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Yevgeny Prigozhin's Mansion Has Been Raided By Russian Security Forces; Nutbush World Record Broken In Memory Of Tina Turner; Russian Attack On Lviv Apartment Building Kills 10; Twitter Reportedly Threatens To Sue Meta Over Threads; Mystery Over Prigozhin's Whereabouts Deepens; U.S. Drones Over Syria Harassed; U.N.: Myanmar Trapped in Deadly Freefall; ICC Investigating Crimes Against Rohingya; Xi Orders Increased Safety Efforts Amid Deadly Floods; U.S. FDA Fully Approves Alzheimer's Drug. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 07, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:00:27]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom, Russian authorities raid Prigozhin's palace and St Petersburg, revealing a lavish gilded lifestyle. But the Wagner boss and attempted coup leader wasn't home, and no one seems to know where he is.
Twitter lawyers up threatening legal action over rival app Threads, accusing Mark Zuckerberg of hiring fired Twitter employees to steal trade secrets.
And the strategy is unofficial national dance in outback Queensland, nearly 6,000 performing the Nutbush dance breaking the world record, which they said the year before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Wherever you are around the world, thank you for joining us. We begin with the mystery of just where is Russian warlord? They're given a precaution. The only certainty it seems right now is that we don't know the whereabouts so the head of the Wagner mercenaries who less than two weeks ago march on Moscow, in defiance of President Vladimir Putin in a short lived open rebellion and attempted coup.
During a rare media conference, the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told reporters, he knows where Prigozhin is not. And that's Belarus, where Prigozhin was exiled in a deal with the Kremlin to avoid prosecution. Lukashenko believes the man once known as Putin's chef is likely in Russia, possibly St. Petersburg, hometown for both Prigozhin and Putin.
Not long after the Belarusian leader made those public remarks, Russian state television aired images or precautions office and residence in St. Petersburg, being raided by police who say they found wigs and fake passports, piles of gold and cash as well as firearms. But there has been no official comment from the Kremlin on Prigozhin whereabouts.
And all this began with that news conference by the Belarusian president. He also said thousands of Prigozhin mercenaries, also made to be living in exile in Belarus have not left their barracks in southern Russia and Ukraine. CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance was that that news conference in Minsk.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The rare meeting with the Belarusian leader and an extraordinary revelation on the whereabouts of Wagner, the Russian mercenaries he's meant to be sheltering. Despite earliest statements, neither its fighters nor its leader, he tells me, I've taken up his offer of exile.
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): As far as I am informed, as of this morning, the Wagner fighters are now stationed at their regular camps where they go for rotation to rest and recover from the front lines. In terms of Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg or maybe this morning he would travel to Moscow or elsewhere, but he's not on the territory of Belarus now.
CHANCE: It wasn't meant to be this way. Lukashenko's deal was how the Kremlin explained how Wagner's armed uprising last month, had been brought to an early end. There was even talk of Prigozhin arriving in Belarus. And of all charges against him being dropped that now appears in doubt.
CHANCE (on camera): So, the offer that you extended to Wagner and to Yevgeny Prigozhin has not been taken up. They are not in your country.
LUKASHENKO (through translator): Not yet. This will depend on the decision made by the Russian government and Wagner PMC if they deem it necessary to locate a certain number of Wagner fighters in Belarus for rest and preparation, and I will keep my promise.
CHANCE (voiceover): But the Kremlin may have other plans. Russian state TV has for days been painting Prigozhin as a traitor and a criminal, now broadcasting these new images of a raid on his St. Petersburg property. Police seizing weapons, cash and gold, even wigs for disguise, and multiple passports under aliases.
The Kremlin told CNN they won't comment on where Prigozhin is or whether new charges may be filed against him. But Lukashenko raised the disturbing possibility of Prigozhin being assassinated before insisting the Kremlin would never do it.
LUKASHENKO (through translator): What will happen to Prigozhin next? Well in life anything can happen.
[01:05:05]
But if you think that Putin is so malicious and vindictive that he will do him in tomorrow. No, this won't happen. CHANCE: But clearly, the fate of Wagner and its leader is now in question. Just last week, the satellite images appear to show a military base in Belarus, being prepared for a possible influx of fighters. Lukashenko may now himself have got cold feet.
CHANCE (on camera): Is part of this, you rethinking the wisdom of inviting a battle hardened, rebellious mercenary group into your country. Are you concerned that that would have destabilized Belarus? I mean, the Russians thought it was, it was safe to have them but, you know, they were wrong.
LUKASHENKO (through translator): This is not a situation where I was lending Wagner a helping hand. This was reached in a process of negotiation. You know what was at stake. I made this decision at that time, and I would stick to it, but I don't think Wagner would rise up and turn its guns against the Belarusian state.
CHANCE: (voiceover): But for better ruse Wagner's absence, may yet be a blessing in disguise. Matthew Chance, CNN, Minsk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Steve Hall is a CNN national security analyst, and the former chief of Russia operations for the CIA, and it's good to see you again, Steve.
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Sure. Great to be back.
VAUSE: OK, so all of this seems like a bit like where's Waldo, where in the world as Yevgeny Prigozhin? Is he back in Russia at St. Petersburg? So don't ask the Kremlin. His spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DMITRY PESKOV, KREMLIN SPOKESPERSON (through translator): We don't track his movements, we neither have the opportunity to nor do we wish to do that.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yes, right. They have no idea of the whereabouts of the leader of a mercenary army, which presented the greatest threat to Putin's power and 23 years, and in their words could have sparked a bloody civil war in Russia. Seriously.
HALL: Yes, I mean, you know, Putin must be asking himself how do I solve a problem like Prigozhin? You know, they have tried so many different things after he, you know, marched on Moscow. For me, there's just so many questions here that need to be answered. I don't know that we'll ever get to them.
First of all, why is Prigozhin still alive? I mean, he sent his troops and they made it halfway to Moscow after shooting down a bunch of Russian aircraft killing Russian servicemen. You know, he basically went against Putin by saying the entire reason for invading Ukraine was really not about, you know, getting rid of the Nazis and Kyiv, or, you know, the NATO threat. It was all a bunch of rich oligarchs who wanted more money.
These are all treasonous remarks, as Putin himself said. So why is he still alive? It's amazing to me that he is however, it seems like is opposed to just killing them out, right? They have decided to take sort of a tried and true method, which they used with Navalny. And you know, a longer time ago, Mr. Khodorkovsky, another oligarch who stood and stepped out of line, and got himself crosswise with the Kremlin, and so they're saying, Oh, he's a criminal, he's corrupt.
And so we need to do an investigation, which oftentimes leads to lengthy prison sentences and tuberculosis, written jails and oftentimes deaths. So that might be a slower way that they're going about this but why it's come to this and it's been so ugly for the Kremlin up till now. It's just -- it's mind boggling.
VAUSE: Yes. And this question, not just waste your life but his location. This all began when the Belarusian President Lukashenko said that Prigozhin had left Belarus describing him as a free man, and raising doubts over this whole deal with Lukashenko broker to end the mercenary rebellion, which included a condition that Prigozhin be exiled to Belarus to avoid prosecution. Here's a little more I know, it's complicated. But here's Lukashenko.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUKASHENKO (through translator): I don't know everything about the relationship between Putin and Prigozhin. And I don't want to know everything. Putin knows Prigozhin much better than me. I just met him in the build up to some events. The first time was maybe 20 years ago. Putin has known him for much longer probably for 30 years from when they lived and worked in St. Petersburg. And they have a very good relationship with one another.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Does he even know what he's talking about?
HALL: So more questions to start with why would Lukashenko do any of this, say any of this. So we had this neat package presented to us last week all tied with a pretty bow on top yet he's, you know, Prigozhin got into trouble a little bit. So now he's going to go spend some time in Belarus along with all of the Wagner guys.
And today, Lukashenko holds a press conference. So one of the great deals about being an autocrat is you don't have to hold a press conference. There's no freedom of the press. Nobody's demanding it. You only do it if you want to so Lukashenko decides I'm going to hold a press conference and what does he do? He goes against Putin.
VAUSE: And well, part of the effort to discredit Prigozhin was these images of his so called palace in St Petersburg released as this raid took place.
[01:10:05]
They appeared on state television TV anchors, commentators describing what they saw as scandalous. But much of that lifestyle was funded by the Kremlin, as Vladimir Putin admitted about a week ago. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Meanwhile, I want to note, I want you all to also know about this. Support for the entire Wagner group was fully provided by the state from the defense ministry, from the state budget. We fully funded this group from May 2022. to May 2023 alone, the state paid Wagner more than 86 trillion rubles.
(END VIDEO CIP)
VAUSE: That's a lot of rubles, which on current exchange rates is just shy, I think of about a billion U.S. dollars. So did Putin just tap on another rake here? How do you describe Prigozhin when the Kremlin's been funding that scandalous lavish lifestyle?
HALL: Yes, and again, it's one thing, you know, to -- for the for the Kremlin to try to come up with some sort of cockamamie story about, oh, you know, this is why we're going after Prigozhin now. We you know, what -- but then what are they going to say? Because Putin publicly has said this to the Russian people.
So, you know, most of -- most Russians, when they watch television, they get what Putin is feeding him. And that's certainly the case here with Putin himself doing the spoon feeding himself. So how is he going to go back on that? How is he going to -- how is he going to rectify that with Russian society to say, yes, there was corruption. But we were the ones who were paying billions of dollars, I'm sure they're going to try to spin some sort of story.
And there is a very strong historical tradition in Russia of well, you know, the Tsar sometimes is surrounded by bad men, but the Tsar himself is still, you know, strong and good. Putin is going to try to milk that for all he's worth, but he's really getting to the point where I don't think he can rely on that kind of thing anymore.
VAUSE: Interesting days in the Kremlin, no doubt. Steve Hall, thank you, sir.
HALL: My pleasure.
VAUSE: In the Western Ukrainian city of Lviv, officials are giving up hope of finding more survivors amid the rubble and debris of an apartment building hit by Russian missile. Search and rescue has now ended 10 people confirmed dead at least 42 injured. The city's mayor has responded to reports some bomb shelters were locked during the Russian missile attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDRIY SADOVYL, LVIV, UKRAINE MAYOR: We have in my city 6,000 shelters. It is private shelters and local government shelters and different owners and after missiles attack, we made a new decision. All shelters must be open all time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Lviv is not far from the border with NATO member Poland. One reason perhaps it's been spared the worst of the fighting since the war began. But as CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman reports, the deadly Russian strike has shattered that perception of relative safety.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Even away from the front lines, nowhere in Ukraine is safe. This is the aftermath of a Russian attack in the western city of Lviv. Cruise missiles struck a residential building overnight Thursday. Ages of the victims ranged from 21 to 95, including a World War II survivor.
Authorities are calling it the most devastating attack on civilians in Lviv since the war began. Russian say that they're bombing military objects but they hit a peaceful house. People were sleeping says Lviv residents Viralubin (ph). How could they do it. World, help us.
The nighttime attack smashed the roof and top floors of an apartment building and damage several others. Ukraine says the attack was carried out by a Russian Kalibr missile, a long range hypersonic missile that carries a payload of 1,000 pounds of high explosives.
Kalibr missiles are extremely accurate and have been used frequently in Russian attacks on Ukraine. Emergency workers and firefighters had been removing chunks of rubble from the blast site and have evacuated over 60 people so far. Standing atop the damaged buildings, they continued to sift through the rubble for any sign of life or death.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs says as many as 10 bomb shelters were locked shut in Lviv when the attack happened. An investigation is ongoing to understand why. But considering the city's relative safety, the strike was probably a shock for many.
In the early days of the war, the city served as a refuge for tens of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russian attacks.
[01:15:00
Given its proximity to the borders of Poland and NATO member, many hoped they would be safer there. But as rescuers continued to clear the rubble and repair the damage, it's clear no place here is beyond Russia's reach. Ben Wedeman, CNN, eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Israeli soldier has been shot dead near and Israeli settlement in the West Bank Thursday. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The IDF says a gunman fired at security forces who had stopped a vehicle for inspection.
This video obtained by CNN gunfire can be heard. The IDF says the suspect was quote neutralized. The shooting comes after the Israeli military ended an operation in Jenin, the largest incursion in that West Bank city in more than two decades. 12 Palestinians, one Israeli soldier were killed.
Meantime a rocket fired from southern Lebanon landed in Israel on Thursday. Lebanese security sources authorities believe Palestinian militants are likely behind the rocket fire. Israel responded by striking parts of Lebanese territory.
Well, a number of meetings are underway in Beijing between senior Chinese officials and the U.S. Treasury secretary who is trying to repair relations at least improve relations between the world's top two economies.
Janet Yellen has been meeting with former Vice Premier Liu He as well as the governor of the People's Bank of China. In the hours ahead, she is expected to meet with the current Chinese Premier, who's also considered close ally of President Xi Jinping.
CNN's Anna Coren live this hour in Hong Kong. It's a big ask to get Janet Yellen to improve relations after everything that's happened. I mean, best she could do is maybe stop the slide open those communication channels.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly, John. That's why she's in Beijing to improve communication and relations between these two countries. We heard from a senior Treasury official a bit earlier who said, you know, for the world's two largest economies not to have clear communication would be a mistake. And of course it comes on the back of Blinken's visit just over two weeks ago.
This morning, she met with some old friends, you know, former counterpart and former Vice Premier Liu He and former People's Bank of China Governor Yi Gang. They met for what's described as an informal and substantive conversation which went a bit longer than expected.
This afternoon she'll hold a roundtable with representatives of the business community from the U.S. eventually will meet with the Premier Li Qiang at the Great Hall of the People before dinner with some leading Chinese economists.
Now, last night Janet Yellen sent out this tweet, I am glad to be in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials and business leaders. We seek a healthy economic competition that benefits American workers and firms and to collaborate on global challenges. We will take action to protect our national security when needed. And this trip presents an opportunity to communicate and avoid miscommunication or misunderstanding.
John, Beijing sees Yellen as this voice of reason within the Biden administration. We know that she's pushed to maintain economic ties with China. She's argued against tariffs. She has cautioned against restrictions in investment. And while giving testimony before Congress back in April, she warned that decoupling would be disastrous.
Now, Yellen has meetings they certainly will not be without tension. She's spoken out against China's human rights record, and believes American supply chains need to diversify away from China. But John, a short time ago, we heard from China's finance ministry. Let me read to you this quote. It said the nature of China-U.S. economic and trade relations and mutually beneficial and win-win results. No one will win from a trade war or decoupling and breaking chains. We hope the U.S. side will take concrete actions to create a sound environment for the sound development of bilateral economic and trade relations and mutual benefit.
So these are two economies that desperately need each other especially in such uncertain times as what we are living in right now. John?
VAUSE: Yes. Now you because we living in uncertain times. I think. Anna Coren in Hong Kong. Thank you.
When it comes to microblogs is Meta better than Twitter, but tens of millions might agree signing up for Threads, the so called Twitter killer app. Details after the break.
Also ahead, the U.S. plans to keep thousands of confiscated weapons which were being smuggled from Iran to Yemen. Details on that also in a moment.
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[01:21:48]
VAUSE: Well, Twitter is putting meta on notice just one day after launching a rival app Threads. Twitter's now threatening to sue. Lawyers for Twitter sent Meta a letter accusing the social media giant of trade set by hiring former Twitter employees to help develop the new platform.
Threads does look similar to Twitter with a focus on real time conversations. Threads also has a built-in user base though through Instagram, which you need to create an account. Meta said the app has 30 million new users within 24 hours of the launch.
Live out of San Francisco and Josh Constine, principal investor and Head of Content at venture capital funds SignalFire, former Editor-at- Large for TechCrunch. It's been a while. Welcome back.
JOSH CONSTINE, VENTURE PARTNER, SIGNALFIRE: Thank you so much for having me, John.
VAUSE: Always a pleasure. Now, in a letter from Twitter's lawyers, threads was accused of essentially being a copycat app were laid off Twitter workers were hired by manner to engage in systematic, willful and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property. They should have been cited then.
Nobody on the same day Threads was launched. Zuckerberg tweeted this, his first tweet in years, a Spider Man pointing at Spider Man meme, which seems to be implying the platforms are a mirror image or the very least similar. So they are similar. So how much of a case does Twitter have? Given Zuckerberg has never actually created anything in the past that has always been built on something which was already there. CONSTINE: You know, if you can't beat him, sue him, I guess because it seems that Threads really has Elon pulling his hair out. The fact is, it is a clone. But Instagram has clones Snapchat stories in the past. Facebook itself was a clone of some earlier social network apps. Just because you don't invent something doesn't mean you're the one who doesn't get to make it the most popular in the world, that's actually been a part of Facebook's formula.
But the idea that it actually stole any intellectual property here is pretty laughable. This is not a complicated service to build. It's effectively an online forum. So that grounds doesn't really make any sense. Meanwhile, Facebook already said that none of the people that hired from Twitter actually work directly on this Threads product. And so that is not going to work out either for it.
And meanwhile, the idea that it's -- that the employees were stealing like devices, to bring with them to Facebook, Twitter employees have actually been desperately trying to give back their laptops to the company after they were suddenly fired. And the company has just not responded to them.
So overall, I don't think that this case is going to go anywhere. And even if it did, Facebook paid $550 million to buy patents from the old AOL, America Online Network, years and years ago when it was in a patent fight with Yahoo. And it also owns the patent for a news feed. So if Twitter really wants to go to a legal war with Facebook, it's got more cash, more patents, and I don't think Twitter is going to come out well from that right.
VAUSE: Well, with that in mind, Elon Musk seem to highlight what he sees as Twitter's big advantage in this war. He tweeted, it's infinitely preferable to be attacked by strangers on Twitter, that indulge the false happiness of the hide the pain, Instagram.
You know, playing out the fact most Twitter users are nasty mean douchebags and powered by no accountability because of anonymous profiles seems to be kind of an interesting strategy here.
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CONSTINE: Yes, that seems to appeal to his base and not anybody else in the world. I think most people would say that the toxicity on Twitter is a major turnoff. And the fact that Facebook has had years and years of practice, because a single troll somebody saying his butt like, you know, spouting hate speech, in your newsfeed, or on Instagram, it stands out so much more distinctly amongst all your friend content versus on Twitter.
And so it's gotten very good at weeding out that kind of hateful content. And that thing -- that means I think it will have a big advantage in offering a safer, more family friendly experience. And I think the number one problem, though is that when most people join Twitter, they have zero followers. That means it feels like you're just talking to nobody.
And now when you join Instagram Threads, you basically start with most of your Instagram followers, and that makes it feel a lot more welcoming. So even though there are millions of people who've tried Twitter and never stuck with it, they might now be taking a second chance at the microblogging space by joining Facebook's new product Threads.
VAUSE: And that -- that link with Instagram is really pumping up threads numbers, but, you know, there's a catch. If you want to delete your Threads account, you've got to say goodbye to your Instagram account what was being said about that. But there are also privacy concerns with Threads gathering data on user's information about health and fitness purchases, financial information, location, contact information, contacts, user content, search history, browsing history, identifies, usage data, sensitive information, diagnostics, and that's just the start.
So Threads appears to be just another way to violate your privacy and sell your personal information to advertisers.
CONSTINE: I mean, we did see Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter tweet out that post showing all of those data permission requests from Threads. But somebody immediately replied saying Twitter actually asked for many of those same pieces of data.
And so yes, you can expect this is not designed to protect your privacy, it is designed to be engaging to eventually be able to carry ads. And so I wouldn't -- but that said, I think we have seen year after year that people don't vote with their feet when it comes to privacy. They might moan about it, but they don't necessarily switch services or change their behavior because of those concerns around privacy. That said it is rather suspicious that Facebook and Instagram made it so you cannot delete your Threads account without deleting Instagram.
And so if you want to get rid of your Threads, you are going to have to get rid of your entire Instagram profile. And it's, you know, the combination of both some users being a little bit angry about the way that Facebook has evolved the way that Instagram has evolved, you know, moving more towards viral content than your close friends. And the fact that a lot of these companies had huge layoffs earlier this year, that has flooded the startup market with amazing talent that knows how to build social apps.
Our funds SignalFire, we track them using our beacon AI software to see what new startups they're starting. And I think there could be a great wave of new social companies coming up saying, hey, if Instagram wants to focus on public content, we'll go after that friends and family content.
But I think that Instagram has a huge opportunity here to make a safer, more casual, less performative place to talk about your thoughts rather than just your photos. Because that's something we've been missing for a long time since the AOL away messages, those early Facebook status updates, something that seems fun and designed for your friends rather than the relay event, LinkedIn, Twitter e content, which are, you know, 10 new ways to use AI to improve your life and business. I think we're getting tired of that. And we kind of want to go back to just laughing with our friends.
VAUSE: Yes, and you can't really do that on Twitter, because it's so toxic and mean and nasty. Josh, thank you for being with us. Always appreciate it.
CONSTINE: My pleasure. See you on Threads.
VAUSE: OK, yes, well, maybe. Still ahead, the hunt for Yevgeny Prigozhin, a raid by Russian police turns up cash, gold, weapons and weeks, but no warlord. Reaction from the Kremlin in a moment.
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[01:31:18]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: More now on our top story this hour.
The growing mystery around Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin apparently not in exile in Belarus but now somewhere possibly in Russia.
Video on Russian state media shows a police raid on Prigozhin's residence and office in St. Petersburg. They claim they found a stash of gold, cash, weapons and wigs but not Prigozhin.
The former Putin ally led his Wagner mercenary group in a short-lived revolt against Russian military leaders last weekend -- weekend before last. But the president of Belarus stepped in with an offer of exile for Prigozhin and his troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEKSANDR LUKASHENKO, BELARUSIAN PRESIDENT: As far as I am informed as of this morning, the Wagner fighters are now stationed at their regular camps where they go for rotation to rest and recover from the front lines.
In terms of Yevgeny Prigozhin, he is in St. Petersburg or maybe this morning he will travel to Moscow or elsewhere but he is not on the territory of Belarus now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More on the Russian police raid and the hunt for Prigozhin with CNN's Melissa Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Weapons, cash, bars of gold and an impressive collection of wigs, at least four presumably used as disguises.
Hints of the life of the Wagner boss, a garish interior complete with an indoor swimming pool, hot tub and a giant stuffed alligator as well as ammunition and many, many guns. The alleged St. Petersburg home and office of Yevgeny Prigozhin
reportedly raided and displayed on Russian state television. Presenters calling it scandalous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was holding a defense in this house. Look at the office. Yevgeny Prigozhin's office, a flag and all. It's outrageous. Why would a man have so many guns.
BELL: Among the objects seized, several passports apparently belonging to Prigozhin, using different aliases. The man himself has not been seen in public since his attempted coup last month. The Belarusian president and Putin ally Aleksandr Lukashenko who says he'd given Prigozhin refuge now claims he's gone back to Russia.
The Kremlin refused to comment but immediately after the attempted coup Vladimir Putin had hinted that the finances of his former ally would be investigated.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): I hope nobody stole anything while all of this was going on, or did not steal much. But of course, we will deal with all of this.
BELL: According to the Russian president himself Prigozhin's catering company had received almost two billion dollars in military and government contracts.
But it was Prigozhin's propaganda machine that Russian authorities were targeted first, blocking media companies and Web sites linked to the man behind the failed push last week.
YEVGENY ZUBAROV, RIA FAN DIRECTOR (through translator): We are closing down and leaving the country's information space.
BELL: Yes, in many ways Prigozhin's empire may be too big to fail, as the mercenary group still has a significant presence in Africa.
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): The fate of the agreements between those African countries and TMZ (ph) Wagner is up to the leadership of those countries to decide.
BELL: As to the fate of Prigozhin himself, his apparent home is now empty. The giant sledgehammer that symbolized the brutal Wagner group abandoned and its name so long-lionized and feared now being erased as quickly as authorities can manage.
Melissa Bell, CNN -- Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[01:34:54]
VAUSE: In the skies over Syria, Russian fighter pilots have stepped up their harassment of U.S. military drones operating in that airspace against ISIS targets. Yet again on Thursday Russian jets intercepted an American drone, forced it to take evasive action.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has details from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: For the second time in as many days Russian fighter jets intercepted and harassed U.S. MQ9 Reaper drones operating over Syria. This time it occurred early Thursday morning and the commander of U.S. Air Force Central Command Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich says those Russian fighters got dangerously close to the U.S. drones.
In this video you can see this encounter as it happened. You see as the Russian fighter jets get close and fly above and faster than the drones. One of those jets begins dropping a series of flares. And it almost looks like the fighter jet is attempting to hit the drone with those flares.
This is very similar to what we saw the Russians do one day earlier. That's when three Russian fighter jets approached three U.S. MQ9 reaper drones and conducted very similar activity which the Department of Defense called unsafe and unprofessional.
In that case one of those Russian fighter jets dropped parachute flares in front of the U.S. MQ9 Reaper drone while another lit after burn (ph) in front of the Reaper drone, which made it difficult to operate the drone in a safe manner.
Crucially it's not just the U.S. that appear to be target of these aggressive Russian activities. The French said they were also essentially harassed by Russian a fighter jet, this time the French, on the official Twitter account of French Armed Forces said they had two of their fighter jets operating near the Iraq-Syria border when a Russian Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jet came up and operated in non unprofessional manner. The French according to this tweet essentially averted any sort of, risk and flew away.
We have seen this play out over several months. Back in April a U.S. official told us it was essentially the Russians trying to operate in a new and more aggressive manner here ignoring the deconfliction calls -- protocols that were specifically set up to avoid any sort of conflict or miscalculation between two of the most powerful militaries in the world.
Oren Liebermann, CNN in the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: 9,000 rifles, hundreds of rocket launchers and automatic guns, dozens of anti tank missiles and 700,000 rounds of ammunition -- that's the makeup of a large cache of weapons the U.S. intends to keep after recent seizures by the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. Justice Department says weapons were being smuggled to pro- Iranian militants in Yemen from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard.
Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, tens of thousands forced from their homes by the rising floodwater in southwest China. And it's likely there is worse to come.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: For years, Myanmar's military has carried out brutal, deadly and appalling attacks on defenseless civilians. Air strikes on schools, burning villages to the ground, cutting off access to food and water. The U.N. says that Myanmar's dictators have the country trapped in a deadly freefall.
[01:39:59]
VAUSE: The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights says security forces are using fear and terror to try and control the population, two and a half years after the overthrow of a democratically elected government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLKER TURK, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: It is almost impossible to imagine the people of Myanmar can endure more suffering.
Yet the country continues its deadly freefall into even deeper violence and heartbreak.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Years before the coup, Myanmar's Rohingya minority were the victim of the worst atrocities. a campaign of genocide by the military which forced a million to flee across the border to Bangladesh to what is now the world's largest refugee camp.
That's where the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has been this week not only investigating who should be held accountable for the Rohingya's brutal treatment, but also reassuring those refugees the world has not forgotten them.
Karim A.A, Khan, is the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. He joins me now from Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. Chief prosecutor, thank you for being with us.
Thank you for being here.
KARIM A.A. KHAN, CHIEF PROSECUTOR, INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: Thank you for having me.
VAUSE: You're welcome, sir.
Now, you spent a number of days there, four days in Cox's Bazar, partly to hear testimony from those who were the targets of Myanmar's military campaign of genocide. What have you heard? And what impact would that have on your investigation?
KHAN: Well, John, the investigation was opened by my predecessor in 2019. But the Rohingya can't feel that they have been forgotten. So I came last year and I promised I would come again and I would come every year until we had some demonstrable proof. That the investigation was proceeding.
There's heartbreak in these towns, I spoke to a group of women whose houses had been burned, women who had been raped, the youth, children who can't go to school and youth that are trying and struggling to better themselves but really have very few opportunities.
They feel the world is looking elsewhere, it's looking at Ukraine and looking for other epicenters. And they have a right to justice and that's why my team has been here so consistently over the last year but we have to accelerate our efforts.
VAUSE: The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says Myanmar's military continues to rely on control tactics like fear and terror by carrying out, in his words, grotesque acts of violence in particular against the elderly, children as well as the disabled. He went on to describe their overall strategy.
Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TURK: Every day the militaries ruthless so-called four cuts strategy continues to wreak destruction entire villages are razed and burned to the ground. Collectively punishing civilians by depriving them of shelter, food and lifesaving aid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That in and of itself sounds like an ongoing war crime at the very least. Is it possible to document these individual instances when these four cut strategy is implemented and use that as part of the legal prosecution against the military dictatorship which is already underway.
KHAN: Well, we need the widest spectrum of evidence John. It's quite right. There are crimes continuing, we have jurisdiction only because Bangladesh has -- it's a state party. Has accepted the jurisdiction of their own statute.
So the judges have held that we can look into matters where at least one of the elements of the offense is committed on its territory. But I think there are different data streams available, witnesses who've been raped or have been killed -- whose families have been killed or houses that have been burned.
There's also (INAUDIBLE) linkage evidence and I think until we show that there are some red lines that cannot be crossed, politics, national interest, thew aim to retain power are not good enough to literally right roughshod over the rights of civilians until we show what the law can do. I think collectively we're failing and I think what we're trying to do in the office that I lead is to move with more focus and to get some results by separating truth from fiction.
VAUSE: You told (INAUDIBLE) just over a year ago and you had this assessment of Russia and its actions, its tactics for civilians. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHAN: Clearly, I'm here for a reason. And we have reasonable grounds to believe crimes within the jurisdiction of the court are being committed. It is a crime to intentionally target civilians. It is a crime to intentionally target civilian objects.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That was March 2022, a year later an arrest warrant was issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
For the Rohingya, it's been six years since the genocide that they experienced in Myanmar. So there is a disparity in the timeline here how soon can, you know, the Rohingya expect some kind of action like a warrant being issued for a leader who's carried out these crimes?
[01:44:58]
KHAN: Well, a big differences is we have access to Ukraine. We don't have access to Myanmar. But the investigation has been opened for four years. I've been prosecutor for two years. Every year I've been here.
I've just come, and I've appointed a senior lawyer to lead the Myanmar team. We're trying to get additional resources. We're under-resourced across all our situations. And my presence here -- our presence, it seems almost my constant presence here over the last year, much more regular presence is evidence of the fact that this is important.
They're not forgotten and if I can say so, John, the world can't look away. It's not just the obligations in my office. I spoke to families yesterday. And until March children, women and men were used to three meals a day. There have been cuts to the World Food Programme for the United Nations.
Now families have been given 9 taka. That's the local currency in Bangladesh, 9 taka a day for a meal and the cost of one single egg is 12 taka. So literally food should not be taken off the plates of children and diverted elsewhere, if we are true to our claim that every human life matters equally.
VAUSE: Absolutely, that is a tragedy upon tragedy right now for the Rohingya Muslim, you know, suffering seems to never end.
I guess one of the biggest questions that hangs over both of your cases here be it Ukraine or Myanmar, will we ever see Vladimir Putin on trial? Will we ever see General Min Aung Hlaing be held accountable for what he's done.
KHAN: These are great questions and some people would say we are on a fools errand. And the best answer that I can come up with is there are naysayers, there were pessimists, there were those that said it was a fools errand to start the Yugoslav's tribunal, or Rwanda, or the special court for Sierra Leone.
But the evidence not the conjecture is that President Charles Taylor (ph) is now in Daram (ph) prison. Milosevic, Kradic (ph) and (INAUDIBLE) were tried by the tribunal, former prime minister Jean (INAUDIBLE) was tried by the Rwandan, the list goes on.
So one thing is certain. Unless we collect evidence unless, we analyze evidence unless we check what is incriminating and what is exonerating there will be no chance of justice. So we have to do our job and then we wait and see about the opportunities for enforcement, if judges of the International Criminal Court decide to issue any further warrants or in relation to the warrants already issued.
Chief Prosecutor Khan, thank you so much for your time. Best of luck with you work. Thank you.
KHAN: Thank you John.
VAUSE: U.N. nuclear watchdog has endorsed Japan's controversial plan to pump radioactive waste water which is being treated from more than a thousand overflowing at the Fukushima nuclear site into the Pacific Ocean. We heard from the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency within the past hour, He is convinced the plan is safe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAFAEL GROSSI, INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY: I believe that the work we have carried out so far is solid work, serious work. But of course, from their own perspective they are on the receiving line and they may see things differently.
So my effort is to try to make this scientific and highly technical work to put this into terms that everybody can relate to. That everybody can understand in terms of the consequences in terms of the real impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The IAEA believes the treated nuclear waste water will have negligible impact on people and the environment. But U.N. approval has not assured many residents, local fishermen, neighboring countries and some international scientists.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered increased efforts to respond to deadly flooding in the country's southwest but the main flood season is only just beginning.
CNN's Anna Coren has details reporting from Hong Kong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The extreme flooding comes as several parts of China have been hit with torrential rain over the past month, killing at least 15 people in the southwestern city of Chongqing according to local authorities and state media. And prompting four counties in the city to issue the highest red alert warnings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We woke up this morning and saw so much rain water. The floods submerged roads and crops. COREN: Neighboring Sichuan Province has also been hard hit where more than 85,000 residents have been displaced prompting Chinese leader Xi Jinping to order authorities to quote, "give top priority" to keeping residents safe and minimizing losses.
[01:49:51]
COREN: Continuous heavy rain just before the harvest threatens to ruin crops this year. This farmer in China Central Honan Province says heavy rain has drenched his wheat fields.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After a few days of rain, the ground is very wet. And now the harvester cannot enter the field. We probably need to wait another four or five days to start harvesting. This is a real disaster.
COREN: To help Honan Province deal with harvest losses, China's finance ministry announced it will allocate nearly $28 million to help the farmers.
But severe damage to the crops could potentially push China to buy more wheat from the global markets where it's already expected to see less supply as the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to curtail its grain exports.
DARIN FRIEDRICHS, CO-FOUNDER, SITONIA CONSULTING: If there is damage to the crop and we're still figuring out how much it is, then it's likely that China will need to increases its imports next year. So that would obviously have an impact on global prices and an impact on global markets.
COREN: With the seasonal rain slowly shifting north, Central China is now bracing for heavy rainfalls.
Anna Coren, CNN -- Hong Kong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thousands of Tina Turner fans turned out for a special day.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: So why? Why in Outback Queensland not far from Birdsville are these Australians kicking up their (INAUDIBLE).
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VAUSE: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the first Alzheimer's treatment proven to slow the progression of the disease. With approval an expected millions of patients suffering from Alzheimer's will now have access to the medication.
CNN's Meg Tirrell reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Six years ago, Joe Montminy saw a neurologist for what he thought were a few minor problems with his memory.
JOE MONTMINY, DIAGNOSED With ALZHEIMER'S: He came back and said you know what Joe, you actually have young Alzheimer's disease. You're likely going to start to experience declines in the next five years. And you may not recognize your family in five to seven years.
TIRRELL: Now 59, Montminy is one of millions of Americans living with Alzheimer's disease. But this year, new hope emerged. A drug aiming to slow down the disease's progression got accelerated FDA approval in January based on the fact that it clears amyloid plaque buildup in the brain associated with Alzheimer's.
But Medicare declined to cover until the FDA granted a fuller, traditional approval based on a bigger clinical trial proving the drug has benefits for thinking clearly and being able to function in daily life.
Without insurance, the medicine, called Lecanemab and sold under the brand name, Leqembi cost $26,500 a year.
MONTMINY: You have this treatment at your fingertips, and suddenly you had Medicare saying, yes, but you can't quite get access to that at this point in time.
TIRRELL: A larger trial, funded by the drug makers Eisai and Biogen did find that Leqembi can slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease by about 27 percent. It's the first time a drug has proven to alter the disease's course.
DR. LAWRENCE HONIG, PROFESSOR OF NEUROLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER: It was a very dismaying experience, getting a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, and to be told that we don't have anything that will slow down or stop the disease in its tracks.
[01:54:55]
TIRRELL: Columbia University's Dr. Lawrence Honig says this is the beginning of a new treatment era. But he warns that Leqembi is not a cure, and not everyone will be eligible for the drug.
How difficult do you anticipate the conversation being with people who are more advanced and maybe are too advanced to benefit from the drug?
HONIG: We are already having these conversations that sometimes aren't so easy. It is not that we know it is not good for people with moderate or severe disease, it is just that we don't know.
TIRRELL: Side effects could be worse for people with more advanced disease as well, he says. Already there is something to be aware of. About 13 percent of patients receiving the drug in its trial had brain swelling; 17 percent had brain bleeding, compared with 9 percent in the placebo group. Leqembi is administered through IV infusion once every two weeks.
Infusion centers like Vivo Infusion are gearing up for an expected surge in new patients.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In certain areas, I anticipate we will receive probably at least 15 to 20 percent more patient referrals for this drug.
TIRRELL: Joe Montminy is hoping he will be able to get it for a chance for more time with his wife and two grown sons.
MONTMINY: Like any parent, I would love to see them actually get married and have a family. I just want to experience many of the activities that most people take for granted.
TIRRELL: Meg Tirrell, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Now that the drug has full FDA approval, Medicare and Medicaid are expanding coverage of the Alzheimer's medication.
A new method of determining the sex of old bones is shedding light on an archaeological assumption that turned out to be totally wrong. A 5,000-year-old skeleton found in its tomb near Seville, Spain in 2008 was dubbed Ivory Man. The bones were buried with an elephant's tusk and ivory comb, a crystal dagger and other valuable items that indicated it was someone important.
Naturally, archaeologists assumed that important person was a man. But a new molecular method of studying bones found out it was actually a woman. The authors of the new study believe the Ivory Lady, had a high rank, was revered by the society in which she lived. And she was revered for hundreds of years.
Finally a dance tribute to the late Tina Turner, has set a new world record for Australia's Outback.
(MUSIC)
VAUSE: Those wacky, crazy Queenslanders there near Birdsville have been doing this for years. Setting new records year after year after year. Dancing to Nutbush limits, an ode to the Tennessee town where Tina Turner was born in Tennessee.
This year, close to 6,000 people turned out, in wacky wigs and costumes in tribute to the late Tina Turner. The Nutbush dance has become a staple in Australian culture because we don't know how to dance anything else and they call it (INAUDIBLE) in Queensland for a while.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.
Stay us. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Kim Brunhuber.
See you next week. Have a great weekend. [01:58:00]
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