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Hala Gorani Tonight
One Week In: Iraqi Forces Close In On ISIS Stronghold; Bombs Fall On Aleppo As Ceasefire Ends; Trump Campaigns In Swing State Of Florida; France Begins Clearing "Jungle" Refugee Camp' AT&T Buys Time Warner in $85 Billion Deal; Fighting Sex Slavery in Colombia; Japan Leads a Virtual Reality Gaming Revolution; Chinese Firm Partly to Blame in U.S. Cyberattack. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 24, 2016 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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[15:00:11] HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We are live at CNN London this hour. Thanks for being with us. This is THE
WORLD RIGHT NOW.
Countless bullets, hundreds of ISIS militants killed, and one week in, Iraqi forces have clawed back more than 80 villages and towns. But there
is still a very long fight ahead, powerful tribal leaders are telling CNN, dozens of ISIS fighters are scuttling off to Syria complicating matters.
CNN's Michael Holmes recaps week one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Overwhelming force meets fanatical resistance. Coalition and Iraqi air power along with nearly
100,000 troops, Kurdish Peshmerga, the Iraqi Army and several militia against perhaps 5,000 ISIS fighters.
But those fighters have had two years to fortify their crowned jewel. In the first few days of the campaign, the attacking forces found dozens of
tunnels, some of them nearly a mile long.
They lost men to snipers and booby traps and they faced the deadliest of ISIS weapons, vehicles laden with explosives barreling through the dust.
Many ISIS fighters were taken out by missiles or coalition air power, others found their target. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi says the
campaign is progressing faster than expected.
And in some places forward units are just seven kilometers from the outskirts of Mosul. But every village and town has to be fought for. The
church bell rings again in a Christian town. Children thank their rescuers.
But homes are ruined, streets littered with booby traps. People returning home for the first time in two years or escaping the brutal grip of ISIS
brings mixed emotions.
We can't live there, no water, electricity, damage everywhere and explosives as well. ISIS had yet again shown it is a resilient enemy.
Its fighters penetrated deep into Kirkuk, a city under Kurdish control, launching a fierce attack that went on for a day and left nearly 100 dead,
an attack that quite deliberately drew Kurdish troops away from the front lines. No one expected this battle to be quick or decisive.
ASH CARTER, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: Mosul will be recaptured. It will be a difficult fight. We don't know exactly how the battle will go, but we
know what the outcome is.
HOLMES: But even in the first week, in open plains and deserted villages proved a hard slog. Defenses inside the city will be much tougher.
Intelligence sources say ISIS has already began to use civilians as human shields.
Many already executed and if hostage taking continues, airstrikes will be difficult and sometimes impossible in the city. Commanders expect the
campaign will last deep into the winter. If it does, the trickle of civilians already escaping Mosul would become a flood.
Aid agencies fear they will be overwhelmed by perhaps hundreds of thousands of desperate people maybe mixed among them ISIS fighters and suicide
bombers.
(on camera): Even when coalition forces retake Mosul, what will the day after look like? There is no firm agreement at the moment on how the area
will be governed, how the city will be rebuilt. Competing groups, Sunni, Shia, Kurds and Turkmen, will all jostle for power. Getting rid of ISIS
might then look like the easy part. Michael Holmes, CNN, near Mosul, Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Let's bring in U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Washington. Thanks for being with us. What are your thoughts here on week
one of this Mosul operation?
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: Hala, thanks for having me. I think your report had it just right. The operation is making very
good progress, but the closer it gets to Mosul and to the interior of the city, the tougher it's going to be.
[15:05:04]But this is a huge opportunity, we are now on the verge of being able to take away from Daesh, its self-declared physical caliphate and is
going to have very profound practical and psychological implications on Daesh.
We will also be starting to exert real pressure on Raqqah and Syria, the other major capital of its self-declared caliphate, and as we do that, the
space that Daesh has been able to control in Iraq and Syria is going to get smaller, smaller, and smaller.
GORANI: What will the U.S. role be in the coming weeks? Have you received more requests from the Iraqi government or even from the Kurds for a
different kind of assistance or is it sort of the status quo with regards to that?
BLINKEN: This has been a well-planned and deliberate campaign, and it is Iraqi-led and the coalition that were a major part of this in support of
this Iraqi-led effort. So we brought coalition air power to bear, intelligence, training and equipment, and other resources, but the Iraqis
are in the lead in taking the fight and liberating Mosul.
GORANI: And the bigger issue, though, is what happens after ISIS is rooted out of Mosul? Because the political situation, the vacuum that allowed it
to implant itself in Mosul, that will still be there after this military operation. Are you confident that the conditions will be different so that
ISIS doesn't pop up in some other place?
BLINKEN: Hala, you're exactly right. That is really the big challenge after Daesh is defeated and removed from Mosul. There are three challenges
that we're facing. First is the humanitarian challenge. We are going to have displaced persons from Mosul. The international community has been
preparing itself to care and deal with them as they try to escape.
Second, stabilizing Mosul itself, once it's liberated so that people having something to go back to. We spent months raising the resources and putting
in place the necessary equipment to stabilize the city, to get services running, to get basic security.
And then finally governance, because you're exactly right in saying that if we don't deal with the conditions that led to the rise of Daesh in the
first place, there is a risk that it repeats itself. That means that Iraqis really have to pursue reconciliation.
GORANI: What is different this time? I mean, what is different this time than Falluja or Ramadi or other instances in which, in fact, what we saw
some militia fighters go in and committed sectarian atrocities in some of these Sunni villages and towns. Why would this time be different?
BLINKEN: We have all taken to heart the lessons of some of the previous liberations and in particular, the Iraqis will make sure that as people
come out of Mosul, they are properly vetted by appropriate forces and that they are dealt with human rights in the forefront.
Similarly, I think there's an understanding that if each of the different groups doesn't feel that it has a stake in Iraq's future. That's going to
create a long term problem and so the government is very focused on pursuing reconciliation once the city is liberated.
GORANI: And you think the government of Haider Al-Abadi in this case is committed to doing that. Sharing power and allowing all of Iraq to share
in that power?
BLINKEN: Look, I think Iraq has looked into the abyss. They've seen what it looks like. The prime minister and others understand that unless
everyone feels that they're part of Iraq's future, there is going to be a problem and the conditions that led to the rise of Daesh will still there.
But it's going to take a major effort on the part of not just the government, but all of Iraq's communities to get this right.
GORANI: All right, it's going to be several weeks and perhaps even months before this operation is over. Let me ask you about Syria, you mentioned
Raqqah, that pressure would be put there in order to go after ISIS there.
But I was listening to testimony that you gave to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee back in September and one of the senators there asked
you, what is Plan B for Syria now that talks have failed to produce any kind of diplomatic breakthrough with Russia?
At that time, you said, we are actively reviewing options and in the coming days we'll hope to have some sort of, you know, idea of what the U.S.'
approach to Syria would be. What is Plan B now that Plan A has failed so spectacularly?
BLINKEN: Well, two things, first, we're dealing with two different challenges that are related in Syria. The first one is dealing with Daesh,
ISIL. And there in Syria as well in Iraq we're making very significant progress. We've taken back more than 25 percent of the territory that
Daesh once controlled in Syria.
And we're seeing pressure build and build on them. And indeed there's now an area more than Syria that is an effective buffer zone than Turkey and
local forces with our support have cleared out.
That creates new opportunities and as you mentioned a moment ago, we're going to start to exert significant pressure on Raqqah, which is really
urgent because much of the plotting and planning for foreign terrorist attacks is taking place in Raqqa.
[15:10:06]But related to that is this horrific civil war in Syria and there, it is imperative that we get people back to the table to talk about
a political transition and the first step is getting some kind of cessation of hostilities and humanitarian systems flowing. That's what we've been
working on --
GORANI: But you understand, Mr. Blinken, how over the last weeks and months, of this very strategy that you're describing now having failed over
and over and over again. Diplomatic pressure on Russia hasn't worked. Why would the same strategy that's failed in the past work in the future?
BLINKEN: Look, the Russians have to decide what they're prepared and willing to do. Unfortunately, if they don't get with the program of trying
to return to a cessation of hostilities, to get humanitarian assistance flowing and to get back (inaudible) this civil war is going to get worse
before it gets better. And that's going to have bad consequences for everyone, not the least of which is Russia. So we are engaged with them,
with other countries that have influence over the actors on the ground to see if there's a way forward. Meanwhile --
GORANI: But what is that way? Because on this day that we're having this discussion, bombings of Aleppo have restarted after that very fragile
cessation. So I mean, where is the pressure felt by Russia and why would they change their strategy when, you know, it does appear as though they
don't really seem to care so much about the U.S. wanting to put pressure on them.
BLINKEN: Look, I think one of the consequences if the civil war continues, if there is no cessation is that increasingly outside actors are going to
put more and more into Syria in support of the opposition. That's going to have an impact on Russia.
They are going to be stuck in something that is never ending and having to prop up Assad and that will be a real consequence for them. But ultimately
they have to decide, they have to make a decision whether they'll going to support an effort to end the civil war or whether they're going to
perpetuate. And if they decide to perpetuate it --
GORANI: I get that, but just so we are clear, the U.S. doesn't have any other plan other than the one they have been pursuing so far.
BLINKEN: No, we're continuing to look very, very carefully and very regularly at all of the options, all of which remain on the table. At the
same time, we're trying to see if there's a way with other countries in the region that have influence on all the actors in Syria including Russia to
see if we can get back to a cessation of hostilities. That remains --
GORANI: Does that include military options?
BLINKEN: As the president said everything is on the table.
GORANI: All right, Antony Blinken, thanks very much for joining us from Washington, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state from the State
Department. We appreciate your time.
GORANI: Thanks for having me, Hala.
All right, now let's talk about politics after a grueling 18-month campaign, billions of dollars spent, countless speeches, we're in the home
stretch.
There are just two weeks left until Americans choose a new president. The campaigns are in over drive. Last hour, Hillary Clinton appeared with one
of her key supporters. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who aimed her message squarely at Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH WARREN, U.S. SENATE DEMOCRAT: Nasty women have really had it with guys like you. Get this, Donald. Nasty women are tough. Nasty women
are smart and nasty women vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Trump is also out fighting for support. He is set to hold an event in St. Augustine, Florida at this hour. While his tone maybe
confident, polls are showing the Republican candidate has a very tough road ahead. These are live pictures coming to us from Florida, as I mentioned.
Here's Jeff Zeleny, he is wrapping up the latest in U.S. politics for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A two-week fight to the finish, it's time for closing arguments. Hillary Clinton
striking an optimistic note.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to be the president for every American, Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who vote
for me, people who vote against me, because we have to bring this country together.
ZELENY: Donald Trump less so.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are we glad that I started? Are we have -- I'll let you know on the evening of November 8th whether I'm
glad.
ZELENY: With 15 days to go, Trump no longer talking about when he wins, but if --
TRUMP: If we win on November 8th, we are going to fix our rigged system. It is a rigged, broken, corrupt system.
CLINTON: Some people are sore losers and we have to just keep going.
ZELENY: A wild weekend with Trump visiting Gettysburg for an unusual Gettysburg address, overshadowing the plan for his first 100 days in office
by pledging to sue the women accusing him of inappropriate behavior.
[15:15:01]TRUMP: Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign, total fabrication, all of these liars will be sued after the
election is over.
ZELENY: Trump campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, bluntly acknowledging the uphill climb.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We are behind. We were behind one, three, four points in some of these swing states that Mitt Romney lost
to President Obama. Our advantage is that Donald Trump will continue to take the case directly to the people.
ZELENY: Trump undermining that acknowledgment.
TRUMP: "Investor's Business Daily," the most accurate poll from the last election, and the two elections before that, just announced that we are
leading nationally by two points. Numbers are looking phenomenal in Florida. Don't believe the media.
ZELENY: But a new ABC News national poll shows Trump trailing Clinton by 12 points. Meantime, CNN has learned Clinton is increasingly moving beyond
Trump and turning her attention to the transition to the presidency.
A Democrat close to Clinton saying, "She is not being arrogant, she is being diligent." Clinton is sizing up candidates for White House chief of
staff. One top contender, Ron Plain (ph), who led her debate team. All this as President Obama is tying GOP Senate candidates to Trump visiting
Nevada, one of the hottest Senate battlegrounds.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You're for him, but you're not for him, but you're kind of for him. What the heck?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Let's cross live to CNN Washington, Josh Rogin is a CNN political analyst and a columnist for "The Washington Post." All right, so first, I want to
start with a national poll. Hillary Clinton's lead is expanding. According to ABC News, a 50 percent nationally for Hillary Clinton, 38
percent for Donald Trump, 5 percent and 2 percent for the other remaining candidates. So she must be feeling a lot more comfortable -- Josh.
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, that national poll right now is a little bit of an outlier. Other national polls have (inaudible) race much
tighter, but the reason that the Clinton campaign is so confident is not because of the national polls, but because of some of the polls in some of
the swing states.
She is opening up her lead in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia, and she's maintaining a steady but small lead in other states
including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida.
You will see both campaigns focusing on those last three, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina in the coming days because those are the
ones that are most competitive right now. But although you see a lot of rhetoric coming out of the Clinton campaign about Senate races, she is
still keeping her eye on the prize.
GORANI: All right, that's why we are seeing, by the way, Donald Trump in St. Augustine. He's there right now campaigning. You mentioned, North
Carolina, here's the latest poll for North Carolina, very close, Trump at 46 and Hillary Clinton at 47. But these are some of the states I assumed
that Hillary Clinton's campaign will hope end up in her column?
ROGIN: Yes, that right. And you see the Trump campaign deploying Mike Pence to North Carolina in the coming days. He's seen as an able surrogate
there. Hillary herself has less personal appearances. She is relying more on her surrogates, including Joe Biden, Chelsea Clinton, Tim Kaine, who is
going to Pennsylvania.
So they have a different strategy. Trump's strategy is to have more rallies with more people and focus in on his own powers of personal
persuasion whereas Hillary Clinton is taking a more caution approach, spreading the work around to her team, and planning on hitting more states
not less.
GORANI: There is one poll floating around that doesn't meet CNN standards, but Donald Trump seems to wanting to talk about all day today that puts him
very close neck and neck with Hillary Clinton nationally.
But what is the strategy here for Trump because he's only got two weeks left and his campaign kind of falter in key battleground states that should
be really kind of being a lot -- scoring a lot better for a Republican candidate.
ROGIN: Well, that is right. I mean, you're right to point out that the polls that Trump often touts, the IBT poll and the Rasmussen poll have
methodologies that don't meet the standards of most news organizations and tend to veer towards the right.
Nevertheless, Trump's strategy, no matter what the polls say, has to be the same. OK, he is going -- he is going up with more ads in all of these
states. He's making a lot more personal appearances, but it is too late for the Trump campaign to try some new approach. It's too late for them
address. They alter their approach.
They don't have ground games in most of these swing states and the RNC has lagged far behind the Clinton campaign in deploying people on the ground to
get out the vote.
GORANI: These demographic groups said he is not scoring well perhaps too late for that as well. Anyway, we'll see things develop. Thanks very
much, Josh Rogin in Washington.
Let's take you to Calais, some 2,000 migrants are facing quite an uncertain future. They boarded busses out of the refugee camp in the French port
city.
[15:20:09]Authorities are clearing that notorious camp known as the "Jungle." They have plans to begin dismantling it on Tuesday. Thousands
of people, though, remain inside. What's the situation right now?
Melissa Bell is in Calais with the very latest. What's -- these are live images that looks like some skirmish is there. Melissa, tell us what is
happening?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (Inaudible) over the last few minutes, you can see things have gotten even more tense. (Inaudible) on the other
side of that perimeter fence. The other side with a truck you can see there.
Just now in the last few minutes they have come on the other side and they are sending tear gas down to these migrants. There aren't that many of
them, but they making a determined effort to stand up to these riot police.
We've seen (inaudible) them moving ahead there with shields they've been able to find and face off with those riot police. There is fire here over
the course of the evening.
Now there is a reason this is (inaudible). Earlier tonight they are skeptical (inaudible) have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BELL (voice-over): Long before day break, the line began to form. Hundreds of migrants are ready for a fresh start.
Their dream had long been of the UK. It was a dream they have to leave behind as they left the "Jungle."
WAHIT, AFGHAN MIGRANT: We don't have anywhere, we must stay here in France.
BELL: Instead, those who lined up today were put on buses to Normandy, Britany, and (inaudible), not what they wanted, but all they felt they were
likely to get.
(on camera): The resignation of those that left the camp today is matched by the defiance of the very many that decided to stay put. It looks
tonight much as it did before the evacuation began. The difference is the tension in the air and that is the tone being set this evening by those who
were determined not yet giving up on their dream of making it to the United Kingdom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).
BELL: You don't want to go to France?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't like France.
BELL (voice-over): The French authorities say there is no choice and the police presence here has grown more visible every day.
(on camera): Many of those who decided to stay inside the "Jungle" and defy the order to evacuate are the Afghan migrants. Tomorrow comes the
real test of their resolve when the French authorities move on to the second phase of the evacuation with the dismantling of the "Jungle" itself.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right, Melissa Bell is at that Calais Jungle camp and we are seeing some of those who are refusing to leave, it appears in some sort of
standoff with riot police. Melissa, tell us what is going on behind you here.
BELL: It is really a handful of migrants that's have been taking on the riot police tonight, there are not that many, Hala, but they're making a
determined effort to stand up to the riot police that have been throwing tear gas down to them.
It is a measure when you consider how few of these migrants have come out of the camp. You see them on the other side of the tear gas, of their
determination, their anger, of their desire to stay inside the camp, they're facing off with incredibly well armed riot police that have come
out to the other side of that fence.
GORANI: So what happens to those who are saying we will not leave right now? I mean, if they are saying, "we're staying put, we're not getting on
any bus or go anywhere. We want to go to the U.K., what is the plan from authorities?
BELL: This is the real test of the French government's determination of its resolve, Hala, to tear down this camp. As you saw in this package, it
is still fairly intact. Some migrants have just left, just over 2,000 according to French Interior Ministry.
But the camp itself is intact tonight with thousands of migrants still inside and determined to stay. Tomorrow morning the French government has
said that they it will start to tear down the camp.
The bulldozers arrive tomorrow (inaudible) -- will they will see how determined they are to cling on to this dream already.
[15:25:07]Much more than the camp, Hala, is these their dream of getting to the United Kingdom that are defending. These are the rows of French
(inaudible) -- making their way to a handful of migrants. Not many of them have come out tonight from the other side of that mound.
It was no-man's land from the camp itself. But again, these numbers is a sign of how determined French authorities are to put an end to this
violence and an end to this camp.
GORANI: Just so I understand, Melissa, this is riot police advancing toward the migrants that say they won't leave, right? At some point the
two will meet, is that correct?
BELL: Yes, the two will meet, that crunch time comes tomorrow morning, Hala. Today was really a day of evacuation. It was for those who are
willing to leave. It was for those who are ready to heed the French government's call, its offer of relocation somewhere in France.
The 2318 of them took up that offer today heading on 45 buses to France's many regions. The tough part are the thousands who remain inside and say
they do not want to settle in France. They want to stick to their dream and they will not be deterred of their dream of trying to get to the U.K.
GORANI: All right, thanks very much. We will keep our eye there on this developing situation in Calais as Melissa Bell was reporting. Many
hundreds of migrants voluntarily evacuated the camp.
They got on busses. They're being distributed and fanned throughout France, but others are refusing to leave. There was a handful of migrants
there in some sort of standoff. A very tense situation with riot police in Calais. We'll keep our eye on that and see how that develops and bring you
the latest.
A lot more to come this evening. They have agreed on a megadeal. Now Time Warner and AT&T have to convince skeptical investors and regulators, coming
up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Well, it's one of the biggest ever media mergers. AT&T has agreed to buy our parent company, Time Warner, in an $85 billion megadeal. But
now comes the tricky part, both companies will have to convince skeptical investors that it is a good deal. Plus they'll need approval from American
regulators. The CEOs of both companies appeared on CNN earlier on Monday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDALL STEPHENSON, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, AT&T: That pace of innovation is what is going to change, and we're all trying to innovate in this way.
[15:30:00] Our experience is when you're trying to do meaningful innovation and bring new product and capability to market, doing it in an arms linked
contracts is always really, really hard. And so you put these two companies together, and now the two companies are working together to
change how the customer experiences entertainment, how the customer experiences CNN, literally. That's what we think will change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Now let's get more on this with CNN Money correspondent Cristina Alesci. She is in New York.
All right, so let's talk a little about approval and whether or not regulators can interfere with this marriage, this deal, and the timeline.
If all goes according to plan, when will this be completed?
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, if all goes according to plan, it will take a year before this deal is completed. So
that is quite some time, and yes, regulators can get in the way. They have gotten in the way of other deals and that is the major concern here. But
the distinction the companies are trying to make is look, this is -- these are two different kinds of businesses, right? On the one hand Time Warner
is a content business, on the other hand AT&T is a distributor.
So there isn't the traditional overlap with other mergers that have gotten shut down, for example, when AT&T and T-Mobile tried to combine, the
government shut that down because they were in the same exact business.
Look, at the end of the day you have two companies that are dealing with rapidly consumer -- shifting consumer attitudes, right? What do young
users of content want? What do younger viewers want? They want it on their phones, they want it back, and they want the content, the shows, and
the movies, they want it cheaply.
So if you combine all of those factors together, that's what the CEOs of these two companies say this deal will execute. Obviously a lot more
difficult to actually pull off. Think about it. Right now in the U.S., you have a cable bill, and you have a phone bill, and in the new world, you
know, there are questions about whether or not younger people want to continue paying those two bills or whether they'll shift more money to
their phones overtime and maybe get out of the traditional bundles that you have here in the U.S. on the cable side of things. And opt to pay for the
content that they like and not for the content that they don't want.
GORANI: Yes. And you look at it there, it's quite easy to understand how it's presented as vertical integration here. You have content on the one
hand, you have a distributor and a phone company on the other hand coming together. But what about an ordinary consumer here? Will there be any
difference in, let's say, exactly that? How much money we pay for content, whether or not we'll continue to have to pay for cable and satellite
packages? That kind of thing. I mean, how will this make a difference for us consumers?
ALESCI: Well, look, there are definitely two schools of thought, right. The critics are going to say, you know, this may increase cost for
consumers, but in the short term it's not like anybody's phone bill is going to increase here. Over the long term if you look at this, if you get
better service and better products, then -- and it's your choice as to whether or not you want that, then yes, maybe your bill does go up, but
that's not at the core at least of what we're hearing right now from these companies, right?
The thinking here is that it actually could be good for consumers because right now cable companies deliver you a product that maybe you're paying a
lot for and you may not love, and this creates another competitor in the marketplace to have that -- more of that competition. So for example,
right now, younger consumers complained about the fact that they have cable packages with lots of channels, some of which they don't want. What AT&T
and Time Warner is saying is OK, on your phone, maybe you'll get a bundle of content with the channels and the movies and the content that you do
watch, and that could be less expensive. Therefore there is more competition in the market and not less.
That is what they'll argue. On the other side, you'll have regulators, you'll have politicians, who say, look, any consolidation of any kind is
bad for consumers. And that is going to be the tension over the next couple of weeks and months.
GORANI: All right. Cristina Alesci, thanks very much in New York with that -- with more on that megadeal.
We're turning now to the race for the White House, you may not realize it, but it's already Election Day in the crucial battleground state of Florida.
That state has now joined dozens of others in allowing voters to cast ballots early to avoid a crush at the polls on November 8th.
[15:35:01] Florida is a must-win state for Donald Trump but it could be an uphill battle. A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows Hillary Clinton
with a four-point lead there.
Now Trump is campaigning right now in Florida. It's no accident. He needed the state. He's on a three-day blitz of Florida trying to win over
undecided voters. These are live images coming to us from St. Augustine.
All this week our Richard Quest is traveling around Florida to get the mood of the electorate. He got some unfiltered opinions at a pub in
Tallahassee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's always said that when it comes to the presidential election, Florida is really seven states in one.
And the perfect place to test that theory is here, at Poor Paul's Pourhouse on a Saturday night. The beer is ridiculously cheap and the views are
expressed at great volume.
Of course it's too simplistic to say that one part of Florida is always for Trump and another part for Clinton. As you're about to hear, the reality
is that they are keen on neither but they feel the need to vote either.
(Voice-over): Poor Paul's prides itself on its local welcome and the cheap drinks. Here students and locals come to put the world to rights. And with
voting less than two weeks away the election is never far from bar talk.
(On camera): Who are you voting for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm voting for Hillary Clinton.
QUEST: Did you think about voting for Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never vote -- never thought about that at all.
QUEST (voice-over): Maybe it's the bar. Perhaps it's the booze. But it's not long before Donald Trump's supporters make themselves known.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump is much better than Hillary. So we don't have much choice.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, why?
QUEST: So is it a pro-Trump vote or an anti-Hillary vote?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's not Hillary. Get her out of here.
QUEST: Sorry?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get Hillary out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't like Hillary.
QUEST: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because she ripped us off once. Why give her another chance?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's a liar and a murderer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look what Clinton did. And he made this country money with the Hillary cigars.
QUEST (voice-over): Before we know it there's a full-throated argument under way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god. You people are crazy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm giving a vote of no confidence because I don't -- I don't think either candidate is suitable.
QUEST (on camera): By the time you get to November the 8th which way are you going to go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Backwards. Either way you vote you're going backwards.
QUEST: Who are you going to vote for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who am I going to vote for? I'm not going to vote for either one of them.
QUEST (voice-over): Donald or Hillary, here they are not voting for one. They're voting against the other.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to vote for Trump.
QUEST (on camera): You know my next question is why.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because Hillary's kind of a nasty woman, I think he called her.
QUEST (voice-over): The evening's getting late. The bar is getting more crowded. And on a Saturday night they want to drink to forget the
election. We take our leave.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right. Richard has now left the bar scene behind. He's live at Florida State University in Tallahassee. So, I mean, it's interesting,
though, these protest votes. You talk to people who say they're voting Trump because they don't like Hillary and vice versa, but right now Hillary
Clinton has a lead in Florida, so what is the strategy for Trump supporters?
QUEST: Well, that is the problem because that 40 percent -- 39 percent or 40 percent that you talk of, all that we see in the polls, Hala, that is a
core support level. That is his base. Those are the people that will vote Republican come hell or high water. And though what he has failed to do,
of course, is increase that support by encroaching into the middle ground. And therefore picking up some Democrats. And that is why he is having such
an uphill struggle at the moment. If you break down his core support, it remains non-college educated white people. Very little in certain areas
like Latinos, African-Americans, amongst women, and he has failed in that sense so far, so far to move himself towards the middle.
GORANI: Right. We're seeing that as well in the polls. Thanks very much, Richard. We'll see you at the top of the hour on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS"
live from Florida.
If you have been watching political adverts during this presidential campaign no doubt you've heard ominous music, dire warnings, even
apocalyptic predictions for America's future, should an opposing candidate, of course. Well, a local politician in Texas is trying a different tactic
in his television spots. His use of humor and his wife's dry wit have become a social media sensation. The ad features him household chores
while rattling off boring policy statistics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLYN DOUGHERTY, WIFE: All he wants to do is fix things.
GERALD DOUGHERTY, MAYORAL CANDIDATE: So we got this 18-wheeler in this park in this neighborhood, spewing fumes all over the place but quite
frankly it's not a code violation.
[15:40:06] You know, I think I like helping around the house here.
C. DOUGHERTY: Please re-elect Gerald. Please.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Got us all -- give us all a chuckle. Don't forget you can get all the latest news, interviews and analysis on our Facebook page.
Facebook.com/halagoraniCNN.
Well, his name was Pablo Escobar and he was one of the world's wealthiest and most brutal drug lords until Colombian Police shot and killed him. Now
Colombia is fighting a new public enemy called modern-day slave. It's a big issue there.
CNN's Rafael Romo takes us to Escobar's hometown to meet two victims now fighting to end it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): Leidy Estrada Hincapie and Silvia Mazo Rico may look like the picture of carefree
youth, but their early childhoods were marred by suffering.
LEIDY ESTRADA HINCAPIE, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR (Through Translator): I was 4 years old and he wanted to know my body. He wouldn't let me take a bath
and pee.
ROMO: Leidy says she grew up being abused by a family friend until finally being taken to a home for girls when she was 10 years old. There she met
Silvia. Now an aspiring photographer, Silvia had come to the orphanage when she was 11. Caseworkers say she was brought there by a woman who
found Silvia living in a garbage bag underneath an overpass.
(On camera): Part of the problem is that it's virtually impossible to identify victims of modern slavery just by looking at them on the street.
According to the 2016 global slavery index, Colombia has the highest percentage of people living as slaves in all of South America. Many of
these victims are children.
DILA STEIN, ORPHANED STARFISH FOUNDATION WORKER: We know girls that have been trafficked from birth so much so that when they arrive at one of our
programs, they don't even speak a language. They only know how to scream and scratch because they've been abused from birth.
ROMO (voice-over): Dila Stein works with Orphaned Starfish Foundation, an organization that provides scholarships and job training to more than
10,000 children across much of Latin America and other parts of the world. She says no matter what country you travel to, the story of abuse these
girls tell can stop your heart.
STEIN: They've come from abuse, they've come from prostitution. We know girls who have been trafficked, who walked up to any man and just take off
their pants, because they don't know the value of their life. They think that they are things. They don't understand that they're human beings.
ROMO: Despite its high number of reported victims Colombia also gets high marks for its response.
JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: When we talk about human trafficking, we're talking about slavery.
ROMO: The U.S. State Department, in its annual report on human trafficking, list Colombia as a tier one country, meaning its government
meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. The report cites Colombia's effort to investigate and prosecute trafficking cases
recently appointing 14 new prosecutors to handle the case load.
For Silvia the abuse started when she was a young girl forced to work in the mines and later prosecution, all to pay for a relative's drug
addiction.
SILVIA MAZO RICO, TRAFFICKING SURVIVOR (Through Translator): I was 11 years old when he told us we were not going back to school anymore, that we
need to work because we didn't have enough money for food, but in reality we were working to pay for his addiction.
ROMO: Now in college, both young women are focused on building their news lives.
(On camera): Do you feel that you will be able to recover from this?
HINCAPIE (Through Translator): Yes. When I help more children so that they don't have to live with what I went through. I don't want this to
keep happening. The abuse and mistreatment.
MAZO RICO (Through Translator): It is very important for me now to help other girls because this is something that's truly close to my heart.
ROMO (voice-over): Reframing the future, not just for themselves but for all girls in their home country.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Medellin, Colombia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, tomorrow the Freedom Project will introduce you to a banker who's now done some heroic things.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY STEIN, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, ORPHANED STARFISH FOUNDATION: My name is Andy Stein, and I am the founder and the executive chairman of
the Orphaned Starfish Foundation. The nuns took me aside, and they said listen, magician, I'm not sure if you know what happens here. At the age
of 18, by law, these girls are considered adults and they have to leave our little home, and 100 percent of these girls become prostitutes or live on
the streets. So we sat down and we had a discussion, what would be the best way out for these girls?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[15:45:01] GORANI: All right, see how they paved the way for these girls to have a better future on CNN this week. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Well, Sony and Nintendo are of course among Japan's best known brands. Both leaders are in the multi-billion video gaming industry, but
these well established corporate giants are now venturing into uncharted territory.
CNN's Will Ripley explains why they're betting big on something different.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These screens hooked a generation. These characters defined an industry. Japan ruled video
games.
Starting from the '80s with Pacman's appetites for dots, Super Mario's cheeky smile, to Ryu's signature moves on "Street Fighter." But what used
to be the envy of the world hit a slump. By 2010, the Japanese video game industry made up just 10 percent of the global market.
Now some would say it's setting the stage for round two. The world of virtual reality. Headsets on and you hand over your senses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK --
RIPLEY: Your knees lock, your stomach churns, and the lines really do start to blur between the virtual and the real. Although the technology
has been around for years, the challenge has always been making it mainstream.
Andrew House, the head of Sony's Gaming Division and his team joining the race alongside companies like HTC and Oculus to do just that.
(On camera): These days most people experience virtual reality in an arcade, you're trying to bring it in people's homes.
ANDREW HOUSE, HEAD, GAMING VISION, SONY: If you think about the history of entertainment, a lot of it has been really about the pursuit of either
heightened reality or, you know, heightened sense of suspending disbelief. The next very logical sort of leap in that direction taking you from
watching a piece of entertainment to actively participating in it. And there is something quite magical about that potential.
RIPLEY (voice-over): Sony is immersing itself in that universe with the PlayStation VR. A $400 add on to its PlayStation 4 console, a move they
hope will reignite the company's reputation for innovating entertainment.
(On camera): I actually feel like I'm floating, but this chair is not moving, is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes -- no.
RIPLEY: Why doesn't it do that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That's the (INAUDIBLE).
RIPLEY: Wow.
(Voice-over): (INAUDIBLE) was on the team that launched the very first PlayStation in 1994. For him, this next step in gaming is evolutionary.
(On camera): How do you even develop a game like this? What's the process?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's very difficult. Like, you know, when you create a story, like a film, you create a storybook, right? But because a
player is controlling the camera, you really have to really design the place and the experiences. So all of the gamers say they have to relearn a
lot of things when they design a game for virtual reality.
[15:50:09] RIPLEY (voice-over): But that's not all. The fundamental game play experience is completely different as well.
HOUSE: These experience, as you may have experienced yourself, and I certainly have, very intense. And I think that lends itself in the first
form to kind of a short form content. I kind of liken it to theme park rides. Do I really want to spend an hour on the rollercoaster? I'm not so
sure about that. But, you know, a 10, 15-minute rush is fantastic.
RIPLEY: A rush is a perfect way to describe it. That feeling of life enclosed in these headsets. If entering the virtual world can be as easy
as sitting on your living room couch, then it begs the question, where can you go next?
(On camera): This place is incredible.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: All right, coming up a Chinese firm admits to playing a role in the major Internet outage that hit the United States. We'll explain next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: All right. Well, some sad news now from the world of pop music.
You may remember this singer Pete Burns, very specific look. This is probably what you have in mind when you think of him. Well, sadly he's
passed away today, but here is a reminder of his big hit.
(MUSIC)
GORANI: Well, Burns was best known for this song, "You Spin Me Right Round," he died of cardiac arrest on Sunday according to his manager and
partner. Pete Burns was 57 years old.
A Chinese electronics manufacturer admitting it's partly to blame for Friday's massive cyber attack across the United States. The company makes
parts for surveillance video cameras and it says hackers exploited weak security measures found in its devices.
CNN Money business and tech correspondent Samuel Burke is here.
So how could the devices in anyone's home, my home, DVRs, for instance -- how could they have been used in this cyber strike?
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN MONEY BUSINESS AND TECH CORRESPONDENT: This is arguably the biggest cyber attack that's ever been carried out. And what they do is
basically computers from all around the world overwhelm the company's servers until the company's servers just fall. But this time it wasn't
just computers, Web cams, surveillance cameras, even DVRs is what you used to record the show, let's say, were all being used because they're
connected to the Internet, they had a virus, and so then everybody was being -- maybe your home was part of this attack and you didn't even know
that your DVR were sending all this extra traffic to this company which is really the backbone of the Internet. So people couldn't access NetFlix,
Spotify, so it really calls into question --
GORANI: But what was -- what's the point? What are hackers trying to achieve? Just kind of --
BURKE: Causing havoc.
GORANI: Cause havoc? That's it? What's all that's in it for them?
BURKE: It is really the question, is who is behind this and what is so fascinating is you have this massive attack, like I said, maybe the biggest
you've ever seen. Nobody has claimed responsibility. The FBI is looking into it, the U.K. home office is looking into it. They're not pointing
their fingers at a nation or state. So it really does make you think, why were they doing this? What is the reason? And we still don't know quite
frankly.
[15:55:07] GORANI: So what -- we must be able to learn something at least from this attack to try to -- I mean, can ordinary consumers at home try to
do something with their DVR, Web cams or whatever?
BURKE: That's really what's so troubling about this is this Chinese company called (INAUDIBLE) which makes a lot of the components which were
used here, you're supposed to be able to reset the password in these devices that you have and they weren't even able -- they weren't letting
people reset the passwords in their devices. So if you have a Web cam, you want to be able to switch it if it's connected to the Internet to your own
password. It was coming like a default pas password. All the hackers knew what it was so they're recalling a lot of these parts. But it makes you
rethink why do we need so many devices connected to the Internet?
GORANI: Yes, what about the smart toilet? Is that connected to the Internet?
BURKE: Yes. So we have smart toothbrushes, smart toilets. I know people really don't believe me when I've been talking about this. But this --
GORANI: I don't either. What is that exactly? Is that connected to the Internet?
BURKE: That is --
GORANI: Do we really want a toilet connected to the Internet?
BURKE: That is connected to the Internet, and what this hack really calls into question, do we need all of this stuff connected to the Internet?
Especially when your toilet can all of a sudden become part of a hacking machine. A robot that's attacking the Internet.
GORANI: OK. What -- OK, first of all, I like my toilets extremely dumb. Just really, really slow, not very plugged in. What do you need an
Internet connected toilet for?
BURKE: Well, supposedly in case the water level goes above and it's going to flood, then you can check an app on your phone, and makes -- you can
turn it off from there.
GORANI: For goodness sake.
BURKE: But it really does call into question why we have all these devices. We really put the cart before the toilet.
GORANI: Well --
(LAUGHTER)
GORANI: Justin Bieber fans are angry over the singer's latest moves on stage, by the way. No segue way here. Take a look.
He stormed off stage. He dropped the mic, first. Stormed off stage. It happened in Manchester, England. He'd asked concert goers to stop
screaming. And the audience members -- it seems they were booing him for talking during his performances, apparently. That looks like what
happened.
BURKE: Well, I don't like sometimes I'm doing a report and you can see the anchor as looking to the side and talking and --
GORANI: What? I have no idea what you're talking --
(LAUGHTER)
GORANI: All right, we always listen to you, Samuel.
BURKE: You don't drop the mic and walk off?
GORANI: No. I'm out of here. All right. This has been the WORLD RIGHT NOW. Thanks, Samuel. And from my crew and myself, thanks for watching.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is live in Florida. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
