Pope Leo's Church; Risk on the Road; What Happened to the Great White Sharks? | Full Episodes
In a Nutshell
Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pope, outspokenly opposes President Trump's Iran war policies and mass deportations, urging peace and migrant support while inspiring U.S. Catholic growth through initiatives like job training at Castel Gandolfo. An investigation exposes "chameleon carriers" like Super Eagle Holding, foreign-owned trucking networks that evade safety regs by changing identities, causing deadly crashes amid weak federal oversight. Off Cape Town, great white sharks vanished due to orca predation on their livers—led by infamous duo Port and Starboard—though some blame human fishing and nets; overall populations may be stable via a "landscape of fear."
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Pope Leo XIV, known as deliberate and soft-spoken, the American pope, has become increasingly outspoken against certain policies of the American president. Church leaders who know him were candid. Question to people in the pews: "What do you say to people who say I don't want to hear politics from my priest?"
Thousands of trucking companies rack up thousands of safety violations for poor maintenance and excessive driving hours, evading federal enforcement. They'd have drivers go out and do anything to get the money no matter the risk. Results of eight-month investigation into a scheme putting all at risk on the road.
Ocean off Cape Town, South Africa, used to teem with great white sharks. Each morning, with luck, see them flying out of the water, but they began to disappear. Story with hallmarks of true crime series, twists, surprise suspect: "It is like something out of CSI. It's like you're the detective."
Reporters: Leslie Stahl, Scott Pelley, Bill Whitaker, Sharon Alfonsi, John Wertheim, Cecilia Vega, Nora O'Donnell, Anderson Cooper. In last minute, Google CEO helps search for answers about new American revolution on 60 Minutes.
President Donald Trump announced ceasefire with Iran after world leaders called for end to war, including Leo XIV, first U.S.-born pope. 70-year-old born Robert Prevost, grew up in Chicago, known as Father Bob. Measured, deliberate, soft-spoken, but outspoken against president's policies.
Three influential American cardinals who know him: why Pope Leo's church voice of moral opposition to war in Iran and crackdown on immigration. "Peace be with you" first words as leader of 1.4 billion Catholics. Selection surprise, celebrated by 53 million Catholics, largest Christian denomination in U.S.
Archbishop of Chicago Cardinal Blaise Cupich: "Having an American pope has put Chicago on the map finally. We're proud we produced a pope."
Cardinals: Robert McElroy of Washington DC, Joseph Tobin of Newark NJ, Blaise Cupich of Chicago. First joint interview, candid about pope and pews. Three actively serving U.S. dioceses, listen to people, aware of anxieties about threats to peace.
"He's the pastor of the world, he's not a pundit." Distinction: pronounces on what's important. "War is back in vogue." Started January speech criticizing U.S. military action in Venezuela. Vatican's U.S. ambassador called to Pentagon: unpleasant, contentious meeting led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Pentagon and Vatican called it routine exchange of ideas.
In March, in Italy, asked Pope Leo: "Ceasefire would be the most effective way to work together, to find peace for all parties, to respect all parties, and to come to a solution, which is too many years and creating problems for everyone. So, work for peace."
Pope's tone sharpened. Condemned Trump's threat to destroy Iranian civilization as "truly unacceptable." Called to action: "Contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war always."
Avoids naming Trump, but Palm Sunday homily referenced Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's religious language: "Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle." Pope: Jesus "does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war."
"Is this a just war? No." Catholic teaching prerequisites for just war: focused aim to restore justice and peace. Iran chief exporter of terror, abominable regime should be removed, but war of choice, possibility of war after war.
Trump argued military action justified to destroy Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Cupich criticizes gamification of war on social media: "Flawless victory." Dehumanizing victims, turning suffering, killing of children and soldiers into entertainment. "Sickening." Splicing movie cuts with actual bombing for entertainment.
Wide-ranging conversation in Washington DC. Pope Leo inspired weighing in on political issues, including mass deportation. Cardinal Tobin called ICE "lawless organization." "Strong words." Act in ways hiding identities to terrify, violate Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Church in Washington DC serves immigrant population, pastor requested anonymity. Mass count Spanish masses down 30% from fear.
Cardinal McElroy, former Bishop of San Diego (busy border): Under Biden, out of control, believe in strong borders. Problem: roundup of people living good lives long time, raised children here, children citizens.
Trump won Catholic vote 55-43% over Kamala Harris, promised secure border, deportation. "Indiscriminate mass deportation" – American people saying "we really didn't vote for this."
To pews saying no politics from priest: "Fine. I want to preach the gospel. God wants us to promote peace... be one human family." Enormous human suffering motivates pastors.
Sign of Leo's motivation: Castel Gandolfo, pope's summer home 15 miles southeast of Rome, former Roman emperor villa, opened by Pope Francis with Father Manny Durantes (Chicago priest, U.S. immigrant). Borgo Laudato Si: job training center for migrants and locals, sustainable farming, gardening, cooking. Train 1,000 per year. Model: 6,000 dioceses could train many.
Graduating chefs: Ali from Bangladesh, Nermin from Syria, young man from West Africa survived sea journey to Lampedusa (tens of thousands migrants drown).
Pope Leo visits Lampedusa July 4th (America's 250th birthday). Message: priority with downcast, marginalized. Coincidence? Reference to Statue of Liberty in Newark archdiocese: "welcome."
2026: U.S. Catholic Church largest converts in recent years. Newark all-time high new joins. Due to Pope Leo? Yes. Tobin worked with four popes: "Pope Leo is the right man at this time."
Eight-month investigation into chameleon carriers: commercial trucking fleets, often foreign-owned, shed identity after safety violations, flout regulations. Focused on Super Eagle Holding (Serbia/U.S. network), under federal investigation, class-action lawsuit. Notorious scheme, ticking time bomb.
Chameleon carriers: network reincarnates, revenue-focused, run into ground for max money. Rob Carpenter, 25-year trucker, safety consultant: surged post-pandemic. Skirt regs, escape bad records by changing names, dissolve, slap new name/DOT number.
Undercover video: same drivers/trucks/bad records, switch carrier name/DOT erases hundreds violations/crashes. Clean carrier to shippers.
Networks from Eastern Europe, India, Central Asia: register DOT, minimal insurance, 21 days to company. No U.S. ownership requirement, $1000 online. 700,000 trucking companies, 10-20% chameleons: thousands with violations (poor maintenance, excessive hours, drugs/alcohol), evading enforcement.
Danger: 260 million Americans share roads, 5,300 truck deaths 2024. Chameleons 4x more likely in crashes. Example: Super Ego tractor-trailer 72 mph into school bus, critically injured 2 children. Super Ego: 15,000 violations, 500 accidents last 2 years.
FMCSA: 350 investigators for 700,000 companies. Administrator Derek Barr (Oct): hiring 40 more, new registration system (current 40 years old), crackdown on foreign drivers/fraud schools, prioritize top 10. Super Ego on radar, ongoing investigation.
Super Ego: leasing company, not trucking, not responsible for affiliates/drivers. But network: Serbia to U.S., brokers, dispatchers, leases. Subsidiaries operate trucks, hire drivers like Daniel Sanchez under lease-to-own.
Sanchez (8 years driving, recruited 2025): "Don't care about you... go out do anything for money no matter risk... don't care if violation or jail, next driver in truck." Not safe for drivers or road.
Founded Serbian Alexander Mimic, 7 years ago, >24 U.S. carriers, hubs Elmhurst IL, Jacksonville FL. Customers: Amazon, Walmart, Costco, USPS. Flashy recruitment: $8-12k/week. Didn't live up: skimmed fees (lease, insurance, repairs), negative pay after 600-800 miles/day.
7 drivers: altered ratecons (delivery contracts). Original vs fraudulent: $700 cut. Call: broker $1500, then $300.
Change name/DOT: email picture, print, duct tape on truck.
Pressured >11 hours (legal limit), reset clocks illegally for fresh hours. Drove 18 hours, told sleep: "don't care... drive."
Whistleblower (former Serbia employee, disguised): dispatchers/managers overwork/extort. Trained as normal. Drivers upset: no money for bills/food/rent. No compassion, squeeze money, competition lists. Top dispatcher: $24k (32%) cut one period. Profits: 1-2 million/week from this.
Sanchez lost job Jan, truck, $35k investment. "Crushing... my dream." >800 truckers suing for fraud, breach.
More CBS investigation Sunday morning.
Coastal waters Cape Town, South Africa, teemed with great whites. Plenty smaller sharks, tens of thousands seals on Seal Island. Mornings: see predators flying out. Whoa! Unbelievable!
Chris Fallows, photographer/naturalist: 250-300 different great whites/year decade ago. Breathtaking images. Sight never forget, tingly feeling, most spectacular shark flying out.
10 years ago, carcasses washing up, livers missing. Now hard to find great whites. Whodunit, bitter feud scientists/conservationists disagree on culprit. Agree: great whites gone.
Best place in world to see great whites. Saw ourselves in 2010.
When reporting on great whites here and the tens of thousands of visitors who came each year for close encounters in cages. Taken diving without a cage in water chummed with blood to attract sharks. Immediately, a 15-foot great white swam straight toward us. Sharks are curious creatures and circled constantly. Extraordinary to be so close to such a massive predator. Just a few years after that dive, sightings of sharks began to dwindle and tourists stopped coming. If you went out today, you would see nothing because their numbers have plummeted. Tragically, all but lost the great white shark here.
Disappearance mystified scientists. Alison Kock, marine biologist with South African National Parks, began searching for clues. In 2015, divers sent photos of smaller shark carcasses on the sea floor with mysterious incisions. Looked surgical, first assumed done by somebody with a knife, like a fisherman. Retrieved carcasses and studied them, found tooth marks on pectoral fins suggesting culprits not human. Kock and colleagues went diving for evidence and encountered orcas, killer whales. Retrieved one carcass, research partner said, "Orca!" Two orcas under the boat in study area. Light bulb moment—they were feeding where carcass found. Orcas real possibility for culprits.
Two years later, great whites washing ashore with livers missing. Shark liver is most calorie-dense organ, takes up almost a third of shark's body. Not eating entire shark, just targeting liver. Performed necropsies and confirmed orcas culprits. Orcas in these waters for years, but no one seen one kill great white here, though known to hunt them off California and around Australia. For South Africa, completely novel. People struggle to believe because sharks are apex predators. Like something out of CSI, feel like a detective, but didn't have all puzzle pieces for long.
David Hurwitz, whale-watching tour operator, first to see two distinctive male orcas hunting and killing sharks. Named them Port and Starboard. Distinctive because both dorsal fins collapsed, very unusual—one collapsed left, other right. Nautical man, called them Port and Starboard, caught on, now world famous or infamous. Unlike most orcas hunting in pods, these two hunted sharks for livers as a pair, on their own in ways never seen before here. Are these like serial killers? Definitely not serial killers, eating livers—like Hannibal Lecter eating liver with fava beans. Infatuated by Port and Starboard, never say bad word against them.
Scientists believe Port and Starboard teaching other orcas. In 2022, drone footage captured five orcas working together, stunning and killing great white. Orcas with big white shark upside down, biting into liver area. More recently, single orcas seen hunting sharks in South Africa and elsewhere. National Geographic documentary shows orca striking great white like torpedo, stunning it, taking in mouth. They're learning all the time. Hard for people to understand how smart these animals are. Kock says presence of smart hunters chased great whites further along coast, overall population in South African waters stable. Presence of two orcas drives away hundreds. Predator eats prey, impacts numbers, but biggest is fear of predation, landscape of fear. Gazelle don't disappear because lion killing some; evolved alongside predator. White sharks have not—been top dog, novel predator for them.
Orcas killing white sharks for thousands of years, per Enrico Gennari, Italian marine biologist researching great whites in South Africa 20 years. Disagrees with Kock that population stable. Question not orcas pushing away—same in California, Australia, but sharks came back after 6-9 months. Here, why not coming back? Numbers plummeted few years before Port and Starboard. By time great whites disappeared from False Island? Wait, Sioux Island? Context suggests Gansbaai or False Bay area, but preserve as is—actually, earlier mentions imply area like False Bay or near Dyer Island. Gennari and photographer Chris Fallows agree numbers plummeted before Port and Starboard at site. Never seen them at site. Don't buy argument two orcas made all great whites disappear—how blame someone not on crime scene?
Fallows and Gennari argue humans to blame. Documenting impact of commercial fishing boats on smaller shark species, staple of great whites' diet. Boats lay miles of long lines with thousands of hooks on ocean floor. Caught sharks exported to Australia for cheap fish and chips. Shark longlining robs great whites of food, primary prey when not feeding on seals. Remove prey, significant impact on predator. Bigger impact: shark nets and baited hooks on buoys, used by South African authorities since 1950s to protect swimmers. Kill more than 20 great whites a year, plus whatever else caught. Device designed to kill and lower population—one less shark, one less chance of human encounter.
Gennari wants South Africa to embrace alternatives like underwater magnetic fields interfering with sharks' hunting scents, or smaller mesh nets as barrier without entangling life. Only using lethal methods, outdated and unsustainable. If believe two orcas drove away population, not much humans can do. Argument is humans can impact long-line fishing and shark nets. Stop bickering about uncontrollable, focus on controllable. If not address, no hope.
In 1991, South Africa first country to protect great white shark. Gennari believes efforts failed, fears first to lose them. If lose white shark, lose battle for all nature. Can't protect most charismatic, protected species on paper, what chance for little guys, other sharks, animals against unsustainable use? Nothing. People may not sympathize with great whites—care same way never sympathy with whales, wiped to extinction. Great whites no different, incredibly important going forward.
No great whites to document, Fallows shifted to photographing humpback whales. Since 1980s moratorium on commercial whaling, humpbacks made remarkable comeback. Due to enlightened governments, passionate individuals showcasing whales as sentient creatures with important ocean role. Became protected, numbers expanding naturally. Example conservation works. Take away pressures, enough animals, they rebound. Called balance. Balanced ocean healthy, healthy ocean healthy for us.
Explore wildlife photographer Chris Fallows' archive at 60minutesovertime.com. Last minute sponsored by UnitedHealthcare. 250th anniversary American independence coincides with AI revolution. Leader Sundar Pichai, CEO Google and Alphabet. America led 250 years inventing technologies improving lives. AI most profound, America must lead boldly responsibly so every American benefits. Glimmers: researchers discovering cures, teachers customizing lessons, firefighters tracking wildfires. Personal: dad retired engineer 80s, awe in self-driving car San Francisco, magical. Challenges: workforce training, regulations. Optimistic because believe in people, American ingenuity. Anderson Cooper, back next week.
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