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The Global Brief with Bianca Nobilo
British PM Loses Two Ministers; Russia Targets Donetsk Region; Highland Park Shooting. Aired 5-5:30p ET
Aired July 05, 2022 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:48]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Bianca Nobilo in London, and welcome to THE GLOBAL BRIEF.
Tonight, two key ministers resigned from Boris Johnson's cabinet. His leadership on shakier ground than ever. How many times have I said that?
Then, Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in an intense fight in Eastern Ukraine, as Russia now targets the region of Donetsk.
And authorities in Illinois are piecing together what led to the Highland Park shooting during the July 4th parade. They say the man suspected of
killing seven people planned that attack for weeks.
In the last few hours, the U.K. government has been plunged into uncertainty. And the prime minister is suffering you close to his already
embattled leadership. Two of Boris Johnson's closest members of cabinet, the finance minister and health secretary, have both resigned. Rishi Sunak
says we can't continue like this. While Sajid Javid says the prime minister has, quote, lost his confidence.
It's a devastating double setback to a leader who only narrowly survived a no confidence vote, back in June. The resignations come moments after Mr.
Johnson apologized for pointing a senior conservative lawmaker to his government. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think it was a mistake. I apologize for it. In hindsight, I think it was the wrong thing to do. I
apologize to everybody who has been badly affected by it. I want to make absolutely clear that there is no place in this government for anybody to -
- who is predatory, abuses their position of power.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Johnson is facing criticism over his handling of the situation, as it emerged he was aware of misconduct allegations and an official complaint
against Chris Pincher.
After months of scandal, can the prime minister survive this?
Quentin Peel, an associate editor at "Chatham House" joins me now to discuss.
Quentin, I know the government is in crisis, if I get the pleasure of being joined by you for the evening. So, a warm welcome to the show.
So, the prime minister --
QUENTIN PEEL, ASSOCIATE FELLOW, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thank you very much.
NOBILO: -- has acted quickly in replacing the two cabinet positions, which were vacant. So, Steve Barclay, former Brexit minister, is now in there, as
well as Nadhim Zahawi, as chancellor. But he was obviously trying to shore up his position. Could that possibly work, this approach that I'm just
going to get on with it, nothing to see here, business as usual?
PEEL: I think he's in a very difficult place because the two who have resigned were probably the two most competent ministers in his government.
And the fact that they have lost confidence in him will seriously undermine his popularity within the party. That's the key to his future.
It's not a fact that he's actually got -- had some very bad election results. It's all about him, the trust he enjoys with the rest of the
party. That, I think, is what is being called into question today.
NOBILO: Now, with the amount of scandals that Boris Johnson has created and faced, most prime ministers would have resigned over any of those.
Boris Johnson soldiers on.
Do you think and that he is slightly detached from the political reality, from the public mood, and actually doesn't realize the peril that he is in?
Or do you think he believes he is different, and if he just keeps plowing ahead, he can do what no other prime minister could and get through all
this?
PEEL: I think it's the latter. I think he does, and genuinely, believe that he is different. I think he also doesn't quite recognize the trouble
he is in. I mean, this is a man who very much wants to be liked. He hates it to think that he's unpopular.
At the same time, he has an extraordinary thick skin and doesn't really see when he has made a mess of things. So, this is why he is undermined his
position. It's not the issue here that really matters, the issue of a minister who was a sexual predator, or whatever.
[17:05:06]
It's more the fact that, at first, he denied knowing it. Then he admitted knowing it. He gets the rest of his government to have to sink to his tune.
And that's what they are really unhappy about.
But if you like -- I don't want to exaggerate the word lie, but I don't think Boris Johnson really sees the difference between a lie and the truth.
It was brilliantly described today by the civil servant who actually has really put him on the spot, the former head of the foreign office, who said
he tells the truth with his fingers crossed. That really sums him up.
NOBILO: Now, to my mind, there seems for ways forward here. Either Boris Johnson resigns, which seems like it would be unlikely, of his own
volition. Or there is more cabinet resignations that put pressure on him to resign. Or the 22 committee, when it is replenished, changes rules, they
vote to have a no confidence vote. Or, he manages to continue.
Which of those options do you think is the most likely?
PEEL: I think the most likely is that the 22 committee, this is the committee of backbench members of the Conservative Party, change their
rules and have a confidence vote, this time even more people will actually say, we've had enough.
But the one thing really protecting him in the long term is not his own thick skin, it's the fact that there is not an obvious successor. Now, both
the people who have resigned today, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, and Sajid Javid, the minister of health, both have been
mentioned as possible successors.
But they're not obvious successors. They are not going to be a shoo-in. I don't think there is one. People on his back benches we'll worry that if
they get rid of Johnson, they don't have an alternative.
NOBILO: This is the salient point. Quentin Peel, thank you as always for your erudite reflections on what is happening. Speak to you soon.
PEEL: Thank you very much.
NOBILO: Now, after taking over much of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, Russian forces are concentrating on Donetsk, a region in the Donbas, which Ukraine
still partially controls. Ukrainian military officials say Russia's pummeling the region with heavy shelling. They say Russian forces targeted
a central market and several residential neighborhoods in Sloviansk, killing at least three people. Russian-backed separatists say Ukrainian
shelling in the city of Donetsk has killed a ten year old girl.
As the fighting rages, civilians are trapped inside cities that have become the front line. This black smoke rises from the background, one resident
described her longing for normal life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATALYA KORENEVA, DONETSK RESIDENT (through translator): They are shelling everywhere. I don't really want to leave my home behind. I have a child. I
hope someday this will stop. I hope for peace. I hope they stop shelling, that we can move around the city calmly, walk around, go to the sea one
day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Further north in Kharkiv, officials say that Russian missiles slammed a vocational school. The college trained drivers for various types
of vehicles, some of which were destroyed. Local authorities say Russian forces have been targeting that city for two weeks, shelling apartment
buildings, and schools, and killing civilians.
CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Cedric Leighton, joins me from Washington.
Colonel, always great to have you on the program. Thanks for joining us.
CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: You bet, Bianca. Good to be with you.
NOBILO: It seems that we are at a consequential moment in this battle with Russia managing to take more and more control of the east, with small
packets left to gain. What do you think that's going to mean for the future of Putin's strategy? Do they consolidate those gains? You think that,
emboldened by that, they push on and try to conquer more of the country?
LEIGHTON: Bianca, I think it all depends on how much of a resupply effort the Russians are able to successfully put together. If they are moving
forward in a way that it is similar to what they have done over the past few weeks, I will tell you that I suspect they will a pause. They will stop
in their forward movement.
But there is a big if here. If they do have means of re-supplying their forces or believe that they have just enough that they can prosecute any
advantage they might gain, they could potentially try to seize the rest of the Donbas region, in other words, in this case, Donetsk.
[17:10:02]
If that happens, of course, that will achieve one of Putin's major war aims. It looks as if he will pause. If he has enough in the coffers, so to
speak, I think he will try to move forward as long as he can do so.
NOBILO: Colonel, the refrain that we've heard from every Ukrainian that has been on CNN's air and all our reporters on the ground is, obviously,
they are grateful for the few advanced weapons they have received from the West. But hey simply need them in much greater volumes to be able to fight
Russia back.
Do you think there is an understanding in the West of the urgency and the pivotal moment that they're in if those weapons don't get to the front
lines in the volume needed? I'm thinking about comments by Macron and others when they talk about the importance of not humiliating Russia. It
almost belies a little bit of complacency, to supply Ukraine with all the firepower it needs that would keep Russia at bay.
LEIGHTON: Yeah, exactly, Bianca. You can't have it both ways.
If you are in a position where you don't want to, quote, humiliate Russia, as the French president mentioned, you are going to do something very
differently then to prosecute a war effort to the fullest extent that is operationally possible.
What the Ukrainians are asking for is to be able to prosecute there were effort, to be able to move forward to in essence take the war at least to
the Russian forces that are currently in Ukrainian territories -- Ukrainian territories they've occupied since the end of February. If you do that, if
you allow the Ukrainians to make good on their desire, on their promises to their own people, then that becomes a very different war from the kind of
war where we look for a cease-fire and a kind of a sensation of hostilities at the current line of firing.
That would be a very different outcome. In my view, I think --
NOBILO: Unfortunately, we have just lost our CNN military analyst. But thank you to him for his insights. Now, a Ukrainian paramedic who was
captured by Russian forces months ago is now free. But because she is famous in her home country, her name is considered a hero, Moscow used her
in propaganda videos to demoralize Ukrainian troops and frame her as a Nazi.
CNN's Alex Marquardt has her story for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEXANDER MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): In this Russian propaganda film, Yulia Paevska is marched, pitted and, handcuffed into a dark interrogation room. The hood yanked off harsh
light blinding her.
Paevska, who is Ukrainian, goes by the name Taira, and is a famous medic known across Ukraine, until very recently she was a prisoner of war, held
by Russian and pro-Russian forces, made to appear in a propaganda film which accuses her of harvesting organs and compares her to Hitler.
After three months in captivity, Taira, whom we met today with her husband, was freed in a prisoner exchange. But in her first sit-down interview since
then, it's clear the wounds are still fresh.
JULIA PAEVSKA, UKRAINIAN VOLUNTEER PARAMEDIC (translated): There was a physical abuse and psychological pressure. The extreme psychological
pressure did not stop for a minute all these three months. Constantly you are told that you are fascist, a Nazi.
MARQUARDT: It sounds like torture.
PAEVSKA: It was. Physical also
MARQUARDT: Taira says she was deprived of food for days beaten and threatened with a death penalty.
PAEVSKA (translated): They kept interrogating, but at some point, they realized that they would not get anything out of me. They threw me into
solitary confinement into a dungeon without a mattress, on a metal bunk.
MARQUARDT: When the war started in February, she headed to the brutal fight in Mariupol, capturing dramatic video on a body camera she wore. In
March, as the Russians closed in, the memory card was smuggled out by journalists in a tampon, then at a checkpoint, Taira was recognized and
taken prisoner.
PAEVSKA (translated): I asked to be allowed to make a call, call my husband. They said you watched too many American films. There will be no
call.
MARQUARDT: She says she was told lies about Russian battlefield successes and used against her will as a character for Russian media to claim that
their forces are fighting neo-Nazis.
PAEVSKA (translated): They are absolute victims of propaganda, of a ruthless propaganda that completely destroys their ability to think
critically. If it were not for this, this conflict would not exist at all, I am absolutely sure of it.
[17:15:04]
MARQUARDT: It may be sometime before tyrant returns to the front lines. She also wants to train for next year's Invictus Games for wounded
veterans, as the reality sets in that this will be a long war.
PAEVSKA (translated): This is an absolutely ruthless regime that wants to dominate the world. They told me that the whole world only had to submit to
Greater Russia and "this is your destiny. You have to accept, just stop resisting."
MARQUARDT: Alex Marquardt, CNN, Kyiv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: Coming up after the break, we go around the world to see how different countries are coping with extreme weather.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: A man accused of carrying out a mass shooting in the U.S. state of Illinois is believed to have planned the attack for weeks. According to
police, the 21-year-old suspect killed seven people in distant lands they parade on Monday, after firing more than 70 rounds from a rooftop, with a
legally purchased weapon. They say that he initially avoided capture by disguising himself in women's clothing, before he was detained a few hours
later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS COVELLI, LAKE COUNTY MAJOR CRIME TASK FORCE: We do believe Crimo preplanned this attack for several weeks. He brought a high powered rifle
to this parade. He accessed the roof of a business, a fire escape ladder and began opening fire on innocent Independence Day celebration goers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: Police also revealed that back in 2019, they seized knives and sword from the suspect in a separate incident. A preschool teacher and a
father of eight were among those killed in Monday shooting. One doctor described the attack as a horrific scene that caused unspeakable damage to
the victims.
CNN's Miguel Marquez reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rapid gun fire leaving at least seven dead, dozens more injured at a Fourth of July
parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
[17:20:05]
MICHAEL BLUMBERG, WITNESS: I heard about probably 30 shots, probably a series of 15, and a pause, and a probably another series of 15. And we told
my wife to grab the kids and run. And again we just started moving.
MARQUEZ: America's latest tragedy, leaving yet another community stunned.
DR. DAVID BAUM, HELPED TREAT SHOOTING VICTIMS AT HIGHLAND PARK PARADE: And the injuries that I saw, those are wartime injuries. Those are what are
seen in victims of war. Not victims at a parade.
MARQUEZ: Of the seven killed, Lake County coroner says five adults died at the scene and two at the hospital.
One victim has been identified as 78-year-old Nicolas Toledo. His family says the father of eight and grandfather of many had been visiting his
family in Highland Park from Mexico. They described him as a loving man who was creative, adventurous and funny.
Another victim, 63-year-old, Jacki Sundheim, was a life-long congregant and a staff member at a nearby synagogue, serving as pre-school teacher and
events coordinator.
In a statement, the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe saying, there are no words sufficient to express the depth of our grief for Jacki's
death and sympathy for her family and loved ones.
A total of 39 patients were taken to four area hospitals: 26 of them when to Highland Park Hospital, ranging in age from 8 to 85. Nine patients now
remain hospitalized.
NATE HARRES, WITNESS: Everybody started running and there was panic. Total pandemonium.
ZOE PAWELCZAK, WITNESS: And I just grabbed my dad and we ran. And suddenly, everyone was running behind us. And people were just shot behind
us.
ANGELA SENDIK, WITNESS: We walked a little closer and I saw someone like on the ground with his leg in the air and the girl like crying next to him.
And then to my left, my mom and I saw like at least three more people on the ground like bloody.
MARQUEZ: Lily Wathen was supposed to march in the parade when the shots going off, her grandfather who was there to watch was one of the victims
shot.
LILY WATHEN, GRANDFATHER WAS SHOT AT PARADE: I was at the metro station and then, all of a sudden, we heard these popping noises and people were
saying it's just fireworks, don't worry they're signaling the start of the parade. And then, you know, the cops and fire trucks lined up by us turned
on their sirens and started driving way. And that's kind of when everyone said, oh, like, this is -- this is for real and we started running away.
MARQUEZ: She says her grandfather is doing okay and recovering. But for so many, the terror surrounding Monday's attack won't be something they will
soon forget.
HARRES: It's horrifying. This is what we were sitting in. I don't think anybody is ready to process it yet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: That was CNN national correspondent Miguel Marquez reporting from Highland Park, Illinois.
Now, let's take a look at the other key stories making international headlines today.
The Ethiopian government and rebel group are trading blame after civilians were reportedly killed in an attack for the second time in less than a
month. The attack Monday in the Oromia region appears to have been ethnically targeted, according to the country's human rights commission.
Norwegian energy workers will return to their jobs as soon as possible, after government intervention brought a strike to a swift end. The offshore
gas and oil workers were protesting a pay dispute. Norway state owned energy company shut three of its fields in the North Sea and natural gas
prices spiked as a result.
And the British government is advising against not essential travel to Sri Lanka, as that country grapples with a worsening economic crisis. Sri Lanka
is experiencing daily power cuts, and a lack of food, medicine and fuel. The UK foreign office warns that violent unrest could happen with little
notice.
Extreme weather is affecting countries across the world, intensifying the call to act on the climate crisis, from blistering temperatures to
torrential rain and floods, to collapsing glaciers. For many people, climate change is quickly becoming a climate emergency.
CNN's Isa Soares has more for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A devastating sight in Sydney, as parts northwest of the city are battling their worst floods in decades.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely devastated. It is really hard, so we don't know. We are just doing one day at a time, getting through.
SOARES: At least one person has died and thousands have been forced to evacuate. In Australia's most populous state of New South Wales,
authorities have declared a natural disaster.
Extreme weather events like this are happening across the world, the world record making headlines globally.
From deforestation in the Amazon to temperatures in Italy, authorities there at the claret a state of emergency in five regions, due to widespread
water shortages.
[17:25:04]
High temperatures killing crops, drawing rivers and even avalanches. Seven people died after this glacier collapsed in the Italian Alps.
Prime Minister Mario Draghi bringing up climate change.
MARIO DRAGHI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This is a drama that is certainly unpredictable, but it definitely depends on the
deterioration of the environment and the climate situation.
SOARES: Even the pope urging action, tweeting the tragedies we are experiencing are connected to climate change.
In India, millions have been displaced in recent weeks, and 150 people have died in floods, as well as mudslides. China recorded the heaviest rain
falls in 60 years, affecting almost half a million people.
And in the United States, from coast to coast this year, an array of extreme weather events, from historic flooding to uncontrollable wildfires
and more intense hurricane seasons.
FRIEDERIKE OTTO, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF LONDON: We just see the frequency of heat waves have gone up so much. This is very much. We
don't need to do attribution studies on every single one of them, because we know already that climate change is a key driver here.
SOARES: Critics say that governments are to idle in fighting climate change.
Meanwhile, experts estimate that 200 million people need humanitarian aid, due to extreme weather over the coming 30 years.
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: We are seeing around the world's cause for shock and anger. The rampant deforestation and worsening climate
impacts are increasing forest fires and droughts. This is outrageous and shameful. It is a global suicide in slow motion.
SOARES: A slow response, the U.N. says the world cannot afford, as it faces one of humanity's biggest challenges.
Isa Soares, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NOBILO: In London, protesters glued themselves to a 200-year-old masterpiece to draw attention to the climate crisis. Anti-oil activists
stuck themselves with the frame of this painting in the national gallery to John Constables famous landscape, The Hay Wain. The artwork suffered minor
damage to the frame and is the latest in a string of protests by British environmentalists group, Just Stop Oil.
Thanks for watching. I will see you again tomorrow.
END
