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Latest Ceasefire In Gaza Fails; Two American Aid Workers Contract Ebola; Voyager Beyond Our Solar System; Israel Denies Responsibility For Deaths AT UN School; Lightning Strike Proves Fatal In California; 100 Years Since Start Of World War I

Aired July 28, 2014 - 8:03   ET

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

KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. And welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet.

Now the UN calls for an immediate ceasefire, but fighting continues between Israel and Hamas militants.

A team of international investigators turns back before reaching the remains of flight MH17 because of fighting near the crash site.

And McDonalds without meat -- a food scandal generates a Big Mac shortage in China.

As the UN calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, the violence and the deaths are still

going on. According to Gaza officials, more than 1,000 people have now been killed, nearly three-quarters of them are civilians, many of them are

children.

Now the UN security council held an emergency meeting in New York early on Monday after a temporary truce over the weekend expired. And

while it lasted, much needed medical supplies were rushed into Gaza and families were able to dig their loved one's bodies form the rubble.

But on Sunday, Israel resumed Operation Protective Edge after what it said was incessant rocket fire from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas violated its own call for a ceasefire.

Now in the past hour or so, Israeli government officials have told CNN that they are observing a, quote, "unlimited ceasefire." Now the IDF says

its policy at the moment is one of localized response to return fire at locations where rockets have been fired from, but nothing broader.

Now we head straight to the conflict zone now. Ian Lee is in Gaza City. He joins me now live. And Ian, as this drags into a three week long

conflict, tell us more about the basic human need on the ground?

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kristie. It's been three weeks. And as you know, this is -- takes its toll on the

civilians here, your average person here in Gaza.

As you mentioned earlier, it has been a shortage on medication as well as specialists that they need for certain operations. But there is one

thing that is just essential for human life: food. Take a look at this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)??

LEE (voice-over): As the sun sets over the Gaza Strip, one of the largest operations is over for now. No, it's not the fighting between Gaza

and the Israeli military, but this massive mission was born out of the three-week conflict. The battle weary civilians must eat. Consensual Gaza

City, flour hovers in the air. Strong backs initiate the process.??

A 109 metric tons of flour mixed with fresh water. The life line of over 160,000 Gazans at U.N.-run shelters. With so much food insecurity,

only the humming of these machines is constant. On one side, dough goes in, fresh bread comes out the other.??

Sorted and packed it's ready to be delivered. Micro buses weave through the streets as if they have a 30 minutes or less guarantee.

Finally, we arrive at the elementary school for boys turned shelter.??

Volunteers unload the truck, all give a helping hand. We meet United Nations World Food Program Gaza Director Raoul Belletto who leads this

humanitarian efforts. He explains it's the people who aren't in U.N.- run shelters that keep him up at night.??

RAOUL BELLETTO, WFP SENIOR PROGRAM ADVISER: That's why we are still a number of people still trapped in the effective areas who have not received

assistance of any kind.??

LEE: Administrators go through the list of names and number of family members. Tickets are distributed then the food.??(on camera): I want to

give you an idea of just how massive a daily operation this is. This is just one school that feeds over 2,000 hungry mouths and right now in Gaza

there's 84 shelters like this one.??

(voice-over): This can't last forever. Money is tight and supply routes at times questionable. We just want to return to our homes. This is

all we want. We want to live with dignity this man complains. They will be here until the war is over. Full bellies tonight. Tomorrow, this will all

start again.??

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: And Kristie, there's a date we're looking at and that is August 10. After that date, the World Food Program says there could be problems.

On a normal day, on a normal time here in Gaza, the World Food Program feeds hundreds of thousands of people. And they go on a two-month cycle

where they give these people enough food for two months. Well, that ends on August 10. Come that time, a lot of people are going to be without

food. And if they can't get to one of these shelters or if they can't get to a food distribution point, they're going to run out and that's going to

cause a lot more problems, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, major, major lack of food security there in Gaza. Ian Lee reporting live from Gaza City. Thank you.

Now Israel says its ground offensive is in part targeting tunnels running from Gaza under the border into Israeli territory. Now Martin

Savidge went underground to find out why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORREPSONDENT: Israel considers tunnels like these such a threat it has continued working to destroy them even during

the ceasefire. So far Israel defense forces say they've discovered more than 30 of what it calls terror tunnels running beneath the security border

between Gaza into Israel. Finding and demolishing them has been one of the primary stated reasons for Israeli troops going into Gaza on the ground

since hitting them from the air wasn't effective.

Just how dangerous the tunnels can be is demonstrated in this Israeli military video said to show Hamas militants firing on IDF soldiers on the

Israeli side of the border after emerging from two tunnels. Four soldiers were killed in this attack. The militants were killed by an air strike.

This is another tunnel the military says Hamas intended to use to attack Israel. It reportedly runs for three kilometers or close to a mile-

and-a-half underground before emerging on the Israeli side near the farming community of Narim (ph).

The subterranean passageways are lined with tons of cement, have wiring for electricity and the military says are used to move men and

weapons undetected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SAVIDGE: You can see the high voltage electric lines here, this soldier says. It makes it possible to operate powerful machinery like

these winches to pull heavy carts.

The IDF says some of the fiercest fighting in Gaza has been around tunnel entrances as Hamas tries to defend and keep them.

Destroying them can be just as difficult as their capture. Israeli engineers carry out the time consuming work, often under fire, using earth

movers or carefully placed explosives.

Israel believes there are still more underground passage like these to be found. And says its military operation in Gaza will not be complete

until its soldiers literally reach the light at the end of the last tunnel.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You're watching News Stream. And still to come, more than a week after flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine, investigators are

still struggling to gain safe access to the wreckage site. We update you on the latest effort next.

Also ahead, it's slim pickings today at some McDonalds restaurants in China after the fast food giant was forced to remove several items from the

menu.

And the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak is claiming more lives in West Africa. Now two foreign aid workers have been struck. More on that

just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Now a team of international investigators have turned back after attempting to reach the crash site of Malaysia Airlines flight 17.

Now they blame the U-turn on ongoing violence in the area. A CNN team in the nearby town of Shakhtarsk heard explosions and shelling in the

distance.

Now they were meant to be with the investigators, but pro-Russian separatists stopped international press halfway through the journey.

Now meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hopes OSCE observers will help clear his country's name. And Lavrov wants them to be

deployed at two checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border.

Let's get more now with Diana Magnay. She joins us live from Moscow.

And Diana, what more is Moscow saying about this team of international monitors and its mission now stalled, it's a mission to find out who shot

down the plane.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Russia's position is that there should be an independent investigation and that

these investigators should be allowed to go to the crash site and that heir safety should be guaranteed by the UN. But it is clearly a situation where

there is -- it is a conflict zone and it is difficult for anybody to gain access to that site given the density of the shelling that is going on at

the moment.

And it's all well and good for Russia to come out now and say we want people to be granted access to the site, but of course there are many

questions as to why it didn't make that declaration in the first four days after the crash happened where it stood noticeably silent whilst the rest

of the international community demanded that press be placed on the rebels to provide access to that area.

The situation there has changed now. The Ukrainian army is moving in.

So it is both sides really who have to really try and make sure that the area is open to inspectors.

And what you were talking about up on the border, Russia has said in that press conference that it's very happy and it has requested OSCE

monitors to come to two checkpoints on the border between Russia and Ukraine so that the international community can see for themselves whether

Russia is actually delivering arms and equipment through to the separatists in the east of Ukraine. It's a charge that Russia has consistently denied,

whereas the position of the west is that this conflict has essentially been fueled not just by Russia's support, but also by the supply of weapons and

fighters that have crossed that border -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Diana Magnay with the view from Moscow there. Thank you.

Now today's failed excursion to the crash site there in Ukraine is the second one in two days by international investigators. The group, it was

forced to abandon a visit on Sunday after clashes broke out 50 kilometers from the c rash site.

Now CNN's Nick Paton Walsh set off with the investigators, but as he was among the journalists who were stopped.

He joins me now live from Donetsk. And, Nick, again, you were traveling with the group before it was stopped. Tell us what happened

today.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, I'm standing outside the hotel where the investigating mission stays and the

cars are going past here. I've just been speaking to Alexander Hogue (ph) is the executive head of the monitoring mission that basically leading

their coordination and try and get access to the site.

Now one (inaudible) says of course (inaudible) as we drove towards Shakhtarsk, a key town between Donetsk where they're staying and the crash

site itself, about 7 kilometers away from it.

As we approached that town ourselves, the media were asked to stay behind and the OSCE inspection mission continued it seems for about another

kilometer. At that point, they then were told by the separatists with them that there were shooting, there were issues ahead and they began themselves

told me stay on the ground, shake because of the heavy explosions around them.

Now we are told that (inaudible) were hearing it sounded like rocket fire, heavy artillery being used. And I should point out at that time,

too, Ukrainian military announced that they were in the middle of an operation to retake another of towns including Shakhtarsk.

Mr. Hogue himself from the OSCE doesn't want to talk about who he thinks is behind the violence here. He was still in rebel controlled

territory when this occurred. But that meant for the second time in a row those Dutch and Australian police with the OSCE collectively decided it was

time to turn back.

And this presents an extraordinarily complex situation for all concerned now.

We ourselves were near Shakhtarsk were meant for a different road, saw a number of civilians pouring out from there. And there were real fears

amongst there about the bombardment they'd heard the night before. The only issues they would possibly see in the days ahead. One talked about

two jets that were in the sky above them and dropped bombs and talked about continued artillery attacks.

The issue is what happens tomorrow?

They're going to try again. Mr. Hogue (ph) has just come out of talks with separatists to try and get further access tomorrow. It's all about

safety, though. I am sure there will be people in Amsterdam -- sorry, in Netherlands and Australia keen to assure the safety of their police. It's

an active war zone here. Ukrainian army is clearly on the move in those areas.

We saw ourselves rocket fire landing very near to us, too. We had to pull out very fast.

There will be fears whether this mission can safely continue tomorrow, but they are negotiating as hard as they can to try and make that happen --

Kristie.

LU STOUT: The team of investigators, you say they are going to try again, but it's all about their safety. But how could the ongoing fighting

affect not just the mission, but the crash site itself and any attempt to find clues and find out how shot down the plane there?

WALSH: Well, the problem is of course with all this military activity spreading around the crash site -- and I should point out there's

no suggestion that it's affecting the crash site yet, but it is a wide area of 15 square kilometers. In some ways the fear is that violence, yes,

could damage what is effectively a crime scene.

Many point out, though, that there has been damage to the wreckage so far. There have been all sorts of potential damage from the elements as

well. The weather here has been good weather since the crash, more or less, but that could change. Many worried about that, too.

So as each day passes when access is inhibited and when the violence there picks up, too, you have to be conscious of the fact that that will

damage the crime scene too.

Most investigators we've spoken to have privately, perhaps, accepted that their task is probably likely to be inconclusive because of the nature

of what they'll come across when they find it. But it's all about the relatives now. It's about making sure that the victims of MH17's families

and loved ones are able to have the closure of their personal belongings brought back of a good investigation being done, as good as possible into

what happened. And sadly, I should say the grim fact that there are some human remains there that still need to be buried -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: You're absolutely right. It's all about much needed answers and much needed closure.

Nick Paton Walsh joining us live on the line from Donetsk, thank you.

You're watching News Stream. And coming up next another food scandal is gripping China and eating away at McDonald's menus in the entire region.

We'll bring you more on the story after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong you're back watching News Stream.

Now in China it is a very unfamiliar scene today at one of the most iconic fast food chains in the world. There are no Big Macs. There are no

Chicken McNuggets. In fact the entire McDonalds menu in some parts of China is looking a whole lot slimmer.

David McKenzie in Beijing explains what's behind the trimmed selection.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORREPSONDENT: If you come into a McDonalds today in Beijing, you're in for a bit of a surprise, because

there are no beef products and no chicken products on the famed menu because of a widening scandal with food processing in China.

The product shortage comes as McDonalds cuts orders from its main supplier in China. Workers at Shangai Husi were caught on local TV

allegedly using expired meat and pulling meat with their bare hands off the floor. Five have already been detained in the investigation.

McDonalds says they are committed to providing consumers with safe food of the highest quality.

Husi is owned by Illinois based OSI Group. OSI has promised to rebuild trust in China. They're withdrawing all their Shanghai Husi

products from the market.

The recall is hammering McDonalds. But other companies like Yum Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, have also been affected. And they

are severing their ties with the supplier.

No one has fallen ill in this food scandal, but a senior Communist Party official has said that anyone found guilty in this issue will be

severely punished.

But for today Beijingers going into Mickie D's asking for a Big Mac might be asking where's the beef?

David McKenzie, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now meanwhile here in Hong Kong patrons have also been facing a thinner menu at the Golden Arch outpost. Now customers have been

seeing signs just like this one. It's a long list of the ingredients provided by the troubled supplier Husa China (ph). And as a result,

staples of McDonald's menu are unavailable.

There are no Chicken McNuggets, McSpicy Chicken Fillets or even fresh corn cups this Monday.

Now there are also some items on the list that just might surprise you -- iced fresh lemon tea and green salad are also temporarily off limits at

the fast food chain.

And remember, this food scandal extends to Japan as well. But for Japanese buyers, their menu was unchanged today, because they have found

alternate sources for their food.

You're watching News Stream. Still ahead, we return to the conflict in Gaza where the death toll is rising and the two sides seem no closer to

reaching a truce.

And their job is to help people who have been infected with the deadly Ebola virus and now two American aid workers have contracted the disease

while working in West Africa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

Now the UN security council is calling for an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza to deliver urgent aid to

civilians. Now the council made the statement at an emergency meeting today, but the violence continues as both sides of the Israel-Hamas

conflict fail to agree on conditions for a truce.

Now a team of OSCE monitors and experts from the Netherlands and Australia failed for a second day to reach the crash site of Malaysia

Airlines flight 17. They said explosions and ongoing violence in the area prevent safe passage. Now the group was also forced for abandon a visit on

Sunday after clashes broke out 50 kilometers from the crash site.

McDonalds restaurants in some parts of China were forced to strip back menu offerings today. Now the decision to shorten the menu came after the

fast food chain's main meat supplier Shanghai Husi issued a major recall of its products. Now the supplier faces allegations that it sold tainted

food.

And some of the student survivors of the Sewol ferry disaster have been testifying in a South Korean courtroom today. Now one the witnesses

said that he did not hear any announcement telling passengers to abandon ship. Instead, they were given life jackets and then told to stay on the

ferry. The ship's captain and three crew members are accused of homicide through willful negligence.

Now Israel says it is not responsible for any deaths at a UN school in Gaza last week, but it does now admit firing a mortar round that hit the

school's grounds. Now UN and Palestinian official said 16 people were killed when the school that was being used as a shelter was struck.

But as Sara Sidner reports, Israel has released video that it says shows an empty courtyard at the time of impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)??

SARA SIDNER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was supposed to be a safe haven during intense bombing in Gaza, but this United Nations-run

school turned shelter suddenly hit with at least one explosion, shrapnel peppering the walls. The U.N. and the ministry of Health in Gaza says 16

people were killed, more than 200 injured, including children, women and men, filling already overstuffed hospitals.??

Initially, both Israel and Hamas blamed each other for the strike. Israel promised to investigate, and it did, releasing this video from the

Israeli military as proof of its conclusion. The shot from high above Beit Hanoun neighborhood, where the UNRA school is located, and then a dark puff

of smoke from where an Israeli mortar struck the school's inner courtyard.??

On a conference call, IDF spokesman Peter Lerner told us a single, errant Israeli mortar landed in the courtyard in the school. The footage we

have showed the courtyard was empty. It is extremely unlikely anybody was killed by that mortar fire, he said. There could have been injuries from

the shrapnel, ultimately saying we reject the claim people were killed by the IDF mortar on the school premises. The statement left many questions.

We tried to get answers from the Israeli prime minister's spokesman, Mark Regev.

How can they possibly know the difference between whether shrapnel killed someone or injured someone?

MARK REGEV, ISRAELI GOVERNMENT CHIEF SPOKESMAN: First of all, what happened in the school was a tragedy, innocent people were killed, the

pictures are terrible, and no human being cannot be moved. The question is, who is responsible? And that, we have to look very closely. We have to make

sure that we get to the truth.

SIDNER: Regev says it was a mistake made in the fog of war and blames Hamas for firing rockets from near the school.

The video given to the media is low resolution, making it hard to see in the shadows, and edited down to only 18 seconds. It doesn't show any

rocket fire in the area at the time and doesn't extend to the minutes after the strike when ambulances are said to have arrived.

CNN journalist Karl Penhaul explains what he saw when he got to the scene two hours after the strike.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were bloodstains. There were pools of blood.

Those pools of blood appeared to be against the wall of the main building, and that would have been consistent with that being an area that

was in shade at the time that this attack took place, bearing in mind that the attack occurred about mid-afternoon Gaza time.

We saw bits of clothing strewn around that area of the courtyard.

SIDNER: The United Nations Relief and Work Agency which runs the school is calling for a full and transparent investigation.

Palestinians are more pointed in their assessment, blaming Israel for the bloodshed, period.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Now earlier this hour, we heard from a reporter in Gaza. Now we want to take you to Jerusalem where Martin Savidge joins us live.

And Martin, as the United Nations makes this urgent call for a truce for an end to the violence, what kind of military activity have you seen today?

SAVIDGE: Hello, Kristie.

Well, we have seen a greatly reduced amount of military activity. Israel, its foreign ministry is saying that it's adhering to what it calls

an unlimited ceasefire.

Now this appears to be terms by which only Israel has agreed to, but essentially what the Israeli government is saying is that it's responding

when it is fired upon where it is fired upon from, but it's also continuing to keep its troops inside of Gaza and it is continuing to demolish the

tunnels that they say belong to Hamas. So Hamas definitely would not consider this a ceasefire at all. But it does appear that the level of

violence today is down. We don't know if that will continue -- Kristie.

LU STOUT: Now, the Israeli prime minister, he's facing more and more international pressure for an enduring, for a lasting ceasefire with Hamas.

Inside Israel, I mean, how much public support is there for the offensive in Gaza?

SAVIDGE: A lot of it. In fact, you would think that as the numbers of dead grow on both sides that people might begin to waver. But in fact

it appears that positions on both sides are actually hardening.

That is certainly true with the Israelis. There was a poll that was done over the weekend and it showed around 86 percent of those asked when

polled said they supported continuing the military operation in Gaza. That's an incredibly high number.

LU STOUT: Yeah, incredibly high. I also want to ask you about tunneling by Hamas militants, because I know you filed a report on this.

We know that rockets can be intercepted by that technology known as the Iron Dome. But how many Israelis fear that tunnels are being used by

Hamas?

SAVIDGE: You know, it's interesting that tunneling issue is the one that perhaps strikes the most fear in Israelis even though, of course, the

threat, the genuine threat if it exists from Hamas, is very limited to the immediate area around Gaza, because there seems to be an idea of Israelis,

this concept that anybody living down there could suddenly have a tunnel appear in their living room floor with terrorists emerging from it has

really struck a cord.

So those tunnels mean a lot to the population of Israel here. They want to see them all destroyed.

LU STOUT: All right. Martin Savidge reporting live from Jerusalem for us. Thank you, Martin.

Now let's move on to the Ebola epidemic that is sweeping a part of West Africa. In Liberia, a second American has tested positive for this

deadly disease. Nancy Writebol was part of a team helping to treat patients in the capital city of Monrovia. And this news comes just days

after the aid organization Samaritan's Purse revealed that American doctor Kent Brantly had become infected.

Now, Ken Isaacs, he's the vice president of programs from Samaritan's Purse shared how Brantly could have come into contact with this deadly

disease.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN ISAACS, VICE PRESIDENT, PROGRAMS, SAMARITAN'S PURSE: The disease is passed by the exchange of body fluid, and that can be something as light

as brushing the back of someone's hand and picking the moisture up from it. So, you know, we are looking very carefully, along with the CDC, Doctors

Without Borders and World Health Organization at all of our procedures at our isolation centers there in Liberia trying to answer that question.

But we feel like that we probably had an infected staff person that was in the mix and unfortunately that person died today. That was a

Liberian staff person. And we feel like that that may have been the source that passed the infection to the other two.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: And that was Ken Isaacs, the vice president of programs with the aid organization Samaritan's Purse telling CNN earlier how the

American doctor Ken Brantly could have become infected with Ebola.

Now at least 660 people in the region who died since the outbreak started around four months ago.

You're watching News Stream. And still to come after nearly 40 years traveling through space NASA's Voyager is venturing outside our solar

system. We'll get an update on its new mission next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now in this week's Art of Movement we're looking at something that has gone where no manmade object has ever gone before. Now NASA's Voyager has

finally exited our solar system and it's still sending back crucial information about our universe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: It's been on a 37 year trip deep into space. NASA's unmanned spacecraft Voyager has traveled farther than anyone or anything in

history.

SUZY DODD, VOYAGER PROJECT MANAGER: The primary mission for Voyager was to fly by Jupiter and Saturn.

LU STOUT: But Voyager went beyond this mission. It has been the only spacecraft to space to fly by Uranus or Neptune and has no plans to stop

having already journeyed billions of kilometers.

DODD: Voyager took advantage of alignment of the outer planets, which are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune to be able to go buy all four of

those planets within a 12 year period. Now that alignment of planets only happens every 176 years.

LU STOUT: The brilliant images Voyager sends back to earth are the only true window this far into our universe, providing fascinating new

information about our solar system all from a spacecraft designed almost 40 years ago.

DODD: Voyager was launched in 1977, so the technology that are on each of the voyager spacecraft are vintage 70 -- early 70s to '75.

LU STOUT: Vintage technology like only having around 70 kilobytes of memory. A 16 gigabyte iPhone 5 has more than 240,000 times that amount.

Thought some of Voyager's features have proven to be timeless.

Its fault protection technology allows the spacecraft to fix itself without getting commands from Earth.

DODD: The fault protection technology that Voyager had on board has been improved, but it's been flown on every spacecraft since Voyager.

LU STOUT: And instead of an endless supply of energy carried on board, Voyager helps fuel itself using the pull of gravity to essentially

slingshot from planet to planet.

And now Voyager is heading toward new discoveries already moving past the edge of our solar system into interstellar space.

DODD: What that means is that Voyager has traveled outside of the bubble of our sun. The data that Voyager 1 is sensing now is data from

other stars and from supernova eruptions and the remnants of stars that have exploded over the course of history.

LU STOUT: The art of getting this data back to Earth takes time and precision. Now Voyager is now so far from Earth that commands take more

than 17 hours to reach it.

But it may be much longer before the spacecraft encounters any other planets.

DODD: It's going to take us 40,000 years to come within three light years of the next nearest sun, or the next nearest star. And that's a

long, long time.

LU STOUT: But if there's anything out there, Voyager will be the first to let us know.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Forty year old technology and it's still on the move. Incredible.

Now still to come this year hour, a century on from the start of World War I. We'll look back at the events that led to the conflict and how it

shaped the world we live in now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LU STOUT: Welcome back.

Now the world's largest international maritime exercise is underway. It's called RIMPAC. Now I want to give you a sense of just how huge these

U.S.-led drills are. This is a picture of 42 ships and submarines. And this is just a small sample. 25,000 personnel from 22 nations prove their

meddle aboard more than 200 aircraft and 49 ships.

Now this year is the first year that China is participating since the RIMPAC started back in 1971.

But China is also holding its own military drills in the highly contested East China Sea. Now Japan and China have long been at odds over

islands in these waters. And some worry that the show of military bravado has the potential to incite regional territorial disputes with its

neighbors.

Now these maritime exercises also are not far off from the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Now that territory is claimed by

both Vietnam and China among others.

And our CNN digital team went there to show us a side of the South China Sea island wars that is really rarely seen. Now there is a

detachment of Filipino marines living on the Sierra Madre, it's a huge rusting war ship grounded on a reef in these contested waters.

Now they are standing guard there and looking out for Chinese ships, a stark symbol of the fierceness of the territorial disputes raging in that

area.

Now journalist and filmmaker Tomas Etzler (ph) traveled to this rusting ship for a firsthand look. And he compared it to a ghost ship.

Read his story see what he found. Go to CNN.com.

Now time now for your global weather forecast. And of course the latest on that frightening and deadly lightning strike hitting a beach in

Southern California. And let's get details with Samatha Moore. She joins us from the world weather center -- Samantha.

SAMANTHA MOORE, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: Now Kristie it is unusual to see thunderstorms over the beaches of Southern California, but what we

saw were some thunderstorms coming out of the desert. And we get something here in the desert southwest called the southwestern monsoon, or sometimes

called the Arizona Monsoon. And it usually is followed, it follows a timer. It's very, very hot by a ridge of high pressure that forms over the

four corners region here, that sets up a circulation off of the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California, which brings the moisture over the very

hot desert country and then it just blossoms into these strong convective thunderstorms and that's what we saw happen yesterday afternoon. And it's

still looks like we could see some more thunderstorms there today.

So this is a way it timed out from the radar coming out of the region. You can see this is Catalina Island. It is right off the west coast here,

a beautiful area, recreational area, beautiful golf course here in Avalon where a golfer was struck by lightning during the afternoon and then this

line continued to move to the west and that's when we saw the lightning strike here at Venice Beach. And that's where we're seeing that video come

out of today.

In fact, let's take a look at some of that video. Here are rescue workers, the lifeguards that were manning the beach when it happened. 13

people were injured when lightning struck the beach. Of course there's a lot of moisture in the sand even if they weren't in the water and that

moisture conducts that electricity, one man died as a result of they said either of the lightning strike or maybe a drown when the event occurred or

was even trampled by crowds that were just astounded and surprised as that huge bolt of lightning created what some called a sonic boom sound. So it

really startled the people there at the coastline.

You can see how it's so beautiful. It's sunny. So these thunderstorms really coming out of what appeared to be clear blue sky, but

there was a lot of moisture in the area coming in off the desert monsoon. And that's what created those thunderstorms.

Here's a little closer look at the images. This is the one that came in to Catalina Island, the Avalon golf course where the golfer was injured.

He was treated in release. But then as you look at this image of the second image here where at Venice Beach it struck and it was crowded with

beach goers on a Sunday afternoon. It's kind of a carnival like atmosphere there and that's where that young man in his mid-20s was injured fatally.

This is all part of a big pattern here with heat over the desert southwest. And interestingly enough it's very cool now across the Great

Lakes and that cool air it's plunging to the south. So, we have this cold, dry air moving over the Great Lakes and into the eastern half of the

nation, it's meeting up with some moist, unstable air to the south and that's where we have the threat for more severe weather today.

Now we're still seeing some of the thunderstorms in the northeast. We had some reports of an EF-0 tornado in Harford, Connecticut. And now that

same storm system moving to the east slowly here so Boston likely will see some delays at the airport. So if you're heading in or out of Boston keep

that in mind as these storms roll through during at least the first half of the day. Toronto could also see some delays from the same weather system.

And then we'll have to be concerned about the Deep South as we head later on into today, because we do have that threat for severe stretching from

the Golf Coast on up into Charleston and Wilmington, North Carolina. We could end up seeing some severe storms there as well, Kristie.

So it's very dynamic weather pattern here in the U.S.

LU STOUT: Yeah, dynamic is the word and to say the least. Samantha Moore there, thank you.

Now 100 years ago today of course the history was changed when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. It was the beginning of the First

World War, which lasted more than four years and it killed 16 million people worldwide. Max Foster takes a look at how it began.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two deaths that led to millions more.

KATE WILLIAMS, HISTORIAN: I don't think anyone realized what this created and no one understood how essentially just a month between the 28th

of June and the 4th of August how that small period in 1914 would change the world forever.

FOSTER: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated during this visit to Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Serb

nationalists were blamed for the killing, seen as an act of rebellion against Austria-Hungarian occupation.

HEATHER JONES, HISTORIAN: So that should have been a Balkan conflict. Austria-Hungary attacking Serbia in the wake of the assassination to try

and crush Serb nationalism, however it escalates because of the alliance system.

FOSTER: Emboldened by a pledge of support from Germany, the Austria- Hungarian empire declares war on Serbia.

JONES: Serbia has a very powerful friend in Russia. Russia feels it can't stand by and watch its Slavic brother be crushed by Austria-Hungary.

WILLIAMS: One minute they were declaring war, next minute Belgium was invaded, France was invaded.

FOSTER: Then, to defend Belgium's neutrality, Britain entered the conflict.

WILLIAMS: This makes the war global, because both Britain and France have huge international empires.

FOSTER: Over the next four years, the empires would clash and 16 million people, soldiers and civilians, would die.

WILLIAMS: The death toll of World War I is almost impossible to understand, it's so huge. Really 2 percent of the world population was

killed. So this is a complete disaster for the world population. This is the young people. These are young men. These are practically children.

FOSTER: Russia suffered the greatest number of casualties, more than three-quarters of its forces were either killed, wounded, imprisoned or

missing in action, a staggering 9 million men.

The Austria-Hungarian army was decimated with 90 percent of its soldiers lost of wounded.

Germany recorded almost 6 million casualties, France 6 million killed and wounded, the British empire almost 3 million.

JONES: At its most basic, the First World War is a very human story. It's a story of people who lived and loved and who were cut down in early

life in many cases because of global political bad decisions.

FOSTER: Then, on November 11, 1918 a decision that would finally bring an end to the fighting, Germany surrendered. No one had anticipated

that the assassination of an Austrian Aristocrat would trigger a world war. And as the allies celebrated the truce, no one believed there would ever be

a second.

JONES: After the First World War everyone said that is the war to end all wars. It was really thought of as the great war, and yet within 30

years they'll war again with Germany.

FOSTER: And still even 100 years on the drums of war rumble once again across the fields of Eastern Europe as new battle lines have been

drawn reminding us of the horror of war.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Well, some extraordinary archival footage in that report there.

And finally if the mainstream media isn't doing it for you anymore, don't worry, apparently a new option is out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, FRM. VICE PRESIDNETIAL CANDIDATE: Welcome to a new project. This is a news channel that really is a lot more than news, this

is a community where we're going to be able to share ideas and discuss the issues of the day and we're going to find solutions.

Are you tired of the media filters? Well, I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: Her very own online news channel. The former U.S. vice presidential candidate says she is tired of politically correct media

filters, so if you want to go beyond the sound bite, as she likes to put it, it'll cost you in the U.S. $9.95 a month, or you can spend a dollar

less and watch Netflix instead.

And that is News Stream. But the news continues at CNN. World Business Today is next.

END