Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Pope Wraps U.S. Visit; Blatter Subject of New FIFA Investigation; Skeptics Accept Climate Change as God's Will; The Pope Effect; Typhoon Dujuan Approaches Asia; New Bond Theme Draws Mixed Reviews. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired September 26, 2015 - 00:00   ET

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


[00:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Tackling extremism and inequality, Pope Francis addresses world leaders in New York.

A new FIFA criminal investigation; FIFA president Sepp Blatter receives a visit from Swiss police.

And abating climate change and God's role in it. I'll have an interview with a climate change scientist who makes the case with a faith-based perspective.

Hello, everyone, You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: And thank you for joining us. It is midnight in New York and Pope Francis wrapped a busy day there by celebrating mass before thousands of people at Madison Square Garden. On Friday he urged his audience to live their faith by helping the needy and rejecting self- absorption.

Earlier he told world leaders gathered at the United Nations that greed for power and wealth is destroying the Earth's resources and isolating those who are poor and disadvantaged.

He also urged the leaders to work tirelessly for world peace.

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): War is the negation of all rights and it's a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war between nations and between peoples.

ALLEN: Thousands of New Yorkers waited for hours to see the pope pass through Central Park in New York. He arrives in Philadelphia next, just hours from now, for the third and final leg of his U.S. visit.

Father Thomas Reese (ph) is a Jesuit priest and an analyst for "National Catholic Reporter" and he joins me now. Thank you for talking with us. And I know this is a festive day

to be a Catholic priest in the United States, to talk about this. I think we all remember when The Beatles first stepped on American soil. I think many people remember when Pope Francis did as well.

FATHER THOMAS REESE (PH), "NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER": Absolutely. It's been a great day. People have really enjoyed with the pope.

ALLEN: What do you think it is about Pope Francis? We know that he doesn't just talk the talk. He walks the walk and he did that every step of the way so far in his trip to the United States.

REESE (PH): Absolutely. He is the real deal. I think this is why people like him so much.

So many celebrities these days, it's all about them. They're selling themselves. This is a man who is -- he's selling the Gospel. He's selling love. He's selling Jesus Christ. And whenever he's interacting with people, he doesn't want to be the center of attention. His attention is directed to the children, the sick people, the poor people, the people he loves.

And he is just totally authentic. And I think that's what -- why people like him so much.

ALLEN: I think it's a very good point. We interviewed kids who have met him one-on-one in the United States and they reflect exactly what you say.

He's also, though, a leader for the Catholic Church, that is perhaps more inclusive, less judgmental. He talks of issues out of the box, say, climate change for example.

What impact is that having?

REESE (PH): Well, it's really started a conversation. You know, people have been trying to get the world's attention on climate change issues; now that the pope has issued an encyclical on it, talked to Congress about it, talked to the president about it, talked to the United Nations about it, now everybody is talking about climate change and our need to do something about it.

This is a man who was trained and educated as a scientist and he accepts the scientific conclusion that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity. And we need to do something about it now. We can't leave it to our children, grandchildren and great- grandchildren.

ALLEN: Finally I want to talk with you about the effect on the Catholic Church, which is seeing its numbers dwindle. He went to a Catholic school in East Harlem, Catholic schools have been shutting down; 2,000 have shut down between 2000-2013.

He's going to a Catholic Church in Pennsylvania that almost closed its doors but immigrant Catholics brought it back. What does his visit to say to Catholicism in the United States?

[00:05:00]

REESE (PH): Well, I think that what happened to the Catholic schools is tragic. But it's really all about money, I'm afraid. We used to be able to run these schools with thousands and thousands of sisters. But there aren't those sisters anymore. And we need government funding if we're going to keep these schools going.

But the real question about the impact of Pope Francis is going to be on people who have left the church. And now are thinking, well, I really like Pope Francis; maybe I ought to give the church another chance.

The problem is, although the pope is really important in the Catholic Church, he's not the whole thing. Catholics live their faith at the local level in parishes. And when they come back, they're going to want to meet somebody like Pope Francis.

And if they don't, if the clergymen that they run into is cranky and judgmental and it's the same old same old, they are going to turn around and go out the door again and never come back. So we have to adopt the pastoral style of Pope Francis: more welcoming, compassionate, less judgmental and then people mgt come back and stay.

ALLEN: We will see and we'll leave it there. Thanks so much, Father Thomas Reese (ph) joining us. We appreciate it.

REESE (PH): Good to be with you.

ALLEN: Inspired by the pope's visit, the top Republican in U.S. politics announced he's resigning.

House Speaker John Boehner made the surprise announcement on Friday in Washington. He said he will step down next month. Boehner said his encounter with Pope Francis on Thursday helped him decide it was time to go.

You can see him getting choked up during the pope's visit to Washington. He invited the pope to speak. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy seen here is considered one of the leading contenders to replace Boehner.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been enjoying a state dinner at the White House. He heads to New York City next on Saturday. He is expected to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday. He's been meeting with President Obama at the White House, as you can see.

The U.S. and China are pledging positive relations moving forward. Mr. Xi and U.S. President Obama say they tried to address disagreement candidly and constructively. Cyber security was hailed as perhaps the biggest breakthrough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) XI JINPING, PRESIDENT OF CHINA (through translator):

Confrontation and friction are not the right choice for both sides. During my visit, the competent authorities of both countries have reached important consensus on joint fight against cyber crimes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The Chinese leader also announced a climate change- related topic, a cap-and-trade deal to cut down on air pollution.

The head of football's world governing body now faces a criminal investigation in Switzerland. Prosecutors there opened proceedings against FIFA president Sepp Blatter on Friday. Investigators questioned Blatter and searched his office. This is the latest blow to his tenure as FIFA president.

We learn more from CNN sport's Don Riddell.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's been football's most powerful man for more than 17 years. As the head of FIFA, the sport's world governing body, Sepp Blatter lived an opulent, jet-set lifestyle, often treated as if he were a head of state.

But all that is in the distant past now after the Swiss attorney general revealed that Blatter has been interrogated on suspicion of criminal mismanagement and misappropriation.

American law enforcement officials who are assisting the Swiss police in their investigation of Blatter have been probing FIFA for a variety of white-collar crimes dating back two decades. And this year Swiss prosecutors launched their own investigation in to the bidding procedures for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments.

FIFA's critics felt that Mr. Blatter had cultivated a culture of corruption from his headquarters in Zurich. But even though his organization was humiliated by the arrests of more than a dozen key operatives in May, he was still triumphantly elected for a fifth term as president.

SEPP BLATTER, FIFA PRESIDENT: I will be in command of this boat called FIFA.

Just days later, though, Blatter announced that he was standing down, prompting a new election next February. This month, investigators on both sides of the Atlantic said that they were expanding their operation and just last week Blatter's right-hand man, secretary general Jerome Valcke, was relieved of his duties and suspended.

In recent days Blatter has been hinting that he may serve as president beyond February. But now the future is very uncertain, not just for him but for the governance of world football. The UEFA president Michel Platini was tipped to succeed Blatter next year. But he was also implicated in the latest developments. Much could change in the next few days and weeks and FIFA's

presidential election --

[00:10:00]

RIDDELL (voice-over): -- is still five months away -- Don Riddell, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Saudi Arabia is suggesting Muslim pilgrims who ignored security guidelines may be to blame for the stampede that killed more than 700 people this week. Another 900 were injured during the hajj ritual known as the stoning of the devil. The dead include women and children.

Iran is calling for international action against Saudi Arabia. Thousands of people marched in Tehran Friday, chanting, "Death to the Saudi dynasty." Iran says more than 130 of its citizens were killed in the stampede.

Coming up here, we will look in to climate change as Pope Francis says the world needs to act. We will have that in a moment.

Also, a powerful typhoon, the result of extreme weather heading straight for Taiwan. We will get the latest on that from our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam. CNN NEWSROOM continues right after this.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: On his travels to Cuba and the U.S. this week Pope Francis has again been quite vocal about the need for the world to combat climate change. His opinions have angered some within the Catholic Church, who believe that we, as humans, don't have the power to tackle the issue, even if we all commit to trying.

Here in the U.S., religion is a recurring factor in the climate change debate, with many citing the power of God as the real reason our world is transforming so rapidly.

CNN.com columnist John Sutter spent a week in Woodward County, Oklahoma, which is both highly religious and statistically one of the most climate skeptical places in the U.S. It is also notorious for extreme weather. Let's take a listen to the views of people that we interviewed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just figure that the Good Lord is the -- he's the only one that knows. You know?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You might say the environment is perfect today because God ultimately controls the environment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And maybe we shouldn't interfere with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God speaks directly to issues out of the scripture. When he said in Genesis be good stewards of this land and take care of it. That has value always.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: That is just a small clip of what you can see more of on our website. But despite all of the science suggesting otherwise, there are those in Oklahoma and elsewhere that contend that climate change is an irreversible process reflecting God's will.

My next guest, Katharine Hayhoe, is both an evangelical Christian and a climate scientist at Texas Tech. She believes God also gave us the power to make good choices and those choices can have an impact.

Katharine, thank you for joining us.

KATHARINE HAYHOE, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: My pleasure.

ALLEN: I want to talk --

[00:15:00]

ALLEN: -- first about the pope effect. Of all of the issues he chose to speak about in the United States, he continued hammer hard on climate change.

HAYHOE: It's so important because here in our society we bought into two big myths when it comes to climate change. We bought into the myth that it only really matters to the polar bear or future generations and we have also bought into the myth that to care about climate change you have to be a tree hugger or an environmentalist.

The pope is busting both of those myths big time. He is connecting the dots between poverty, injustice, the refugee crisis that we are facing today and the issue of climate change, which exacerbates the risk of the types of droughts that drove people into the cities in Syria.

He is also busting the myth that you have to be a green tree hugger. He is showing if we care about people, if we care about this planet -- and it is hard to think of any human who wouldn't care about the place where we live and other people -- then those are all the reasons we need to care about climate change.

ALLEN: Right. And I want to point out that he personally thanked President Obama for his new policies. He said, Mr. President, I find it encouraging that you are proposing an initiative for reducing air pollution.

And we should point out that a new study by Associated Press, as reported in the "Huffington Post," said 3.3 million people each year die from air pollution. At the same time, we've heard from Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum from the campaign trail, who said I'm not going to listen to the pope because he's not a scientist.

However, 97 percent of climate scientists say there's climate change. And there, we are showing the polar bears again. As you say, it is not just a polar bear problem. It is an air pollution problem that's going to continue to affect the resources we have on Earth.

Do you really think that the pope can have an impact on this?

Because I also spoke with a priest yesterday, who said he's not going to continue to bring the pope's message to his flock because the pope, again, is not a scientist.

What do you say to that?

HAYHOE: Well, first of all, the pope does have a degree in chemistry. Second of all, the pope's encyclical and everything he talks about with climate change is, as any good leader should, based solidly on the science from scientists.

For over two years, the pope has been holding meetings in the Vatican inviting leading scientists from around the world to inform the crafting of this encyclical to make sure all the scientific facts are accurate.

So we don't expect our politicians to have PhDs in physics but we do expect them to recognize that we have enormous wealth of smart scientists in this country that they can call anytime and ask for advice. The pope has done that and that's why he got the science right.

ALLEN: And of course the world will be watching when the U.N. comes together in Paris in December to try to get a global accord on cutting down air pollution.

But at the same time, Xi Jinping, the head of China, made an announcement today on cap-and-trade and he and Obama are already working on these issues.

How important is it that the United States and China show leadership here?

HAYHOE: It is essential. We're not just talking air quality, like ozone or particulates. We are talking carbon pollution very specifically because carbon is what drives the climate changes that we are seeing around us.

So for a long time we have had the Clean Air Act in place, which has accomplished many good things but it did nothing to cut our carbon emissions. Carbon emissions come every time we burn coal or natural gas or oil. We cannot avoid them but what we can do is reduce them through efficiency and through transitioning to new, clean sources of industry.

That's what China is doing. For a long time here in the States I've always heard, oh, well, we can do anything that we could. But if China is not doing anything, what's the point? Today that argument has gotten turned on its head because today

China is the world leader in wind energy, they're number one in the world in solar energy. They cut their carbon emissions last year for the first time and now they have a cap-and-trade emissions scheme in place to permanently reduce their emissions to the level they need to be at.

So rather than the U.S. leading the way and China lagging behind, now it is China who is leading the way and the U.S. is in serious danger of being left behind.

ALLEN: All right. Well, we appreciate your enthusiasm. We will wait and see how the world and the United States responds to what has been an historic week as the pope visits the United States. Thank you, Katharine Hayhoe, we appreciate it.

And environmental experts like Katharine (ph) say it is critical the Earth doesn't heat up by more than two degrees. Estimates are it could warm from two degrees Celsius to six degrees Celsius. Six degrees could be catastrophic, according to scientists.

[00:20:00]

ALLEN: For more on climate change and how it affects you, how it might affect, you can go to our special coverage on our website, cnn.com/twodegrees.

Where our planet's warming is having an profound effect on the relative intensity of some extreme weather events and one is bearing down right now in the Pacific. And Derek Van Dam has got his eye on that one.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. That's Typhoon Dujuan. We will talk about that in just one second.

But along this climate change factor, what we are seeing here is global warming causing an increase in sea levels across the world. You combine that with the increase in intensity and frequency of typhoons, just like the one I'm about to discuss, and we get extreme storm surges.

That's that powerful wall of water that is associated with hurricanes and typhoons. We're going to show you a video, take you back to November 2013. We remember the most intense, costliest, deadliest typhoon on the planet, Typhoon Haiyan, that impacted Tacloban, the Philippines region.

This is a perfect example of storm surge, terrifying stuff. But we are just seeing the frequency and the intensity of this wall of water associated with these more extreme events, like supertyphoon Haiyan taking place.

Let's get to my weather graphics. It's no coincidence that we have five of the most vulnerable countries susceptible to an increase in sea level rise and therefore storm surge across Southeast Asia: India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia as well as the Philippines, populations at risk by 2015 -- 2050, rather, projected at 22 million just along the coastline of China.

This is our latest storm that we are having to discuss. This has rapidly increased, rapidly intensified, thanks to the warming waters of the Pacific. And we know we are in a strong El Nino season. We can't correlate this directly to the fact that we have a warming climate at the moment but it is certainly something we could look at and consider it because we are seeing intensity and the frequency of these typhoons just go up.

That has certainly been true since I have been working here at CNN. Look at Typhoon Dujuan, 165 kilometers per hour. Its projected path actually takes it over the Southern Ryukyu Islands, just south of Japan, well south of Okinawa, by the way. This is early Monday morning.

But look at Taipei, Northern Taiwan, late Monday evening, local time, this is when we're expecting the most intense part of the storm to impact that region. Winds could exceed 200 kilometers per hour and then where it goes from there, Natalie, again, one of the most susceptible countries on the planet, Southeast Asia in to China for sea level rise and storm surge.

So this is our next weather maker we will be discussing.

ALLEN: Yes, and Pope Francis visited the Philippines after their disastrous storm and now he's talking about climate change in the United States.

VAN DAM: Very relevant topic. Hope people listen to him.

ALLEN: Derek, thanks.

Well, Sam Smith, the singer had perhaps a hard act to follow coming up with a new James Bond theme song.

Did he succeed?

Up next, how the Internet has chimed in on the new tune. We'll let you know.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: We are about a month and a half away from the latest James Bond movie and the theme song is making waves. Sam Smith's "Writings on the Wall" is getting mixed reviews from a lot of writing on the Internet, from critics, fans and a former Bond. Here's Clare Sebastian with the story.

[00:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a dangerous mission for any artist, capturing 007 in musical form. This is the latest attempt, "Writings on the Wall," by British artist Sam Smith.

The long-awaited track is the theme for upcoming Bond movie, "Spectre," and it didn't take wrong for the writing to appear on Twitter.

"The name's Bland, James Bland," a blunt assessment from British actor and comedian David Schneider.

Another Twitter user said it, quote, "sounds like someone repeatedly stamping on a clinically depressed stoat with a headache."

There were also many comparisons to this, Michael Jackson's "Earth Song."

It wasn't all bad; many fans loved the song and there was even an endorsement from a former Bond.

Sir Roger Moore called it, quote, "very haunting and wonderfully orchestrated theme song."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that there is a history of the James Bond themes by men being these blustery anthems and the ones by women being sensitive, anguished ballads. What Sam Smith did was present a very beautiful, powerful song that fits well within the history but complicates the gender.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): When it comes to anguished ballads, Smith had a hard act to follow. Adele's theme for "Skyfall" won her a Grammy, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Yet scoring a bull's eye with a Bond theme is not just about the awards or sales.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" kind of set a standard for what these songs are supposed to accomplish. There's a tremendous emotionality, tremendous power.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): From "Goldfinger" to Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die," to Duran Duran's "View to a Kill," like Bond himself, the ultimate measure of success for a theme song is surviving the test of time -- Clare Sebastian, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We will let you whistle your own theme song as you step outdoors perhaps for a rare event in the heavens, a supermoon eclipse. Supermoons like this one happen roughly once a year and appear larger and brighter than a normal full moon but a supermoon eclipse hasn't happened in 30 years and we won't see another until 2033.

NASA says the total lunar eclipse will last about an hour and 12 minutes. Unlike solar eclipses, Sunday's supermoon eclipse can be seen safely with the naked eye after nightfall. Good luck and enjoy.

Thanks for watching. I'm back in 30 minutes with another 30 minutes of CNN NEWSROOM. Your top stories right after this.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: This is CNN news now. I'm Natalie Allen.

Pope Francis told world leaders at the United Nations Friday that greed for power and wealth is destroying the Earth's resources and isolating those who are poor and disadvantaged. Just hours from now, Pope Francis arrives in Philadelphia for the last stop of his six-day visit to the United States.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are looking for a new leader after the surprise resignation of Speaker John Boehner. He is leaving his post next month. The Speaker of the House is third in line to the U.S. presidency.

Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation against FIFA president Sepp Blatter. Authorities have questioned Blatter and searched his office in Zurich. The Swiss attorney general says Blatter is being investigated on suspicion of criminal mismanagement. Blatter's attorney denies that.

Croatia has reopened two border crossings with Serbia. The country closed seven of them last week after Hungary shut down its borders with Serbia to stop thousands of migrants from entering. Croatia's interior ministry says more than 60,000 migrants have crossed from Serbia in the past week.

That's the latest news from CNN. Next here is "ON CHINA." See you soon.