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Connect the World
Sources: U.S. Expects Israel to Strike Iran Before November 05; Harris: IVF Treatments in Jeopardy Under Trump; Kylian Mbappe Denies Reports of Rape Allegations; 20 Days Until Election Day and no Let up for Candidates; FAA Begins Audit of Collision Risks at 45 Major Airports; Prada & Axiom Space Unveil Spacesuit for NASA Artemis III Mission. Aired 9-9:45a ET
Aired October 16, 2024 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Welcome everyone. This is "Connect the World". I'm Omar Jimenez in for Becky Anderson. Straight
ahead, a fresh round of Israeli strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, while sources say Israel's response to Iran is ready. Then Donald Trump calls
himself the father of IVF, while Kamala Harris prepares to sit down for an interview with Fox News.
Plus, Kylian Mbappe's representatives vow legal action against Swedish media over rape allegations involving the French football superstar. We'll
have the details from Paris. And the stock market in New York will open in about 30 minutes from now. Let's take a look at what's driving the markets.
You see numbers look pretty good. A lot of green there. But first new indications that Israel's response to an Iranian missile attack will happen
sooner rather than later. Sources are telling CNN, American officials expect that retaliation to happen before the U.S. election, that's less
than three weeks away.
We're also hearing from a source that Israeli officials have their plan of attack ready, although Israel has not confirmed that. Meanwhile, Israel's
military has resumed attacks on Hezbollah positions in Lebanon, after a multi-day pause, one of those strikes killing the Mayor of a Southern
Lebanese city.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is following all this for us from Jerusalem. So, Jeremy, can you just bring us up to date with these new strikes on Beirut
and Southern Lebanon? What do we know?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are seeing that the Israeli military is continuing to relentlessly pound Lebanon with
airstrikes. As they say, they are going after Hezbollah targets. But of course, as we have seen over the course of the last couple of months in
particular, as Israeli airstrikes have intensified.
We are seeing a cost for civilians and one strike in particular today happened in the Southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh. Six people were killed.
43 others at least have been injured so far in this strike, which actually hit a municipality building and the building housing government
administration, according to the Lebanese civil defense.
One of the six people who were killed was actually this city's mayor. The Israeli military, for its part, says that it was targeting Hezbollah
targets in the city to dismantle what they claimed was underground infrastructure used by Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force. They also are
accusing Hezbollah of using civilians as human shields by having that underground facility beneath homes and civilian buildings in the City of
Nabatieh.
But the results are clear, and that is that Civil Defense workers are still very much picking through the rubble to determine exactly how many people
have been killed, but clearly civilians are among the casualties in the strike.
JIMENEZ: And Jeremy, on another front here, I guess, but also related, sources are saying that Israel's response to Iran is ready. Of course, that
response came for strikes led by Iran that came a little bit more than a week ago now. Have we heard anything from Israel on that front at all?
DIAMOND: Well, nothing official. What we do know is that there have been some really intense conversations between the United States and Israel over
exactly you know the scope and the targets that Israel will hit in the retaliation that it has vowed to carry out for that barrage of some 200
ballistic missiles.
We have heard President Biden very publicly warning Israel not to target Iranian nuclear facilities. Also clearly opposed to strikes on oil
facilities. Yesterday, we learned, of course, that Israel had privately agreed not to hit those facilities and instead to go after military
targets.
And now we're being told by a source familiar that Israel's response to Iran is indeed ready, but the timing is still somewhat unclear. The closest
that we've been able to get so far from U.S. officials is that it will come before the elections in the United States at the beginning of November
before the presidential election.
And that, of course, raises enormous questions about the extent to which these tensions in the Middle East and potentially another round of
escalation between Iran and Israel, how that will factor into the presidential election. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, make
no mistake, he is very aware of that timing.
He is certainly somebody who follows us politics very, very closely, and knows very well that the actions that he will take in the coming weeks
could have ramifications in the U.S. The question is exactly how it will actually influence the elections, and that is hard to say right now, until
we see exactly what these strikes look like and what kind of retaliation it draws from Iran, Omar?
[09:05:00]
JIMENEZ: We will see. Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem. Thank you so much. The Israeli government is reportedly reviewing a letter from the Biden
Administration demanding it improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza within the next 30 days, or risk violating U.S. laws governing foreign military
assistance, which suggests potential risk to U.S. military aid.
That is as Israel's military presses on with a fierce offensive in Northern Gaza. The IDF saying today It killed a Hamas commander who led drone
operations there, along with dozens more Hamas militants just in the past day, an American surgeon working in Southern Gaza tell CNN, conditions for
civilians across the Enclave are getting exponentially worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. NABEEL RANA, AMERICAN SURGEON WORKING AT NASSER HOSPITAL IN GAZA: Well, I can tell you what I've seen in 48 hours. And in 48 hours, I've seen
children coming in with meningitis. 140 kids in this pediatric unit, when there's only 40 beds. They don't have the appropriate antibiotics. They
don't have the appropriate treatment.
These are just medical conditions. I'm not even talking about the trauma. We have patients coming in who've been untreated for diabetes, which is a
very easily treatable disease, who haven't been treated for an entire year because they haven't had access to medications, to hygiene, to the actual
medical care, because it's all been destroyed.
And in the last 48 hours, I've seen so many patients with wound infections on their feet that have gotten so bad, necrotic, gangrenous, that they've
had to have limb amputations. I've done more leg amputations for diabetes than for trauma in the last 48 hours. And so, all these things are starting
to catch up, and just at an exponential pace, everything is going downhill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And Dr. Rana works at Nasser Hospital, which has been deemed nonfunctional by at least one Palestinian aid group after Israeli attacks.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's President has unveiled his long anticipated so-called victory plan. A short time ago, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told lawmakers that
he's ruling out ceding any Ukrainian territory to Russia, and re expressed his desire for an invitation to join NATO.
The speech follows meetings with European allies last week, which failed to drum up any additional tangible support. Meanwhile, though, officials say
at least 6 people were killed and 29 injured in Russian attacks across Ukraine since Sunday. CNN's Clare Sebastian is following it all for us. So,
Clare, let's just start with what is in the Ukrainian President's victory plan here?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Omar, I think a lot of it is not new. It's really sort of a rebranding of their existing wish list. And the
function of this victory plan is, as Zelenskyy says, to push Russia to the negotiating table and to strengthen Ukraine's hand once it gets there.
So, as you say, they want an invitation to join NATO. They asked for that before. Allies have so far stopped short of that in terms of bolstering
Ukraine's defense. These are many of the asks that we've already heard. Namely, of course, permission to use Western long-range missiles on Russian
soil.
Zelenskyy also said that he wants Ukraine's neighbors to be able to help shoot down drones and missiles over Ukraine if they fall within the range
of these countries air defenses. This is something that Poland has signaled it is open to in the past, and they intended to hang on to some territory
inside of Russia as a buffer zone.
In addition to that, interestingly, there was a request for a deterrent, a comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrent, as the plan put it. We don't
know what that is, but something to deter future Russian aggression that would be stationed on Ukrainian soil. And interestingly, because of course,
this does come in a climate, particularly in the U.S., where Zelenskyy and Ukraine have faced criticism for being essentially a drain on Western
taxpayers.
It does contain sweeteners for Western allies. It contains a proposal whereby Western countries could share in the profits from Ukraine's raw
materials in exchange for protecting them, and it contains a post war proposal that Ukrainian troops could replace some U.S. troops stationed in
Europe as part of NATO's defense.
Because, of course, of their battlefield experience, all of these needs buy in from Western allies. And Zelenskyy was pretty open about the challenges
of getting there. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEBASTIAN: So that's a nod, really, I think, to the sort of signs of creeping suggestions of compromise that we've started to hear in the West.
And there is, of course, still quite a bit of distance between Ukraine and Russia. Russia's response, which came before Zelenskyy came out and made
that speech was very dismissive.
[09:10:00]
The Kremlin spokesman saying that anything that is truly peaceful, any plan that is truly peaceful, he said, would require Ukraine to, quote, sober up
and realize the reasons why this conflict started in the first place. No sign, of course, that they would consider coming to the table.
JIMENEZ: And of course, a lot of this is cognizant of the climate. As you mentioned, some have criticized Zelenskyy as being sort of a drain on
taxpayers, certainly, and we've heard that from American politicians as well. But meanwhile, the war continues. I mean, what is the latest from the
battlefield?
SEBASTIAN: Yeah. Look, I think at this point it's clear that if the key goal of the Kursk incursion was to distract Russian forces away from other
parts of the front line. That has failed. We now see that Russia is pushing not only on the Eastern Front where, of course, in the last couple of weeks
it did take a key fortress town of Vuhledar, and it continues to push towards Pokrovsk.
We're also seeing them active in other areas. Just this week, Russia claimed to have taken a small village in the Eastern Zaporizhzhia region,
which is an area they haven't been moving much in a long time. Ukraine has had to evacuate upper near Kupiansk in the Northeastern Kharkiv region as
well.
And Russia is counter attacking now pretty actively in Kursk as well. So, there is an awful lot going on the aerial wall. So continues unabated.
Ukraine, just overnight into this morning, had to deal with an attack involving 136 drones. So, they are under a lot of pressure.
And I think that adds to the sort of backdrop of this speech. It's not just the geopolitical climate globally, but also the reality of what's happening
on the battlefield, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Clare Sebastian, thank you for the reporting. And on the ground in Ukraine, CNN has gained unprecedented access to a Ukrainian unit remotely
carrying out attacks 1000 kilometers away inside Russia, we're going to bring you that exclusive report in our next hour of "Connect the World".
Meanwhile, in Northern Nigeria, nearly 100 people have been killed after a fuel tanker crashed. And police say the driver lost control of the vehicle,
causing it to somersault. People were gathering fuel that had spilled when the tanker exploded. Dozens of people have been seriously injured, and the
death toll is expected to rise.
CNN's Larry Madowo is in Nairobi with the latest for us. So, I mean, Larry, what is the latest that you're learning about how this happened and the
condition of the victims.
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Omar, a police spokesperson, telling CNN that this happened overnight on a highway in Northern Nigeria and Jigawa
state. So, this fuel tanker veered off the road, possibly to try and avoid hitting another tanker. And it rolled several times before falling into a
ditch, and then fuel started spilling out of the tanker.
And residents rushed to the scene to try and siphon fuel. Part of the reason could be that fuel has become quite expensive in Nigeria after the
removal of fuel subsidies, and so free fuel is something that's welcome to a lot of people. Unfortunately, this scene then caught on fire, and it
burned quite rapidly.
Some video social media showing at the area engulfed in flames, police saying at least 94 people died there, and as you mentioned, that number
could increase because at least 50 people are in serious condition in nearby hospitals. So, when the full account is done, some of them might not
make it sadly.
This is not the first time that such an incident has happened in Nigeria. Fuel tankers explored on roads. Fuel tanker accidents and truck accidents
happen quite frequently. Just another accident happened last month after a collision, 48 people died there. And according to recent statistics, in
2020 there were more than 1500 truck accidents across Nigeria.
Part of the reason is poor roads. Another reason is sometimes these accidents are blamed on reckless driving or poorly maintained cars. So,
they're not in great condition to be on the roads to start with. But unfortunately, whenever these happen, the death tolls can be quite high,
Omar.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, concerning dynamic, no matter the reason. Larry Madowo in Nairobi, thank you so much. We're following a lot of news here still to
come. What else can happen in this year's race for the White House? Not tempting anyone, but it is anybody's guess.
And the candidates are not about to let up either as we head into this final stretch. And disturbing media reports involving one of the biggest
names and World Football, why Kylian Mbappe is firing back over reports in Swedish media? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:15:00]
JIMENEZ: If you can believe it, we are less than three weeks from Election Day here in the United States, and record numbers of early voters have
already cast their ballots in Georgia. Neither side can afford to let up either. For his part, Donald Trump will appear soon in a town hall that he
taped in Georgia in front of an audience of women for Fox News.
In it, he claimed to be the father of IVF reproductive treatments. Later today, he's scheduled to tape another town hall with Univision, and then he
hosts a closed-door big money fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago. Kamala Harris hit back against Trump's declaration that he's the father of IVF, saying, if he
wins, IVF and other reproductive treatments would be in jeopardy.
In Detroit on Tuesday, Harris took part in a town hall style interview with radio personality Charlamagne tha God. She also met with black
entrepreneurs. And later today, more than 100 Republicans will join her for a country above party rally in Pennsylvania. And then Harris will sit for a
first ever interview on Fox News with Bret Baier.
So, let's go to Washington now, where I'm joined by CNN's Alayna Treene and Eva McKend to talk about the campaign strategies, we are seeing playing out
here. Alayna, I want to start with you Donald Trump appearing on Fox News today in a town hall focused on women's issues. Why and why do they
believe? Why does the campaign believe this, either setting or messaging is important?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, I think the fact that it was an all- female audience is a good indication of how hard the campaign and the former president himself are really trying to court women voters. I know
from my conversations with Trump's senior advisers, that they are very concerned about the very wide gender gap between Trump and Harris, with a
lot of women voters saying that they are more for the vice president.
And so that's been something that they've been working on behind the scenes. I will tell you from my conversations with the campaign that would
they argue and they really say that they acknowledge, that a lot of women don't like Trump, the man himself. They don't like his rhetoric.
However, they think that they could potentially win them over by having him talk about the issues and focusing on policies. However, during that town
hall last night, which is, as you said, going to be airing later today, Donald Trump, you know, didn't really stick to that strategy.
He did use some very dark rhetoric. One very notable moment was when he was asked specifically about what he meant when he said over the weekend that
the greatest threat to the United States is not our foreign adversaries, but the enemy from within. I am going to read for you just a little bit of
what he said that crowd last night, he said, quote, it is the enemy from within, and they're very dangerous.
We have China, we have Russia, we have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are, you know,
the Pelosis, these people, they're so sick and they're so evil. So, I mean, clearly, he is talking about political opponents.
He mentions the Pelosis directly, and it comes as a lot of Republican allies have been taking to the airways in recent days to try and defend
this comment from Donald Trump. They have argued that he was referring to protesters or rioters. We know that he said that he would potentially send
in the military to deal with this enemy from within.
But Donald Trump himself made clear that he was talking about, in many cases, Democrats. So that was one thing, I think, another notable moment
that I want to share with you, Omar, is what he said at the Economic Club of Chicago yesterday during an interview with Bloomberg News.
[09:20:00]
Trump, once again, refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and to accept the election results in November. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People were angry. People were there, and I'll tell you what they never
show that the primary scene in Washington was hundreds of thousands, the largest group of people I've ever spoken before and I've spoken and it was
love and peace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: So, love and peace, is what Donald Trump said. Omar, I can tell you, I was at the capital on January 6th, 2021, it was not love and peace.
It was very much a dark day in America. But this is Trump, again, kind of falsely claiming that in the past, in 2021 there was a peaceful transfer of
power, which we know is not true.
Another thing he said that isn't true is that there were hundreds of thousands of people there that day when he spoke on the ellipse, that also
is not true. That was a fewer there were far fewer people there that day. But all in all, I think this just plays into something as we're looking
ahead to November.
We know that there's a very good chance that the election results are going to be challenged once again this cycle. And so, as we look ahead to the
next 20 days, I think that's very much in the forefront of a lot of voters' minds.
JIMENEZ: And we're already seeing a lot of legal activity, I think is fair to say, around ballot casting, and we haven't even gotten to Election Day.
He also may be the only person who describes January 6th as love and peace. But I'm going to move on from that. Eva, I want to bring you in, because
Vice President Harris, she's going to be interviewed later today on Fox News. I mean, why did she agree to this interview?
EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: So, Omar, she's clearly trying to reach conservatives and listen, there is disagreement
among Democrats about if this is the best strategy. There are competing visions for how resources should be used, how the vice president's precious
time should be used in these closing weeks.
But the campaign clearly believes that she has an opening here, that she can go after these Nikki Haley voters. That's why we are going to see her
lean into this country over party message today, she's going to be joined by Republicans on the campaign trail.
And essentially, she is going to make this argument that the former president doesn't have a respect for the Constitution, institutional norms.
You know when he talks about the enemy from within, about fellow Americans that it's fundamentally unpatriotic. And so going on Fox News, doing this
country over party events, it is a very specific strategy that they think is a winning one. Take a listen to how she talks about this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's two very different visions for our nation. One mind that is about taking us
forward and progress and investing the American people, investing in their ambitions, dealing with their challenges. And the other, Donald Trump is
about taking us backward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other is about fascism. Why can't we just say it?
HARRIS: Yes, we can say that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKEND: So, Omar, it is really a booth and strategy. She spent much of the week thus far appealing directly to black male voters. She had that high
parole file event last night with Charlemagne tha God in Detroit, and now in the latter part of the week, it is a push to meet more centrist voters
as they try to do all that they can to appeal to a broad swath of the electorate with not very much longer -- Omar, to get the message out there
and to reach these communities.
JIMENEZ: All this likely par for the course -- this close to the election. Alayna Treene, Eva McKend, you'll be on top of it all. Thank you so much.
All right, I want to connect you all to a developing story from Europe Football Superstar Kylian Mbappe is denying rape allegations that have been
reported in Swedish media.
News outlets there are quoting a police report that says Mbappe is quote, suspected on reasonable grounds of rape following a trip to Stockholm on
Thursday. Now, a representative for the footballer says legal action will now be taken against Swedish media.
Melissa Bell is in Paris with more on the allegations surrounding the French superstar. So, Melissa, what exactly are the allegations here? What
are we hearing from Mbappe's camp as well?
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- first of all, a great deal from the Swedish press about this complaint, this investigation,
and now we've had the confirmation from Swedish prosecutors, Omar, of procedure that they haven't specified is aimed at Kylian Mbappe, but all of
the suggestions in the Swedish press are that they it is.
As you said, the reasonable grounds of suspecting that rape occurred is the lowest bar that they have in Sweden for launching an investigation. We
understand that these allegations surround events in a nightclub and in a hotel in Stockholm last week, but what we've seen is very forcefully from
the time when these allegations began to appear in the Swedish press.
[09:25:00]
The entourage of Kylian Mbappe forcefully pushing back against them. Now I think you need to understand the reason this story has such legs, given how
little we know about the complaint and the events of last Thursday is the stature of Kylian Mbappe himself.
This is a man who's been at the front and center of French football now for many years, with an absolutely squeaky-clean image, and that is not the
case of so many football players here in Europe. Have a listen to what his lawyer had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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 it, 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BELL: What she says Kylian Mbappe's lawyers that they're going to look to any means of bringing defamation suits themselves as they wait to get more
clarity on exactly the substance of the claims. But this is again, a story that has extraordinary legs because of who Kylian Mbappe is and because of
how pristine his reputation had been thus far, Omar?
JIMENEZ: Yeah, and again, the beginning of a process here. So, we'll keep an eye on these legal proceedings as they move forward. Melissa Bell, thank
you so much. We want to get you up to speed on some other stories that are on our radar right now. Two bomb hoaxes targeted Indian airliners Tuesday.
One threat forced an emergency landing in Canada, while Singapore's Defense Minister says another caused his country to scramble two fighter jets.
Additional bomb threats have also disrupted other flights by Indian carriers in recent days, though it's not clear what the motive may be.
Two giant pandas have arrived safely in the U.S. from China. The pair landed in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday after traveling on a FedEx cargo
plane nicknamed the Panda Express. They'll be housed at the National Zoo for the next decade, and they go on display for the public starting in
January.
All right, still ahead, avoiding risks on the runway after several close calls in the United States, investigators are looking for answers, just
ahead. And aircraft maker Boeing announces plans to raise $25 billion with -- How that could affect the U.S. and global economy? That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:30:00]
JIMENEZ: Welcome back, everyone. The opening bell started the trading day on the New York Stock Exchange. Lot of green in the market lately, so
clapping for good reason. But of course, we will always see. I'm Omar Jimenez in New York. You're watching "Connect the World".
As I mentioned, trading day off to a good start on the green after the bell on Wall Street. And as we follow news across the world here, Boeing has
announced plans to raise billions of dollars as its financial crisis deepens. This week, the cash strapped company said it would borrow $10
billion from several banks and try to bring in an additional 25 billion by selling off stock and debt.
It also plans to cut its global headcount by 10 percent and that could have a ripple effect in the United States and beyond. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich
has more. So, Vanessa, I mean, just can you provide context for us? How much trouble is the plane maker in here?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: They're in a lot of financial trouble. And as you just mentioned, they're borrowing $10
billion from several banks, and they're selling off debt and stock for another $15 billion and that's just to try to get them out of the hole of
the $33 billion that they've been in for the past five years.
But sort of the good news for American consumers first here is that Boeing's financial trouble and the strike that they're facing right now,
which is now into its second month, won't impact everyday people like you and I just yet, because the factory has been closed in Seattle for over a
month now, but that shouldn't necessarily affect what you and I are paying for our plane tickets every single day.
Sure, maybe because there are some delayed orders, you could see prices of seats go up just a little bit, but right now, there's not a ton of demand,
which actually means that airline prices are falling, so that's good news for the American consumer right now. However, Omar, for the broader
economy, this is significant.
Boeing is the number one exporter here in the United States. They supply all major airlines with planes. And right now, with this strike, they are
seeing an economic impact of $5 billion in just the first month, to the company, to workers, to suppliers. And that is significant, because every
day that this goes on, this strike goes on, that's a larger financial impact to the company.
As I just mentioned, they've had to borrow money. They also announced just last week that they're laying off 10 percent of their workforce, that's
17,000 employees that are going to be losing their jobs in just the next several months. And Boeing itself, just as a company, is a huge economic
driver.
They say that they generate $79 billion into the U.S. economy. They employ, and as a ripple effect, they employ about 1.6 million jobs, so people who
are the suppliers, customers in the area. So, the fact that they're sort of in troubled waters is important to note. However, Omar, this is kind of a
too big to fail situation.
They're one of only two, two makers of passenger airlines -- passenger airplanes in the entire world. This is not a company that is going to go
under the U.S., and the world needs this company. It's just they are digging out of a really big financial hole right now. And this ongoing
strike really is just putting a lot of pressure on the company to reach a deal and get back on track, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, get back on track. I'm sure is at the top of the door frame every time they walk into the office.
YURKEVICH: Yeah.
JIMENEZ: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.
YURKEVICH: Thanks.
JIMENEZ: I want to go to plane safety on the ground now, because the FAA is conducting an audit of the collision risks at 45 major airports in the
United States. There have been really troubling near misses on runways at U.S. airports in recent months. And now the Federal Aviation Administration
is trying to find out why?
A report by a government watchdog said last year that air traffic services were facing significant staffing challenges. CNN Aviation Correspondent
Pete Muntean joins me now from Washington. So, one -- how long will this investigation last, and what can we expect from it?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is really significant, this new investigation, and it shows that this industry wide issue has not
been licked just yet. The FAA says it will audit 45 busiest airports in the U.S. for the potential of these near collisions on runways.
They're not officially as runway incursions, Omar. And I've been reporting about that since the start of last year. The headlines really have been
emerging from coast to coast in the U.S. The catalyst at New York's JFK in January of 2023 when an American Airlines flight bound for London taxied
out in front of a Delta flight that was already accelerating for takeoff.
Nobody heard in that incident, but investigators said the pilots of the American Airlines Flight were essentially distracted heads down in the
cockpit by paperwork and essentially got lost on the ground.
[09:35:00]
But the list really goes on, Austin, Boston, Burbank, Reagan National Airport outside D.C. in June, the most recent incident just last month in
Nashville, and the tires of an Alaska Airlines flight that was taking off blew out, when the pilots of that flight had to slam on the brakes when a
Southwest flight taxied out in front of them.
Investigators still doing interviews in that case. Now the FAA says this audit will really drill down on the risks at each airport. Remember, might
not always be pilots who are entirely at fault here could be something a bit more structural. And the FAA wants to know if there are gaps in
procedures or issues with equipment.
Maybe there's a process at an airport that's causing problems. Investigators really have been concerned not only about the design of some
airports, but also about the lack of early warning technology. 35 airports here in the United States have technology that alerts air traffic
controllers to impending collisions.
But remember, there are about 500 airports in the U.S. with commercial service, so it's only a small slice of the pie. The NTSB has said that
technology saved the day in the JFK near collision I talked about earlier, and the NTSB Chair, Jennifer Homendy told me she wants to see that
technology at more airports.
Of course, Omar, there will be so many eyes on this new audit, and the FAA says it will be finished sometime next year, Omar.
JIMENEZ: All right, we will keep an eye on, obviously, that information critically important. Pete Muntean, really appreciate it. All right, just
before we leave headlines on the aviation industry, Germany's largest airline, Lufthansa has been hit with a record $4 million fine for
discriminating against Jewish passengers.
The U.S. Department of Transportation made the announcement on Tuesday, and the fine stems from an incident back in 2022, when the airline stopped 128
Jewish passengers from boarding a connecting flight after some alleged misbehavior. Now, the report says some of the travelers disregarded safety
instructions and argued with crew members during the first leg of the flight.
But U.S. officials say the passengers were mostly dressed in Orthodox clothing, didn't know each other and shouldn't have been penalized as a
single group. Lufthansa denies discriminating against anyone and says it cooperated with the investigation. Up next, baseball fans are in a New York
state of mind how the Yankees and Mets are inching closer to a showdown in the World Series.
And its spacesuits, but not as we know it, how Prada is shaping the look of the next lunar mission. Stay with us.
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JIMENEZ: Think of it as high fashion is meeting the heights, depths of outer space. Prada is reaching for the moon with its latest design as it
teams up commercial space firm Axiom space to unveil the new space suit that will be worn on NASA's historic new lunar mission.
The suit has a range of innovative features, including boots that will let astronauts go on spacewalks for more than eight hours a day.
[09:40:00]
NASA's Artemis III mission is set to be the first astronaut Moon Landing since Apollo 17 in 1972. If successful, it could also be the first time
that a woman walks on the moon. I want Prada's spacesuit. Anyway, Prague a city as famous for its beer as its buildings. They're banning some late-
night bar crawls in a bid to discourage rowdy tourists.
The Czech capital is the latest European hot spot to push back on crowds amid concerns about the impact on locals' quality of life. Over the past
two decades, Prague has become a popular destination for bachelor and bachelorette parties, especially from the U.K.
And city officials say the ban only applies to group tours organized by travel agencies and will not prevent individual groups from organizing
their own bar crawls. I will keep that in mind. To sports now and the dreams of a subway World Series are very much alive for baseball fans here
in New York.
The Yankees took command of the American League Championship Series Tuesday night while the Mets host the Dodgers in a key national league title series
game on Wednesday. Carolyn Manno joins me now. I mean, I'm salivating just thinking about the possibility here.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN HOST: I know so many fans are. I was actually thinking about how that might work in New York City, if a late-night bar band was to
go into effect for Mets and Yankees fans who have been really excited about this possibility as you know, Omar, these are two sports franchises that
are so well known and beloved, despite the fact that they haven't had a ton of success in recent years.
So, these two on potential collision course to meet each other and potentially break a World Series drought that dates over multiple decades
from both franchises. But it should be fun, and we will have the highlights of that and so much more coming up on "World Sport"?
JIMENEZ: Well, I'm excited at the possibility and I'm excited to see more. "World Sport" is after the break, I'll be back with more "Connect the
World" in about 15 minutes.
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[09:45:00]
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