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Hala Gorani Tonight

Sources: Tigrayan Forces On Outskirts Of Ethiopian Capital; Republican Glenn Youngkin Wins Virginia Governor's Race; U.K. Planning To Be The World's First Net-Zero Financial Center; U.S. Children Ages 5 To 11 Getting Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine; Nigeria Building Disaster; U.N. Campaign: Don't Choose Extinction; India Celebrates Diwali. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired November 03, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Hello everyone, live from CNN in London. I'm Hala Gorani. Tonight, a standoff on the edge of Ethiopia's

capital could give way to civil war. That is the warning from inside the country. All parties standing accused of crimes against humanity, I'll

speak to the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights in the program. Then a referendum on Joe Biden's presidency. What heavy losses for American

Democrats mean for the political big picture. We have live reports.

Ethiopia has been plunged into chaos, further chaos. A source says Tigrayan rebels are advancing on the capital and on its outskirts, forcing the

government to declare a nationwide state of emergency. This is happening as the U.N. publishes a damning joint report, finding all sides to have

committed human rights violations including unlawful killings, extra judicial executions and torture, and they are still ongoing, the report

says.

Let's just take a moment though to remind you about the situation there and how we got to this point. After a growing feud between leaders of the TPLF,

the Tigray People's Liberation Front in the north and the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Tensions between the two bubbled over in 2020. The

Tigrayan leaders wanted more autonomy and blamed Abiy for putting that under threat. Then almost a year ago, Abiy ordered a military assault on

the region with help from neighboring Eritrea.

The result is what we see today, thousands dead, more than 2 million people displaced and allegations of atrocious human rights abuses possibly

amounting to war crimes. We'll have more on the U.N. report in just a moment. But first, let's bring in our correspondent Larry Madowo who is

following all of this for us from Nairobi in Kenya. How close are the Tigrayans to the capital?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hala, we hear from diplomatic sources in Addis Ababa that the Tigrayan fighters and their allies, the militia from

the Oromo Group are on the outskirts of the capital, so, they could take the city any time. However, one of the reasons why they have not done so is

because there is a number of factors to consider including what the position of the United States would be on such a move.

So, is there a possibility that Abiy Ahmed is overthrown by his own people or is there a military confrontation? Which is something the African Union

is warning today that it is concerned about, that this conflict is quickly escalating to the possibility of a military confrontation in the heart of

the capital, which is also the seat of the African Union.

GORANI: I mean, it's amazing when you think about it. Abiy Ahmed won a Nobel Peace Prize for coming to a peace agreement --

MADOWO: Exactly --

GORANI: With Eritrea, that's the country it was at war with for so long, and here we have a prime minister under siege in his own capital with the

Tigrayan forces that he himself attacked a year ago, closing in on him. It's a remarkable situation, but one where so many, so many civilians are

suffering.

MADOWO: And we're at the one-year mark since this war began, and the same Eritrea that he brokered a peace deal with now accused of having helped him

in committing atrocities in Tigray in the north of the country, some of those killings bear the hallmarks of genocide, and yet Prime Minister Abiy

Ahmed today celebrating that the U.N. report did not explicitly say that what happened there was a genocide.

But still a grave concern so much so that the prime minister, the same Nobel Peace Prize winner now telling Ethiopians to get prepared to defend

their neighborhoods, to take up arms and to get ready because it might come down to that.

GORANI: Larry Madowo, thanks very much for following this developing story. It is fast-moving as Larry was saying, rebels on the outskirts of Addis

Ababa. The U.N. Human Rights office is receiving continued allegations of abuses and violations in Tigray --

MADOWO: You're welcome --

GORANI: The head of that office Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is joining me now live from Geneva.

Commissioner, thanks for being with us. So, your report finding that both sides have committed possible atrocities, tell us more about the findings

and why they're significant today.

MICHELLE BACHELET, UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Well, thank you for having me. Yes, we found a reasonable ground to believe that

there will be -- there were violations of human rights from all sides, from the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, Eritrean Defense Forces and from the

Tigrayan forces as well.

[13:05:00]

And we found violations that -- on the international human rights law, humanitarian law and refugee law that implied the people were arbitrarily

detained, there were extrajudicial killings, there were terrible amounts of sexual violence and rapes. There were people who had to find refugees and

they were having problems as well as internally displaced people. So there was many violations of human rights and abuses by all parties.

GORANI: But the report also stresses that the majority of those at least in the initial period after the government of Ethiopia attacked the Tigray

region, the majority of those atrocities committed by forces aligned with the government, including Eritreans and fighters from the neighboring

Amhara region, they've all joined in to help Prime Minister Abiy.

BACHELET: Yes, indeed, I'll period this from the beginning of November when the conflict started until 29 of June when Prime Minister Abiy called for a

unilateral ceasefire. And in that period of time, as you mentioned, we found that the majority of the violation of human rights were done by the

national forces with its allies.

We have been having allegations after that period where the Tigrayan forces started to move to get -- to recover part of Tigray, but also went into the

Amhara and their far regions, and then we have received many allegations of abuses of human rights by the Tigrayan forces.

But at the same time, the continuing violations by the national forces, including air strikes and shelling, and as you just mentioned on the last

developments, maybe this kind of situation will continue even stronger and with the people. Unfortunately, like in all these conflicts, the civilians,

the ones who are most harmed and who are suffering.

GORANI: What needs to happen now? Because the Tigrayan -- there is a top general of the Tigray forces who told a TV network in that region, there

are no talks on the table. We're not talking right now. We're fighting. The prime minister is saying take up arms, defend your neighborhood. This

really sounds like a very dangerous, tense situation that could truly explode into an all-out civil war. How concerned are you about that?

BACHELET: I am very concerned, because I feel this -- I mean, I have seen that's the -- there has been escalation in the last days and the last hours

of the conflict that could lead to a real civil war with a lot of bloodshed and with a lot of more pain and suffering for not only for the military

forces who are -- who will be fighting, but also for the civilians. Also, it's very dangerous situation because it could lead to something that some

people are analyzing the possibility of a fragmentation of a break up of Ethiopia as a state. So --

GORANI: Yes --

BACHELET: Until now, all efforts done by the international community, the U.N., but also the African Union has not been able to ensure the

possibility of putting on the table that the parties do dialogue and try to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

GORANI: So what -- I mean, the Tigrayans by the way are saying well, this report included the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, it was a

collaboration between that entity and the U.N., it can't be trusted. Also others have pointed out that while the Ethiopian government threw out a

U.N. observer, therefore, it can be a complete report. How much of what is going on is reflected in this report? How much more do you think

potentially was missed here?

BACHELET: I mean, I don't have to say that first of all, there was perception of impartiality because of the cause that you have mentioned.

But to be honest, we have done everything possible to ensure that all the methodology that has been used, not only by our colleagues, but also we

have trained their colleagues from the Eritrean -- Ethiopian, sorry -- National Commission on this same methodologies, and we have also hired

external forensic experts, experts in gender bias, experts in children, et cetera, that will ensure that all the -- I will say the work done can be

impartial and neutral and objective.

Maybe, the constraint that we can recognize is that because of the security factors, we were not able to go to all Tigray, but that we recognize that

on the report that we say that the -- that by the evidence that we collected is the voice of the victims. And I think that is really well

represented and really shows, and we hope that this report that maybe we need more investigation on other areas, and we say that in the report. This

report will be a wake-up call because we need to do something to stop this from continue happening.

[13:10:00]

GORANI: And just -- you mentioned the victims -- and my last question is on them, because some of the video and footage we've seen of starving babies

basically dying as they reach hospitals because they weigh less than 2 pounds, and mothers dying with their babies in their arms. I mean, weapon

used as -- food used as a weapon of war, sexual crimes and rape and the rest of it. I mean, it's just -- how do you even begin to hold anyone

accountable for what's going on right now over there?

BACHELET: Well, I believe that this report can -- was meant to receive the voice of the people, so we -- it could lead to another process of

accountability. This is one step, but we need more. And the government has said that they're going to do their part, but in case they don't do it,

because they don't want it or they cannot, we are calling for a possibility of international commission, international mechanism that can really ensure

accountability and hold perpetrators accountable.

GORANI: All right, Michelle Bachelet; the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner, thank you so much for joining us live from Geneva. The American President

Joe Biden returned to the White House from the Climate Summit in Scotland this morning to a political nightmare.

Voters in Virginia elected a Republican Glenn Youngkin as their new governor in a state, Mr. Biden won a year ago by a 10-point margin.

Youngkin suggested fed-up voters turned his campaign into a movement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN YOUNGKIN, VIRGINIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: This stopped being a campaign long ago. This is the spirit of Virginia coming together like never before, the

spirit of Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Monroe and Patrick Henry, of Virginians standing up and taking our commonwealth back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: And it's not just Virginia that has Democrats biting their nails. Democratic incumbent Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey is running neck-

and-neck right now against his Republican challenger, so that race is too close to call, none of this bodes well for Democrats' chances next year

when both houses of Congress are up for grabs. U.S. national correspondents are tracking the vote-count in New Jersey's race for the U.S., and I

believe it is Jason Carroll joining us, thanks for joining us, Jason. Let's talk about this much closer race than Democrats expected or hoped.

JASON CARROLL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, you hit the nail right on the head, Hala. I mean, and just look within the past few hours

that we've been out here, it's really been this tug of war between boats going back and forth, so you can imagine how this is tugging at the heart

strings of both campaigns. Just let me give you an example.

At one point early this morning, we saw that Murphy was up by let's say 7,000 votes, and then very quickly, it switched, and then all of a sudden

Ciattarelli, Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican challenger was up by a 100 votes. And then just within the past few minutes, it then switched back

again, and now we see Murphy up by 12,000 votes, still not a lot, they really thought they were going to be way ahead here when you're looking at

the polls, when you're looking at the numbers, Murphy should have been way ahead.

So you have to ask yourself, well, what changed here? And it's got to be Jim -- Jack Ciattarelli and some of the issues that he was pounding home

here. I mean, when you -- he was looking at mask mandates, he felt as though wearing too many masks, thinks that the governor was forcing too

many people to wear masks. That was one thing.

Another big thing here, Hala, property taxes, not sure if your viewers are aware, but here in the state of New Jersey, people pay more property taxes

than most places throughout the U.S. So, that was a really big issue. On the flipside of that, what you saw Murphy do is go after Ciattarelli on a

number of issues, namely, what he did was, he said, look, I'm the kind of person who raised the minimum wage here. I'm the kind of person who

expanded paid family leave, and Ciattarelli on the flip side is someone who is too closely associated with Donald Trump.

So, those are the issues that are going back and forth here, but the lesson for Democrats here in the state of New Jersey, is that they're going to

have to come up with a different template looking ahead to the Midterm elections.

GORANI: Because that strategy did not work in Virginia. Jason Carroll, thanks very much for joining us live from New Jersey. So why --

CARROLL: You bet --

GORANI: Have Republicans shown such political strength just a year after Mr. Biden's win over Donald Trump? And what do the Democrats need to do to

get themselves back in the game as they head into next year's pivotal congressional elections. Let's turn to Larry Sabato via Skype from

Charlottesville, Virginia. He's the director for the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia. What went so badly wrong for the Democrats,

specifically Terry McAuliffe; the Democratic candidate, I mean, he was trying to liken his opponent to Donald Trump.

[13:15:00]

Donald Trump lost the state of Virginia in 2020 by a lot, and it didn't work. Why not?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: It didn't work because Joe Biden is president, not Donald Trump. And Joe Biden

is now almost as unpopular as Donald Trump was in 2017 when the last gubernatorial election was held. Biden's popularity has dropped down in

Virginia to the mid-40s, nationally in the low 40s, and even worse, Hala, was the Democratic Congress. For nine months they haven't been able to

figure out how to get their act together and pass the promises they made during the campaign of 2020.

Guess what? A lot of Democrats said why should I vote, why should I bother? They don't deliver on their promises. Democratic turnout was really low and

Republicans sensed that for the first time in ten years in Virginia, they had a chance to win, their turnout was through the roof.

GORANI: Now, we've said time and again, that the Republican Party has become the party of Donald Trump, even though he's out of office.

Virginians though don't like Donald Trump. They didn't vote for him in 2020 or in 2016. But -- so therefore, why choose a Republican politician over a

Democrat whose message was quite centrist?

SABATO: Because this particular Republican did a tip-toe through the Tulips for months and months, saying good things about Donald Trump, but not too

good and not too frequently, and never appearing with him. There was no photograph, Hala. There was no video of the candidate with Donald Trump.

So, it was a lot tougher when a candidate is keeping Donald Trump at an arm's length or two arms or three arms.

GORANI: So, what is the big lesson here for the Midterms next year for Democrats? What do they need to do or not do as the case may be?

SABATO: They've got to fire -- fight along on fire and they had better start putting it out because It's going to take them to a better part of

the year to get it out if they go to work tomorrow.

GORANI: Yes --

SABATO: One wonders if they get it, you know, they keep making promises and not delivering. We'll have to see.

GORANI: Yes, and when you say promises, you mean, for instance big spending promises, the infrastructure bill, the fact that there seems to be

paralysis on Capitol Hill even within their own party in terms of going ahead with supporting the president's legislation, that kind of thing?

SABATO: That's exactly what I mean, plus they've not been able to pass voting rights legislation which will prove essential to them if they lose

control of Congress, which they're likely to do next year and other things beyond that, the filibuster, they want to abolish the filibuster, not even

a move to do that.

GORANI: Right, and what about lastly the messaging? I mean, the issues that the Democrats are embracing and choosing to talk about on the trail versus

what Republicans are talking about. Is it -- for instance, I don't know, an identity politics and other things, is that not playing as well with some

of the potentially Republican voters as some of them are kitchen -- you know, around the kitchen table kind of issues, your retirement, pay, in the

case of New Jersey, property tax, that type of thing. Do they need to shift their messaging to other things?

SABATO: They certainly do. They certainly do. And you know, they planned on it, Hala, and you mentioned Terry McAuliffe who lost, he begged senior

leaders repeatedly, senior leaders in Congress, Democrats to pass at least one of the two bills, and --

GORANI: Yes --

SABATO: And several times, they promised him it was right around the corner and will be done completely before November 2nd election day. What

happened? Nothing.

GORANI: Well, Larry Sabato, many lessons here for the Democrats and the Republicans are probably celebrating these results. Thanks very much for

joining us.

SABATO: All right --

GORANI: Always a pleasure talking to you. Still to come tonight, it's finance day at the U.N.'s COP26 Summit, and we're seeing some big promises

why these vows might hold this time around, plus, you don't want to miss this story. A young girl missing for weeks is reunited with her family. How

police managed to find her locked up alone in a house. We'll bring you her story next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:00]

GORANI: The world is racing to fight climate change. But one question that's on everyone's mind at COP26, who will foot the bill? Who is footing

the bill. Many say that since nations aren't the only ones to blame for green house gases, the private sector also needs to step up here. That's

why the U.K. is now planning to become the world's first net-zero financial center. Here is the British Finance Minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RISHI SUNAK, FINANCE MINISTER, UNITED KINGDOM: I can announce that the United Kingdom will commit a 100 million pounds to the task force on access

to climate finance, making it quicker and easier for developing countries to access the finance they need. And we're supporting a new capital markets

mechanism which will issue billions of new green bonds here in the U.K. to fund renewable energy in developing countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir joins me now live from Glasgow. The U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said he sees a 60 percent chance

of capping global warming to 1.5 percent -- 1.5 degrees, I should say, centigrade. That's a very precise percentage. What is he basing that on?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: I think it's based on the new promises that are being made, Hala, say India for example, that said they

finally put a date on when they will be net-zero, and then there were new studies that were able to crunch the numbers and say, OK, that moves us

instead of on a 2.7 Celsius trajectory, and maybe that burns it to 1.9. So, honestly, it's all -- you know, projections and accounting really. But just

like anything in finance, and today is all about finance, it comes with a lot of fine print.

And so this promise from 450 different companies that have $1. -- $130 trillion or whatever it is under management, only a fraction of that has to

go to these developing countries, to green projects as well. And then when it comes to the net in net-zero, youth activist Greta Thunberg really

described it like few others could after she went viral this week for leading a profane chant. She said today, "I promise to be net-zero of

profanity in the future. If I use a swear word, I will say something nice to balance it out".

The head of Greenpeace U.K. said you could also pay someone else to say something nice in a few years to offset your profanity. And it's really

what it comes down to, the idea that drilling and fracking and coal mining as usual could be offset with solar panels or tree-planting somewhere else

in the world just won't work. Those are good projects and they're needed --

GORANI: Yes --

WEIR: But ultimately, the goal here is to stop using fuels that burn.

GORANI: And also its transport, I mean, you know, you can't still cannot solar-power planes, they contribute so much to the pollution in our

atmosphere. And just generally-speaking, cars, I mean, until everything becomes electric and clean, we've got decades ahead of us of making these

efforts.

[13:25:00]

I wonder, on that front, what has been discussed?

WEIR: You know, if you -- if you think about it in terms of a carbon budget, like we have so much to burn before we reach this tipping point, by

some estimates we've already burned 85 percent of the budget --

GORANI: Right --

WEIR: And we have five times the recommended amount still in the ground, stranded assets there. So, the conversation among the developing countries,

the most vulnerable countries is like rations on a life raft, we should be using those fossil fuels to build the next generation of clean fuels and

not squandering it on anything else. But again, you know, the financial markets are set up, CEOs are incentivized to maximize profits.

And while the U.K. said we want to completely rewire the financial sector here, you know, this is a financial sector that just like the rest of the

industrial revolution took a century and a half to build. Now, we have to undo it and rebuild a new one in a decade.

Those are the challenges. But while you keep on to some shred of hope here, just like any other parts of human nature, there may be some insincerity in

some sectors, but the hope is that most people now get it. Because the cost of doing nothing will be so much bigger. You look at what's happening --

GORANI: Yes --

WEIR: In Madagascar, children there are eating insects to survive. If that happens in other parts of the world where there's migrants, will then be

forced into the developed countries, well, that bill will come due in a much more uncomfortable way than it is right now.

GORANI: And in some cases it already is. Thanks very much, Bill Weir. It's always great chatting with you, Bill Weir is covering the COP26 climate

live in Glasgow. This is a remarkable story. A 4-year-old Australian girl is back home, she's safe with her family nearly three weeks after

disappearing from their camp site.

Cleo Smith was found in the early hours of Wednesday after police broke down the door of a locked home. Remember, she's 4 years old, they said they

were looking for a needle in a haystack and they found it. A 36-year-old man is in custody. Ivan Watson has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Australian police called it the miracle they were hoping for. A pre-dawn rescue of 4-

year-old Cleo Smith found safe and sound 18 days after she first went missing. An ordeal that began at this remote camping site on October 16th.

Cleo's mother says on the first morning of a family camping trip, she woke up to find her daughter gone.

ELLIE SMITH, CLEO SMITH'S MOTHER: The tent was completely open, it was about 30 centimeters from being open, and I mean, I turned around to Jake

and I just said like Cleo' is gone.

WATSON: The child's disappearance triggered a manhunt that spread nationwide. The state government offering a million Australian dollar

reward for information echoed by desperate appeals from Cleo's family.

SMITH: Really, what we need is our little girl home.

WATSON: Police announced they solved the mystery early Wednesday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The outcome that was achieved at about 1:00 a.m. this morning when four officers went in and broke down the door, and found

little Cleo in a room. And as you can see, she's alive, she's safe and she's back with mom and dad.

WATSON: Police found her alone in this house in her family's hometown of Carnarvon, some 30 miles or 48 kilometers from the camping site.

CHRIS DAWN, POLICE COMMISSIONER, WESTERN AUSTRALIA: You know, I just wanted to be absolutely sure that, you know, it certainly looked like Cleo. I

wanted to be absolutely sure it was her. So, I said, what's your name? She didn't answer. And I said, what's your name? She didn't answer again. So, I

asked her the third time and then she looked at me, and she said "my name is Cleo".

WATSON: Police say Cleo was physically unharmed and reunited soon after with her parents. Police have a 36-year-old man who is unrelated to Cleo's

family currently in custody. They say they expect to press charges for what they describe as an opportunistic abduction soon. The rescue which

officials described as the result of a hard police grind involving 140 police officers is now being celebrated across the country, but most

importantly by her parents. Cleo's mother, Ellie, announcing, "our family is whole again." Ivan Watson, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: Unbelievable story. Still to come tonight, COVID vaccinations are now under way for the youngest age group yet in the United States. We're

live at a New York hospital. Plus, the search for survivors of a building collapse in Nigeria continues. Officials are facing some tough questions

about how this could have happened in the first place. We'll bring you the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

GORANI: A look at COVID now around the world. We begin in Russia. Cases and deaths are surging still. The daily death toll reached a record high

Tuesday for the second straight day.

Beijing is racing to contain a new COVID outbreak. Just 100 days before the Winter Olympics are set to begin, more than 1 million people have applied

to enter the COVID-19 free Olympic bubble as unpaid volunteers.

In the U.S. children aged 5 to 11 can get a vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized the Pfizer vaccine for that age

group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt very nervous but now it's over and now we are vaccinated. That's a big step to making the world normal again and so we

all don't need to wear masks and for everyone to be safe and healthy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: That's your cute content for the day. Brynn Gingras joins me from New York.

How is the rollout going?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's going so smoothly. We had this steady stream of kids with their parents this morning. Now that schools are

getting out we are getting more and more kids, who are super excited to get back to normalcy.

As far as the doses are concerned, we learned this center got 600 doses in addition to 300 they already had in-house and they expect it to continue

week after week. No shortage here and parents with kids are taking advantage.

I want to hear from some what they look forward to next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY, VACCINE RECIPIENT: I'm pretty excited to getting back to playing sports because I really love basketball.

[13:35:00]

DANNY: So it'll be great to actually be able to play back indoors and also being like being able to go to school without a mask.

ANN, VACCINE RECIPIENT'S MOTHER: Just do your research, talk to your doctor, your pediatrician. At some point you got to hang your hat on what

somebody is telling you who has been studying it, more into it than what -- as a lay person you may be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: That's what we hear from parents, trusting the science, waiting for the CDC to approve it in the U.S. and getting kids in line, ready to

go. This is important, especially into the colder months in this part of the country. Kids are inside more and there's holidays,, where there's more

gatherings.

So parents are very anxious, those we've talked to, to get their kids vaccinated and today starts a turn, pivot into the pandemic in a positive

direction.

GORANI: How will this change day-to-day life in a school like the one you're reporting from today?

The fact these kids have -- in New York there isn't as much vaccine hesitancy as elsewhere.

Can they spend their days indoors with no mask?

What is the plan?

GINGRAS: No, there's still mask mandates in effect. But it's a mindset. Kids are excited to travel for the holidays to different countries, to

visit grandparents, who they haven't seen in two years.

Kids are excited to take off their masks outside in the playground, getting play dates, things we forget about as adults that is so important.

One gentleman, 8 years old, he said it was a stress.

Why are 8-year-olds stressed?

So this was a relief for him and he's excited for the upcoming holidays, to have some sense of normalcy after almost two years.

GORANI: These kids missed out on so much formative stuff, 6, 7, 8 years old, up to college kids missing out on important moments in their lives. I

really hope they get back to something resembling normalcy. Thanks so much, Brynn.

It's been more than two days since the high rise in Lagos, Nigeria, came crashing to the ground. Now families of the missing are praying their loved

ones can still be found. At least 14 people confirmed dead. CNN's Stephanie Busari has the latest in Lagos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN.COM SUPERVISING EDITOR, AFRICA (voice-over): It was billed as a place where future residents, who could afford the minimum $1.2

million price tag, could live, the seven-star hotel experience before one of the three towers of the so-called luxury in the sky high-rise complex

came crashing down into a heap of concrete rubble Monday in the middle of the affluent Negre neighborhood of Lagos.

Now rescue workers are painstakingly moving through what remains of the collapsed building, looking for survivors.

BUSARI: Rescue officials are using the latest technology to find signs of life of those trapped, to give hope to hundreds of relatives, desperately

waiting for news of their loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) we are hearing voices. And those voices are getting closer to the (INAUDIBLE).

BUSARI (voice-over): Rescue teams dropping oxygen tanks beneath the debris to sustain those people they believe to be alive until they can safely

reach them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their voices are still very, very strong and we have to (INAUDIBLE).

BUSARI (voice-over): As the hours pass, relatives stand by, agonizing, hoping a sound of voices coming from beneath the debris means their loved

ones have survived and may still be rescued.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

BUSARI (voice-over): Yet fearing the worst, with each new body pulled from the rubble.

The anger rising over just what caused the more than 20 story building under construction for the past two years to collapse. Authorities say

they're investigating what could have caused the structure to suffer such a catastrophic failure.

But CNN has confirmed red flags were raised about the project last year. In February of 2020, Prowess Engineering (ph) sent a letter to fourscore

homes, the developer of the three-tower 360-degrees complex with drawing from the project, saying they no longer shared the same vision on how the

project is being executed.

[13:40:00]

BUSARI (voice-over): A Lagos state deputy governor telling CNN that the building was sealed off for several months last July amid structural

concerns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

BUSARI (voice-over): Fourscore homes have so far not responded to CNN's request for comment. On Monday local residents told CNN that they believed

dozens of workers and project officials were inside the complex, working, when the building collapsed.

As rescue workers call out for survivors, the exact number of those still missing remains unknown -- Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.

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GORANI: Still to come, the U.N. hopes its new film is a wake-up call to step up the fight against climate change, that's next.

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GORANI: Even though the Earth is warming rapidly and we're seeing more disasters each year, we can still take action on climate change. That is

the message that the United Nations Development Programme is trying to convey in a very creative fashion with a first-ever film made inside the

U.N. General Assembly.

You're not use to seeing these characters walk up to the podium and they chose a speaker who knows a thing or two about the consequences of a

crisis.

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FRANKIE, DINOSAUR: Are you OK?

You need a minute?

Cool.

Listen up, people. I know a thing or two about extinction. And let me tell you -- and you kind of think this would be obvious.

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FRANKIE: Going extinct is a bad thing. And driving yourselves extinct in 70 million years, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

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GORANI: Well, that English-speaking dinosaur might have sounded a lot like American actor Jack Black. There is a Danish dinosaur wandering around the

UNGA, too, and that one sounds a lot like "Game of Thrones" star, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

He's a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador and he joins me live, in Copenhagen.

Thanks for being with us.

Why did you collaborate on this project?

I imagine it was a fun one.

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU, ACTOR: It was a fun one. I think it was a big step for the U.N. to try something revolutionary as a sense of humor when it

comes to something so serious.

But what's been -- first of all we've had these amazing people create this dinosaur, this whole movie. But what's been interesting to see is that

people have responded to it. And that's all we wanted. We wanted to connect with people in a fun way.

So if you laughed a little, your shoulders, you lowered the shoulders and you're ready to engage in a different way. And that's what this is about

because, at the core of this, as you said, is climate change.

And the fact that the dinosaur talks about is that we all know that the biggest threat is the burning of fossil fuels. And the fact -- I didn't

know that. I don't think many people knew that, that we are subsidizing the fossil fuel industry with $425 billion a year.

That's a sizeable chunk of money that maybe we should at least discuss if we could use that in a better way.

GORANI: Talk to me about the feedback because you mentioned feedback and young people seem aware, compared to older generations, of the dangers of a

warming planet.

What have you received and heard back from this film, in Denmark or elsewhere?

COSTER-WALDAU: What's so cool about the film is that a -- dontchooseextinction.com has done -- encourages people to go to this

website they've set up, which is an amazing website. And it has a lot of information. It also has a thing called the Global Mind Pool, which is also

a separate website, globalmindpool.com, which I encourage everyone to go check out.

Which is -- the ambition for us is to reach as many possible all over the world. So this campaign starts now but it's going to continue. It's trying

to see if we can use all of us, all of our collective intelligence to then have the UNDP gather all this information that people will send in from all

over the world, all this data, and then pass that on to policymakers.

Because if there's one thing our policymakers do respect at the end of the day it's the voter. And that's us.

GORANI: How did the project, did you have to go into, obviously a recording booth?

Is this tracking over an animated film?

Have you dubbed a dinosaur before?

COSTER-WALDAU: I've never dubbed a dinosaur before. No, but what's been amazing about this, it's a lot of people came together and people -- we

have one of the greatest visual effects houses in Hollywood when you stepped up -- it's got a -- it's very expensive to create this dinosaur.

But they did it in an amazing way. Of course the U.N. allows to film inside the General Assembly, which is amazing. But it's -- one of the points of

this movie, of course, it's a dinosaur and it speaks in every language, I think it stopped already to 30-plus languages. The point of course is that

this is a global thing, it's a global threat that we're facing and we're all in this together.

GORANI: Looking forward, I'm sure you've been following COP26 and what's been discussed there. I wonder if you found that encouraging or if you were

disappointed.

What's your takeaway so far?

COSTER-WALDAU: I think that, by the nature of things, we're always going to be disappointed because also the rhetoric building up to the COPs is always

is that if we don't solve everything now, we're screwed.

So we kind of know -- and also the media knows that we're not going to solve all the issues now. So it's going to be the buildup is insane and of

course the disappointment is insane.

I think steps are being taken in the right direction. We need to move much faster. We have to keep -- that's why we want to have this campaign be an

ongoing campaign. We have got to keep the pressure on the politicians and help them make the right decisions. Because, no, COP is not over but we

that, at the end of the day, some progress will have been made; not enough.

But what I have felt, though, and what I think we all felt, especially here in Europe this last year, suddenly climate change was no longer a

theoretical thing. You saw the horrific wildfires in Europe, the flooding in Germany.

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COSTER-WALDAU: It hit home in a different way and I think that the population, the people are really willing and ready for action.

GORANI: Yes, I completely agree. We're basically experiencing the effects of it and it really changes the conversation and the sense of urgency.

Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate it, live in Copenhagen with us.

COSTER-WALDAU: Thank you for joining me in my kitchen. Thank you.

GORANI: All right. It was a pleasure.

Now to the latest from the investigation into that shooting on a movie set involving actor Alec Baldwin.

A lawyer for the armorer on the film says his client loaded the gun with bullets from a box marked as dummy rounds. The lawyer told the "Today" show

that someone may have sabotaged the ammo, putting at least one live round into the dummy box.

He also alluded to several members of the crew, walking off the set earlier that week, angry at producers for not treating them better. The accidental

shooting resulted in the death of the film's cinematographer and the injury of the director.

Facebook is scrapping the facial recognition software it uses to identify people in photos and videos. It's a major shift for the social media giant,

known for collecting vast amounts of data on its users. The feature had fueled privacy and ethical concerns and Facebook has also promised to

delete the billions of faces it already has on file.

The company says it might restore facial recognition in the future but it wants regulators to weigh in on the proper way for companies to use the

technology.

We'll be right back. Stay with us.

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GORANI: In India the five-day Festival of Lights known as Diwali is in full swing. Shoppers packed local markets in search of colorful decorations,

it's a huge celebration of good over evil. Millions of people exchange gifts, spend time with loved ones and pray. Happy Diwali if you celebrate.

And thanks for watching tonight. I'm Hala Gorani. "AMANPOUR" is next. Stay with CNN.

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