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CNN International: Victims of Assad Regime Faced Years of Torture & Death; U.N. Chief Expresses Concern as IDF Strikes Targets in Syria; U.S. Lawmakers Push for Answers on New Jersey Drones; Former White House Comms Director Talks Bitcoin; Human Cell Research in Space May Reveal Secrets of Aging. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired December 13, 2024 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Welcome everyone. We're following a lot of news, including U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken,
who just landed on an unexpected trip to Baghdad. He just made remarks moments ago. We're going to go through some of those and bring you much
more on that in a moment. But as I mentioned, a lot of news that we are following today.
Welcome to "Connect the World". I'm Omar Jimenez, including an emotional day in Syria with Friday prayers happening for the first time since the
ousted of President Bashar Al Assad. Now this is how it looks right now in the capital. You see the amount of people there.
And over the past week, displaced Syrians have been returning home and reuniting with loved ones. And imprisoned Syrians have been freed from the
fallen regime's notorious jails. Now, the leader of the forces that overthrew the regime has vowed to transition the country peacefully into a
new post Assad era.
And he offered words of praise today, along with a warning to avoid celebrating with guns after someone in Raqqa fired bullets into the air
Thursday, sparking chaos that witnesses say left at least one person dead and 15 injured.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABU MOHAMMAD AL JOLANI, SYRIAN GENERAL COMMANDER: I would like to congratulate the great Syrian people on the victory of the blessed
revolution. I call upon them to take to the squares and express their joy over this achievement, but without firing bullets or causing fear among the
people. Afterwards, let us turn our efforts towards rebuilding this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Clarissa Ward has been in Damascus reporting through all of this and has a look at how Syrians are celebrating their new found freedom from
a brutal regime.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: People are flooding into the Central Umayyad Square from around Damascus, they're flooding into
squares across the entire country. This is the first Friday since Bashar Al Assad left the country.
And you can see, understandably, so many people here are celebrating what they see as the greatest victory of a lifetime, after 53 years of
totalitarian rule under Bashar Al Assad, after hundreds of thousands of dead and disappeared into Syrian prisons. Finally, Syria for these people -
-
This is what you hear over and over, Syria Hurriyah, Syria Hurriyah, Syria is free, and the crowds are getting bigger and bigger here, as people
really just absorb the magnitude of this moment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, thank God. We're so grateful that we finally can speak freely, we can criticize, we can help. We can feel like this country
-- you know.
WARD: What does this moment feel like in that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a dream. It's like a dream. At the end, I felt like I'm going to lose the hope. He's going to leave, and now we got
back the hope. Honestly, it's like a dream came true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now it's a great feeling. We are in Umayyad Square. We are in the middle of Damascus sailing Freedom sailing, we are still wanting
the same demands of democracy, of participation, of justice.
WARD: And everyone understands that there are a lot of question marks still about what comes next and what the new Syria will look like, and yet you
see people -- 2011, people will risk their lives to take to the streets -- This flag -- revolution -- they never imagined that they would be able to
chant these chants and wave that flag right here, Umayyad Square.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ: That's our Clarissa Ward reporting on the ground in Syria. And while there is an overriding sense of relief and joy, as you just saw,
there is also the lingering trauma of death and torture experienced by Syrians who were deemed enemies of the Assad regime.
I want to bring in Salma Abdelaziz, who joins us now with really the sobering story of a notable activist victimized by the regime's brutality
and his fateful decision to return home. What can you tell us?
[09:05:00]
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Omar and I know that many in those crowds today will be asking about their loved ones that are missing,
because there are half a million people who lost their lives in this conflict. That's what human rights groups say. There is an estimated
100,000 that are missing without a trace.
So yes, people are gathering today, and as they think of Syria's future, they are also considering those who sacrifice their lives for this moment.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): This is activist Mazen al-Hamada recounting all the ways in which he was tortured inside a regime prison. They broke my ribs,
he says. He would jump up and come down on me. I could feel my ribs snapping. He is then asked in this documentary how he feels about his
tormentors?
I will not rest until I take them to court and get justice, he says. This image, tears flowing from his haunted eyes Mazen al-Hamada the face of
serious torture victims and inspired drawings by U.S. based artist and friend Marc Nelson.
MARC NELSON, ARTIST AND FRIEND: That just bore into my soul, his face, his expression.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): When an uprising against the Assad dynasty erupted in 2011 al-Hamada was among the first to join demonstrations. It made him a
target of the regime. In 2012, he was detained by security forces after smuggling baby formula into a besieged suburb of Damascus.
For nearly two years, he endured medieval torture techniques, rape, beatings and psychological abuse. After his release, he fled to Europe and
vowed to tell the world his story. He spoke to journalists, met White House officials, appealed to U.S. lawmakers, but nothing changed. Mazen felt
defeated and homesick. His friend and a fellow prison survivor told us.
OMAR ALSHOGRE, FRIEND AND SYRIAN PRISON SURVIVOR: When he got out and lived in this world, he's seen that the world doesn't care, and that's the only
hope he had to live for, that the world care enough to go and save the cell mates that he left behind.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): He flew back to Damascus in February of 2020, and was almost immediately forcibly disappeared again, Nelson began to draw.
NELSON: This is the only way I think I can think of as an art person to keep his memory -- is to every week, every other day, every month, draw
him.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): His fate unknown until rebels took control of Damascus and burst open serious prisons. Images of al-Hamada's body
surfaced online, too gruesome for us to show. He was killed inside the notorious Saydnaya prison and his body dumped at a nearby hospital, his
family says.
Just one week before his dream of a free Syria was realized. But his testimony against tyranny is everlasting.
ALSHOGRE: His story will all be always be used as evidence and a testimony against this regime that that need to be prosecuted.
ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): One of the first to stand up to Assad was one of the last of his victims. Now Syria's new rulers say justice for him and
countless others is their mission.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ABDELAZIZ (on camera): Now, those who loved and worked with and were friends with Mazen al-Hamada said it would have been his greatest life
stream to see Syria free, something that he missed by mere days living under Assad's regime, dying in those torture chambers, he was one of the
first to stand up to President Bashar Al Assad in one of the last of his victims.
Syria's New Rebel Leader Jolani says that one of the priorities of this new government will be to get justice for him and the hundreds of thousands of
others killed under that regime, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Salma Abdelaziz really appreciate that reporting. Now in a sign of its growing influence in the region, Turkey has sent a delegation to
Damascus, together with officials from Qatar to meet the new government. It includes the Turkish Foreign Minister and intelligence chief, as well as
the state security head from Qatar.
Now they were due to meet with the Rebel Leader, Mohammed Al Jolani, as well as Syria's Caretaker Prime Minister, but the Syrian government says
the talks were aimed at getting the new leadership to engage with its regional neighbors now. Now, as you see here, Secretary of State, Antony
Blinken.
He is in Baghdad, as we've mentioned, meeting with multiple, as we expect, multiple officials over the course of a region that has seen a good bit of
chaos, at the very least, movement, over the past few months.
[09:10:00]
And this comes fresh from a trip to Turkey as we see him in Baghdad, and we mentioned at the very top he has been making remarks there. In a previously
unannounced visit, he met with the Iraqi Prime Minister in a new effort to ensure a smooth transition after the Syrian regime's collapse.
Earlier though, in Qatar, Blinken told his Turkish counterpart, it was imperative not to let the terror group ISIS gain a foothold in Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We're very focused on Syria, very focused on the opportunity that now is before us and before the Syrian
people, to move out from under the shackles of Bashar Al Assad to a different and better future for the Syrian people, one that the Syrian
people decide for themselves.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now, Blinken didn't explicitly mention fighting between Turkish backed forces and a Kurdish militia backed by the United States and
Northern Syria. But CNN State Department Reporter Jennifer Hansler is traveling with the Secretary of State, and she joins us by phone. So, can
you just tell us about this particular trip and what the priorities may be here?
JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, hi, Omar. We have been focused on this trip, on this urgent effort to coordinate a response
to Syria in the wake of that stunning collapse of the Assad regime less than a week ago. Blinken first arrived to Jordan yesterday for meetings
with Jordanian officials on this sort of coordinated approach to a transition to a new government and the need to ensure that terrorist groups
like ISIS do not reemerge in this chaotic vacuum we are seeing right now.
He then travels to Ankara, Turkey, where he met with the President Erdogan, and this morning as well, with the Turkish Foreign Minister. And as you
said, he emphasized the need to continue that fight against ISIS, noting that they had put that terrorist group in a box of sorts. They have been
able to dismantle its territorial caliphate, and they do not want to risk that returning.
And then we arrived here in Baghdad, Iraq about two hours ago for that unannounced meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister. Of course, they are a
key partner in the fight against this terrorist group. There is also a strong Iranian influence. The Iran back militias do have a foothold here in
Iran that likely also came up in their conversations as well.
Blinken just spoke there at the embassy in Baghdad, and he talked again about the need to ensure that there is a smooth transition, an inclusive
transition, a period led transition to a new government there in Damascus, as well as a need to ensure that no terrorist group can take advantage of
the instability we are seeing on the ground here, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Obviously, a critical moment in the region. Jennifer Hansler, traveling with Secretary of State. Really appreciate the reporting. Now the
Middle East Institute's Director of Strategic Outreach and friend of the show Firas Maksad explains why the visits that Blinken and Sullivan are
making right now in the Middle East are so important.
FIRAS MAKSAD, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC OUTREACH AT MIDDLE EAST INSTITUTE: The United States here has an opportunity to emerge as the big power in the
Middle East. At a time of great power competition, there is a Pax Americana here, that is in the making, given that its rivals Russia, but also the
regional power of Iran, are right now on their back foot.
The Iranian axis in the region, from Hezbollah in Lebanon to the Assad regime in Syria, is essentially faltering. But the tricky part in all this
is that America's allies are not united, and so the Arabs have an interest of their own. The Turks a different agenda, the Turks, for example, very
much adopting the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, whereas that poses a threat to American allies in Jordan, the Hashemite royal family.
And then certainly within Syria, Kurd versus Arabs and various movements and trends within those rebel forces. So, it's a moment where all the
spokes end up in Washington, which is the only hub that can bring all these pieces together. And this is why it's so crucial that Secretary Blinken is
in the region, that American diplomacy remains engaged.
And that we try to put the pieces of that puzzle together, most of them America's allies, but perhaps not necessarily working together.
JIMENEZ: And over the course of this, a major American ally, Israel is continuing to strike targets within Syria. Now, the IDF released this video
Thursday, reportedly showing the Israeli Air Force targeting surface to air missile launchers and Syrian Air Force fighter jets.
Israel also says it struck Syrian air force bases in the Northern Damascus area, as well as weapons manufacturing sites in the area of Homs pointing
towards those strikes, United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres expressed deep concern on Thursday over quote, the recent and extensive violations of
Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
[09:15:00]
Meanwhile, speaking in Israel after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, implied Thursday that
a hostage cease fire deal between Israel and Hamas could be drawing near. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: We have been in a place before where American officials have stood before podiums and said we are
close, and we were close, but we didn't get there. I believe we are close again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now he is off to Cairo now and Qatar to try to push that deal through before U.S. President Joe Biden leaves office. And as you just
realized over the course of those stories, this has been a year of great regional change. And it's impacting Iran's presence in the region as much
as any countries. CNN's Paula Hancocks has more.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The October 7th attack by Hamas on Israel last year shocked the world and devastated Israel. But one
unexpected outcome, the subsequent backlash has also been devastating for Hamas' main sponsor, Iran. Now, Iran's so-called Axis of Resistance has
allowed it to act militarily through its proxies, providing it the luxury of deniability, however implausible that became.
So, we'll start in Gaza, following October 7th, the Israeli response has been overwhelming. Tens of thousands of civilians killed. Much of Gaza lies
in ruins, and Hamas itself has been decimated while there are still pockets of fighters. The mastermind of October 7th, Yahya Sinwar was killed, along
with most commanders.
Ismail Haniyeh, the political head, was assassinated in July while staying in Iran. Next on to Lebanon and Hezbollah was the largest non-state
military in the Middle East and considered Iran's last line of defense. It engaged Israel in low level conflict to support Hamas, which eventually
spiraled into all-out war.
Its leadership has been decapitated. Hassan Nasrallah assassinated, thousands of fighters killed or maimed, along with many Lebanese civilians.
Agreeing to a cease fire last month, Hezbollah is far from destroyed, but it has been severely weakened. And now Syria, Syria has toppled its
dictator, Bashar Al Assad, a key Iranian ally.
Hezbollah's focus on its war with Israel, plus Russia, focusing on its war in Ukraine left Assad without support and exposed. The loss of Syria leaves
Hezbollah isolated in Lebanon as it effectively closes the weapons resupply route from Iran to Lebanon. Now, Iranian backed militias in Iraq and Yemen
remain largely intact, but they are being repeatedly targeted by the United States and its allies.
So, the Biden Administration has said that Iran is looking at a very different Middle East today. The October 7th attacks set off a course of
events that have weakened Iran and its regional ambitions of dominance. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
JIMENEZ: Thank you for that reporting, Paula. Still to come on CNN, how new search warrants may shed light on the motive behind the insurance executive
killing in New York. And concerns grow over mysterious objects flying in the skies over New Jersey. We're going to tell you what U.S. officials are
saying about these drones and whether they actually pose a threat. Details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:20:00]
JIMENEZ: Welcome back, after days of political grid lock, France now knows who will be moving into the prime minister's office. The French President
has chosen centrist to replace Michel Barnier who became the shortest serving prime minister in modern French history, after a no Francois Bayrou
confidence vote last week. Melissa Bell has more from Paris.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A centrist French politician. He now becomes the fourth prime minister this year to take over
at a particularly difficult time. But he is considered a politician who can federate as many of those disparate French political forces as possible.
It's unclear whether it will actually work in the long term, and his government can hold longer than Michel Barnier's did, which had a historic
low, a historic record, rather for brevity, was just three months long. Whether Francois Bayrou can stay longer?
Much depends, of course, now on what happens in Parliament, he's going to have to name a new government that the three very different blocs in
Parliament can agree upon, or at least that none can vote down. But he is considered a centrist. He's well respected in French politics.
He's been further to the right at times, under certain presence, closer to the left at others, forming his own middle party the modem many years ago.
And so, he is considered both to have the stature and the center position that might allow, if anyone can do it, prime minister to take time, to take
control at this very divided time in French politics.
JIMENEZ: Melissa Bell, thank you for that reporting. I want to bring you back to the United States right now, where we're following new developments
in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, two court dates are now set in Pennsylvania as accused killer Luigi Mangione fights extradition
to New York.
And prosecutors in New York have started presenting evidence against Mangione to a grand jury there, according to ABC News. We have also learned
that Mangione was not insured by United Healthcare, even though he accused of gunning down the company's CEO. I want to bring in CNN's Chief Law
Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller, who has been on this from the very start.
John, can you just give us a sense of where we are right now in this investigation, and maybe what hurdles prosecutors might face in regards to
getting them this person back to New York.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, Omar, three basic developments. One, as you reported, the grand jury, which ABC
News broke the story on. That is a normal piece of the mechanics to be charged with a felony in New York State, you first must be indicted by a
grand jury.
So, while he is resisting being extradited from Pennsylvania, they are using that time to present the evidence they have to a grand jury secure
that indictment, and within two weeks, they'll be arguing in court for that extradition after the Governor of New York signs the warrant and it's
delivered to Pennsylvania.
Search warrants, they have obtained three search warrants. This is likely for the computer that he was arrested with. They're going to want to get
into that computer and see what was he doing at that table in the back of a McDonald's was he looking up ways to escape the United States?
Was he looking at potentially another target? Was he reading about the case to see if they were hot on his trail? They won't know till they figure out
how to get into that computer, but first they need that warrant. And of course, the revelation that he was not, and apparently never was a United
Healthcare customer that fits into really kind of what he put in his three- page letter that was found on his person, allegedly.
Which appears to be a claim of responsibility for this murder, where he cites United Healthcare as the fifth largest company in America, just
behind Apple and Google and Wal Mart, and that it keeps growing and growing, and he accuses it of greed and abusing its customers.
JIMENEZ: Well, of course, a manhunt that gripped a lot of the country now in custody, and of course, the gears of justice turn. John Miller, really
appreciate it.
MILLER: Thanks, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Meanwhile, eyes on the skies, questions mount over the origin of unexplained drones hovering over New Jersey. The Federal Aviation
Administration says the sightings began last month with some people describing the aircraft as big as bicycles or small cars. Lawmakers,
though, are ramping up pressure on the federal government for answers.
[09:25:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD BLUEMENTHAL (D-CT): They should be shot down, if necessary, because they're flying over sensitive areas.
REP. BRIAN BERGEN (R-NJ): The whole government, state police, Department of Homeland Security, the governor, they need to take this way more seriously.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): It's a bit embarrassing that given the length of time and the number of sightings, that we don't have information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now one New Jersey Congressman even went so far as to point fingers at foreign adversaries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JEFF VAN DREW (R-NJ): These drones very well could be launched from a ship. It could be hundreds of miles out that sea. These types of drones go
much greater distances. These, again, are something that we normally don't see in the United States. So, there is a real possibility. Could it be
China, absolutely. Could it be somebody else. It sure could --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now, I should mention, federal authorities have ruled out these being any sort of the work of any sort of foreign state at this point, but
there's still more investigating to do. These drones or drone type aircraft have also been spotted near a U.S. military research facility in New Jersey
and over President-elect Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
These sightings, though, are prompting the FA to issue temporary flight restrictions, and according to the Associated Press, the Coast Guard said
multiple quote, low altitude aircraft were spotted near one of their vessels, but they weren't seen as an immediate threat and didn't interfere
with any operations. The Biden Administration is insisting there is no threat to the public.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national
security or a public safety threat or have a foreign Nexus. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are investigating --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Now, CNN Military Analyst, Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, spoke earlier at the CNN about the need for answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLONEL, CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: When you look at the flight path that some of these flying objects will call them for -- I have
taken its --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And that was obviously just the beginning of Leighton's remarks there. But there are a lot of people clamoring for answers in regards to
what those flying objects are over New Jersey, especially because authorities have not said exactly what they are. Many questions in the
unknown. Still to come for us, the rise of Bitcoin and Donald Trump's influence, a fierce critic of the president-elect, weighs in just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
JIMENEZ: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York, and you're watching "Connect the World". The markets have just opened in this city,
and almost all green, but a lot of green for people, ooh, live. Look at look at that. We came right at the right time. Let's get out before those
changes.
But that's how the day starts. Meanwhile, Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci was recently in Abu Dhabi, the home base for
this show where he took part in a CNN Academy master class film in front of an audience of Academy students.
During a broad conversation with our Becky Anderson, Scaramucci weighed in on Donald Trump's push for Bitcoin. Scaramucci has long been an advocate
for the cryptocurrency, and you can read all about it in his new book, little book of Bitcoin. Becky asked him, though, what he thought about the
recent surge of Bitcoin, which you can see has had a major surge over 100,000. Take a listen to some of the conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Whether you like President Trump or dislike him. He looked at the tea leaves. He saw
that there was a big opportunity to diverge himself from the Democrats on this. And if you read his speech, he's talking about propitious regulation.
He's talking about up the road, middle of the road, regulation.
He's not talking about under regulation or putting consumers at risk in the cryptocurrency space. And I think that this has really resonated with
people globally. I think it's going to change the behavior of a lot of countries, including China. So yes, I do think he deserves credit for the
recent run. It would have gotten there, but it's gotten there a lot faster as a result of his leadership.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN ANCHOR, CONNECT THE WORLD: He may have been opportunistic, but he certainly put cryptocurrency back in vogue had it
ever disappeared. We've seen, you know, a lot of volatility in the coin market. Do you see that continuing this one? What's your forecast?
SCARAMUCCI: As these things get adopted, whether it was the airlines, the telecommunication industry, the horseless carriages that we now call cars,
they all went through periods of tremendous volatility. And so, as you adapt something, and there's lots of uncertainty, there will be volatility,
but at the same time, there is demand.
And I've been on "Wall Street" for 35 years less, my 11-day fiasco in the White House. And I can tell you that "Wall Street" is selling this idea to
its clients, and so I think there will be a higher floor for things like Bitcoin going forward. I would argue that Bitcoin has many of the same
technical properties that have gold in terms of its store of value nature, but it's scarcer than gold, and it's more easily transportable than gold.
You can move $200 million of Bitcoin on a USB. You can't do that with gold, and so it may be, it may end up becoming more valuable.
ANDERSON: If China were, as you predict, to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve next year. This is a major super power. I wonder how you believe
that that will impact, or would impact, Donald Trump's strategy towards crypto currency.
SCARAMUCCI: I conditioned it on one thing that the U.S. did the same thing. Senator Lummis has a piece of legislation out that she wants voted on next
year, which is calling for a strategic Bitcoin reserve for the United States. It would be 1 million coins purchased over five years at current
market prices approximately 80 or 90 billion U.S. dollars.
And she's saying that in addition to holding gold in our federal reserve account, that we should also hold Bitcoin alongside of it. If we do that,
other Western nations will do that. And of course, the Chinese they do not like Bitcoin because it's a libertarian idea, and the Chinese Communist
Party likes the control of the society, which is why they ban Bitcoin.
But interestingly enough, despite the ban of Bitcoin four years ago, 10 percent of the mining, Bitcoin mining happens in China, which goes to show
you how hard it is to control Bitcoin. But I think the Chinese will have no choice. They don't want to fall behind the West.
[09:35:00]
ANDERSON: The UAE has done an enormous amount of business recently in partnerships and investments into AI and advanced tech. So, Donald Trump's
announcement today on truth social that he will be reducing regulation expediating deals over a billion dollars of investment coming into the U.S.
will work well for those from this part of the world who are looking to increasingly invest in the U.S. economy. What do you make of the AI and
advanced tech push here?
SCARAMUCCI: When I come to the UAE, I see the future. I'm here in the UAE learning about something that the rest of the world is going to be doing
five years from now. And so, I think this is a country, and I will give credit to President Trump. I want to be objective. He understands that.
OK. He has a good relationship with the leaders here. He has a good relationship with the Saudi's. I think the Qatari relationship is obviously
complicated. I think the president has done a good job of trying to help people in terms of thinking about it more holistically in the region.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ: That was Anthony Scaramucci with our Becky Anderson. Up next an orbital experiment to unravel the mysteries of the aging process. You're
going to want to stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JIMENEZ: Samples of human tissue are currently in orbit on the International Space Station. It is an experiment to see why the process of
aging speeds up in space and whether age related disease can be slowed down. CNN's Nick Valencia has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- in the spirit of exploration --
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outer space may hold the answer to some of humanity's greatest questions, what causes aging and can
the process be altered. Human Tissue samples called organoids are now in orbit at the International Space Station, and identical samples are back on
Earth at Oxford University Space Innovation Lab.
This experiment will allow researchers to compare and analyze data from both samples to study the aging process and the impact of micro gravity on
it.
GHADA ALSALEH, SPACE INNOVATION LAB: So, this is a very new project where we work between, actually the frontier between the space and the ology.
VALENCIA (voice-over): Inside the International Space Station, a box containing human tissue samples serves as a controlled environment.
ALSALEH: The books have a small computer and all the detection material that we need to get the measurements we wanted, and we can actually control
that and see all the data coming, all the time.
VALENCIA (voice-over): Researchers don't require assistance from the astronauts aboard the space station, as they can automatically gather the
information from their laboratory on Earth.
[09:40:00]
ALSALEH: It could be able to measure few things without interacting anyone.
VALENCIA (voice-over): Over the years, astronauts have suffered from muscle loss, joint and bone issues and problems with their immune system.
Researchers found that this is similar to an age-related disease.
ALSALEH: And this led us to ask the question, if the space might provide us with an accelerating aging model. And if it is the case, that mean we can
actually be able to study aging very faster, because this has happened in very short time while aging and our -- needed different years.
VALENCIA (voice-over): With future missions planned to send humans to Mars and beyond, the impact of space travel on aging will become a key issue.
Nick Valencia, CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is cheering for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We estimate you've completed your marathon right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ: I can imagine a marathon is a little easier in space, but I've never been so who knows. Look, there's also a new champion in the world of
chess. Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju has become the youngest ever undisputed world champ in classical chess after beating his Chinese rival
in a grueling best of 14 final in Singapore.
The 18-year-old is four years younger than the previous record holder the legendary Gary Kasparov won his first world title in 1985. Gukesh broke
into tears as the emotion of his victory sunken, telling reporters he's living a dream he's had for more than a decade. Back in India, celebrations
broke out for the hometown hero.
Look how closely all those kids are watching him. There such an unbelievable moment in the world of chess. All right, much more in sport.
After the break with my colleague Amanda Davies. I'll be back in 15 minutes with more. "Connect the World", where we're going to get the very latest on
serious transition. We're seeing large crowds on the streets of Damascus. Keeping an eye on those. Stay with CNN. We'll see you soon.
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