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NYT: Russian Genera; Knew About Rebellion Plans; Putin Cheered By Supporters in Southern Russia; The Cost Of Titan Search And Rescue; Month Since Uganda Enacted anti LGBTQ Legislation; Sexual Assault Trial of Actor Kevin Spacey Set for Friday; Canadian Wildfire Smoke Blankets Parts of U.S.; Parts of Latin America Experiencing Heat and Drought; Madonna Postpones World Tour after Health Scare; Japan's Aging Population Poses Urgent Risk. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired June 29, 2023 - 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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[01:00:31]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom, has Putin's purge began? Russia's second most senior military officer missing now for days. Mid-intelligence reports he knew the coup was being planned.
Unrest continues to spread across France. Another night of violent clashes between riot police and protesters outrage over the point blank police shooting of a 17-year-old driver.
And from deep below, debris from the ill-fated Titan submersible rate on the ocean floor with questions also rate other resources and time committed to a long shot right search and rescue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Good to have you with us for another hour here on CNN. And we begin once more with the fallout from the open military rebellion in Russia, which many believe left the Russian president looking weak and vulnerable. And that may explain Vladimir Putin's trip to the Dagestan region on Wednesday. There he was greeted by cheering and overly enthusiastic crowds. What may have been a carefully orchestrated follow up by the Kremlin to show Russian unity and support for President Putin, which he says remain steadfast as mercenaries loyal to and employed by Yevgeny Prigozhin marched on Moscow.
There are now new details on Prigozhin's original plans with the "Wall Street Journal" reporting he planned to capture both the defense minister as well as the military chief of staff.
Prigozhin had publicly feuded with both men for months. CNN's Alex Marquardt begins our coverage.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: With the beginning Prigozhin now believed to be in Belarus, questions still remain about what his ultimate goals were when he undertook his insurrection over the weekend. A U.S. official tells CNN that the Biden administration does not have a clear understanding of what Prigozhin's real intentions were. This after CNN reported that U.S. intelligence did assess that progression was going to mount a rebellion after moving troops equipment and weapons.
On Wednesday, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that as part of his insurrection, Prigozhin had intended to capture the Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the top general Valery Gerasimov, whom he'd been railing against for months. The Russian internal security services, the FSB, reportedly picked up on his plans and they were foiled. So, Prigozhin launched his mutiny early, first taking over the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, and then his troops continued their march towards Moscow.
Now, a senior European official tells me that precaution did seem to be targeting Shoigu and Gerasimov, but that still does not explain Prigozhin's continued march on Moscow when that plan failed, nor his sudden turnaround on Saturday. There is speculation that Prigozhin thought that some in the Russian military and security services would join his rebellion, but that didn't happen, nor did much Russian military resistance materialize before Prigozhin struck a deal and agreed to go to Belarus. So as Russian President Vladimir Putin claims that a Russian Civil War was averted, many questions remain unanswered.
Alex Marquardt, CNN New York.
VAUSE: Bob Baer is a bestselling author who spent more than two decades as a CIA operative, he joins us this hour from Telluride, Colorado.
Bob, good to see you. It's been a while.
ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: Good to be back.
VAUSE: OK. So some details are slowly coming to light. Some reporting the second highest ranking officer in the Russian army, General Surovikin, aka General Armageddon, at the very least may have had knowledge about the plans for a coup, and the "Times" adds this, "American officials also said there are signs that other Russian generals may also have supported Mr. Prigozhin's attempt to change the leadership of the defense ministry by force. Current and former U.S. officials said Mr. Prigozhin would not have launched his uprising unless he believed that others in positions of power would come to his aid."
We now know that General Armageddon is, well, is reportedly missing, possibly under arrest, which would seem to give those reports of his involvement or use something a little more credibility. But what about the rest of it? How far did this plot extend if it, in fact, extend among the senior ranks?
BAER: Well, almost certainly Prigozhin was expecting support. I mean, he didn't have the logistics to make it to Moscow and hold Moscow. So what he was hoping was he would initiate a genuine military coup d'etat with important units. No doubt he was in touch with these officers who also don't like the military leadership, they don't like that they're losing in Ukraine.
[01:05:07]
And you know, it's sort of a wink and a nod. Well, you do something and we'll line up and we'll help you. Now, clearly, he got halfway there. And he saw that wasn't going to happen, and turned around to save his life.
VAUSE: That's the point, though. So, you know, he may have had the support, but 120 miles out from Moscow, it kind of disappeared, and they left him twisting in the wind. Is there any -- you have any reason why that happened?
BAER: I think they got scared. I mean, at the last minute people -- he changed their mind. So I'm not going to take any part of this because they're expecting someone else to move. I mean, something like this, you would want the airborne troops to hit Moscow simultaneously. And then the other commanders didn't see that happening, or wherever the support was, they quickly turned tail and back. So, it wasn't me, I was never part of this.
But I would imagine that Shoigu, he's -- I mean, that Prigozhin is so close to the military, he truly expected support, because he wasn't going to do this with -- we don't even know how many troops he had. Was it 10,000 or 20,000, but nonetheless, it's not enough to occupy Moscow. Unless he's totally out of his mind, he expected support from military officers.
VAUSE: So this certainly wasn't a, you know, spur of the moment, march on Moscow, which, you know, in the early stages, it was sort of made out to be. There was planning, you know, of this, you know, coup if you like, you know, what weeks before actually happened?
BAER: Oh, I mean, this has been brewing for a long time. When he went to Rostov-on-Don, he knew that he could take that military base. When you have to K said (ph), you don't know where the troops are, you know where the troops are going to fight you because he could have been stopped right there in a battle and he would have gotten nowhere. So he knew that he had support at least there, and public support.
VAUSE: Yes.
BAER: I mean, Prigozhin may be a thug and an ex-con but he's not stupid.
VAUSE: Well, I'm in a totally spontaneous moment in southern Russia on Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin was greeted by adoring crowds on a visit to Dagestan. He shook hands with some of them, taking photographs with others. There he is, clearly still Mr. Popularity. But the U.S. President Joe Biden, has a very different take on where things stand right now for President Putin.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's losing the war at home and he has become a bit of a pariah around the world. And it's not just NATO, it's not just the European Union, it's Japan, it's sort of, you know, 40 nations.
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VAUSE: It's a fair point. It seems to you have Putin can't go anywhere where they can't really coordinate a crowd like the one we started to bent in southern Russia. But does it send a sort of a clear message, one that was unintended that Putin is really worried about his support at home? He is concerned about holding on to power and just living in the upper ranks?
BAER: Oh, absolutely. I wouldn't put a life insurance policy on him. I don't think he's going to make it for long. The Ukrainians are bloody binded, they're going to go into Crimea. And if he loses Crimea, if he loses Donbass, or there's continued attacks, and this is what military intelligence is planning on the Russian homeland, he's going to be weakened by the day.
This invasion of Ukraine was an utter failure and the military was hollowed out under Putin the last 20 years. And the only person responsible for this is Putin and the Russians know it, and the Russian military knows it. So I wouldn't -- his chances of dying in his own bed or remote.
VAUSE: Bob Baer, as always great to have you with us. Sir, thank you.
BAER: Thank you.
VAUSE: Vladimir Putin standing may have taken a major hit after the weekend revolt, but we wanted to know how ordinary Russians felt, ordinary Russians felt out this with our Senior International Correspondent Matthew Chance to Red Square.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, I've come to the center of the Russian capitol to try and get a sense of how this city feels in the aftermath of that attempted military uprising of the week. I can tell you, it feels pretty relaxed here. You can see there's a lot of Russians a lot of tourists that have here taking photographs of these iconic sites.
I was trying to get into Red Square actually, which is just here, but you can see there are barricades up and in fact, those barricades have been up since the weekend when that military uprising took place. You can just make out the domes of St. Basil's over there. Anyway, back to the people, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to have a word with some Russians about how secure they feel right now in the aftermath of that uprising.
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CHANCE (voice-over): People like 86-year-old Nikolai (ph) unfazed, he told me, by events of recent days.
Russia is its people, he says, not some individual show offs. And regardless of what they, Russia wars is and will continue to be strong, he says. But will its leader Vladimir Putin sealed off behind these Kremlin gates? [01:10:13]
(on camera): (Foreign Language). You don't know an answer? (Foreign Language). No many people want to speak to me about Putin.
(voice-over): But those who would reject the suggestion recently made by President Biden that Putin has been weakened by the revolt in Russia. I think he'll be around for a long time says Ilya (ph), all the country's resources are in his hands, and there's no real opposition. And there won't be anytime soon, he says.
But now he's in exile, the Wagner leader, who staged and aborted the rebellion appears to be fair game.
(on camera): I thought you speak English, right?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CHANCE (on camera): Great. Let me ask you, what do you think about Yevgeny Prigozhin?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we like it.
CHANCE (on camera): You do like or you don't?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no.
CHANCE (on camera): You don't like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we don't like him.
CHANCE (on camera): Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. But he is not good.
CHANCE (on camera): Well, it's pretty understandable. I suppose that given what's happened over the past few days, people don't really want to talk to us that much on camera, because despite what most of them will say to us about everything being fine here, I think genuinely is a sense of apprehension about what the coming weeks and months in this country may hold. Matthew Chance CNN in the center of the Russian capital, Moscow.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
VAUSE: A sinister twist to a deadly and despicable Russian military strike on a crowded restaurant in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk. Ukrainian officials say a coordinator of that attack has been arrested and will be charged with treason. The death toll has now risen to 12 after that missile strike, one of the deadliest attacks targeting civilians by Russia in recent months. Here is the Ukrainian president.
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PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY (through translator): Today, the Secret Service of Ukraine together with the police special forces detained the person who coordinated this terrorist attack, they struck a cafe and Kramatorsk, a popular pizzeria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Three teenagers are among the dead, including 14-year-old twin sisters. Dozens of others were hurt, including a baby.
Human remains appear to have been found in debris of the Titan submersible, which was recovered from the floor of the Atlantic on Wednesday. Investigators hope the wreckage will help determine the cause of the catastrophic implosion, which killed all five people on board. CNN's Paula Newton has details.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. Coast Guard announced that it had found what it presumed to be human remains on the sea floor, that would be from the submersible Titan. They recovered these remains and now say that the United States medical professionals will conduct a formal analysis of those presumed human remains. And of course, the family and friends of those five passengers who died on the Titan, they will be comforted by this but also will feel again profound grief, given what the U.S. Coast Guard says was an implosion of that Titan submergible.
What's also happening now is that on Wednesday, the Horizon Arctic retrieved debris in fact, large pieces of debris. They say that they have finished their work out there at the site of the Titanic wreck. And what's extraordinary here is that they did in fact recover large pieces of that debris. You can see in fact, the dome with the viewport and a good chunk, even of the passenger frame.
Again at issue here is that carbon fiber material that was used to hold those passengers and was used in this kind of deep sea exploration. The U.S. Coast Guard says that now they will begin to examine all of it. And again, there are many investigations underway including here in Canada. That investigation expected to take well over a year.
Paula Newton, CNN, Ottawa.
VAUSE: Juliette Kayyem joins me now. She's a former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. She now teaches at Harvard University. Good to see you.
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good to see you.
VAUSE: OK. Right now, it's still not known how much the search and rescue operation for the Titan sub actually cost.
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: The U.S. government apparently is working on that number. But you know, notably Canada sent more assets into this search, France was involved as well. But as an indication of the costs, here's part of a report from "The Washington Post, "Three C-17 cargo planes delivered equipment from Buffalo to staging points and Newfoundland. Those flights cost an estimated $491,000 round trip." So, you know, that would seem to be a tiny fraction of the, you know, the ultimate cost here. So, in terms of resources committed to this searched and how much it's going to end up costing at the end of the day, what's your assessment here?
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KAYYEM: It's going to be much more expensive than the low numbers around a million that we initially heard. If you just think of man or woman power behind essentially a week long effort, you're going to get large numbers. And this question of the magnitude of the search and rescue is different, and I want to make clear is different than should there have been a rescue? Absolutely, under international conventions, we, other international search and rescue conventions, every country has an obligation to help a vessel that is under distress. So, for some period of time, there might have been an assumption that they could have either survive, or that the submarine was floating and if they could just find it, then they could save people.
Essentially overtime, though, that became clear that was not the fact. And the magnitude of the resources that went to an incident that we call in disaster management, low probability and essentially low consequence raises a concern that those resources were spent because -- not because of the sort of rescue but because of who was in it and the -- and the public pressure to do something.
VAUSE: Well, Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier General Patrick --
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: -- Ryder, who was asked about the cost of the Titan search last week, this is what he said.
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BRIG. GEN. PATRICK RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: When it comes to things like operating aircraft, those come from appropriated funds, which are already budgeted for. So, those are hours that already have been paid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The cost may have already been budgeted, but the money still had to come from somewhere, right?
KAYYEM: Right.
VAUSE: Just because it's a budget doesn't mean it's free.
KAYYEM: Exactly. Look, I mean, any expenditure of funds in one place is going to take away eventually funds from another place. So that either we should own up to the amount that was spent and have a reason for why that much money was spent, or begin to have an honest discussion about risk and probability and the necessity to deploy our search and rescue resources whether it's a submarine or it's a holdouts on an island who won't evacuate during a hurricane or hikers who are careless and threatened first responders because they have to be saved, you know, all of those, those are really hard questions, but they're ones that the disaster management community is asking right now, because I think we haven't seen the final price tag, but one has to suspect, it's quite high.
VAUSE: Yes. And again, just to stress the point, this is not about, you know, not helping people that are in distress --
KAYYEM: Exactly.
VAUSE: -- but what makes this contrast so great, is that well, the world was fixated on the search for the Titan submersible, and five very, very wealthy people in that --
KAYYEM: Yes.
VAUSE: -- submersible, well, "New York Times" had this headline, "Five deaths at sea gripped the world. Hundreds of others got a shrug." And those others were the 750 migrants who died --
KAYYEM: Right.
VAUSE: -- with their battered boat capsized off the coast of Greece, and a point not (ph) lost on former President Barack Obama. Here he is.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Right now we have 24 hour coverage, and I understand it, of this submarine, the submersible. At the same time, right here, in just off the coast of Greece, we had 700 people dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And what makes it even worse is that the Greek Coast Guard did not offer assistance until it was way too late. And it comes down really to a question of priorities, right?
KAYYEM: Right, it does. And what the Greek Coast Guard did was not pursuant to their own obligations, moral obligations, but also to treaties that all coast guards are under, which is you -- a vessels in distress, you do not ask questions, it does not matter what they were doing or where they were going or whether it was lawful or not, it is a -- it is a -- it is a community of response efforts that all agree that a ship under distress should be safe. But that, as you said, that does not get to the magnitude.
And I think with the submarine, with the Titan, we missed -- we got -- we conflated high interest with sort of high consequence, right? I mean, in other words, this idea that this submarine had a bigger story than that, unfortunately, five people were lost. It sort of animated the world, we can understand why it had, you know, it had billionaires and the Titanic and all of our fears of, you know, getting caught somewhere with consciousness of death, I get it, but it does not explain the amount of resources that were spent to find a vessel that even if had been found, it was not at all clear how we were going to get it to surface.
VAUSE: Yes. And again, obviously, this is a treasure against the Titan.
KAYYEM: Absolutely.
VAUSE: I'm sorry, I'm very sad for the people involved. But yes, it's a question of resources and priorities.
KAYYEM: Absolutely.
VAUSE: Juliet, as always, great to have you with us. Thank you.
KAYYEM: Thank you.
[01:20:00]
VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, how one man burning the Quran in protests could impact Sweden's aspirations to join NATO? Also, fiery protests in Paris after a teenager was shot to death in a traffic stop. The latest on calls for justice accountability.
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VAUSE: France's interior minister says there have been 150 arrests overnight. Wednesday was the second night of protests and violence across the country. Protesters many have been left outraged over a police shooting at a traffic stop, which left a 17-year-old driver dead. The French president has called for calm and describe the shooting is unexplainable and inexcusable.
The working class suburb of Paris suburb of Nanterre where the 17- year-old was killed, protesters threw rocks instead of fireworks aimed at police, cars were overturned and set on fire. CNN's Melissa Bell has more details on how the tragedy unfolded. And a warning her report begins with images of that violent confrontation.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police weapons drawn and aimed at the driver of this yellow car. I'll put a bullet in your head someone shouts. A gunshot as an officer opens fire and the vehicle drives off. Crashing nearby at this intersection in the town of Nanterre near Paris. A 17-year-old boy shot and killed named as Nael M by family lawyers lay amid the wreckage. Another passenger, a teen, was taken into custody police say, the third remains missing.
Overnight protests erupted and cars burned with around 350 police officers mobilized to quell the unrest. Wednesday morning brought heartache appeals for calm and investigations for what a family lawyer called a cold blooded shooting.
French football star Kylian Mbappe tweeted that his heart was aching for France and call the incident an unacceptable situation. The French president saying Wednesday that nothing justifies the death of a young man.
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): We need calm for justice to carry out its work. And we need calm everywhere because the situation -- we can't allow the situation to worsen.
BELL (voice-over): Meanwhile, one police officer was taken into custody for culpable homicide.
LAURENT NUNEZ, PARIS POLICE CHIEF (through translator): At that time the driver who had first turned off the engine restarted the vehicle then left. It was in this context that the policeman used his firearm.
BELL (voice-over): The search for answers now underway.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
BELL: The mother of young Nael is now calling for a march on Thursday in the name of justice for her son.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
VAUSE: A lone protester who burned a Quran outside of mosque in Sweden has sparked diplomatic outrage with Iraq, Egypt, Kuwait, Turkey, Saudi Arabia all criticizing Sweden and the decision to grant the protester a police permit. Morocco is recalling its ambassador to Stockholm according to a state news agency.
[01:25:09]
The protester burn the Quran a week ago, the same day as the major Muslim holiday. CNN Jomana Karadsheh has details.
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the second time this year that Swedish authorities have allowed the burning of the Quran to go ahead. Earlier this year in January it was a foul right Danish politician who burned the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy. This time it is an Iraqi refugee, who tells us that he is now a Swedish citizen. He has anti-Islam views and he decided to express it by burning the Quran outside a main mosque in central Stockholm. On Wednesday, he tells us that this was a legal battle over the past three months and he was finally granted permission to do this.
Who is behind this and what the motivation is, is really irrelevant for Muslims around the world who are angered by this move coming on one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar, the first day of Eid al-Adha. We've heard from Swedish officials this time and in the past, they say that they don't agree with these sorts of acts. They find them disrespectful and insulting, but at the same time they say that this is about freedom of expression in Sweden, a country where the -- where freedom of expression is protected by the constitution, where they say it is at the heart of a country's democracy. We have heard the angry response coming from Turkish officials, this of course at a time where Sweden and Turkey are still in the midst of these negotiations over the accession of Sweden into NATO.
The Turkish foreign minister in a statement saying that this is an disgraceful act against our holy book, unacceptable that Sweden would allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression and to turn a blind eye to such heinous acts is to be complicit in this. We also heard from another senior Turkish official, Fahrettin Altun, saying that this is a "provocative terrorist act targeting our religion on the sacred day. Those who seek to become our allies in NATO cannot tolerate or enable destructive behavior of Islamophobic and xenophobic terrorists."
It's unclear right now, if this is going to have an impact on these ongoing talks over Sweden's accession into NATO, but it is very clear that this is going to make an already complicated situation even more complicated.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, London.
VAUSE: Coming up on CNN Newsroom, Uganda's draconian anti-LGBTQ law has forced many to live in fear and in hiding, but there are a few who refuse to be silenced. In a moment you will hear those voices.
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VAUSE: Welcome back. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
More not on our top story.
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to the Dagestan Region on Wednesday. The Kremlin (INAUDIBLE) these images showing Putin being greeted by adoring crowds in an apparent effort to project strength and support immunity (ph) after the short lived weekend rebellion.
The "Wall Street Journal" reports Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu and army general Valery Gerasimov were key targets of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The Journal cites Western officials who believe Prigozhin wanted to capture the pair, while they were on a visit to southern Russia. But just days before that trip the plot was uncovered by Russian security services.
The U.S. Secretary of State has described Prigozhin's rebellion as a direct challenge to Putin's authority. And the Wagner leader is now in Belarus according to President Aleksandr Lukashenko. But the fate of the man who rattled Putin's grip on power remains uncertain.
CNN's Brian Todd reports on those who in the past, have risked all to challenge the Russian president.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Despite guarantees of his security from the dictator of Belarus, Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, observers say, could well have a target on his back from the former KGB colonel in the Kremlin who can't tolerate the level of disrespect Prigozhin just showed him. BILL BROWDER, PUTIN CRITIC ON RUSSIA'S WANTED LIST: In order for Putin
to have been the leader for 23, years he has had to be the -- seen to be the meanest guy in the prison yard, the one who will cause damage to anybody who even looked at him the wrong way.
And Yevgeny Prigozhin did not just look at him the wrong way, he disrespected him in the most massive humiliating way.
TODD: Prigozhin now at risk of joining a haunting list of those who have challenged Vladimir Putin and paid the price.
Alexei Navalny, Russia's most prominent opposition leader has allegedly been poisoned several times and is now serving a long sentence at a maximum security prison.
A similar fate for Putin critic and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza.
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, JOURNALIST AND PUTIN CRITIC: It is a dangerous location to be an opposition to Vladimir Putin's regime in Russia.
TODD: Kara-Murza says he has been poisoned and sent into a coma at least twice. He was recently sentenced to 25 years in a Russian penal colony. Kara-Murza is a protegee of Boris Nemtsov, once one of Russia's most outspoken opposition leaders, who was gunned down on a bridge at the foot of the Kremlin in 2015.
Then there were the former Russian spies who Putin saw as threats.
ANDREW WEISS, AUTHOR: Vladimir Putin has a particular beef with people he calls traitors and he has gone after them in various parts of the world, including in London, in the case of former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko as well as the attack on former Soviet double agent Sergei Skripal in the southern English city of Salisbury in 2018.
TODDD: Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned and nearly killed in Britain with a powerful nerve agent Novichok, an attack which British investigators tied to Putin's government.
In 2006 former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko who had been digging up information potentially tying Putin to organized crime, was killed in London when someone slipped a radioactive substance polonium into his tea.
ALEX GOLDFARB, AUTHOR: The British investigators found beyond reasonable doubt evidence that two agents of the Russian security services poisoned Mr. Litvinenko. They found that Putin is very likely was the person who gave orders.
TODD: Putin's regime has denied involvement in those poisonings. Analysts say with Putin, these cases are all about message sending.
WEISS: When you see incidents of members of the Russian business circles or others, who have met unfortunate early demise, it is more about the sensational ripple effect that that creates.
TODD: Some analysts expect Vladimir Putin to engage in a sweeping crackdown, possibly among Russia's elites in the wake of the Prigozhin revolt.
But one Putin critic financier Bill Browder says Putin himself is vulnerable now, that if he's perceived to be weakened enough by the Prigozhin episode someone will have a go at him.
Brian Todd, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:34:52]
VAUSE: The only country in Europe where abortion was totally banned has now made an exception. Lawmakers in Malta have legalized abortion in one and only one very specific circumstance, when the life of the mother is in danger.
Activists say the exception falls way short of what is really needed.
It has been one month since Uganda passed some of the harshest anti LGBTQ laws in the world. The law criminalized many aspects of gay life including sex education for the gay community and sexual relationships between consenting adults of the same gender.
Human rights groups in and outside of Uganda have protested, many Western nations have condemned the new laws.
In the weeks since, many gays, lesbians, trans and queer Ugandans have suffered physical and psychological harm from a law that codified (ph) bigotry and hatred. Some though are refusing to stay silent. They are speaking out for their right to exist and to live freely in their own country.
We have more now from CNN's Larry Madowo.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nash Raphael (ph) says he was assaulted on the night the Anti-Homosexuality Act became law in Uganda, after months of publicity, and hostility towards people like him.
How do you feel about the fact that you keep getting attacked.
NASH WASH RAPHAEL, TRANS UGANDAN MAN: It is bad. It is bad. I wouldn't wish for anyone's daughter or son to go through what I'm going through because I know how worst it is.
MADOWO: It was the second time this year that he suffered such a violent attack, and the ninth since he transitioned.
He says his family disowned him and he got fired from his job for not wearing women's clothes. He is now homeless, jobless, and penniless.
RAPHAEL: I tried to take my own life, it hasn't worked.
MADOWO: How would you describe your life right now?
RAPHAEL: It's hell.
MADOWO: The act outlaws gay marriage in Uganda, punishes same-sex acts with life imprisonment, and death for what it calls aggravated homosexuality, which includes sex with a minor or otherwise vulnerable person, having sex while HIV positive and incest.
CROWD: Uganda --
MADOWO: It was widely condemned internationally before it even passed.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This bill is one of the most extreme anti LGBTQ+ laws in the world. No one should be attacked, imprisoned or killed simply because of who they are or who they love.
MADOWO: The U.S. State Department advised Americans to reconsider travel to Uganda, due to anti LGBTQI+ legislation, warning that offenders could be prosecuted and jailed for life, or even sentenced to death.
Opposition MP (INAUDIBLE) introduced the bill that includes a 20-year jail term for what it calls promoting homosexuality.
ASUMAN BASALIRWA, UGANDAN LAWMAKER: I want to disagree with the people. Homosexuality is the worst kind of concept. No, it is not. We have lived with homosexuality here in this country, in Africa.
What is reporting is that (INAUDIBLE) -- that was un-African.
MADOWO: You don't see any instances where this law will bring harm to the LGBTQ community in Uganda?
BASALIRWA: But how? But how? How, it is not there. This is another law -- it has no problem.
MADOWO: Uganda's LGBTQI+ community is worried the law accuses all of them of pedophilia, grooming, or recruiting young people.
JOAN AMEK, CO-FOUNDER, RELLA WOMEN'S FOUNDATION. There is no where that could (INAUDIBLE) for any Queer person living in Uganda. This is LGBTQ (INAUDIBLE) --
MADOWO: Joan Amek's foundation considers this a safe space for queer women. But she, has to find somewhere new to live.
AMEK: I have had myself been just away from where I am staying --
MADOWO: You have been evicted from your house?
AMEK: Yes. I have been evicted from my house.
MADOWO: For being a lesbian woman in Uganda.
AMEK: I have been evicted for being a queer person living in Uganda.
MADOWO: More than 80 percent of Ugandans identify as Christian, and almost everyone else's Muslim. The Anti-Homosexuality Act is popular across the religious, and political divide. The church of Uganda even defied the Archbishop of Canterbury to support the law. Ugandan Anglicans are now separating from the Church of England, because of different positions on homosexuality.
REV. CANON JOHN AWOOD, ALL SAINTS' CATHEDRAL: This is a social problem, people learn it, so that is the stand of the church here. It is unbiblical, it is a unnatural, it is -- against the order of God.
MADOWO: How come the church of Uganda and the Church of England are reading the same bible differently on the matter of homosexuality?
AWOOD: Well people interpret the bible differently.
MADOWO: Everyone we spoke to in the Ugandan LGBTQ community understood the risk they were taking on putting their faces out there. They could get evicted from their homes, fired from their jobs, even attacked by the community.
But they did not want to go further underground, go in the shadows, they wanted to make sure that they made a statement that they are here and they will not be silenced.
AMEK: Silence is equals to death. And regardless of whether I stay silent or not, there's still kill us (ph), they will still criminalized it.
MADOWO: Larry Madowo, CNN -- Kampala.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And if you or someone you know are at risk of suicide there is help and there is hope.
Here are some places to turn.
[01:39:58]
VAUSE: Befrienders Worldwide connects users to the nearest emotional support center for the part of the world where they live. And the International Association for Suicide Prevention also provides a global directory of resources as well as hotlines.
Still to come on CNN, a thick, smoky haze continuing to blanket many U.S. cities, the result of Canada's worst fire season on record which is not over yet.
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VAUSE: Opening arguments in the sex assault trial of actor Kevin Spacey now scheduled for Friday in London. Spacey was in court for Wednesday's hearings which formally swore in the jury and charges against him were read aloud. The case rests on allegations of four men who accused Spacey of indecent sexual assault beginning more than 20 years ago.
Detail now from CNN's Salma Abdelaziz.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kevin Spacey appeared nearly two hours early at Southwark Crown Court for the first hearing in a case that could take a trial that could take the trial that could potentially take up to four weeks.
He appeared very relaxed, stepping out of a black top (ph). He carried that demeanor inside the courthouse as well, according to a CNN producer who watched him (INAUDIBLE) court workers as they handed him a cost of water. It was mostly procedural, the court was only in session for about two hours.
During that time, the 12 jurors were sworn in, and the charges were read. Now despite Kevin Spacey's insistence that he is innocent, despite his keenness to use this day in court as he says, with his lawyers to prove his innocence, the charges against him are extremely serious.
Again 12 charges of sexual assault, brought forward by four individuals, four men, they include indecent assault rather, and causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent between the years the incidents took place between 2001 to 2013.
Why here, why in London, why is this all happening in the city? Well, Kevin Spacey called London home for a period between 2004 to 2015, when he was the artistic director of the Old Vic.
These allegations first surfaced in the week of the MeToo Movement. He has been facing these charges now for years. Kevin Spacey believes that not only can he prove his own innocence, but that he can win his career back.
He recently told a German publication that he believes many in Hollywood would hire him, if he could clear his name. Again, this is set to take about four weeks -- potentially up to four weeks time. So no results anytime soon, but a lot of focus and a lot of attention on this multi award winning actor's day in court.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:44:52]
VAUSE: Smoke from Canada's worst fire season on record continues to blanket U.S. cities from the Midwest to the East Coast, under a thick (INAUDIBLE) haze.
More than 120 million Americans along with millions in Canada are now under alert for poor air quality. In some parts it could be days before the sky clears.
Meantime other parts of the U.S. are seeing extreme heat. Nearly 90 million under heat alert. And the heat wave that affected Texas, now set to expand northward and also to the east.
Meantime further south in Mexico, health officials report more than 100 people have died because of heat between March and June this year. Nearly 1,600 others have been treated for heat-related problems within the same timeframe.
And along with that heat parts of Latin America are also seeing severe drought. CNN's Raphael Romo has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAPHAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boats that used to be on water are now lying on grass. Residents can now walk where there used to be able to swim. This is Alajuela Lake which serves as a reservoir for the Panama Canal.
"There used to be boats right here where we are," this nearby resident says. "Water came this far."
A severe drought has forced authorities in Panama not only to implement water saving measures but also to impose restrictions on cargo ships crossing the key global trade route. Panama is the latest example of countries in Latin America having to deal with severe drought conditions. A report published by the European Commission states that precipitation deficits, above average temperatures and recurrent heat waves are causing one of the worst droughts in decades in the region.
In the fall of 2021 and the spring of the following year, low water levels at the Panama River which flows for nearly 4,900 kilometers, 3,000 miles through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina cost cargo ships to stop delivering goods.
CHASE HARRISON, AMERICAS SOCIETY/COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS: The situation in Argentina is unprecedentedly bad. We are having the worst drought conditions in 75 years, and we are seeing those conditions exist in neighboring countries as well. Chile having the worst drought conditions in 50 years, and Uruguay having the worst drought season in 80 years.
ROMO: Mexico is now recovering from a late spring heat wave, and last summer, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared an emergency in the northern state of Nuevo Leon due to lack of water, a situation that experts believe aggravated conditions that helped push many Mexicans to leave their country.
HARRISON: So if we have large-scale movements of people from one place to another, it is going to put a strain on the social services of those countries. It is also just going to create economic dead areas and through these countries where there cannot be business.
ROMO: An analysis by Grow Intelligence published in 2021 concluded that Mexico's corn crop is threatened by the country's most widespread and intense droughts in nearly a decade and high-corn markets likely to transmit the shockwaves worldwide.
Back in Panama, the government agency that manages the canal imposed draft restrictions, meaning cargo ships with a very low hole can' t transit which may slow the delivery of goods, worldwide.
Raphael Romo, CNN -- Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Remember the population bomb (ph). Japan is facing the opposite. Not enough children with an aging population. When we come back, how Japan tries to overcome what is a looming population crisis?
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[01:49:55]
VAUSE: There have only been 23 perfect games in Major League Baseball. This is now number 24 by New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German. The Yanks defeated the Oakland As 11 to 0 or nothing. The 30-year-old went all nine innings without a run on making base to a hit, error, or walk. He's the 4th Yankee pitcher to have a perfect game.
Madonna's postponing her world tour after a serious health scare.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: She was meant to go on tour next month but over the weekend the pop icon was rushed to hospital, admitted to intensive care.
For details, here is CNN's Erica Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Erica Hill in New York.
Madonna's long awaited celebration tour is now on pause. Her longtime manager posting on Instagram that the singer had a bacterial infection which actually landed her in the ICU on Saturday, saying she spent several days in the ICU but is now out of intensive care and is recovering.
She's improving and is expected to make a full recovery but understandably this means a pause in all activities.
Her celebration tour was set to kick off on July 15th in Vancouver, no word on when that could begin and what could happen to those further dates. Again the focus now, of course, on her health.
So she is out of the ICU and is recovering. No word on exactly what that bacterial infection was that landed her in the hospital over the weekend.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: In case you missed it, that was Erica Hill.
Well, Japan is facing a demographic crisis the country's population is aging and couples are choosing to delay having children if they have children at all.
CNN's Will Ripley reports on what the government plans to do about it.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just after sunrise in a Japanese countryside, no alarm clock needed. The Yokobori (ph) family feeds their flock of chickens, feeding themselves freshly laid eggs. French toast for breakfast, bread baked on a wood burning stove. Wood they chop from cedar forests surrounding their home.
Ten years ago, Miho was an office worker in Tokyo. Today, she's a homemaker. Former graphic designer Hirohito now a woodworker. The couple runs a small bed-and-breakfast. For them, city life lost its luster in 2011. Japan's massive earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown paralyzed Tokyo.
MIHO YOKOBORI, KAWAKAMI VILLAGE RESIDENT (through translator): Everyone was panicking, so it was like a war although I've never experienced war.
RIPLEY: Did something change fundamentally for you after that disaster?
M. YOKOBORI: After that, oh, I have to leave the life.
RIPLEY: A new life in the mountains of Nara Prefecture, their home miles from the nearest train station. Around here you need a car to get around.
It is so beautiful, but you are so far away from all of the 24/7 convenience of Japanese city life.
They moved to Kawakami Village, a tiny township tucked away on windy roads. The trees taller than most buildings.
When the young couple got to know their neighbors, they got quite a shock.
Did you guys know before moving out here, that the average age was as old as it is?
M. YOKOBORI: No.
RIPLEY: You didn't know.
The mayor tells me, more than half the village is over 65.
TADAALO KURIYAMA, KAWAKAMI MAYOR: 40 years ago, the population was around 6,000. Today, it is 1,156. RIPLEY: The village population, plunging faster than anywhere else in
Japan. Some say it is in danger of disappearing for good. As people pass away, abandoned homes sit empty. Others sit underwater casualties of a dam and reservoir finished a decade ago.
When you see the prediction of, you know, under 300 people living here 20 years from now, how do you -- what do you do as mayor to try to stop that from happening?
KURIYAM: I'm not optimistic, but I don't think it will be that bad. I believe that people should live in such a nice place.
RIPLEY: The population data is dire, and not just in Kawakami Village. Nearly every local government in Japan predicts a lower population, and higher average age by 2045. Entire villages on the verge of extinction. Japanese society is shrinking and aging so fast it's future survival is at stake.
I'm going to one of the few places in Japan with population growth, you can probably guess where it is.
For decades, Japanese young people have been fleeing their small rural towns, lured by the draw of big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, all of them connected by the bullet train.
[01:54:58]
RIPLEY: But there is no magic bullet for Japan's population problems. Even in Tokyo, the towers are high, birth rates hit record lows. Japan's population plummeting for more than five years.
If the trend continues, experts fear it will fall past the point of no return, with too few women of childbearing age.
Why are so few women in Japan having children?
DR. YUKA OKADA, GYNECOLOGIST: People usually, for now, they do not have the money.
RIPLEY: Many don't have time either, says this Tokyo gynecologist.
Is live here in Tokyo too busy for a lot of people to find a partner?
OKADA: Working not office and at homes so, very difficult to meet other people.
RIPLEY: It sounds like there is a lot of lonely people in this big massive city.
OKADA: Yes. I think so too.
RIPLEY: Things are so bad, Tokyo's government is starting to subsidize egg freezing, hoping working women today become working moms tomorrow.
New parents in Japan already get a baby bonus, thousands of dollars to cover medical costs. For singles, a state sponsored dating service powered by artificial intelligence.
So far, boosting Japan's birth rate has been a losing battle. The Yokoboris are doing their part.
So when he was born, he was the first child in this village in how many years?
M. YOKOBORI: 25 years.
RIPLEY: 25 years?
Their neighbor, a lifelong villager says Kentaro's (ph) birth boosted everyone's spirits.
KAORU HARUMASHI, KAWAKAMI VILLAGE RESIDENT (through translator): He calls me grandpa. My grandson lives in Kyoto. And I do not get to see him much.
RIPLEY: It sounds like Kentaro has a lot of adopted grandparents here.
HARUMASHI: I think so. I really think it is a big deal.
RIPLEY: Also a big challenge, raising a child in the mountains. No neighborhood kids to play with. Just six children in his kindergarten class 30 minutes away. The nearest high school, more than two hours away.
HIRO YOKOBURI, KAWAMI VILLAGE RESIDENT: We do the best we can, but the rest is up to Kentaro.
RIPLEY: Both say it is ok if their son decides to leave someday. Population data does show more young people moving to the countryside, lured by the low cost of living, clean air, and low stress lifestyle.
The key question: is Japan doing enough to pull up its plunging population, before it is too late.
Will Ripley, CNN -- Nara Prefecture, Japan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause.
Stay with us, the news continues with Rosemary Church, my friend and colleague right after a short break.
Hope to see you next week.
[01:57:50]
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