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Pope Addresses the U.N.; U.S. House Speaker Boehner Resigns; FIFA Head Investigated; Chinese President Visits the White House; Typhoon Heads for Taiwan; The Pope's Fiat. Aired 1-1:30a ET

Aired September 26, 2015 - 01:00   ET

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


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

Moved by the pope's visit, a U.S. lawmaker steps down sooner than expected. House Speaker John Boehner announces he is leaving the U.S. Congress.

Plus, a new FIFA criminal investigation as FIFA president Sepp Blatter receives a visit from Swiss police.

All of these stories straight ahead here right now on CNN NEWSROOM. Hello, I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: Our top story is Pope Francis, who will awaken to start the final stop of his six-day U.S. visit in a few hours and head to Philadelphia. On Friday, the pope wrapped up a busy day in New York City by celebrating mass before thousands of people at Madison Square Garden.

He urged the audience to live their faith by helping the needy and rejecting self-absorption.

Earlier he addressed world leaders at the United Nations. He presented himself as a champion of the poor and urged the leaders to adopt solutions that combat widespread poverty and environmental destruction across the globe.

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POPE FRANCIS (through translator): The universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow man and for the glory of the creator. But he is not authorized to abuse it. And much less is he authorized to destroy it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: CNN's Chris Welch has more now on the pope's address to the U.N. and other key stops he made during his visit to New York City.

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CHRIS WELCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's clear Pope Francis enjoys being around children. At a Harlem school he joked around as the students sang to him and they even tried to teach him how to use a smartboard. Pope Francis began his day speaking to the United Nations General Assembly.

He urged the more than 170 world leaders to take action on several fronts, like climate change, human trafficking and eliminating extreme poverty. The pontiff made special mention of the Iran nuclear deal.

POPE FRANCIS (through translator): The recent agreement reached on the nuclear question in a sensitive region of Asia and the Middle East is proof of the potential of political goodwill and of law.

WELCH (voice-over): The day then took on a somber tone as Pope Francis arrived at the National 9/11 Memorial. He met with the families of victims and first responders from that fateful day. Then, in an incredible show of religious solidarity, he led an interfaith prayer service.

POPE FRANCIS: Give eternal light and peace to all who died here.

WELCH (voice-over): Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and the archbishop of New York showed the pontiff around the September 11th Museum. The pope wrapped up his trip to New York with a mass before some 20,000 people at Madison Square Garden.

There he spoke about God being in New York and encouraged everyone to help the poor, elderly and the displaced -- reporting from New York, I'm Chris Welch.

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ALLEN: And again, he is not done yet. He heads to Philadelphia for a Saturday visit.

Well, in part due to the pope's visit, the top Republican in U.S. politics is resigning. House Speaker John Boehner, who invited the pope to the U.S., made the surprise announcement Friday in Washington. He says he will step down next month. Boehner says his encounter with Pope Francis on Thursday helped him to decide it was time to go.

We see him here, getting choked up during the pope's visit to Washington. Dana Bash joins me now to talk more about this.

Dana, we thought we had the headlines kind of wrapped up this week, with the pope, with Obama, with Xi Jinping on climate and then John Boehner steals the thunder today.

How did this happen and why?

DANA BASH, SR. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the way John Boehner tells it, it is very much related to Pope Francis being not just in the United States, but being in the United States' capital on Thursday.

The idea that John Boehner, who invited the pope, as a lifelong Catholic. Boehner going to Catholic his entire grade school, his 12 brothers and sisters did as well, went to mass every day, even trying to get a pope to come to the Capitol for 20 years since he had been in Congress.

He finally gets his wish, has a moment, we now know, privately with the pope. And he says, it sort of sent him --

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ALLEN: -- into a moment of reflection, of spirituality, whatever you are going to call it. So he decided to move up what we now know was a planned announcement that he was going to step down in November, move it up to now because he says it is time to do that.

Now it helped that he was pushed along a little bit by the unruly members of his caucus, especially the conservatives, who are not happy with the way he has been trying to keep the institution running and not sticking to principle, as they say, even if it means funding the government and even funding some parts of the government -- ObamaCare; Planned Parenthood, for example -- that they don't want to do. So that was a big part of it as well.

ALLEN: Right. So when the pope asked Congress during the joint meeting, please do not continue to remain in gridlock and we saw Boehner wipe tears, those tears were sincere, apparently.

But now, who takes his place?

Is Boehner, is the Republican Party going to change as a result of Boehner?

Or how do they march forward?

BASH: The answer to who is going to likely take his place, it looks as though the man who is now his number two, in the House Republican leadership, Kevin McCarthy, who is relatively new to Congress, given how far he has come. He was elected in 2006. He hasn't officially put his hat in the ring. But it looks like he is going to.

And, you know, at this point there doesn't seem to be anybody who looks like they can beat him.

You know what, Natalie, the answer to your question about what really matters, not as much as who is in place but will things change is I still think that the conservative movement, those out there, the people who are fueling the anti-Washington, anti-politician fervor in the presidential race and of course in Congress as well, I don't know that they're going to be so thrilled with Kevin McCarthy because he has been part of the Boehner leadership team. And he would just move up. So I'm not sure how much things will change if, in fact, he gets

that. The question might be the leadership roles down the line if those will be filled by somebody that those conservatives feel more comfortable with.

ALLEN: Dana Bash covering it for us. And thanks to Dana for her analysis there.

The U.S. and China are pledging positive relations moving forward. U.S. President Barack Obama hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House. And while they made strides over some issues, the leaders still have their differences.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Even as our nations cooperate, I believe and I know you agree that we must address our differences candidly.

The United States will always speak out on behalf of fundamental truths. We believe that nations are more successful and the world makes more progress when our companies compete on a level playing field, when disputes are resolved peacefully and when the universal human rights of all people are upheld.

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ALLEN: Mr. Xi said he was willing to have a human rights dialogue with the U.S., but pointed out things are seen differently in China. Meantime, they did reach a, quote, "common understanding" on curbing economic cyber espionage.

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XI JINPING, PRESIDENT OF CHINA (through translator): China and the United States are two major cyber countries and we should strengthen dialogue and cooperation. Confrontation and friction are not the right choice. During my visit the competent authorities of both countries have reached important consensus on joint fight against cyber crimes. The sides agree to stop crime (INAUDIBLE) information sharing.

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ALLEN: Mr. Xi its heading to New York City Saturday where he is expected to speak at the U.N. General Assembly on Monday.

Saudi Arabia is suggesting Muslim pilgrims who ignored security guidelines may be to blame for the stampede which killed more than 700 people. Another 900 were injured during a hajj ritual known as the --

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ALLEN: -- stoning of the devil, (INAUDIBLE) as you can see there in front of a wall. It's just a few blocks away from the holy site where Thursday's stampede happened. Stoning of the devil references Abraham's battle with evil in Mecca, Islam's holiest city.

More than 2 million people visited Saudi Arabia this year to take part in the Hajj.

Croatia has reopened two border crossings with Serbia. Traffic between the two countries started moving on Friday. Croatia closed seven of the crossings last week after Hungary shut down its borders with Serbia to stop thousand of migrants from entering.

Croatia's interior ministry says more than 60,000 migrants have crossed from Serbia just in the past week -- 60,000.

New developments in the FIFA corruption scandal. A surprise for Sepp Blatter as he steps out of a meeting and is greeted by Swiss investigators. We'll have a live report for you in just a moment on that.

Plus, a powerful typhoon heading straight for Taiwan. Derek Van Dam will have that for you. CNN NEWSROOM continues right after this.

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ALLEN: The investigation into corruption at football's world governing body has now gone all the way to the top in Switzerland. Prosecutors there have opened a criminal investigation into FIFA president Sepp Blatter on suspicion of criminal mismanagement. For the latest, we turn to "WORLD SPORT's" Alex Thomas, he's live in Zurich for us.

Hello, Alex. Sepp Blatter, surprised by Swiss authorities at the headquarters and interrogated for some time.

What can you tell us?

ALEX THOMAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, surprise is the word if we are to believe reports. Hello, on a chilly, misty morning in Zurich, outside FIFA house, the headquarters for the governing body for the world's most popular sport.

And it was only on Friday, a day ago, when Sepp Blatter was due to give a scheduled news conference following another regular executive committee meeting and said that news conference was first delayed and then canceled altogether with hundreds of journalists milling around outside. And that was no coincidence.

Reports leading us to believe that when Blatter went back to his office when the meeting wound up, he found Michael Lauber, Switzerland's attorney general, waiting for him there and his floor cordoned off by police, like some sort of Hollywood crime thriller.

We now know that Switzerland's attorney general has charged -- has opened criminal proceedings against Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president. He's been charged with criminal mismanagement, the allegations essentially that he did a TV deal. FIFA did a TV deal with the Caribbean football union under Jack Warner at the time. And it wasn't in FIFA's best interest. And Blatter should have done so as president of the governing body.

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THOMAS: And also there are question marks over payments that was made from Blatter to Michel Platini, the head of UEFA, Europe's government body, for just over $2 million. Platini says that the payment was aboveboard; Sepp Blatter maintains his innocence and his lawyers said he is fully cooperating and that when Swiss authorities look at all the paperwork, they'll see this is all aboveboard.

But yet another hammer blow to FIFA's credibility, coming just a few months after those arrests back in May before Blatter was re- elected for a fifth term as FIFA president, Natalie. Four days later he announced he was standing down in February when there will be a new election for a FIFA president.

Can he even make it that far, is the big question this morning.

ALLEN: Right. And it's a gray, drizzly day, as you say there, in Zurich, Alex.

What does this step in the investigation do to the cloud hanging over FIFA?

THOMAS: It makes it darker than ever, Natalie. That's for sure. Interestingly, we have not heard any word from FIFA sponsors, which has been some of the change this year, real pressure from outside, not just from media, from fans for FIFA to change completely.

Also other presidential rivals of Michel Platini have so far not come out. We should note, of course, that Platini himself is not under criminal investigation at all. He was being helpful to the Swiss authorities at their request. He was also spoken to.

But Blatter being interrogated, as Switzerland's attorney general phrased it in the statement on Friday, in his own office, grilled, more data seized and his office searched. Just shows that this investigation here in Switzerland and the other one in the U.S. that's a separate parallel, have already gone right to the very top of world football -- Natalie.

ALLEN: All right. Alex Thomas, live for us outside FIFA headquarters, thank you.

Stefan Szymanski joins me. He's a professor of sports management at University of Michigan.

Thank you for talking with us about this. Four months ago when U.S. and Swiss officials arrested more than a dozen FIFA officials and said Sepp Blatter was also a target of their investigation, well, we now know that is indeed a fact.

What do you make of what happened?

STEFAN SZYMANSKI, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Well, it's very interesting. Obviously there's a link here between the U.S. investigation which indicted Jack Warner, who was long time head of CONCACAF, the North American and Central American Caribbean Federation.

And this investigation by the Swiss Justice Department. Because the -- he's -- Sepp Blatter is accused of having sold rights below market rates to Jack Warner. So there's a link. The dots are started to be joined up. And of course as people said right from the beginning, this is leading right to the top of the organization.

ALLEN: One of the favorites to take over FIFA, UEFA president Michel Platini, has also been mentioned in this investigation. It's -- what does this mean to the future of the governing body right now, with the World Cup arriving in 2022?

SZYMANSKI: Things could hardly be worse. After all, it's only this week that Jerome Valcke, the general secretary, has also been indicted, been actually suspended by FIFA for illegally profiting from the sale of World Cup tickets.

Now we have the president indicted and Michel Platini, the man who everybody thought was going to be his successor, apparently receiving $2 million for services which are completely unclear and under circumstances which need, certainly need more explanation.

So this is an organization that is in complete meltdown right now. And it's very severe problem because the World Cup is the world's biggest sporting event. FIFA is the organizer of the World Cup. We have 28 teams to come in Russia before we even get to the controversial 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

So really things need to move quickly to right the ship or else, you know, we could be looking at, competitions canceled and really a collapse of the world governing body.

ALLEN: Stefan Szymanski, thanks so much for joining us.

SZYMANSKI: Thank you.

ALLEN: Well, and on that down note, my goodness. Yes. Now Derek is here with some -- a real, real serious storm.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well, this is something that we have been monitoring for the past couple days. It's just that Typhoon Dujuan has intensified so quickly, Natalie, over the Western Pacific. Now it has its eyes set on Northern Taiwan.

Take a look at some of these graphics coming out of the region. And what I have done is I have taken the visible satellite imagery -- this is from satellites above the Earth, taking real time images of the typhoon itself. I zoomed it in. And I just want to note. Look at the eyewall that is starting to develop around Dujuan. This is just a classic indication of a very intense typhoon, I'll broaden this view so you can see where we are. Here's the Pacific Ocean.

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VAN DAM: Here's Okinawa, the extreme southern sections of the Japanese mainland. This is the Ryukyu Islands. Here's Taiwan. There's Southeast China. This storm has a projected path to move in a northwesterly direction, relatively slowly but within the next 48 hours, it will start to threaten land.

Currently from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, 165 kilometer per hour sustained winds right around the eyewall, even higher gusts over 200 kph. And here's the projected path. Let me time it out for you. The southern Ryukyu Islands, the first time it impacts, landfall, that would be early Monday morning.

Then we see the storm approach the mainland of Taiwan Monday evening. So, Taipei, according to the latest forecast track, could potentially have a direct hit and then Southeast China and the Fujian (ph) province, that is likely into Tuesday and Wednesday. Where it goes from there still very uncertain. But nonetheless I want you to take note of how the winds increase in strength going forward over the next several days.

Look at this very coincentric eyewall. We have the dark shading of pink right around the center of the storm. That's indicating our wind gusts in excess of 100 kilometers an hour. It will continue to strengthen a very prone environment for strengthening typhoons over the Western Pacific, very, very warm and population density across this area easily exceeding 1,500 people per square kilometer near Taipei.

Quickly going to switch gears as you know that we have a supermoon eclipse coming this weekend, Sunday into Monday. You have to be over North America and South America to really see it. But it will be a phenomenal red color in the sky. And, yes, this is going to be a rare event. We have only had five of these supermoon total eclipses since the early 1900s.

ALLEN: And we always love this kind of thing.

VAN DAM: Yes and I love seeing social media light up with this, too, on Sunday night. It's when people need to look out for it.

ALLEN: All right. We're going to have more on it right now. Talk a little bit more about this phenomenon. 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 one until 2033.

NASA says the total lunar eclipse will last about an hour and 12 minutes, plenty of time to get up and go look at it. Unlike solar eclipses, Sunday's supermoon eclipse can be seen safely with the naked eye after nightfall. So enjoy, right, Derek?

VAN DAM: Yes, that's right. And this is also the last lunar eclipse of 2015. What makes this one super special is that it's a supermoon and an eclipse and a blood moon all taking place on the same night.

ALLEN: I think I got it. All right. And we don't get to see it.

We will wait until you show us the video.

VAN DAM: There will be clouds in Atlanta blocking it.

ALLEN: When we come back, the little car that could, carrying a passenger of great stature all around New York City and D.C. We'll look at the regular ride for a pope who is a regular guy.

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ALLEN: -- has a reputation for avoiding life's luxuries and living a humble life, which is why he is riding around the United States in a little black car, a Fiat. And people seem to love it. Here's CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's not just any arm hanging out of that little car, that's the arm of the pope.

What would Jesus drive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love the Fiat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Driving in that Fiat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The little Fiat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you own stock in Fiat?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If not, buy it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And more about that Fiat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No fancy limousine, that is a Fiat.

MOOS (voice-over): Everywhere it went, the little car got a big welcome dwarfed, sandwiched between SUVs...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For this town, that is a very humble car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Excuse me, Your Holiness, your Uber X is here.

MOOS (voice-over): The first thing Pope Francis did after he got in at the airport was roll down the window.

It's not every day the president awaits and the White House honor guard opens a car this size.

One fan put the pope's arrival to rapper Wiz Khalifa.

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MOOS (voice-over): The Fiat was contrasted with President Obama's bombproof monster known as The Beast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fiat starts about $20,000. The Beast, $1.5 million.

MOOS (voice-over): Of course, Pope Francis didn't forsake the Popemobile. The modified Jeep Wrangler, made by the same Italian American auto maker, Fiat Chrysler.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These guns are just going crazy.

MOOS (voice-over): But this guy wasn't.

Are you seriously preempting "Price Is Right" for the Popemobile?

Francis refuses to be encased by bulletproof glass. When police tried to shoo away a child, the pope gestured her over for a kiss. The earliest popes were carried on thrones. Then there were carriages followed by lots of Mercedes. And then Popemobiles of various makes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Papa Francisco! Papa Francisco!

MOOS (voice-over): Now that improbable Fiat, the car maker tweeted, "His Holiness knows how to make an entrance.?

Someone else referred to it as heavenly product placement, all that free press.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then this was pure Francis. That car.

MOOS (voice-over): Can't you imagine new ads for the Fiat 500L.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pure Francis.

MOOS (voice-over): Who knew a hatchback would hatch a pope? Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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ALLEN: Don't you just love it? Pure Francis. All right, Argentina walked away victorious against Georgia Friday in their second matchup at the Rugby World Cup. Argentina lost to the All Blacks and nearly lost to Georgia as well. But the team made a thorough comeback when Georgia's team was reduced to 14 men on the field. Final score, 54-9.

And it's a packed schedule on Saturday with three more games to be played, including host nation England facing off against Wales. That will do it for CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. You're watching CNN.

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ALLEN: I'm Natalie Allen with your top stories from CNN.

Pope Francis arrives in Philadelphia just hours from now for the third and final stop of his U.S. visit. He spent the past day in New York City, where he addressed the United Nations General Assembly and met with families and 9/11 victims.

He also celebrated mass at Madison Square Garden and greeted huge crowds in New York's Central Park.

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 any such mismanagement.

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

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 migrants from entering. Croatia's interior ministry says more than 60,000 migrants have crossed from Serbia in the past week.

That is CNN news now. Next here, it's "LEADING WOMEN." See you soon.