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One World with Zain Asher
Ninth Woman Found Dead in the Last Two Months Near Johannesburg; Russia Holds Parliamentary Elections Amid Intensifying War; Far-right Afd Party Eyes Another State Election Victory; Some Republican Candidates Pull Away from Trump as Voting Begins; Giving a Voice to Those Who Did Not Choose to Be Childless; Winemakers Face Uncertain Future Following Scorching Summer. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired September 18, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: Hello, everyone. Live from New York. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: And I'm Zain Asher. Coming up on "One World", a very serious allegation coming from the United Nations, aimed at
the U.S. saying it may have committed war crimes in Iran with two separate strikes. Plus, a ninth woman's body has been found as South Africa probes a
series of recent killings.
And it is World Childless Week. That's an initiative aimed to raise awareness of those who are actually childless but not by choice. We'll
speak to the founder about her push to enable every childless person to share their story with confidence. Right, we begin with a damning report
from the United Nations on American military conduct on the very first day it launched its war with Iran.
A U.N. fact-finding mission says that they have reasonable grounds to believe the U.S. committed war crimes in Iran.
GOLODRYGA: The allegations center on a pair of air strikes on February 28th. One hit an elementary school in the Southern City of Minab, killing
at least 156 people, including 120 children. Investigators concluded the strike was reckless and indiscriminate.
ASHER: The second strike happened on the same day. It targeted a sports center and residential area in the southern Iranian City of Lamerd. The
U.N. says that 22 civilians were killed in that attack.
GOLODRYGA: The strike on the school is considered one of the worst civilian casualty incidents in recent U.S. military history. A U.S. State Department
official tells CNN that the Trump Administration did not find the report credible. The findings by the International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran
are to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
ASHER: Separately, U.N. investigators say the Iran regime's crackdown of anti-government protesters in late 2025 and early 2026, before the war,
also amount to crimes against humanity as well. CNN Senior National Security Reporter Jennifer Hansler joins us live now from Washington D.C.
So, Jennifer, it's important to note the U.S. is not a member of the International Criminal Court. That is, of course, the global body that
investigates these kinds of accusations of war crimes. It does have its own mechanism to investigate war crimes itself. But just explain to us what can
actually come out of this.
JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, Zain and Bianna, this report itself, which was compiled by a group of independent
investigators, does not actually have a judicial backing, but it could be used in a potential probe by, for example, the International Criminal
Court, which does look into alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, and brings occasional charges against those who are alleged of perpetrating
them.
Now, of course, the United States has waged an aggressive campaign against the ICC, calling for its dismantlement and seeking to prevent any
investigations into itself as well as Israel. Now, when it comes to this report, the U.S. Administration has spoken out very strongly against it,
especially when it comes to its presentation to the U.N. Human Rights Council, which it has also withdrawn from.
As you said, the State Department official claimed that the findings were not credible, and I want to read you what White House spokesperson Anna
Kelly said in response. She said, quote, the only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime, which has murdered
thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz and launched indiscriminate attacks
against its neighbors in the region.
She went on to say, quote, the president is courageously ensuring that such an evil country never possesses a nuclear weapon, which makes the entire
world safer and more stable. Now, we should note, of course, that this report also did find that the Iranian regime may have committed crimes
against humanity in its deadly crackdown against government protesters.
Now, as you said, this report is quite damning in what it found about these U.S. strikes, particularly on that school in Minab. And it comes as the
U.S. itself has not yet released any sort of findings into its investigation into that strike. The U.S. Defense Department did not comment
on this U.N. report, other than to say that investigation is ongoing.
However, you may recall that sources who were familiar with the preliminary findings said that the U.S. Central Command had used outdated data when it
was creating its targeting coordinates in that strike, Zain, Bianna.
[11:05:00]
ASHER: Jennifer Hansler live for us. Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: Let's take a closer look at the developments with Jared Genser. He is an international human rights lawyer and advisory board member at the
Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.
Sir, just if you could explain to our viewers what separates a catastrophic targeting mistake from a war crime.
JARED GENSER, INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER Sure. Well, you know, I begin by saying that the two cases that are identified in this U.N. report
are actually different and implicate different principles. But if we start, for example, with the issue of the school that was hit, right?
The fundamental issue here is about whether the United States, having attacked this civilian target, violated the duty to take feasible
precautions, most especially the duty to verify that a target was a remain an appropriate target based on the updated information. And from the
reporting that we've seen so far, you know, it appears like artificial intelligence was engaged in the targeting process.
But in fact, you know, the United States did not know when it launched the attack that it was attacking a school. And so, I think it's important to
understand with respect to the school that, you know, that it's one thing to say that this was a failure of taking feasible precautions, and -- but
that isn't the same as including that it's a war crime.
You know, a catastrophic or even grossly negligent targeting failure is not automatically a war crime. It's a different case when you look at the
stadium and the dropping the bombs, you know, in an indiscriminate manner, right? And in that particular case, we're talking about a situation where
the violations of humanitarian law relate to, you know, obviously not, you know, dropping weapons over a wide munition, wide area of munitions across
a populated neighborhood that is obviously known to be a civilian neighborhood.
So, both of these are important cases that need to be investigated further. I think that the U.N. report gives a strong step forward, but obviously the
United States needs to come out immediately with its own report as to what happened as well.
ASHER: Yeah, just in terms of how this is going to be investigated further, as I understand it, the Iranians only responded to some of the questions.
They weren't able to get necessarily full participation, some participation from the United States, but not full. There are so many questions that
needs to be answered at this point.
But to your point, the U.S.'s point of view is that they did not know that. Obviously, this was a school that essentially early evidence suggests that
the military accidentally hit the school because of outdated intelligence. So, just walk us through what the next steps are in this investigation.
GENSER: Yeah. Well, look. I mean, I think the intentional targeting point isn't the relevant point when it comes to the attack on the school, I don't
think there is any evidence that we've seen so far or heard about that the U.S. intentionally targeted the school. It was simply grossly negligent in
targeting the school, and that is a, you know, that is a really important distinction to make.
In one case, you're violating humanitarian law by you know a failure to take feasible precautions, and if you did that intentionally, then that
would be in fact a war crime. So, I don't believe with respect to the school that it's a war crime, but I do think there's a failure to take
feasible precautions, which still violates international law.
In terms of what comes next, you know, I think it's a big question mark. You know, there isn't a pathway for the International Criminal Court
actually to investigate this further, because neither Iran nor the United States are states parties to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.
And so, you know really, I think that this U.N. investigation as I said should hopefully put more pressure on the United States to come out with
its own investigation ultimately though there's really no easy pathway at any multilateral tribunal to actually conduct an investigation into exactly
what happened and come to conclusions of fact and conclusions of law that could have consequences for actual people serving in the U.S. military.
GOLODRYGA: In terms of timing, are you surprised that the U.S. hasn't come out with its own independent investigation? And in these circumstances, how
much time is the typical window in which the Department of Defense spends to investigate thoroughly an incident like this?
GENSER: Yeah, I mean, you know, to me, this incident should have been able to be investigated within easily six months, if not shorter than that. The
attack obviously was in February, you know, of 2026. And so, you know, we should be seeing a report straight away at this point.
[11:10:00]
And if a report does not come out, then obviously that doesn't make the United States look especially good because it would suggest that the United
States you know, has something to hide. At the end of the day, I'm imagining the Trump Administration doesn't want to put out information
that's going to detail the mistakes that it made.
Undoubtedly, they made mistakes, and I think that you know countries around the world, Iran, but frankly, you know, all countries that care about, you
know, human rights and want to see an abiding by the Geneva Conventions should be calling on the United States to be fully transparent with what
took place and to hold people who made the names accountable for their failures.
ASHER: Yeah, and what does accountability look like? Because in the immediate aftermath of this tragedy, we saw blaming. Obviously, we saw
finger pointing at Iran. We saw the president come out and say, well, you know, honestly, I just don't know much about this.
If there ends up being an independent investigation conducted by the United States, what does accountability actually look like? If the conclusion of
that investigation is that yes, of course, the U.S. did make preventable mistakes here.
GENSER: Yeah, I mean, you know, in an ordinary set of circumstances, any military in the world would want to conduct a full and independent
investigation and learn from what took place. And so, you know, if this was an ordinary set of circumstances and an ordinary government in the United
States.
Then, you know, what we should see is an investigation to understand exactly what happened with respect to the school, you know, you're going to
want to understand what were the failures in process that led to the targeting of the school. And clearly, the use of AI without verifying
information that was updated was an enormous procedural mistake that needs to be fixed.
And whoever is responsible for overseeing the targeting systems who allowed this to happen should be, you know, held accountable for having done so,
you know, what would be appropriate under the circumstances. It would depend a lot on the facts. But you know, at a bare minimum, you know
somebody who oversaw this kind of a process should be fired from their job.
And potentially they could be prosecuted for you know the implications of their gross negligence because we can't forget that 150 people were killed
in the attack on the school, including 120 children. And you know, with respect to the attack on the stadium and the neighborhood, you know, that
just should have never happened in the first place at all.
And this was an indiscriminate attack over a civilian area, and the consequences should be more severe for allowing something like that to
happen.
GOLODRYGA: All right, Jared Genser. Thank you so much. Appreciate the time.
GENSER: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: Well, South African women are terrified after a ninth young female victim was murdered east of Johannesburg in just the last two
months.
ASHER: Investigators have not said whether the killings are linked. However, all nine women were found in the same area east of Johannesburg,
and all were in the same age range. South Africa's femicide rate is among the highest in the world. A top national police official says that his
investigators are up to the task of solving these murders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The South African police service and its partners are very much capable. There have been incidents before that we managed to
crack and solve. I am very confident, and I will say this, putting my head on the block, that the teams that we are having are very much able and
capable of doing.
If we need to get augmentation or supplementation of the teams, it's within the South African Police Service that will get that capacity, and they will
do the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Eleni Giokos joins us live now from Abu Dhabi with more. I mean, Eleni, I mean, you are from South Africa. You've spent much of your life
there. I mean, I've spent time with you in South Africa as well. This is heartbreaking. Nobody is saying that South Africa is the only country that
has an issue with violence or violence against women, but the rates of violence against women is staggeringly high in this country.
And a lot of women in South Africa feel that not only is the police not doing as much as they should to protect them, but also there's this feeling
that you really can't do anything alone in certain sectors of the population there as a woman. Just walk us through, from your perspective as
somebody who is from South Africa.
I mean, what is going on here, and what does police in South Africa need to do to ensure that women in this country feel better served and protected by
them.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, women in South Africa are absolutely petrified. All my friends, my family that I've spoken to say they are
afraid to leave the home. They're afraid to go for a run. They're afraid to, you know, go out to the mall. Afraid to leave their house at night.
And that's the reality of living in South Africa, and in fact, you always look over your shoulder. You know, with these nine women that were found
dead in the eastern part of Johannesburg, concentrated in one particular area, has raised major alarm bells.
[11:15:00]
You know, police are talking about this being a potential serial killer, perhaps being a few people involved in some kind of syndicate, and there's
no real proof of that as yet. But when you have nine women that have been dumped in certain parts of a major city over a two-month period, it's
created an enormous amount of outrage, outpouring of grief, and absolute anger.
One just only has to look at social media. But you're right to say that femicide rates are extremely high in South Africa. You know, between the
months of April and June, 569 women have been murdered, according to the United Nations, 15 women a day are killed in South Africa.
This is not a new problem. There was one particular case of a woman, Elizabeth "Tsontso" Moselakgomo, who was, you know, disappeared on the 9th
of September. She went out for a run. She left her eight-year-old daughter at home. When she didn't get back in time, her daughter alerted family, who
then alerted the police.
And then a few days later they found her dead, and this created you know major viral response online, and then that forced police to look at all the
other related cases. I want you to take a listen to what the Minister of Women and Youth told me a little earlier today as they continue their
investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SINDISIWE CHIKUNGA, MINISTER FOR WOMEN, YOUTH & PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: There is an arrest of one person for the person who was killed in July in
the area, and that person is an intimate partner of that woman who was murdered. Police are making a following lead on other murders.
However, I think it is still early for one to state whether there is a serial killer or not. I must indicate that of the nine bodies that were
reported, five are still unidentified, and therefore, and nobody has reported them as missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GIOKOS: All right. So, while one arrest has been made, they're still investigating to see if there's a link because the way the bodies have been
discarded, and I'm trying to be as sensitive as I possibly can. There's a similarity. These women are in the 20s or in their 30s.
They were sexually assaulted. Some with stab wounds. I mean, it's really very gruesome. President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2025 declared gender-based
violence as a national disaster. Already back then, they created a council. They created summits to discuss how they're going to deal with femicide.
A lot of activists say that's made really very little change, and women are still being failed on a daily basis, but there seems to be something that's
really shifted in the South African psyche. When I speak to experts, they say it's multifaceted, right? It's about why men are murdering and raping
because those rates are super high.
But it's also about law enforcement. It's also about the judiciary and bringing all those elements together to try and bring the numbers down.
Importantly, we also have to focus on the fact that black women are disproportionately affected in South Africa daily. It is a scary scenario,
and this case has created a huge debate.
Men and women are coming together to see what will be done, but definitely big questions about what government should be doing to change this reality
because for women this isn't about just over two-month period of a concentrated case in a certain part of Johannesburg. It's happening every
day across South Africa.
ASHER: I'm so glad you mentioned Eleni about what black women or women of color in South Africa experience. I was saying to Bianna, a second ago that
you know for white tourists who visit Cape Town, you know, for a vacation, they experience a very different reality, very different reality for than
ordinary sort of black, poorer South African women.
And I'm so glad that you're covering this story. Such an important point that you're making, Eleni. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Still ahead
on "One World".
GOLODRYGA: The far-right party in Germany surging again as voters head to the polls on Sunday. We'll have the latest from the campaign trail ahead.
ASHER: And in Russia, voters are deciding who will be in the lower house of the Russian parliament. Details ahead on the controversies surrounding
today's elections.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:20:00]
ASHER: Right, starting today, Russians are voting in the country's first parliamentary election since the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
GOLODRYGA: The Kremlin continues to intensify the conflict now in its fifth year. While Russian President Vladimir Putin is not on the ballot, his
presence has cast a long shadow over politics for more than two decades now. Russia's only registered anti-war party has been barred from this
election.
ASHER: At stake, 450 seats in the State Duma, which is the lower house of the Russian Parliament. Voting will continue into the weekend, ending on
Sunday. The United Russia party, which backs Putin, is widely expected, of course, to win a majority of seats. No surprises there.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, let's discuss this with Clare Sebastian, who joins us now live from London. So Yabloko, the anti-war party, banned as well, and its
leaders arrested. This just once again puts into context for our viewers the idea of free and fair elections has not been in place in Russia for
decades now.
Vladimir Putin, though, is insisting that everyone should turn out and vote. What message is he trying to send the country?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Bianna, I think that's where you get the contradiction, right? Because on the one hand, this is not a
democratic exercise in the true sense of the word, right? Because there are, of course, other parties on the ballot, but they all fall in line with
the Kremlin and with the United Russia, Putin's party, on issues of policy, and in particular when it comes to the war.
But on the other hand, the Kremlin does want this sort of show of democracy, the trappings of democracy. You see it with the sort of the pre-
election campaigning. There was some of that. There were even debates, although I will say the facade slipped in some cases.
And we saw a couple of instances where candidates just didn't turn up for the debates, or very few of them turned up. It seems that there is some
fatigue around this show of democracy, but they need it to sort of show their legitimacy, to sort of claim that they have support for their key
policies.
But I want you to listen to the co-founder of that Yabloko Party that was barred from running, Grigory Yavlinsky, about how he describes this
election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRIGORY YAVLINSKY, YABLOKO PATY CO-FOUNDER: -- those who are allowed to run, they are 100 percent supporting the current political line of the
Kremlin authority of the government and the President of Russia, they supporting for just with no questions, and Yabloko was an opponent.
Yabloko was trying to insist on the different way, on alternative, to move to immediate ceasefire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: So, his view is that they -- the reason they were allowed initially on the ballot because the Kremlin didn't see it as a risk, and
then it turned out that there was a lot more support for Yabloko. A lot more people wanted to express their anti-war sentiment by voting for them,
than the Kremlin had expected.
[11:25:00]
So, then we had this court case that was brought by another party on the ballot, and they ended up getting barred. Look, clearly there is an
atmosphere of unease that has been increasing so far this year in Russia. We've seen with you know the increasing frequency of Ukrainian drone
attacks, fuel shortages, internet outages.
There's been a real fear in the lead-up to this election that Putin could be getting ready, despite his strenuous denials, to launch another round of
mobilization. And at the same time, we have another sign that the Kremlin is using this election to try to legitimize its war.
I'm going to show you some images. Hopefully, you have them of voting, early voting that's been taking place in occupied Ukraine. We've seen men
in military fatigues, masked men carrying ballot boxes into rural areas. This is something that the Ukrainians are extremely concerned about.
These are areas in Ukraine that Russia has claimed to illegally annex that are still internationally recognized as Ukraine, and they've called it a
farce and an illegal spectacle.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, those were scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war, as well, or just before Russia launched its larger scale invasion of
Ukraine in 2022. All right, Clare Sebastian, thank you so much. One other consequential vote takes place in Europe this weekend.
This time in Germany, voters will head to the polls in two regional elections on Sunday.
ASHER: Yeah, current polling suggests pressure on Chancellor Friedrich Merz as the far-right AfD party looks to make some big gains again, capitalizing
on economic anxiety and growing anger towards Merz. CNN's Fred Pleitgen has the latest from a recent campaign event.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Germany's right-wing AfD looking to race to another state election victory
in the former communist east of the country, doing 25 miles an hour on old socialist-era motorbikes, like at this campaign event.
Their most potent fuel voter anger at Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a participant who would only give his first name Chris, tells me. He's the
wrong guy, Chris says. He had his chance. He will never be able to recover. Many people just feel this man is incapable.
The AfD is leading the polls here in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, capitalizing not just on Germany's economic turmoil, but also propagating mass
deportations of undocumented foreigners, as well as ending all military aid to Ukraine and renewing ties with Russia.
A position the AfD's candidate for governor tells me aligns them with the Trump Administration. Like America First, we want Germany first, he says.
That's our core value, and it's also good for international stability if Germany is stable in the middle of Europe, with good relations with the
U.S. and towards the east.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern could be the AfD's second big win in only a matter of weeks. In early September, they beat Merz's CDU in the State of Saxony-
Anhalt by a landslide. A desperate Friedrich Merz then attacked the AfD's mass deportation policy, which they themselves call remigration in German
Parliament.
If what you demand became true, remigration, which is nothing more than ethnic cleansing by skin color and country of origin, he says. But so far,
Merz's political counterpunches don't seem to be landing. His popularity has fallen off a cliff, and there's a discussion even among some in his own
party about him possibly being replaced as chancellor soon.
Merz himself says he will not step down, but back at the AfD's communist era scooter rally, Chris explains how Merz lost his vote. Many voters feel
they're just not interesting for the chancellor, he says that's why I think maybe it's not just a protest vote, but you have to try something new if
the old doesn't work.
A sentiment that appears to be growing in parts of Germany, jeopardizing the current government and turbocharging the far right. Fred Pleitgen, CNN,
Schwerin, Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Well thanks to Fred for that report. All right, still ahead on "One World". ASHER: Early voting in the U.S. is underway, with a potential
rift among the Republican Party, while some GOP candidates are keeping their distance from President Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:30:00]
ASHER: All right, welcome back to "One World". I'm Zain Asher.
GOLODRYGA: And I'm Bianna Golodryga. Here are some of the headlines that we are watching today.
ASHER: A U.N. team of investigators says the U.S. may have committed war crimes on the first day of its war with Iran. The independent fact-finding
mission says there are grounds to believe the U.S. launched indiscriminate attacks twice on February 28th. At least 156 civilians, including 120
children, were killed at an elementary school that was hit.
GOLODRYGA: Happening now through Sunday, Russians are voting in parliamentary elections. A moment like this hasn't happened since the start
of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now you should note, due to a ban on its opposition, Putin's party is guaranteed to win.
ASHER: Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under pressure as the far- right AfD party surges in the polls for a second time this year, and voters prepare to head to the polls in two state elections this weekend. Growing
anxiety over inflation and immigration is driving the shift.
GOLODRYGA: Officials say two students were killed during a high school shooting in the southern Philippines today, and the 16-year-old suspect
then turned a gun on himself. Eight other students were wounded, with four in critical condition. This is the third school shooting in the Philippines
since June.
ASHER: All right, early in-person voting kicks off today in the U.S. for the midterms. Voters in a handful of states are heading for the polls, and
it comes as some fresh alarms are going off within the president's own party.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, some Republican candidates in tight races are trying to put distance between themselves and Donald Trump as they confront his low
approval numbers. In fact, you're more likely to see President Trump featured in a Democratic campaign ad than a Republican one.
ASHER: A new CNN analysis of more than 500 Republican ads finds that GOP candidates have aired just 12 mentioning Trump this month, spending about
$1 million. That works out to less than 1 percent of their total ad spending during this period.
GOLODRYGA: There is one Republican, however, who is featuring the president front and center in a new ad, but not in a way the president would like.
Here's Florida GOP Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR (R-FL): Mr. President. some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50 percent of the 50,000
people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policies.
The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[11:35:00]
ASHER: CNN's Alayna Treene joins us live now from the White House. Alayna, it takes a lot as a Republican to break with Trump, especially if you're
somebody that has a good relationship with him generally, and you're somebody that he has actually supported in the past.
Trump spoke about her in the past, saying, you know, she's great, she'll never let you down. For her to do this in this way, A, what does it risk?
B, what message does it send to the White House? And C, can't believe I'm asking you three questions. But what -- how do Democrats take advantage of
this? Do you think?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, look, I'll start -- I'll try to start in the ABC order -- for her to do, I totally agree with
you. I mean, particularly when we look at the president in his second term, he has had an iron grip on the Republican Party to see not just a
Republican, but as you mentioned, a very loyal one, someone who the president helped get elected.
She's from his own backyard. She's a congresswoman from Florida. And I think one of the most pointed things about that ad that you showed from
Salazar, is she was doing that criticism standing in front of the White House. It was very clear what her message was, and so for her to break at
this moment is a big deal.
You know, I was talking to some of the president's political operant, excuse me, political operatives throughout the day yesterday, talking with
some of his allies. They were very frustrated by this, because again, it was clear as day what she was trying to get across, which was essentially
many people in her state, Latinos and Hispanics specifically, she said, feel betrayed by your policies, and that is a very rough thing for a
Republican to be doing at this moment in time.
A couple things here, though. One about I'll go to actually your C question next is you know could we see any backlash? What could you know hurt? Could
this hurt Salazar? Unclear. I think this is very much her trying to do what she believes she needs to do in order to win her race.
It's you know every race across the country is different, and in many races the president is dragging people down. You know his polling numbers are
terrible. There's faced a lot of headwinds, many of them of their own making, with the Iran war and dragging up gas prices across the country for
many Americans.
And so, this is something clearly Salazar and her campaign feel they needed to do in order to better position her. And I will say as well, I think many
people recognize the president is soon going to be a lame duck president after the midterms, he has two years left in office, not running again.
We're going to start hearing about 2028 chatter. I do think for some Republicans now is you know it's becoming almost easier to buck him when
you recognize the power dynamics are different than they potentially would be when he was, you know, back during his first term, or even in his first
and second years of his second term in office.
One thing I think I want to bring up as well is that his team has really made this about, you know, at least the president's team, I should say, has
really tried to make his time on the campaign trail about him, about how you know you've heard the president say repeatedly that he wants voters to
pretend that he is on the ballot.
That's not working in a lot of these different districts, particularly when you look at you know perhaps the main Senate race. You're not really seeing
the president go there into other states where really you know they're a little bit more moderate. It's more of a purple district.
And so that's part of what we're seeing the president and his team try to formulate as we lead up to the next couple of weeks before November 3rd of
where they need to deploy him and where it might hurt to deploy him. So, all of those discussions happening, but I think it's remarkable that we saw
Maria Salazar again, someone who has always been an ally of the president, close to the president, come out in such a forceful way with that ad.
GOLODRYGA: In front of the White House too.
TREENE: Yeah, exactly.
ASHER: And great job navigating those three points, Alayna. Sorry, I wasn't trying to haze you on live television.
TREENE: No --
GOLODRYGA: She had a D and E. She had a D and E comment, and I said --
TREENE: You --
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, I said let's just limit it to ABC.
ASHER: Thank you, Alayna. Appreciate it.
TREENE: Thank you, guys.
ASHER: All right, still ahead on "One World".
GOLODRYGA: The miracle of childbirth may be out of reach for some women. That's the sentiment behind World Childless Week. We'll talk to its founder
after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:40:00]
ASHER: All right, for so many hopeful parents around the world, it's a silent but searing pain they never saw coming until faced with a stark
reality. Now, a group in England is giving a voice to couples who don't have children through no choice of their own.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, what started as a Facebook group has grown into World Childless Week. Their aim is to raise awareness and give support to those
who long to be mothers and fathers but won't get the chance. That includes women who can't get pregnant, not carried a baby to full term, or any other
circumstance.
During the annual event, they tell their stories and they give each other hope.
ASHER: According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 48 million couples and 186 million individuals live with infertility worldwide. Let's
talk to the Founder of World Childless Week, Stephanie Phillips. Stephanie, thank you so much for being with us.
I have a two-pronged question for you to start off with. One is, what do you want the world to know about the experience that many women have who
are unable to either carry a child to term, or give birth to a child, or have children not by any choice of their own? And why did you feel it was
important to start a week like this?
STEPHANIE PHILLIPS, FOUNDER OF WORLD CHILDLESS WEEK: I want people to know about it because the problem of being child is not by choice. Is where
secret, were hidden. People don't want to talk about those of us who don't achieve the dream of being parenthood. People want to fix us and they
can't. So, giving a voice to our community is so important to raise awareness of our grief being disenfranchised across the world.
And to let people know there is support and a community out there that is willing to embrace them and validate all of the emotions that they are
feeling and going through.
GOLODRYGA: And you've said that people can feel ashamed, even unworthy, because they don't have children. What everyday assumptions do families and
people in the workforce? What does -- what do they do or say, even without intention, that can reinforce that feeling?
PHILLIPS: The first thing that most of us do when we meet somebody is actually say, do you have children? And it can instantly block the
conversation from flowing further because when you say no, if you've got the confidence to say no on its own, it can often be received with more
additional questions like, have you considered adoption?
Or it could be a joke about, or do you want my children, or perhaps religious based, and it wasn't in God's plans. And all of those answers can
cause more hurt and distress, especially if the question is primed to yet more information about why you ended up child listening up by choice, when
perhaps you're actually dealing with a lot of grief that day and don't want to go into that discussion.
ASHER: One of the things that you've said is that part of the issue here, in terms of this week catching on, because obviously we have Mother's Day,
we have Father's Day, et cetera. But businesses can't make money out of childlessness.
[11:45:00]
They can't -- I mean, Mother's Day is so commercialized as is a lot of holidays that we have here in the U.S. and in the U.K. as well. What are
the barriers to stopping something like this, for example, from catching on, do you think?
PHILLIPS: The barriers as to World Childless Week is, as you say, there's no commercial benefit to World Childless Week. There are so many stories of
people who go to infertility clinics and suddenly, when they're not continuing the process, the door slams shut. There's no support offered.
I recently heard a story where somebody said they were never called to ask how they were coping, but they were called to say you've still got 14-pound
owing, and this is the problem that we have. That if there's not money to be made, there's no commercial aspect. People don't want to talk about us,
even in magazines.
You can see that when they want to share the stories of people getting their happy ending. And unfortunately, if we don't get the happy ending,
we're often portrayed in the negative rather than you know having some sort of empathy or understanding of our situation.
GOLODRYGA: Stephanie, for someone watching who knows that they won't become a parent and not out of their own choice, what helped you begin to imagine
a fulfilling life without a child, and what words of optimism and encouragement can you offer to them?
PHILLIPS: For me, it was joining online communities and actually hearing other people confirm that the emotions, the feelings, the thoughts, the
dreads, the worries I was going through were actually real. That I was grieving. I didn't even realize that was what was happening to me.
All of these deep, dark emotions were sitting inside, and I was hiding them from the world because I couldn't see myself reflected. But within a group,
you get to understand that they're completely normal emotions, and slowly over time, you can see, bit by bit, that you are worthy as a human being,
and that your life still has substance that is important to others and to yourself, and it's not an overnight thing.
It's a long-term thing to get used to, but there is definitely life behind the initial grief of childlessness.
ASHER: And Stephanie, you just said a moment ago that women who are childless, who don't have children, can sometimes be portrayed in a
negative light. I remember a few years ago, the vice president of this country, where I am in the United States, said that the U.S. was being run.
Of course, you remember this by a bunch of childless cat ladies who were miserable in their own lives. Now, I have two children, and I was in so
much pain when I heard him say that. Like I was so sad, even though I'm, you know, I'm not childless. I have my kids. I just thought it was one of
the most painful things that a leader, anybody, could say.
What was A, your reaction to that? And B, what would you want J.D. Vance to understand about the experience of women like you?
PHILLIPS: It was -- it's awful to say. It wasn't a surprise to hear something like that because we come across these comments on a daily basis.
It was -- and it was almost like a revolution because when he said it, people did rise up and say how inappropriate what it was, which was
amazing.
It was really good. The only problem was that a lot of people who spoke out were the ones who had confidence because they were childfree rather than
childless. And there's a complete distinction between the two of us, between those who wanted children and those who did not.
So, it brought about a lot of awareness, which was fantastic in its own right, but it also brought some mixed messages, which caused a little bit
more confusion. But yeah, there's so little empathy out there from the vast majority, unfortunately, of people because there is no understanding, and
it's hard to get the message across that it is grief, it is painful, it is anguish.
ASHER: Stephanie, thank you so much for starting this and for raising awareness and yeah, I you know I -- when the vice president made those
comments, I did you know I'm sure just not my -- not just myself but a lot of women around the world whether they had children or not were in deep
shock and then obviously very saddened by those comments.
And so anyway thank you so much for the work that you're doing --
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, it's an important distinction between childfree and childless.
ASHER: Yeah.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you, thank you for educating us, Stephanie Phillips. We appreciate it.
ASHER: All right, we'll be right back with more after the short break.
PHILLIPS: Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:50:00]
GOLODRYGA: Brazil is currently dealing with a severe drought in its northern basin.
ASHER: Yeah, this drone footage was captured yesterday, and it shows an important river dried up. A Brazilian government report in August confirms
the severe drought.
GOLODRYGA: Meantime, wine production in France is facing an uncertain future after the country's brutally hot summer. CNN's Melissa Bell spoke to
winemakers in France's Medoc region about the impact the heat is having on this year's harvest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never had the harvest started this early in Saint Julien. In the Medoc region, as
elsewhere, France's hottest summer on record is changing wine and producing smaller, thicker-skinned grapes.
DAMIEN BARTON, CHATEAU LEOVILLE BARTON: Because there's little juice, of course, the effort we put in a vineyard is divided by the volume we get out
of it. So, the cost of production for a single bottle of wine will be through the roof. For the consumer side, it's wonderful.
For the producer side, it's going to cost us a lot of money to produce a single bottle.
BELL (voice-over): And times have been tough for producers of Bordeaux wines for a while, partly because the world is thinking much less of it
than it did.
ROBERT JOSEPH, WINE EXPERT AND INDUSTRY ANALYST: In the 1980s, there were 20,000 individual Bordeaux estates. Today, there are around 5000, although
it's probably 4900 and whatever, and we're losing them probably at the rate of one a day.
They're either up between the vines or being swallowed by the next-door vineyard.
BELL (voice-over): Fewer drinkers of Bordeaux wines mean that only those properties at the very top end can continue to thrive, and amongst them, at
the celebration of last year's Beaujolais -- the word was already of a small but excellent 2025 vintage and a very tight market.
BRUNO BORIE, OWNER OF CHATEAU DUCRU-BEAUCAILLOU: People are drinking certainly less. They are more concerned, but they want to drink better all
the time. So, we are probably in the -- on the right side of the consumption.
BELL (voice-over): At the top end, global warming has been driving change for some time. Here at Chateau Siran, the oldest bottles are more than 100
years old. Now the wines can be drunk sooner.
EDOUARD MIAILHE, CHATEAU SIRAN: The fruitiness of the berries is so lively, and the vinification process have improved so much that the Bordeaux wines
were in the past a bit hard, a bit difficult.
BELL: They need a time.
MIAILHE: And they needed to time. Now, you can open a bottle of wine. In the -- I always say in the five years following the bottling.
BELL (voice-over): So good news for those who can continue to adapt to a more challenging market and more challenging weather.
SASKIA DE ROTHSCHILD, CEO OF CHATEAU LAFITE ROTHSCHILD: We see a trend that goes towards more heat and a little bit less water in the spring and in the
summer, which means we're harvesting almost 10 days earlier than we were 20 years ago.
BELL: Wow.
ROTHSCHILD: So, it's really moving the needle.
BELL (voice-over): That needle moved further still this summer, with 53 days of heatwave conditions making the 2026 harvest even smaller than the
last.
[11:55:00]
BARTON: This cost of production will start to hit even the higher wines because the cost of production is so high. So, this global warming will
impact everyone. We're not just a consumers' problem about volume of wine drank per year, even trends about wine regions. It's really, it's global
warming, literally.
BELL (voice-over): Which likely means more challenging times ahead, even for those Chateau's still able to carry the cost of making great wines
despite the heat. Melissa Bell, CNN, Saint-Julien.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: Right. Finally, before we go this hour, now to a new wild cat species that has been discovered living in the forest of Bolivia.
GOLODRYGA: How did we -- This is just 18 inches long and weighing less than three pounds. That's how it's smaller than the average domestic cat. It has
light brown fur with irregular-shaped rosettes. This makes -- marks the first time in more than a century that scientists have formally named and
described a new cat species.
ASHER: Very interesting.
GOLODRYGA: There you go. All right, stay with CNN. Stay with us on "One World". We'll be right back after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
