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Constant Shelling Threatens Civilians in Eastern Ukraine; Finland and Georgia Report Huge Spikes of Russian Arrivals; Hurricane Ian now Category 3 Storm, Taking Aim at Florida; Iran Widens Crackdown as Protests and Dissent Grows; NASA's DART Mission Successfully Slams into an Asteroid; James Bond Memorabilia up for Sale in Charity Auction. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired September 27, 2022 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: I'm Becky Anderson in Abu Dhabi. Hello and welcome back to "Connect the World". The Russian state

media report that the first results of the so called referenda are coming in from occupied regions of Ukraine.

To no one's surprise, the initial count reportedly shows 97 percent of the ballots in favor of unification with Russia. Ukraine and Western nations

calling the votes a preordained sham and say they will not recognize the results. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in the Eastern Ukrainian City of

Kramatorsk with more details.

And I do think it's worth noting, an exclusive CNN poll, Nick found that the majority of respondents in Eastern and Southern Ukraine oppose

unification with Russia. These are the numbers in Eastern Ukraine, just under a quarter of respondents say that those regions should be allowed to

become part of Russia, while 58 percent say they should not 19 percent that they don't know or had no opinion.

And in the south, one in ten believes such regions should be allowed to join Russia, while 61 percent said they shouldn't the remaining respondents

say they did not know or had no opinion. Just those numbers were from February. We're seven months in now. And these referenda have happened.

Just how significant are these results as we understand them? And what are the consequences, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yes, I mean, those numbers you referring to there were from February before Russia launched

six to seven months of, frankly, for most of what we've seen wanton destruction across much of Ukraine in a failed military campaign.

The numbers that we're hearing so far, well, they're not significant in themselves in that they were entirely what was expected when this process

was first announced. And frankly, hearing that with about 12 percent in some of these areas, votes counted as 97 percent in favor of joining

Russia, it makes you wonder who the 3 percent of people were, who frankly had the courage when armed Russian soldiers came to their door with a

ballot box or they went in the very rare cases to an actual polling station to vote against this proposition.

So yes, this is totally what everybody thought, and I'm sure we'll see similar figures reflected in the final results. So I should reiterate

again, this is not a democratic process. It's happening under military occupation at the barrel of the gun in some instances, but it is part of

the sort of slightly faux Soviet mentality the Kremlin have, where they feel they need to stage some sort of popular mandate to pursue their

geopolitical policies.

The choreography of what comes next was entirely anticipated. We are now expecting today or not tomorrow, Leonid Pasechnik, the Head of the self-

declared Luhansk People's Republic, that's the area occupied by Russian forces since 2014. He's going to go to Moscow to expedite this process of

formalizing control.

Over these areas, I anticipate you'll see similar gestures by other self- appointed leaders or Moscow appointed leaders in the three other areas too. And then in the days ahead, you're likely to see some sort of formalization

through Russia's rubber stamping upper bodies of parliament that these areas become part of Russia.

The question is what does it actually mean for Russia's military policy here? They're failing in the war, they're losing ground still, does this

move enable them to use what people have referred to as nuclear blackmail, to say hands off what we call our sovereign territory, or we may use

different parts of our arsenal?

Or is about suing for some sort of broader diplomatic negotiation here that Kyiv and Washington have already said, is highly unlikely to yield results

so a very tense few days ahead of us here, Becky?

ANDERSON: What's the story on the ground? How intense is the fighting at present?

WALSH: It's already pretty bad. And you know there's a real anxiety amongst ordinary Ukrainians about what this next phase means. Nuclear war is

something which we both grew up Becky as a horrifying, unimaginable possibility with words like mutually assured destruction being bandied

around here.

The notion of Russia using a tactical nuclear weapon is because of Russia's consistent threats, something that's a real possibility, but conventional

weaponry is every night causing significant damage in a town like here Kramatorsk just last night, many rounds hitting this town and including an

apartment building in neighboring Slavyansk as well.

And this escalating fear of what may come next and the continued shelling leads many people after six months of breathing it out to decide it's time

to leave.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice over): When the blasts pause, in rare quiet interest, there are a few blessings to count and most a bitter. One is here a familiar

scene of private world's torn open by a Russian rocket two days earlier but a place that might persuade you to believe in miracles. 19 people were

trapped up here when rubble blocked the stairs but somehow not one of them was even injured the fiber grade ladder getting them all out.

[11:05:00]

WALSH (voice over): Not even survivors like Natalia (ph) know how.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A noise I blinked twice and couldn't see. The balcony door flew open and trash blew in. I'm terrified of flames and I realized

we're on the seventh floor and it's collapsing. Then someone screamed, don't come out as there's no way. It's a miracle. I can't call it anything

else.

WALSH (voice over): Is Putin's fake referenda just a few miles away threatened yet worse here? Just now the shelling has finally become too

much for some. Rescuers are evacuating Nina (ph) 73 after six months living alone, without water or health. We're told she's the last person to leave

her block.

Two days ago, a rocket hit her building. Yet also magically, she was unscathed and just sat here under the gaping hole. The lonely agony of the

struggle before this moment lying around the pictures of life left of her a student daughter who died of meningitis aged 40 have the choices of what to

leave and what to take of how hard just eating washing and drinking has been?

Winter we'll rip through here and this may be the last time the lights go out on this home. She's taken to the courtyard where dozens of similar

agonies are gathered waiting for the evacuation bus even after six months hell faces that know still worse is coming and that are baffled by the

heaviest question why? Elena (ph) is leaving she does not know where to with her three children. Then the guns pick up again.

WALSH (on camera): Even leaving there's a sense of urgency because artillery firing from near where we are. Well, that's been responded to by

the Russians and a shell landed over here. They're trying to get people on the bus as fast as they can to get them out.

WALSH (voice over): Dozens of lives with everything left behind them, and nothing certainly ahead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: So we are into, as I say a very tense few days here, the theater the choreography of Russia assimilating areas of Ukraine that it's occupied and

often brutalized and left in ruins. Is it seems underway with these fake referendum results emerging slowly?

And two is the ultimate question and what does it change on the ground where Ukraine is clearly in the ascendance on the battlefield even now

around where we are they do appear to be making incremental gains. Russia is failing in its partial mobilization to affect any change on the

battlefield so far.

But it's succeeding massively in seeing large numbers of military age males flee its country and see protest like we haven't seen, frankly, for

decades. It's fair to say, I think in Russia. So where does that Vladimir Putin find himself a few days from now, after all the turmoil of the past

week, is the situation improved? Or is he just simply left with less choices and greater loss already behind them, Becky?

ANDERSON: Questions that still need answers, Nick thank you Nick Paton Walsh, on the ground for you. Well, in some of the occupied areas that

voted like Kherson, Ukrainian authorities say no one is being allowed in or out.

[11:10:00]

ANDERSON: And that it's been difficult for young men to travel since the Kremlin announced it would draft thousands more people into its military.

Russia itself is seeing an exodus. Finland reports 152 percent increase in Russians crossing its border compared to last week.

And officials in Georgia say the number of people entering from Russia to the country has doubled the queue of vehicles trying to enter Georgia

visible from space. Joining me now is Matti Pitkaniitty. He's Head of the International Affairs Unit for the Finnish Border Guard. It's good to have

you, sir. So how many Russians are you seeing cross the border right now?

MATTI PITKANIITTY, HEAD OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS UNIT, FINNISH BORDER GUARD: Good evening, Becky. So at the moment in Finnish Russian land border

we are sitting around 7000 to 8500 Russians arriving Finland every day. And if I may just remind here that it's not only Finland, Finland is a part of

the free movement area of Schengen. So whoever enters here is allowed to travel Spain, Portugal, France and Germany. So it's not only to Finland.

ANDERSON: Is this situation intensifying? Or is it cooling down? What's your sense at this point?

PITKANIITTY: That's a million dollar question. At the moment, the situation is extremely foggy. It is very hard to predict how this will evolve? What

kind of turmoil we will see on the Russian side? What are the actions of the Russian authorities and overall how the border process will develop in

upcoming days?

ANDERSON: You remain open and you expect to remain open, correct?

PITKANIITTY: No. As a matter of fact, Finnish government is at the moment thinking of limiting the non-essential travel of Russians because at the

moment Russians are still able to come for touristic reasons to the Schengen area and at the moment when we see in Ukraine full scale war that

seems a bit unreasonable.

ANDERSON: How soon could that access then be denied to Russian mostly men?

PITKANIITTY: Well, the Finnish restrictions that understanding is being developed are not against men, but they are in general about people for

pleasure traveling. Then, of course, there is a question that does Russia allows those men who would be drafted to leave the country?

ANDERSON: My colleague Fareed Zakaria, interviewed your President Niinisto over the weekend, take a listen to what he thinks Putin's next steps are?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAULI NIINISTO, FINNISH PRESIDENT: In actually poker terms he has put all in. And he is a fighter. So it is very difficult to see him accepting any

regard or defeat that surely makes the situation very, very crucial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: He thinks just talking there about what he thinks Putin's next steps are. And what he says is Putin is digging in his heels. Do you

anticipate the situation at your border getting worse? I know you've described it as foggy cloudy at this point. What's the Intel?

PITKANIITTY: Absolutely. The Finnish Border Guard is a security organization. So we are prepared for many different kinds of scenarios that

may happen here. As I said, the Intel is not very clear. I don't think there is a human being in this planet who can predict how things will

exactly evolve in next days and next weeks or months. So our approach is to be prepared for many kinds of scenarios in many kinds of different ways.

ANDERSON: Finland has been stepping up its border security. Is it only because of this most recent influx or is it a kind of wider concern at this

point?

PITKANIITTY: Definitely. We have seen a big change in security environment in last 10 years. And especially summer, year before when we saw situation

at the Belarusian Polish border and also in the Baltic borders the migration has become a tool or weapon it and that was something that 10

years ago wasn't in this scale.

[11:15:00]

PITKANIITTY: And we also see countries going against each other in a way that we haven't seen in Europe in decades.

ANDERSON: Do you worry that that could get worse? Do you worry about a more fractured Europe going forward?

PITKANIITTY: I think that this is one possibility for us to go for one but in the other hand, this has united I think Europe together, and as United

we are stronger.

ANDERSON: Sir, it's good to have you on. I just want to clarify one point. Once those Russians who can still enter the country and those who have

entered Finland, what are their next steps?

PITKANIITTY: Normally, they are at the moment arriving with ordinary passports and visas and they have a plane plans how to how to spend their

time in Europe. At the moment we see however, 80 percent of those arriving to Finland, transiting to other Schengen countries, so most likely they

will go to other Schengen countries stay there until their visa expires. And then they need to figure out what to do because their stay changes into

illegal state.

ANDERSON: So this is not just an issue that Finland is dealing with, but of an issue that conceivably is a much wider one for Europe as well. Sir thank

you!

The flashpoint in the energy crisis between Russia and Europe is the Nord Stream Pipeline. You'll have heard about those now for months, even if

you'd never heard about them before. Well, now they've been damaged, and this has been called unprecedented.

The Danish Defense Command has put out this video of what it says a gas leaks from Nord Stream I in the Baltic Sea and it says gas is leaving both

pipelines while neither pipeline is currently pumping gas to the continent.

Long term disruption to at least Nord Stream I could be a real headache for Europe. Piling problems on top of what is already the prospect of a very,

very difficult winter. Well, still ahead Hurricane Ian barrels towards Florida after lashing Western Cuba. We are live in both places with the

latest impact and preparations.

And we are tracking another tropical cyclone half a world away. And later this hour Iran is launching drone strikes against Kurdish groups after a

crackdown on protests sparked by young woman's death in police custody more on that story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:20:00]

ANDERSON: Well, if you can leave just leave now. That is the warning from the Mayor of Tampa, Florida as Hurricane Ian approaches after slamming into

the island of Cuba earlier on Tuesday.

Now the Head of the U.S. National Hurricane Center calls a storm a near worst case scenario for Tampa the city bracing for its first direct hit

from a hurricane in 101 years.

Mandatory evacuation orders are in place in and around Tampa. The airport suspending operations at 5 p.m. local time today, schools are now closing.

And the National Guard is activating 7000 soldiers.

And we are watching a tropical cyclone on the other side of the world typhoon Nauru bearing down on Vietnam after slamming the Philippines over

the weekend, where it killed eight people, hundreds of thousands of people in Vietnam have been told to evacuate.

Right, let's get Chad Myers up for you, CNN's Meteorologist and he is tracking the storms for us. Chad, as I understand it, we have a change in

forecast for a hurricane in just been announced. So what do we know at this point?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, the models have really been, in my opinion, honestly been very inconsistent with this. And models simply

try to model what the atmosphere is going to do. But the atmosphere at times can be chaos, and you can't model chaos.

So sometimes the model is to the left, sometimes it's to the right. And that doesn't matter if you're talking about a 60 kilometer per hour

tropical cyclone. But when you're talking about something that may approach 215 or 220 kph and you have seven or 8 million people in that warning area

than it does that 10 miles left or 10 miles right does make a big, big difference.

The storm did lose some power as it moved over Pinar Del Rio. At the expense of Pinar Del Rio, this is the area of Western Cuba and it's a

landmass, there are some mountains about 600 meters high. And that took a little bit out, not like what you take out when you run over the Dominican

Republic when things are 4000 meters high.

So yes, it's still a slightly less of a storm. But it will regain strength because it's in very, very warm water. The little area that you see in red

down here, that's a tornado watch.

Yes, sometimes hurricanes typhoons can run on shore, and even waterspouts, or small little tornadoes can spin up because of the spin itself. Here is

kind of the ramshackle area here of what the models look like.

They're just left and they're right. By this time, they should be all together and saying it's going to hit right here. But they're not doing

that this time. So that's why these warnings and watches are just spread out almost over the entire state of Florida. The biggest threat with this

storm is going to be storm surge.

So if you've been told to evacuate, that's because you are in an area that is very close to the water, you are one meter or two meters, just above sea

level. And if this comes in at a three meter surge your ground, the ground that your house is on, will be in water and they want people out of there.

More people are killed by water than by the wind. And that's always going to be the case. And that's what we're going to see for the rest of this

storm. And a lot of rainfall to come could be 500 millimeters of rain. Here's no room.

You talked about this. And this is going to be a storm that really approaches denying the first time a big storm like this has approached in

quite some time. It'd be one of the big five I guess, for Vietnam. Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes, remarkable stuff. Thank you. All right, let's get our correspondents up on the ground then. Patrick Oppmann back with us this

hour from Havana, the Hurricane Ian making landfall in western Cuba.

Earlier Bill Weir is in St. Pete's in Florida, across the bait from --- Tampa. Let's start with you, Patrick. This storm on its way to Western Florida, if that is where it's headed.

But it made landfall in Cuba and we've been reporting that it was in an area which was less inhabited than for example, Havana but what do we know

at this point? I can see you've still got the back end of this storm, haven't you where you are?

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very much so. And even though Ian is leaving Cuba it's currently not done with Cuba just yet. We're still

getting wind gusts and rain as you said from the back end of that storm.

And if you look out in the harbor, usually a very calm harbor, it's quite a bit rougher today than it usually would be. But also you don't see really

any ships and that's because yesterday, the cargo ships were taken out of this port as well as all small fishing craft.

And the reason for that is you just don't want to have a ship break loose in the harbor, get damaged, damaged the harbor and create that kind of

chaos and havoc.

[11:25:00]

OPPMANN: So what they've done is take them out to see where they're riding out the storm as we speak. But in Pinar Del Rio province, which has been

hard hit by the storm, thousands, tens of thousands of people have evacuated ahead of the storm or in shelters or staying with relatives or

family.

There are trees down; there are houses that are damaged. But of course, since this is not a very populated province, you do not have any reports

right now, thankfully, of deaths or injuries, people in our province know all too well about a hurricane.

So I've been in touch with several people there, the last day or so when they were preparing to hunker down, they know how to do it. But that's a

province entirely without electricity right now; much of Havana is also without power right now, even though the storm has not hit that hard just

yet.

But anytime you have a lot of wind and a lot of rain Becky, in Havana, because the buildings here are so old, they've not been maintained very

well over the years, you can have buildings that collapse.

So that can be a very dangerous situation. And it doesn't always happen during a storm, it can happen days afterward, as the city begins to dry out

so that it's something that people will keep an eye on for the next several days.

Very, very dangerous to be walking in the old part of the city where we are now and also to have a building comes down on top of you. And it happens

all the time after a hurricane. So Ian may be leaving Cuba, but we'll be feeling the impacts here for some time to come.

ANDERSON: Yes, Patrick, thank you for that. And as Patrick pointed out, these are folks who are not unfamiliar with this sort of weather, it's

still frightening. It's still destructive and it's alarming. Let's get you to St. Petersburg where Bill Weir is standing by.

And people there and preparing once again, as I suggest, you know they will not be unfamiliar with this type of weather, but preparing for what could

be quite catastrophic. What are you hearing?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's, you need a long memory to remember when things got really bad. It was 1985 hurricane Elena,

when the storm surge hit just over one meter. This could break that even at the low estimates; we're looking at two to three, three and a half meters

of storm surge.

And that's why officials are saying get out if you can get out we just ran into three retirees, women about for their morning walk, I said, are you

evacuating? They said no, we're planning a hurricane party.

And that is a tradition for some folks down in Florida. But it makes the local officials crazy. Because if you're stuck in that house, if you're

stuck in the sixth floor of a hotel or apartment, and the power goes out, there are just cascading events that make life miserable.

A lot of folks in these boats live on these boats are not trying to get hotel rooms inside. Who knows how many will still be here after the storm

comes they could end up in the park here in St. Petersburg as well.

And any deviation in that track and these models Becky got to wonder does that convince people to flee or stay? We're in that strange sort of cycle

of human nature where people are refreshing the internet trying to figure out what to do where to go.

But time is running out to get out of here at a certain point they're going to say stay in place and hope for the best. But they say in this part of

the world you hide from the wind, you run from water because that ultimately will be the most destructive force.

ANDERSON: Bill Weir is on the ground. Stay safe. Thank you. Well, despite Iran's efforts to shut them down nationwide protests continue in the

country. Well, now it's taking a - Kurdish groups we'll tell you why, up next.

And there is anger as Lebanon's banks partially reopened. Why some depositors took drastic action to retrieve their money.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELEK MOSSO, TURKISH SINGER: This world belongs to all of us. This world belongs to women as well. All my sisters and I ran battle this, I cannot

stay silent. My Iranian friends, sisters, you are not alone. As an artist in Turkey, I stand with you all the way till the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Well top Turkish singer there coming off her heir on stage during a concert in Istanbul to show solidarity with those protesting in Iran.

Well defiance remains strong across Iran despite Tehran's brutal crackdown.

State media reports that at least 41 people have died, that is state media reporting the number. Make of that what you will. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh

has been following the protests since the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran, after her respite morality police and she joins us now live from Istanbul

in Turkey.

Firstly, let's be quite clear, it is very unclear to us what is going on, on the ground? Authorities are making it very, very difficult to get any

credible information. Secondly, is there a sense on the ground from what we do know that these protests are in any way slowing down or dying down?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Becky, I think the short answer is no. It doesn't appear like they're dying down. But as you mentioned,

it's very difficult for us to judge how big they are, how widespread they are. We're not getting information in real time.

What we see happen is protesters take to the streets in the evening and you start getting some video some information coming out hours later. And right

now, as it seems Monday night protesters took to the streets of several cities, including the capital Tehran.

They're still out, they're still determined still defiant, you're still seeing women taking to the streets and those daring chance of death to the

dictator. And they want the downfall of the Islamic Republic and the regime.

And this is all happening Bucky despite that crackdown. And what that crackdown looks like is more than thousand people detained and those were

figures from this weekend, according to state media.

You've got 20 journalists detained according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. And then you've got the use of lethal force by the regime.

According to Amnesty International shooting directly and deliberately, protesters and as you mentioned, we don't know how many people have lost

their lives.

And it's anywhere between 40 to possibly up to 80 people, depending on what organization is collecting this information very difficult for us to

verify. But it does seem that these protests are continuing.

And the concern, of course is the more persistent these protests are the more defiant these protesters are the more likely Iran experts would tell

you that you're going to see the government unleash brutal force. If you look at what happened in 2019, where up to 1500 people are reported to have

lost their lives during those protests.

ANDERSON: Yes. The authorities of course are describing these protesters as rioters and they have done that before and they have form on strategy here.

The authorities in Iran are accusing the U.S. Europe and others of trying to destabilize the country again, part of their playbook Jomana.

KARADSHEH: It very much is Becky. Look, I mean, we're entering the second week of these protests initially it did look like the government was

allowing these protests to go on to a certain level.

[11:35:00]

KARADSHEH: Perhaps acknowledging the public anger and how widespread that was over the death of Mahsa Amini, there was outrage amongst their own

supporters. But as we saw these protests morph into something completely different with calls for changing the entire system, that is where we saw

the regime drawing a line.

And this is where you see them right now, basically, pointing the finger at everyone other than the regime itself, rather than trying to perhaps meet

the protesters halfway try and look at possible change and reform.

Now again, we're hearing that same old rhetoric that this is a foreign conspiracy aimed at destabilizing the Islamic Republic that this is the

work of a handful of mercenaries out on the streets serving foreign agendas.

And we saw the pro-government protests over the weekend where they were chanting Death to Israel, Death to America. So of course, you know, the

issue is, of course, the concern is that they're even taking this a step further right now.

If you look at what's been going on over the past four days, shelling the border regions with Iraq's Kurdistan Region, trying to paint this picture

that those protests that have been really focused in the northwestern Kurdistan region where

Mahsa Amini is from is that they're being fueled by the separatists, militant Kurdish Iranian groups that are based in that mountainous area

along the border with Iraq's Kurdistan region.

And I'm sure you've heard this Becky from a lot of experts on Iran who say that unless they really try to address the grievances of the thousands who

have taken to the streets, even if they succeed in suppressing the protests right now. We're going to see this continue for years to come.

ANDERSON: Jomana, good work. Thank you very much indeed. Well, amid growing despair and crisis hit Lebanon, banks there have partially reopened to a

recent wave of bank robberies has put a spotlight on the suffering that's imposed on Lebanese depositors. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Welcome to Lebanon where citizens storm banks just to get their own money. Sally Hafez became an

instant icon after she held up a Beirut bank to withdraw thousands of dollars from her family savings account. She broadcasts the highest live on

Facebook, explaining she was desperate to pay for her sister's cancer treatment.

I'm here to get my sister's money she says because she is dying. Hafez later said she was carrying a toy gun. Lebanon's banks have locked millions

of citizens out of their own savings accounts after a financial meltdown in 2019.

And with the currency losing 90 percent of its value, more than three quarters of the population now live in poverty, unable to pay for basics.

From hiding, Hafez said she had run out of options.

People consider me a hero, she says, but I am no role model. I'm not a hero. I'm just a normal person who took back her rights. Hafez inspired a

wave of copycats like --.

He failed to get his money sustained an injury to his hand and wound up in jail for a week. But he later told CNN, he was just trying to save his

business. We're not stealing. We're taking what's rightfully ours, he says. I encourage other people to do the same because there's no other way. We

gave the money our banks than we should take it back from the bank.

No official arrest warrant has been issued for Sally till now. A bead has been released without charges. After five hold ups in a single day, bank

shut down for nearly a week, citing ongoing risks to employees and customers.

They reopened Monday, but only partially for commercial banking. Individual account holders can only enter by appointment, pushing desperate families

even further away from their own money. Salma Abdelaziz CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well controversial Egyptian cleric has died at the age of 96. Sheikh Youssef carried out he was widely viewed as the Muslim Brotherhood

spiritual leader. He was an influential figure leading up to the Arab Spring advocating for the overthrow of Arab leaders.

He was sentenced to death by an Egyptian court in absentia after a Muslim Brotherhood government was overthrown in 2013. He died in Qatar on Monday.

You're watching "Connect the World" live from Abu Dhabi; we will be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:00]

ANDERSON: Well throughout this week CNN's Call to Earth looks at how to protect and conserve our planet by listening to it. What do we mean by

that? Well, today we head to the rainforests hinterlands of the Gold Coast in Queensland in Australia, where a scientist is using a network of sound

recording devices and Artificial Intelligence or AI to track down an endangered and elusive species of bird, have a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. DANIELLA TEIXEIRA, RESEARCH FELLOW, QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY/BUSH HERITAGE AUSTRALIA: Behind us here is Purling Brook Falls.

And on the other side is Gartmann --. You can actually see how the vegetation changes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): For the past seven years, the Research of Acoustic Ecologist Dr. Daniela Teixeira has focused on recording and

analyzing the sounds of Australia's iconic Black Cockatoos.

DR. TEIXEIRA: That is a habitat of the glossy black cockatoos, so we actually have sound recorders planted in that forest over there. My journey

was bioacoustics began with two species of Black Cockatoo, the Kangaroo Island glossy Black Cockatoo and the Southeastern red tailed Black

Cockatoo.

So they're both endangered subspecies of Black Cockatoos that have different challenges when it comes to monitoring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): She says the birds face a multitude of threats, including habitat loss and climate change, and that their

dwindling numbers low density and cryptic nature make them really hard to find.

DR. TEIXEIRA: Having a bit of a look, you're much more likely to see this feeding sign than you are actually to see the birds themselves. With the

particular project that we're doing today, this is programmed to record every single day, from sunrise to sunset.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): With all of those hours of recordings to analyze, she also relies heavily on artificial intelligence.

DR. TEIXEIRA: What we're looking at here is the detections of glossy black cockatoos that the machine learning has detected. That's what they sound

like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): With her research, Daniella says they now have a complete understanding of the bird's vocalizations. And can you then

train the AI to identify the most exciting moments of a cockatoos life leaving the nest.

[11:45:00]

DR. TEIXEIRA: Fledging is the moment when the baby bird leaves the nest. And I've been able to train algorithms to help me detect that

automatically. And that's how we can actually detect breeding success and measure it in really big ways.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): About 1800 kilometers northeast of Gold Coast sits Yoka Reserve, a remote parcel of land owned and managed by Bush

Heritage Australia. Daniella also works as a researcher for this conservation minded organization.

DR. TEIXEIRA: Yoka is situated in what we consider to be a resilient landscape, so it's likely to offer - from climate change in the future for

quite a large number of species.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Just under a year ago, four new solar powered recording stations were installed here. And today, she is back to

collect the data for the first time.

DR. TEIXEIRA: Look how nice and dry it is in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): The sensors are part of the Australian acoustic observatory, a world first continent wide network consisting of

approximately 360 devices that record 24/7.

DR. TEIXEIRA: The sound recorders that we put out here on Yoka have been out there during times where the site was inaccessible. So it would have

been collecting sound data when we weren't even able to go out there. Hopefully we find some threatened species and frogs and birds. And we can

actually get a better idea of how the ecosystems are performing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Daniella believes that a noisy landscape is a healthy landscape. And that her recordings, what she calls digital

fossils, can be a key to unlocking a new level of understanding about Australia's natural world.

DR. TEIXEIRA: There's a whole world of activity happening right now that we would just be unaware of. But sound is the best way that we can connect to

that. But if we understand what those sounds mean, we can understand their species and what they need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Fascinating, isn't it? Let us know what you're doing to answer the call. The hash tag is calltoearth. It's simple. You're watching

"Connect the World" live from Abu Dhabi where the time is just after quarter to eight in the evening.

We haven't finished the show. We'll be back after this quick break. So stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Here's some good news before we go, for the first time ever, NASA has crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid. Yep. You heard me right. Its

part of a planetary defense mission called DART. The impact happened late last night.

The asteroid was never at risk of hitting ours. Although this could determine how we could avoid space rocks and stay safe in the future. CNN's

Kristin Fisher has more details for us.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Becky hands down one of the coolest space stories of the year. I was at the Mission Control

last night for what they were calling impact night.

And the thing that really stood out to me was just how proud the team was that this was a mission that was truly designed to someday benefit not just

all of humanity. But it was also kind of a tribute to all the creatures that have ever lived on planet Earth especially the dinosaurs.

[11:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FISHER (voice over): 10 months, around 6.8 million miles later and with a speed of nearly 14,000 miles per hour, the double asteroid redirection test

spacecraft known as DART made history on Monday night. The NASA crew and scientists around the world celebrated the culmination of a grueling

journey live.

ELENA ADAMS, DART MISSION SYSTEMS ENGINNER: Fantastic. Oh, fantastic.

FISHER (voice over): DART's mission, the first of its kind was to test technological capabilities to protect humanity from hazardous asteroids, or

other deadly objects in space.

ADAMS: You see it so beautifully concluded today was just an incredible feeling and also very tiring.

FISHER (voice over): The DART spacecraft was about the size of a refrigerator, its target asteroid Dimorphous is about the height of the

Washington Monument. Over the last seven years thousands of people have been working on this planetary defense test mission.

NICK MOSKOVITZ, PLANETARY ASTRONOMER, LOWELL OBSERVATORY: So this is an important test for planetary defense mitigation strategies. In case we ever

have to do this for written.

FISHER (voice over): That meant building an unmanned spacecraft and deliberately crashing it into a moving planetary object in their very first

attempt right on target.

MARK JENSENIUS, DART SMART NAV. GUIDANCE ENGINEER: Once we got to look at Dimorphous, I think that's when the team was confident that we were going

to hit.

FISHER (voice over): A remarkable achievement that could possibly prevent future threats from hitting our planet.

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST & SCIENCE COMMUNICATOR: These are baby steps right now, just to see if it works, alright, to see if we have the

power to do this. And then when the big one comes, you want to make sure that there's enough of these practice runs that in fact, we would end up

succeeding.

FISHER (voice over): In the coming weeks, NASA will analyze images and video that a briefcase sized CubeSat captured during the impact. But NASA

says it will take months before it knows if the DART mission was successful.

ADAMS: What we're going to be seeing probably next couple of months, we're actually going to get a confirmation of exact period change that we made.

FISHER (voice over): Asteroids, especially big ones, are not just a Hollywood imagination as in the 1998 Movie, Armageddon. Asteroids are very

real threats, and having the means to deflect them is a vital interest to everyone on planet Earth.

MICHIO KAKU, PHYSICS PROFESSOR, CITY COLLEGE OF NEW YORK: If we can confirm that the thing was deflected by less than one degree, we know that this

would in principle work on a large scale.

FISHER (voice over): The last time a deadly asteroid hit Earth was around 65 million years ago.

TYSON: You can bet that if the dinosaurs had NASA, they would have to fly to that asteroid.

FISHER (voice over): Monday's test hopes to prevent that from ever happening again.

FISHER (on camera): Should all earthlings sleep a little easier tonight?

ADAMS: I definitely think that, as far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was a success. And I think we can clap to that, everyone. So

yes, I think that everyone should sleep better. And definitely I will. People working here, we definitely are going to sleep better.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FISHER: Not many times that you can sleep better after destroying a multimillion dollar spacecraft. But that was the goal here, complete loss

of signal and that's what they got. But Becky, it's still going to be at least a few weeks before we're able to find out if they did accomplish

their main objective, which is of course, bumping that asteroid just a little bit off its current course. Becky?

ANDERSON: Yes, it does seem remarkable and if they are able to achieve that, what next very briefly?

FISHER: What next is essentially they have proven this one type of asteroid deflection technology. There are other types as well. But this is really

the beginning of the first mission ever for this new planetary defense team.

So with this being a success, most likely, it really just paves the way for future similar missions down the road.

ANDERSON: It really does, is the stuff of film scripts, isn't it? And it is absolutely remarkable to see it happening in real time. It's great to have

you, thank you so much. What a story!

FISHER: Thank you.

ANDERSON: Well, to celebrate 60 years of James Bond, Christie's is hosting a charity sale of some of 007's famous gadgets and costumes. Now this

auction includes items that reflect each of the six actors who have played Bond much of the memorabilia comes from the film "No Time to Die" including

an Aston Martin DB5 Stunt Car which could sell for more than $2 million.

[11:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEG SIMMONDS, EON PRODUCTIONS ARCHIVE DIRECTOR: It's one of eight replicas Aston Martin replicas that were made especially for "No Time to Die" and

used in Matera on location in Italy for the chase scene. So it's one of the stunt cars with some gadgets on it as well, so yes, very special car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The live auction Wednesday by invitation only. There's also an online auction open until James Bond Day, yep. On October the fifth the

date the first Bond film premiered in 1962. I did a pop quiz earlier on; I said who those six bond actors are? Solitarius tweeted the correct answer,

good for you, mate. Thank you all for watching "Connect the World". I'm Becky Anderson. "One World" with my colleague Zain Asher is up next. Don't

go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END