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Top U.S. Diplomat Holds Key Talks in Beijing; More Than 300 Pakistanis Among Dead in Shipwreck off Coast of Greece; Refugees Fleeing Violence in Sudan Face Inadequate Refugee Camps; Hundreds of Bodies Found from Starvation Cult, Including Children; Video Emerges of 2020 Lockdown Government Party; Older Adults Become Social Media Influencers. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired June 19, 2023 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LAILA HARRAK, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome to all of our viewers watching from around the world. I'm Laila Harrak.
[00:00:32]
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, an attempt to reestablish communications between the world's two superpowers. The U.S. secretary of state meets face-to-face with China's top diplomat in Beijing.
Pakistan in mourning. We're now learning that more than 300 Pakistanis are among the dead, making the perilous journey on a boat that sank in the Mediterranean.
And later --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCIE WANJE, FATHER OF CULT MEMBER: I wonder where my children of my child, my daughter. Could change in a sudden moment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: Absolute horror and disbelief. We'll take you deep into the forests of Kenya to uncover why hundreds of cult members starved themselves to death.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Laila Harrak.
HARRAK: The second and final day of talks is now underway in Beijing, where America's top diplomat is hoping to help steer the U.S.-China relationship back on course.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is meeting with China's top diplomat, and later he will begin round-table talks with American exchange students and business leaders.
On Sunday, Mr. Blinken held talks with China's foreign minister, who accepted an invitation to Washington.
This all comes as tensions between the U.S. and China have increased in recent months, and officials from both governments have now signaled low expectations for the visit.
All right. Let's get you more. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live this hour in Hong Kong for you with the details.
So good to see you, as always. What's next for Antony Blinken in Beijing, and what have the U.S. and China discussed so far?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT/ANCHOR: Well, Laila, this is the final day of Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing as both sides, the U.S. and China, seek to stabilize this relationship.
And right now he is meeting with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi. This is a closed-door meeting. It is still underway, taking place at the Diaoyutai guesthouse in Beijing.
And he may -- and I want to underscore may -- have a meeting with leader Xi Jinping later in the day. If that happens, it's likely to be confirmed closer to the event.
Now Blinken is the first U.S. secretary of state to visit China in some five years, and on Sunday he met with the Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang. And they had what was described as candid talks. Those talks lasted some seven and a half hours. And they agreed to maintain high-level ties.
And also, Qin accepted an invitation to the U.S. and called for stable relations, which is very significant.
China also aired its concerns. It made clear that Taiwan is the core issue for China.
I want to share with you this readout from the ministry of foreign affairs. And it said this, quote: "Qin pointed out that the Taiwan question is the core of China's core interests, the most consequential issue and the most pronounced risk in the China-U.S. relationship," unquote.
Now, expectations were low going into this high-stakes visit before the talks began. U.S. officials shared that they saw little chance of a diplomatic breakthrough on the many points of contention between the U.S. and China, including Taiwan, including access to sensitive technology, like semiconductors and semiconductor-making equipment, like the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals from China.
Now, senior U.S. officials, they say that Blinken's main goal here is to reestablish channels of communications, to reestablish these lines of communications between the U.S. and China, especially in regards to direct military-to-military communications.
Also on the table, global issues, where the two nations have shared interests like public health, like climate change, and economic stability.
Now, on Saturday over the weekend, we heard from U.S. President Joe Biden, and he's confident. He said that he believes Blinken's trip to China could ease tensions. And he added that he hopes to meet with President Xi Jinping in, quote, "the next few months."
Back to you, Laila.
HARRAK: Kristie Lu Stout, reporting live for you from Hong Kong. Thank you so much.
And, joining us now from Singapore is Bert Hofman. He was a World Bank country director for China and now the director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore; and he's also professor in practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
[00:35:09]
A very good day, Mr. Hofman.
Mr. Blinken's visit takes place, of course, at a crucial time when there's this major trade spat brewing between the world's two top economies. Explain what is contributing to bilateral tensions.
BERT HOFMAN, DIRECTOR, EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE: Well, I think -- I think there's issues from both side.
On the one hand, China feels that the United States and its partners are increasingly forming a containment strategy to China, and specific interests there are technology, the trade war unleashed by Donald Trump, and more.
The United States, having declared that it wants to compete with China, is increasingly fearful that -- that accidents may happen and the lack of communication, the lack of interaction could lead to inadvertent conflict that everybody wants to avoid.
So there's tensions and then there's tensions around Taiwan, the status of Taiwan. Of course the visit of Pelosi last year was adding to the tensions. The military exercises that China unleashed afterwards, it was a source of tension. There's lots of issues that -- that such meetings need to discuss.
HARRAK: Right. I want to focus on trade with you because of your background. How is China approaching this visit? I mean, you touched upon it. Is it all about the economy for Beijing?
HOFMAN: No, definitely not. I mean, there's a lot about China's status in the world, sovereignty, about China's rise as a global leader.
But, of course, trade and the economy is not unimportant. And I think that is -- that was one of the key interests that drove China to taking the meeting with Blinken, to restore some confidence, also for international business.
It was striking that Bill Gates was visiting just before Blinken and actually got a meeting with Xi Jinping, which is -- which is quite rare.
And China's economy has been affected by the Trump tariffs and now the technology restrictions that the United States has imposed upon it. But China is trying to work around it, if you want.
I'm here in Southeast Asia, and there's lots of Chinese investments now coming here and producing for the U.S. market and for the European market, if you want to just sidestep those economic sanctions that are imposed on it.
HARRAK: You referenced it, and we -- we were running also footage of Mr. Gates meeting with the Chinese leader, which was exceptional to see. He obviously is no longer -- he no longer heads Microsoft, but still, it was very striking to see. How would you compare that to the reception that Secretary of State Blinken is getting?
HOFMAN: Well, Blinken got a businesslike reception. It's quite according to protocol, the way he was received at the airport. He is seeing his main counterpart, Qin Gang. He is seeing the main leader on foreign policy, Wang Yi; the director of the Communist Party Foreign Affairs Commission. So that's all good.
And the meetings have been substantive. I heard that the meeting took -- yesterday was five and a half hours, an hour longer than scheduled, and there was a two-hour dinner. So that is all fine.
Of course, everybody, there's a lot of debate on whether Blinken must get a meeting with Xi Jinping. Frankly, I think that would be nice. It would be an icing on the cake, and the meetings have gone thus far quite well. But I believe that Xi Jinping would rather choose a moment when the relationship are at a more stable level. Right now, we are working towards that stable level.
HARRAK: I mean, yes, and that -- that brings me to, in terms of deliverables. I mean, is it possible to separate politics from business? I mean, is it possible to compartmentalize?
HOFMAN: Frankly, that's very hard, both in China, as well as in the United States.
In China, one of the key political concerns is national security. And that seems increasingly to affect the way China manages its economy.
Of course, on the United States side, there's big partisan agreement on an anti-China sentiment and that the administration has to therefore balance with whatever it agrees with China. It also has to look over its shoulder at what is happening back home, and that's -- that's a difficult balancing act.
HARRAK: And in a few words, I just want to get this in here, you know, with the U.S. trying to decouple from China and trade being that crucial sticking point for Beijing, can they bridge that gap? Because we heard Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen saying earlier this week, describing decoupling from China as disastrous.
HOFMAN: So -- so I think the United States has changed its tone. Last year it was Jake Sullivan, in September gave a speech that was quite hawkish and really talked about technological decoupling.
More recently, Yellen and also Sullivan himself have now -- talking about de-risking. And really, Von der Leyen, the E.U. president, has promoted that term.
[00:10:08]
Now the G-7 is also talking about de-risking. That is much more manageable and much more targeted, if you want, than a full decoupling.
And Yellen is right: a full decoupling from the Chinese economy, with such a central role in manufacturing, in global supply chains, would be very, very damaging.
HARRAK: Bert Hofman, thank you so much.
We're going to turn our attention now to Pakistan, where the government there says that more than 300 of its citizens are among the dead after a ship carrying migrants sank off the coast of Greece last week. The country has now declared a national day of mourning.
Joining me now is CNN's Sophia Saifi in Karachi.
Sophia, so much anguish and heartbreak. What more can you tell us about how the country's reacting to this very tragic loss of life?
SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Laila, I mean, this is information that's coming in very slowly into Pakistan. I mean, when the weekend started, what we heard from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was that there was no mention of any death toll. They just said that 12 people have survived.
Over the weekend, we've got more information that there was a rather large death toll. We have also found out that there is an investigation that is underway that has been directed by the prime minister.
There is a day of mourning. Flags are at half-mast. But there is a lot of confusion.
A lot of these people -- and the number that we received from the government is a little over 300. That's exactly what they said. They haven't given a specific number.
There is a wait to hear from the authorities in Greece when we're finally hearing testimonials from the families of the victims. These are mostly in the North of Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir. But also from the province of Punjab.
And what you have to realize is that there is a very terrible economic crisis that has a complete grip on Pakistan over the past couple of months, over the past year.
We -- Pakistan has an IMF loan program that has not come in, that has been stalled since last year. That's due to expire on the 30th -- 30th of this month.
Just with people who are actually going on an authorized immigration path, we've seen record numbers of people leaving Pakistan through the proper, official channels.
And this is a case of immense human trafficking that is taking advantage of the very dire economic crisis. The food shortage in Pakistan. People have been queuing up for flour. There is record inflation.
The people who are -- who are educated, who have qualifications, who are not being able to find any sort of jobs in this country.
We're still waiting to speak to the many families that have been affected by this tragedy. And we are going to hear a lot more, as the hours unfold, and as people -- a lot of people don't even know what's happened. A lot of people are not aware, in the far-flung corners of Pakistan, about what's happened to their families.
And as this happens, we're going to understand the full scale of this tragedy's impact on Pakistan -- Laila.
HARRAK: CNN's Sophia Saifi in Karachi, thank you so much.
Both Ukraine and Russia are reporting fierce fighting along the front lines. Ukraine's president says the toughest battles are happening in the South. But they're also raging in the East.
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HARRAK: These Ukrainian forces are firing on Russian positions near the Eastern city of Bakhmut. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his troops are repelling Russian attacks around that area in the direction of Avdiivka (ph).
He also says Ukraine's air force has carried out more than 100 strikes in the past week and that Russia is lying about Ukrainian losses.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): No matter who in Russia says that our Patriots have been allegedly destroyed, they are all there. They are all functioning, and they are all shooting down Russian missiles. And they are shooting down missiles with maximum efficiency. Not a single Patriot has been destroyed.
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HARRAK: Well, the Russian side is giving conflicting reports about its own losses. A Russian-backed official in the Zaporizhzhia region says Ukraine has taken back one village on that front. But Russia's Ministry of Defense denies it, saying they've repelled
several of Ukraine's attempted advances around Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk.
Well, meantime, fallout from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka Dam continues. The United Nations is slamming Russia for denying humanitarian -- humanitarian aid access to occupied areas that have been flooded.
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Jailed Russian opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, is facing new charges that could keep him behind bars for several decades to come.
Mr. Navalny is due to appear in a Moscow court via video link in just a few hours to attend the first hearing in a new extremism case against him.
The outspoken Kremlin critic is already serving two prison sentences for alleged fraud and parole violation, charges that Western governments and human rights groups say are politically motivated.
If he's convicted on the new charges, he could be facing another 30- year term.
Still to come, as tens of thousands of people flee Sudan, a look at the conditions they're facing in refugee camps.
And, later --
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The members of the cult, including your own family --
WANJE: Yes.
MCKENZIE: -- were starving the children?
WANJE: Yes.
MCKENZIE: And then, when the children didn't die quickly enough --
WANJE: They suffocate them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: The chilling investigation into a mass grave found in Kenya, linked to a religious cult. Why police are calling what happened at the church disturbing and inhumane, when we return.
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HARRAK: Days after a brutal massacre at a Ugandan school, the families of the victims have begun laying their loved ones to rest. At least 39 of the 41 victims were students. And some of them were as
young as 13. Six students are still missing from the attack, and are considered abducted.
The president of Uganda sent his condolences in a tweet. And on Sunday, he ordered more soldiers to Western Uganda to pursue the rebels.
An infamous group known as the Allied Democratic Forces has been blamed for the attack, and according to the U.S. State Department, they've had ties with ISIS since 2018.
And in Sudan, a 72-hour cease-fire has taken effect following intense clashes Saturday night. Residents say there was a lull in fighting on Sunday in the capital, Khartoum.
The latest truce comes as the United Nations is set to host a donors conference in the coming hours to raise funds for the war-torn country.
Meantime, thousands of people displaced by the violence are trickling into neighboring Chad. More than 1 million people have been internally displaced as the fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support enters its third month.
And tens of thousands of Sudanese are also fleeing to South Sudan, a country already stretched for resources. And, as CNN's Nima Elbagir finds out, conditions in the refugee camps are dire, lacking even basic facilities.
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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is Africa's largest refugee crisis, and you can see the conditions here for yourself. The people here are being largely ignored by the world. Aid agencies are doing what they can, but it is simply not enough.
ELBAGIR (voice-over): South Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world. They barely have enough to feed and shelter their own returnees. And they're also being asked now to absorb fleeing Sudanese and other foreign nationals, with limited support from the outside world. And it is almost impossible.
With the rainy season starting, what you see here, it's only going to get worse. So many of those speaking to us say that they feel a sense of humiliation, that the message that they're receiving from the world, from the international community, is that they are not worthy of support.
And until aid arrives here, in meaningful quantities --
ELBAGIR: -- it's hard to argue with that.
Nima Elbagir, CNN, Renk, South Sudan. (END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRAK: Hundreds of bodies have been found in a Kenyan forest as part of an investigation into a religious cult that pushed its members to starve themselves, in exchange for salvation.
According to court documents, the cult's leader encouraged members to, quote, "neglect the children to starve and die."
CNN's David McKenzie spoke with families affected by the group's practices. And we warn you: his report does contain disturbing material and may be hard to watch.
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MCKENZIE (voice-over): He called it, the wilderness. Luring his flock to a remote corner of Kenya. We've come to try and understand how over many months, so many could die.
In the Shakahola Forest, the dead are still being found. Forensic teams carefully remove the remains of members of a Christian death cult from shallow graves.
They've already unearthed more than 300 people, many of them children, many showing signs of starvation.
WANJE: It's been just so painful. It was so painful. This is my daughter.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Francis Wanje says his daughter and son-in-law both abandoned good jobs and took their children to the forest cult. What happened next is hard to comprehend.
WANJE: Everybody should die, and to meet Jesus. And they have to start with the children.
MCKENZIE: The members of the cult, including your own family --
WANJE: yes.
MCKENZIE: -- they were starving the children?
WANJE: Yes.
MCKENZIE: And then, when the children didn't die quickly enough --
WANJE: They suffocate them.
MCKENZIE: They suffocated them.
WANJE: They suffocated them, yes.
MCKENZIE: And this is your own blood?
WANJE: And I wonder where my children of my child, my daughter, could change to be such an unknown (ph), a world unknown. To kill her own children.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Pastor the Paul Mackenzie begin his cult in Malindi.
MCKENZIE: This is the church where Pastor Mackenzie had a huge following in his sermons.
PAUL MACKENZIE, LEADER OF DEATH CULT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
MCKENZIE (voice-over): He amplified his message online. He preached a doomsday prophecy for at least a decade, calling on the faithful to reject modern society, pull children from school, avoid hospitals. He demanded total devotion.
"You must deny yourself. You must reject yourself. You must reach the point of ending your life," he says, "for the sake of Jesus."
His anti-government stance got him arrested and detained but never prosecuted.
In 2019, the church was closed down. Later, the pastor started his forest community.
We found a former cult member in Malindi. We agreed to hide her identity for her own safety. She escaped the forest last year.
MCKENZIE: Why did you move your whole home and all your children and move into the forest?
"The pastor used to call me," she says. "He was calling me, telling me, my daughter, you are being left behind. And when the arc is closed, it will be too late. So, I decided to go."
When the COVID pandemic hit, she says many saw it as evidence that the prophecies were real.
Mackenzie charged her family $80 for a piece of land in Galilee. There were seven other biblically-named settlements in Shakahola, with more than 1,000 followers, she says.
Still, cult members made regular trips to a nearby village for food and water. In December, those trips suddenly stopped, says this village elder.
"The starvation had begun." He says they alerted authorities, "but they they did nothing, even after hungry children started escaping to the village."
[00:25:02]
What's been called the Shakahola massacre, has shocked this nation. Pastor Mackenzie and his closest followers are being held under terror laws.
MCKENZIE: What happened in the forest with your followers? MACKENZIE: I can tell nothing about that, because I've been in custody
for two months. So I don't know what is going on out there. Have you been there?
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Francis Wanje says there needs to be justice. He mounted a rescue mission to get his grandchildren out. When they found his grandson, Ephraim (ph), he was close to starvation. His two brothers were already dead.
WANJE: He went through hell. He went through hell, I'll tell you. In fact, when he was rescued, he told them that day, If you can come here and maybe late, a bit late. The rest of the family had already gone to see Jesus. Because, their grave is there.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): The very highest levels of the Kenyan government have apologized for their inaction, and the pain it has caused.
The scale of what happened in the forest is still being understood. Hundreds are still missing, and many more mass graves need to be exhumed.
David McKenzie, CNN, Malindi, Kenya.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRAK: And we'll be right back.
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HARRAK: Welcome back. I'm Laila Harrak, and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
A senior British official is apologizing after a video emerged showing aides of former prime minister Boris Johnson partying during 2020 COVID lockdowns in London.
Housing Secretary Michael Gove shared his thoughts on the video during an interview with Sky News.
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MICHAEL GOVE, BRITISH HOUSING SECRETARY: Well, I think it's completely out of order. I just want to apologize to -- to everyone, really, who looking at that image will think, well, these are people who are flouting the rules that were put in place to protect us all.
I think you should follow the procedures. And it's absolutely important that, when you have a process for appointing someone to any public body, including the House of Lords, that you follow the rules.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: CNN's Scott McLean has more on the Party-gate scandal from London.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, Boris Johnson is not in this video. Nor was it shot at Downing Street. But it is a timely example of lockdown rule breaking within his own Conservative Party.
[00:30:00]
MCLEAN (voice-over): This video was published by the British tabloid "The Mirror." It was shot at Conservative Party headquarters in December 2020, at a time when social-distancing restrictions were enforced, and two households were not allowed to mix indoors.
MCLEAN: Now, there were exceptions for work. But this was clearly not that.
The fact that the party took place at all has been reported by CNN before. But this is the first time that we've seen a video of it. Here's part of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's for party -- (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As long as we don't stream that we're, like, bending the rules.
MCLEAN: Now London's Metropolitan Police has handed out fines for lockdown parties in the past. The force told CNN that it is aware of this footage and considering it.
The Conservative Party previously said that it had disciplined some of the people involved.
Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove was also asked about this video on Sky News today and said it was completely out of order and terrible, in his words.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Now the gathering was organized by the campaign staff of London Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, who previously apologized and resigned as the chair of a committee that he led at city hall.
Oddly enough, though, Bailey was just given a peerage this week, meaning he has a lifetime appointment to the House of Lords, the U.K.'s version of the Senate.
The man who made that appointment is Boris Johnson.
Now, the video's release also comes just days after a Parliamentary committee report found Johnson deliberately misled Parliament about his own separate lockdown parties. The report found that Johnson gave unsustainable interpretations of the rules that he helped to write.
For example, he insisted in continues to insist, in some cases, that the parties were essential for work purposes.
MCLEAN: Now, Parliament was scheduled to vote Monday on whether to accept the findings of the report, which could have landed him a 90- day suspension. But since Johnson resigned as an MP in advance of the report's release, calling it a witch hunt, they will now debate whether he should even get the customary former member's pass to enter Parliament at all.
Scott McLean, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRAK: Israel has just announced plans to build more than 4,500 new settlement units in the West Bank. And the Palestinians are furious about it.
The country's far-right finance minister says the new units -- units, rather -- mark a, quote, "construction boom" in settlement that would strengthen Israel's hold on the occupied West Bank.
But the Palestinian Authority is warning the project would further inflame tensions across the region.
And the U.S. State Department says it is deeply troubled about the plan, adding, quote, "As has been long-standing policy, the United States opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace."
Rainbow flags filled the streets of Vienna, Saturday, and thanks to the efforts of Austrian police, it was a peaceful event. Officials say three Austrians between the ages of 14 and 20 were arrested, suspected of planning an attack at the event.
Now, police say the young men -- the young men were ISIS sympathizers.
But the parade went on as planned, investigators saying they were confident they had foiled the plot.
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OMAR HAIJAWI-PIRCHNER, AUSTRIAN DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE CHIEF (through translator): How do we made this information public, immediately, after the arrest? The participants may have experienced anxiety and fear and reacted in panic. That's ultimately the goal of terrorism, to cause anxiety and fear in the public. It's also our job not to let that happen.
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HARRAK: And about 250,000 people attended the parade Saturday to celebrate members of the LGBTQ community.
A church in Mexico, submerged for about 60 years, has reappeared. No apparent divine reason for the change. Climate change is more likely.
The area where the church is located was flooded in the 1960s after the creation of a nearby dam. But high temperatures and droughts in Mexico have dried up the water, exposing the structure once again.
Tourists say they are enjoying exploring the ruins, but local fishermen say it's hurting their business.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The water is very hot. The temperature is very hot. So, what it does is kill the fish. The fish can't resist. So, that's where we're having a lot of losses.
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HARRAK: Well, in the past, parts of the church have been visible when water levels were low. But this is the first time that it's been fully exposed.
Forget youngsters doing odd things to get attention. The latest craze on TikTok is older people cutting loose.
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We'll meet some of social media's emerging stars who are proving that age is no obstacle to being cool.
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HARRAK: Across social media, adults who are far beyond their youth are starting to be major influencers. Forget the youngsters showing off their dance moves. These older adults are showing off their lifestyles and blowing away stereotypes of the elderly.
CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich introduces us to some of them.
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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six strangers, picked to live in a house and have their lives taped for social media.
(MUSIC)
YURKEVICH (voice-over): This isn't exactly the "Real World" house. These six strangers are well into retirement age. But their TikTok, The Retirement House, is anything but.
These seniors, who are doing a bit of acting, are pumping out curated content, rivaling influencers more than half their age while amassing more than 5 million followers.
They're called granfluencers. And they're pulling in huge brand deals. The creator economy is worth $250 billion and could double to 480 billion by 2027.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's good for me.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): The Retirement House, promoting Cerave.
(MUSIC: BEE GEES, "STAYING ALIVE") YURKEVICH (voice-over): Four friends from Palm Springs, known as the
Old Gays on TikTok, and have 11 million followers, partnered with Hyundai.
And Chobani (ph) took notice of 74-year-old Lynne Davis's (ph) cooking videos, and her 15.7 million followers.
LYNNE DAVIS (PH), DOES COOKING VIDEOS: Darn, that's good!
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Sixty-two-year-old Helen Polise is approaching 1 million followers on TikTok.
HELEN POLISE, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: It's daunting to think about that many people, because it's like populations of cities.
Here we go.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Polise found TikTok over the pandemic, a distraction and a way to have fun.
YURKEVICH: Was there a point that this turned into more of a business?
POLISE: Some people would ask me, how did you do that transition? How did you figure that out? So, I said, I'll make a tutorial for you. And that was the turning point in the social media for me.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Instead of brand deals, she's teaching her followers how to TikTok through paid tutorials. It started with mostly older people, but now it's younger people, too.
POLISE: I'm really good at technology. Probably better than a lot of young people. So I want to highlight that it's -- it's OK to get older. I feel more authentic. I'm not afraid to be myself. And I think that's really helpful on social media, especially.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): And for older influencers, success comes in the form of connection, to millions of people often a quarter of their age.
DEBRA RAPOPORT, ARTIST: It also opens up a lot of community. I have more friends than I can count. And I have more friends who are, like, 25 and 30 than 75-, 80-year-olds.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): At 78, Debra Rapoport has found a new audience for her sustainable wearable art on Instagram. She's able to promote her upcoming shows, workshops, and sell what she has made --
[00:40:11]
RAPOPORT: And I've modeled this naked.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): -- to her nearly 60,000 Instagram followers.
YURKEVICH: Why do you think they're attracted to you?
RAPOPORT: I think young people are craving authenticity. And that's what I try to encourage.
YURKEVICH: Is being older actually an asset on social media?
RAPOPORT: Totally. Totally. Not only on social media but in life -- life itself. I'm not afraid, at 78, to put myself out there and say, this is who I am, this is what I do. I've been doing it a very long time. I don't intend to stop.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): For many granfluencers, this is fun and doesn't feel like work. Even while we filmed with Polise, she was capturing her very next TikTok.
Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.
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HARRAK: Now, within the past few hours, a third men's golf major of the year is in the books, and the winner might surprise you. Not Rickie Fowler, or golfing superstar Rory McIlroy, or last year's Master's champion, Scottie Scheffler.
Instead, it's a relatively unknown Wyndham Clark, who time and again, showed incredible determination and grit, getting himself out of some tough situation over Sunday's final 18 holes to emerge victorious.
The 29-year-old from Denver, Colorado, is on quite a roll, winning his first-ever PGA tour event last month and emotionally dedicating that victory to his mother, who passed away ten years ago after a battle with breast cancer.
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WYNDHAM CLARK, 2023 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION: I just felt like my mom was watching over me today and -- you know, she can't be here. And I miss you, Mom. And -- but I just feel like I've just worked so hard, and I've dreamed about this moment for so long. There's been so many times I've visualized being here in front of you guys and winning this championship. And I just feel like it was my time and, you know, yes. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: And our Patrick Snell was on the ground in Los Angeles and will have a one-on-one interview with the winner later on CNN. After the break, the rest of the global sporting headlines as Don Riddell hosts WORLD SPORT.
Thanks so much for joining us. For now, I'm Laila Harrak. I'll see you in 15 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM.
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(WORLD SPORT)
