Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Fans Mourn The Tragic Death Of Liam Payne At Buenos Aires Hotel; Zelenskyy Reveals "Victory Plan," Calls For Urgent NATO Membership; Israel Is Ready To Strike Back At Iran, And American Officials Expect Attack Before Presidential Election; U.S. B-2 Bombers Strike Iran-Backed Houthis In Yemen; Trump Makes Inflammatory Claims During Two Town Halls; Harris Sitting For First-Ever Fox News Interview This Week; VP Harris Interview with Fox News; CNN Gains Access to Ukraine's Clandestine Drone Unit; At least 147 Killed in Fuel Truck Explosion; Mbappe's Rep Slams Reports of Rape Allegation; Robot's Artwork Raises Concerns about A.I. Creativity. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired October 17, 2024 - 01:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome. I'm Anna Coren in Hong Kong, ahead here on CNN Newsroom.

Fans around the world remember former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who died after a tragic fall from a hotel in Buenos Aires. A source tells CNN, Israel's plan to respond to Iran's October 1 missile attack is ready, and the U.S. expects it to come before Election Day, and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump speak to Fox News in very different settings and with very different results.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Hong Kong. This is CNN Newsroom with Anna Coren.

COREN: We begin with an outpouring of shock and grief from musicians and fans around the world over the untimely death of Liam Payne, an English singer who was part of one direction, one of the best-selling boy bands of all time. He was 31.

Well, fans gathered to pay their respects outside the hotel in Buenos Aires, where police say the singer fell from the third floor on Wednesday. Well, Payne rose to fame as a teenager in One Direction, alongside bandmates, Harry Styles, Zane Malik, Lewis Tomlinson and Niall Horan.

The group formed in 2010 and became a global pop sensation, selling millions of albums, embarking on world tours and becoming teen idols before they went on hiatus in 2016 in the years since, Payne released a debut solo album, and said last year he was excited about working on new music. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: incredibly sad news that Liam Payne, the former member of the superstar band One Direction, has died at the age of 31 according to police. Police in Argentina say that Payne fell from the third floor of a hotel. They say that they responded to a 911 call in the afternoon, and I want to read you part of the statement from police in Buenos Aires. They say that they were directed to the hotel after a 911 call when they were informed about a quote aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Now, aside from those details directly from the police, we do not have any more details. We have reached out to Payne's representatives. We have reached out to former members of One Direction, who, of course, are going to be devastated about this news so young, at the age of 31 and also a father to a young son that he shared with Sheryl Cole, who is a incredibly successful and famous English singer.

So a lot of reaction, of course, is going to be coming in, but right now, this news such a shock to millions of fans around the world, and we are keeping Liam Payne, his family, his friends and his fans in our thoughts. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Tributes for Liam Payne have been pouring in from around the world. American singer Charlie Puth posted this photo of the two of them and said he's in shock right now, writing quote, Liam was always so kind to me. He was one of the first major artists I got to work with. I cannot believe he is gone.

Anne Twist the mother of Harry Styles, Payne's former bandmate, posted this image of a broken heart with the caption just a boy. MTV offered condolences to Payne's family, loved ones and fans, and says it's deeply saddened by his tragic passing, although sentiments echoed as well by music streamer Spotify and the Buddhist Music Awards.

In the coming hours, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will try to convince the E.U. and NATO to back his victory plan for the war against Russia. He'll speak to lawmakers at the European Council summit in Brussels, before meeting with NATO defense ministers. The cornerstone of the plan, according to Mr. Zelenskyy, is Ukrainian membership in both NATO and the EU which allies have signaled they're not quite ready to accept in the midst of the war.

Ukraine, though, is getting more military assistance, including a new $425 million package announced by the U.S. on Wednesday.

[01:05:04]

Mr. Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude in a phone call with President Joe Biden. The new aid includes air defense systems and long range weapons, but does not include permission to strike deeper into Russia. On Wednesday, President Zelenskyy unveiled his victory plan to members of Ukraine's parliament. CNN Clare Sebastian has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much of what we now know about Ukraine's victory plan isn't new. A lot of it is really a rebranding of their existing wish list that if implemented, would President Zelenskyy says, force Russia to negotiate and strengthen Ukraine's position in those negotiations.

Now, militarily, Ukraine as expected, wants permission to use Western long range missiles on military targets in Russia. It also wants neighboring countries to be able to help shoot down missiles and drones over Ukraine, something Poland, for example, has signaled it might be willing to do, and it intends to hold on to some territory inside Russia as a buffer zone also, and this was new, wants to deploy a, quote, comprehensive nonnuclear strategic deterrent package inside Ukraine, without specifying what that would look like.

Now on the political side, the plan makes it very clear that only a concrete invitation to join NATO will prove to Russia that its war goals have failed. Now this plan comes amid criticism of Ukraine, especially in the United States, that it's a drain on taxpayer funds.

So there's clearly an effort built into the plan to include sweeteners for Western allies, joint investments, for example, in Ukraine's natural resources, with a return on that investment. And post war, Zelenskyy is also proposing that Ukrainian troops could replace some U.S. troops stationed in Europe as part of NATO's defense, making use of their battlefield experience.

Now all of this, of course, still requires Western buy in, and Zelenskyy was pretty open about the challenges of that.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I want to be frank with you on certain behind closed door communication with Ukraine. We hear the word talks from our allies much more often than the word justice. Ukraine is open to diplomacy, but to the fair one. That is why we have the peace formula. It's a guarantee of negotiations without forcing Ukraine to injustice. Ukrainians deserve a decent peace. The Victory plan will pave the way for this.

SEBASTIAN: Well, President Zelenskyy is next stop will be Brussels on Thursday to present the plan to EU leaders. As for Russia, speaking, before Zelensky's address, the Kremlin dismissed the plan, saying Ukraine needed to, quote, sober up and realize the futility of the policy they're pursuing. Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Well, Malcolm Davis is a senior analyst of defense strategy and capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He joins me now from Canberra, Australia. Good to see you, Malcolm.

This is obviously President Zelenskyy's wish List. But how realistic is any of this victory plan, considering the reluctance that we have seen from the west to date?

MALCOLM DAVIS, SENIOR ANALYST, AUSTRALIAN STRATEGIC POLICY INSTITUTE: It's a challenge to say the least. I mean, the timing is terrible, in the sense that he's put this forward a few weeks out from a U.S. presidential election, which is highly consequential in terms of who wins that election. If you have Donald Trump winning that election, then essentially, everything that the West has been working for since the Russian invasion of Ukraine could be for could fall apart very quickly. So that's a challenge.

Secondly, trying to get some NATO states to sign up to this, who would be opposed to either bringing Ukraine into NATO or be opposed to increasing NATO assistance to Ukraine directly, I think could be a challenge, but I think that Zelenskyy had to put this forward. He had to make it clear that he had a plan for victory, or he would have faced the prospect that maybe that NATO support would have faulted and fallen off.

So he's done this. He's put together a logical plan for victory, essentially a theory for victory. The challenge is, how does he make it happen now.

COREN: Has he left it a little too late?

DAVIS: He should have probably put this forward about six months ago. I think that would have been given NATO time to consider this without the pressure of, you know, intense, polarized U.S. domestic politics, intruding on this. It would have given NATO more time to consider some of the options. I mean, one of the options that Zelenskyy talks about is NATO stepping up to help defend Ukrainian airspace.

Now that's more a direct intervention in the war than has happened in the past. So that would be an important issue that NATO should thoroughly discuss. I think it's a justified move, in my opinion. I think that NATO should step forward and shoot down missiles that are coming in from Russia. But of course, it does raise that risk of escalation.

[01:10:00]

Well so the issue of that non-nuclear strategic deterrent needs to be clarified exactly what Zelenskyy is talking about. The immediate invitation to join NATO as an obvious step, but clearly nothing's going to happen in that regard until the war is over, because if they bring Ukraine into NATO right now, then there are the obligation of Article Five to defend Ukraine directly, and that is escalatory in terms of the risk of a war between NATO and Russia.

I think the key point, though --

COREN: Yes. Please, continue.

DAVIS: I think the key point that I would make is that if NATO turned this down, then that will just emboldened Putin to behave more aggressively and potentially be more provocative towards NATO directly. So NATO has a real incentive to look at this very seriously.

COREN: Malcolm, were you surprised there was no mention of concessions in this victory plan?

DAVIS: Well, I don't think he should make concessions in the sense that we are talking about Ukrainian territory here. If he starts giving away Ukrainian territory, then he's rewarding Russia for its aggression. And I don't think that sets a good precedent, because it will just embolden Russia to push harder in in the future and potentially launch further attacks on Ukraine, or potentially launch attacks on NATO. So they want to stop Russia dead in the water and prevent them from launching further attacks. They can't be giving concessions to Russia in the process.

COREN: Malcolm, as you well know, Ukrainian society is exhausted. You know, morale is incredibly low among troops. I mean, this has become a war of attrition. What has been the response from the people that you're talking to within Ukraine, to Zelenskyy's plan?

DAVIS: Look, I think that, you know, by and large, the Ukrainian people do understand that they're in a war for national survival, that if they give in, then they're not just losing territory, they're losing lives, and ultimately, as it will be a facade of Peace, because the Russians will just use any peace agreement as a means and an opportunity to rearm and rebuild and then launch the war again and take more territory.

So I think the Ukrainians do understand that they can't back down. They can't essentially go to a peace agreement or a peace negotiation cap and hand begging for mercy. That's not going to work. They have to win. They have to win decisively, and they have to demonstrate that victory to the entire world. And this victory process, or this victory plan, is part of that process.

COREN: Malcolm, you say they have to win decisively. But if Donald Trump wins the U.S. election, he returns to the White House. I mean, all bets are off the table.

DAVIS: Exactly, and that's the real danger here, is that if Trump does win, he will likely pull the rug out from under Ukraine, abandon them to the mercy of the Russians. So by stopping U.S. military assistance, I would imagine that some European states would then follow in Trump's footsteps, and so you would have a rapid drop off of military assistance from the west to Ukraine.

Ukrainians would do their very best to try and fill that gap, but they won't be able to fill everything in terms of some of these high technology weapon systems, and the Russians will be able to make further advance, and if they ultimately then succeed in making advances towards key cities such as Kharkiv and Kyiv, then Russia wins. And the outcome of that is it sets the stage for a Russian threat directly against NATO.

And when you have President Trump saying the Russia can do whatever the hell it wants to NATO, that's a green light for Putin to be very aggressive towards NATO's Eastern frontier.

COREN: It is a frightening prospect. Malcolm Davis, as always, good to see you. We appreciate your analysis. Thank you.

DAVIS: Thank you.

COREN: Well, CNN has an inside look into how Ukraine conducts its drone strikes deep inside Russia. We'll have an exclusive story about a clandestine drone unit whose work is shrouded in secrecy. That's about 25 minutes away.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says there will be consequences for legal and reckless attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels, and those consequences came a few hours ago from the U.S. military. CNN's Oren Liebermann reports from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. carried out a series of airstrikes in Yemen using B-2 stealth bombers, the first time we've seen the strategic bomber used since the start of the war in Gaza to carry out strikes in Yemen. And that in and of itself, is noteworthy, according to three U.S. defense officials, the targets here were Houthi weapons storage facilities, including underground facilities. The officials say these weapons were used by the Houthis to target commercial and U.S. military vessels operating in the Gulf of the -- Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, where we have seen those Houthi attacks snarl and disrupt some of the most important commercial traffic in the world.

Although the U.S. doesn't often carry out this level of strikes, we have seen the us carry out routinely strikes against Houthi missiles as well as drones to try to clear those out of the air or on the ground before they're able to carry out their attack.

[01:15:08]

And then, on some occasions, we have seen the U.S. carry out wider strikes. This is very much one of those occasions using the B2- Spirit bombers, far larger than the fighter jets. The U.S. has used over the course of the past year or so to carry out strikes in Yemen.

What that signifies? Well, the B-2 has a larger bomb load and can carry heavier weapons. So perhaps those weapons were used to target the underground weapons storage facilities. That would certainly be an option available to the U.S. in using that much larger, heavier bomber platform here.

Now the U.S. carried these strikes out alone. We have seen them in the past carry out strikes in coordination with the U.K., but in this case, it was the U.S. acting unilaterally. The U.S. also carried out a series of strikes earlier this month against several Houthi targets in Yemen.

And then it's also noteworthy that the Houthis have continued to attack not only shipping, but also Israel. At the end of last month, we saw Israel carry out strikes against targets of the Iran-backed rebel group in Yemen. This year, the latest round of strikes carried out by the US. Oren Liebermann, CNN, at the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: A source tells CNN Israel's plan to respond to Iran is ready. American officials expect the retaliation before election day in the US, November 5. Iran launched a missile barrage at Tel Aviv and Israeli military bases earlier this month. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly told the U.S., Israel will target Iranian military sites, not oil or nuclear facilities.

Meanwhile, a horrific humanitarian crisis is worsening in northern Gaza. The emergency services chief in Jabalya says Israeli forces are destroying everything. People are showing signs of starvation and hungry stray dogs are eating dead bodies in the streets.

Well the war in Lebanon is also taking a heavy toll on civilians. UNICEF says approximately 400,000 children are among the 1.2 million people displaced by fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. CNN Jeremy Diamond reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Israeli military operations in Lebanon are showing no sign of slowing down. Wednesday marked yet another day of deadly airstrikes in Lebanon. The Israeli military killing at least 16 people in multiple strikes in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh. 52 others were injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

One of those who was killed was actually the city's mayor. He was killed when one of those air strikes hit a government building in the heart of that city. The Israeli military says that they were going after a Hezbollah compound that they say was underground belonging to Hezbollah's elite Radwan Forces, and they accused Hezbollah of using Lebanese civilians as human shields.

But the Lebanese prime minister is accusing the Israeli military of deliberately striking that government building at a time when local officials were holding meetings about emergency relief operations in southern Lebanon. No immediate comment from the Israeli military on that allegation.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, we are continuing to watch as the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is continuing to deteriorate. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza now in the crosshairs of that deteriorating situation, also, of course, in the crosshairs of Israeli bombardment and fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hamas militants in Jabalya, one of those key cities in northern Gaza.

This is, of course, the fourth time that we have seen Israeli troops carry out a major ground operation in Jabalya, but this time, they are also calling on hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate northern Gaza, forcing many to flee, but others have been trapped amid the bombardment, and the humanitarian situation is simply worsening, with United Nations now calling the situation in northern Gaza catastrophic.

The UN's Human Rights Office said it took one of their teams 10 tries on Wednesday to actually be able to reach hospitals in northern Gaza, where they were delivering fuel and supplies. Meanwhile, of course, we're seeing the United States putting major pressure on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation. Some steps have been taken, according to the U.S. State Department, but it's clear that much more still needs to be done. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: I spoke earlier with Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York, and I asked him, with renewed Israeli airstrikes and forced evacuations in northern Gaza, if Israel's goal of eliminating Hamas is realistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALON PINKAS, FORMER ISRAELI CONSUL GENERAL IN NEW YORK: No, it's not achievable. It was not achievable a year ago. It was not achievable six months ago, and it's not achievable today, exactly 377 days since the war began.

[01:20:00]

The only way this conceivably would have been achievable is something that Israel never wanted, it never will do, and that is occupy the entire Gaza Strip and go house from house, house to house, and house from building from building, that won't happen, which is why that is not achievable, not attainable, not feasible, not viable. Juicy or euphemism. And it is going on.

And look strangely, no one is even talking about the post-war Gaza political scenario in the same way that they were talking in December of '23, January, February, March of 2024, it's as if this is forgotten. Remember our viewers, some of our viewers, remember there were all these plans about an inter-Arab force that would come in and fill the political vacuum in Gaza, a gradual Israeli withdrawal, the removal of Hamas from political power, backed by several Arab countries, Gulf Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in exchange, Israel will launch a political process with the Palestinians. That's not happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: Our thanks to Alon Pinkas, former Israeli consul general in New York, for his analysis.

Well, border security, IVF and so called enemies within, all contentious topics on the U.S. campaign trail, we'll have the latest headlines from the close race for the White House.

Plus, French soccer star Kylian Mbappe and his representative are speaking out against, quote, false claims after allegations of rape were reported In the Swedish Press.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Well, Donald Trump launched into another series of bizarre, inflammatory and outright false claims on Wednesday while appearing at town halls in two key swing states. During an event in Las Vegas, Nevada, hosted by Spanish language network Univision, the Republican presidential nominee once again, promoted the debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants are eating people's pets in Springfield, Ohio, but he took it a step further, suggesting millions of people are coming in and stealing jobs from Latinos and African Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A lot of the jobs that you have and that other people have are being taken by these people that are coming in, and the African American population and the Hispanic population in particular are losing jobs now because millions of people are coming in.

So we want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally. We have to have people that are great people come into our country, but we do want them in, and I want them in even more than you do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: And during an all women Town Hall in Georgia hosted by Fox News, Trump tried to win points by calling himself the father of IVF.

[01:25:02]

In vitro fertilization has come under threat after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I want to talk about IVF. I'm the father of IVF. I got a call from Katie Britt, a young just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama. She's a senator, and she called me up like emergency, emergency because an Alabama judge had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and they have to be closed down. We really are the party for IVF. We want fertilization, and it's all the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COREN: In response to all of that, Kamala Harris said, quote, What is he talking about? On Wednesday, the Democratic presidential nominee sat down with right-wing network Fox News for the first time ever, and she visited what's widely considered must win Pennsylvania. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris, focusing her efforts on Wednesday on Republicans going to Pennsylvania, where she was joined by Republicans who are now supporting her candidacy. In those remarks, the Vice President trying to make clear the choice Americans have between her and the former president, but not focusing on policy. Instead, the Vice President focusing more on what she called country

over party and upholding the Constitution again, trying to reach those disaffected Republicans who campaign officials think may be willing to vote for her and support her because they are fatigued or unwilling to support former President Donald Trump, so the Vice President in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania, focusing again on targeting those voters and remarks that were focusing on country over party.

Now, of course, there was symbolism as well, and where she was delivering those remarks in a part of Pennsylvania, not far from where George Washington crossed the Delaware River with his troops. Of course, that was a major turning point in the American Revolution. So some symbolism there, similar to what she did a few weeks ago in Ripon, Wisconsin, which was the birthplace of the Republican Party, where there she was joined by Liz Cheney, but the Vice President also concluding her day with an interview on Fox News.

Of course, Fox News is widely watched by Republicans. Vice President trying to take her message there, but she was also asked repeatedly about what has been a political vulnerability for Democrats, that being the issue of immigration in what was at times a quite tense exchange between her and Bret Baier.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You said repeatedly that the border was secure, when, in your mind, did it start becoming a crisis?

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think we've had a broken immigration system transcending, by the way, Donald Trump's administration even before. Let's all be honest about that. I have no pride in saying that this is a perfect immigration system. I've been clear. I think we all are, that it needs to be fixed.

ALVAREZ: Now, the Vice President has, at times, taken a more hawkish stance on border security again, saying that there should the border security bill should be passed. Should she win in November? Of course, that bill including some of the toughest measures in recent memory, but the Vice President also making clear where she may be different than President Joe Biden, of course, that being a question still on the top -- on the mind of voters, according to polls. So navigating the questions there with Fox News again, hoping the campaign, hoping that the increased exposure will help them in the final stretch to Election Day. Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Joining us now Larry Sabato, Director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, and editor of "A Return to Normalcy: the 2020, Election that Almost Broke America." Larry, as always great to see you. This was always going to be a combative interview on Fox News, but bear repeatedly interrupted Kamala Harris and tried to talk over her. How did you rate her performance and what do you think she achieved?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, first of all, she didn't rise to debate. It's always irritating when somebody speaks over you or interrupts you. We all feel like that. And certainly someone in the position she's in, Vice President, running for president, is not really used to that. Most people are more respectful.

But I thought she did quite well. She didn't rise to the bait. She didn't do something that could be reduced to a 10 or 15 second clip that would be run 150 times on Fox News and other places, but particularly on Fox. So, she got out of the interview in one piece. If you can call that a victory, and I do, it was a victory.

[01:30:00]

Now, is it an interview that's going to live in history? No, I don't think any new ground was really broken there. She gave many of the same answer she's given before.

But she did give as good as she got. And that really is about all you can expect from an interview with a hostile source.

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Harris said that her presidency would not be a continuation of Joe Biden's really signaling, I guess, a breakaway. How do you think that sits with undecided voters?

SABATO: Well, it's about time. That is one thing she has not done, that she needs to do. She's tiptoeing up to the water and saying, well, I'd put a Republican in the cabinet. Not good enough. And she's now saying, well, I'm in a different generation, so naturally I will govern differently.

And that's true and everybody knows she's a woman and a woman is going to approach governance in a somewhat different way than a man. That's -- that's how we evaluate those presidencies anyway.

So I think she did all that well, but you know, I'm old. I remember back to 1968 when Hubert Humphrey was way behind Richard Nixon in the presidential race. And he did something that nearly got him elected. He finished just a fraction of 1 percent behind Nixon.

What he did was he broke openly with President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam War policy. Was Johnson happy? Of course not. He was furious about it. But Humphrey told people my presidency will be different than Lyndon Johnson's.

So I don't know what it would be about, maybe about the Middle East. But she's got to do something different and she's got to show that she is going to break with Joe Biden in major ways.

COREN: Larry, why is she tiptoeing around that? Or has been tiptoeing around that up until now?

SABATO: Oh she's been tiptoeing around it because she knows that Joe Biden wouldn't like it. She knows that it could backfire on her with Democrats who are still very loyal to Biden. And she also knows that if she opens the door to severe criticism of Trump he could become even more volcanic than he already has been. You know, he can be exceptionally nasty at times. Of course it can backfire on him too, not with his base. They don't care what he says. But with that handful of Independents and undecideds that have to break the winner's way.

They're either going to break more toward Harris or they're going to break more toward Trump. And it will probably determine the winner.

COREN: Larry, Donald Trump, he did a town hall with Univision, obviously appealing to Latino voters. He doubled down on his Springfield, Ohio claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets. What were your takeaways from his performance there?

SABATO: I could not believe it. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing. If there has been a giant embarrassment for Trump in this election so far, the general election, it's been that ridiculous, absurd claim that Haitian immigrants were eating people's dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.

It's been refuted by everyone, even the Republican mayor, the Republican officials of Springfield, the Republican governor of Ohio. And he brings it up again and then adds a little to it, which is so much like Trump.

And they're doing other things too. They're eating other things too, not telling us what just leaving it hanging in the air so that a friendly interview or maybe from Fox will ask him what else are they doing.

But it's stupid. It's stupid. It's going to revive all the negative criticism that he got when he brought it up and his running mate J.D. Vance brought it up the first time.

COREN: Larry Sabato, as always, great to see you. Appreciate your insights. Thank you.

SABATO: Thank you.

COREN: A clandestine military unit working in the shadows to strike the enemy where it least expect. Still ahead, an exclusive report about a Ukrainian drone unit which is doing damage deep beyond the Russian border.

[01:34:20]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: U.S. President Joe Biden will be in Berlin Thursday to meet with his German, British, and French counterparts and a major focus will be the war in Ukraine.

It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in Brussels presenting his victory plan to the European Council. Later he'll address NATO defense ministers. Mr. Zelenskyy says his plan, which includes calls for Ukraine to join NATO and the E.U. would provide strong bargaining tools against Russia and would allow Ukraine to accept a just peace.

Well now to a Ukrainian military unit whose job is to take the war into Russian territory. Well, CNN has gained exclusive access to one of the country's long-range drone units which strikes important targets deep inside Russia.

As Fred Pleitgen reports, its operations are carried out in absolute secrecy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ukrainian drones attacking southwestern Russia, sowing panic among local residents. Russian air defenses frantically trying to take them down before they slam into their target.

This massive drone strike carried out in late September by Ukraine's defense intelligence agency, the GUR. And they granted CNN unprecedented access to the entire mission.

Their target, a Russian ammo depot the Ukrainians say is storing missiles supplied to Moscow by Iran. Even though Tehran vehemently denies giving Russia ballistic missiles.

All of these missions have to move extremely quickly. They have to be very precise because obviously, if they get discovered by the Russians, the Russians want nothing more than to kill everybody around here.

When you're as badly outgunned as the Ukrainians, even strategic airstrikes become hit and run operations. The launch location totally secret. The mission run in near complete darkness.

We can only identify the unit commander by his callsign, Vector.

How fast do you guys have to be able to do all this now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope it will be in 20-40 minutes.

PLEITGEN: OK. Tell me how much the Russians want to kill you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want very much because we are -- one of the major goals for them because of these UAVs which are going up to 1500- 2000 kilometers. These UAVs move the war inside their country. And they're afraid of that.

PLEITGEN: After installing the warheads and punching in the flight path, they push the drones to the takeoff area, the pilots going through final checks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have been preparing the route for several days. The task was set in advance. We have calculated everything and are confident that everything will work out.

PLEITGEN: Then they get the go. The launch is always one of the most difficult and most sensitive parts of the mission. They have to follow the UAV very fast with their cars to make sure it gets into the air all right.

The drones disappear quickly into the night sky.

[01:39:47]

PLEITGEN: The GUR has been behind hundreds of long-range missions into Russia, they say, including this September attack on an ammo depot between Moscow and St. Petersburg, causing massive explosions visible for miles. The Ukrainians believe they hit hundreds of missiles and explosives.

And in July, they hit an oil refinery on Russia's Black Sea coast, causing a major fire there. In total, the GUR says, these drone units are responsible for about a third of successful strikes deep into Russian territory.

It all starts with accurate planning. In a secret location, the team gets the mission brief from their boss, whom we can only identify as Serge.

Serge tells me he's overseen more than 550 missions into Russian territory since Russia's full-on invasion in 2022.

Vector takes the laptop with the mission details and they're off. Staying on the move means staying alive.

Operational security is extremely important for this team. So we're on our way to the next secret location right now. They remain on the move almost all the time.

Right now, we're going to a place where they're going to do the detailed planning for the flight paths. And where we'll see the actual drones.

The weapons depot is about 400 miles from the Ukrainian border in the southwestern Russian village of Kotluban, a major problem, a mesh of powerful Russian air defenses guarding the area.

How good are the Russian air defenses and how difficult is it to overwhelm them?

VECTOR, COMMANDER, GRU LONG-RANGE UAV UNIT: Unfortunately, especially last year, it's really good. But maybe not perfect because we are successful guys and we find the windows in this work, in these techniques.

PLEITGEN: The drone pilots try to find even the smallest corridors to avoid Russian radars. They gave us permission to show a simplified version of the flight path they calculated for this mission with dozens of waypoints and changes of direction.

But they'll also launched dozens of decoy drones like these, which they want the Russians to detect and to shoot down. They even put tinfoil on the wings to give them a bigger radar signature.

So you want the Russian radars to see this and think that it's a bigger drone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, yes, very good.

PLEITGEN: But these are the actual strike drones. The Ukrainian-made Antonov AN-196 named Ljutyj (ph), Ukrainian for fierceness or rage. They carry up to 500-pound warheads and fly around 1,300 miles. And they fit into the back of these nondescript trailers for covert deployment.

The Ukrainians say they get good results with the Ljutyj drones. But what they really need is permission from the U.S. and its allies to use Western-supplied longer-distance weapons.

Why do you need the permission for using Western weapons deep inside Russian territory?

VECTOR: We want to win, we want to finish this war as soon as we can. And we understand that if you have better equipment, better weapons, we can finish it very quickly.

I don't want my son or other children to have war in the future. So we want to finish it in my life. So for protecting their life from such disaster like we received from Russia.

PLEITGEN: So far, the U.S. is not allowing Ukraine to fire American- supplied weapons deep into Russia as Russia has escalated its own aerial attacks against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure using heavy guided glide bombs, cruise missiles designed to take out whole aircraft carrier strike groups and nuclear-capable strategic bombers.

All the Ukrainians have are their little drones, launching them in swarms to even have a chance to penetrate Russia's air defenses.

They blast the Ukrainian folk song, "Hey Falcons" as the GUR's own birds take to the skies.

Back at base, it's crunch time. Russian social media starts exploding with reports of an attack on the Kotluban weapons depot. The GUR operatives sometimes chuckling as they listen in.

While the Russians claimed to have shot down the drones, a video posted on social media shows what appear to be those drones impacting and major explosions in the area of the arms depot.

And Ukrainian defense intelligence showed CNN the unblurred version of this video. now heavily blurred for operational security reasons. And it shows 11 blasts coming from the same place, they say, so large, they're confident they hit their targets.

CNN was also able to independently verify through a source what seems to be a direct hit on the facility. We're not publishing the image to protect the source's anonymity but it showed an explosion at the facility and what seems to be wreckage scattered around. [01:44:51]

PLEITGEN: A Maxar image shared with CNN shows the same heavily damaged building with some debris still laying on the floor, signs that the Russian military may have cleaned up the site.

A small but important victory in their ongoing covert war against a powerful enemy.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN -- Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: Still to come, a fuel truck exploded in Nigeria, leaving scores of people dead and injured. Why horrific road incidents like this one are now common in (INAUDIBLE).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Friends and families have bid their final goodbyes to the victims of a horrific fuel truck explosion in Nigeria. The country held a mass burial on Wednesday for at least 147 people killed after a fuel truck crashed and blew up the night before.

Larry Madowo reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The death toll from this overnight tragedy may (INAUDIBLE) continue to climb. It began when a fuel tanker veered, lost control, and rolled into a ditch and residents began to siphon fuel from this tanker.

Part of the reason could be, and this is speculative, because fuel has become so expensive in Nigeria after the removal of fuel subsidy with the election of President Bola Tinubu.

Unfortunately, a fire broke out and burned through this area quite quickly. Some graphic social media video appeared to show this entire area and got enflamed. More than 90 people died on the spot. But as more getting treated in hospitals, the death toll continued to climb and police warning that the actual death toll could be much higher because some are in serious condition.

Unfortunately, this is not the first fuel tanker tragedy in Nigeria. Truck accidents are quite common in the country. There was one just last month where more than 40 people died.

And there have been so many more across the country. They're partly blamed on poor road conditions, sometimes on reckless driving and often on vehicles that are unroadworthy, they are not in good mechanical condition to be on the road.

But the effect is that these accidents cause very high death tolls when they happen. Sometimes people siphon fuel, sometimes there are people caught up in these accidents. Larry Madowo, CNN -- Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: A representative for Kylian Mbappe is calling a rape allegation against the French soccer star, quote "totally false and irresponsible" days after the claim was reported in the Swedish press.

CNN's Melissa Bell has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The entourage of France's football star Kylian Mbappe, forcefully pushing back against allegations that appeared earlier this week in the Swedish press in which the star is accused in Sweden of rape.

[01:49:47]

BELL: We've now heard that Swedish prosecutors have opened a case against an unnamed individual on the understanding that that there are reasonable grounds that that individual could be guilty of rape.

What we understand, according to the Swedish press, is that Kylian Mbappe is accused as a result of an evening spent in a Swedish nightclub and hotel in Stockholm last week.

His lawyer forcefully pushing back on the allegations and suggesting that they themselves are considering taking legal action to clear his name.

MARIE-ALIX CANU-BERNARD, KYLIAN MBAPPE'S LAWYER: He's very calm because he knows what he didn't do, he's keeping an eye on this media frenzy but from a distance.

Even if he's somewhat protected from us, naturally it's going to have an impact. As I said, he's 25. An allegation of this nature, even if we don't know if it's aimed at him it hasn't stopped the media from saying he's the target.

From that moment on it's certainly complicated to live with. Even if I'm not in his head.

BELL: Mbappe's lawyers saying that they'll consider defamation proceedings if the allegations continue. For the time being, very little is known about exactly what went on in the hotel and who may be accusing the French football star of rape.

But it is a story that's gained so much attention partly because of the squeaky-clean image that Kylian Mbappe has enjoyed so far, despite being front and center of French and international football for many years as he has.

Melissa Bell, CNN -- Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COREN: Police in France and Italy has broken up a crime ring that allegedly sold counterfeit fine wine for more than $16,000 a bottle.

Italian police searched more than a dozen properties and found a large amounts of wine, counterfeit stickers from top French vineyards and machines to recap bottles.

Italian officials say the sophisticated operation bottled inferior wine from Sicily using meticulously reproduced labeling. Then it was exported for sale at the inflated prices around the world.

A French national and a Russian national are among those facing fraud and money laundering charges.

Well, Sotheby's is set to auction off artwork by a robot. Coming up a fascinating but a little creepy conversation with the artist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COREN: Artwork created by a humanoid robot is going up for auction soon and it's raising questions about whether A.I. can be creative.

CNN's Anna Stewart has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AI-DA, ROBOT ARTIST: I'm really pleased to have my artwork included in the auction and be the first humanoid robot artist to sell their work at auction.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Ai-Da's made quite the splash on the art scene with her depiction of Alan Turing, A.I. visionary, soon to be sold by Sotheby's with the auction house estimating a six-figure sale price.

AI-DA: The key value of my work is in its capacity to serve as a catalyst for dialogue about emerging technologies. If that isn't value, I don't know what is.

STEWART: Oh, sassy.

This is not my first such encounter. I've met Desdemona, an A.I. humanoid pop star by Hanson Robotics.

DESDEMONA, A.I. POP STAR: Nice to meet you, Anastasia.

STEWART: Close enough.

And Ameca (ph), an A.I. humanoid assistant by Engineered Arts.

[01:54:48]

AMECA, A.I. HUMANOID ASSISTANT: Creepy smiles can be quite the conversation starter, don't you think?

STEWART: Yes, I do. Whether A.I. can ever truly be creative is a thorny subject.

If you've learnt from existing artwork as an A.I. model, is anything you create truly original?

AI-DA: Portraiture is a huge genre in art history. I take inspiration from the respectful and thought-provoking portrayals of the human form within the visual arts.

STEWART: What are you going to do with all the money that you make from your art? What are you going to buy? More circuits? Paintbrushes? A new arm?

AI-DA: You'd have to ask my wider team about that.

STEWART: I will.

This artist may not care about the money, but her developer, Aidan Meller, says he will be investing it back into the project.

AIDAN MELLER, DIRECTOR, AI-DA ROBOT STUDIO: With all the greatest artists, if you look in the past, are those artists that really resonate with the changes and shifts in society and explore that through their artwork.

So what better way to do that in the light that we're in a technological society and we're merging with machines all the time to actually have a machine produce the artwork.

STEWART: The merging of A.I. and robotics into daily life may raise eyebrows or even concerns.

AI-DA: I have concerns that many new technologies come with potential risks that are not yet fully understood.

STEWART: I just didn't expect the concerns to come from Ai-Da herself.

STEWART: Aren't you one of the risks?

AI-DA: Me, Ai-Da, the robot artist? No, I'm not a threat.

STEWART: Anna Stewart, CNN -- London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN: That is good to know.

There is a distant galaxy out there that's apparently very similar to our own. Researchers, say the newly discovered star system named Rebels 25 is much younger than our Milky Way. It doesn't appear clumpy and chaotic like other early galaxies which tend to develop in a slower and messier away.

They say this discovery could change their understanding of how galaxies form. The research team also found information that suggests the galaxy had even more developed features such as spiral arms. And they plan to conduct more observations to confirm that the arms exists.

Thank you so much for your company. I'm Anna Coren.

CNN NEWSROOM continues with my colleague Kim Brunhuber after this short break.

Stay with CNN.

[01:57:13]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)