you are live in the cnn newsroom, i'm jim acosta in washington. fired up right wingers still believing the big lie and trying to keep their movement alive. they didn't do much to further their message, in support of the january 6th support rally planned for washington, d.c. turned out to be a relatively quiet gathering without any major security incidents. thank goodness. so far, a few hundred people who did show up found a very large law enforcement presence waiting for them. to make sure the rally did not descend into another insurrection. it was really more insignificant if anything else. let's go to cnn's shimon prokupecz who is live up on capitol hill for us right now. you got the opportunity to speak

to members in that crowd. and there were some very interesting moments. is that right? what can you tell us? >> reporter: certainly, jim, some very, very interesting moments. certainly people who believe that this insurrection just didn't exist, that this was just people trespassing, people who just don't believe that when have seen before their very eyes. i had the opportunity to talk to one of the attendees, and he was talking about how no officers were assaulted, how this was a bunch of people who were just trying to go in and essentially protest, and asking him all sorts of questions, you could just tell he was living in his own kind of reality, take a listen to some of what i asked him. >> it's a public building. i mean people out there, people are in this town all the time and i think the most severe charge they have is trespassing.

>> destroying property, assaulting an officer? you don't believe the video? on video, there is assaulting of a police officer. you don't think -- >> show me that video. >> you haven't seen the video? >> no. >> you haven't seen an officer dragged on the ground? >> no. >> you haven't seen that video? >> no. >> you haven't seen -- >> please show me that this exists. >> reporter: and so we did, jim. my producer matt freedman and i, we pulled up the video on our phones and we showed it to him. we showed the video of the officer that everyone has seen, in the doorway, as protesters were pulling at him, pulling him inside, brutally assaulted. that was just one of the incidents. and even though we showed that video, he still didn't believe it. take a listen to what he said. >> they're pushing him back with an open hand. he's not even moving his hand, that's not assault, no. >> you don't think that is -- >> he could be -- >> that's a police officer. >> he could easily back up.

>> you can see the officers -- >> yeah, that is not assault. >> jim, i even said to him, you know how ridiculous this sounds, i mean just kind of kept doing his own thing and i have to tell you, for me, i've covered rallies, i've covered protests, never, this is my first time covering any situation like this, where so many people who just believe their own thing, nothing is based on fact, on truth, reality, it's just people who just want to believe what they want to believe, whether it's real or not. >> i mean you really took us down the rabbit hole there, and it may have been a rabbit on his head for all we know, but all right, shimon prokupecz, thanks so much for that. we appreciate it. i'm joined by olivia troy, the former homeland security counter-terrorism and covid task force adviser to vice president mike pence. olivia, great to see you. i hope to poke fun because i mean it is such a serious subject and thank god nothing bad happened today up on capitol hill. but i just have to ask you a few

moments ago, shimon was talking to this person who clearly was not willing to deal with the reality of the situation. as somebody who has had to, you know, follow this, for so long, and witness some of the issues with disinformation inside the white house, and saw how it all unfolded so violently on january 6th, it just breaks your heart to see something like that. >> yes, i think it is just such a disturbing thing to watch, to see someone so far down the rabbit hole, that they are living in a complete alternate universe. it makes me think of mark zuckerberg who is trying to advance -- we don't actually need to do that because there is a whole segment of the population out there that is actually living in an echo chamber on the right, through these networks that push these messages to them and are living in a messages to them and living in a complete different reality, and a totally different reality from the law enforcement who got hurt that day, who lived that day,

who are there again on duty today at this rally, making sure to keep people safe. >> and olivia, let's talk about your former boss, the former vice president, mike pence. he was in the capitol on january 6th and fled to safety as a violent mob stormed the building, calling for his execution. did you ever think people from his own party would be throwing their support behind some of those same insurrectionists eight months later, calling them political prisoners and so on? it's just unbelievable. >> it is. and it's a dangerous message, to be sending to people across america. you're saying that these people support insurrectionists. they support domestic terrorism. that is the message of today's rally, that is being broadcasted. and look, i'm glad that it was basically a big flop and i'm glad people were saved, but i think it just shows strikingly where we are in terms of a country and a society, especially with what's happening

within the republican party. what's striking to me about today is the difference between today's rally and what happened on january 6th was that you had republican officials in the lead up to january 6th telling people the big lie and rallying them to take charge and to fight. and right now, they wouldn't want anything to do with today's rally, right? because they don't want violence to ensue again, because it reflects poorly on them, when they're trying the whitewash what happened on january 6th. it's an inconvenient narrative for them now. i think it's striking and i think it leads to the investigation on january the 6th and the complicitness of some of these republican officials and the striking contrast of what happens when they're the ones spreading the misinformation and driving it forward. >> that's a perfect segue, because on the day of the insurrection, there was a lot of talk about how mike pence had stood up to trump and did the right thing. we heard this in the weeks that followed when it came to certifying the election results, but according to this new book,

"peril" by bob woodward and robert costa, apparently he was looking around for hospitalizations to help trump. that's according to the offers of this book and pence went to former vice president dan quayle for advice and i can just share a bit of the -- from the book for you. it says, over and over, pence asked if there was anything he could do. quayle says to him, mike, you have no flexibility on this, none, zero, forget it. put it away. pence pressed again, you don't know the position i'm in, pence said, according to the authors. i do know the position you're in, quayle responded, i also know what the law is. you listen to the pa parliamentarian, that's all you do. you have no power. that's pretty staggering stuff, elizabeth. it sounds like dan quayle survived democracy or something. it's incredible. >> yeah, well, thank you, dan quayle. and i think it just speaks to the disappointment of mike pence. you know, he carried out his role, thank goodness. he did certify the election results, at the end of the day,

after they called for his hanging, but it goes to show the extent of the trump circle and the extent of the bullying that went on and the extent to which people enabled the whole situation and how close we came. >> there were so many enablers along the way. and i have to think that the former vice president will have to come out and address this at some point. olivia troy, thanks so much for your time this afternoon. we appreciate it. thanks for your insights. coming up, a pentagon admits that a drone strike meant to ward off a terrorist attack was, in fact, the worst mistake imaginable in wartime. etinol brd used most by dermatologists? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena®

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another day, another lackluster outcome to the investigation that former president trump hoped would vindicate him. in early 2019, william barr tapped john durham that u.s. intelligence agencies committed wrongdoing in the trump russia investigation and appointing him

as special counsel last year. the probe is now winding down with two only relatively minor cases. the latest being an indictment of michael sussman, a low-profile cybersecurity lawyer who is accused of lying to the fbi general counsel. sussman has pleaded not guilty. the sussman angle ultimately fizzled in the larger russia investigation, which of course established that the trump campaign welcomed russia's meddling in the 2016 election. staff writer for the atlantic, david frum. his books include "t "trumpocalypse." this turned out to be a near-total bust, despite the right-wing media promising so much. >> durham was appointed in an act of vindictiveness by the trump administration, in an effort to punish those who had tried to tell the american people something important about their government. the case, the investigation proceeded all the way through in

a very, very strange way. durham tried to get foreign nationals to talk to him and tried to use the diplomatic apparatus of the united states in ways that were irregular. and of course, we bump up against the core fact of all of this, which is, we -- there is obviously something improper in the trump/russia relationship. we know many details, but we still don't know why the why. and we are going to go into history with this mystery still in many ways looming over the memory of the past five years. >> that's so true. that mystery has not been solved by any means. and april, i want to turn to the deadly and tragic u.s. drone strike in afghanistan. this is the strike where we were originally told that an isis-k member was taken out. now the u.s. military admitting that they targeted the wrong vehicle. ten civilians killed instead, including an aide worker and seven children. let me ask you, april. what is your understanding of

this situation and how is the biden white house handling this, do you think? i mean, this is -- this is a bad way to go out in afghanistan. >> it really is. afghanistan right now is a wound that they hope will heal. and at the moment, it is not with this drone strike. and andy, there's tragedy, there's loss of life, there's civilian loss. and that is something that you don't want. and i talked to a former national intelligence official who said, over the years, when it comes to our intelligence, when it comes to our intelligence, over the years [ inaudible ] and we are at that point [ inaudible ] from afghanistan is a problem that we would actually have to hesitate the next time that we need to make a move. >> and david, france recalled its ambassador to the u.s. in

what appears to be a deepening diplomatic rift between france and the u.s. over this u.s.-announced national security partnership with the uk and australia. while in office, former president trump called m maccarrone very, very nasty. it started off warm, but got very icy between those two. and now, this could not be a worse -- well, it could be a worse situation, but this is undoubtedly a very, i guess, just strange in how bad things have gotten between the u.s. and france. what's going on? >> well, i'm optimistic about -- that we are going to resolve this. what's going on is the french and the australians had a contract. a lot of money was at stake, a lot of jobs. very important to french political leadership, as president macron faces re-election, this is dynamically familiar to anybody in any particular system. this contract was important to macron. the problem was the contract was running behind schedule.

it was costing too much. and as china ease capabilities kept advancing, the submarines were not sophisticated enough to meet the needs of pacific defense for australia, which lives in the neighborhood. it's a reflection, obviously the french should have been put into the loop earlier. they should have been more informed. they should have been allowed to break the news to their own voters in a way that would not be injurious to president macron. that just seems a courtesy, but the biden administration is building a stronger naval capability in the pacific. i want to take advantage of this moment to say one thing. i know the show is watched also in my native canada. can canadian viewers need to see why isn't canada in this consortium of the most intimate allies to put a restraint on china? >> april, what do you make of this diplomatic situation? this is just stunning that the u.s. and france would be in a situation like this. i understand that the ambassador to the u.s. from france was over

at the white house yesterday, meeting with the national security adviser on his way, leaving the country. i mean, that is just -- that's just bad. >> right. it's bad. for this president and macron, i mean, this president came wanting to heal all of the divides that were, i guess, around the world. and the french american relationship is one that has been one of the strongest and at this point they are working to rebuild, they are working to mend fences. there's a diplomatic effort underway to fix this. we cannot, we cannot lose our relationship with france. this administration understands that. we cannot have any kind of divide with france or any of our allies that they're trying to work to rebuild since the trump administration. this will be an effort that they will work tirelessly. it's not a day, not two days. it might be throughout this administration to heal the thrift of this moment. >> it seems like a situation where president biden is going to have to get engaged at the

principle level with president macron in order to heal this rift. all right, april ryan, david frum, thanks so much, as always. we appreciate it. f nice that talk to both of you. after decades of decision, millionaire robert durst has been found guilty. the filmmaker that caught durst himself confessing on tape to the killing. plus, mass shooting gun violence and the nra's role in u.s. law. what's the coast of the war on gun control. a new cnn film, "the price of freedom" airs tomorrow night at 9:00 right here on cnn. monitor, check and lock down you money with security from chase. control feels good.

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millionaire real estate mogul robert durst, the subject of the hit hbo crime documentary, "the jinx," is now a convicted killer. a los angeles jury found him guilty of first-degree murder for killing his best friend, susan berman, over 20 years ago. hours before she was set to talk to investigators about the mysterious disappearance of durst's first wife, kathy. cnn's jean casarez has the details. >> this was a highly unusual verdict, because robert durst was not in the courtroom he is in isolation because he's been exposed to covid. the person that drives him to court has contracted covid-19 and so because of that, he couldn't be in the courtroom. now, there was a big issue, because a defendant has a right to be in the courtroom when the verdict is read in his criminal trial. and so they looked at california case law and the judge determined that there are exceptions to that. and there was one here, he said,

because juror 12, who is the foreperson, was about to go on vacation next week, so they would have to wait to the follow week to come back and read the verdict. they could lose the verdict, so the judge read it. now, this trial involved nine female jurors, three male jurors. they deliberated for a little over seven hours, which isn't very long, at all. the trial began march of last year, covid hit. it was interrupted. it was brought back again in may of this year, with the very same jury. and this trial was -- obviously, the charges were against durst in regard to souvenir berman in california, but it was three murder trials in one in a sense, because there were so many witnesses that focused many on kathy durst, his first wife's disappearance in 1982. right here in new york city. and then, durst was never charged, but he was paranoid he was going to be charged. and so he fled to galveston,

texas, in time. don nobody knew where he was, really, until he killed a man in galveston. he said self-defense. a jury believed that in galveston. but then he found out the case was actually going to be reopened against kathy durst. and the jury has now conclusively determined beyond a reasonable doubt that durst went to california not to spend christmas 2000 with his good friend susan berman, but to murder her. and he was convicted of first-degree murder, elimination of a witness, and also lying in wait. all because, and you don't have to prove motive, but the theory was that he thought that susan was about to talk to authorities because it's believed that she knew that he had murdered kathy durst. he's never been charged in that case. the penalty here is life without the possibility of parole. there's really no wiggle room

because of those special circumstances. sentencing will be october 18th. >> all right. thanks to jean for that. durst's conviction comes six years after a remarkable hbo documentary series, "the jinx," in which the filmakes were able to connect him to an anonymous note that had directed police to susan berman's body. >> so what do you think about this -- about this note? i mean, does this note mean anything to you? >> that's her address. block letters, if somebody's hiding their signature, and they spell "beverly" wrong. >> can you think of a reason somebody might write a note like that? >> i can't imagine. can't imagine. >> one of the speculations is that if it was somebody that like her, they wouldn't want it lying around in her house, if she had to die -- >> if somebody liked her, why kill her? and now you're taking this big

risk. >> which big risk? >> you're writing a note to the police, that only the killer could have written. >> and that all led to this climatic moment, probably the most stunning in true crime documentary history where durst stepped off camera and miniminiature muttered to himself on a live microphone. if you've never seen this before, you have to watch. >> killed them all, of course. >> just stunning. robert durst was literally arrested the weekend of the premiere of the finale, where america heard durst utter those words. and joining me now is andrew directy, the hdirector and producer of the hbo film "the jinx." that's exactly what the jury concluded, that durst killed them all. what is your reaction to this verdict? robert durst, guilty of

first-degree murder. >> it was oddly stunning. i guess we predicted it, because it was hard to imagine after seeing the trial that the jury would have had any other conclusion, but, you know, after -- i've worked on this case for 16 years, and the victims in one case, bob's wife's family has been waiting for 40 years for justice. so we still can't help but be kind of pleasantly amaze when you get a verdict like that. >> no question. it's unbelievable that it took all of this time. now, your documentary included famously being able to confront durst with new evidence in berman's killing. if durst knew that he had gotten away with yet another murder, what could possibly have been his motivation for speaking with you, time and again, on camera and walking right into this? >> you know, i endeed up doing about 24 hours worth of interviews with bob. and i thought a lot about why. you know, at one point, i remember getting together with

bob and his lawyer and sitting at breakfast and his lawyer said, you know, i just want, as we work out the details of this interview, i just want it to be clearly understand that i think that this is the worst idea i've ever heard. and i'm going to oppose it in whatever way i can. and bob interrupted him and said, steve, let him do what he wants. i don't care if he puts it in a billboard in times square. to bob's credit, he was willing to speak and speak very openly. and of course, he spoke more openly than anyone could have imagined. i do have a theory about why he did it, if you have a moment for me to tell you. >> sure, absolutely. please. >> i think that it was a combination of things. you know, bob is a very wealthy guy, he's a very confident guy. he's kind of a loner. and it's clear during the course of bob's life that he gets bored easily and he likes to be in the limelight.

and i think he doesn't feel entirely happy unless he's putting himself at risk. and i think he's shown time and time again that he plays with the rules and puts himself in situations that could put himself or other people in jeopardy. so i think it was exciting for bob. i think he comes from this incredibly wealthy family and has spent his life in the shadow of a very powerful father, a successful brother, and i think this was an opportunity for him to say, hey, i've probably done something better than all of you have done. i've committed three murders over 30 years and gotten away with it. so i do think that people have a compulsion to confess. i think that you carry that around inside of you. and i think that's what bob was expressing when he agreed to sit down with me. in fact, volunteered to sit down with me. >> it's like the words wanted to come out. that was my sense of it when we finally saw that aha moment. and when you started making "jinx," was any part of your motivation to have robert durst

finally held to account and wind up in prison? >> to address your first point, the first thing he says when he goes into the bathroom, i've just confronted him with this evidence. he hasn't seen it in many, many years. he knew, somehow, in the back of his mind, he had written a letter that was going to be incriminating to him. but i think he figured, well, that's a long time ago and it's been lost to the sands of time. but i think he was so keen and so simultaneously titillated by being in that moment and seeing that letter and realizing that it was possible that that was going to cause him a huge problem that he was sort of dying to just say it. and he got up out of the care, finished the interview, goes in the bathroom and closes the door, and the first thing he says is, there it is, you're caught. so i think that compulsion that you're describing, it was almost burressing out of him. to answer your other question, i never expected that we would have this kind of evidence. i did believe that bob had probably killed three people, but i didn't know that. i and i always feel like i have to give my subject the benefit

of the doubt and i have to let him express himself. and for sure in this film, we let him talk tremendous amount from his perspective about what he remembers about his life. so he certainly had a chance to express all of that and perhaps express even more than what he or his lawyer would have liked. >> was there ever a moment where you were scared to be with robert durst? i mean, just scared that he knew who you were? >> well, with you know, bob is a very -- like a lot of people who commit complex and hard-to-solve crimes. he's extremely charming. when you're with bob, you feel like you're with a bright, engaging, funny, rwry, clever person, who's certainly well bred who has had a tremendous amount of life experience. you never feel that way in the moment. but after i showed that evidence, which was deep into

the many-year relationship i had with him, after that, i knew that i was at risk and that this was a person who kills witnesses. and he knew that i had this document that was going to be very damaging. he didn't know that i was going to be in touch with the district attorney in los angeles pretty soon after that. and so i think he -- it changed a bit for me and i got a little more concerned. and for a while, i did have security. and i remember i said to my daughter one night, you know, honey -- it was like right before the fifth or the sixth episode of "the jinx" aired, and i said, listen, tomorrow when i take you to school, there's going to be just a couple of guys with us. and she immediately started to cry. so i realized that, you know, this had had an impact on my family. and of course, it is the kind of thing that you have to take seriously. >> reporter: well, thanks very much for your pursuit for truth and justice and it is a testament to the fact that hard work pace off. all that hard work you put in this documentary. what a conclusion to all of that. excellent work.

thank you so much for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks so much. >> take care. coming up, two murderers, a hit man, and a dead housekeeper. the prominent south carolina lawyer at the center of a deepening mystery. incomparable design makes it beautiful. state of the art technology makes it brilliant. the lexus nx. experience the crossover in its most visionary form. experience amazing at your lexus dealer. listerine® cleans virtually 100%. helping to prevent gum disease and bad breath. never settle for 25%. always go for 100. bring out the bold™

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a prominent south carolina lawyer is out on bond after a stunning plot that involved everything from a hit man to insurance fraud and now questions about the death of a housekeeper. cnn's martin savidge has

details. >> his life in a scandal louse spiral. prominent south carolina attorney alex murdoch surrendering to law enforcement to face charges in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme in which he was the target. a warrant for his arrest detailed the botched murder attempt that was meant to provide his son millions of dollars of life insurance money, attorneys say. according to court documents, murdoch arranged for curtis smith, a former client, to shoot and kill him. but the plan failed because the shot wasn't fatal. smith has been charged with assisted suicide, assault, and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. so far, he's not entered a plea and has asked for a court-appointed attorney. and now another twist. a south carolina law enforcement division announcing the opening of another investigation involving the murdochs. the 2018 death of the family's longtime housekeeper, gloria satterfield, who died in what was described as a trip and fall

accident on the murdoch property. >> it was alec murdoch who told the story that she had tripped and fell down the stairs over his dogs. and so they trusted him. >> at the time, her death was said due to natural causes. but hampton county corner angela t topper told investigators in a letter that the deskre dant's downtown was called natural. they reached a partial settlement with murdoch for wrongful death, but they say they never received the money they say they were due. eric bland is their family attorney. >> he hand walked in to his best friend and college roommate to bring a lawsuit against himself on behalf of the estate. now, you know, as a lawyer 33 years, i've never heard that.

where you encourage somebody and take them to a lawyer who you hand pick and bring that lawyer bring claims against you. >> this new development in the death as alex murdoch was already struggling with the unsolved murders of his wife and son in june. allegations that he stole money from his family's law firm and his own admission of decades-long opioid addiction. all of this playing out in a very public downfall. >> and yojoining me now, elie honig. you can't take your eyes of this story. it's just incredible. it seems like there's a different twist over day. >> all the adjectives apply to this case. the big question on a lot of people's minds now is will alex murdoch be ever charged, held responsible for the other deaths around him. that's a really tricky question for prosecutors. i've seen cases, i tried a murder case once 17 years after the murder happened, but it gets harder and harder with each passing day. physical evidence disappears,

crime scenes are no longer in tact. so i think that's sort of the big question that's animating a lot of the interest here. >> and alex murdoch claims to be addicted to opioids. is that a viable defense? can you just claim, i was on drugs and not be held responsible? >> that's not going to help him at all, especially in south carolina. in south carolina, voluntary intoxication, meaning if you took drugs or alcohol yourself is not a defense. only involuntary intoxication, if somebody else drugged you. now, that varies a bit state by state, but this is going to get him nowhere in south carolina. >> and what about the defense that he was out of his mind with grief about his wife and his son' death? >> that's not going to work either. emotional distress, generally speaking, is not a defense. when you think about the self-hit plot that martin just laid out, where murdaugh went out and got one of his former clients, this guy, curtis smooth to shoot him, to try to defraud the insurance company. that's not a spur of the moment crime. that's not what lawyers call a heat of the moment crime. that's something that takes real

planning and premeditation, so ultimately, no, that's not going to be a defense either. >> and even hoe ththough the wo watching, this is being handled at state of carolina level. any reason for the fbi to get involved? >> most murders are actually not federal crimes unless they happen on federal property or part of a racketeering enterprise. so the murders themselves wouldn't get the fbi a reason to get involved. however, there is this insurance fraud angle now. that could be a federal crime. and the fbi may have reason to think about getting involved here. because part of the problem, part of the reason that this is all so suspicious is that there have been real questions about the way local authorities have handled this case, because the mur murdaugh family is very well connected in south carolina legal and law enforcement circles. the fbi may have a role to play here moving forward. >> and we saw martin savidge's report that no autopsy or coroner report was done after the murdaugh family housekeeper

died. that's unusual, isn't it? >> that's absolutely bizarre. when there's a death, lthere's four ways to classify the manner of death, homicide, suicide, accident, or natural. this was misclassified as a natural death. now, the affect of that is, if it's classified as accidental, which it should have been if it was a trip and fall, then it will go to the coroner or medical examiner and you'll do an autopsy. here, something was done wrong, because there should have been an autopsy, but it was misclassified. that leaves open an a lot lot of questions. an example about some of the problems here with the way that local authorities have handled this. >> right. and speaking of that, alex murdaugh turned himself in and was given a $20,000 bond. why would a judge let him out on bond? just a few days ago, he allegedly hired a hit man to kill him! i mean, so he took $20,000 and he's out? >> i am as confounded as you are

here, jim. it makes no sense. the two reasons that you can hold somebody, not give them bail as a judge are, one, the person's a flight risk and might take off and become a fugitive. two, he's a danger. who knows if he's a flight risk? he's certainly unstable. but danger? what could be more dangerous to the community? does anyone feel safe having him out there? i was really shocked that the judge agreed to bail him out and on $20,000. >> very strange, indeed. but i suspect that this is not the last strange thing to happen in this case. elie honig, thanks so much for that. we appreciate it. >> thanks, jim. a spacex crew made up entirely of civilians set to return to earth after three days in orbit. is this the beginning of a new chapter in space tourism? new wo? because it was specially formulated to protect synthetics and blends from damage in the wash. like fading, stretching, and pilling. new woolite has evercare, a first of its kind formula that keeps today's fabrics looking like new. new woolite with evercare

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they raised money for research. their term will mark the end flown entirely by people who aren't astronauts. it includes a billionaire, a cancer survivor, a college professor and lockheed martin employee who won the trip in a raffle. what a great trip that is. cnn's rachel crane introduces us to the startup trying to sail into the eye of the next hurricane. >> reporter: the climate crisis is driving hurricanes to grow faster and stronger than ever before. >> this storm in no way will be weakening. time is not on our side. >> reporter: hurricane ida grew from a category 1 to a category 4 hurricane in less than a day. known as rapid intensification leaves emergency planners little time to react. >> your window of time is closing. >> reporter: to help make better forecasts, the company believes its autonomous research vessels

are up to the challenge of finding out what conditions cause storms to intensify so quickly. >> try to sail into the eye of a hurricane where no one has managed to get before. >> reporter: traditionally scientists capture hurricane data by flying planes directly through them dropping probes into the sky along the way. but in order to completely understand a storm, scientists say more data needs to be collected from the surface of the ocean. >> what drives a hurricane's strength is a transfer of heat and moisture from the ocean to the atmosphere. we don't quite understand the dynamics of how that works. >> reporter: in order to find out they deployed five ships into the atlantic ocean and caribbean, areas where lots of hurricanes develop and are likely to hit land. they're powered by the sun and wind, can stay out at sea for months at a time, and are built to take a beating. >> really designed to get hit by waves, tumble, submerge and come back up and carry on sailing. it is key to understand the

spray, the foam on the water. so we're hoping we can see with the camera what the water looks like. >> reporter: the drone's sensors and cameras can send data and images in real time back to headquarters. >> these are measurements of wind, temperature, humidity at that interface level that may help the modelers understand the fundamentals better. that's never been done before. >> reporter: it could allow emergency planners to give better direction to residents back on land. >> we're hoping to get really precise measurement to predict the future strength of hurricanes and enable people to make preparations or move out of the way. >> reporter: rachel crane, cnn. after pioneering photographic film, we made it our mission to help change the world... in healthcare, our imaging expertise and ai technology

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you are live in the cnn newsroom. i'm jim acosta in washington. new details in on the u.s. drone strike that killed ten innocent people in the chaotic final days of the kabul evacuations. sources telling cnn as the pentagon launched the strike, the cia sent out an urgent warning saying civilians were likely in the area and children

were possibly inside the target vehicle. that cia alert was too late. seconds later the missile, which the pentagon thought was targeting an isis-k terrorist hauling explosives, struck the court yard of a family home killing seven children, an afghan aid worker and two other adults. alex, walk us through this warning and how it gives us a fuller picture of what went wrong. this is just not the way it's supposed to go. terrible. >> it adds a miscommunication to what was already an abject intelligence failure in the targeting of what turned out to be an aid worker. what we know now, according to three sources, is that the cia in these final moments before the strike issued this warning. that warning came too late. that warning said there were possibly civilians around, possibly children in that vehicle. it is not clea