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Fans Mourn Death Of Singer Liam Payne; Sixteen Killed In Israeli Strikes In Nabatiyeh, Lebanon; Israel's Plan To Respond To Iran Ready; Harris Pressed On Immigration By Fox News; Trump Doubles Down On Haitians In Springfield, Ohio; Zelenskyy To Present Victory Plan To NATO And E.U. Lawmakers; Officials: At Least 147 Killed In Fuel Truck Explosion; U.N.: Global River Flows Hit All-Time Lows In 2023; Prada, Axiom Space Unveil New Spacesuit For Moon Mission. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired October 17, 2024 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:19]
ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.
Fans around the world remember former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who died after a tragic fall from a hotel in Buenos Aires.
A source tells CNN Israel's plans to respond to Iran's October 1st missile attack is ready, and the U.S. expects it to come before election day.
And Kamala Harris and Donald Trump speak to FOX News in very different settings, and with very different results.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Hong Kong, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Anna Coren.
COREN: We begin with an outpouring of shock and grief from musicians and fans around the world over the untimely death of Liam Payne, an English singer who was part of One Direction, one of the bestselling boy bands of all time. He was 31.
Well, fans gathered to pay their respects outside the hotel in Buenos Aires, where police say the singer fell from the third floor on Wednesday. Payne rose to fame as a teenager in One Direction, alongside bandmates Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, and Niall Horan. The group formed in 2010 and became a global pop sensation, selling millions of albums, embarking on world tours, and becoming teen idols before they went on hiatus in 2016.
In the year since Payne released a debut solo album and said last year he's excited about working on new music. He leaves behind a young son.
Stefano Pozzebon is following developments from Bogota, Colombia.
Stefano, thank you for joining us. Explain to us the circumstances around his death.
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Yes, Anna, well, the circumstances are as strategic as they can be. Unfortunately, we've learned that Liam Payne fell from the third floor of the hotel where he was staying. It's the CasaSur Hotel in the very popular neighborhood of Palermo, one of the nicest areas of the Argentinean capital.
We learned from the audio of the 911 call first prompted the actions of first responders that the hotel called the police and health emergency services because a customer was under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and was threatening to tear up the room where he was staying, according to the receptionist of that hotel and this audio that we have verified. However, it's not clear whether that person was indeed Liam Payne because also many fans who spoke with our colleagues down in Buenos Aires told us that he had just posted a video on his SnapChat just a few hours before he's tragic death, showing him smiling, relaxed, happy to be in Argentina.
Liam Payne was in Buenos Aires for the concert of his former bandmate, Niall Horan, who performed in the Argentinian capital on the 2nd of October and decided to stay behind to enjoy the countryside. And in videos in the last few days, he showed that he was enjoying his time in Argentina, in the spring of Argentina.
Of course, this is a tragic news that it will send shockwaves all across the world. One Direction were loved by fans, not just in Argentina or their homeland in the British islands, but also all across South America. Take a listen to what we found in Buenos Aires.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm very nervous about this news because I'm a fan of One Direction since I was a kid. I went to the concert. I'm from Brazil. I went to the concert to -- I'm nervous. I'm really nervous because it's my idol and I am shocked. I don't believe this is happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
POZZEBON: And perhaps we tend to forget how big One Direction were in just 10 years ago. They only took a break in 2016 that sent fans into despair and even it's already eight years since they last performed together, of course today, many fans are waking up with this tragic news in distraught -- Anna.
COREN: Stefano Pozzebon, we appreciate the report. Thank you.
We are following new developments in the Middle East where U.S. B-2 bombers have struck Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
[00:05:01]
U.S. Defense officials tell CNN weapons storage sites, including underground facilities, were the target. The Houthis have repeatedly attacked commercial shipping and maybe assets in the region since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. One official says the U.S. strikes were carried out by B-2 Spirit bombers. Those much larger fighter jets that carry heavier bombs than the U.S. has used against the Houthis so far. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the employment of a U.S. Air Force
B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrate U.S. global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary anytime, anywhere.
Well, meanwhile, a source tells CNN, Israel's plan to respond to Iran is ready. American officials expect the retaliation before election day in the U.S. November 5th. Iran launched a missile barrage at Tel Aviv and Israeli military bases earlier this month. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly told the U.S. Israel will target Iranian military sites, not oil or nuclear facilities.
Well, meanwhile, a horrific humanitarian crisis is worsening in northern Gaza. The emergency services chief in Jabalya says Israeli forces are destroying everything. People are showing signs of starvation and hungry stray dogs are eating dead bodies in the street.
The war in Lebanon is also taking a heavy toll on civilians. UNICEF says approximately 400,000 children are among the 1.2 million people displaced by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israeli military operations in Lebanon are showing no sign of slowing down. Wednesday marked yet another day of deadly airstrikes in Lebanon. The Israeli military killing at least 16 people in multiple strikes in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, 52 others were injured according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
One of those who was killed was actually the city's mayor. He was killed when one of those airstrikes hit a government building in the heart of that city. The Israeli military says that they were going after a Hezbollah compound that they say was underground belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces and they accused Hezbollah of using Lebanese civilians as human shields.
But the Lebanese prime minister is accusing the Israeli military of deliberately striking that government building at a time when local officials were holding meetings about emergency relief operations in southern Lebanon. No immediate comment from the Israeli military on that allegation.
Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, we are continuing to watch as the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is continuing to deteriorate. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza now in the crosshairs of that deteriorating situation. Also, of course, in the crosshairs of Israeli bombardment and fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants in Jabalya, one of those key cities in northern Gaza.
This is of course the fourth time that we have seen Israeli troops carry out a major ground operation in Jabalya, but this time they are also calling on hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate northern Gaza forcing many to flee, but others have been trapped amid the bombardment. And the humanitarian situation is simply worsening with United Nations now calling the situation in northern Gaza catastrophic.
The U.N.'s Human Rights Office said it took one of their teams 10 tries on Wednesday to actually be able to reach hospitals in northern Gaza where they were delivering fuel and supplies. Meanwhile, of course, we're seeing the United States putting major pressure on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation. Some steps have been taken according to the U.S. State Department, but it's clear that much more still needs to be done.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, joining me now from Tel Aviv, Alon Pinkas, the former Israeli consul general in New York.
Good to see you. Let's start with this imminent attack on Iran. We're now learning that it will take place before U.S. election day. The Israelis had told the Americans that they won't strike Iran's nuclear sites or their oil fields, just military facilities. I mean, what do you believe will be the target of the retaliation?
ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAEL CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: Well, there's no question, Anna, that Israel will retaliate. I mean, it's vowed to do so, so many times that it would be very peculiar if there's a decision not, so now that leaves us with two questions. One that you just referred to, what would be the targets, and secondly, what would be the scope, what would be the type of munitions? How much damage will be caused and will it be sustained? Is it a one-time shot or is it a two, three-day bombardment?
[00:10:00]
From what I can gather, Israel gave the U.S. assurances that it will not attack neither nuclear facilities nor oil infrastructure, and the Iranian oil industry. But that doesn't, Anna, that it won't happen in a second or third wave because that's the nature of this escalation.
Israel is going to respond if it is impactful. If it is not impactful then why respond? If it is impactful, then Iran will respond. So the second wave of the Israeli attack would obviously be the oil and it could conceivably be oil and industry. So right now I see a one-time attack on military and Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps target.
COREN; Well, Iran has already said that any strike it will respond to. This, you know, tit-for-tat. How long can that continue before exploding into a full-scale war?
PINKAS: Well, to a degree or to an extent, it already is, you know, a full-scale war. Iran and Israel do not share a border. There's several hundreds of kilometers between Israel and Iran, and so that means that any way you look at it this is a war. It's not a daily affair. It is not ongoing in terms of continuous military activity but doing it every few weeks, they essentially means you're at war.
Now it could escalate beyond that and you know, escalation has become the word of the year in the Middle East, everything escalates, everything is potentially escalatory. Every attack is an escalation, everything is a potential escalation, so on and so forth. I'll tell you this could go on for a long time if not for any other reason, Anna, it's because there are no political objective -- objectives, I'm sorry, aligned to this military pressure.
COREN: Well, I want to ask you about the war in Gaza because it shows no signs of abating one year on. You got the United Nations talking about the humanitarian situation there as being catastrophic. There are renewed Israeli airstrikes, forced evacuations, you know, from northern Gaza as the IDF tries to eliminate Hamas, but is that even achievable?
PINKAS: No. It's not achievable. It was not achievable a year ago. It was not achievable six months ago. And it's not achievable today exactly 377 days since the war began. The only way this conceivably would have been achievable is something that Israel never wanted and never will do and that is occupy the entire Gaza Strip and go house from -- house to house and from building to building. That won't happen, which is why that is not achievable, not attainable, not feasible, not viable. Choose your euphemism.
And it is going on, and look, strangely and practically, no one is even talking about the post, pos-war Gaza political scenario in the same way that they were talking in December of '23, January, February, and March of 2024. It's as if this is forgotten. Remember, for our viewers, some of our viewers remember there were all these plans about an inter-Arab force that would come in and fill the political vacuum in Gaza.
A gradual Israeli withdrawal, the removal of Hamas from political power backed by several Arab countries, Gulf, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority, in exchange Israel will launch a political process with the Palestinians. That's not happening, that won't happen anytime soon.
COREN: Alon Pinkas, we are going to have to leave it there, but we thank you for joining us from Tel Aviv. We appreciate your insights.
PINKAS: Thank you very much, Anna.
COREN: Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were all over the airwaves on Wednesday with U.S. election day now less than three weeks away. Vice President Harris appeared on the conservative FOX News Channel for the first time ever. Her sit-down with host Bret Baier getting testy at times. Early in the interview, he brought up the hot button issue of immigration.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS CHANNEL HOST: When it comes to immigration, you supported allowing immigrants in the country illegally to apply for driver's license, to qualify for free tuition at universities, to be enrolled in free health care. Do you still support those things?
KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Listen, that was give years ago, and I'm very clear that I will follow the law. I have made that statement over and over again, and as vice president of the United States, that's exactly what I've done, not to mention before.
BAIER: You chose a running mate, Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, who signed those very things into state law. So do you support that?
HARRIS: We are very clear and I'm very clear as is Tim Walz that we must support and enforce federal law, and that is exactly what we will do.
[00:15:10]
COREN: Well, meanwhile, during a town hall with Spanish language network, Univision, former president Trump doubled down on lies about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating cats and dogs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So this was just reported. I was just saying what was reported. That's been reported. And eating other things, too, that they're not supposed to be. But this is -- all I do is report. I have not -- I was there, I'm going to be there and we're going to take a look and I'll give you a full report what I do, but that's been in the newspapers and reported pretty broadly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: Well, Trump also took part in a separate all-women town hall hosted by FOX News in the swing state of Georgia, during which he inexplicably claimed to be the father of IVF, invitro fertilization. The audience for this town hall was packed with Republican women, a fact FOX chose not to disclose.
Well, Harris meantime told voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania that Trump is unfit to be the next president. She was joined by more than 100 Republicans who have endorsed her.
CNN's Danny Freeman has the latest messages from both campaigns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on the trail in battleground Pennsylvania, rallying moderate Republicans, making the case that former president Donald Trump is a threat to democracy.
HARRIS: He who violated the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, and make no mistake, he who, if given the chance, will violate it again.
FREEMAN: All while railing against Trump, who during a FOX News town hall, declared he is the father of IVF.
TRUMP: I'm the father of IVF. We really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization, and it's all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it.
HARRIS: I found it to be quite bizarre, actually. He called himself the father of IVF. And if what he meant is taking responsibility, well, then yes, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state.
FREEMAN: During the town hall meant to win over women voters, Trump also standing by his controversial comments about his opponents.
TRUMP: We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are -- you know, the Pelosis, these people, they're so sick. and they're so evil.
HARRIS: He considers any American who doesn't support him or bend to his will to be an enemy to our country.
FREEMAN: With just 20 days until election day, the latest CNN Poll of Polls average of national surveys shows no clear leader in the race for the White House.
During a Univision town hall airing Wednesday night, Trump refused to back away from his false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio. When asked if he believed that people are eating other people's pets, he responded --
TRUMP: I was just saying what was reported, that's been reported. And eating other things, too, that they're not supposed to be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FREEMAN (on-camera): Meanwhile, another sign of the final sprint to election day is here CNN has learned that former first lady Michelle Obama will be hitting the campaign trail on October 29th. She'll be doing a rally in battleground Georgia.
Danny Freeman, CNN, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
COREN: Well, joining us now Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, and editor of "A Return to Normalcy: The 2020 Election That Almost Broke America."
Larry, as always, great to see you. This was always going to be a combative interview on FOX News. Bret Baier repeatedly interrupted Kamala Harris and tried to talk over her. How did you rate her performance and what do you think she achieved?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, first of all, she didn't rise to the bait. It's always irritating when somebody speaks over you or interrupts you. We all feel like that, and certainly someone in the position she's in, vice president running for president, is not really used to that. Most people are more respectful. But I thought she did quite well. She didn't rise to the bait. She didn't do something that could be reduced to a 10 or 15 second clip that would be run 150 times on FOX News, and other places, but particularly on FOX/
So she got out of the interview in one piece. If you can call that a victory, and I do, it was a victory. Now, is it an interview that's going to live in history? No, I don't think any new ground was really broken there. She gave many of the same answers she's given before, but she did give as good as she got and that really is about all you can expect from an interview with a hostile source.
[00:20:07]
COREN: Harris said that her presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden's, really signaling, I guess, a breakaway. How do you think that sits with undecided voters?
SABATO: Well, it's about time. That is one thing she has not done that she needs to do. She's tiptoeing up to the water and saying, well, I'd put it Republican in the cabinet. Not good enough. And she's now saying, well, I'm in different generation. So naturally I will govern differently. And that's true and everybody knows she's a woman and a woman is going to approach governance in a somewhat different way than a man.
That's how we evaluate those presidencies anyway. So I think she did all that well, but you know, I'm old. I remember back to 1968 when Hubert Humphrey was way behind Richard Nixon in the presidential race and he did something that nearly got him elected. He finished just a fraction of 1 percent behind Nixon. What he did was he broke openly with President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam War policy.
Was Johnson happy? Of course not. He was furious about it. But Humphrey told people my presidency will be different than Lyndon Johnson's. So I don't know what it would be about. Maybe about the Middle East, but she's got to do something different and she's got to show that she is going to break with Joe Biden in major ways.
COREN: Larry, why is she tiptoeing around that or has been tiptoeing around that up until now?
SABATO: She's been tiptoeing around it because she knows that Joe Biden wouldn't like it. She knows that it could backfire on her with Democrats who are still very loyal to Biden and she also knows that if she opens the door to severe criticism of Trump, he could become even more volcanic than he already has been. You know, he can be exceptionally nasty at times. Of course it can backfire on him, too. Not with his base. They don't care what he says.
But with that handful of independents and undecideds that have to break the winner's way. They're either going to break more toward Harris or they're going to break more toward Trump. And it will probably determine the winner.
COREN: Larry, Donald Trump, he did a town hall with Univision obviously appealing to Latino voters. He doubled down on his Springfield, Ohio, claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets. What were your takeaways from his performance there?
SABATO: I could not believe it. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. If there has been a giant embarrassment for Trump in this election so far, the general election, it's been that ridiculous, absurd claim that Haitian immigrants were eating people's dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. It's been refuted by everyone, even the Republican mayor, the Republican officials of Springfield, the Republican governor of Ohio.
And he brings it up again? And then adds a little to it, which is so much like Trump. And they're doing other things, too. They're eating other things, too. Not telling us what, just leaving it hanging in the air so that a friendly interview or maybe from FOX will ask him what else are they doing. But it's stupid. It's stupid. It's going to revive all the negative criticism that he got when he brought it up and his running mate J.D. Vance brought it up the first time.
COREN: Larry Sabato, as always, great to see you. Appreciate your insights. Thank you.
SABATO: Thank you.
COREN: Well, coming up, Ukraine's president says his victory plan will help bring peace in the country but he needs Western allies to get on board. Hear what's at the top of his wish list. Plus a fuel truck explodes leaving scores of dead and injured in Nigeria but sadly road incidents like this are not new in that country. We'll explain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:26:25]
COREN: In the coming hours, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will try to convince the E.U. and NATO to back his victory plan for the war against Russia. He'll speak to lawmakers at the European Council Summit in Brussels before meeting with NATO defense ministers. The cornerstone of the plan according to Mr. Zelenskyy is Ukrainian membership in both NATO and the E.U., which allies have signaled they're not quite ready to accept in the midst of war.
Ukraine though, is getting more military assistance, including a new $425 million package announced by the U.S. on Wednesday. Mr. Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude in a phone call with President Joe Biden. The new aid includes air defense systems and long-range weapons, but does not include permission to strike deeper into Russia.
On Wednesday, President Zelenskyy unveiled his victory plan to members of Ukraine's parliament.
CNN's Clare Sebastian has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, much of what we now know about Ukraine's victory plan isn't new. A lot of it is really a rebranding of their existing wish lists that if implemented would President Zelenskyy says forced Russia negotiate and strengthen Ukraine's position in those negotiations.
Now, militarily, Ukraine as expected wants permission to use Western long-range missiles on military targets in Russia. It also wants neighboring countries to be able to help shoot down missiles and drones over Ukraine, something Poland, for example, has signaled it might be willing to do. And it intends to hold on to some territory inside Russia as a buffer zone. Well, it also, and this was new, wants to deploy a, quote, "comprehensive, non-nuclear strategic deterrent package inside Ukraine" without specifying what that would look like.
Now on the political side, the plan makes it very clear that only a concrete invitation to join NATO will prove to Russia that its war goals have failed. Now this plan comes amid criticism of Ukraine, especially in the United States, that it's drain on taxpayer funds. So there's clearly an effort built into the plan to include sweeteners for Western allies -- joint investments, for example, in Ukraine's natural resources with a return on that investment.
And post-war, Zelenskyy is also proposing that Ukrainian troops could replace some U.S. troops stationed in Europe as part of NATO's defense, making use of their battlefield experience.
Now all of this, of course, still requires Western buy-in and Zelenskyy was pretty open about the challenges of that.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I want to be frank with you on certain behind closed communication with Ukraine. We hear the word talks from our allies much more often than the word justice. Ukraine is open to diplomacy, but to the fair one. That is why we have the peace formula. It's a guarantee of negotiations without forcing Ukraine to injustice. Ukrainians deserve a decent peace. The victory plan will pave the way for this.
SEBASTIAN: Well, President Zelenskyy's next stop will be Brussels on Thursday to present the plan to E.U. leaders. And as for Russia, well, speaking before Zelenskyy's address, the Kremlin dismissed the plan, saying Ukraine needed to, quote, "sober up" and realize the futility of the policy they're pursuing.
Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Ahead, new reports are raising the alarm about the consequences of the global water crisis to economies, food production and lives. We'll have the details.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren.
[00:32:18]
Well, friends and families have bid their final goodbye to the victims of a horrific fuel truck explosion in Nigeria. The country holding mass burial on Wednesday for at least 147 people killed after a fuel truck crashed and blew up the night before.
But as dreadful as the incident is, Nigerians have seen it all before.
Larry Madowo explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The death toll from this overnight tragedy in Nigeria continues to climb.
MADOWO (voice-over): It began when a fuel tanker veered, lost control, and rolled into a ditch, and residents began to siphon fuel from this tanker.
Part of the reason could be -- and this is speculative --
MADOWO: -- because fuel has become so expensive in Nigeria after the removal of fuel subsidy with the election of President Bola Tinubu.
MADOWO (voice-over): Unfortunately, a fire broke out and ran through this area quite quickly. Some graphic social media video appeared to show this entire area engulfed in flames.
More than 90 people died on the spot. But as more are getting treated in hospitals, the death toll continues to climb, and police warning that the actual death toll could be much higher, because some are in serious condition.
MADOWO: Unfortunately, this is not the first fuel tanker tragedy in Nigeria. Truck accidents are quite common in the country. There was one just last month where more than 40 people died.
And there have been so many more across the country. They're partly blamed on poor road conditions, sometimes on reckless driving. And often on vehicles and road work that were not in good mechanical condition to be on the roads.
But the effect is that these accidents cause very high death tolls.
MADOWO: When they happen, sometimes people siphon fuel. Sometimes, there are people caught up in these accidents.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: A new report is shining a light on the deepening global water crisis.
The Global Commission on the Economics of Water says decades of destructive land use and water mismanagement have collided with the climate crisis to put unprecedented stress on the global water cycle, which it says is off-balance for the first time in human history.
The crisis threatens economies and more than 50 percent of global food production. And this isn't the only data raising alarm. Here's CNN's Allison Chinchar.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This river no longer looks like it once did. River flows worldwide hit all-time lows in 2023. And rivers like this one in Brazil are drying up.
TOME CRUZ, KAMBEBA INDIGENOUS LEADER (through translator): The world needs to listen to nature, not just listen to human beings, but listen to nature and understand what it is showing us today. It's asking for help, and we're ignoring it.
[00:35:08]
CHINCHAR (voice-over): In several parts of the Western hemisphere, droughts caused river flows to decline in 2023. According to a new U.N. report, the Mississippi and Amazon River basins hit record low water levels last year.
These satellite images show the water level changes in the Manacapuru River in Brazil over the past few years.
Worldwide, a growing demand for water coincides with higher temperatures that contribute to droughts.
STEFAN UHLENBROOK, WMO DIRECTOR OF HYDROLOGY: Temperature records are breathtaking. Yet another month or so, there's a record global temperature.
CHINCHAR (voice-over): The report found that more than 50 percent of areas where water is collected and flows into rivers were in abnormal conditions.
CELESTE SAULO, WMO SECRETARY-GENERAL: 2023 was the driest year for global rivers in 33 years. Second, glaciers around the world lost most water in 50 years, in the last 50 years.
Third, the water cycle is becoming more erratic.
CHINCHAR (voice-over): Due to the record heat last year, glaciers lost more than 600 gigatons of water. The report says the U.N. experts said the earth's water cycles are becoming more irregular due to climate change and warned that bold action is needed.
SAULO: Water is becoming the most telling indicator of our time at distress. And yet, as a global society, we are not taking bold action to protect this resource.'
CHINCHAR (voice-over): And a water crisis just got a price tag. A new report from the Global Commission on the Economics of Water says the out-of-balance water cycle could cause an 8 percent loss of GDP in countries around the world, on average, by 2050.
Allison Chinchar, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: In preparation for NASA's next mission to the moon, a major fashion house is taking its designs from the runway to the Milky Way with a new space suit. Those details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: Welcome back. There is a distant galaxy out there that's apparently very similar to our own.
Researchers say the newly discovered star system, named Rebels 25, is much younger than our Milky Way. It doesn't appear clumpy and chaotic like other early galaxies, which tend to develop very slowly and in a messy way.
They say this discovery could change their understanding of how galaxies form.
The research team also found information that suggests the galaxy had even more developed features such as spiral arms. And they plan to conduct more observations to confirm that the arms do exist.
[00:40:08]
A commercial space company has teamed up with the Prada fashion house to produce a new space suit for NASA's upcoming mission to the moon.
CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One small step for fashion, one giant leap for the future of space wear.
From the runway to the Milky Way, Prada is breaking into a whole new sector. The luxury fashion house has partnered with commercial space company Axiom for the cosmic collaboration.
The team unveiled its design for the space suit to be worn for NASA's Artemis III moon mission.
MATT ONDLER, AXIOM SPACE PRESIDENT: Innovation really comes when you put diverse teams together with diverse backgrounds and different educations and different skills. And that's what I think the Prada team has brought to us.
NADEAU (voice-over): The mostly white suits consist of a cropped torso and, quote, "portable life system backpacks" with red accent lines, a nod to the fashion brand's sports line, Linea Rosa.
The specially engineered boots allow the wearer to spacewalk for at least eight hours a day, while the suit's material both reflects heat and withstands the coldest temperatures.
The suit's mobility is also improved from those worn when man last walked the moon. LORENZO BERTELLI, PRADA CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER: I think somehow, it
was also a nice exercise for our design team to really start from the functional point of view and then really have understanding how to make it also looking good.
NADEAU (voice-over): Pierre Cardin last month launched its own contribution to space style. The French brand unveiled its first astronaut training suit for use at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany.
In step with Pierre Cardin, Prada is bringing its textile and sewing expertise to the world of space exploration, as galactic fashion seems to be blasting off.
RUSSELL RALSTON, EVA PROGRAM MANAGER, AXIOM SPACE: Two very different leaders in their industry have come together to deliver the next- generation space suit for the return to the moon. For the first time ever to the South Pole.
NADEAU (voice-over): If successful, the 2026 Artemis mission will be the first astronaut moon landing since 1972. It could also be the first time a woman walks on the moon.
A mission sure to be out of this world in more ways than one.
Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: They certainly will look stylish.
Well, thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Anna Coren. I'll be back with more news at the top of the hour. WORLD SPORT is next.
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[00:45:20]
(WORLD SPORT)
[00:52:40]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
