lighter elements like hydrogen to get there releasing energy in the process. There's no harmful radiation, and the only byproduct is helium.
To fuse hydrogen, it must be subjected to enormous heat and pressure to convert it into a state of matter called plasma. The engineering challenges
to create and contain this plasma have been difficult to overcome and that's led to a running joke among sciences that fusion power is 30 years
away, and always will be.
But this feeds is creating a lot of excitement and enthusiasm. The bottom line, we are at least one step closer, Rene Marsh is following the story
from Washington for us. I guess the question now becomes, are we going to see this scaled, changing our lives in our lifetime? Or are we still 30
years away because we've created it in a lab? How do we scale this?
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're right. I guess it depends on how young you are? You know, you may see it. But you're right. I mean, that has
been the running joke within the scientific community. It's always 30 years away.
But many people that I've spent time speaking to that is the prediction those 30 years from now, we could see this being used on a wide scale. But
still as amazing as today is and we don't want to take away from how big of a deal this is? There is still such a long way to go so many other hurdles.
To your point, how do we create even more power for the entire world? How do we harness that power and harvest that power? How do we then get that
power to the electric grid, all of those things have not been developed yet?
And then, of course, there's the regulatory aspect of this that would have to follow as well. So that all being said, you know, it could be decades
before we're able to power our homes with this source of energy.
But it is we should not mistake that we can't get there without what was announced today. And so for that reason, people are excited about the
possibilities of this new form of clean energy, especially as we have been talking so much about the climate crisis and the need to pivot away from
dirty fossil fuels.
This is that. This is the opportunity to do that because as you so nicely lay out at the top, this source of energy is clean, and produces nothing
more than helium. And as one researcher pointed out to me, we put that in children's balloons so that's not very, very harmful so a great day for
science and mankind.
GIOKOS: Yes. OK, I want to take a step back, because nothing excites me more than sorting out energy poverty, you know, on the African continent,
for example. But I want to talk about why this is historical, why nuclear fusion is such a historic feat?
MARSH: You know, we look, and we marvel and sometimes maybe take for granted the sun and how many millions of years that it has been able to
burn and continue to do so the same with the stars but replicating that condition that happens within the sun and the stars has been incredibly
difficult to do that here on Earth.
And this is 60 years, more than 60 years in the making that scientists have been trying to replicate those conditions. And now, here in the U.S. at
this Department of Energy Lab in California, they've been able to crack that code and I think that is why today such a monumental day is because
this is something that they have been working towards for quite some time. And it's been elusive until now.
GIOKOS: Yes, replicating what happens with the sun and the stars that is absolutely a cause for recycling. Rene Marsh, great to see you thank you so
much! And still to come, they're trying to pull off the impossible. Moroccan fans are streaming into Qatar hoping to see their country beat
France and reach a World Cup final.
[11:15:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: This is a powerful signal to show the civilized world is supporting Ukraine. Those words from Ukraine's Prime Minister, as dozens of countries
vowed to help Ukraine survive its winter of war France's more than $1 billion was pledged during a conference in Paris today.
Much of the aid will help restored Ukraine's energy network, which is buckling under a wave of Russian airstrikes. It will also be channeled to
food, water health and transport sectors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is getting more than he asked for.
He addressed the conference virtually seeking more than $814 million in aid. Now this promise of aid comes as fighting rages across the frontlines.
Heavy shelling was reported overnight in the southern region, and a key bridge used to resupply Russian forces in occupied Melitopol has been blown
up. A Russian appointed official has denied the bridges importance.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch is reporting that Russian forces appear to have used cluster munitions to target civilians in Kherson. The group
claims it has happened at least three times since Ukraine reclaimed the city. CNN's Will Ripley joins us now from Kyiv. He's also with Belkis Wille
from Human Rights Watch with more on the report. Will I'm going to hand it over to you cluster munitions being used. Tell us about this report.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, last week, CNN reported that the Ukrainians are asking the United States for cluster
munitions warheads, which are highly controversial, banned in about hundred countries because of the fact that they impose such a potential risk for
civilians.
And yet the Russians are using them and Human Rights Watch has been on the ground Kherson, the liberated city to the south. That has been the target
of intense and heavy bombardment, basically, ever since the Russians pulled out the belt because we lay who is here.
The Associate Director of Conflict and Crisis Division in Human Rights Watch you just got back you were on the ground. And essentially what you
say Russia is doing in Kherson is trying to make life a living hell for people who remain.
BELKIS WILLE, CRISIS AND CONFLICT DIVISION ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: Yes, I think what's so galling about these attacks is that, you
know, the people of Kherson lived through eight months of Russian occupation of arbitrary arrests of torture of killings of disappearances.
And yet, these people survived and they stayed. And once Russian forces pulled out of the city, they felt like life could come back that they were
safe again, and subsequent to the Russian forces pulling back. Now they've been carrying out these indiscriminate attacks on the city on residential
neighborhoods with the use of cluster munitions that as you say, most countries in the world have banned the use of entirely
RIPLEY: And it's so heartbreaking because I remember the day that our Nic Robertson arrived in Kherson and people were spontaneously breaking out
into song in the streets. They were so excited and optimistic about their future and yet now people are dying as a result of this.
WILLE: Absolutely. One of the families that we interviewed whose son was killed a 13-year-old in one of these attacks. I spoke to the father who was
explaining to me how important it had been for him in the family to stay and not leave during the occupation.
[11:20:00]
WILLE: And they were so sure that the Ukrainian forces would come back and that you know, they could live there safely again. He was driving home from
church with his two sons in the back of the car. Suddenly three detonations of sub munitions took place around the car or it appears that there are
cluster munitions of munitions.
And, and suddenly he turns around, and he sees his 13-year-old son killed over on top of the body of his 10-year-old son and that's all his older son
died 10 hours later after emergency surgery.
RIPLEY: For people who don't know what cluster munitions warheads are and why they're so dangerous just give us the Reader's Digest version?
WILLE: So these are munitions that are inherently indiscriminate. What you have is either a rocket or a missile or an aircraft that drops, you know, a
carrier, and out of the carrier come dozens, sometimes hundreds of these sub munitions, they fly in all directions.
They can span you know the size of a football field, and they land and if they don't detonate immediately, then you know, they're lying there as duds
on the ground, someone might pick them up. Sometimes children pick them up when they're playing.
And they right see this object that they don't recognize. And then they detonate, and these have been banned by most countries because this bomb
lets, these sub munitions, they don't discriminate between civilians and military. And so civilians are just as at risk of getting injured and
killed. And that's really what we're seeing in Kherson.
RIPLEY: And I would imagine, too, as the ground starts to freeze, those are over, these things could sink down and then they're literally sitting there
like tiny landmines, even perhaps more dangerous than landmines because people won't even see them. They won't even be sitting above ground.
WILLE: And there's a real risk. You know, first there was rain, and there was mud, then snow, as you said, ice, but then also as that melts, mud
actually moves things like landmines, and sub munitions and so, you know, even areas that were identified and marked off as being contaminated, you
know, the sub munitions might move and then risks are found elsewhere,
RIPLEY: The kind of weapon that so many people around the world pretty much unanimously agree there's no place. There's no place for these weapons,
certainly not amongst the civilian population Eleni and yet, here we are Russia using them Ukraine saying they might need them as well. That is how
ugly this war has become as we get towards that dreaded one year mark.
GIOKOS: Will Ripley there with his guest. Belkis, thank you very much for bringing that story to our attention! I'm sure we'll be discussing this as
time goes on, and we absorbed the information on that report.
But moving on now France has summoned Iran's top diplomat in Paris over its called unjustifiable hostage taking France says seven of its citizens are
being held in Iran on various charges. There's also outrage in Iran over the executions of people tied to the protest movement.
Two protesters have been executed in the past week. And Amnesty International says at least 17 others are at risk of being put to death.
And you can see a demonstration here standing with a noose over their neck in this video. At least 458 people have been killed in the protests in
September according to the Norwegian based NGO, Iran Human Rights.
So for more on this I'm pleased to have the UN Special Reporters on the situation of human rights in Iran. Javaid Rehman joining me now lives via
Skype from London. Sir thank you so much for joining us.
Two executions in a matter of days the one was public, and conducted in less than a month since the man was arrested leaving very little time or
window for appeal. What is the UN doing to prevent these atrocities from occurring?
JAVAID REHMAN, U.N. REPORTER OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAN: Well, let me first say that I'm absolutely horrified, shocked and outraged at the execution of
these two young men and as you said that they were executed in within a very short space of time.
These executions are taking place in Iran because the Iranian regime wants to instill fear amongst the Iranian people. And these are conducted to
exact revenge and punishment. And these are symbols of state brutality.
Insofar as the United Nations is concerned, the UN has established as you would know, last month, United Nations fact-finding mission, which would be
looking at all of these issues starting from 16 to September.
Including identifying perpetrators of serious and gross human rights violations and identifying these people with a view to holding them
accountable in the courts of law. So that is what the United Nations is doing.
[11:25:00]
REHMAN: But I would urge the international community to engage with the Iranian authorities directly to bring an immediate stop to these executions
and to bring an end to the state brutality. Thank you.
GIOKOS: Yes. So the human, the UN Human Rights Council voted to establish a fact finding mission, Iran says it will not cooperate. But even with this
report, you have said that it'll only be released in 2024. Given the sense of urgency, right now, is there no way to expedite this to make it happen
sooner?
REHMAN: Well, the fact finding mission is going to be established, and they will start their inquiries, and they will start collecting and collating
evidence and talking to the witnesses as soon as they the mission is established.
The urgency is really quite there. And as you rightly said that immediate action is needed to stop these executions, to change the behavior and
practices of the Iranian regime, so that they do not brutalize and violate the protesters in the manner that they are doing.
And as you rightly pointed out that we have estimated at least 458 persons were killed, including 48 children. And there are dozens of people who risk
immediate executions. So what I would say is that the international community must immediately start exerting pressure on the Iranian
authorities to stop these executions.
I would also say that the international community should exert pressure to allow immediate access to my mandate, I should be there now. And it's
important that my mandate is given access. And it's also important that we have the evidence of the serious violations so that individuals can be held
accountable.
GIOKOS: So do you agree? Do you agree that the 2024 is just its too late? It's just too much time between the atrocities we're seeing now, you know,
and you're saying the international community needs to act, Iran, Iranians, and protesters need assistance now?
And I understand you need to build a case and you need to be on a fact finding mission. But what is that step today to avert the 17 others which
the UN said is already Human Rights Watch has said already on death row?
REHMAN: Yes, I think you're right, that immediate steps need to be taken. As I said, the international community by which I mean individual states,
as well as the United Nations must exert as much pressure as possible to stop these executions.
And one way of exerting this pressure is to talk to the counterparts, Iranian ambassadors, the missions in these countries, to say that these
executions are arbitrary, they're unlawful, they're based on sham trials, and there is no fair trial of these protesters.
Another way would be to allow immediate access to my mandate to allow me to go to Iran have unhindered access to all of these protests, speak to these
protesters and try to report to the world what is happening because currently, the Iranian authorities are denying me access to the country.
And the third point is that once we have evidence, we can also try individuals who are committing gross atrocities and very serious violations
of human rights within Iran.
GIOKOS: Javaid Rehman thank you very much for your time! We'll take a short break more "Connect the World" after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:30:00]
GIOKOS: Welcome back and just two and a half hours until the kickoff of the first World Cup semi-final. Argentina and Croatia feature two of the best
players in the world forward Lionel Messi of Argentina and Croatian mid- fielder Luka Modric. Messi is hoping to lead Argentina to their first World Cup title since 1986.
But he will have to figure out how to crack a Croatian defense that's has only allowed three goals in five World Cup matches. The other semi-final
will be played on Wednesday between France and Morocco. And amazing fact no team from outside of Europe or South America have ever made a World Cup
final.
Morocco have a chance to be the first. Our Don Riddell has been watching Morocco and France prepare for the match. He joins us now live from Qatar.
Don, you're with the Morocco training team. Are they teaching you some tricks? What are you seeing?
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: I think I'm too old to learn new tricks. But these guys are absolutely amazing. And it's really, really exciting. It's
really exciting to be seeing them train here. I mean, what a run they've had, you know, when they turned up at this training center in Qatar last
month, who could have imagined then that they would be among the last team standing but they've absolutely deserved their place in the semi-finals.
And you look at what they've achieved so far. In the opening game, they drew against the 2018 finalist Croatia, then they beat the world number
two, Belgium they've since knocked out two highly fancy teams in Spain and Portugal. And all the while they've conceded just one goal and that it
wasn't even a goal that was scored on them.
They scored it themselves. It was a known goal against Canada. These guys are absolutely breathtaking to watch. They've already made history. Of
course, this is the first World Cup Tournament that's being played in the Middle East. They're the first Arab team to make it this far into the semi-
finals, now African team has ever played in the World Cup semi-final before.
And here they are. And given what they've achieved already, I don't think there'll be too worried about the game they're playing tomorrow it is
against France, the defending champions of course, Kylian Mbappe at all France looking very, very good at this tournament.
Some people think that this is as far as Morocco can go. But honestly, given everything they've achieved, given the fact that now basically is the
home team in this tournament. The host Qatar went out a long time ago and there is so much support so much goodwill for this side. Let's see they
could well be lining up in the final on Sunday. Wouldn't that be amazing?
GIOKOS: Well, I'm going to say it's time for Africa. I'm going to be cheesy; I'd say Don Riddell, thank you so much. We've got so much to talk
about in the next couple of days. All right and now it's time for a curtain call those words from the oldest member of the K-pop super group BTS
written on a fan platform.
Jin is the first of an all-male group to begin South Korea's mandatory military service. The singer debuted his new look online. Earlier this week
CNN's Paula Hancocks spoke with fans who braved freezing weather to wish him well.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He is exchanging five star hotels around the world for military barracks just south of the DMZ the De-Militarized
Zone between North and South Korea. Jin this Tuesday officially became the first member of the pop sensation BTS to start his military service. And
about a quarter to two this Tuesday afternoon we saw a convoy of some six black vehicles heading into this military barracks.
[11:35:00]
HANCOCKS: And there was significant security around. He is believed to have been part of that. Now they had asked the management company and also BTS
and Jin that fans known as the army do not actually come to see him off. There were a few here though. And I met one Mandy Lee from Hong Kong, who'd
flown in, especially to say goodbye.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANDY LEE, BTS FAN: We are here to want to see Jin go into the military and why him and with him are her parents and stay safe and healthy. And we
await him the night that I came on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HANCOCKS: Jin, when I spent five weeks at this military base for the basic training of this mandatory service. Now this is required of all able bodied
men, up until the age of 28. They have to spend between 18 and 21 months in this mandatory service.
For Jin though he was able to defer until 30 because there had been a law passed just a couple of years ago that anyone who excelled in popular
culture or art producer and certainly, it's fair to say that BTS ticked that box.
Now, there are some professional athletes, for example, who have won a medal at the Olympics or a gold medal at the Asian Games and also some
classical artists who have been exempted. There are rules for that and they do some kind of community service instead.
There has been tremendous debate before Jin went into the military barracks as to whether or not BTS should be exempted as well. But it is not the
case. And there will be seven of them in all that will be carrying out this mandatory service.
And of course many others around Korea we saw family saying goodbye to young men here. There was 120 year old who was also named Jin who said he
was nervous but also excited to be entering at the same time as Jin.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm a fan and if I get to share the dorm with them, it'd be really special.
HANCOCKS: Now we did speak to someone who had experienced their mandatory service in this barracks behind me. They said it is particularly brutal
because it is so far north especially during the winter, it can get as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius, and it said it really taught him to hate snow.
So this is not the easiest of places to do the basic training, Paula Hancocks, CNN, Yeoncheon, South Korea.
GIOKOS: All right, we're going to a very short break and we'll be right back after this, stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GIOKOS: An exhibit at the iconic Louvre Museum in Paris promises to take visitors on a journey through space and time to "The crossroads of
civilizations". It includes dozens of works of art on display outside of Uzbekistan for the very first time. The organizers explain how it all came
together.
[11:40:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a story of 19th century history more or less from Alexander the great to the hero to Milan. And the idea is to show area not
as familiar as the Mediterranean area, the crossroads of civilizations. Through five sections of the exhibition, going from the first century BC to
16th century, Islam appears.
And of the seventh century with the first military conquest of the Arabs is coming from Baghdad from Khalifa Baghdad, which was at this time, the
capital of the Islamic world. One of the masterpieces you can see, for this time is the wonderful - Koran, which is the oldest one we know today in the
whole Islamic world, dated from eighth century. We have the very famous Ambassador painting which is a national treasure for the Uzbek.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I opened an ecological mission in the - in 2009. For three, four years, I observed the country the different oases, museums. The
intent is to have a pedagogical dialogue through the objects for the visitors to explain what is located this country where are located the
different ecological sites.
The door of the Guri Amir, the mausoleum of Tamerlane, we found on this door, a large iconography, representing the sociality of summer kind of
that period, in which we find also the details of the artist in the center of the door, the divinity in an eye is sculpted. And then all around we can
see we can read the different figures offering something to this divinity to this god.
Conservation and preserve these object is important to recognize the existence of a story to tell to the new generations. It's important for the
country, it's important for the population to know the origins to know the different cultures which mix during different periods but in the same
territory.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GIOKOS: Well, thanks so very much for watching us for "Connect the World". I'm Eleni Giokos in Dubai. World Sport with Alex Thomas is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WORLD SPORT)
END
