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CNN NEWSROOM

More Kavanaugh; Calls for More Info on Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance; E.U. Calls for Fast Inquiry into Killing of Bulgarian Journalist; Second Skripal Suspect Identified; China Accuses Former Interpol Chief of Corruption; Website Names Second Skripal Poisoning Suspect; Saudi Ambassador Denies Khashoggi Killed in Consulate; U.N. Panel: Planet Has Until 2030 to Stem Climate Change. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired October 9, 2018 - 00:00   ET

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


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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A presidential apology on behalf of the nation to the newest Supreme Court justice after a bruising confirmation process. And for Donald Trump, the sexual assault allegations he once found compelling, now just a Democratic hoax.

The mystery of a missing Saudi journalist, the kingdom denies any involvement that many are skeptical saying it fits a much wider pattern.

Also ahead, experts are warning of a climate catastrophe, there's just 12 years left to stop it.

Welcome to the viewers from all over the world. I'm John Vause and I'm in Atlanta. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: In a made for television moment at the White House, in front of a room of reporters and cheering Republicans, Brett Kavanaugh has been sworn in again as the newest justice on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh took the oath of office on Saturday right after his Senate confirmation.

But on Monday president Donald Trump used the nationally televised ceremony to apologize to Kavanaugh and his family for the pain and suffering they endured during the Senate confirmation, declaring that Kavanaugh had been proven innocent of the allegations of sexual assault which nearly sank his appointment to America's highest court.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: On behalf of our nation, I want to apologize to Brett and the entire Kavanaugh family for the terrible pain and suffering you have been forced to endure. Those who step forward to serve our country deserve a fair and dignified evaluation. Not a campaign of political and personal destruction based on lies and deception. What happened to the Kavanaugh family violates every notion of fairness, decency and due process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, unlike the contentious appearance last week, Brett Kavanaugh promised to be impartial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT KAVANAUGH, U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: Although the Senate confirmation process tested me as it has tested others, it did not change me. My approach to judging remains the same. A good judge must be an neutral and impartial decider who favors no litigant or .

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Not much conciliation from Trump. Earlier in the day, he called the Democrats and those that oppose Kavanaugh's nomination evil. Here's details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With his nominee Brett Kavanaugh heading to the high court, President Trump is still delivering some low blows.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: False charges, false accusations, horrible statements that were totally untrue that he knew nothing about. It was a disgraceful situation brought about by people that are evil and he toughed it out.

ACOSTA: At a speech to law enforcement officials in Orlando, Mr. Trump did not make it clear whether he considered Kavanaugh's accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, as being evil as well. But before he left for Florida, the president signaled he could see the battle in political terms, predicting that many Democrats are suddenly going to abandon their hopes for a blue wave in the upcoming midterms.

TRUMP: A man that was caught up in a hoax that was set up by the Democrats, using the Democrats' lawyers and now they want to impeach him. I think a lot of Democrats are going to vote Republican because I have many friends that are Democrats. The main base of the Democrats have shifted so far left that we will end up being Venezuela.

ACOSTA: The president's Kavanaugh playbook was on display at a rally over the weekend in Kansas, where President Trump accused Democrats of using mob tactics, pointing to the protesters shouting at senators up on Capitol Hill.

TRUMP: It is unthinkable.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: In their quest for power, the radical Democrats have turned into an angry mob.

ACOSTA: The president may be forgetting he too has repeatedly encouraged unruly behavior as a candidate.

TRUMP: I would like to punch him in the face. I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They would be carried out on a stretcher, folks. I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any votes, OK?

ACOSTA: Still, the anger flowing through both parties after the Supreme circus is palpable, from GOP Senator Lindsey Graham's emotional defense of Kavanaugh.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I have never been more pissed in my life. I voted for Sotomayor and Kagan. I would never done this to them. This is character assassination. This is wanting power too much.

ACOSTA: To the Democratic outrage directed at Republican Senator Susan Collins, who now says she does not believe Kavanaugh assaulted Ford.

[00:05:00]

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I do believe she was assaulted. I don't know by whom and I'm not certain when, but I do not believe that he was the assailant.

ACOSTA: Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got testy over the weekend when he left open the possibility he could support filling a Supreme Court vacancy during the next presidential election, something he would not do when Barack Obama selected Merrick Garland in 2016.

CHRIS WALLACE, HOST, "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": If you can't answer my direct question, are you saying that President Trump...

(CROSSTALK)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: Well, the answer to your question is, we will see whether there's a vacancy in 2020.

ACOSTA: The president wasn't completely focused on Kavanaugh as he invited Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to ride on Air Force One. Rosenstein no longer appears to be on thin ice after he once talked of secretly recording the president and even having him removed from office using the 25th Amendment.

TRUMP: We had a very good talk, I will say. That became a very big story, actually, folks. We had a good talk.

ACOSTA: As for that meeting the president had with Rod Rosenstein, the White House told reporters the two men discussed, quote, "general Justice Department business," but there weren't many other details -- Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: For more now, political analyst and author of "Stand Up: How America Became Ungovernable." Bill Schneider is with us from Washington.

Bill, good to see you.

This was anything but your run of the mill swearing in ceremony and by that I mean, it was actually a fake ceremony in some ways as Kavanaugh had taken the oath on Saturday. And listen to how the room reacted when Trump walked in.

VAUSE: We also heard moments ago Trump apologizing to Kavanaugh on behalf of the nation. In many ways, it seems like Donald Trump just kicked off the Republican campaign for next month's congressional elections for the midterms.

BILL SCHNEIDER, POLITICAL ANALYST: That's predictable. Donald Trump makes sure that the news is all about him. Every president plays an important role in a Supreme Court appointment and nomination but still the whole fight has really been about Donald Trump as much as it's been about judge Kavanaugh.

VAUSE: Not long after this made for television but not legally required swearing in ceremony, "The New York Times" ran with this headline.

"Trump Seeks to Make Kavanaugh Furor a Campaign Asset, Not a Liability."

So the detailed strategy by the president focusing on the treatment of men during this #MeToo era and a lack of due process and how crazy those liberals are and progressives have been.

Given the incredibly low support among women for this administration, is this strategist best explained along the lines of what have we got to lose?

SCHNEIDER: That's an explanation that works. Men came out for him in 2016. He's dependent on them to win. There is a big gender division over Kavanaugh's confirmation but there's an even bigger partisan division. That's the real division in the country.

The difference between men and women was big but the difference between Republicans and Democrats was even bigger. And President Trump has really governed in an unusual way, more than any president I think certainly in memory and maybe in history, this president is a divider. He makes no pretense, like most of his predecessors, of trying to heal the division in the country.

VAUSE: You mentioned the polling numbers. There's new numbers out from CNN. It shows a slim majority of Americans now opposing Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court at the same time support for his nomination has actually inched up as well.

That's because a poll taken back in August, many didn't declare a preference either way. But now they do and this growing opposition is coming purely from the Democrat side. The Republican support for Kavanaugh is actually higher than it ever been. It's inched up a few points there as well.

As you say, this president, with his divide and conquer strategy which has worked in the past -- but this is about the Supreme Court. And it seems this is at a whole new level, a level the country has never seen before.

SCHNEIDER: Yes, the Supreme Court, even the Senate are supposed to be above partisan politics. That hasn't been true of the Senate in a long time and certainly not true now.

This was a historic division in the United States. I can compare it to what historians call the great division in France during the Dreyfus Affair 100 years ago, where all of France was divided left and right.

The Left and the Right dreamed of annihilating each other. That's what's happened in the United States now. The Senate now, which is supposed to be the place where partisan passions cool, the Senate has now become the real hotbed of partisanship and unfortunately, so has the Supreme Court becoming a partisan division.

And that's very unfortunate because the Supreme Court is the voice of the Constitution and it's not supposed to be partisan.

VAUSE: The one driving factor in politics in the U.S. right now seems to be anger at the other side. Yet after he --

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VAUSE: -- made this controversial appearance before the Senate committee last week, on Monday, Kavanaugh tried to reassure those who doubt that he'll be a impartial, unbiased judge. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAVANAUGH: Every litigant in the Supreme Court can be assured that I will listen to their arguments with respect and an open mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Now compare that guy from the other guy at the Senate committee hearing last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAVANAUGH: This is a circus. The consequences will extend long past nomination the consequences will be with us for decades. This grotesque and coordinated character assassination will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from serving our country.

As we know in the United States' political system of the early 2000s, what goes around comes around. (END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Who do you believe here?

The mild-mannered, calm, reasonable Supreme Court sworn in Judge Kavanaugh or angry, hostile, beer-loving, what goes around comes around frat boy like who testified last week?

SCHNEIDER: We don't know yet. We have to wait and see what he does on the court. He probably will defend himself by saying when he talks about partisan division and passion, he was talking about the Senate and the confirmation process.

We can only hope so, because when it comes to passing judgment, the Supreme court is the final word. It has authority over both the executive and the legislative branch. It is the Constitution. It is the voice of the Constitution. And for that to become partisan in the United States is a very severe blow to our democracy.

VAUSE: Kavanaugh did say on Monday that the Supreme court is not political. But yet last week after he was confirmed, the White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, tweeted, congratulations judge Kavanaugh it's only 6-3 liberal Supreme Court under Hillary Clinton, we now have a 5-4 conservative Supreme Court under President Donald Trump. For many a tremendous legacy for the president and (INAUDIBLE) blah blah blah.

Can everyone now at least stop pretending that, when it comes to the politics and the nature of the Supreme Court?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, politics -- look, there's an old saying. The Supreme Court follows the election returns. Well, this court really does. You have the conservatives who control now all three branches of the government and their control of the Supreme Court is a very risky thing. Because if they insist on making decisions, if they make decisions based on a conservative script, I think a lot of the country is going to be disillusioned.

This really started long before Judge Kavanaugh was nominated. You can really go back to 2017, 2016, when Barack Obama made a nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court and the Republicans in the Senate simply refused to carry out their constitutional duty and act on that nomination.

They just held it up for 11 months. That was a real provocation and it was truly perfectly partisan.

VAUSE: Yes and it has just become more and more partisan since.

Bill, as always, good to see you. Thank you.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

VAUSE: The Saudi ambassador to the U.S. has emphatically denied that a prominent journalist and dissident has been killed while visiting the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Jamal Khashoggi walked into the consulate a week ago and has been missing since. The Saudis insist he left the building alive. But Turkish officials say Khashoggi was killed during that visit, an allegation emphatically denied by the Saudi ambassador, calling it absolutely false and baseless.

On Monday, Turkey's president demanded proof of life from the Saudis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT OF TURKEY (through translator): I feel responsible as president for getting to the bottom of this case. The consulate officials cannot save themselves by simply saying he has left. They have to produce concrete evidence. If he left then, they must have video to prove it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Jomana Karadsheh joins us now from outside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the scene of the crime.

Join me now, in the last few hours, the U.S. vice president tweeted this.

"Deeply troubled to hear reports about Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi. If true, this is a tragic day. Violence against journalists across the globe is a threat to freedom of the press and human rights. The free world deserves answers."

OK, putting aside the irony of the Trump administration complaining about violence against journalists and its threat to press freedom, that seems pretty weak tea. There's no mention of allegations of Saudi foul play.

Will deserves answers as opposed to the U.S.?

So how will all this be read by both Ankara and Riyadh?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, for the past week, since the disappearance of Khashoggi, we've been talking to colleagues of his, people who knew him, his fiancee. And everyone has been saying they want to see the one country that could make a difference in all of this really push for answers. That's the United States.

People feel that the U.S., with its strong relationship with Saudi --

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KARADSHEH: -- Arabia, especially of that relationship between President Trump and the Saudi royal family, especially the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who has been praised on so many occasions by President Trump, the feeling was that the U.S. can use that relationship, can use the leverage to push for answers.

So I think so many people will be disappointed to see after days of very little from the United States, all these statements about them working on this behind the scenes, these are public statements coming from the administration. But it is also something human rights organizations would tell you over the past year. So they have been hoping and wanting to see more from the United States when it comes to putting pressure on the Saudis with the crackdown going on in the country.

VAUSE: This investigation, now, beyond the strong denial, is there any indication the Saudis are willing to prove Khashoggi left the consulate, the security camera footage, for instance?

What more do you know about the possibility there could be images from a Turkish camera?

There a lot of accusations and demands circulating at the moment.

KARADSHEH: What we heard from the president yesterday is what so many people here have been saying for the past week. We've been outside the consulate and we saw multiple security cameras around this mission and from day one, people have been saying, if he did leave, like Saudi officials are claiming, why just not release the CCTV footage, the surveillance video showing him leaving the consulate?

There have been reports that some Saudi officials have said the cameras weren't recording on that day. Of course, that's not a very convincing answer for many. We have heard from Turkish officials saying that the answers they have so far is not satisfactory.

Keeping in mind, this is not an isolated, remote area of Istanbul. This is a busy and commercial area. There's a number of other diplomatic missions close by. So there's no shortage of surveillance cameras in the area.

We know that Turkish investigators are combing through the video, trying to find out what happened. We know from the beginning Turkish officials have said they see him in the video, going into the consulate but no proof of him leaving like the Saudis are claiming.

So now it is on Saudi Arabia to prove that he left like they say.

VAUSE: OK. We'll see where this goes. Obviously the ball is out to the Saudis. Jomana, thank you.

The European Union is urging a speedy investigation by Bulgarian authorities to find the killer of journalist Viktoria Marinova.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The commission expects a swift and thorough investigation by the responsible authorities that will bring those responsible to justice and clarify whether this is attack was linked to her work. We must make sure that journalists everywhere are safe and make their invaluable contributions to our democratic societies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Hundreds of mourners held vigils in cities across Bulgaria demanding justice for Marinova. Prosecutors say she had been raped, beaten and suffocated. Her body was found on Saturday.

Marinova hosted a TV show and interviewed journalists reporting on corruption involving E.U. funds. She, at the time, said she would do a similar investigation. The group Reporters without Borders rates Bulgaria the lowest for press freedom in the European Union.

Still to come, a website says it has a new lead in the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. We'll have a report from Moscow in a moment.

Also the former head of the world's police is now the target of a criminal investigation. They latest person accused in China's anti- corruption crackdown.

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VAUSE: Welcome back.

A British website has released what it says is the true identity of the second suspect in the Skripal poisoning. Bellingcat says it will announce all the details at the British Parliament on Tuesday. Details now from Fred Pleitgen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After claiming to have revealed the identity of one of the two alleged assailants of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in a Novichok poisoning that happened earlier this year, the British investigative website Bellingcat now claims to also know the identity of the second man alleged by British authorities that have taken part in the poisoning.

British authorities have always said they believed the two men were using aliases and the second man they named as Alexander Petrov. But Bellingcat now says that they believe that his true name is Alexander Mishkin.

He's 39 years old, a military doctor and that he was also recruited by Russia's military intelligence service, the GRU. Bellingcat issues a press release ahead of what they say tomorrow will be a larger press conference as to what exactly their methodology and their sources was.

But they do say that that they talked to several sources, both in St. Petersburg, and also in the home village of Mishkin, which they say is called Loyga, north of Moscow. The Russian authorities, we've been asking them for comment on this. We reached out both to the spokesperson for the foreign ministry and to the Kremlin.

So far they have not answered. In the past, the Kremlin and the foreign ministry have said they don't believe any of the reports from Bellingcat are credible. But of course all this comes after several days with embarrassing revelations for the Russians and the GRU, being accused by the Americans, the Dutch and the British of having conducted cyber operations against these countries.

Some of the alleged evidence was made public. So far we're seeing a fairly muted response by the Russians to a lot of those allegations. But clearly a lot of people here in Russia believe that this is a big setback and has been a big string of setbacks for the Russians and for their military intelligence service -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: The wife of Interpol's now former president insists he's the victim of political persecution. Meng Hongwei disappeared last month after traveling from France to Beijing. On Monday Chinese authorities revealed he was actually in custody, accused of corruption and accepting a bribe.

CNN's senior producer Steven Jiang following the story for us from the Chinese capital.

Steven, we have this announcement from the public security officials there in Beijing but we don't have a lot of details on exactly what the former Interpol boss is accused of doing.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: That's right. Still a lot of unanswered questions even after that fairly lengthy statement from the Chinese authorities on Monday.

For example, they accuse him of corruption but then you hear his wife saying that's political persecution.

In the statement, the Chinese government made a reference to Mr. Meng's former patron, Zhou Yongkang, who was once the country's security czar and that person is now serving a life sentence in prison for corruption.

But Mr. Zhou fell from grace in 2013 and Mr. Meng continued to rise through the ranks after that. He was made the Interpol president in 2016. So that didn't really add up.

There's also now speculations about whether or not Mr. Meng's detention could have something to do with an incident at Interpol back in February. That's when Interpol lifted the wanted list on a Uighur activist. As you know, the Chinese government has been --

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JIANG: cracking down on Uighur activism throughout the country and also trying to pursue dissidents and activists overseas. Mr. Meng was president at the time when that (INAUDIBLE) was lifted. So some people make a connection there.

A lot of unanswered questions still. But the interesting thing here, of course, is the wife, Grace Meng. She has been making startling remarks in France, where she is right now. She showed that chilling image of a knife sent to her by her husband before he disappeared but she has also been saying she's now ready to turn her grief and fear into a pursuit of truth, justice and responsibilities not only for herself and her child but also for her people, saying so that no other husbands or fathers will disappear again in China.

That's almost unprecedented. Sounds like call to arms to me. So really we're watching closely to what she does next. That could really make a difference in Mr. Meng's fate.

VAUSE: OK, Steven, thank you.

Brazil's closely watched presidential election is now headed for a runoff October 28th. The ultra-conservative candidate known as the Brazilian Donald Trump won 46 percent of the vote in Sunday's preliminary round. But he actually got only 50 percent needed for an outright victory.

He'll now face the former president, Lula da Silva but stay in the cabinet that in this runoff. Supporters took to the streets as results came in for that side claiming election fraud.

Saudi Arabia denies involvement in the disappearance of a journalist in Istanbul. The call for proof. More on that in a moment. And a new U.N. climate change report warns of dire consequences for the planet if changes are not made by 2030. We'll tell you what it suggests and maybe what you can do to help avoid a catastrophe.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause with an update of our top stories.

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Well, for more on this, Robin Wright, is with us. She's a senior fellow with Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Contributing Writer at the New Yorker. Robin, thanks for being with us. What we've had in the last 24 hours, it's been a lot of back and forth between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, especially about the security video from the Saudi consulate.

The ambassador in D.C. from Riyadh, he told the Washington Post the cameras were not recording. Other (INAUDIBLE) reports footage from Turkish cameras, I believe to be available. And then you got the 15 Saudi nationals who the Turks say they arrived today, they can show they disappeared.

Saudi said it never happened. But, you know, there would be a record of plane landing, a passenger manifest, there's a whole bunch of stuff out there (INAUDIBLE) as well, so what do you make of this? Pull all these together, explain what's really going on here.

ROBIN WRIGHT, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, NEW YORKER: Well, it's very worse. There has been no proof of life since his disappearance. No sighting of him by anyone. This is very much unlike Jamal, who is a thoughtful person, would never abandon his fiancee.

And he had been long worried about his security. The last time I talked to him in August, he pointed out that he thought the Kingdom was intent on silencing his voice, wanting him out of the picture.

And this, of course, also comes at a time that Crown Prince Mohammad has become increasingly authoritarian in silencing not just critics, but women's rights activists, the clerics, rich businessmen he's engaged in what are some very unprecedented acts in the Kingdom to consolidate his power, and to eliminate those who are challenging him.

VAUSE: I want to talk a little bit more about your relationship with Khashoggi because, as you say, you've known him -- you've known him for a very long time. You wrote about this in the New Yorker about the last conversation you had, this was back in August. You say he was worried about his safety, and especially, because this is what he told you.

The Saudi Crown Prince has no tolerance or willingness to accommodate critics. Although he is technically next in line in the throne, an M.B.S. act as the country's de-facto leader, Khashoggi said, and has already become more autocratic than any of the previous six kings who have ruled since the death of Ibn Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia back in 1953.

In many ways though, if Khashoggi has gone missing, he's been abducted or killed by Saudi agents, he would fit the (INAUDIBLE) pattern of intimidation of those who are critics of the Saudi royal family.

WRIGHT: It does, indeed. The irony in all of this is that Jamal was a very reluctant dissident. He was a man who, for a long time, equally supported his Kingdom and his King. He long supported the type of government, the way of life, even though he wanted reforms.

He wanted opening up of society, politically, socially, economically, but the pressure had become so severe in him, a year ago, that he opted to take a step that as he conceded, he --- for years, had not spoken out when friends have been arrested.

But he abandoned his home, his family, his profession, and he left and lived in the United States. I think he -- as you acknowledged, was deeply fearful of the consequences. But I think he -- even he would have been stunned at the prospect of what reportedly may have happened to him.

VAUSE: For almost a week, the only official statement coming out of the U.S. is a pretty low-key one. It read, we are not in a position to confirm these reports but we're closely following the situation. Monday, though, brought the first public comments from the U.S. President. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am concerned about it. I don't like hearing about it. And hopefully, that will sort itself out. Right now, nobody knows anything about it. But this is a pretty bad story. I do not like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Yes. I mean, that's barely timid stuff, considering that Khashoggi, you know, is a well-known critic, a high-profile dissident, he's also a U.S. resident.

WRIGHT: Absolutely. But President Trump has enormous stakes in Saudi Arabia. Remember, it was the first place he visited after becoming president, among much (INAUDIBLE) ceremony. The Kingdom is very important to his attempts at brokering a Middle East plan, without Saudi Arabia, it won't come off. And his -- Saudi Arabia is also important for his counter-terrorism strategy.

[00:35:04] Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, and Middle East Adviser, is one of the close -- closest personal friends to the Crown Prince, and so this is a very deep relationship. And the United States has enormous stakes, in its investment in Saudi Arabia. So, it's, kind of, unlikely that things will change dramatically as a

result of Jamal's fate.

VAUSE: Which, to that point, you know, TIMES opinion writer, Tom Freeman, wrote on Monday about the, you know, potential fallout, if in fact, Khashoggi has been abducted or killed by agents from the Saudi government. Here's part of what he wrote.

It would be an unfathomable violation of norms of human decency, worse not in numbers but in principle, than even the Yemen war. What Western leader and how many Western investors want to stand alongside MBS if it is proved that his government abducted or murdered Jamal.

Given the timid response from the Trump administration, the answer to Freeman's question, would be Donald Trump.

WRIGHT: Well, the Saudi Arabia is not the most -- not the only murderous government in the world, unfortunately. One of the big questions, really, of the consequences of what happened is what foreign investors will do. The Crown Prince has very ambitious plan to develop diversified Saudi Arabia wave just from dependence on oil income.

And his Vision 2030 calls for hundreds of billions of dollars of foreign investment to create new industries, new -- really, build new cities. And you have to wonder how many investors will want to stake that kind of money in a country that does these kinds of things.

And so, it may lead to some second thoughts among investors and that really will be as important in some way to the future of the Kingdom as fate of Jamal.

VAUSE: Very quickly, we also heard from U.S. President saying he doesn't know much about what's going on. He would know probably a lot more if there was an ambassador from the United States appointed to Riyadh. There hasn't been one for two years.

WRIGHT: Yes, I suspect United States knows more than it's telling. There's no question the CIA will have some indication of the facts and Turks have been talking, even more behind the scenes about what they know.

VAUSE: OK, Robin. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being with us.

WRIGHT: Thank you.

VAUSE: And now, we'll take a short break, when we come back, the stock warning from a new U.N. report, just 12 years now, to curb global warming, if not, disaster.

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VAUSE: There's a new report out from the U.N., and its warning, we have until 2030 to stop the catastrophic impact from climate change. This new report is urging governments to make rapid far-reaching changes to avoid the disastrous effects of global warming. CNN's Nick Watt has details.

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NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Deadly wildfires from California to Greece, the record-setting rain just dumped by Hurricane Florence on the Carolinas, droughts crippling Cape Town, South Africa, and heat wave turning Europe, brown.

[00:40:12] And now, we have only 12 years to stop all these getting much worse. Average temperatures have risen about one degree Celsius since 1880. In Paris, leaders pledged to keep the rise well below two degrees. This report now suggests we aim for 1.5, a benchmark we're predicted to reach by 2030.

JIM SKEA, MEMBER, INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE: The message is that countries will need to cooperate.

WATT: Yet, President Trump is trying to revive the polluting coal industry here, in the U.S. He's also had pledged to withdraw from the historic Paris Climate Change Agreement, and recently rolled back Obama year targets for cutting vehicle emissions.

DR. DREW SHINDELL, CO-AUTHOR, CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT: They really benefit a tiny group of fossil fuel companies at the expense of the American people.

WATT: And in Brazil, home to the amazon rain forest, the lungs of our planet, the presidential front-runner says he'll also withdraw from that Paris deal.

SHINDELL: From the standpoint of getting the whole world motivated to actually make the changes that would be needed to meet the goad, we've got an awfully long way to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very clear that half a degree matters.

WATT: Apparently, if we're up two degrees, rather than just 1.5, sea levels will rise an extra four inches. The arctic will ready at record low ice levels, as seen in this NASA image, will be totally ice-free on average, once a decade, instead of once a century.

All of the world's coral will completely disappear and flooding and wildfires here at home, will be even worse.

We haven't heard any reaction yet to this report from the Trump administration, but we have heard from Former Vice President Al Gore, who said that the Trump administration has become a rogue out liar in its short-sighted attempt to prop up the dirty fossil fuel industries of the past. Nick watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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VAUSE: And that U.N. report contains the number of suggestions on what we can actually do to try and avoid the devastating impacts of climate change, like videoconferencing instead of taking business trips, eat less meat and dairy, reduce food waste and switching to an electric car, just a few suggestions.

A quick programming note here, before we go, Hillary Clinton will be the guest of Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday, tune in 6:00 p.m. London, 7:00 p.m. in Berlin.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM, from our global headquarters here, in Atlanta, I'm John Vause. Stay tuned for "WORLD SPORT". You're watching CNN.

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