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Witnesses: Trump Pushed Justice Department To Overturn Vote; Testimony & Emails: 5 Republicans Asked For Pardon; Ivanka Trump Tells Filmmaker Her Father Should Exhaust All Legal Remedies On Voter Fraud Claims; E.U. Grants Candidate Status To Ukraine, Moldova; Aung San Suu Kyi Facing At Least 20 Criminal Charges; Rescue Workers Scrambling to Reach Afghan Quake Survivors; At Least 4 Dead in Ecuador Anti- Government Protests; New York Officials Livid over Supreme Court Gun Ruling; Coach Dives into Pool to Rescue Unconscious Swimmer. Aired 1- 2a ET
Aired June 24, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:19]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello to our viewers joining us all around the world, appreciate your company. I'm Michael Holmes. Now coming up here on CNN Newsroom, damning testimony from a top Justice Department official about Donald Trump's plans to overturn the 2020 election. He says the former president wanted him to just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest of him.
Plus, Ukraine's goal of joining the E.U. gets a shot in the arm as Member States approve its candidate status, a major step towards full membership. And another crisis for Afghanistan, an earthquake rocking the country killing at least 1,000. We'll get an update on recovery efforts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: The committee investigating the U.S. Capitol riot will be taking a break until mid-July, but their latest hearing was filled with fireworks. Witness after witness from Donald Trump's own justice department testifying about the former president's relentless pressure to back his conspiracies and overturn the 2020 election. They talked about Trump's demand to seize voting machines, declare the election corrupt even investigate the bizarre claim that Italian satellites had changed votes from Trump to Biden.
The committee also heard about an Oval Office meeting where Trump wanted to replace his acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, who backed his voter fraud claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD DONOGHUE, FMR. ACTING DEPUTY U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: He said, so suppose I do this. Suppose I replace him, Jeff Rosen, with him, Jeff Clark, what would you do? I said, Mr. President, within 24, 48, 72 hours, you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations of the leadership of your entire Justice Department because of your actions. What's that going to say about you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now the witnesses said every time they refuted Trump's election conspiracies with facts, he pushed back with yet another demand.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL), JANUARY 6 SELECT COMMITTEE: You also noted that Mr. Rosen said to Mr. Trump, "DOJ can't and won't snap its fingers and change the outcome of the election." How did the President respond to that, sir?
DONOGHUE: He responded very quickly and said, essentially, that's not what I'm asking you to do. What I'm just asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Extraordinary comments. We also learned through testimony and e-mails that at least five Republican congressmen requested pardons after January 6th. More now from CNN's Manu Raju.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONOGHUE: He just told me, it's your job to seize machines and you're not doing your job.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Top justice officials testifying about the length Donald Trump went to use the power of the federal government to pursue this conspiracy that the election was stolen. Despite being told repeatedly there was no merit to his claims, Trump demanding they declare the election corrupt and leave the rest to him and members of Congress.
KINZINGER: Were any of the allegations he brought up found credible? Did you find any of them credible?
DONOGHUE: No.
RAJU (voice-over): Trump's pressure campaign was relentless.
JEFFREY ROSEN, FMR. ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Between December 23rd and January 3rd, the president either called me or met with me virtually every day.
RAJU (voice-over): All of it came to a head in a tense January 3rd Oval Office meeting, when Trump threatened to replace Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, with Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who was willing to act on Trump's plan. RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I don't recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the Justice Department who isn't frightened of what's going to be done to their reputation.
RAJU (voice-over): But top DOJ officials blocked, including then Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue.
DONOGHUE: I made the point that Jeff Clark is not even competent to serve as the Attorney General. He's never been a criminal attorney. And I said, that's right. You're an environmental lawyer. How about you go back to your office, and we'll call you when there's an oil spill?
RAJU (voice-over): Clark even writing this draft letter to Georgia and other states where Trump lost, falsely claiming there was voter fraud and calling on them to convene special legislative sessions.
ERIC HERSCHMANN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE ATTORNEY: When he finished discussing what he planned on doing, I said, good -- excuse me, sorry, f-ing a-hole, congratulations you just admitted the first step or act you take as attorney general would be committing a felony and violating Rule 6c.
[01:05:01]
RAJU (voice-over): Clark who had his house raided by the FBI on Wednesday morning, testified to the committee behind closed doors in February. But he took the fifth more than 100 times.
JEFFREY CLARK, FMR. ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- and executive privilege, again, just restated for the abundance of caution.
RAJU (voice-over): Trump only back down from replacing Rosen with Clark when the top officials all threatened to resign in protest.
DONOGHUE: And then the other A.G.s began to chime in, in turn and all effects, essentially said they would leave, they would resign in mass if the President made that change in the department leadership.
RAJU (voice-over): Committee members today also revealing more information about the GOP lawmakers who saw a pardon, including Congressman Scott Perry, who played a central role pushing for Clark to be elevated in the Justice Department. White House attorney Eric Herschmann, saying he believes Congressman Matt Gaetz also was seeking a pardon.
HERSCHMANN: A pardon that he was discussing, requesting was as broad as you could describe from beginning, I remember he said, from the beginning of time up until today. He had mentioned Nixon and I said Nixon's pardon was never nearly that broad.
KINZINGER: The only reason I know to ask for a pardon, is because you think you've committed a crime.
(END VIDEOTAPE) RAJU: Now in addition to Perry and Gaetz, other Republican members apparently also asked for pardons that includes Louie Gohmert, also Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Now Marjorie Taylor Greene has denied this. The testimony that the committee showed was second-hand testimony saying that they had heard that Greene had asked for a pardon through the White House Counsel's Office. She has denied that.
Others though have confirmed it, including Mo Brooks, the Congressman from Alabama, who said that he had asked for a pardon, a blanket pardon for all Republicans who sought to challenge the election results, overturn the election results because he said he was concerned that Democrats coming in would weaponize the Justice Department against their political enemies.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
HOLMES: The January 6th committee has met behind closed doors with a British filmmaker who documented the final weeks of the Trump presidency. Alex Holder's three-part series "Unprecedented" will be released this summer by Discovery Plus which is owned by the same parent company as CNN.
CNN's Don Lemon asked him if there was anything not in his documentary that the committee was interested in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX HOLDER, DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER: The main one being -- there's sort of a -- the first part of Ivanka Trump's sort of reaction to her father's position on the election is in the documentary, but there's another part of it that didn't make it into the documentary. And they were interested in her entire sort of piece on that particular point.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Inconsistencies perhaps and because she says one thing to her father, she says another thing to the committee, and perhaps something different in your documentary where they focused on possible inconsistencies from Ivanka Trump?
HOLDER: Yes, I think so. Yes.
LEMON: How so?
HOLDER: I think they were just -- they wanted to understand exactly when that particular interview took place and how it came about. And I think they -- well, I think -- quite a few people think there's sort of some sort of inconsistency between Bush (ph). She said to the committee and what she said to me.
LEMON: Are the other inconsistencies with either Ivanka Trump or other people that they were interested in?
HOLDER: Not -- no, not during that meeting today. No.
LEMON: No, not today, just Ivanka Trump?
HOLDER: Specific on that point, yes.
LEMON: Let's talk about Ivanka Trump that -- one of the clips in the documentary. One point in your documentary, you're interviewing the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump, and the president himself after they lost the November election, but they were contesting the results. Here it is. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They thought because people showed up to their rallies. That meant they were popular. The idea that other people might be sitting at home feeling differently about it seems not to have occurred to them. They genuinely thought that must be true.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We won Georgia, we won Michigan, we won Pennsylvania, we won them all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As the president has said, every single vote needs to be counted and needs to be heard and he campaigned for the voiceless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's interesting to see Ivanka Trump say that her father wanted every vote to be counted. Because Trump's mission in the days after the election was to stop the counting of votes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reality is people in this country were getting multiple ballots in the mail. There are thousands and thousands of people who are voting in multiple states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no evidence whatsoever that the voter fraud that they're claiming.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But after weeks of trying to overturn the results of the election, his legal team has come up with nothing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far, they've lost 30 cases.
GIULIANI: I would love to release all the information that I have. I would love to give it to you all. Except most of you wouldn't cover it.
TRUMP: All on the legal documents and everything else, it's not even a contest but you still need a judge that has courage and so far, we haven't found that judge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:10:08]
LEMON: I want to make sure that I get what Ivanka Trump said correctly because she's changed her story a couple of times. The interview took place in December.
HOLDER: Yes.
LEMON: CNN is reporting that Ivanka Trump also told her father that he should, quote, fight until every legal remedy is exhausted. But she told the committee, and this was under oath, that she believed the former Attorney General Bill Barr what he said on December 1st, when he said that there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
So did she say one thing to the committee, the testimony, one thing to her father, when she knew that her father was going to see this, one thing to the documentary when she knew her father was going to see it?
HOLDER: Well, I don't know what she said to her father, but all I know is what she said to me. And clearly there is a difference between the position that she said to me and the position she gave to the committee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Ron Brownstein is CNN's Senior Political Analyst and the Senior Editor for The Atlantic. He joins me now from Los Angeles. Always a pleasure, Ron.
So let's talk about the testimony. A lot of it about Trump's pressure on the Department of Justice. The DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, whose house was raided this week, by the way.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
HOLMES: He's meeting with Trump, his effort to further the lies and so on. What struck you most about what you heard?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, first of all, I thought today was the most dramatic, riveting, possibly consequential congressional testimony since John Dean or a CNN colleague now testified before the Senate Watergate Committee as Richard Nixon's ex White House counsel in 1973. It was extraordinary from beginning to end.
And among other things, the account of the January 3rd meeting at which all of this came to ahead and then President Trump's effort to impose his loyalist as Attorney General fire the acting Attorney General, or the Deputy Attorney General explains that it would be potentially hundreds of resignations, Michael, that felt like the Battle of the Bulge moment at least for now in American democracy. I mean, you could imagine that if it had gone the other way.
HOLMES: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: If they had not been able to beat that back, we would have been plunged into chaos and a constitutional crisis as Mr. Donoghue mentioned. So I think just the magnitude understanding that this was not just random violence on January 6th, this really underscores the initial comment from Liz Cheney. This was a multi-month, multi-prong strategy to subvert the election. And we saw just how close he came to a significant advance in this -- in that meeting.
HOLMES: Yes. I -- it really stood out that if there were a few Jeffery Clarks in the right places around the country --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
HOLMES: -- this could have all gone very differently. One thing that struck me, and we've been reporting on a lot, Trump telling these top Justice Department figures, quote, just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest of me and the Republican congressmen. Now, when that type of evidence we've heard from the committee emerges, particularly when it comes to the former president, what pressure does that put on the Department of Justice, because that sounds like an order?
BROWNSTEIN: I think -- look, right. I mean, the -- you know, he is basically telling his attorney general and deputy attorney general facts be damned, lobby damned, you need, you know, you need to step out and help me overturn this election. And it, you know, it goes to -- I mean, what this hearing today did among other things, was continue the accumulation of evidence through all of these hearings, which have all been pretty compelling that Donald Trump was told over and over again, that he lost the election, that the claims of fraud were bogus, that the things that he was attempting to do, particularly in pressuring the states and Vice President Mike Pence were against the law.
That would the course of action that John Eastman was urging on him would lose, as Eastman himself acknowledged. I believe, he said, nine nothing at the Supreme Court. And yet Trump pressed forward, making these demands of officials over and over again in the knowledge that he lost. And that certainly, I think, you know, is an important legal consideration about his state of mind.
And, you know, you talk about the pressure on these Justice Department officials, these Justice Department officials under Trump withstood the pressure, stood up to his pressure campaign. And I think that, you know, they really actually put a strong contrast with both the Republican elected officials today who are not stepping out and saying this was wrong, and also on their successors in the Justice Department.
HOLMES: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, if it just -- whether what Donald Trump did was culpable or a crime.
HOLMES: Yes. It certainly does expose the fragility of the American experiment in how easily this could have gone a different way. And I guess to that point, what about these members of Congress allegedly asking for pre-emptive apartment Matt Gaetz wanted one. Mo Brooks, Andy Biggs Louie Gohmert, Scott Perry, all asking for pardons apparently, you know, even talk of the blanket pardon for anyone involved in January 6 and the vote. What does that tell you?
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BROWNSTEIN: It tells you that this is not localised to Donald Trump, you know, that the effort to overturn the election, and the willingness to subvert democracy, if that's what it takes to retain power is now pretty broadly infected the Republican Party. I mean, people forget that two-thirds of the Republican state attorneys general joined a lawsuit to throw out the votes in four states on -- what is clear, no evidence, two-thirds of the Republicans in the House voted not to certify the election.
We have dozens of Republican candidates running in 2022, who are election deniers. In fact, there are Republican election deniers seeking the nomination to control the machinery of the 2024 election in every swing state that will decide the 2024 election, and you still have two-thirds, three quarters of Republican voters saying that the election was stolen from Trump.
I think all of this goes back to the core failure of the Republicans who know better to come out and basically join Cheney and Kinzinger and offer kind of confirming voices that say, look, here's the evidence, this is what he did. This is a threat to democracy. And as long as so few Republican elected officials refuse to do that, the deniers who really don't care whether it was true and simply want to retain power by any means necessary, they will continue to have the upper hand on the party.
HOLMES: Yes, yes. You made a great point too that all these people being elected in key positions in various swing states, they got have a real hand in 2024. And --
BROWNSTEIN: This is not over.
HOLMES: Yes, exactly. Ron, good to see my friend. Thanks for that. Ron Brownstein there.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.
HOLMES: Russia's war in Ukraine has now raged for four months with no sign of letting up. On Thursday, Brussels though through Kyiv lifeline of sorts, officially accepting Ukraine as a candidate to one day join the European Union. Moldova was also granted candidate status while Georgia was conditional.
As CNN's Nic Robertson explains Thursday's decisions only signaled the start of a long and arduous journey to full blown E.U. membership.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well it took a little over four hours of discussion by the European Union leaders. And right after they take into the decision, President Zelenskyy joined by video conference saying that he commended the European Union that this was a victory indeed, saying that his country had been waiting 120 days plus 30 years for this moment.
So clearly, a sense of success in Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President saying that it was a historic moment and a defining moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: This is a very defining moment and a very good day for Europe today. I warmly congratulate President Zelenskyy, President Sandu, President Zourabichvili. All three countries are part of our European family. We've never had any doubt about that. And today's historic decision by leaders confirms that.
It grants all three the perspective of E.U. accession and it lays down the path ahead. I think this is a moment of great satisfaction. And I'm very pleased with the leaders' endorsement of our opinions. There can be no better sign of hope for the citizens of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in these troubled times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: And she went on to say that it would strengthen Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia in the face of Russia and show the world the strength of the European Union, because it had acted with unity. But she said all these countries still had homework to do. Candidate status does open the door for additional funding.
But there is a long way to go before any of these countries can expect to join the European Union properly. That could be years away, years of work, integrating what's estimated to be as many as 200,000 pages of European Union law into the laws of those countries.
Nic Robertson, CNN, Brussels.
HOLMES: But Ukraine could be facing another long road ahead on the battlefield. According to two U.S. officials, a new intelligence assessment expects the war in eastern Ukraine to be long and brutal with heavy casualties on both sides, and that Russian forces are gaining an advantage as they learned from earlier mistakes.
Meanwhile, Ukraine released this video of the gruelling battle in Lysychansk. It shows burnt out cars, blowing up a popper buildings, even unexploded rockets embedded in the streets.
[01:20:07]
Ukraine says the battle for this city and in neighboring Severodonetsk has reached a pivotal point. And as the fighting grinds on, more U.S. military aid will be on its way to Ukraine. Washington says it will send another $450 million worth of weapons, including more advanced rocket launch systems that can rain a barrage of rockets at targets more than 60 kilometers away.
The U.S. also sending 18 patrol boats to help Ukraine monitor its rivers and coastline. The package also includes ammunition for other types of artillery systems, as well as small arms for the Ukrainian infantry.
Some African nations have resisted condemning Russia for invading Ukraine. As CNN's David McKenzie now reports for us that is due to relationships which go back decades.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OBBEY MABENA, UMKHONTO WE SIZWE VETERAN: You know, there are various ways -- DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the 1970s, Obbey
Mabena made a choice.
MABENA: We need to decide whether we want to continue living on our knees, or to die fighting.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The choice he made with thousands of others to flee the violence of apartheid South Africa. Train in clandestine camps scattered across the continent, preparing to fight the racist regime back home. Like many African liberation movements, they found a powerful ally.
MABENA: We find that there is a country like the Soviet bloc that is ready to give us everything that we need. You know, they give us food, they give us uniforms, they trained us, gave us weapons.
MCKENZIE (on-camera): And they were Russian soldiers treating you with respect.
MABENA: With the greatest of respect. They came there, they were friends with us. For the first time, we came across white people who treated us as equal beings. Russia is our friend. Our friend's enemy is our enemy.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): In Africa, that history colors today's conflict. As Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine unfolded, the West demanded a stark condemnation of Putin's war. 17 African nations refused to take that stand.
NALEDI PANDOR, SOUTH AFRICAN FOREIGN MINISTER: And the response we got was you take it or leave it. And in the face of that arrogance, we thought the only decision we could take was to abstain.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): South Africa's Foreign Minister took another lesson from history.
PANDOR: Perhaps, our colleagues in the West don't understand the fact that we are very wary of aligning to one position or another.
MCKENZIE (on-camera): Are you disappointed that many countries aren't taking a stronger stance?
LIUBOV ABRAVITOVA, UKRAINIAN AMBASSADOR TO SOUTHERN AFRICA: I'm worried I'm not disappointed. Worried that the countries that went through the history of struggle for human rights, democracy, sovereignty, territorial integrity, now don't acknowledge or don't see for themselves the threat of the Neo-colonialism that is basically happening in the 21st century.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Russia has signed military technical cooperation agreements with more than 30 countries where we supply a large array of weaponry and hardware.
In recent years, Putin has aggressively courted African leaders rapidly expanding diplomatic and military ties. And the shadowy Kremlin backed Vagner Group deployed its mercenaries to train militaries, and in some cases, fight insurgents across the continent. They're accused by human rights groups and the U.N. of multiple abuses.
No matter what atrocities Russia is accused of committing, Obbey Mabena and many in his generation will still support Moscow.
MABENA: By default, we are on the side of Russia. And to us, Ukraine is what we call the sell-out. It is selling out to the West.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MCKENZIE: Africa is, of course, a diverse continent of more than 50 nations and several countries have squarely backed Ukraine. But it must be said Ukraine has struggled to counteract the weight of history and the power of today's Russia.
David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.
HOLMES: Boris Johnson's conservatives have suffered embarrassing defeats in a pair of British spy elections. A short time ago, the chairman of the Conservative Party informed the Prime Minister he was stepping down over the poll results. Labor took the Wakefield seat by a 12 percent margin, a huge swing in that seat. And the Liberal Democrat won the Tiverton and Honiton by-election by a whopping 30 percent. The stunning losses casting even more doubt over Mr. Johnson's political future.
[01:25:05]
Myanmar's deposed leader is in solitary confinement ahead of her trial. Humanitarian groups criticizing the move and calling for international action. We'll have a live report coming up.
Also, we'll have a live report on the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan that's left more than 1,000 people dead. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: Human Rights Organizations and aid agencies are condemning Myanmar's transfer of former leader Aung San Suu Kyi to solitary confinement. The 77-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been under house arrest ahead of her coming trial. But Myanmar's junta moved her into separate confinement as they put it, in prison early Thursday.
For more, I'm joined by Will Ripley live from Singapore. Good to see you, Will. Yes, why is this move being made? And what are these new charges all about?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, this is, according to observers, clearly an attempt to intimidate the pro- democracy supporters who have been arrested by the thousands, by the military junta in Myanmar as they really struggle to maintain their very slim grasp on control of the country. They have arrested 14,000 so far, at least, including, you know, more than 1,400 children, some of whom were being kept deliberately away from their parents who are still on the run.
You have uprising springing up all over Myanmar, not the peaceful kind that we saw the protests that the military coup in the early days, but you actually have armed uprisings, which are certainly familiar for Myanmar. But you have people who are just deeply unhappy with what the military leaders are doing.
There has not been a coordinated effort on the part of the international community to sanction or to punish these military officials who, in many cases, are extraordinarily wealthy after years of corruption and bribes and all the things that have -- that they're trying to protect by basically putting themselves in power even though they had allowed Myanmar to transition to democracy.
Aung San Suu Kyi, of course, the face of the democracy movement. And so they keep adding charges. They keep adding charges on top of the ones that she's already been sentenced for. She has 11-year prison sentence, thus far, just turned 77 over the weekend, had a birthday cake with her lawyers.
And yet now, despite the fact that she's being moved into even harsher conditions than the ones that she was in, she no longer is going to have her domestic servants with her. She's no longer going to have her dog with her. She has been put into solitary and security has been tightened at the prison as she continues to now face trial, Michael, on these new charges that are widely seen as essentially a kangaroo court, trumped up charges and an attempt to silence those in Myanmar who continue to demand democracy despite the increasingly difficult conditions imposed upon them by the military junta.
HOLMES: All right, Will, good to see you. Will Ripley live in Singapore for us.
[01:29:38]
Now humanitarian agencies are scrambling to get aid to a remote area of Afghanistan. Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, we'll talk to a representative from the Norwegian Refugee Council about efforts to help those devastated by that earthquake.
And in Ecuador, anti government protests turned deadly. Dozens of police officers injured. We'll have details on that as well when we come back.
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HOLMES: It's been two days now since a powerful earthquake devastated parts of Afghanistan, killing more than a thousand people, rescue workers struggling to reach survivors. Humanitarian agencies are trying to get aid into the area, but many of the devastated villages are remote and difficult to reach.
However the U.N. Refugee Agency says that it successfully dispatched humanitarian aid to cover the needs of approximately 4,000 people. And the World Food Programme says it is sending in more than 100 metric tons of food to the affected areas. It says it has enough stocks to feed about 14,000 people.
Officials say more than 2,500 houses were destroyed after the quake struck in the early morning hours of Wednesday in the Khost and Paktika Provinces.
CNN's Vedika Sud is in New Delhi and joins me now with the latest details. Bring us up to date on what you are hearing about the relief efforts.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michael, let me just start with the death toll figures, still stand at over 1,000, but we are expecting unfortunately for those numbers to go up in the coming hours and days.
Now finally, we are getting images of the extent of damage and destruction in the most remote areas that have been impacted severely by this earthquake. We are talking about the Paktika region. there is a village and a district out there called Gayan (ph), let's just get to an aerial view of the extent of the damage done to the village in Gayan district of Paktika Province.
Now, what you are see out there Michael are dozen homes that have been completely destroyed and reduced to nothing but rubble. Now we do know from the locals and officials in this area that people had to sleep out in the open for the last two nights. They had no shelter and no place to even spend a couple of hours under a roof.
I now want to take you to another image. This is being shared by UNICEF IN Afghanistan. It's of a young man who sits on a pile of rubble again in a village in the Gayan district. These people are waiting help, their struggle, their desperation, and their helplessness among thousands of them in the area.
[01:34:59]
SUD: Quick word on the relief (INAUDIBLE), as you mentioned, let me just tell you that help is finally trickling in. International aid organizations are getting to these remote villages, but it might just take a couple more days before you see a lot of help coming their way. Like you mentioned UNICEF, UNHRC and the World Food Programme have already dispatched aid to these areas.
But there are a lot of challenges as well Michael. And I just want to focus on the challenges for the moment in this area. One it's a remote area, these villages are surrounded by mountains and this is a very rough terrain for people to get to. The mudslides, landslides have obviously impacted the roads that one can access these areas by.
Secondly, most importantly, we know that the international community has been hesitant and reluctant to deal with the Taliban, ever since the takeover last year and this is according to officials working with aid agencies, is a huge problem, and it's posing to be a huge communication gap between aid agencies and the Taliban.
We have also spoken to analysts inside Afghanistan, one of them very rightly said that, look whatever aid is reaching as of now is just a patchwork. This is a band-aid solution, you need a long term solution to the problem.
We all know that Afghanistan is going through one of its biggest humanitarian crisis, Michael. We know that almost 50 percent of Afghanistan's population is in need of food. And this earthquake has just made matters worse for people in this region of Afghanistan, Michael.
HOLMES: Yes, indeed. Vedika Sud, thanks so much. Good to see you.
All right let us turn now to Neil Turner. He is the Afghanistan director for the Norwegian Refugee Council. He is joining me now from Kabul. And thanks for doing so.
So there are these access issues for those trying to help, like your own organization. I mean poor roads, communication issues especially given many aid agencies left after the Taliban takeover. What do you see as your main challenges right now?
NEIL TURNER, AFGHANISTAN DIRECTOR, NORWEGIAN REFUGEE CRISIS: Well we have always been in Afghanistan and did not leave. The challenges are to do with the access, in this terrain of this particular area.
We've already completed assessments in the (INAUDIBLE) district, which is east of Paktika and have identified people in need of assistance there. So we are moving tents, household items and also gearing up to use cash as a modality to help people in the situation.
But there is no doubt that generally the aid operation now needs to step up a scale. In most disasters, we see the fact that people survive as they can for the first few hours and days. And what we are seeing is people living in makeshift shelters, which they have constructed themselves. And what we now need to do is get in there and replace some of the more permanent structures.
HOLMES: I was reading officials at one clinic said that the clinic had five beds but 500 patients had been brought in. What do you know about the state of infrastructure in which could deal with the sheer numbers of dead and injured. It is really local clinics there isn't it?
TURNER: It is indeed. And the health coverage in this area has been poor in advance (ph). We are hearing there are a lot of injured people are actually seeking assistance in Pakistan as well. And there is definitely an overwhelming health infrastructure.
And there are a number of agencies which are working to improve that.
HOLMES: Of course the quake and your organization as you say has been there throughout. This quake comes on top of a multitude of other problems for Afghanistan -- hunger, there's poverty, there's drought, increasingly sectarian violence.
Outside of the earthquake, the situation for Afghans was already pretty dire, wasn't it?
TURNER: It was extremely dire and estimated that there is 24 million people in need of assistance in Afghanistan. During this year, we have already seen 50,000 people affected, displaced by flooding and other earthquakes, which have occurred.
We need to look at the situation more broadly and, of course, this area in Paktika and Khost is an area where there has been displacement. Last year there were 1.3 million people displaced in Afghanistan, some of them are in this area.
[01:39:49]
TURNER: There is also a refugee population from Waziristan and Pakistan. We've been assisting in the long term, of course, the province. What happens now is we have even more displacement. And we know that in Afghanistan, people who moved from the rural areas, when something like this happens, to more urban areas and they end up in slum situations in a protracted displacement situation.
And therefore, even after we have helped with the initial effects of this earthquake, there are long term needs that need to be dealt with.
HOLMES: Yes. That was going to be my next question, after this initial emergency, what will be the needs going forward? I mean medium term, I guess it's loss of homes, loss of livelihoods, infrastructure, even clean water and so on.
TURNER: Yes the needs are immense in the initial stages. And then we need to look at how we can help people to rebuild their lives.
So one thing that we are doing is looking at cash (ph) systems because not only (INAUDIBLE) able to immediately impact peoples lives. It also assists in the rebuilding of the economy.
Sometimes when we give out items, they can actually impact the global economy badly so we need to look at a mix between items that we give people to help them survive, but also cash programming to enable them to rebuild their lives.
HOLMES: Well, you are doing amazing work and you and all of the other aid agencies on the ground there and as you say, Norwegian Refugee Council never left.
Neil Turner, appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time.
TURNER: Thank you very much.
Well, at least four people have died in anti government protests in Ecuador. Thursday was the 11th day of demonstrations over crippling inflation and the government's state of emergency.
Stefano Pozzebon has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Protests are getting no size ceasing in Ecuador, where at least four people have died, scores have been injured, including at least 100 policemen since June 13, according to the Ecuadorian authorities.
This nationwide wave of protests has been led by the Confederation of Indigenous People of Ecuador or CONAIE, has been going on for over ten days in the South American country.
The protesters are demanding the government better subsidies, to reduce the price of fuel and the regulate of price of food amid an inflationary hike.
The government of President Guillermo Lasso has responded with reiterated calls for dialogue and has also declared a state of emergency in at least six provinces.
On Tuesday, the Indigenous Confederation presented a series of requests to reduce the protests and marches, but again including the partial demilitarization of the capital city, Quito, which has seen some of the worst clashes. But again on Wednesday and Thursday, marchers had been reported all across the country and the police had to use tear gas to keep the crowds at bay.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Bogota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, workers frustration are rising as inflation goes up, wages don't keep up. We will have some details for you after the break.
[01:43:27]
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HOLMES: U.S. Stocks closed higher Thursday as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell wrapped up a second day of testimony before Congress. The Dow rose 194 points, that is only around 0.6 of a percent though. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also finishing higher. This despite Powell testifying that a recession was, in his words, "a possibility".
Let's take a look at U.S. futures now, you can see the Dow up around 0.6 of a percent. Once again Nasdaq over one percentage point. S&P 500 futures at 0.8 of a percentage.
People living in Europe facing a long and angry summer as the cost of living keeps rising, while wages fail to keep up. Labor shortages and walkouts threaten more chaos for airports and travelers. And unions in the U.K. are gearing up for a possible national strike.
CNN's Anna Stewart with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Workers in Europe by angry. Prices are rising faster and faster, but their wages are not.
CORINNE MARTIN, CHRISTIAN WORKER UNION: The crisis that workers are currently facing in order to travel, go to work, live, it has become difficult to reach the end of the month.
STEWART: All flights were canceled at Brussels airport on Monday as security staff joined a national strike for higher wages.
And staff at Easy Jet, British Airways, and Ryanair are all planning walkouts over working conditions and pay this summer, adding to an already chaotic situation for Europe's airports and the holiday makers going through them.
In the U.K., inflation just hit a 40 year high, 9.1 percent, whilst real wages are falling at the fastest rate in two decades.
FIONA CURNOW, PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER: Everything else is going up. You know, I'm struggling. I'm considering taking a second job on top of my full-time job, just to make ends meet.
STEWART: Rail workers in the country just took part in the largest walkout in decades and union leaders are gearing up for the possibility of a general strike.
CHRISTIAN MCANEA, GENERAL SECRETARY UNISON: I would like to think that we can get there this year. I think each union has its own priorities. But I would not rule it out, that's for sure and I think the Tories in the government ought to be worried about her line (INAUDIBLE) about what is happening to them.
STEWART: It is a delicate balancing act for policy makers, raising wages to keep up with inflation, could simply push inflation even higher, in what is known as a wage price spiral.
KEMAR WHYTE, SENIOR ECONOMIST, NIESR: Each employee will look at the situation and say ok, my cost of living is increasing, if I'm supposed to get say a 5 percent increase in my salary, this might not add much to inflation but it will help me a lot with my cost of living.
And so these are all of the things that we have to contend with now. Bringing inflation down, but of course try not to add or exacerbate that squeeze on household incomes and to plunge the economy into a recession.
STEWART: And yet, if the cost of living crisis is not tackled soon, another economic risk looms, more and more of Europe's workforce could soon be on the picket line.
Anna Stewart CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Late Thursday the U.S. Senate passed the bipartisan gun safety bill in an attempt to address the plague of mass shootings across the country. The final vote, 65 - 15 Republicans joining Democrats to ensure final passage of the first gun legislation, or major legislation in 30 years.
Gun safety advocates say it is not go nearly far enough. But it is a start. The bill now goes to the House where Speaker Nancy Pelosi says it will be taken up first thing on Friday.
What is in the bill? Well, it allocates resources for mental health crisis intervention and school safety. It provides grants for states to enact red flag laws. And it closes the so-called "boyfriend" loophole, which had allow some domestic violence offenders to buy and own guns.
[01:49:43]
HOLMES: Passage of the Senate bill came though the same day the U.S. Supreme Court dramatically struck down a New York state gun law, that had been on the books for more than a century. In a 6 to 3 decision, along conservative and liberal lines, the court ruled New York's concealed carry law was unconstitutional, because it restricts who may carry a concealed gun in public which is kind of the point.
The ruling is expected to have a far-reaching impact on hundreds of guns statute already in effect and new laws that are passed in the future
It brought a heated dissent from liberal justice Stephen Breyer who blasted the ruling, writing quote, "I fear that the courts interpretation ignores the significant dangers and leaves states without the ability to address them.
New York state officials for their part were livid after the decision was handed down and immediately vowed to fight back in the state legislature.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK: We cannot allow New York to become the wild, wild, west. The decision ignores this shocking crisis of gun violence every day, engulfing not only New York but engulfing our entire country. The opinion claims to be based on nation historical past but does not account for the reality of today.
It ignores the presidents and it endangers our future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'DONNELL: The current New York law is still in effect, pending action by lower courts.
And some startling images from the world swimming championships. an unconscious swimmer saved from drowning by her coach. We speak to the heroic coach after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Europeans will soon have access to a sixth COVID-19 vaccine. The European Medicines Agency is authorized drugmaker Valnevas (ph) COVID shot for use in people aged 18 to 50. It contains dead whole particles of the original coronavirus strain, but cannot cause the disease. Side effects were usually mild and cleared within a couple days after vaccination. They included tenderness or pain at the injection site, some fatigue or headache, muscle pain, nausea, some vomiting.
Scary moments, at the World Championship Swimming competition in Budapest on Wednesday. American artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez lost consciousness during her routine. And needed to be rescued, just have a look at these images. Thankfully her coach saw what happened and dove into the pool to save her.
CNN World Sport Amanda Davies spoke with the heroic coach on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: What has she been saying to you today, having had a chance to reflect on yesterday and of course see those pictures?
ANDREA FUENTES, U.S.A. SWIMMING COACH: The first thing she told me, you believe it or not is like, she told me, in case you did not know I'm going to swim tomorrow. I was like, wait, how are you, first. Imagine how her mind works, that she's like ok, what's next.
And I was like, we need to check with the doctor before anything, so we are going to wait first and then we will see, if you can swim or not.
[01:54:49]
DAVIES: So just talk us through how it played out yesterday from your perspective. At what point did you realize you needed to jump into that pool?
FUENTES: When I saw her feet when she was performing the last second, I saw her feet were a little bit more pale than normal, so I was like -- and then I saw her going down, I was immediately went -- didn't even ask myself if I should go or not, I just thought I was not going to wait.
DAVIES: One of those images shows your face very, very clearly while you are underwater with your eyes fixed on her. As you were stretching out, what was going through your mind? What were you thinking at that point?
FUENTES: The first thing was like fix it. I felt like I had to do something. And the lifeguard arrived and then both of us took her out of the pool, and I knew the heart rate was fine. I checked while I was swimming with her and she was -- it was working. The heart was on. My only thoughts were like she has to breathe, so I was like open the mouth, make her cough. Calling her like various sounds for her to react.
And then the organizing committee did this, they press (INAUDIBLE) you press very hard on the nail, they did that and she was like, I was like ok, she is fine. DAVIES: You mentioned the lifeguard and the medical team there, what
was your take on their reaction, should they have gone in before you. Should they have gotten their sooner?
FUENTES: It is not that I'm not humble enough. Because I'm an Olympic swimmer, and I know I can move faster than them in the water. So even if we could go at the same time, I was going to arrive before them so I don't blame them for that, because they don't have the training as I do.
I have been ten hours of every day in my life swimming. So for sure I was going to arrive faster than them. so that's one thing and the other thing is that they knew later than me that something was not ok. Because I know Anita very well, I know the sport very well.
Probably they are not used to our sport, so they were like ok, she is just relaxing underwater, until they saw me jumping. So they -- something is wrong. So I understand them, they were the first ones to realize there was a problem. And they help a lot with the vitals and everything so they did their job. I did mine. Everything is good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Extraordinary tale.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I am Michael Holmes, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN.
Do stay with us. Nick Watt picks up our coverage after this quick break.
I'll see you tomorrow.
[01:57:40]
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