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tv   CNN Newsroom Live  CNN  October 21, 2018 11:00pm-12:00am PDT

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crimes. as the son of an extremist, i have the insight and the experience and the least that i can do is use that to try to make the world a better place. /s a tremendous mistake. saudi arabia blames a rogue operation for the death of journalist jamal khashoggi, but some u.s. lawmakers don't believe that narrative. plus, after crossing mexico's southern border, crowds of migrants resume their journey toward the united states, risking their lives to do so. and later, from twitter bugs to fake facebook ads, misinformation is spreading across social media platforms. we will tell you how facebook says they are fighting back. hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and from all around the
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world. i'm rosemary church, and this is cnn newsroom. saudi arabia is offering its explanation for what happened to jamal khashoggi, but many in the international community are not buying it. in a fox news interview, the saudi foreign minister called the journalist's death a murder that was a tremendous mistake by a rogue operation. adele ajuber added crown prince mohammed bin salman was not aware beforehand. he called the eldest son to express condolences. our nick robinson joins us now from istanbul with more on all of this. nick, how likely is it that
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jamal khashoggi's body will ever be located? >> reporter: well, what we are hearing, the latest if you like, from the foreign minister in saudi arabia, is that they don't know where his body is. and as they have the men that turkish investigators would most like to question, the 15 minute turkish investigators say were the hit squad that came from saudi arabia the day jamal khashoggi disappeared, it would seem the preponderance of information should still be with those people in riyadh back in saudi arabia. but it's not clear if those are among those 15 people or among the 18 that the saudis have detained. but the trail here on the ground does seem to be running somewhat cold now. the trail for jamal khashoggi's body is going cold. video released the turkish media over the weekend reveal the
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hours before his death. this is saudi's offer their first accounting of events. >> this wasn't a rogue operation. this was an operation where individuals exceeded the authorities and responsibilities they had. they made a mistake when they killed jamal khashoggi in the consulate and they tried to cover up for it. >> reporter: a fist fight, a choke hold, the implication being khashoggi's death an accident. in riyadh, 18 people arrested, but there are still holes in the saudi narrative, not least, they say they are cooperating with turkish investigators, but still khashoggi's body is missing. where some of these consular vehicles went in the hours africa shogi's disappearance, still a mystery. saudi leaks say his body, given to a local collaborator. forests and farms outside istanbul have been at the center of rumors. his body may have been dumped there, but as yesterday, no
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evidence. on saturday, turkish investigators questioned consulate employees, including the consul general's driver. but still no body. his friends demanding its return. >> translator: give it back so that we can raise his funeral. let the whole world watch jamal khashoggi's farewell who was killed in a darkroom with horrific details, and whose body is tried to be hidden. >> reporter: president trump asking, too. >> somebody knows, but nobody of the various investigation groups at this moment know, but we'll find out. >> reporter: the u.s. president now beginning to question the role his saudi ally, crown prince mohammed bin salman may have had in khashoggi's death. >> it's possible. you don't know that, but it's possible. >> reporter: so, if they do find or rather maybe when they find jamal khashoggi's body, that could be very helpful for
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investigators to provide forensic information and perhaps shed lie light on why one of saudi arabia's top forensic experts was on that so-called hit team that turkish officials talked about. rosemary? >> and, nick, we have learned that saudi prince mohammed bin salman called khashoggi's oldest son to offer condolences. do we know how his son responded to that call from the crown prince? >> reporter: we noah corresponding to the saudi press agency that his son thanked crown prince mohammed bin salman for the call. one wouldn't expect, a, the saudi press agency to say anything else, or in the circumstance that jamal khashoggi's son finds himself in, wouldn't expect him to say anything else either. his situation in saudi arabia has a lot of speculation around
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it, a lot of questions about his freedom to travel. but at the moment he is the principal member of the family in saudi arabia with the closest ties to his father. most of the rest of the family, close family, have left. and, of course, he like his friends would dearly, dearly like to know precisely what happened to his father. and he, like everyone else, will have to wait for the investigation, rosemary. >> understandably. and, nick robertson with the very latest from istanbul. appreciate that. and in an interview with washington post, the u.s. president is offering conflicting news on the case. he said there's been deception and there's been lies, but he stopped short of blaming crown prince mohammed bin salman. nobody has told me he's responsible. nobody has told me he's not responsible. we haven't reached that point.
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nevertheless, u.s. lawmakers are doubtful and pointing the finger at the crown prince. republican senator bob corker says the u.s. should punish mohammed bin salman if an investigation confirms he was involve in the killing. corker spoke with our jake tapper. >> i think he did it. i think he did it. if he did, i think there should be a collective response. i talked to ambassadors from other countries. in the west, they're looking for the united states for leadership on this issue. but they also want to make sure that they coordinate a response with us. they, too, have arms sales to saudi arabia. they, too, have tinterests ther like we do. this is something you're going to see the united states, united kingdom, france, germany working collectively with others if he did this, to respond in an
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appropriate way. >> and fellow republican senator lindsey graham says he is beyond skeptical. >> if the crown prince truly loved his country, he would not have put his country in this position. if he truly respected the relationship between the united states and saudi arabia, he would never have thought of this. the question is, was he involved. i think the answer is unequivocally yes. first answer was a lie. the second story line is just manufactured. the reship is important, but our values are more important. i've been there enough to know. i've been the leading supporter along with john mccain of the u.s./saudi relationship. i feel completely betrayed. >> us treasury secretary steven mnuchin will attend a meeting combatting terrorism. even though he pulled out of an investor conference because of the khashoggi case, his travel plans have been closely watched
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as an indicator of the trump administration's response to the situation. joining us now from istanbul is matthew briser. he is a former u.s. diplomat and a former coordinator of u.s. policy in turkey with the national security council. thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> so, jamal khashoggi's body has still not been found. we do want to just listen to what the saudi foreign minister said about that when he was questioned about it on fox news over the weekend. let's bring that up. >> you said you don't know where the body is. someone obviously knows. was it chopped up? was it dismembered? do you know that? >> we are working on this. we are working on this with our turkish colleagues. the public prosecutors continue his line of questioning. and we are intent on determining what happened and we are intent on uncovering all the facts that exist in this case. we want to make sure we know what happened and we want to
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make sure those responsible will be held to account. >> matthew briser, how likely is it that the body of ka shoug ee will ever be found? and how committed do you think the saudi government is to getting to the truth of the matter when it comes to the murder of khashoggi? >> i think it is unlikely they'll find the body, though we don't know what details president erdogan and the turkish government are going to divulge. president erdogan says tuesday, tomorrow, he says no facts will be hidden. but that doesn't mean you can find the body. to me, foreign minister al-juber are dodging questions. there are alleged facts turkey has provided. he's addressed none of those issues. he desperately tried to get out of the question and said, well, we'll see what the independent investigation determines. again, those facts have been leaking out a week-and-a-half now. he also on saturday or sunday yesterday, the crown
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prince had any culpability, that really rang hollow to me. >> right. and president trump told the washington post there's been deception and lies, but he did stop short of blaming the crown prince. what did you make of that? what did you read into that? >> well, first of all, yeah, when president trump said it could have been him, or it might not have been, to me that was the opening of the door for the saudi foreign minister to make just a desperate claim that the crown prince wasn't involved. so, to put it differently, it is an incredibly inconvenient truth for president trump, for king salman, for the saudi government if it becomes known that the crown prince was the one who ordered this. so, i think president trump is hoping that some sort of story will be concocted that will provide enough wiggle room that there will be doubt in the air and business can return to usual at some point in the future after the midterm elections for sure. >> now, as you mentioned,
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turkey's president will reveal more on tuesday, but why has turkey been reluctant so far to reveal all it knows about the death of khashoggi? what is it hoping to achieve by doing that? is it getting some sort of leverage at this point? >> i think it is. i think turkey is playing a careful game. number one, it is quite remarkable that the turkish government has been leaking these details. had it not, we wouldn't really know anything. number two, president erdogan i think is still angry at the crown prince for saying a few months ago that turkey is part of a triangle of evil. that's iran, qatar and turkey. but that said, president erdogan doesn't want to rupture relations with saudi arabia. saudi arabia is a huge player, a sunni muslim majority population, the keeper of the holy sites, an economic power house, and so i think that maybe president erdogan is dripping out this information step-by-step, precisely for what you said, to have some semblance, some sort of leverage
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over the saudi government, whether financial, strategic, maybe hoping that saudi arabia will stop pressuring turkey's close friend and ally qatar, but without blowing up the relationship. >> right. just very quickly before you go, in light of what we have learned so far, how should the u.s. and other allies punish the saudis for the murder of khashoggi? >> i think probably demanding the replacement of crown prince mohammed bin salman should be meted out. there should be sanctions against individuals who are culpable. speaker ryan talked about the magnitsky act. it seems like such a vote will go forward now, so i think at a minimum there should be some cutback on those arms shipments. beyond that, i guess it will be important to see what sort of punishment is meted out in
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riyadh against those who are culpable. >> it's hard to see how a normal relationship with saudi arabia can continue at this point without some form of punishment. matthew bryzer, thank you for joining us. >> an apology in the making. why many says it is too little too late . plus despite obstacles and literal roadblocks, thousands of migrants are determined to reach the united states. what's driving them? we'll take a look at that when we come back. your spirit is unbreakable. your phone, not so much. purchase protection can help you replace small things that get damaged along the way. another way we have your back. the powerful backing of american express. don't live life without it. heyi'm craving somethingkin! we're missing. the ceramides in cerave. they help restore my natural barrier, so i can lock in moisture... and keep us protected.
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welcome back, everyone. australia's prime minister is offering an emotional apology to thousands of people who survived institutional child sexual abuse. in a parliamentary speech with survivors in the audience, scott morrison said the nation failed its children. his statement comes after a landmark inquiry into rampant sexual abuse that took place over decades. now will ripley joins us now live from hong kong with more on all of this. so, will, this apology made by the australian prime minister
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was heart felt. it was emotional. but it is a long time coming, isn't it? how significant is this, and how is it received? >> reporter: not only is this apology coming after a five-year study by the royal commission, rosemary, but after decades of systemic institutional child sexual abuse that was kept hidden. and so the apology is being received understandably by some survivors as too little too late. they feel that the institutions that have been complicit in the abuse of so many children, 8,000 victims uncovered by this study. and, of course, that is probably only scratching the surface. you can bet that there are many more who haven't been interviewed. cases that haven't been discovered. there's nothing that can be done to compensate those people and their families for the pain that they have endured, and really the lifelong implications that can help to many survivors of child sexual abuse, everything from substance abuse, to mental health struggles. but the prime minister did, nonetheless, make a vow that australia will now take ownership of this issue and will
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take steps to help victims come forward and feel brave enough to speak out and to know that when they do that, they will be believed. they will not have their cries for help cast aside as they were for so many decades. listen to what the prime minister talked about when he addressed specifically the issue of sexual abuse in the church because 60% of those 8,000 survivors that were interviewed suffered abuse at the hands of clergy. >> as a prime minister, i am angry, too, at the calculating destruction of lives and the abuse of trust, including those who have abused the shield of faith and religion to hide their crimes, a shield that is supposed to protect the innocent, not the not guilty, and i stand condemned. >> the prime minister scott morrison spoke with one activist in australia chrissy foster
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whose story is truly heart breaking. she is a mother of three, three daughters. two of her daughters were abused by a local priest that they trusted growing up. one of the daughters ended up taking her own life. she overdosed, and the other was in a car accident that left her disabled after a binge drinking incident. it goes to show how their physical scars on top of the emotional ones so many of these victims have endured, rosemary. >> it is simply devastating. our will ripley bringing us details live from hong kong. many thanks to you. just days after the u.s. announce it had would pull out of a key nuclear treaty with russia, a top national security advisor could come face to face with vladimir putin. the kremlin says a meeting between the two is being prepared during john bolton's trip to moscow. bolton landed there just a short time ago. on sunday, one of the men behind the agreement, former soviet president mikhail gorbachev told
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infer fax news agency rejecting the treaty is a mistake. fred platkin has the story. >> reporter: by developing and deploying medium range nuclear capable missiles, now president trump says america is axing the agreement. >> we're the ones that have stayed in the agreement and we've honored the agreement, but russia has not unfortunately honored the agreement so we're going to terminate the agreement. we're going to pull out. >> reporter: during his visit to moscow in the coming days, national security advisor john bolton is expected to formally tell the russians america is leaving the imf treaty. it stands for intermediate nuclear forces. the treaty was signed in 1987 between the u.s. and soviet union and ultimately led to almost 2700 medium range nuclear missiles being withdrawn. experts saying by and large, the agreement has worked. >> it was designed to provide a measure of strategic stability
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on the continent of europe by banning missiles of a range between 300 and 3,400 miles, both cruise and ballistic missiles. so it it was really meant to take the temperature down and it resulted in the destruction of literally thousands of missiles and it has been in effect ever since. >> reporter: russia denies violating the treaty and accuses the u.s. of breaching it by developing anti-missile systems. vladimir putin recently making what some felt were troubling remarks about possible nuclear warfare. >> translator: in this situation, we kind of expect that someone will use nuclear weapons against us. we do not do anything ourselves. well, yes, but then the aggressor should still know that vengeance is inevitable, that he will be destroyed, and we are the victims of aggression. and as martyrs, we will go to heaven and they will simply die. >> reporter: the u.s. also believes the inf treaty puts it at a disadvantage versus a resurgent china which is not part of the agreement. another reason the
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administration says the pull out of a deal. cnn, moscow. >> mexican authorities say more than 1,000 migrants have requested asylum there over the past three days, but huge crowds are still trying to reach the united states. despite the fact that president trump says they are not welcome. on sunday, he tweeted this. full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our southern border. adding, that the u.s. will turn away anyone who doesn't apply for asylum in mexico. the migrants' journey through central america has been grueling. cnn's bill we'ir shows us what they've gone through so far. >> reporter: after 24 hours stuck on a bridge between nations, the caravan finds another way. most go back to the guatemala side and pay a few pace os for an inner tube ride, while others
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pry a hole in the fence and jump. while the stress of it all is too much for the sick and the weak, a few of the strongest manage to scavage a ladder and rope and help others down including a mother. the migrants on the bank gasp and cheer as she is lowered to the bank. yes, we can, is the chant. after a splash of relief from the heat and the thirst, she looks up anxiously for her babies. a 5-year-old daughter named candy, a 3-year-old son named carlitos. sts toning to see him here because the day before, i spotted him playing inside the mexican gate. the little boy was fascinated by the riot gear and helmets and one member of the federalis displayed touching humanity amid all the chaos.
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i assumed his family was among the lucky few allowed through for processing, but they were actually separated from candy in the teargas panic. so she went back to find her and another way north. what made you decide to climb onto that ladder? >> translator: to complete the dream that i have. >> reporter: this bridge, this river, they can't stop me, she says. i am an all terrain woman. but there are people who see what just happened and say you're using your child as a shield to break the law. >> translator: i don't think we are abusing the kids, she says. we can't leave them at home. they have to eat. i want them to study, have a good future. i do this for my kids. i ask you with all my heart, wouldn't your mother do the same for you? >> reporter: do you know that president trump is threatening to use soldiers to keep you out? and he has even separated families. he's taken children like these away from their mothers.
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you know this? she knows, she says, but she has faith in god. he has the final word. in town, they are met with cheers from fellow travelers and a bit of mexican hospitality. there is shelter here and advice from human rights workers and precious nourishment for the kids. she borrows a phone to call her mom. they're okay, she tells her, and are not turning back. they will rest here for the night waiting for the care van's strength and numbers, and are back on the road at dawn. from here, it is a 2,500-mile walk to america. >> we'll take a short break here. still to come, two florida men
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got into a heated exchange in tampa. we will look at sunday's gubernatorial debate. that is coming your way in just a moment. and then later, hurricane willa is headed to some of mexico's tourist destinations. we will check in with the weather center to find ought where exactly. back in a moment. this is not a screensaver. this is the destruction of a cancer cell by the body's own immune system, thanks to medicine that didn't exist until now. and today can save your life. ♪ ♪ whoooo. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates...
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welcome back, everyone. i'm rosemary church. want to update you now on the main stories we're following this hour. in an interview on fox news, saudi arabia's foreign minister called the death of jamal khashoggi a murder and a tremendous mistake by a rogue operation.
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that explanation is being met with widespread skepticism. turkey state television reports turkish authorities plan to interview 28 members of the saudi consulate staff on monday. australia's prime minister has delivered an emotional apology to survivors of widespread institutional abuse. scott morrison told a parliamentary chamber that the nation failed its children. the apology follows a five-year inquiry into thousands of cases of child sexual abuse that took place at religious and state-run institutions. in the coming hours, british prime minister theresa may plans to tell parliament the brexit divorce deal is 95% done. the main sticking point is whether to keep northern ireland's border with ireland open, free from customs checks, something the e.u. wants. britain is set to leave the european union officially on march 29th. at least 18 people are dead
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after a train derailed in northeastern taiwan. the transport ministry says about 180 other people are injured. several train carriages were overturned in the incident. officials are still investigating what caused it. we are just 15 days away from the u.s. midterm elections. their results could change the trajectory of d trajectory of donald trump's presidency and indeed the country. voters will head to the polls and decide whether republicans deserve to keep the house and the senate or the democrats to serve as something of a check for president trump for the rest of his current term in office. the state of florida is home to some key races this year. there is a senate seat up for grabs and voters will choose a
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new governor. a new cnn poll shows the democrats have a big lead. democrat an grew gillum is up 12 points against his republican rival ron desantis. on sunday, cnn's jake tapper hosted a debate for the two candidates, and here's what they had to say about immigration. >> we should not be terrorizing people here in this country who are babies, that are nursing with their parents, with their mothers. right now we have no real comprehensive way to deal with this challenge. and what i've simply said is what we're not going to become here in the state of florida is a state where we basically become a show me your paper state based off the color of somebody's skin, the language that they speak, what neighborhood they live in. that's not the american way. that is not who we are as floridians. >> i'm concerned about mayor gillum's platform about abolishing immigration and customs enforcement and having an open border and having a
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sanctuary city and sanctuary state. that's a wet kiss to the drug cartels. we have a major opioid epidemic. most of that is being fueled not by prescription medications but fentanyl sent in from china and central america and across the border. he says he won't cooperate with the trump administration with respect to illegal immigration. but if someone is here illegally and they are committing a criminal offense, you've got to honor the detainer request. >> and viewers outside the u.s. can catchall of the florida governors' debate coming up in an hour from now on cnn. it's 4:00 p.m. for viewers in hong kong and 9:00 in the morning for viewers in london. latino voters will be key for democrats in florida. they could also make a difference in arizona. cnn's ken law has a look at elections in that state. >> reporter: the push for the latino vote in arizona.
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volunteers are calling voters' cell phones in spanish. in they have, organized labor, most of them latinos going door to door, but signs that turnout trouble may be looming. >> the numbers are alarming sometimes, but we have to dig a little deeper. >> reporter: what do you mean the numbers are alarming? >> they're not registering support or they're undecideds. they're holding back on choosing who they're going to vote for. >> reporter: a voting block democrats hoped would surge in the upcoming midterm election. >> if the emphasis were put on the latino vote that's put on suburban white women, what kind of game changer would that be? >> we would be represented. right now we're not represented. >> reporter: the latino vote could significantly impact midterm races in these states with high hispanic populations. after two years of president trump's animosity from separating families at the u.s./mexico border to anti-immigrant rhetoric. >> they're not sending their
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finest. that i can tell you. and we're sending them the hell back. >> i don't like to vote. >> reporter: some told us they just rather stay home. >> they don't do nothing for us. i just don't want to at all. >> reporter: you don't feel you have a say, you don't have more of a say in government if you vote? >> no, the government doesn't help us for nothing. >> reporter: the latino voter turnout rate in midterms has dropped since 2006. in 2018, candidates across the country are going bilingual. on both sides of the aisle. but it's the democrats who are counting on latino turnout to win seats in congress. do you feel that the democratic establishment is paying enough attention to the latino vote? >> not enough, but there are inroads. >> little by little i think we're getting to the numbers. and by them paying attention, then you can motivate them to turnout.
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>> and that was cnn's ken law reporting there. a new category 5 strength hurricane is churning across the pacific ocean, and in its path are mexico and parts of the u.s. state of texas. let's turn to our meteorologist pedram javaheri. he joins us from the cnn weather center. this category 5, pedram, who is in the path of this? >> it's almost there sitting at 155 miles per hour. so negligible difference between that and 157, which is what dictates a category 5. but willa is not a lolone. very similar to what we saw with hurricane michael at landfall, exact same wind speeds, of course exact same category. we're talking about a storm that went from a category 1 to a category 4 within a 36-hour period. once again, similar to what we saw with hurricane michael just about two weeks ago. this particular system sitting just west of mexico, and at this
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point you look at this alone, across the pacific, eastern pacific in particular, we've had ten major hurricanes so far in 2018, tying second all-time and only one major hurricane behind 2015 for the all-time record. but we do have hurricane watches, hurricane warnings in plays. to has mazatlan, per we think i weaken a little bit. bring it potentially down to a category 3. still a major hurricane at landfall. mazatlan tuesday going into wednesday. that story is a part of what's happening here on the coast of mexico. to the south, tropical storm vicente parked in place. the good news with this one, it is going to be predominantly a rain maker. the bad news is willa will produce solve rainfall, potentially 2 feet in some spots, this comes in as a
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tropical depression. the rain on top of a recently falling hurricane is not going to be good news across that region, rosemary. >> certainly isn't. we thank you, pedram, for keeping a close eye on this and on the situation. thanks again. well, no one seems to be above the law in china's big anti-corruption drive. celebrities and otherwise rich or powerful players can find themselves gone without much of a trace. a closer look at what is going on on the other side of the break. do stay with us.
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welcome back, everyone. well, human rights advocates say two recent disappearances in china should be a wake up call about what's going on there. the activists say the message from communist leaders is clear. no one is too big, and anyone could be next. cnn's matt rivers reports. >> reporter: the a-list actress and the interpol chief, two of china's most famous
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international citizens, and yet in president xi jinping's authoritarian security state, each has proved powerless. fan bing bing is one of the biggest stars. they accused the actress of not paying proper taxes and in weeks she vanished. no one saw her in months. in 2016 he became the president of interpol. he disappeared. his wife told cnn his wife's last message to him was a knife emoji. >> translator: at the beginning i couldn't be certain what happened to him. then after i received his message, i knew that he was in danger. >> reporter: he has been accused of taking bribes and other crimes, but remains missing. both disappearances are part of xi jinping's domestic policy, a ruthless anticorruption drive estimated to have netted more than 1 million government officials so far, plus big fish,
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too. a good way for xi to get rid of enemies and terrorize their families. >> i don't know his life or what happened. >> reporter: it is a feeling she knows well. her husband is also in state custody. she hasn't seen or spoken to him in more than three years. my biggest fear right now is whether or not he'll come out of jail alive. she has protested for his release, too, but her husband isn't rich. he's just a middle class human rights laura cues of subversion of state power imprisoned with other lawyers and activists since 2015. they are often held in so-called black jails, unable to communicate with the outside world. prisoners we've spoken to allege torture though china denies it. we found one of those jails in 2016. and to be honest, we didn't know what to expect when we were walking up here. but around here it is relatively quiet. that is an unassuming building,
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but it does belie what activists say what goes on inside. on wednesday, back in beijing, we saw fan bing bing in public for the first time in four months leaving the airport. she was accused of tax fraud, fined nearly $130 million. the only way, it seems, to emerge from the ranks of the disappeared is to grovel at the foot of the state. without the favorable policies of the communist party and state, there would have been no fan bing bing, she wrote on social media, her only public statement so far. in china, it doesn't matter if you're a huge official or a famous actress. if they can disappear, anyone can. it means anyone can be next. for china's president xi jinping, the country's most powerful leader in decades, and the man donald trump calls a good friend, there is no celebrity too big or human rights lawyer too small who can't be taken down as a threat. matt rivers, cnn, beijing. >> we could miss use the word epidemic, but that's what the
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spread of misinformation in a digitally small world often feels like. and we will look at just how contagious it's become. back in a moment. with tripadvisor, finding your perfect hotel at the lowest price... is as easy as dates, deals, done! simply enter your destination and dates... and see all the hotels for your stay! tripadvisor searches over 200 booking sites... to show you the lowest prices... so you can get the best deal on the right hotel for you. dates, deals, done! at first slice pizza lovers everywhere meet o, that's good! frozen pizza one third of our classic crust is made with cauliflower but that's not stopping anyone o, that's good! heyi'm craving somethingkin! we're missing. the ceramides in cerave.
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well, every day it seems like there is a new story about false information being spread online. the u.s. charged a russian national with funding online propaganda last week. authorities say she worked for a russian troll group that tried to wreak havoc in the 2016 u.s. election. she allegedly was working on the 2018 vote as well. more recently, twitter says it's taken down a suspected bot network sending pro saudi messages, and they were parroting saudi government talking points about the disappearance of jamal khashoggi. and not all this misinformation is political. a cnn investigation identified a network of 1700 suspicious facebook pages. they were designed to look like they were run by local women's march organizers. in reality, they were a coordinated effort run out of bangladesh to sell merchandise
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like t-shirts. well, cnn business senior technology correspondent lori siegl looks at how facebook is fighting other similar threats. >> reporter: the room isn't that big. just enough space for around 20 people and their computers. but the undertaking is enormous. >> it's really the culmination of two years of massive investments we've made. >> reporter: just weeks ahead of the midterm election, facebook has created what it's calling the war room. >> we have a bunch of dashboards you see around the perimeter of the room which actually are backed up by artificial intelligence and machine learning to be able to flag any anomalies or problems we see. once that happens our data sign tiflts are able to review it, understand what's happening, and pass it along to our engineers and operations specialists to take action against harmful content that we were see on our platform. >> reporter: it's been nearly two years since facebook was caught flat-footed. there was the russian interference aimed at manipulating the 2016 presidential election. a privacy scandal that lets users wondering if they could trust the platform.
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now ceo mark zuckerberg has vow today get ahead of the issues and facebook's new war room is part of those efforts. >> they are actually monitoring our systems in real time for any sort of new threats we may see, investigate them, and then make decisions about how to take action against violating content that we see on our platform to prevent it from going viral. >> reporter: leading up to the midterm elections, this room will be operating 24/7. the people in this room are supported by the 20,000 facebook employees across the globe hired to work on safety and security. >> we have actually been running this for the first brazilian election last week. during that time we saw a spike in potential voter suppression related content. >> reporter: two years after the 2016 election, the attacks have changed. nathaniel glacier who seshd on barack obama's national security council now leads' facebook's efforts to r for troll and suppression campaigns. >> if you have sophisticated
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actors, they devolve their tactics. they don't do the same thing again and again. we think about our threat model. what are the new challenges that are coming? what are the new things we haven't seen before that we could see and what are the new twists that might get thrown to us? and we desk that and run that. >> reporter: another challenge, communication. silicon valley and the government have historically had trouble communicating as platforms like twitter and facebook have become weaponized. jack dorsey acknowledged the problem in september. >> we would like a more regular cadence of meetings with our law enforcement partnerships. we would appreciate as much as we can consolidating to a single point of contact so that we are not bouncing between multiple agencies to do our work. sanu do y >> reporter: do you guys have a more streamline report? do you have a direct line to dhs for major campaigns when you do find something? >> so we work closely with the foreign influence task with the
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fbi, department of homeland security. another important partner for us is state elections officials because they're the ones who are on the ground. they're going to see threats emerge first. >> reporter: what do you say to folks who say, can we trust facebook to keep us safe? >> our biggest priority is to make sure that users can have authentic conversations on the platform and that this election can be free and fair and open. >> reporter: do you believe it will be? >> i believe that we've done everything we can to make sure that that will be the case. >> lori siegl with that report. earlier i asked jennifer m. greigol what media company can do to fight it. >> i don't see them stepping up without regulation in place. it's a lot to expect from the public to be in a position to do a lot of the work for them. we're doing that content moderation. we're flagging a lot of the posts that could be potentially problematic. we're doing a lot of work for the platform and for mark
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zuckerberg especially, for free often. and we need a lot more training for the public and a lot more education rolling out modules. it's just not enough, so we need some time for the public to catch up as well. we're educating students and universities. we're doing what we can, but it would be great for the public just to question more things as they are seeing it come through, especially on social media, and to verify through multiple sources. just some media literacy basics. >> some good advice there. that was jennifer, associate professor of communication ands social media at syracuse university. and thanks so much for joinling us this hour. i'm rosemary church. i'll be back in just a moment with another hour of cnn newsroom. please do stick around.
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the saudi arabian foreign minister calls the murder of jamal khashoggi a rogue operation and says his government does not know where the journalist's body is. the u.s. security advisor is said to be a driving force behind the pull out of a nuclear treaty with russia. lands in moscow for tense talks. and the two main candidates for florida governor spar over hot button

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