Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Time is Running Out to Save Innocents Trapped in Conflict; Conspiracy Theories Target Wisconsin Ballot Drop Boxes; Best Friends Get Real About Breast Cancer. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired October 16, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the top stories we're following today.
An Air India flight from Delhi to Chicago was forced to make an emergency landing on Tuesday following a bomb threat posted online, the airline said. This incident, along with a separate grounding in Singapore on the same day, are the latest in a series of similar hoax scares for India's airlines.
Israel's plan to respond to Iran's October 1st attack is ready, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN, but no additional information was provided. CNN has reached out to the Israeli Ministry of Defense for comment.
And the Lebanese Ministry of Health says five people were killed in this morning's Israeli airstrikes in a Beirut suburb. The Israeli military says it targeted a Hezbollah weapons stockpile in the southern suburbs of the capital.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: In Gaza, countless civilians and innocents are suffering horrific injuries from Israeli strikes. They're facing a severe lack of aid and have no safe place to turn. There's also suffering in Israel, where entire families are torn apart after the Hamas terror attacks.
And it's believed more than a hundred hostages are still in captivity. Jomana Karadsheh examines the human cost of this conflict. And a warning, her report contains disturbing video.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Trapped in the nightmare that is Gaza are the innocent who did not choose this war. And time is running out to save their lives.
Oded Lifshitz turned 84 in Hamas captivity. The great-grandfather was shot and injured on October 7th by militants who stormed his home in Kibbutz near Oz, the site of one of the worst massacres of that day. He was separated from his wife of more than 60 years. 86-year-old Yocheved was also abducted, thrown onto the back of a motorbike in her nightgown before being released days later by Hamas.
For more than a year, Sharone hasn't stopped fighting for the release of her father and the other hostages.
SHARONE LIFSCHITZ, DAUGHTER OF HOSTAGE: We are so exhausted and so heartbroken again and again. We don't have the luxury of giving up.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Their hopes for a ceasefire deal that would secure the release of the hostages shattered over and over again by failed negotiations. And now, with Israel's new war in Lebanon, the world's attention appears to be shifting. It is, for all involved, a race against time.
LIFSCHITZ: We are losing Israel. Anybody who is interested in history see people that are caught in the tide of time and political, military, fanatical regimes that are putting their own survival or their own agenda above human life. And I feel that we now know what it feels.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Human lives turned into political pawns with no escape in this hell on earth, where life has become a slow death for those who survived the devastating bombardment.
An Israeli strike left 14-year-old Mohamed with severe burns all over his body. An Israel siege left doctors with very little to save lives but not enough supplies to sterilize wounds. When we filmed with him, his wounds were infested with maggots that fell to the floor every time his dressings were changed. A week after filming, Mohamed died.
It was too late for him, but thousands of others in urgent need of medical evacuation could be saved. Yet only a fraction of them have been allowed out by Israeli authorities in recent months.
[04:35:00]
Baby Jihad can barely breathe and feed. A growing tumor is compressing his tiny heart. His mother, Tamara, struggles to hold it together as she tries to comfort her boy.
Today, he's going into surgery to try and save his life because he can't be evacuated, she says. I just want my son to get better.
There are no specialists available in Gaza and they don't have the medical equipment they need. But doctors say they have no choice but to operate to try and keep him alive. These are children.
They're not carrying weapons, Tamara says. Why can't he be evacuated?
Against all odds, the four-month-old made it through the surgery but now lives on borrowed time. More than a month later, he's still suffering from weight loss, diarrhea, vomiting and fever. His mother is pleading the international community for treatment abroad. Palestinian and Israeli lives that could be saved with a deal, if only there were the political will.
More than a hundred hostages are still being held in Gaza. The Israeli military has admitted mistakenly killing three of them. It's also said it is most likely responsible for the death of at least three others.
And in recent weeks, Hamas executed six hostages as Israeli forces closed in.
LIFSCHITZ: These were young people that had every chance of survival and have survived almost a year. It's heartbreaking. It's a failure.
We have been in the burning house since the 7th of October and we have been screaming that the flames are rising and that they're going to consume more and more people. We have been saying that military pressure is killing the hostages.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Oded Lifshitz is a man who's long believed in peace that now seems like a more distant dream than ever.
LIFSCHITZ: My father used to drive Palestinians regularly from the border in Gaza to hospitals in Israel and the West Bank. And I think that there is a lesson in it and the lesson is in how do we share in humanity.
KARADSHEH: If your father could hear you now, what would you say to him?
LIFSCHITZ: Forgive us. Forgive us. We have tried so hard. We hear your voice in our hands and we try what we can. We try the way he tried all his life. He tried for many years to avert this disaster and it's befalling us.
I hear him now saying work for peace, work for the possibility of humans in this region to live together.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Voting concerns and conspiracy theories are simmering across the U.S. in the final three weeks before election day.
MACFARLANE: In the battleground state of Wisconsin, the debate over whether ballot drop boxes are safe has led to some tense moments. CNN's Sara Murray has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are fed up with politicians using conspiracy theories. No matter which party you support. Drop boxes are safe, they are reliable and secure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No one secured the box.
SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're waiting for this city council meeting to start and on one side we've got people who are in favor of the drop box, on the other side we've got people who are skeptical about the drop box, they want it to go away. The cops are here to keep the two sides separate.
MURRAY (voice-over): The battle over whether ballot drop boxes are safe is playing out across the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no one monitoring that box.
MURRAY (voice-over): Here in Wausau, Wisconsin, tension is building after Mayor Doug Diny put on a hard hat and wheeled away the city's drop box.
MAYOR DOUGH DINY, WAUSAU, WISCONSIN: This is a hot button item. The agenda was changed late last night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Point of order.
DINY: What is your point of order?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My point of order is you're out of order.
MURRAY: After Diny wheeled the drop box away, the city clerk who administers elections reported it to local authorities.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The state justice department is now investigating the city's mayor. Ballot drop box security is an issue on which he campaigned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am very embarrassed for our city.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just one more example of the deep state right at work in Little Wausau.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Arguing about a box is dumb and it's decadent.
MURRAY: Wisconsin has been battling over where you can return your ballot for years. In 2020, they had drop boxes. In 2022, they weren't allowed.
In 2024, the makeup of the state Supreme Court changed. It's more liberal. And now, drop boxes are back.
[04:40:00]
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We want to get rid of fake drop boxes. They're a fake.
MURRAY: I'm Sarah Murray with CNN, could we just --
DINY: Do you mind if I turn around and join you?
I brought it inside because it was unsecured. For all I know, somebody could have grabbed it, thrown it in a river. Now we would have a real crime on our hands.
MURRAY: Some of those people are saying you might have done something illegal in moving the box.
DINY: No, absolutely not. Nope.
MURRAY: Have you heard anything about all of these, you know, investigations that may be related to this?
DINY: No, I haven't heard anything.
MURRAY: Do you regret moving it?
DINY: You know, there's a saying that dogs don't bark at parked cars. I've had to get attention here from time to time to upset the status quo.
MURRAY (voice-over): Now that the drop box is in use, it's secured to the ground, locked, and emptied by officials daily.
TRUMP: These drop boxes are fraudulent. Therefore they get -- they disappear and then all of a sudden they show up. It's fraudulent.
MURRAY (voice-over): Drop boxes have become a magnet for misinformation. The issue came up again during Trump's rally in Juneau, Wisconsin.
MURRAY: So how did you end up on stage at the Trump rally?
DALE SCHMIDT, SHERIFF OF DODGE COUNTY, WISCONSIN: It really was just a call up from the president.
I have something very important I think you're going to want to hear. In Dodge County, in this 2024 election, there are zero drop boxes for the election.
MURRAY: Sheriff Dale Schmidt successfully discouraged some municipal clerks from using drop boxes. But a handful remain in Dodge County, despite his warnings.
SCHMIDT: If we have an area of the law which is constantly being subverted, we're going to find ways to put roadblocks in the way of individuals that are going to break the law.
MURRAY: You're suggesting that, you know, the ballot boxes are constantly being subverted and there's not proof to back that up.
SCHMIDT: There is the appearance that it is occurring and we are making sure that it's not going to happen.
MURRAY: But you are not an election official. So why should your doubts about the election set the tone for how this whole county should vote?
SCHMIDT: Because I have to investigate the crimes that happen if they happen. And my efforts --
MURRAY: If they happen, but they haven't been reported yet.
SCHMIDT: Well, we have election law violation that happens just about every time around. So when election law is violated, I have to investigate that.
MURRAY (voice-over): In a county Trump won by 30 points in 2020, Schmidt says the local community is with him. SCHMIDT: I'm very well supported by our constituency here. Do I answer to the rest of the country? No, I don't. I answer to my voters here in Dodge County.
MURRAY (voice-over): Sarah Murray, CNN, Juneau, Wisconsin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: Well, voting right groups are calling for an investigation after a threatening text message was sent to Wisconsin college students that could intimidate them from voting in the battleground state.
The unsolicited text read, in part, don't vote in a state where you're not eligible.
FOSTER: The state election commission's guide for students clarifies, stating in part, once a student has established residency at a campus address, the student may vote using the student's campus address until the student establishes a new voting residence. This is the case even if the student is temporarily away from campus and does not know their campus address for the following school year.
I mean, it's factually correct, wasn't it, I guess, the text if you're not eligible?
MACFARLANE: Yes.
FOSTER: It's just they're confusing people about whether they are eligible.
MACFARLANE: Yes. Necessary, I think, though. I don't know.
Coming up, CNN's Stephanie Elam gets her two best friends, familiar faces, perhaps, to you and I to open up about dealing with breast cancer and how it's changed them. Stay tuned for this conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If it's to appreciate life more now that you're going through this or is it joy?
SARAH SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Mine is joy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[04:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We are wearing pink --
MACFARLANE: Can you tell?
FOSTER: -- in honor. CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam recently sat down with her two best friends for an intimate yet poignant conversation as both battled breast cancer.
MACFARLANE: And one of them just happens to be our CNN colleague, Sara Sidner. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANANDA LEWIS, CONTENT CREATOR AND FORMER 90'S MTV VJ: I'm sorry, yours was your left, right?
SARAH SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, mine was the right.
SIDNER: OK.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Little bit different.
LEWIS: You guys make a, we can mirror each other.
ELAM: It's crazy that we're joking about it.
LEWIS: I have left. It's so nice.
SIDNER: Me too.
ELAM: So what about mammograms? I'll start with you, Ananda. Were you good about getting your mammograms?
LEWIS: You know I wasn't.
ELAM (voice-over): This is Ananda Lewis, and she has breast cancer. She's a content creator who is known for her time hosting BET's "Teen Summit" in the 90s, being a VJ for MTV and hosting her own talk show in the early 2000s.
She's one of my best friends, as is CNN anchor Sarah Sidner. She too has breast cancer, stage three. Both of them found their lumps on their own. Sarah's discovery was just months after a mammogram.
SIDNER: The American Cancer Society does not recommend self-exams anymore, but to me, if you can tell, you know your body. You have to advocate for yourself so much. And I am terrible at advocating for myself. I will advocate for you. I will advocate for you.
ELAM: You're actually happy to do it for everybody else.
SIDNER: I will, I will fight someone. Like I am a ride or die bee. So this has been a real lesson for me to self-advocate.
ELAM (voice-over): Sarah had a double mastectomy. Ananda took a different approach. By the time she found a lump in her breast, her cancer had progressed to stage three and doctors recommended a double mastectomy and she went against the recommendation.
LEWIS: My plan at first was to get out excessive toxins in my body. I felt like my body is intelligent. I know that to be true. Our bodies are brilliantly made. I decided to keep my tumor and tried to work it out of my body a different way. Looking back on it, I go, you know what? Maybe I should have.
ELAM (voice-over): Ananda completely overhauled her diet, improved her sleep, pursued aggressive homeopathic therapies along with traditional medicine and radiation. She improved for a long time.
She says removing the toxins, physical and emotional, from her body has been beneficial. But last year, she found out her cancer had metastasized into stage four which means the cancer spread to other areas.
LEWIS: My lymph system really flared up. And so all through my abdomen, all those lymphs were very flared up, my collarbone. And it was the first time I ever had a conversation with death because I felt like this is how it ends.
I was like, OK, so I don't get afraid of things. I was just like, fudge, man, I really thought I had this.
You know, I was frustrated. I was a little angry at myself. I was, and I said, man, listen, I know you're coming for me at some point. But I don't want it to be now. And if you could just wait. I promise when you do come, I'm going to make it fun for you. We're going to have fun and we got -- I literally had that conversation laying in my bed. I couldn't get out of bed for like eight weeks.
ELAM: What's interesting to me is that you both are saying, is it to appreciate life more now that you're going through this? Or is it joy?
SIDNER: Mine is joy. And I didn't realize how little joy I had in my life. Like I didn't realize that was not a priority in my life.
LEWIS: My quality of life was very important to me. We've had that conversation before. Like I -- there's certain things I know I'm not going to be OK with and I know myself. I want to want to be here. And so I had to do it a certain way for me.
SIDNER: The fact that you like I want to want to be here. I've had times when I didn't want to be here, and so --
ELAM: You mean in life.
SIDNER: In life.
ELAM: Yes.
SIDNER: I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to go through all this.
LEWIS: Because of this during this --
SIDNER: Before this. And then this journey came along and it's so weird that it was cancer that was like, I want to be here. I insist on being here and I insist on thriving, not just being alive, not just existing. I want to thrive in a way that I have never felt before.
(END VIDEOTAPE) MACFARLANE: I love Sarah Sidner.
[04:50:00]
FOSTER: Isn't she amazing? She does thrive, doesn't she?
MACFARLANE: She does.
FOSTER: I see it all the time.
MACFARLANE: And she's very vocal, and that, I think, is the key. We need to talk about these issues. Not just women. Men and women need to discuss it. So it's good to see them in conversation.
FOSTER: Now, today marks the start of Men's Breast Cancer Awareness Week in the US. Male breast cancer, or MBC, comprises just 1 percent of all breast cancer cases.
MACFARLANE: Older men are actually usually diagnosed with the average age of around 72 years old. The American Cancer Society estimates nearly 2,800 new cases of MBC will be diagnosed this year. And about 530 men will die from the disease in 2024.
Stay with us. We'll be right back after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MACFARLANE: Welcome back. The NFL's biggest game will return to Atlanta in 2028. The league announced Tuesday that Super Bowl 62 will be played at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Atlanta Falcons.
It's the fourth time the city will host the NFL's title game and second at Mercedes-Benz. Atlanta last hosted in 2019 when the New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl title.
FOSTER: Seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady joining the ranks of the NFL owners. The league has announced he's purchased a minority share of the Las Vegas Raiders. The Associated Press reports he bought a 5 percent stake in the franchise.
Multiple reports say approval was delayed over concerns about Brady's new role as a broadcaster for Fox. He retired from playing football in 2022. Brady also owns a share in the Las Vegas Aces of the WBNA.
WNBA?
MACFARLANE: WNBA, yes.
FOSTER: Oh, my God.
MACFARLANE: And now, whether you're eagerly awaiting the second season of Squid Game or a fan of comedies like Love Next Door, Korean TV shows are having a moment like never before right now.
FOSTER: Yes, and now CNN has been given an exclusive peek behind the scenes of the new series Family by Choice, just one of many new shows winning audiences over in South Korea and beyond. So there's Mike Valerio reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this beautiful sun splash cafe outside of Seoul, the scene is set.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of routine is this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not a routine.
VALERIO (voice-over): Our CNN team granted rare exclusive access to what this production crew hopes will be South Korea's next hit show. It's just a taste of the new Korean drama Family by Choice, where childhood friends form their own chosen family, and a reunion 10 years later leads to romance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, CNN.
VALERIO (voice-over): It could be the friendliest set I've ever seen. Director Kim Sung-ho telling us laughter is encouraged to offset the scripted drama. And from behind the curtain, lead actor Hwang In-youp takes a quick break to talk to us.
HWANG IN-YOUP, ACTOR (through translator): It's a drama about healing each other's trauma, recovering from it, and finding happiness in the end. This can be a little spoiler, but from the moment we get back together, the romantic side of the story becomes the main part as the story gets more serious.
VALERIO (voice-over): And things are getting more serious for Korean shows worldwide. Squid Game Season 2 returns in December, and Netflix says Korean shows and movies are its most viewed non-English titles, ahead of Spanish and Japanese, according to Netflix data from the second half of 2023.
[04:55:00]
YUN KI-YUN, CEO, SLL: I never even imagined that Korean dramas having a language barrier can be pervasive to the global market.
VALERIO (voice-over): Yun Ki-yun is the CEO of SLL., the studio behind Family by Choice, as well as the Korean thrillers Hellbound and All of Us Are Dead, both on Netflix. He says it's the delicate emotional storytelling that often makes Korean shows so popular with global audiences and adds K-pop music led to an even bigger fascination with Korean series and movies.
YUN: Thanks to PSY, BTS, and BLACKPINK, they raised the curiosity from the K-Pop fandom.
VALERIO (voice-over): The industry across South Korea hopes we'll see more Korean shows on more streaming platforms.
Yun hopes his new series, The Good Boy, about athletes turned police officers, will be a hit on Amazon and lead to stronger ties with the platform. Family by Choice is out now across South Korea, and Hwang says he's up for the challenge to make this show an international hit.
HWANG: It's unbelievable, and I am grateful for all the love and interest. Now I'm left with my homework or challenge to make the content more exciting and living up to expectation.
VALERIO (voice-over): Mike Valerio, CNN, Yeoju, South Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MACFARLANE: I love a South Korean drama.
FOSTER: Squid Game. I mean, it's just one of those --
MACFARLANE: I'm just still getting over the first series, actually.
FOSTER: But it's so compelling at the same time, isn't it?
MACFARLANE: I couldn't stomach it. I actually only got halfway through it. I couldn't stomach it.
But I know people love it --
FOSTER: Just like Baby Reindeer for me.
MACFARLANE: -- it's just not my bag. OK.
Now, people in the Northern Hemisphere are getting the chance to see a once-in-a-lifetime display in the night sky, an extremely rare comet.
FOSTER: Haven't we said this before? On Saturday --
MACFARLANE: All comets are rare.
FOSTER: -- the ancient comet came within about 44 million miles, only 71 million kilometers of Earth, but it's now speeding out of the solar system. The icy object was visible for those in the Southern Hemisphere in September and early October. It'll be visible to those in the Northern Hemisphere through early November, and this may be the last time the comet will be seen in the night sky for another 80,000 years.
MACFARLANE: See, how rare is that?
FOSTER: It's pretty rare.
MACFARLANE: 80,000 years. I know you're not massively into space, but I know many people will be thrilled to keep an eye out for that comet.
Now, developers are bringing a little bit of the Vegas Strip to the Middle East.
FOSTER: Interesting.
MACFARLANE: Officials in the United Arab Emirates have announced plans to build a twin of the Las Vegas Sphere in Abu Dhabi. The announcement did not include details of the new venue's location or where it will open.
FOSTER: The Sphere in Las Vegas opened in September 2023 and reportedly costs more than $2 billion. It's exterior fitted with 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs that can be programmed to flash dynamic imagery on a massive scale, and inside it boasts what may be the world's highest-resolution wraparound LED screen. LED heaven.
MACFARLANE: I mean, it's already an entertainment hub, isn't it, Abu Dhabi? So it makes sense. Thank you for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane.
FOSTER: And Max Foster, CNN "THIS MORNING," is up after a break.
[05:00:00]
