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Russian Police Raided Wagner Leader's St. Petersburg Home; U.S. Treasury Secretary Meets Chinese Officials in her Official Visit; U.S. Drones Harassed Russian Fighter Jets over the Syrian Skies; 10 Dead, 42 Wounded in the Latest Missile Strike in the Ukrainian City of Lviv; Twitter sues rival Meta after Threads Launch; The Eagles will Stage a Farewell Concert Tour after a successful career rum. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired July 07, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on "CNN Newsroom." He was supposed to be in Belarus, now he may be in Russia. We look at why no one can say where Yevgeny Prigozhin really is.
Preparing relations, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in China meeting with officials trying to ease the strains between the two countries. We'll have a live report from Hong Kong.
And a controversial plan to release treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear site in Japan safety concerns.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: We begin this hour with the growing mystery surrounding Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, apparently not in exile in Belarus, but now somewhere in Russia.
A 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. A former Putin ally led his Wagner mercenary group in a short-lived revolt against Russian military leaders last month, but the president of Belarus stepped in with an offer of exile for Prigozhin and his troops.
Now, the Kremlin says it has no comment on Prigozhin's whereabouts, claiming it doesn't track his movements, but the police raid in St. Petersburg has left many observers skeptical.
CNN's Melissa Bell reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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, an office of Yevgeny Prigozhin, purportedly raided and displayed on Russian state television, presenters calling it scandalous.
UNKNOWN (through translator): 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 (voice-over): Among the object seized, several passports apparently belonging to Prigozhin using different aliases.
The man himself hasn't been seen in public since his attempted coup last month.
The Belarusian President and Putin ally Alexander 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 this was going on, or didn't steal much. But of course, we will deal with all of this.
BELL (voice-over): 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 targeted first, blocking media companies and websites linked to the man behind the failed push last week.
YEVGENY ZUBAREV, RIA FAN DIRECTOR (through translator): We are closing down and leaving the country's information space.
BELL (voice-over): Yet 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 PMC Wagner is up to the leadership of those countries to decide.
BELL (voice-over): 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)
BRUNHUBER: Ukraine says it shot down two-thirds of the drones that Russia used in its latest wave of strikes. Ukraine and air defenses reportedly destroyed 12 Iranian-made drones that were launched overnight. Six others went through, but it's still not clear if they hit their targets.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is expected to announce today that controversial cluster munitions will be sent to Ukraine. That's according to defense officials. The weapon is banned in more than 100 countries, but not in the U.S. or Ukraine. But Moscow and Kyiv have already been using cluster bombs.
[03:05:02]
And 45 Ukrainian service members are now back home after the latest prisoner exchange with Russia. Ukraine says it has brought back close to 2,600 soldiers through similar exchanges since the war began.
And President Zelenskyy will be in Turkey later today, with 10 days left before a grain deal brokered by that country and the U.N., and 10 days before that deal expires.
Nada Bashir joins us now from London. So now to the Zelenskyy-Erdogan meeting. What's at stake here?
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER: This was a significant landmark agreement back when it was signed last summer between the delegations from both Russia and Ukraine. As you mentioned, they're brokered by the United Nations as well as the Turkish government.
But of course, it is set to expire in the next 10 days. It's already been renewed. It was actually set to expire initially in May of this year. And there were significant concern about Russia's continued participation and cooperation in this deal, particularly, of course, from international partners and those in the United Nations who have serious concerns around a perhaps resurgence of the global food security crisis that we did see last summer.
Many countries, of course, highly dependent on Ukraine's grain exports. And essentially what this deal has ensured is that vessels carrying grain and other vital agricultural goods, fertilizers from Ukraine have safe passage through the Black Sea. There are delegations from both Russia and Ukraine as part of the Joint Coordination Council which take part in inspections of these vessels in order to allow them to pass through the Black Sea. But there is concern that there could be a holdup if Russia fails to agree to a renewal.
Now, of course, we did hear from the Russian Foreign Ministry earlier this week raising questions and concerns over whether they would in fact resign on this deal. They have suggested that they believe that the grain exports that are coming from Ukraine are not going to those countries most in need of Ukraine's grain exports, but rather, in their words, well-fed countries, namely European and other Western allies of Ukraine.
But of course, President Erdogan has, over the course of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, maintained communication with President Putin, sometimes at the expense of relations with his Western allies, NATO allies. But of course, this has placed the Turkish government in a unique position as a potential mediator in any sort of peace agreements between Russia and Ukraine, and namely, of course, in the Black Sea Green Initiative deal, which was a landmark success last summer of course.
Now President Erdogan will be meeting with President Zelenskyy later today in Istanbul there will certainly be a lot of focus on the renewal of this deal and certainly perhaps a lot of pressure from President Erdogan's western allies when it comes to bringing President Putin and the Kremlin on board for that renewal that is of course so desperately needed by those countries most dependent. Kim?
BRUNHUBER: All right, an important story will be falling today. Nada Bashir, thank you so much.
Now for more analysis, were joined by former Ukrainian defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk. He's now the chairman of the Think Tank Center for Defense Strategies and a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council. Thank you so much for being here with us.
ANDRIY ZAGORODNYUK, FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: So first, I just wanna get your take on this bizarre story, the whereabouts of Prigozhin, what we're hearing from Moscow and Minsk. You earlier told CNN, Putin isn't going to forgive his treason, so it would seem very strange if he is in Russia, as Lukashenko claims.
ZAGORODNYUK: Very strange. Generally speaking, of course, it was a surprise for Putin and generally for the whole Russian elite what happened. So they're trying to figure out what to do with this, and we can see all kinds of developments here.
But all we know from Putin since he was ruling the country since 2000 is that he must maintain a firm grip. If he doesn't maintain a firm grip on his government, the government will start to collapse, and perhaps from within.
So we obviously will see some development of this story and the fact that mutiny happened and the fact that it's been developing in such a bizarre way obviously says that there are some significant internal issues. So as always in Russia we will see something happening very much outside the, you know, the logic and, you know, proper rules of the governance.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, as important, what happens to Wagner's leader, what happens to the Wagner mercenaries will be more important probably to Ukraine.
I want to turn to a different story. I mentioned earlier that the U.S. will be sending Ukraine cluster bombs. Now those are munitions that break apart midair and scatter smaller explosives over a large area. They're banned in many countries because often they don't explode, sometimes until years or decades later when they kill civilians. So why does Ukraine want these weapons despite the risk that the unexploded ordnance could kill your own soldier or your own citizens?
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ZAGORODNYUK: The whole idea is based on the fact that Russia is using lots of troops in terms of the small units, and basically, you know, it's quite difficult to address those with the standard ammunition the huge area of over a thousand kilometers there's lots of groups they basically waste their troops in a sort of, you know, quite, I could say relaxed manner from the term of their looking after their people.
And essentially this is an issue of addressing that with a standard ammunition and standard weapons. It's not prohibited by the United States. The United States considers those bombs as legal and basically as a standard ammunition. We'll see how it works. We haven't got much experience yet with using this. So we will look at this.
Regarding the generally the risks for civilians, I mean the risk for civilians right now is huge in that area in any way. We have over two millions of mines. This is unofficial assessment, but very close to probably what is true. Two million landmines around the area right now. It's extremely dangerous to be there anyway and there will be a massive effort of demining the whole area later. So we have, to be honest, the area where currently the front line is, it's not habitable for proper civilian life in any case.
BRUNHUBER: I want to ask you about another recent story. President Zelenskyy made some claims that Russia has planted explosives on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant. The IAEA again, I think today, said that there's no proof of that. So what do you make of his claims and why would Russia do this? I mean, what would be their motive?
ZAGORODNYUK: There has been a massive plan of Russians how to deal with the nuclear power plant. And of course we don't know details of this plan yet.
However, there is a strong risk that they may instigate some kind of explosion there of, and it could be various scenarios of how this will go. They certainly moved out of some personnel from there -- from the nuclear power plant, which was quite suspicious. And our security services, intelligence services, suspected that they may instigate the, actually, the substantial explosion, which will destroy the power plant and obviously will create a massive environmental disaster.
And that's why we were flagging, I mean, the Ukrainian government were flagging everywhere about this risk and about the fact that it may happen.
Russia, at the same time, were sending messages propaganda that Ukraine wanted to do that, we of course delivered the messages that there's like zero benefit to Ukraine to do that. I mean, on contrary, that would create an enormous amount of damage to the country. So there's been this information war, essentially, about this. It's
very difficult to understand what exactly is happening there. But what we try to do is try to raise the awareness of the global community that this is a substantial risk. Any kind of oppression in Russia, not to do that, should be applied now until it's not too late.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, of course the war itself causing such a risk as that facility. We'll have to leave it there. Thank you so much for your analysis, Andriy Zagorodnyuk. Thank you for being here with us. I Appreciate it.
ZAGORODNYUK: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: U.S. Treasury Secretary is meeting with senior Chinese officials in Beijing in an effort to ease tensions after months of flare-ups between the two superpowers. Janet Yellen is expected to hold talks today with the Chinese premier, who is seen as a close ally of the president. And she's already met with the central bank governor, as well as some business leaders. Yellen told them the U.S. seeks a level playing field and will address China's unfair economic practices. And she had a lot more to say.
And take us through that, CNN's Anna Coren is following us live from Hong Kong. So, Anna, despite the two sides making more conciliatory noises today, I mean, Janet Yellen was still very critical of the way China has treated U.S. businesses. Take us through what she said.
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, absolutely, Kim. In the last hour, Janet Yellen has met with representatives of the U.S. business community in Beijing. And, you know, her opening remarks really highlight the enormous challenge that she's facing on this visit as she tries to improve communication relations between the world's two largest economies. As you say, she expressed concern about China's punitive actions taken against U.S. firms in recent months. There have, you know, been a number of raids on U.S. companies.
She's also concerned about China's decision just this week to control the exports of critical minerals used in technologies like semiconductors. This obviously is a huge issue between the U.S. and China and will no doubt dominate her talks with officials over the next few days.
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We know the Biden administration is preparing additional restrictions on U.S. technology trade with China, including, you know, potential limits on advanced chips and U.S. investment in China citing national security. And this will no doubt further anger Beijing. But Yellen is seen as this voice of reason, like this economic pragmatist and she has pushed to maintain economic ties with China. She's argued against tariffs and warned that decoupling would be disastrous. Let's take a listen to what she had to say on this issue a little earlier.
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JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: The United States does not seek a wholesale separation of our economies. We seek to diversify and not to decouple. The decoupling of the world's two largest economies would be destabilizing for the global economy and it would be virtually impossible to undertake.
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COREN: She's maintaining that line, Kim, of, you know, diversifying, de-risking, but not decoupling.
BRUNHUBER: Interesting. All right. Thank you so much. Anna Coren in Hong Kong. I appreciate it.
Well, now to a CNN exclusive. Sources say federal prosecutors have been questioning witnesses about a chaotic Oval Office meeting after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Outside advisors and West Wing staff discussed plans to have the military seize voting machines. Appointing Sidney Powell as special counsel to investigate alleged voter fraud and invoking martial law as part of the effort to overturn the election.
CNN's Kaitlan Collins spoke with Anderson Cooper about the reporting.
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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, THE SOURCE: There were a lot of chaotic meetings in the Trump White House. This one was described as probably the most chaotic, the most unhinged. And it happened about six weeks after Trump lost the election.
It was this Oval Office meeting where these advisors from outside the White House were essentially going off against the actual attorneys inside the White House about this plan for him to seize voting machines with the military, basically to go back and recount the votes in the states, redo the votes in the states that he had lost.
And Jack Smith is asking people about this, his team is, and they've been asking witnesses months ago about it, but they've also been asking people recently about it, including Rudy Giuliani, who we learned went before his team for a voluntary sit down last month.
I'm told it was back to back two days, about eight hours or so. He was asked about several topics, but he was also asked about this meeting, and so it does signal the Jack Smith's team, we don't know to which extent, is still interested in this meeting.
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BRUNHUBER: In the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, Donald Trump's co-defendant Walt Nauta has pleaded not guilty, just as Trump did last month. Nauta was a military valet in the Trump White House and became Trump's personal assistant at Mar-a-Lago after his boss left office.
The special counsel has charged Nauta with multiple offenses, including helping Trump hide boxes of classified documents at Mar-a- Lago. Now despite a judge's order not to discuss the case, between them, Nauta is frequently seen including this appearance last week in Philadelphia. No trial date has been set, but the special counsel's office has requested it be in December.
Russian fighter pilots in the skies over Syria deliberately interfering with U.S. drone operations for the second time in two days while the latest from the Pentagon just ahead.
Plus, 12 years after the disaster in Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. Officials are moving forward with a controversial plan for the site's wastewater. We'll have that story coming up. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: In the skies over Syria, Russian fighter pilots have stepped up their harassment of U.S. military drones that operate in that airspace against ISIS targets. Yet again on Thursday, Russian jets intercepted an American drone and forced it to take evasive action.
CNN's Oren Liebermann has the latest from the Pentagon.
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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: For the second time in as many days, Russian fighter jets intercepted and harassed U.S. MQ-9 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 Grinkovich, 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 drone, 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. MQ-9 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. MQ-9 Reaper drone, while another lit afterburner 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 the target of these aggressive Russian activities. The French said they were also essentially harassed by a Russian fighter jet. This time the French, on the official Twitter account of the French Armed Forces, say they had two of their Rafale fighter jets operating near the Iraq-Syria border when a Russian Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jet came up and operated in a nonprofessional manner. The French, according to this tweet, essentially averted any sort of risk and flew away. We've 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 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)
BRUNHUBER: The Israel Defense Forces soldier has been named as the victim of a shooting near an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank on Thursday. Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israeli military says a gunman fired at security forces who had stopped his vehicle for inspection.
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You can hear the gunfire in this video obtained by CNN. The IDF says the suspect was quote "neutralized" after the incident. The shooting comes after the Israeli military ended its operation in Jenin, the largest incursion in the West Bank in more than two decades. Twelve Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed.
And the United Arab Emirates will contribute $15 million for urgent humanitarian needs in the Jenin refugee camp. The money will support efforts by the United Nations to repair a health center and homes that were destroyed in the violence.
Protesters are expected to take to the streets across Pakistan in the coming hours, angered by the burning of a Quran in Sweden. The Prime Minister called for nationwide participation in the demonstration, which coincides with Pakistan's Holy Quran Day. It comes a week after a lone protester was allowed to burn a copy of Islam's holy book outside a mosque in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing at a settlement camp near an illegal gold mine in South Africa after at least 17 people, including children, died from a nitrate gas leak on Wednesday.
CNN's David McKenzie reports from Johannesburg.
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DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly a very disturbing tragedy here in South Africa. At least 17 people are dead, men, women, and children, according to authorities, because of this nitrate gas leak to the east of where I'm sitting here in Johannesburg. Now, authorities say it could be linked to illegal miners that operate in that part of the city as well as other parts.
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They go into disused and even active gold mines to extract the precious metal and sell it on the black market. Now, this video shows the canisters in these shacks. This very tightly packed informal settlement to the east of Joburg, where the people noticed this odd smell. According to police who spoke to local media, they alerted the police.
At least one person seems to have shut down one of those gas cylinders, which could speak possibly to foul play, but it's too early to tell. The authorities say they will stamp out illegal miners but they are finding it very difficult to deal with these organized groups.
This is what one official had to say about being on the scene.
PANYAZA LESUFI, PREMIER OF GAUTENG PROVINCE: The scene was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking. I regretted -- we have to go through that. It was heartbreaking. So it's something that -- we might need assistance personally because the bodies were scattered literally everywhere.
MCKENZIE: Illegal mining in South Africa is a million dollar business according to researchers and certainly because of the organized nature and the heavily armed nature of many of these groups authorities are struggling to clamp down on these miners. At this stage no arrests have been made.
David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.
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BRUNHUBER: OceanGate has suspended operations following the deadly implosion of its Titan submersible last month, which killed all five people on board. The sub was on a voyage to the wreckage of the Titanic when it lost contact with its support ship on June 18th.
Days later, after an enormous international search effort, authorities confirmed the sub had suffered a catastrophic implosion. In the wake of the disaster, new details have emerged about warnings and safety concerns about the submersible, including an ominous email from a former employee, that the Titan could fail and result in deaths.
The Ukrainian city, known for relative safety, learns the hard way just how brutal a war can be. Still ahead, Lviv faces a new reality after seeing its worst strikes since the fighting began.
And disturbing new details on what women are enduring in conflict zones in countries consumed by turmoil. That's coming up. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
[03:30:00]
Let's have a quick recap of major developments in Ukraine at this hour. Kyiv says it shot down 12 Iranian-made drones that Russia launched overnight. Six other drones got through, but it's still not clear if they hit their targets.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is expected to announce today that it will send controversial cluster munitions to Kyiv. That's from defense officials who spoke with CNN. The weapons are banned by more than 100 countries, partly because they can pose long-term danger similar to landmines.
Ukraine is ending its search and rescue operation at the site of a deadly Russian strike in Lviv. Officials say 10 people were killed and 42 injured in what they call the worst attack on the city since the war began.
Lviv was considered a relatively safe haven until now, but as Ben Wedeman reports, Thursday's strike shattered that illusion of safety.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 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.
The Russians say that they're bombing military objects, but they hit a peaceful house. People were sleeping, says Lviv resident Vera Lubin. How could they do it? World, help us.
The nighttime attack smashed the roof and top floors of an apartment building and damaged several others.
Ukraine says the attack was carried out by a Russian Kalibr missile. A long-range hypersonic missile that carries a payload of a thousand pounds of high explosives. Kalibr missiles are extremely accurate and have been used frequently in Russian attacks on Ukraine.
Emergency workers and firefighters have been removing chunks of rubble from the blast site and have evacuated over 60 people so far. Standing atop the damaged buildings, they continue 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. Given its proximity to the borders of Poland, a NATO member, many hoped they would be safer there.
But as rescuers continue 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)
BRUNHUBER: It's been a disheartening week for women living in some of the roughest corners of the world. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have given beauty salons one month to close as the extremist group extends its repressive rule over women. The Taliban have already rolled back decades of progress by limiting women's access to education and employment. The salon closures will further restrict their freedom and hurt families who rely on them for income.
And U.N. officials are reporting a shocking spike in violence against women and girls in Sudan after the fighting broke out nearly three months ago, much of it is sexual violence against female refugees.
I want to bring in U.N. Women Director Osnat Lubrani, who's in Geneva. Thank you so much for being here with us.
I want to start there in Sudan and the U.N. report this week that the conflict is resulting in more and more gender-based violence, rape, sexual assault. I mean, the problem was already bad before the conflict. Tell us what's happening now that's making the problem even worse.
OSNAT LUBRANI, U.N. WOMEN DIRECTOR, HUMANITARIAN SECTION: Well as you know, let me first say that even before the crisis that started in April, more than three million women -- Sudanese women were at risk of gender-based violence. The estimate right now that we have from the U.N. is that it's spiked up to 4.2, with violence on the street, with women having to go out in dangerous situations. We know that there are already cases that have been verified of at least 20 conflict-related cases of violence against women, but we know that it's much, much more.
And it's, unfortunately, because of the situation, still very hard to investigate, very hard to verify, but already we're taking action to try and help these women.
[03:05:06]
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, I mean to help people, I mean a tax on the health facilities, it makes it even worse and as you're saying, I mean it's very difficult and dangerous for aid workers to access these women. So concretely, specifically what more can be done right now to help them?
LUBRANI: Well, you know, first of all, we all hope that the conflict can be brought to an end. That will -- that will definitely be the solution. But we have partners on the ground, partners that have been working with the humanitarian community before, and we are supporting them to open safe spaces to help women and to deliver essential services. I would want to say that the issue of mental health, of psychosocial support is also extremely important for those that are survivors. So we are doing what we can to work with our partners, through our partners, and also try to get on the ground as much as possible.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. I want to turn now to Afghanistan. The closing of beauty parlors, obviously that's just the latest in a long string in a rollback of rights for women in that country. But even if we just look at that specifically for a moment, I mean, it's still a huge blow for women. One of the few places they could still work.
LUBRANI: I think, and I'm glad Kim, that you're bringing this to the world's attention more. I think this is, as you say, just the latest thing in a catastrophe in terms of the assault on women's rights in Afghanistan. It is something that is unprecedented and it's really affecting 28, more than 28 million women who are in need of humanitarian assistance cannot get support because they can only be supported through women.
And there is now a ban that has been placed since 24 December on women working in humanitarian organizations. So this is having a terrible impact the banning women from work and it contradicts the basic human rights and humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.
Having said that, U.N. Women is still on the ground. We are supporting the women. Again, what I mentioned with regard to psychosocial real challenges for women, numbers of suicides that are growing. So they need all the support we can provide, and we are still there on the ground to help them.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, not just suicide. I mean, there's depression, domestic violence increases in forced marriage. All of that has gone up according to a recent U.N. report. But I mean, how do you help people on the ground when the international community -- women aren't allowed to work with NGOs anymore, I mean that must make it even more challenging?
LUBRANI: It is extremely challenging but we're doing what we can we are I can say that the local level we're trying to get to the women, you know, with -- negotiating access to them and there are certain activities that we can do and the mere fact that we are there, we are with the women's groups and individual women, and we have networks where we can continue to be in touch with them.
So there is still work that is ongoing to help them, you know, with increasing food security, as you say, domestic violence, but I also want to say that this is affecting the entire societies. I was just recently in Afghanistan and speaking to the women, of course, many of the women and to hear what the impact it has, but also on the families, you know, for a father to have to say to his daughter that she cannot go out to school.
There are women that were supposed to finish their medical degrees that are now being denied. It's going to rob the country out of thousands of medical workers. So it's a catastrophe for the entire society and it needs to be fought against every day. BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. It's vital that the world not lose focus
on these two regions. So many problems there. I really appreciate your perspective, Osnat Lubrani in Geneva. Thank you so much.
LUBRANI: Thank you very much.
BRUNHUBER: All right, still ahead on "CNN Newsroom," deadly and destructive flooding hits southwest China, leaving tens of thousands displaced. And the main flood season is only just beginning.
[03:40:03]
Plus, a top U.N. official signs off on a controversial plan to release wastewater from Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant. But many are skeptical and worried about the impact. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered authorities to step up their safety and response efforts as deadly flooding hits the country's southwest. And the main flood season is only just beginning.
CNN's Anna Coren has the latest from Hong Kong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the last thing this couple was expecting on their engagement day. While driving to the ceremony, a flash flood in China's central Henan province washed away the car. There were only salvation scrambling to the roof of the vehicle. Rescuers used a drone to drop a rope and life jackets to the pair before they were dragged to the riverbank by a crane.
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.
UNKNOWN (through translator): We woke up this morning and saw so much rainwater. The floods submerged roads and crops.
COREN (voice-over): 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."
Continuous heavy rain just before the harvest threatens to ruin crops this year. This farmer in China's central Henan province says heavy rain has drenched his wheat fields.
UNKNOWN (through translator): After a few days of rain, the ground is very wet, and now the harvester cannot enter the fields. We probably need to wait another four or five days to start harvesting. This is a real disaster. COREN (voice-over): To help Henan 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 market, 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 increase its imports next year, so that would obviously have an impact on global prices and an impact on global markets.
COREN (voice-over): With the seasonal rain slowly shifting north, central China is now bracing for heavy rainfalls.
Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.
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[03:45:03]
BRUNHUBER: The planet's rising temperatures shattering heat records left and right. New data shows last month was the hottest June on record by a huge margin. It's the latest evidence the Earth is heating up much faster than expected.
CNN's Bill Weir has more.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Two things really strike you about these recent reports. It's the speed of the warming, and it's that relentless rate, that upward climb that we've been seeing now for 10 June's in a row. This last June, hottest on record by far, and then the next eight are right behind that in this decade as well.
Now, these are data sets that are pretty limited. The United States data set goes back to 1979. Copernicus in Europe goes back to 1940. But it's the climatologists who study ice cores and corals that can go back thousands of years and tell us, we're the warmest we've been in 100,000 years on planet Earth.
Shocking to think about that. And then the speed at which that has happened, unlike climate change swings of many millions of years past, doesn't have anything to do with the wobble of the Earth or super volcanoes. It's fossil fuels, and the more that are burned, the hotter it's going to get going forward.
We're also seeing bizarre anomalies where it's warmer at the northern tip of Quebec than Miami, which was the case this week. And record- highs also being set down at the bottom of the planet, Antarctica there. If you look at this new record average temperature, it's just close to 63 degrees Fahrenheit, 17 Celsius. That doesn't sound too dramatic, but that factors in half the planet that's in winter right now. And another way to think about it is this may have been one of the coolest June's of the rest of our lives.
Bill Weir, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: People in parts of Europe are cleaning up from another day of severe storms. There were over 60 large hail reports, most of them in Spain, with some of the hail measuring about 6 centimeters. Heavy rainfall was the problem in parts of Italy, with some areas getting as much as 143 millimeters of rain in about four hours. The good news is the storms are wrapping up and there's no threat for severe weather across Europe in the coming hours.
Now, wildfires that have been burning across Canada may not be letting up anytime soon. Canadian officials say the wildfire risk will remain high for the next two months. There are currently 648 wildfires burning throughout Canada and more than 300 of them are considered out of control. More than 8 million hectares of land have been burned since the wildfire season started.
All right. Developing story just in from Ecuador. Rescue efforts are underway for at least 70 people trapped in cable car gondolas in the capital Quito. City officials say 17 people have already been brought to safety. Firefighters were alerted to a technical failure on the cable cars Thursday afternoon. Rescue units are working with high mountain teams and monitoring the operation from a drone. The city says those rescued are being evaluated for any medical issues.
The head of the U.N.'s nuclear agency has given his support to Japan's plan to release treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear site into the Pacific Ocean. The International Atomic Energy Agency chief discussed the plan just a few hours ago. He says he's convinced it is safe for people and the environment, but that does little to reassure rattled residents, local fishermen, neighboring countries, and some international scientists.
We get more now from CNN's Mark Stewart in Tokyo.
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MARK STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Soon, the treated wastewater inside these massive tanks at the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant will be released off Japan's Pacific coast.
It was collected after the meltdown at the plant following the massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The release is controversial. The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency came to Tokyo to reassure the public.
(on-camera): What do you say to members of the public who feel a bit leery about this decision to release the water?
RAFAEL GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: First of all that I understand them. So all sorts of fears kick in and one has to take them seriously to address and to explain. STEWART (voice-over): In April, CNN was granted rare access to the
plant. We saw the tanks with enough water to fill more than 500 Olympic pools. The water has been treated and diluted to remove radioactive elements. One exception, tritium, a radioactive isotope, which the government says is impossible to remove. It's all part of the process to slowly decommission the plant.
As you can see on this map, the release of tritium is common for nuclear plants around the world. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that the radiation from tritium is far less than what one might assume. It says a cross-country round-trip flight exposes a person to 12 times more radiation compared to water with tritium from a nuclear plant.
[03:49:59]
(on-camera): How will you know if this was the right decision or this is the right decision?
GROSSI: Well, I think we have the benefit of science. Either you have a certain radionuclide in a water sample or you don't have it. And for that, you have, it's a measurable thing. So, we have the science. We have the laboratories. We have a network of international laboratories working with us to ensure the credibility and the transparency of the process.
STEWART (voice-over): The release is drawing criticism from Asia, including South Korea and China.
Despite the reservations, including those of local fishermen, the planned release is moving forward, a process that will likely take decades to complete.
Mark Stewart, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: A strong start for Meta's newest platform. Threads already has millions of signups just ahead. Why this could be the first real threat to Elon Musk's Twitter. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Twitter is putting Meta on notice. Just one day after Meta launched a rival social media app called Threads, Twitter is threatening to sue. The company sent a letter accusing Meta of trade secret theft 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 already has millions of users who have linked their Instagram accounts to the new platform.
CNN Technology reporter Brian Fung has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECHNOLOGY REPORTER: Twitter's newest rival is off to a strong start. And in response, Twitter is threatening to sue.
According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Threads gained 30 million sign ups in its first day. Amid that blockbuster launch, Twitter sent a letter to Meta accusing it of trade secret theft. The letter claims Meta hired former Twitter employees who used their knowledge from working at Twitter to design Meta's new app.
Meta has dismissed the allegations as false. The huge launch shows there's demand for a Twitter alternative, especially after months of changes by Twitter that have made it harder or more costly to use its platform.
Meta has tried to copy other apps before, but never when those other apps have done so much to drive users away.
In Twitter's case, that's meant everything from laying off content moderators to locking popular features behind its paid subscription service.
So how does Threads work? It's simple. After downloading the app, you sign up with your Instagram account. Then you're presented with (inaudible) Twitter experience. You can post text and images, you can reply to people in threaded conversations, and you can quote other posts, which are called, unsurprisingly, threads. There are a few things the app doesn't have yet. There's no real search function and no hashtags. The only feed available is an algorithmic one that sprinkles in other accounts in between those you already follow.
But those limitations haven't stopped a huge number of people from trying the new app, whether that's because they're fleeing Twitter or being pulled in from Instagram. While it's too early to say if threads will be a Twitter killer, it's fair to say Twitter seems to have a serious competitor on its hands.
Brian Fung, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[03:55:00]
BRUNHUBER: A new method of determining the gender of old bones is shedding light on an archaeological assumption that turned out to be totally inaccurate and some might argue rather sexist.
A 5,000 year old skeleton found in a tomb near Seville, Spain in 2008 was dubbed ivory man. The bones were buried with an elephant's tusk, an ivory comb, a crystal dagger, and other valuable items that indicated this was clearly someone important.
Well, archaeologists assumed that VIP was a man, but a new molecular method of studying bones found that ivory man was, in fact, female. It involves analyzing tooth enamel, which detected the presence of a gene found only in women. The authors of the new study believe the ivory lady held a high rank and was revered by the society in which she lived for hundreds of years.
A dance tribute to the late Tina Turner has set a new world record in Australia's outback. Have a look at this.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
A popular line dances set to one of Turner's biggest hits, Nutbush City Limits, an ode to her hometown in Tennessee. Close to 6,000 people turned out in wacky wigs and costumes. The Nutbush dance has become a staple of Australian culture, performed at birthdays, weddings, and pubs across the country.
And finally, a familiar sound is going away.
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The Eagles announced Thursday that they'll embark on their final tour later this year. The band announced the first 13 U.S. cities on the tour. That says many more will be added and the tour may not end until 2025.
The Eagles closed their announcement by saying, quote, "this is our swan song, but the music goes on and on." The band has been touring for more than 50 years. So yes, it has been a long run. Tickets go on sale beginning next Wednesday.
Oh, they'll be missed. Well, that wraps our coverage this hour. I'm Kim Brunhuber. That "CNN Newsroom" continues in just a moment with Max Foster.
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