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Sri Lanka's President Resigns After Months of Protest; Italian PM Mario Draghi Offers Resignation After Coalition Falls Apart; Biden To Meet Abbas In West Bank Before Heading To Saudi Arabia; Zelenskyy Calls Russia Terrorist State; COVID-19, Banking Scandal Take Toll on China's Economy; WH Confirms Biden to Meet with Saudi Crown Prince; Saudis Accused of Detaining, Deporting Uyghurs; Europe Bakes as Wildfires Rage from Portugal to Croatia; Emirates Airlines Dubs Heathrow's Situation "Airmageddon". Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 15, 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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[01:00:38]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome coming to you live from Studio 7 at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Michael Holmes, appreciate your company.
Coming up here on CNN Newsroom.
It is now official celebrations in the streets of Sri Lanka after the president formally resigns.
United against Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon but divided over exactly how to achieve that aim U.S. president on his visit to Israel.
And the often unseen scars of war, doctors on the front lines in Ukraine, bringing attention to the devastating emotional and mental toll.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: Welcome everyone. It is finally official the Sri Lankan President has resigned. Anti-government anger had been building for month and boiled over this past week, with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing the country first to the Maldives and then on to Singapore, where he emailed in his resignation. The speaker of parliament announcing that it was official just a short time ago.
Huge celebrations of rafting in the capital after that news broke. The country's still struggling of course, with massive shortages of fuel and basic goods.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAMITHA ABEYRATHNE, SRI LANKAN ACTIVIST: The whole country celebrates today. It's a big mistake. Actually, these Rajapaksas corrupted family. We'd never thought we will get this from them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: We're hearing protesters have also begun leaving some of the government buildings they've been occupying. And the government curfew that was imposed from Thursday into Friday has since expired.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, authorities say the former Sri Lankan President is on a private visit and has not asked for nor been granted asylum.
CNN's Kyung Lah is tracking all of this for us from Tokyo. She joins me now live. Fleeing the country seems to have made the protesters happy. But will they be happy for long the problems still exist?
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, for now, yes. And you can see that it's quite the celebration on the streets, the streets that were filled with angry protesters just days ago. So, it has truly been quite the 180 flip there, Michael.
But the question is, how long will this sort of peace last, especially when you consider that just because the President the President that they despise has gone doesn't solve the problem of 40 percent inflation of a lack of medicine, lack of fuel, the inability to feed their children, these are the fundamental problems that lead to such rage.
You know, we often talk about kitchen table issues being fundamental to any government survival. And that is the problem here.
So whoever comes in next, whichever government comes in next, they've got to figure that out. So for right now, yes, there is some peace. There is a quell in some of that rage and there is indeed celebration on the streets, but we just don't know how long it's going to last, Michael.
HOLMES: All right, thanks to Kyung Lah for that update there. Appreciate it.
And joining me now, from Colombo again _____, who is a Senior Research Associate at ODI global and a Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore, thanks so much for being with us, sir.
The protesters making it clear that that the Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is along with the president unacceptable. How will they react to Wickremesinghe being president now even if temporarily and what does anything of what's happening change the fundamental issues?
GANESHAN WIGNARAJA, SENIOR RESEARCHER ASSOCIATE, ODI GLOBAL: So Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who's now acting president has often invoked mixed feelings amongst the population, but essentially he's the caretaker president at the moment and was appointed by the outgoing president Gotabaya Rajapaksa by Gazette notification.
[01:05:08] And I understand that this is in line with the Constitution. And we hope that a new president will be appointed by Parliament sometime next week. They're saying the 20th or the 21st.
Now, the interesting point also, which you made in your clip was this mass protest. And this is the most significant mass process in Sri Lankan history. And the results have been quite dramatic, and it's been largely peaceful by ordinary people.
But it seems that some elements of extremism have crept into this largely peaceful protest movement, and the emergency regulations which were put in place, well, really for the security forces to help work alongside the police to bring law and order because the state was sort of seeming to face an existential threat.
HOLMES: Of course, the next step is that Parliament will decide the next president. As you say, Mr. Wickremesinghe is in an acting capacity. But isn't it true that the parliament is basically largely Rajapaksa's party? And so who are they likely to pick that the protesters will be happy with?
WIGNARAJA: So that so it's correct. I mean, Rajapaksa (INAUDIBLE) they've came in with 6.9 million people and on the back of his winning the presidential election, his party also won a mod (ph) parliamentary majority.
And it's true that even when you take out the people who've left the party in parliament, you probably -- his party probably has the majority. And there are different names which are being bandied about. There is one, Dallas Alahaperuma, who is an all party stalwart and seen as a kind of a moderate and stabilizing figure, Sajith Premadasa, the leader of the Opposition is also suggested, and then Sarath Fonseka within his own party also, who is being talked about. So there are different candidates.
The thing that I observed is that, you know, Sri Lanka is a messy democracy. And in this context, today's discussions in parliament have taken a little bit too long. And, you know, it kind of shows the political dysfunctional nature of our politics today.
And this political instability can really set back the economy and, you know, it can scare away investors, it can scare away tourists, it can scare away inward remittances and even aid. And I fear that the economic crisis will take a long time to sort out and the people will suffer more unless Parliament really gets its act together and really brings the new president in rather quickly.
HOLMES: Has the political system in Sri Lanka in some ways, enabled that Mr. Rajapaksa and of course, his brother as well, to lead in a way that that raises these allegations of cronyism and mismanagement, and corruption is the system at fault.
WIGNARAJA: So I mean, you know, you have this really interesting phenomenon today don't do that populist have been ruling the roost over the last few years, right, after the global financial crisis when economies crumbled, populism came up, right, and that is one of the phenomenons that we have in Sri Lanka.
And, you know, our political system was malleable. I mean, they made great promises of great prosperity. The Rajapaksa period, you know, he talked about the vistas of splendor and prosperity now Sri Lanka would be at six and a half thousand dollars by 2025, and growing at 6 percent, and also have unemployment to 4 percent. Now, all of those dreams sadly have crumbled.
And the people I think were taken in a bit by, you know, the charisma Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya's brother, who really was the popular politician then, and a very clever social media program. But I think there is now a lot of regret and many Rajapaksa supporters saying that they will never vote for this family again.
So we have a messy, dysfunctional politics in which, you know, people expected, you know, great things and are very disappointed. And the system really needs a lot of sorting out in the future. And so whoever comes into power has a big political agenda as well as an economic one.
HOLMES: Absolutely. Yes. The staggering amount of hubris at the ruling level as well. There have been negotiations talking about the economic situation. They've been negotiations with the IMF. But yes, how likely is the international community to bail out Sri Lanka given the mismanagement that got to the country to this point in the first place?
WIGNARAJA: So the reason why an IMF comes into a country is to help a country solve a balance of payments problem, and our mistake meaning Gotabhaya Rajapaksa government mistake was not going to the IMF two years earlier after COVID got hit.
[01:10:04]
But anyway, we are where we are today. And at the technical level these discussions are going and the IMF, I hope will take a staff level agreement to its board before the end of the year for 3.4 to $4 billion. And we hope that the board will be supportive of a program for Sri Lankans. This will be the 17th program for Sri Lanka. And the key will be that Sri Lanka properly implements this program.
So, I think that will eventually happen. The problem for Sri Lanka really is the inter (ph) in the next few months, where the country desperately needs what they call bridging finance to pay for essential imports of food, fuel and medicine for the suffering people of Sri Lanka in this terrible, terrible humanitarian crisis that we are seeing which abroad these mass protests, but as well as also, you know, humanitarian aid as well, as well as normally then I think this is really the challenge for Sri Lanka.
HOLMES: Ganeshan Wignaraja, thank you so much there in Colombia for us. Appreciate it.
WIGNARAJA: Thank you so much, Michael. HOLMES: Oh, political turmoil in Italy could bring down the current government and lead to an early election. The Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Thursday that he would resign after the Five Star Movement, the largest party in the country's coalition government withdrew its support, but Italy's president then rejected Draghi's resignation and asked him to address Parliament so lawmakers can assess the situation.
U.S. President Joe Biden will meet in just a few hours with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Mr. Biden, reaffirming his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On Thursday in Jerusalem, Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented the U.S. leader with the Presidential Medal of Honor. And during talks with the new prime minister, Mr. Biden agreed that Iran must never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, but the leaders had differing views on how to keep that happening from happening.
(BEGIN VIDEO LCIP)
YAIR LAPID, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program, the free world will use force.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I continue to believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve this outcome.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right, let's take you live to Jerusalem and journalist Elliott Gotkine. Good to see Elliot. Yes. So the two leaders not exactly on the same page when it comes to Iran, right?
ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: That's right, Michael. You know, Israeli prime ministers and governments change with almost comical regularity. We've got more elections coming up in November and Prime Minister Lapid has only been in the job for a couple of weeks.
But one thing that doesn't change is Israel's opposition to the Iran nuclear deal. Israel opposed it before it was signed, after it had been signed. And now that after the Trump administration withdrew America from the so called JCPOA, something President Biden described as a gigantic mistake, Israel continues to oppose the Iran nuclear deal. And we saw that laid bare in those comments from Prime Minister Lapid alongside President Biden.
That said, one thing to note is perhaps a nuanced but perhaps significant is a kind of slight change in the rhetoric from President Biden. In the past, the U.S. has always said that all options are on the table in terms of dealing with Iran's attempts to get nuclear weapons.
This time around, as he said almost explicitly, in this interview that was broadcast a couple of days ago, the U.S. would use force against Iran to prevent it from getting nuclear weapons, albeit in the words of President Biden as a last resort.
So perhaps not quite the kind of clear and apparent threat that Prime Minister Yair Lapid was calling for in his comments yesterday, but perhaps slightly stronger than the U.S. has position has been up until now, Michael.
HOLMES: Let's talk about the plans for talks between Mr. Biden and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President on Friday. I think it's fair to say Palestinians have pretty much no optimism. Joe Biden said he wants a two state solution. I mean, why would Palestinians even think that's ever going to happen as settlements continue to grow throughout the West Bank, and the peace process is, well, dead really.
GOTKINE: Indeed, Michael, like no one expects anything big to come out of this meeting. Indeed, not even President Biden's campaign pledges to reopen the Palestinian mission in Washington, to reopen the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem that served Palestinians or even to reverse the Trump administration's decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. No one expects any of those things to come out of this meeting today.
But given the depths to which the U.S.-Palestinian relationship had plunged under the Trump administration.
[01:15:00] The mere fact that President Biden is still reiterating the U.S. support for a two-state solution, and that the U.S. is now once again happy to splash the cash albeit not happy to splash the political capital on the Palestinians is resumed funding to the tune of half a billion dollars. It's probably we'll see an announcement today of another $100 million going towards a Palestinian hospitals in East Jerusalem.
And President Biden also going on his visit to a hospital in East Jerusalem unaccompanied by Israelis, which some Palestinians may see as tacit support for the Palestinians aspiration to have East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
So yes, there will be no big announcements. There will be no progress in the Palestinian peace process. But the mere fact that President Biden is making this visit both to East Jerusalem, and of course to see Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem in the West Bank, these will be seen as progress in isolation, perhaps not very big progress against the backdrop that I outlined, given how bad relationship the relationship had plunged between the U.S. and the Palestinians. It will be seen as progress compared with what went before. Michael.
HOLMES: Yes, low expectations. That's for sure. Elliott Gotkine in Jerusalem as always, our thanks.
All right, shock and disbelief after a missile strike kills scores of civilians in Ukraine, and now it's President calling for Russia to be declared a terrorist state. We'll have that coming up.
Also, the brutality of this war leaving emotional scars on many Ukrainians and mental health experts are seeing signs of problems they fear will only get worse.
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HOLMES: A terrorist state that's what Ukraine's president wants Russia to be officially declared after and have a terrific missile strike on the city of Vinnytsia. This surveillance video showing the moment Russian missiles hit that city on Thursday killing at least 23 people.
And you can see people ducking for cover there is a blast blows out windows in the building. More than 60 people were injured.
And rescuers are still combing through damaged buildings looking for more than 40 other people who are still missing. President Zelenskyy saying later that Russia has done what no other state would.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This day has once again proven that Russia must be officially recognized as a terrorist state. No other state in the world poses such a terrorist threat as Russia. No other state in the world allows itself to daily destroy peaceful cities and ordinary human life with cruise missiles and rocket artillery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe says some Russian actions in Ukraine meet the criteria of crimes against humanity. The group releasing its second report on Thursday after its experts have visited Bucha and other Ukrainian cities.
[01:20:00]
The document says it found credible evidence suggesting a pattern of violence against civilians, including the discovery of Russian torture chambers in Bucha. Evidence that dozens of women and girls were gang raped by Russian troops there. The report says nine of them later became pregnant, and instances of Ukrainian civilians being used as human shields.
Now the horrors of this war taking a toll understandably on the mental health of Ukrainians, who've been experiencing it all firsthand, and as Alex Marquardt reports that has medical experts concerned.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): With every Russian strike a deep crater, collapsed homes and shattered lives. The pain and the fear are palpable. This 19-year-old told us her friends go to bed terrified and jump at every sound. This father of a six-year-old girl talks about the terror they feel, but insists they will cope.
But cope how psychologists like Dr. Camilo Garcia, who's with Doctors Without Borders are increasingly alarmed and pessimistic about the long term effects of the daily trauma that Ukrainians are facing. DR. CAMILO GARCIA, MENTAL HEALTH MANAGER, DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS: Right now, especially in the east, we are still seeing acute phases of stress. We are expecting if we don't act that those symptoms evolve to worse, or get worsen. They can evolve to anxiety disorders, depression disorders, and we will definitely see some PTSD as time passed by.
MARQUARDT (on camera): And so over time, as this war continues, and we expect it to go on for quite some time, the issues are just going to compound?
GARCIA: If they don't find somewhere to work on it, or if we don't provide the support, they will struggle with that.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): Stress and anxiety are already having a devastating impact on Ukrainians physical health. According to Olga, a doctor in a rural village near the front line. It's making preexisting chronic diseases worse and creating others, she says. There have already been multiple heart attacks recently, and people have gone to the hospital.
The relentless sound of explosions, we're told, has also led to heart attacks amongst dogs. Dr. Alex Domenico (ph) has been treating patients since the last Russian invasion in 2014. He says now things are far worse.
Now it's impossible to hide from war, he says. We only have dangerous or very dangerous places.
(on camera): When you go towards the frontline and you meet people who you think need help, how do you convince them that they need to talk to someone when maybe it's a concept they don't even think of?
I asked them how they're doing. I'm interested in their lives, he says. That's the first step to get them to open up.
Doctors Without Borders goes into affected communities. And the teams try to spark conversations about dealing with mental health, a relatively new concept and conversation here in Ukraine.
GARCIA: We don't only deal with stigma about I'm not crazy. So I'm not going to the psychologist, but also lack of knowledge. So they say like, are you going to end this? Are you going to end the war or are you going to give my house back? No. So what should I work with you for.
MARQUARDT: Experts say older Ukrainians are the most vulnerable in many ways, often living alone and reluctant to leave their homes when there's fighting and bombing. They asked me how do I go on with my life? Why should I go on living because there's nothing left, Dr. Shlemenko (ph) says. My task is to answer the question to find this new meaning of life because they're asking God to take them away to let this life be over. Alex Marquardt, CNN, Kharkiv.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HOLMES: In just a few hours, Brittney Griner trial will resume in a court outside of Moscow after Thursday's hearing ended without a verdict. The American basketball star pleaded guilty to drug charges last week. Russian authorities accusing Griner of smuggling significant amounts of a narcotic substance. The U.S. State Department those says she was wrongfully denied and the amount of cannabis oil was tiny.
The two-time U.S. basketball star gold medalist was arrested back in February at the Moscow airport a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian authorities say she had cannabis oil in her luggage she faces up to 10 years in prison.
A look at China's worse than expected second quarter GDP numbers when we come back and that the role COVID-19 lockdowns played in the country's economic slowdown. You're watching CNN Newsroom. We'll be right back.
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[01:27:14]
HOLMES: Welcome back, analysts anticipated the China's second quarter gross domestic product would be weak while the numbers are in and they're worse than expected. China's economy grew only four tenths of 1 percent in the second quarter of this year, compared with the year before. That is lower than projections and significantly less than the 4.8 percent GDP reported in the first quarter.
The news rattled some of the Asian markets. Here's a look at how they're doing right now. You can see Hong Kong's Hang Seng down nearly one and three quarter percentage point, Shanghai down nearly half a percent.
And the recent COVID 19 outbreak played a role as well as a banking scandal the light created a perfect storm for China's economy. CNN Selina Wang explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SELINA WANG, CNN INTENRATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're all struggling to find work. These are migrant workers in Beijing. They congregate in labor markets like this waiting day and night for a job. This man tells me he lost his job because his factory shut down during the pandemic.
(on camera): He's saying that it's harder to find work. The pay isn't good.
(voice-over): He's been here for four days waiting 16 hours every day in the heat for a job and still hasn't found one. That's probably because of the pandemic, he says. China's zero COVID policy has inflicted devastating economic pain, grinding entire cities to a halt for months, shutting down communities over a single COVID case.
(on camera): And this is the result. This was one of Beijing's most popular bar and restaurant areas packed with people. Now so many businesses are empty or have permanently closed down. They're unable to survive these on and off lock downs with no end in sight.
(voice-over): Unemployment is soaring. People aren't earning as much so they aren't spending as much. But even saving has become a risky bet. Since April, Brian hasn't been able to access a several million RMB that he deposited in a small bank in Hunan, China. We are referring to him only as Brian due to fears for his safety.
(on camera): Was that your life savings?
BRIAN, BANKING SCANDAL VICTIM: Yes, for sure. I worked almost 10 years. And that's all I have with my family. I'm losing my weight. I'm losing my, you know, my mind.
WANG (voice-over): He's one of hundreds of thousands of depositors, according to state media, across China currently fighting to recover their savings from several banks rural Central China. Many of them including Brian traveled to Hunan for answers.
[01:29:46]
In June, he said they protested outside the local government building for five days straight.
Brian traveled back to Hunan in July joining a large scale peaceful protest. But police violently quashed the protesters. Videos show two of the officers dragging protesters down the stairs, beating anyone who resisted, including women and the elderly according to witnesses leaving some of them injured, bloodied and bruised.
A day after the violent protests, local authorities promised to start giving small payments to some depositors but it's unclear how many people are eligible and how much they'll pay back.
Are you worried that without this money you can't afford a comfortable life for your family?
BRIAN, BANKING SCANDAL VICTIM: Definitely. All my savings is gone and I just had my little baby. I have nothing for the family now.
WANG: They cry and wail, exhausted. There is nothing the depositors can do. Authorities say they're investigating the cases but experts warn this is just the tip of the iceberg.
MICHAEL PETTIS, PROFESSOR OF FINANCE, PEKING UNIVERSITY: I would be really surprised if you didn't see this spread in a lot of different provinces.
The country has enormous debt problems and very slow growth. This is the worst shape the economy has been in probably since about 30, 40 years ago.
WANG: For Brian, his vision of China is already shattered.
BRIAN: Just in one day, you know, all you earned is gone. Then you fear (ph) that why you feel sad for it, sad for the future.
WANG: He's hoping to one day leave and race his child far away from China.
Selina Wang, CNN -- Beijing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Global COVID-19 cases are up for the fifth week in a row, according to the World Health Organization. The organization reporting a 6 percent increase from July the 4th to the 10th compared to the week before
Omicron remains the dominant variant around the world, the WHO saying it accounts for 84 percent of all sequences reported in the last 30 days with cases of the BA.4 and BA.5 variants increasing daily.
It isn't the only virus that is concerning health experts though. More cases of monkeypox are being confirmed around the world with Saudi Arabia reporting its first case on Thursday. The health ministry says it was discovered in a person returning from outside the kingdom.
And London Mayor Sadiq Khan says he's concerned about the spread of the virus in the British capital. He's appealing for the government to urgently tackle the spread.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there are more than 11,000 confirmed cases in 65 countries.
And a surprising new global study on alcohol says even a casual drink or two could be harmful if you're under the age of 40.
Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine that for that age group, no amount of Alcohol can be considered healthy. The study says that's mainly because of alcohol related deaths caused by car crashes, injuries and even homicide.
However if you're older than 40 and have no underlying health conditions, the research shows small amounts of alcohol may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes.
A professor involved in the study says a big takeaway should be global guidelines would be more effective if they focus on age rather than sex.
Of course, that will change next week.
President Biden heads to Saudi Arabia in the coming hours. He'll be meeting one on one with the Saudi Crown Prince but won't say if he plans to bring up the murder of Jamal Khashoggi directly.
We'll have details on that coming up.
Also the families of Uyghur Muslims detained in Saudi Arabia asking President Biden for help. An update on our CNN investigation, that's also when we come back.
[01:34:24]
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HOLMES: In the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden will fly directly from Tel Aviv to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. That particular flight a first for a sitting president -- U.S. president.
The White House now confirming Mr. Biden will meet one on one with the Saudi Crown Prince of Friday night. Now the president says he always brings up the issue of human rights but stopped short of committing to bring up the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi even though U.S. intelligence says the Crown Prince was likely behind it.
For a president who once labeled Saudi Arabia a pariah over that killing, it's an awkward about face.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is not yet the ruler of Saudi Arabia but he's already pursuing an ambitious program of modernization that is hard to ignore with long lasting impacts on his country.
CNN's Nic Robertson with our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: President Joe Biden might see this on his way to meeting Saudi's leaders. Whole neighborhoods of the kingdom's historic second city, Jeddah, erased for modernization. Or he may see this, thousands upon thousands of new homes being built on government orders.
What Biden is unlikely to see are the people we met who told us they're unhappy their homes were demolished, but are afraid to speak out publicly.
The housing changes are a fragment of massive reforms offered by the kingdom's leader in waiting, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. And Saudi critics outside the country say it's failing to deliver.
YAHYAH ASSINI, FOUNDER, ALOST AND CO-FOUNDER, MAS PARTY: It's very clear that it's a big fail with the vision, basically because it's a one-man vision.
ROBERTSON: Yet stroll Jeddah's old streets as we did, and you'll find plenty of plans of the Crown Prince. Abdul Majid was one of them, Nabeel Abdullah another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dream -- our children get a good chance. Now we already see this in new vision 2030.
ROBERTSON: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's vision 2030.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes, yes. I'm with him. I'm agree with him.
ROBERTSON: Where generations of his family lived and worked, the Crown Prince's renovations bringing ancient homes back to life.
But what happens if he doesn't deliver? He can't deliver? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why you think negative, already now he's (INAUDIBLE) something happened. Why do you think that if you all you will see is -- think about negative. We cannot go one step.
ROBERTSON: But MBS's dreams are big and could make or break the country. Neom, a futuristic city yet to built, its epicenter and if the Crown Prince has his way it's economic engine for generations to come.
Yet despite several years in the making developers' videos are all we have. Government permission to shoot there hasn't yet been facilitated.
Grandiose visions of kings are nothing new here. The last king, Abdullah, had his version. I covered it 15 years ago.
[01:39:53]
NIDAL JAMJOOM, FORMER CEO, EMAAR KAEC: It's going to be half the size of total Bahrain and three times Manhattan.
ROBERTSON: Three times the size of Manhattan.
JAMJOOM: Three times of Manhattan, yes.
ROBERTSON: Reality never caught up with imagination. Hundreds of thousands of proposed jobs never materialized.
MBS's vision will be the test off and at every level, if there were jobs and a brighter future for most people, then happy days. But if its reforms falter, even fail, how will he respond if it flew (ph) repression than his relationship with President Biden and other western leaders could crumble.
For now, leverage is mostly on MBS's side, a pivotal, regional power we (INAUDIBLE) all energy supplies at a time of U.S. need.
LINA AL-HATHLOUL, SISTER OF LOUJAIN AL-HATHLOUL: He managed to basically make the Biden administration back down on olive promises regarding the (INAUDIBLE) MBS.
ROBERTSON: Hathloul's sister, a women's right side to this was freed from Saudi jail but not the country. Not long after, Biden called for her release early last year.
She fears MBS will read Biden's visit as approval for more arrests.
AL-HATHLOUL: we'll never stop against MBS is in power. It's about the person he is and the only thing that he changed is accountability from the international community.
ROBERTSON: Biden's time in Jeddah will be a harsh reminder of real politique, that its toughest.
Nic Robertson, CNN -- Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Joining me now from Jerusalem is David Sanger. He's a CNN political and national security analyst as well as a White House and national security correspondent for the "New York Times". Always good to have you on.
Joe Biden, of course, has said in the past that Saudi Arabia should be a pariah. He said that the government had quote, "very little redeeming social values" as recent as last month. He said he wouldn't meet with MBS.
Does that pivot to his views now show the power that the Saudis have when it comes to west and global politics?
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you're certainly seeing the president do quite an interesting pirouette. During campaigns he'd say a lot of things and that's when the "pariah state" line came along.
He never said that he wouldn't meet with MBS last month but what he said was he wasn't going to Saudi Arabia to meet with MBS.
Well, he's going to Saudi Arabia for a Gulf Cooperation Council meeting that is largely about getting them to pump more oil and get involved more with the United States and its western allies and to some degree, Michael, about superpower competition here.
You're going -- the most interesting announcement you're going to see I think from the Saudis is a project to build a 5G network, a new kind of 5G network with the United States boxing out China.
So what's happened here is essentially that Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince, who the CIA believes was central to the plot to kill Jamal Khashoggi that dissident journalist has now found a moment where the United States really needs him. And he's using it to get that photograph today of him meeting the president.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes, exactly. Some real politique at play, I guess. Saudi Arabia and Iran -- I wanted to ask you about this too -- they of course, see each other as mortal enemies, likewise Israel and Iran. And of course, you know, increased rapprochement between Israel and the Saudis is going up.
Joe Biden has been reiterating Iran won't get a nuclear weapon. How does the specter of Iran play into the dynamics of this trip?
SANGER: It's been through the entire trip. And President Biden has said pretty (INAUDIBLE) that he won't let Iran get a nuclear weapon. But of course, that evades the central issue of difference between the Israelis and the United States.
The Israelis maintain that what you need to go after is Iran's nuclear program because by the time they get to a weapon, it's usually too late to stop it. And certainly that's been our experience with Pakistan, with India, even with Israel where the United States turned a blind eye as it was developing a weapon in the 60s, and of course Israel is a great American ally.
But nonetheless, the issue that is underway here right now is whether or not, the U.S. will participate in what Prime Minister Lapid said yesterday was a program of more than just words.
And the Israelis have done that. They have been -- as you know, and we've discussed before -- sabotaging nuclear facilities, assassinating nuclear scientists while the U.S. has been pursuing a diplomatic solution to all of this.
The question is can the cognitive dissonance of these two different strategies going on simultaneously continue and does that work?
[01:45:03]
HOLMES: Yes. I know you've got to run but I wanted to ask you this, too. Joe Biden's meeting with Palestinian leaders Friday. Given the pace of settlement expansion in recent years then development in the West Bank, why should Palestinians have any optimism in a two-state solution which the president said he still favors and in a peace process that long ago seemed to be a process at all.
SANGER: It's a really interesting question because the process is not under way right now. The president's going to go and utter all of the right words, I think, for the Palestinians. But I found it notable that when he wrote an op-ed in the "Washington Post" last weekend, describing his coming trip to Israel and to Saudi Arabia, he never mentioned the Palestinians' wants.
There was a time when people used to say that resolving the Palestinian issue was the way through to getting peace throughout the region. Instead, what we're seeing is this fascinating set up -- I wouldn't call it alliances but a common air defense zone and so forth among these Arab states and Israel with the Palestinian issue completely unresolved.
And that tells you that for a while, this administration has pushed this through the side.
HOLMES: Yes. Exactly.
David Sanger in Jerusalem there. Thanks so much. I know you've got to head to Saudi Arabia. I really appreciate it.
SANGER: Thank you very much, Michael. Always great to be with you.
HOLMES: Human rights groups accuse Saudi Arabia of course of grave violations not only against Saudis. The kingdom has also been accused of detaining and deporting several members of China's Uyghur minority back to China where they face prosecution there.
The family of a Uyghur man behind bars and facing deportation from Saudi Arabia is urging President Biden to save their father and three others allegedly in Saudi's custody.
Jomana Karadsheh reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are inside a police car. They are taking us to Riyadh, to deport us back to our homeland.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From the back of a Saudi police car, a desperate message to the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please save us. Please save us quick.
KARADSHEH: This chilling video from Amnesty International and Uyghur activist was filmed by Buhalcam Abdullah (ph), the Uyghur woman and her 13-year-old daughter were detained in Mecca in March according to the
human rights group and are facing imminent risk of deportation to China. No one has heard from them since.
In November 2020, Abdullah's former husband, Nouri Mehmet Rozy (ph) was detained along with his friend, Uyghur scholar Hamdala Willi (ph) who is on a pilgrimage to Islam's holiest city. The two have been held without charge since and according to U.N. officials remain at serious risk of deportation.
Our CNN investigation last year revealed that in briefing (INAUDIBLE) Saudi Arabia detained 5 Uyghurs and of course, bring them back to China.
We want the Saudi Government about those deportations and about the four Uyghurs its purportedly holding.
The government did not respond to our quest for comment.
The Saudi Leadership has not only turned a blind eye to its biggest trade partner's treatment of Uyghurs, fellow Muslims. The Saudi Crown Prince has also voiced support for what China called a counter terrorism campaign.
For nearly two years, Walid (INAUDIBLE) have been campaigning for his release. They protested outside the Saudi consulate Istanbul in Istanbul where they live, the possibility of losing their father into China's black hole is all too real.
Nouri (INAUDIBLE) lost contact with their mother in China's Xingzhen (ph) region more than5 years ago.
In their apartment last week, the sisters are celebrating Eid Al-Adha. But it is bittersweet. It's their fourth holiday without their father.
NURIMAN VELI, DAUGHTER OF UYGHUR DETAINEE: The silence hurts us the most. Not knowing what he's going to do. Not even hearing his voice. He only sent to Haj to pray for us, who would have though something like this would happen. They consider themselves Muslims, they should not side with the oppressor.
KARADSHEH: They fear not only for their father but for all four Uyghurs behind bars in Saudi Arabia. Nuriman says if they're sent back to China, they will vanish.
Calls by human rights groups and the United Nations for their release has so far failed. Their only hope now they say is the United States. through what's called China's treatment of Uyghurs, genocide, something Beijing vehemently denied.
She's appealing to President Biden now to save the weaker detainees.
[01:49:53]
VELI: The United States is a country, protecting human rights. President Biden and the U.S. have spoken out for us Uyghurs. We thank you for that.
When you visit Saudi, talk to them. Tell them they are innocent. Ask the Saudis to release them. Try to take them to the U.S.
KARADSHEH: The sisters fight back tears. If they start crying they say they won't be able to stop.
VELI: We don't like crying in front of people because we are trying to stay strong.
KARADSHEH: Nuriman's seven-month old baby girl has brought the sisters joy they say. A reason to smile, to hold on to the hope and (INAUDIBLE) will one day meet her grandfather.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now during the course of CNN investigation into Uyghur deportations by Muslim majority countries last year, we've reached out to officials in Saudi Arabia and China but did not receive a response to our repeated requests for comment. We'll be right back.
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HOLMES: For the second time in as many months, a sweltering heat wave is baking parts of southern Europe. The record heat and tinder dry vegetation sparking wild fires across Portugal, Spain, France and Croatia.
Thousands of people have had to be evacuated as firefighters try to contain the blazes.
Joining me now CNN meteorologist, Allison Chinchar. Pretty hot out there.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And honestly Michael, the one thing they need is rain. Not only to help cool the temperatures off but also to help those firefighters battling a lot of the blazes across numerous countries.
Now we are expecting rain in Europe, it's just not really in the areas where we need to see it the most. Namely Croatia, areas of France, Spain and even Portugal and south -- just the Iberian Peninsula alone, we have over 70 active wildfires and temperatures really are not making things any easier, not only on the fires themselves but the fire fighters as well.
One bit of good news is at least for the Iberian Peninsula, we will start to see temperatures begin to decrease in the coming days. Lisbon going from low 30s back finally down into the 20s by Monday of next week. Sevilla going from 44 on Friday back down into the 30s on Monday.
But here's the caveat, it's simply because the sea is shifting. So areas like Paris are actually going to start to see an increase in their temperatures by the time we get to next week.
And the same scenario for areas of the U.K. Notice here across southern England, we have an amber colored alert because temperatures are expected to get to the mid to high 30s, starting Sunday and likely continuing through Tuesday of the upcoming week. And that will increase the risk for heat illnesses.
So here again, that cool area of air that has been sitting over the northern portion of Europe is starting to fade away and focused just on Eastern Europe as that heat begins to really spread across most of the central and the northern portion of the continent in the coming days.
HOLMES: All right. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. Appreciate that.
Now the summer travel season has been a nightmare for passengers and for airports as well. Have a look at this, a massive backlog of luggage, this is at London's Heathrow Airport. The airport blaming a lack of baggage handlers.
Well now Heathrow has asked airlines to stop selling tickets for the rest of the summer.
[01:54:55]
HOLMES: That's not the only problem plaguing Heathrow. Have a look at this, human traffic jam. Passengers standing in long lines scrambling to try to catch their flights.
And you've got Emirates Airlines blaming Heathrow for all of this. The airline calling the whole debacle Airmageddon.
CNN's Anna Stewart has the back and forth between the two.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heathrow says it had no choice but to implement a passenger capacity cap early this week. Reducing the number of passengers taking off by around 4,000 a day from now through early September.
As (INAUDIBLE) of the airport says they have asked airlines for help but no (INAUDIBLE) coming and that was after Emirates Airlines released a steaming (ph) rebuke to the decision accusing Heathrow airport of having a blatant disregard for consumers and airlines refusing to cancel their flights from the airport and they said this.
"London Heathrow chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest. Now faced with an Airmageddon situation due to their incompetence and non- actions, they're pushing the entire burden of costs and a scramble to sort out the mess for airlines and travelers.
Willy Wells (ph), the head of (INAUDIBLE) the Global Airline Association said early this week that Heathrow was being ridiculous and was trying to maximize profit at the expense of airlines. Unfortunately though for thousands of travelers hoping to fly this summer, the finger pointing does little to solve the issue at hand.
Heathrow Airport like many others is buckling under a surge in demand combined with staff shortages. It says that 70 percent of its pre- pandemic level of ground handlers but it's that 80 to 85 percent of pre-pandemic passenger levels. And a lack of ground handlers is the key reason why Heathrow Airport is struggling so much when it comes to getting people's luggage on to planes.
After U.S. Airlines (INAUDIBLE) says they found a creative solution to this particular issue this week having canceled the scheduled flights to Heathrow's capacity cap. It then flew a plane filled with 1,000 bags back to the U.S. to be reunited with passengers, a sliver of silver lining there.
There is no doubt that a summer of travel tales is well under way and it shows little sign of easing.
Anna Stewart, CNN -- London.
HOLMES: Well golf fans are always pretty pleased when the British Open or the Open starts up. The 150th edition tees off on Thursday but nobody was cheering for poor old Tiger Woods. They were cheering for him he wasn't happy.
The three-time winner of the British Open has shot a disastrous 6 over par opening round. That left him in 146th position with little chance of making the cap going into the weekend. Woods is still recovering of course, from that horrendous car crash and leg injury and said that he did have his chances but quote, "didn't do it".
American Cameron Young grabbed the early lead just ahead of Northern Ireland Rory McIlroy with round 2 under way now.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN.
Stick around. My colleague Kim Brunhuber is coming up next with more news.
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