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NATO Unity Will Be Tested At Upcoming Summit; Ukrainian Forces Advance In South, Hold Initiative; Protests Across Israel Ahead Of Vote On Judicial Overhaul Bill Vote; The U.S. Labor Market Cooled Off In June; Biden in U.K. Ahead of NATO Summit; New Drug Promises to Delay Progression of Alzheimer's; Ukrainian Soldiers Receive Prosthetic Limbs in Mexico. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 10, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of our viewers joining us around the world. I'm Laila Harrak. Ahead on CNN Newsroom. NATO's unity on Ukraine faces a key test the alliance set to gather in the hours ahead, tackling critical questions about ongoing support for Ukraine, and whether the country will eventually join NATO.
Reading the economic tea leaves a recent report suggests the U.S. job market is cooling slightly, but is that a sign that things are getting better or worse, we'll talk to an expert to break down the numbers.
Plus, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia affecting millions around the world. But when the disease affects your family, everything changes. We'll speak to a doctor and author about his own experience navigating his father's Alzheimer's diagnosis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with Laila Harrak.
HARRAK: World leaders will be heading to Lithuania in the hours ahead for a critical NATO Summit set to focus on Russia's war in Ukraine that's grinding on right on NATO's borders.
Lithuania has been bolstering security out of the two-day meeting that kicks off on Tuesday. The Summit expected to present a key test for the alliances remarkable level of unity after Russia's invasion.
High on the agenda Ukraine's push to join the Alliance as well as Sweden's bid for a session. NATO leaders will also discuss the next steps for the war a month into Ukraine's counteroffensive on the summit comes just days after U.S. President Joe Biden approved giving controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine.
Mr. Biden is set to be a key player on a host of issues at the meeting ahead of it. He is in London where he'll meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. And King Charles in the hours ahead and CNN's Nic Robertson is following developments for you and joins me now live from London.
Nic, good to see you. As President Biden kicks off this high stakes trip in London, what do we expect President Biden and Prime Minister Sunak to discuss?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, first time actually President Biden comes into number 10 Downing Street as president. He's been here several times to the country while he's been President and faith over the past six months, he's met six times already with Rishi Sunak.
Rishi Sunak's Office is saying that look, just on the recent trip to Washington, those times when they met they agreed the Atlantic declaration which the U.K. calls a first of its kind economic agreement with the United States not a full free trade deal that have been expected out of Brexit, something less than that, but there will be conversations we understand around that.
One of President Biden's recent trip to the U.K. was also to Northern Ireland, where he met briefly we Rishi Sunak. Perhaps a follow up discussion on that, although Jake Sullivan, President Biden's National Security Adviser played down the likelihood on that, and frankly, there hasn't really been any political movement in Northern Ireland on that particular issue.
Obviously talking about Vilnius, talking about Ukraine, talking about the type of path that Ukraine can have to becoming a full member of NATO, which is what it wants lately, conversation focusing on by lateral with a number of different nations committing concrete, financial and military goals and targets to continue to support Ukraine, but it's not expected to actually bring Ukraine into NATO on this trip, but that will likely be part of the conversation are talking about AI, they will talk about green technology.
They'll talk about the climate, which is one of the big topics of conversation, of course, when President Biden leaves here later in the day and goes to Windsor Castle to meet with King Charles.
HARRAK: They were discussing as well, the U.S. decision on Cluster Munitions for Ukraine. As you know, President Biden just made that decision a couple of days ago, and it's gotten some mixed reaction from some NATO member countries.
How do you think the issue might be handled at the upcoming summit? Will it be addressed or will it be the elephant in the room?
ROBERTSON: I think that the Prime Minister can expect journalists to ask him afterwards if he raised this topic with President Biden.
[01:05:00]
So that raises the specter that it will come up in conversation one way or another. Jake Sullivan, President Biden's national security adviser said, Look, we are in lockstep with our NATO partners and allies over supporting Ukraine. And we're not hearing anything negative back from them. But part of that Oslo agreement on the non-use of cluster munitions
obligates signatories like the U.K. and therefore Prime Minister Sunak, representing the U.K. to try to dissuade others from using -- from using the these munitions, these cluster munitions.
So, I think it's likely that it will come up. I don't think it's something certainly that's expected to take up a lot of time. And I don't think it's something either that the two are necessarily going to have a statement on afterwards, but it would be reasonable to expect if they do if the Prime Minister does take questions later today that that would come up.
HARRAK: Nic Robertson reporting from Downing Street. Thank you so much. And Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says the Vilnius Summit is very important, and he hopes NATO leaders will make a clear, fearless statement about Ukraine's membership. But he's not confirming whether he will attend the meeting. He explains why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It would be an important message to say that NATO is not afraid of Russia. Ukraine should get clear security guarantees while it is not in NATO. And that is a very important point. Only under these conditions, our meeting would be meaningful, otherwise, it's just another politics. I don't want to go to Vilnius for fun, which of the decision has been made beforehand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRAK: Well, earlier Sunday, Mr. Zelenskyy met with Polish president Andrzej Duda, saying they had a very substantive discussion about working together for the best possible results for Ukraine at that NATO Summit.
Well, the two leaders expressing solidarity as they mark the anniversary of a massacre that strained their nation's relationship for decades. They met in Lutsk in northwestern Ukraine, where Poland says Ukrainian nationalists killed about 100,000 poles during World War II.
As for what's happening on the battlefield in Ukraine, President Zelenskyy says his forces have taken the initiative and the country's military leaders claim Russian troops are on the defensive all along the front lines.
Both sides report fierce fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut with dozens of skirmishes in the past day. And Ukraine is working to consolidate its gains in the south, clearing mines and firing heavy artillery on Russian positions. And these images coming to us after a Russian airstrike and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, rocket fire damaged three houses and a sharp according to the Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, but thankfully, there were no casualties.
While for some retired Ukrainians living on the frontlines of the war neither blackouts nor constant shelling are enough to push them from their homes. CNN's Ben Wedeman spend time with some to find out why.
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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): A small flashlight is all that illuminates the seller Olga calls her home, the bedroom a cramped, windowless storage space. I'd like to live under normal conditions says old Olga, retired school teacher, retired. I'm 78 years old.
She's been living like this since shortly after the war came to her town of Siversk battered to smithereens by months of Russian bombardment.
WEDEMAN (on camera): 500 days of war have left this town and so many others a wasteland of wreckage and rubble. Despite that, some people refuse to leave.
WEDEMAN (voiceover): We met 70 year old Nina last March when she told us happier day seemed a world away. What do we feel she asks? Pain. Pain. When you see something destroyed you tear up. We cry, we cry.
Summer has improved her mood. I showed Nina and her friend Valentina pictures of the potatoes I grow back home in Italy. Prompting Nina to show off her tiny garden of herbs and onions.
Still emotions flood back when I asked her what she hopes for most them. We're waiting for the day she says the minute when the war ends.
On this day, Siversk was quiet, all we heard was the occasional faint thud of distance shelling. Russian lines are six miles away. Yet the air of tranquility is deceptive.
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It's not quiet, insist Valentina. They were firing all night long. Those who remain are an eclectic group like Sasha, an ageing rocker, a great fan of 70s classics.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bee Gees.
WEDEMAN (on camera): Bee Gees. Yes, all right. Stayin' alive.
WEDEMAN (voiceover): Alexander (ph) never goes anywhere without his dog Malish (ph). Because he have high hopes for Ukraine's counteroffensive? No. Putin he tells me will keep pushing ahead even if he has to kill every last Ukrainian. Russians are like a bear. They sit and wait. And then.
Olga has the task of distributing loaves of bread to her neighbors brought in by volunteers. The powerful would do what they will do. Here the priority is staying loose. Ben Wedeman, CNN, Siversk, eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRAK: Israel is bracing for more massive protests as its Parliament prepares to take its first vote on the Netanyahu government's judicial reforms. If the bill passes the initial reading organizers say they'll demonstrate Tuesday in what they're calling a day of resistance. Tens of thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday against the measure in cities across Israel for the 27th consecutive week.
Police clashed with demonstrators in some areas and fired water cannon to clear major -- to clear rather a major highway and Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is warning protesters he won't tolerate actions that he says infringe on the rights of Israelis.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): The right to demonstrate in the framework of the law is sacred for every individual and every sector and we strongly condemn any violence against demonstrators from this side or the other.
This right is reserved both to the opponents of the reform and its supporters while the government has not considered restricting this right. It has requested to receive a report on what is the enforcement policy regarding violations of the law that infringe on the basic rights of millions of citizens and which are carried out almost on a daily basis during the demonstrations.
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HARRAK: Well, in the coming hours, Parliament is set to hold the first of three votes on a central part of a controversial judicial measures. And this one would reduce the courts ability to use what's called the reasonableness standard. It enables courts to throw out edicts they say, are unreasonable and violate Israelis rights even if they don't violate any specific law.
France has banned the sale of fireworks from Sunday through the upcoming Bastille Day weekend amid fears of renewed riots. The ban does not apply to professional pyrotechnics like these which were on display during last year's Bastille Day festivities.
But everyone else will be prohibited from selling, possessing or transporting fireworks until July 15th. For last month, demonstrators used fireworks to protest fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy.
And over the weekend hundreds defied a ban to march against police brutality in the hearts of parents please disperse the crowd from a public square and sent them to a wide Bulevar (ph) where they marched largely peacefully.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary has ramped up her visit to China where she hopes to repair relations between the world's two largest economies so that he accomplished her mission. We'll have a live report for you from Hong Kong after the break.
Plus, a survivor of sexual assault in Japan publicly holding her abusers and the government accountable. Her dreams of military service were changed forever after months of harassment.
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HARRAK: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is back in America after a four day visit aimed at repairing strained relations with China. Before she left Beijing, Yellen told reporters she had quote, productive talks with China's new economic leadership including Premier Li Qiang in a statement Sunday, China's deputy finance minister said the two sides held long and candid meetings and would stay in communication in the future.
But a report from China's official news agency seemed to suggest Beijing took issue with the Yellen's comment that the U.S. would continue to take quote, targeted actions, meaning sanctions to protect its own national security interests and those of its allies.
Well, let's unpack what this all means that with the CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live for you in Hong Kong. Kristie, so good to see you.
Janet Yellen went to China, you know, amid hopes for reset but walked away with no agreements. In the end, what did she achieve?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the relationship remains rocky but at least both these two superpowers are talking after 10 hours of meetings across two days in Beijing. The U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she expects more regular communication between the U.S. and China and she added that the world is big enough for both to thrive.
In Beijing, Yellen had what she described as direct and productive talks to China's economic leadership, including Premier Li Chang, as well as Pan Gongsheng, the new party chief of China's central bank, and Yellen said that the U.S. and China were on steady or footing despite significant disagreements. She also said this, take a listen.
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JANET YELLEN, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: President Biden and I do not see the relationship between the U.S. and China through the frame of great power conflict. We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: But within hours of that statement, President Biden appeared to counter it in an interview with CNN, I want you to listen to what he told Fareed Zakaria, about Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST: You think he wants to replace he wants China to replace the United States as the leading power the define --
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, I think he does. I mean, you know, I'm confident he wants to have the largest economy in the world and have the largest military capacity in the world. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LU STOUT: Yellen's trip marked the second visit by U.S. cabinet official to Beijing in recent weeks as he was tries to stabilize the relationship tensions have flared over a host of issues including economic ones like trade, like sanctions, like access to technology, like chips, and the U.S. has curb China's ability to source into acquired advanced microchips, fearing that they could be used by the People's Liberation Army.
Yellen reiterated that the U.S. is not seeking to decouple from China, which she said would be disastrous and destabilizing for the global economy. But she added that the U.S. would continue to protect its national security interests and the interests of its allies.
And China is very concerned about us restrictive measures. In fact, Chinese state media described the talks. Yes, it's productive. But they said that quote, overstretching of national security by the U.S. does no good to normal trade relations, and later looking ahead, where there's going to be an unexpected visit by the U.S. climate envoy John Kerry to restart global warming talks as part of this greater diplomatic push.
And a possible meeting between Joe Biden President-Xi Jinping, either at the G20 in New Delhi in September or perhaps at APEC in San Francisco in November. Back to you.
HARRAK: ALl right, Kristie Lu Stout, thank you so much.
[01:20:00]
Well later this week, the latest U.S. Consumer Price Index report is set to be released giving Americans an idea of how inflation is faring. While the Federal Reserve is shooting to get inflation down to just 2 percent, but data from another federal report shows that it rose nearly 4 percent for the year ending in May.
Well, meantime, the number of new jobs added to the labor market in June was less than expected only about two to 9,000. But average hourly earnings stayed steady for workers, while the national unemployment rate fell slightly.
Joining me now Betsey Stevenson is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan. Professor, a very warm welcome.
U.S. job growth, according to Friday's job report is slowing. What is your read on how the US economy is doing right now? What are you paying attention to?
BETSEY STEVENSON, PUBLIC POLICY AND ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: What, I mean, we have had just incredible job growth coming out of the pandemic much stronger recovery than I think, almost really anyone predicted, not only did jobs come back really quickly, but a labor force participation has come back faster and bigger than I think anyone really anticipated. So if you look at prime age people, and that's what we are sort of
looking at people who we expect to be working, you know, in their late 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, those people are working at higher rates than they were prior to the pandemic.
And it's particularly true if we take a look at mothers who are back to working as much as they were working in 2019, if we were looking at women more broadly. And we've just really seen both the supply of workers people's willingness to work, grow and recover completely. And we've seen that demand from employers.
HARRAK: Now, I was wondering, in terms of the jobs report, is that a reliable indicator when it comes to determining how the U.S. economy is doing?
STEVENSON: You know, I love that question. Because the reality is that it's, you know, one month should never be taken in isolation. We really need to be looking at a broader pattern, and putting together a lot of different data. Because, you know, it's -- this is the jobs report actually two surveys, we do a survey of households to see who's got a job, we do a survey of employers. But data can be noisy.
What we saw last month was evidence that there is slowing, not only did we see slower job growth for the month of June, but we saw some downward revision saying we had overestimated how many jobs have been added in the previous two months.
So that tells us there's definitely slowing. But it's also really important to take a look at those levels of jobs, because a number of jobs are adding is still really quite remarkable given how many jobs we have and how fully we've recovered.
So, evidence of slowing but still evidence of strength. And I think the real question is going to be can the Fed continue to steer us to a place where we're bringing down inflation, but at the same time keeping the strong labor market that we currently have.
HARRAK: And let's talk, professor, a little bit about where things stand when it comes to the so called great resignation? This idea that workers and employees are set to have leverage when the job market is tight, especially, you know, post-COVID. Is that dynamic changing? What are you seeing?
STEVENSON: Well, workers do have more leverage when the labor market is tight. I think we saw something that was really unusual and sort of 2021, early 2022, where, you know, people hadn't wanted to quit during the worst parts of the pandemic.
So we had a lot of pent up desire to quit. We also had a really strong recovery. So we had all this demand for workers and workers didn't have to feel afraid of quitting their job. And so we didn't see this, you know, strong, great resignation, people who are just frustrated, they let their boss know what they quit, they found some other kind of work. That's really started to slow down.
That said, we still see quits, the number of people who are quitting their job every month is higher than it was pre pandemic. That doesn't mean people are frustrated with their job or angry at their boss or even that they necessarily have a ton of bargaining power. But what it does say is the labor markets still moving.
And as long as there's a lot of jobs out there, there's a lot of opportunities for people and as long as there's a lot of opportunities for people, they do have some bargaining power. So I would say, you know, that dynamic shifting a little bit employers aren't desperate, but at the same time, I do still think we're in pretty tight labor market that does give workers bargaining power even if, you know, you don't want to go as far as to say they have a strong upper hand against employers.
[01:25:08]
HARRAK: So employees basically are still in the driver's seat. They've never left the driver's seat. But there is some wiggle room still there.
Let's talk about very briefly, if you can, professor, about President Biden hailing the June jobs report as the Bidenomics in action, what do you make of how the White House is approaching some of the challenges facing the U.S. economy currently?
STEVENSON: You know, if you look at the challenges facing the U.S. economy, the labor market isn't one of them. The labor market has been incredibly strong. I think the biggest challenge for the economy is thinking about long run planning, what's going to happen over the next few years, are we on track to deal with climate change in a way that we don't see a lot of people losing jobs because of industry shifts?
Similarly, the big change on the horizon is artificial intelligence, large language models. I think they're going to be a big disrupter over the next several years. And there's got to be a plan in place to make sure that workers can transition from industries that might start to lose jobs or occupations that might not be as needed anymore to ones where they have some skills.
So I think, you know, it's, it's a great thing for Biden to be celebrating the successes he's had so far. And what I would really be urging the administration to do is keep their eye on the future of what's going to happen because they didn't there are still a lot of changes in front of us.
HARAK: Professor Betsey Stevenson, thank you so much for breaking it all down for us. Pleasure speaking to you.
STEVENSON: It's great talking to you.
HARRAK: A survivor of sexual assault in Japan says she may have had a future in the military, if officials had taken her initial claim seriously, but they didn't. And she says she was abused repeatedly for more than a year.
Well, now she's suing both the government and her alleged abusers in hopes of getting a true apology and changing the system for all women. CNN's Marc Stewart reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Rina Gonoi is a fighter on the judo mat. And for women in Japan.
RINA GONOI, SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVOR (through translator): I hope I'm able to give hope and courage to people in Japan and across the world with the same problem.
STEWART: Rina was a soldier in the Japanese military, she quit after she said she was sexually and verbally harassed. Now, she's waging a different war, suing the government and her former assailants. In response, the state would only say that harassment can't be tolerated.
Japan's big earthquake and tsunami in 2011 was Rina's call to serve. After female officers came to her rescue.
GONOI (through translator): I thought they were really cool and admired the way they work to support others.
STEWART: Years later, she enlisted but found herself a target.
GONOI (through translator): They come into my body and the size of my breasts or they come up to me in the hallways and suddenly hug me in the corridor. That kind of thing happened daily.
STEWART: She says after enduring this for months, she asked for an investigation. Prosecutors dropped the case due to a lack of evidence Rina quit.
Rina fought back taking her battle to social media. An online petition generated more than 100,000 signatures, a call to action that forced the military to reexamine her case. The review found Rine was a victim enduring physical and verbal sexual harassment daily.
Rina's entire saga prompted a wide sweeping Defense Ministry investigation on sexual harassment. It led to this remarkable moment, military officials vowed an apology.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): This resulted in so much public outrage, surprising many people in the Defense Ministry without the power of public opinion, the Chief of Staff's apology wouldn't have been possible.
STEWART: In addition, several officers have apologized, but were dishonorably discharged. Three officers face charges. But now as Rina pursues a civil suit, four of the five officers have denied ever abusing her despite their previous apology. The fifth has said he wants to reach a settlement.
GONOI (through translator): I felt like the perpetrators hadn't properly reflected on their actions. I want a sincere apology from the heart and for them to admit responsibility for what they did.
STEWART (on camera): Rina's case sparked so much anger here in Tokyo and across Japan. The Prime Minister publicly committed to root out harassment in the military.
GONOI (through translator): I felt it was a little too late. When I joined the GSTF, I had a lot of dreams of what I wanted to achieve there.
[01:30:00]
Had the GSTF fully investigated what happened to me, I feel like I could have stayed on there. Everything came too late.
STEWART: Yet undefeated, Rina seeks strength as she fights for other women.
Marc Stewart, CNN -- Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR: Still to come, U.S. President Joe Biden gearing up to meet with Britain's prime minister ahead of a critical NATO summit. Details ahead.
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HARRAK: U.S. President Joe Biden is kicking off his high-stakes overseas trip in the U.K. Mr. Biden arrived in London late Sunday and is set to sit down with British prime minister Rishi Sunak in the coming hours. He will also be meeting with King Charles.
Now all of that comes before he heads to Lithuania for a critical NATO summit where Russia's war on Ukraine will be high on the agenda. The summit comes just days after Mr. Biden approved giving controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine.
Well, joining me now from Poland is Anne Applebaum, staff writer at "The Atlantic", and author of "Twilight of Democracy".
Good morning Anne, good to have you with us. This is going to be a closely watched meeting. What will you be looking for?
ANNE APPLEBAUM, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": I think we are all looking for what comes out of the summit. And what comes out of the summit is still unclear.
What Ukraine wants is some language that will definitively create a path to NATO. What the West wants is that as well. But in such a way that it doesn't obligate the U.S. to send troops immediately.
We are looking at probably some changes in the way that NATO structures its relationship to Ukraine. We are looking at a new Ukraine NATO council. We're looking at maybe NATO dropping some requirements to join, for Ukraine to join. We are looking at some extra forms and situations (INAUDIBLE) with weapons, you know, other ways in which NATO (INAUDIBLE).
HARRAK: Now, President Biden already ruled out Ukraine joining NATO, saying it is not ready for membership with the war ongoing. A couple of days ago the Turkish president declared that Ukraine deserves NATO membership. Is there a difference of opinion on the subject?
[01:34:47]
APPLEBAUM: Yes, there is a difference of opinion inside NATO. There are some countries that do believe Ukraine should be offered a clear access right now. Turkey is one, several East European countries are one. The French are very much in favor of Ukraine being given a clear path to join NATO.
Many countries feel it. And of course, Ukraine is one of them that previous arrangements has left a kind of gray spot in the middle of Europe where it wasn't clear whether Ukraine was in or whether it was out.
It was part of what encouraged Russia to join -- enabled Russia to join. Sorry, enabled Russia to invade, you know, a year and a half ago. And they would like to end that lack of clarity and make it clear that NATO will defend Ukraine in the future.
I think actually that Biden agrees with that as well. But he is more hesitant about saying that while the war is ongoing.
HARRAK: Now, the Russian threat is rallying NATO. You argue that NATO and notably European members are undergoing a huge transformation.
Can you expand a little bit on that? For instance, you know, will we see significant announcements being made (INAUDIBLE) that would have been unthinkable had it not been for Russia's war?
APPLEBAUM: I mean in a way the whole thing is unthinkable. Had it not been for Russia's war there would have been no galvanizing of NATO. There would have been no mass provision of weapons to Ukraine. There would have been no -- you know, no summit of this kind where I should say Ukrainian membership is not really a question of whether it ever happens, it's more a question of how it happens and what kind of language is used. And what are the steps to be taken? I mean none of that was ever thinkable.
The piece I published last week was after an interview with Jens Stoltenberg who's the secretary-general of NATO, a former Norwegian prime minister. He said to me, look, you know, I didn't think about Ukraine as being a European country like other European countries until recently.
And now I'm rather ashamed of that. And I see that Ukrainians are like us. They are fighting for their country, for their sovereignty. I see them as part of the same kind of community.
And his transformation is one that many other European leaders have gone through. I think the Macron, the president of France has experienced something like that. The British, the Germans, you know, almost everybody in the leadership of NATO right now and we are very lucky that we have this particular cohort in charge sees that -- has experienced this same kind of change.
And you'll see it I think in the kind of language that NATO uses over the next few days.
HARRAK: A final thought from you, Anne. I mean hindsight is 20/20 but could NATO have done more to deter Russia?
APPLEBAUM: Of course, NATO could have done more. Had we (INAUDIBLE) Ukraine in advance of the war, had we either let Ukraine in or put Ukraine on a much clearer path toward joining NATO.
Had the Russians understood that they would be fighting NATO or fighting NATO weapons at least before they invaded that we might have deterred the invasion.
And I think that memory, that recognition that we got this wrong in the past is really part of what is motivating a lot of European leaders.
HARRAK: Anne Applebaum, thank you so much for joining us. Greatly appreciate it.
APPLEBAUM: Thank you.
HARRAK: The first drug shown to slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease in some patients is now becoming widely available.
Coming up, my interview with a prominent doctor and author who has experienced the challenges of managing his father's Alzheimer's, about the new hope this new drug might hold.
[01:38:29]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRAK: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the first Alzheimer's treatment proven to slow the course of the memory- robbing disease. The move paves now the way for an estimated million people to access the medicine.
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: You know, she came back and said, you know what, Joe, I -- you actually have younger onset Alzheimer's disease. You're likely going to start to see -- 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 buildups in the brain associated with Alzheimer's. But Medicare declined to cover it 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, costs $26,500 a year.
MONTMINY: You had 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's 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.
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 conversations being with people who are more advanced and maybe are too advanced to benefit from the drug?
HONIG: We're already having these conversations that sometimes aren't so easy. It's not that we know it's not good for people with moderate or severe disease, it's just that we don't know.
TIRRELL: Side effects could be worse for people with more advanced disease as well, he says. Already there's 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 nine percent in the placebo group.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There we go.
TIRRELL: 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 percent to 20 percent more patient referrals for this drug.
TIRRELL: Joe Montminy is hoping he'll 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)
HARRAK: Joining me now Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, is a practicing cardiologist and a best-selling author. His newest book, "My Father's Brain", chronicles his father's battle with Alzheimer's and his own experiences grappling with his parent's disease as a doctor, a son, and a caregiver.
Doctor, a very warm welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. In your memoir you write very movingly about your journey as a caregiver and doctor. Can you share with us, what was the hardest part of witnessing your father living with the condition?
DR. SANDEEP JAUHAR, CARDIOLOGIST AND AUTHOR: The hardest part was not knowing what to expect really. You know, I'm a doctor. I went to medical school. I have some training in the brain and neurology.
[01:44:48]
DR. JAUHAR: But I was -- if I'm honest, I have to say that there is a lot about dementia I just didn't know. I certainly didn't know much about being a caregiver, a family caregiver.
And so you know, I think it was just -- it was hard to not know what to expect. And I'd say one of the main reasons I wrote the book is to sort of provide a blueprint for caregivers so they know, you know, that Alzheimer's starts in this part of the brain and this is what you expect initially.
And then these are the symptoms that occur at a middle stage of the disease. And this is what to expect toward the end. Sort of, I wanted to provide a neurological blueprint, if you will, as well as a personal chronicle of what I and my family went through.
HARRAK: What impact did it have on your family?
DR. JAUHAR: I mean it was the hardest journey we've ever taken and I think this is something I share with a lot of caregivers. I traveled the country speaking with people who were taking care of family members with dementia. I also went internationally and tried to learn about different dementia care models.
And you know, what I and my family experienced is what a lot of caregivers experience. You know, your family member, my father in my case, was a very mild-mannered man. He was a scientist, very bright, published in the top papers in the world.
And when he developed dementia he turned into a different person. He was -- he became short-tempered. Obviously you know, he lost his memory. What I learned is that Alzheimer's very often starts in the part of the brain that doesn't code short-term memories. That is the reason why people start to forget things.
But then it moves to an adjacent part of the brain that is responsible for emotional regulation. That's why people start to become short- tempered and emotionally volatile. And eventually it sort of spreads to other parts of the brain that control more basic functions.
HARRAK: Now, according to the World Health Organization, more than 55 million people across the world have dementia. Yet we don't talk about dementia and it is a global condition. Why?
DR. JAUHAR: I mean I think dementia has a lot of stigma associated with it. You know, after my father developed his initial symptoms we never even mentioned the word Alzheimer's. It was actually my mother who said it many, many months after my father started to behave in a very erratic way.
You know, he would stop the car on the road from coming back from the shopping center and asked people for directions. Finally she sort of -- we were on a walk one day and she said, does your father have Alzheimer's?
And I realized that, you know, we never mentioned the word because Alzheimer's has such a stigma associated with it. You know, it sort of connotes a sense of loss of independence, possible institutionalization. And so I think a lot of people just don't want to think about it.
But the reality is, as you pointed out, that so many millions of people across the world have it. So many more millions will develop it because of aging. So this problem is coming for us, whether we are prepared or not.
HARRAK: I want to get your take and your thoughts on the new drug for Alzheimer's.
DR. JAUHAR: You know, the treatment is something that provides hope. There is no question about that. Alzheimer, the man -- Alois Alzheimer, the German psychiatrist who first identified the plaques that are now thought to be, you know, sort of characteristic of the disease.
There were no treatments back when, you know, he identified the disease. For the intervening century or so we have essentially been stuck in a rut where there are no treatments available to improve, you know, really memory or you know, retard the progression of the disease.
So I think it's something to be celebrated that there is a drug. And there are actually a couple or more in the pipeline that are coming that really going to be -- you know, provide some benefit. How much benefit really remains to be seen.
The fact is that dementia and Alzheimer's as I wrote in my book remain really the only chronic medical scourge that has no treatment. So finally now we have something that patients can, you know, turn to for some benefit.
HARRAK: What do you want people to take away from your book and from your family's experience?
[01:49:49] DR. JAUHAR: You know, I was unprepared for what I and my family and my father was going to go through. I needed a book that was going to show me the way. That was going to sort of map out the path. There was no book available. There were some self-help books. But what I needed was a book that was both sort of a wrenching personal chronicle of what a family goes through but also a book about the science and history to sort of orient us and give us like I said sort of a blueprint for the disease so you know where things are headed.
I, as a caregiver, was most frustrated when I didn't know what the heck was going on. Why was my father behaving this way? Why didn't he remember what he had for lunch? Why was he, you know, acting so emotionally unstable? Why was it happening at this particular time and didn't happen, you know, say several months earlier?
What I would like people to learn from the book is what is Alzheimer's? How does it affect the family? And what can we do as caregivers to improve the lives of those we love, those we care for.
They are still people, you know, even though so much of their person is defaced by the disease. So my hope is that the book will provide knowledge and clarity, and ultimately some comfort and solace to people who are going through this really just incredibly difficult journey.
HARRAK: Dr. Sandeep Jauhar, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
DR. JAUHAR: Thank you.
DR. JAUHAR: Thank you.
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HARRAK: More than 500 days after the start of Russia's war on Ukraine the amount of human suffering is staggering. The U.N. says more than 6 million civilians have become refugees, an untold number of Ukrainian soldiers have died and some of the badly wounded fighters are healing their broken bodies far from home.
Rafael Romo reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Far from home and a world away from the horrors of war, they take a moment to reflect. Now recovering in Mexico, these fellow Ukrainians have more than their country of origin in common. Their lives will never be the same. They each lost a leg in combat trying to keep Ukraine a free nation.
Pavel says he spent two months in the hospital after suffering seven different injuries during combat. He told us he was a businessman in a city of western Ukraine but when the Russians invaded he says he knew he had to fight for freedom.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have three children. I went to defend my country for the future of my children. I want my children to live in a beautiful, prosperous country and not under the Russian occupiers.
ROMO: Danilo, a career soldier also got a prosthesis in Mexico after losing his right leg in battle with the Russians. He says he will never forget the atrocities he witnessed in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is difficult for soldiers to see civilians dying, when grandmothers and grandchildren and children are dying. It is difficult.
ROMO: Both Pavel and Danilo have asked us to hide their identities. They still have family in the combat zone in Ukraine and the last thing they want, they say, is for Russians to target their loved ones if they learn they are related to someone who fought to drive them out of their country.
[01:54:57]
ROMO: The nonprofit Ukrainian diaspora in Mexico is providing funding to help these and other soldiers to literally get back on their feet.
ILONA DLUZHYNSKA, UKRAINIAN LIVING IN MEXICO (through translator): Right now we have five cases. Three successful and two more we are working on.
Our goal this year is to be able to provide 21 prosthesis. We provide these prosthesis that are made here in the country. We bring these injured fighters to Mexico. And in Mexico we give them physical, emotional, and psychological rehabilitation.
ROMO: As for Pavel and Danilo, one thing remains clear. They want to go back to the front line front line.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I think everything should be fine with my leg. I feel fine already. I feel better and better every day. And I think that when I return to Ukraine, I will spend a little time with my family and then go back to the war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is tough but the Ukrainian people resist and I think that in the near future, there will be victory over the Russian occupation.
ROMO: As they continue to recover in Mexico they say they look forward to the day they will be able to return to their motherland to finish the job of expelling the Russians out of their beloved Ukraine.
Rafael Romo, CNN -- Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRAK: People living in parts of New York State are dealing with major flash flooding after powerful storms dumped several centimeters of rain on Sunday.
Just look at the raging floodwaters in Putnam County. It is one of several places to have reported swift water rescues, including some near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A campus spokesperson told CNN that some people who got trapped in their cars had to swim to safety. And it happened in Orange County where the governor has issued a state of emergency.
Singer Harry Styles is the latest performer to be hit with something thrown by a concert attendee in a string of disturbing incidents. While performing in Austria over the weekend, Styles was leaving the stage when someone threw an object that hit him in the face. The singer stopped in his tracks and flinched before covering his face with his hands. He slowly walked offstage afterward.
It is not the first time this has happened to Styles. He was bombarded with Skittles during a tour stop in Los Angeles. And fellow artists like Drake, Bebe Rexha and Kelsea Ballerini have also been hit with concert goers.
That wraps up this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Laila Harrak.
Do stick around. I won't be back with more news. It is a Rosemary Church who will be here. And I will see you next week.
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