excerpt http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1710/25/cnr.18.html CNN NEWSROOM China Unveils New Leadership As Xi Cements His Power; Two Republican Senators Fiercely Rebuke Trump; Republican Senate Nominee Condemns Same Sex Marriage Ruling; Hope For U.S. Gun Control Legislation Fades; Study Compares Brexit To First Moon Landing. Aired 1-2a ET Aired October 25, 2017 - 01:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. [01:00:00] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this hour, Xi Jinping's power move. The Chinese president unveils his new leadership team with no clear successor in sight. VAUSE: Hostility has had broken out in the long-brewing civil war with the Republican Party. Two Republican Senators have unloaded on their president, and say they've had enough of Donald Trump. SESAY: And later, few things are tougher than rocket science, but Brexit may actually be one of them. … [01:45:17] BURKE: Now, this M.P. has also sent a letter to Twitter asking for information about accounts run by bots that may have affected the Brexit referendum. Twitter says they're adapting their approach as patterns of malicious activity evolved and that their automated systems are now catching double the amount of suspicious activity. What's lacking now is any type of public evidence of Russian social media accounts affecting the Brexit Referendum and what may seem farfetched now, Mark Zuckerberg also dismissed the notion that the platform he designed had any effect in U.S. Presidential Elections until his own company found evidence to the contrary. Samuel Burke, CNN, London. (END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: OK. Could it actually be possible that Brexit might not happen after all? On Tuesday, the President of the European Council suggested "no Brexit" is still an option. SESAY: With that wishful thinking. I don't know. During the speech in the European Parliament, Donald Tusk said it's up to Britain to make sure a deal is reached with the European Union. He also warned the E.U. would suffer if those talks ended in failure. Britain is scheduled to leave by May of 2019. The peace talks are moving so slowly and they are getting a lot more difficult. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TUSK, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COUNCIL: As for the Brexit Negotiations, you have managed to build and maintain unity among the 27. But ahead of us is still the toughest stress test. If we fail it, the negotiations would (AUDIO GAP) our defeat. (END VIDEO CLIP) HHN | WV | BU | BU-News cnn_transcript_newsroom_25oct17_01_02h_ET.docx Seite 1 von 3 VAUSE: Well, (AUDIO GAP): it's very complicated. But hey, you know, they're not rocket science. But maybe they are. Making it harder than putting a man on the moon. One professor did the research and he says maybe. SESAY: Maybe. The analysis was inspired by Brexit secretary David Davis who said he is, quote, running a set up projects that make the NASA moonshot (AUDIO GAP) simple. But here, the question is (AUDIO GAP) tougher than rocket science? Also, all that academic study, Professor Roland (AUDIO GAP) us now. He's with Heilbronn University and specializes in risk assessment. Professor, thank you for being with us. So, you've analyzed David Davis's claim. The results are in. Which is simpler, Project Moonshot or Project Brexit? ROLAND ALTER, PROFESSOR, HEILBRONN UNIVERSITY: Look, this is quite a -- good morning here from Germany. That's a very interesting question and I was kind of surprised when I learned about a statement. I was born in 1960. I watched myself in 1969 the Moonshot on a -- on a small T.V. screen. So, it made me curious. I said, let's have a look into that subject. And, you know, the first point is both projects are in themselves extremely complex projects. It's like you compare a jumbo jet Boeing 747 with a cruise ship, both (AUDIO GAP) complex systems and themselves. But what makes, really, difference that's what my conclusion is the difference is NASA has been a very professional organization and they put a lot of focus in building up capabilities. They understood the complexity and they invented project management if you like, the way we use it today. And then, on the other side, we see the government of the U.K. and leading people who ignore complexity. That's what we see. They behave in a way like things are very easy. They're kind of a walk in the park and things like that is just a bad European Union that's not giving in and so on and so forth. And from that perspective, yes, it looks from the British side right now extremely complex and that is what we are observing right now. SESAY: Professor, tell us a little bit about the risk assessment model you actually used to reach this conclusion. ALTER: Yes. There are different models out there. The ones that I feel is one of the most appropriate ones to start with is one that was invent or let's say designed in Canada for public projects. It's a complexity and risk assessment model and it assigns points to the level of complexity and risk and you will find very quickly both Brexit and the moon landing are in the -- in the top spot there. Their so called transformational projects that they include everything that you could imagine. You have different types of organization, you're looking at big amounts of money, different types of resources, different types of organizations. They're everything you could imagine. They are transformational, that's one thing. That's where we start from. That's what I would call also objective complexity. [01:50:04] I'll give you an example. If you build skyscrapers and to compare that with building like a small House, it's obvious building skyscrapers is more complex. That's what I would call objective complexity. Now, once (AUDIO GAP) to next level with something like the relative complexity, you would look at how complex is the job in itself and am I able or my organization, do I have the capabilities to do the job? And if you're building a small, you would look for kind of a small building company but would never use the small company for the skyscrapers. SESAY: Yes. ALTER: So, the (AUDIO GAP) complexity is overwhelming based on the job. So, that's relative complexity. HHN | WV | BU | BU-News cnn_transcript_newsroom_25oct17_01_02h_ET.docx Seite 2 von 3 SESAY: OK. ALTER: And move to the --huh? SESAY: No, I was going to -- ALTER: It must be -- SESAY: Go ahead, briefly. Because what I wanted to ask you is, as you layout these complexities for us, and you talk about the British government maybe not being open to understanding just how complex the situation is with Brexit, I wanted to ask you, is -- does the British government have the capacity for course correction, so to speak? (AUDIO GAP) is this doomed to be a torturous process? ALTER: Look, I'm a -- I'm a fan of Michael Collins, good to great and built to last. And his -- one of his most important points is, no matter what, you have to face reality. That's the starting point of all things. You have to face reality and that's where it has to start from. And the most important point in the whole Brexit thing is, you don't have a consistent set of objectives. Different stakeholders, different opinions. There is not one paper that I know of where they are laying out what they are actually trying to achieve in a reasonable manner, reasonable with respect to also the time horizon. You have people talking about getting free trade deals in one or two years when everybody knows it takes five, six, seven years. You know, this is not -- this is not realism. This try -- just ignoring facts. So, that would be the starting point. I think they would have to start really with a broad consensus in, you know -- in the United Kingdom regarding the objectives and how long it would take. And if you're talking about two years transition and this is kind of -- it's not sufficient. So, there are basically just shifting from one aspect to the next one, but they don't look at the big picture because, yes, Mrs. May is concerned that she will -- basically, her government will have to step back. That's the point, it's the starting point from my perspective. It's not looking at -- (CROSSTALK) SESAY: Well, Professor, it is -- well, it's clearly -- at least for the British government, clearly is much harder than rocket science. And Professor Oliver, we very much appreciate it. Thank you. It's going to be a long torturous process. Thank you, Professor. ALTER: OK. Thank you. Good to talk to you. SESAY: You, too (INAUDIBLE) VAUSE: Yes, I was just making notes in to what happened two years post transition sitting -- SESAY: In other words, they're kidding themselves according to the professor. VAUSE: Right. SESAY: So, the Moonshot was a positive thing with a positive legacy. Brexit, we'll see. VAUSE: After a quick break, the only thing hotter than the scorching temperatures during Game One of the World Series was the sizzling Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers pitcher was on fire. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) HHN | WV | BU | BU-News cnn_transcript_newsroom_25oct17_01_02h_ET.docx Seite 3 von 3 .