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World Leaders Gather In Lithuania For NATO Summit; Ukraine Seeking A Path To NATO Membership; Antarctic Sea Ice Levels Reach Record Lows; Legislature Advances Key Part Of Judicial Reforms; Disgraced Former USA Gymnastics Doctor Stabbed In Prison; Leaked Documents Reveal Putin's Secret Train. Aired 12-12:45 ET

Aired July 11, 2023 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[00:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. NATO breakthrough. Turkey drops opposition to Sweden's membership, but Ukraine looks set to be left out in the cold.

Israel braces for a day of disruption as right-wing lawmakers cussword with new laws to limit the authority of the Supreme Court.

And in the Twitter versus Threads death match, Twitter has been endorsed by the Taliban because, unlike Twitter, they say Threads specifically banned hate speech and support for terrorism.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: On the eve of a crucial two-day summer with NATO leaders, Turkey has suddenly dropped its opposition to Sweden's application for membership, setting the scene for yet another significant expansion of the alliance just over three months after Finland's membership was approved.

The meeting in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius is expected to be dominated by Russia's war in Ukraine as well as Ukraine's long- standing request to join the alliance, a request opposed by the U.S. President. White House officials say Joe Biden, though, will meet with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday. The NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Monday that Turkey dropped its year-long objection to Sweden's membership. In turn, Sweden appears to be supporting Turkish membership to the E.U. That's according to Turkey's state-run news agency.

Sweden's defense minister says Turkey's decision to endorse the country will strengthen the security of both. A similar sentiment echoed by the head of the military alliance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, SECRETARY GENERAL, NATO: Completing Sweden's accession to NATO is a historic step that benefits the security of all NATO allies at this critical time. It makes us all stronger and safer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Melissa Bell is in the Lithuanian capital. She joins us now with the latest. So, Melissa, of course, this is surprise news that Turkey is now on board with Swedish membership. But I guess the question now is what happens to Ukraine at this two-day summit.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, for a start, it wasn't until the very last minute yesterday, John, that there was some doubt as to whether Turkey would remove this thorn from the side of what promised to be a more divided summit than anyone had expected as a result of this opposition. It had been a year that Sweden had been hoping to get in and for a year Turkey had been obstructing that on the grounds of what it said was the harboring of what it considers Kurdish terrorist activists to Sweden in Sweden itself.

What we've seen is Finland joined and that had threatened to overshadow these talks as President Biden left the United States from his plane with the Turkish president that had really yielded very little. It took that meeting last night at which, by the way, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a meeting with Charles Michel as well, the head of the European Council.

Officials have been clear that the two things are entirely separate to link Turkish accession to NATO with kickstarting its demand to be in E.U. slightly disingenuous and yet European officials went so far as to organize that meeting. And as they came out, the Swedish Prime Minister and the Turkish President, the pledge was made that both would try and reinvigorate the process of Turkey trying to join the E.U. It's been trying since 1987, but that's really been on hold much more substantially for the last few years over fears that human rights and constitutional reforms had put Turkey further away from the minimum requirements that you would expect for a country hoping to join the European Union.

With that now out of the way, and it's expected that the decision in Ankara and from a legislative point of view should take a couple of weeks, Hungary was another holdout, but it is expected to change its mind as well. Sweden will then be able to join relatively quickly.

Now, it means that this summit can go back to its actual plan had binge on, which is to focus really on the -- on the alliances relationship with Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirming that he will come, that he will meet with President Biden. The question now, how far the 31 for the time being members of NATO will go in terms of easing the path of Ukraine into NATO. I think there's a pretty substantial unanimity on the idea that while the war rages on, it's difficult to consider.

Some countries like the United States and Germany are keen that it shouldn't be made too easy or too explicit too soon that Ukraine will be able to join once the hostilities end. Other countries, Baltic states for instance, in particular, are really pushing for a much faster track to say to Ukraine at least as long as there is a war raging, is not possible. But for instance, one of the conditions, which is the formal arrangements for allowing a country to exceed the reforms, they must make the so-called map, the membership accession plan might be scrapped.

That kind of pledge would go a substantial way in Ukraine direction. Ukrainian officials, of course, insisting that NATO goes as far as it can, John.

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VAUSE: Melissa, thank you. Melissa Bell live for us there very early morning duty shots there from Vilnius in Lithuania. Thank you, Melissa.

Joining us this hour also from Vilnius is David Sanger, CNN Political and National Security Analyst and White House and National Security Correspondent with York Times. He's also the author of the Perfect Weapon. David, it's good to see you. It's been a while.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning. Great to see you, John.

VAUSE: OK, so Turkey's flip flop on opposing Sweden's NATO application, you know, it was all sealed it seems with a smile and a handshake. Here's the Swedish Prime Minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ULF KRISTERSSON, PRIME MINISTER, SWEDEN (through translator): I'm very happy the three of us, the President of Turkey and the Secretary General of NATO and myself have shaken hands over this joint statement. We are thus taking a very big step towards the formal ratification of Sweden's membership in NATO. It has been a good day for Sweden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Also, it seems like it's been a pretty good day too for Turkey. What did President Erdogan actually get out of, you know, dropping his opposition here? What was the pay off? Who paid it? And when's he likely to get it?

SANGER: Well, we're all still trying to figure that out, John, because the details have been pretty sparse so far. Though I think they will begin to probably come out today. First of all, I think it's clear that President Erdogan probably calculated that he had taken this about as far as he could before he did himself some real damage. Congress was holding up his F16 deliveries, the United States said that those and other arms were at linked to what he did here, but clearly they we.

He's always conducted this sort of strange dance where he's the one member of NATO who also flirts pretty strongly with Vladimir Putin and buys some of his arms and so forth. So, he's been in this odd situation where he's been trying to play both camps. In this particular case, I think it became pretty clear that he was going to be the great outlier in NATO if he finally didn't give in. And he got a fair bit, we suspected, what he wanted. Probably a faster track on the E.U. membership for Turkey and certainly those arms.

VAUSE: It was like it was a pretty good day for Erdogan if all that plays out. As for Ukraine, President Zelenskyy has a fairly compelling, a very compelling argument some say for NATO membership. Here's part of it. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT, UKRAINE (through translator): When we applied for membership of NATO, we spoke frankly. De facto Ukraine is already in the alliance. Our weapons are the weapons of the alliance. Our values are what the alliance believes in, and our defense is precisely the element of the European formula that makes it united, free, and at peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And yet one of the biggest obstacles to Ukrainian membership is the U.S. President who over the past year and a half has dropped opposition to NATO countries supplying F-16s, to the U.S. sending Patriot Missile Defense System to Ukraine, sending Abram tanks, long- range missiles and the latest is cluster munitions being sent to Ukraine. All of that Joe Biden has given ground on and yet he will not budge on NATO membership. Because then what? The U.S. would really be at war with Russia. That's the logic. It seems a very tough needle he's trying a thread here.

SANGER: It is a tough one. And the U.S. here is relatively isolated. Germany is in agreement with the U.S. position. There's a wide variety of views in NATO with Poland and the Baltic States being the ones who are the most enthusiastic about bringing Ukraine in for exactly the reasons that you just heard President Zelenskyy described. So, it's going to be a really interesting case to watch here.

That Biden argument comes down to two somewhat unrelated issues. One of them is, is Ukraine ready to join NATO? Has it made the democratic reforms cleaned up the widespread corruption and so forth that would be required for membership? And the President said it's got to be the same standard as it was for everyone else. And of course, you know, in the midst of a war, people don't pay as much of attention to the corruption that, of course, still permeates the country and so forth. So, that's one set issues.

[00:10:06]

The bigger set of issues I suspect for President Biden is the question of if you let in a country while it's still at war, are you then a direct participant in the war? Because Article Five would require you come to the direct defense or to the defense of that country. Not clear that that would necessarily be the case, but it certainly would be a much bigger risk of escalation. And I think that's really what he's worried about the most.

My guess is they will come up with some wording that will make it pretty clear they get in as soon as the war is over. The problem with that is it's an incentive for Vladimir Putin to keep the war going.

VAUSE: Yes, because here is the response from the Kremlin to NATO membership for Ukraine. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DMITRY PESKOV, SPOKESPERSON, KREMLIN (through translator): The absolutely clear and consistent position of the Russian Federation that Ukraine's membership of NATO would have very, very negative consequences. It will be an absolute danger, a threat to our country, which would require us to react quite clearly and firmly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That's what they were saying a year and a half ago. That's what they were saying two years ago. That's what they were saying three. I mean, it hasn't changed. So, when they say they're going to act clearly and firmly, what, invade Ukraine?

SANGER: Right. And that is the -- that is the question. But here's been the issue. President Biden's concern is supporting Ukraine and not letting American troops, NATO troops, be in direct combat with the Russians because his fear is that's what leads to escalation. And that is a code word for nuclear escalation. And so, that's why he is particularly hesitant to do this.

Now, I don't detect among many of the NATO members, a lot of enthusiasm for letting Ukraine in during the war, but obviously there is a lot of enthusiasm for letting them in immediately thereafter. And you know, Zelenskyy makes a good point which is they are de facto not only acting as a member -- I mean the United States, NATO, other NATO nations are supplying arms, but they are now probably the biggest and most effective military and certainly the most battle-tested in all of Europe, and therefore NATO might make sense.

Now, for the Russians, they say it's not a country, so it couldn't enter NATO in any case. The basis of the invasion is the Russian allegation, crazy as it sounds, that Ukraine has never been a real country.

VAUSE: Yeah, we'll see what happens over these two days. Of course, you'll be there and we'll find out more on the hours and days ahead. David, thanks so much. We appreciate your reporting. I appreciate you being there.

SANGER: Great to be with you, John.

VAUSE: Thank you, sir.

Ukraine says the says its offences have effectively shut down a Russian attack by drones in the early mornings. It happened in the capital Kyiv, the second Russian attack on that city this month.

It's been just over two weeks since the armed rebellion in Russia led by the Wagner paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. The Prigozhin situation now appears more murky, more confusing than ever, if that was possible. It turns out he met with Vladimir Putin, the man whose presidency he threatened overthrow, just days after that failed mutiny. And that's raising a lot of questions as CNN Fred Pleitgen explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Not seen in public since his mutiny threatened Russia's leadership and labeled a traitor by the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin seen down and out, bound for exile or worse. But now, Moscow acknowledging Vladimir Putin himself hosted Prigozhin and other Wagner commanders inside the Kremlin just five days after the uprising.

The President listened to the explanations given by the commanders and offered them options for further employment and further military service, the Kremlin spokesman said.

This after Kremlin-controlled media, spent weeks trashing Prigozhin, like in this segment on a popular show.

The reporter saying Prigozhin is not the Robin Hood he tried to pass himself off as, he was a businessman with a criminal past.

After the mutiny, the Kremlin had said percussion would essentially be exiled to Belarus. Now, a different tone towards Prigozhin and his fighters.

They stressed the fact that they are loyal supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander in chief, the spokesman says. They said they were ready to carry on fighting for their motherland.

It's not clear what prompted Putin to meet Prigozhin, but the Russians currently need all the manpower they can get. The Ukrainians say they're making important but slow gains in the South and East. Kyiv, though pampered by a major lack of ammo, especially for their artillery guns. That prompted the Biden administration to give the Ukrainians controversial cluster munitions to make up for the shortages in conventional artillery ammo.

[00:15:09]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is a war relating to munitions, and they're running out of those -- that ammunition and we're low on it.

PLEITGEN (voiceover): I spoke to the CEO of Rheinmetall, one of Europe's largest arms manufacturers. Rheinmetall does not produce cluster munitions but he told me his company is ready to vastly expand its conventional ammo products.

ARMIN PAPPERGER, CEO, RHEINMETALL: On the artillery ammunition, we produce 100,000 of rounds and the capacity of next year will be 600,000. So, if you see that the need is 1,000,000, Rheinmetall could deliver if we deliver only the Ukrainian 60 percent of the need.

PLEITGEN (voiceover): And the company says it wants to go a step further, servicing and even producing vehicles inside Ukraine starting with these armored personnel carriers called Fox.

PAPPERGER: If they always have to wait that Europeans or Americans help them over the next 10 or 20 years, I think that's not possible.

PLEITGEN (voiceover): Fred Pleitgen, CNN Berlin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: As the saying goes, war is hell. But there are a few things that can make life a little easier, like a luxury armored train. When we come back, new details on the upgrades as to how the Russian President likes to get around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Its plans for the train also show a luxurious spa on board including a Turkish steam bath, according to the Dossier Center, a fully equipped cosmetology suite with a massage table and high-end beauty equipment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Also, later this hour, an update on the prison stabbing of disgraced U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Record rainfall has caused heavy flooding in parts of Japan Monday in particular islands in the southwest. Officials say at least four people have died, 18 have been injured, and half a dozen are still unaccounted for. The rain began at the start of the month, triggered landslides and caused rivers to overflow.

At least 62,000 people died from heat-related causes in Europe last year during its hottest summer on record. A new study has found that in Italy, most of the deaths are in 18,000, followed by Spain and then Germany. Researchers also found the extreme heat harmed women and the elderly in particular.

With global temperatures at an all-time high, Antarctic Sea ice levels reached record lows last month, which was the -- excuse me -- hottest June ever. The World Meteorological Organization says the amount of sea ice was 17 percent below average.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SPARROW, CHIEF, WORLD CLIMATE RESEARCH PROGRAMME: It really is completely unprecedented. There weren't this kind of reduction in sea ice that we've seen around the Antarctic. The Antarctic region is normally thought of being relatively stable. It's much colder than the Arctic. We're used to seeing, you know, these big reductions in sea ice in the -- in the Arctic, but not in the Antarctic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[00:20:10] VAUSE: Scientists are warning of even hotter heat waves for our oceans with the return of El Nino, a weather pattern that warms the ocean surface temperatures.

With defying months of staggering street protests, Israel's Knesset, the parliament, has voted to advance one of the key parts of the right-wing government's so-called judicial reforms.

During a raucous debate in the Knesset, there was one opposition there yelling at one of the measure's key supporters. This happened all last night, beyond -- after midnight. In the end, lawmakers voted 64 to 56 to gut the legal standard, which allows courts to reverse government actions they find unreasonable.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists the measure would strengthen precisely what his opponents say it would weaken.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL (through translator): Under the courts supervision, the government will have to act in good faith with proportionality, fairness, and equality. And that is why the new bill is not the end of democracy, but the strengthening of democracy. And it is certainly no reason to disrupt the lives of millions of citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: That was effectively the first reading of the bill. It now needs two more readings and two more votes before it becomes law. But it almost guarantees massive protests and strikes in the coming hours in what the opposition is calling a day of disruption. CNN's Hadas Gold has more now from Jerusalem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Israeli protesters planning a day of disruption on Tuesday as the Israeli government is now bringing the judicial overhaul plan back on the table. After months where this judicial overhaul was frozen in place essentially months ago after this massive general strike and protest that froze Israel into place, the Defense minister even coming out against his own government's plan, now Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are starting to bring it back.

It looks a little bit different. It's a little bit watered down. And it's being done in a very slow piecemeal fashion. But the legislation that was brought to its first vote on Monday night would strip these Israeli Supreme Court's ability of being able to declare a government action as being unreasonable. They have rather broad powers right now to say that even if a government action didn't necessarily break any laws, that it is unreasonable and cannot stand. And this legislation would attempt to strip that away.

Now, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has watered down other aspects of the judicial overhaul, namely the ability of the Israeli Parliament to overturn supreme court decisions with a simple majority. Those have been taken off the table, but the other elements are still there. And the protesters and the opposition essentially are saying we don't believe when the government says that this will be a softer version of this judicial overhaul, and they are still taking to the streets.

They've actually never gone off the streets, even while there were compromised negotiations trying to take place at the Israeli president's residence, even while this legislation was technically frozen in place, Israeli protesters were still taking to the street on a regular basis.

And on Monday evening, they were on the floor of the Israeli parliament trying to stage some sort of sit-in. They were forcibly removed by parliament security. And then on Tuesday is this day of disruption being planned from the morning until the evening. Israeli protesters saying they're going to essentially try to disrupt daily life in Israel, including at the airport, at Ben Gurion Airport just outside of Tel Aviv, as well as at important embassy buildings throughout the country from different countries, and along the really the heart of Tel Aviv, downtown, Tel Aviv and the main highway there.

We've seen these types of massive protests in the past. And the goal of these protesters is to try to once again encourage important figures such as the defense minister, such as other ministers who may be supporting their efforts to come out once again against this judicial overhaul. Even this piecemeal legislation, the slow pace that they plan to take it and to come out against it because for these protesters, the only way that they will really come off the streets is if this judicial overhaul is completely off the table.

Hadas Gold, CNN Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: A London court has heard allegations that actor Kevin Spacey drugged then sexually assaulted one of his victims. He's been charged with a dozen counts of sex offences against four men between 2001 and 2013. During the court hearing, a fourth accuser described the actor as "a vile sexual predator." Spacey has denied all of the charges.

There are new details about the prison stabbing of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former Olympic physician serving a decade behind -- or decades rather -- behind bars for child pornography and assaulting hundreds of gymnasts during his time as a Team USA doctor. Details from Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Raise your right hand.

BRIAN TODD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): One of the most notorious convicted abusers in American history viciously attacked in prison. Larry Nassar, former team doctor for USA Gymnastics, was stabbed 10 times, including multiple times in the neck and chest Sunday during an altercation with a fellow inmate at the Coleman Federal Penitentiary in Sumterville, Florida. That's according to sources familiar with the incident and the President of the local correction officers union who spoke to CNN.

[00:25:17]

JOSE ROJAS, PRESIDENT, CORRECTIONS OFFICERS UNION AT COLEMAN PRISON: They could make weapons out of anything, out of metal object they can find anywhere, and they're made into a homemade weapon, homemade knife.

TODD (voiceover): According to Jose 'Joe' Rojas and the Bureau of Prisons, corrections officers on the scene were able to save Nassar's life. Rojas says Nassar is now in stable condition.

KEITH TAYLOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Inmates who have committed sex crimes, rapes, a child molestation, they are usually targeted by other inmates.

TODD (voiceover): Nassar is serving essentially life in prison on various assault and pornography charges. In 2018, he admitted to sexually assaulting athletes when he was with Michigan State University and the U.S. Women's gymnastics team.

According to court records, he victimized more than 330 girls and women. Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and Mckayla Maroney were among the athletes Nassar admitted to assaulting. Maroney once testifying that Nassar molested her for hours in a Tokyo hotel when she was 15 years old.

MCKAYLA MARONEY, FORMER OLYMPIC GYMNAST: I was naked, completely alone with him on top of me, molesting me for hours.

TODD (voiceover): At his sentencing hearing in 2018, more than 150 victims gave horrific accounts of their abuse at the hands of Nassar.

RACHAEL DENHOLLANDER, FORMER GYMNAST: He engaged in degrading and humiliating sex acts without my consent or permission. And Larry enjoyed it.

MATTIE LARSON, FORMER GYMNAST: Your kindness was simply a ploy to molest me every chance you got. I can't even put into words how much I (BLEEP) hate you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (on camera): This is the second time that Larry Nassar has been attacked in prison. In 2018, his lawyers said he was assaulted within hours of being put into the general population at a federal penitentiary in Arizona. The Bureau of Prisons says there's an internal investigation now underway into this latest assault. CNN has reached out to the Coleman Facility in Florida for additional details about this attack and on Nassar's protection. We haven't heard back. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break right now. You're watching CNN back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, I'm John Vause, you're watching CNN Newsroom. Well a (inaudible) inside look at the secretive way Russia's president prefers to move around his country. On the rails, and in luxury. Documents shared with CNN reveal Vladimir Putin travels on an armored train, complete with a gym, spa and a Turkish steam bath and other accessories.

[00:30:12]

CNN's Matthew Chance has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A rare glimpse inside Putin's secret train, with leaked documents shown to CNN --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRAPHIC: It's a special train for the president.

CHANCE (voice-over): -- revealing how the Kremlin leader travels amid increasingly tight security and luxury.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's surrounded by enemies and psychologically, he wants to feel protected.

CHANCE (voice-over): From outside, Train No. 1, as it's dubbed in Russia, seems ordinary. Its heavily-armored carriages purposely disguised with regular Russian railways paintwork and grind.

State media was once allowed inside, recording President Putin meeting transport officials in a sumptuous board room. The train's other 20 or so carriages, some updated as recently as last year but remained a closely-guarded secret, until now.

Zircon Service is a Russian company that builds what it calls elite wagons for its clients, specializing in luxury designs for private and state corporations.

Among the trove of documents including blueprints, letters and images, obtained exclusively by the Russian Investigative Dossier Center and shared with CNN, is one from Zircon Service, dated August 2018, notifying the Kremlin of a test run for what it calls the sports health wagon that's been ordered.

Accompanying photos show what the Dossier Center says is Putin's private gym on board the train. As recently as last year the Kremlin was looking to upgrade the gym with American equipment to replace the Italian machines originally installed.

A former member of Putin's personal protection service, who says he fitted the train's secure communications equipment before defecting from Russia, told the Dossier Center the Kremlin leader started traveling by train more regularly in the build-up to the invasion of Ukraine last year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRAPHIC: Planes can always be detected. While there are so many trains and there's no real way to track them. So this was just for secrecy so nobody knew his movements.

CHANCE (voice-over): But discretion for the Russian president doesn't mean discomfort. Leaked plans for the train also show a luxurious spa on board, including a Turkish steam bath. And according to the Dossier Center, a fully-equipped cosmetology suite with a massage table and high-end beauty equipment.

CHANCE: Now, the Kremlin disputes the Dossier Center's findings, telling CNN that President Putin neither owns nor uses a railway car like the one described. But in the aftermath of a recent armed rebellion here in Russia, in which Putin's authority was threatened.

The focus on his isolated distance is higher than ever.

CHANCE (voice-over): And the idea of Putin being pampered as he travels incognito by armored train underlines how strangely cloistered the Kremlin leader has become, even paranoid and besieged, according to his former speech writer.

CHANCE: Why is it, do you think, that Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin has spent such large sums of money, planning and constructing this armored presidential train?

ABBAS GALLYAMOV, FORMER SPEECHWRITER FOR VLADIMIR PUTIN: He is losing the war. He is losing in politics. He is losing in popularity. He is getting more and more enemies, committing more and more crimes. He cannot build political walls, so he wants to build the walls of concrete and armor. Physical defense.

CHANCE (voice-over): There are signs that's an image the Kremlin knows it should show. Recent weeks have seen Putin more publicly engaged than he has been for years.

But in his increasingly hostile world, the security and luxury of Train No. 1 may be sanctuary indeed.

Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, Twitter took years to reach 240 million data users. Threads reached 100 million in days, and you bet you, Elon Musk is worried.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:37:07]

VAUSE: Well, an Iceland, a volcano just erupted outside of the capital of Reykjavik, spewing streams of lava. Volcanologists say it's a mad eruption on a 200-meter-long fissure, which is also leaking tons of gases.

But the location is uninhabited, and right now, at the moment, there's no danger to any populated area.

New Meta Threads app has quickly become a major threat to Twitter, which is what everyone predicted, which is seeing web traffic tank. More than 100 million users have signed up for Threads, just days after the launch. That's according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

A staggering feat for any buddying social media site, but especially notable given Twitter's recent decline.

Zuckerberg and the head of Instagram claim they don't just want Twitter defectors. They're hoping to appeal to a wider audience.

Since 2021, Nicholas Thompson has been the CEO of Pulitzer Prize- winning magazine "The Atlantic." Before that, he was editor in chief at "Wired." He joins us this hour from New York.

It's good of you to be with us. Thank you.

NICHOLAS THOMPSON, CEO, "THE ATLANTIC": I'm delighted to be here.

VAUSE: OK, so on Monday, Twitter and Threads received two very different high-profile endorsements. The ladies on "The View" were gushing about the softer, nicer, more gentile nature of Threads. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CO-HOST, ABC'S "THE VIEW": It is a nicer, all- encompassing social media platform. I'm not kidding. This is an actual J. Lo thread: "I learned recently that hummingbirds flap their wings in a figure-eight motion which represents infinity. What's something nice you learned recently."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see?

GRIFFIN: We need that energy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Ah, the hummingbirds. While on Twitter, the Taliban were singing Elon Musk's praises. A senior official with the child-bride- marrying, women-hating Islamic fundamentalists praised Twitter's freedom of speech, adding this: "Twitter doesn't have an intolerant policy like Meta," parent platform of Threads. "Other platforms cannot replace it."

That intolerant policy is essentially a ban on the use of hate speech and support of terrorism and terrorist groups.

But in a nutshell, does that seem to sum up where these two platforms are basically positioned in the marketplace right now?

THOMPSON: It's an extreme version of where they're positioned in the marketplace right now. I think that Threads would be very happy to have the endorsement of "The View." I'm quite certain that Twitter is not -- will not be touting the endorsement of the Taliban.

But it is absolutely true that Threads is trying to be like Twitter, but a little softer, gentler and nicer, and that Twitter is really trying to still lean into free speech. Say whatever you want.

VAUSE: Yes, well, I guess the numbers are telling the story of what is working and what isn't working, because over the last couple of days, at least, Twitter numbers appear to be tanking, if you look at this graph here, you know, of number of users.

And the first two full days that Threads was generally available, last Thursday and Friday, web traffic to Twitter was down 5 percent, compared with the same days of the previous week, down 11 percent compared with July 6 and 7 of 2022.

[00:40:03]

So if that Taliban endorsement fails to win over users and ad buyers for Twitter, what other options are available right now to Elon Musk to essentially save his $44 billion investment.

THOMPSON: Well, I think with the numbers, it will be actually really interesting when we see how much Instagram's traffic has changed, too. The question to me is, yes, people are definitely leaving Twitter and going to Threads. A lot of my peer group, plus people I know have gone from Twitter to Threads.

But they're also going from Instagram. That's a complicated question for Meta.

To the larger question of what Twitter can do, well, they'll have to fix some of their basic infrastructure. They need to stop crashing. And then they need to position themselves in a way that is like what they've been doing but much better.

They gave to make themselves the place for real interesting discourse, new ideas. Because Threads is saying, Hey, we don't want that. We don't want politics. We don't want discourse. We just want to be, you know, celebrity talk, sports, the same stuff that's on Instagram. Twitter does have a real opportunity to say, Well, we're the public square. We're where real conversations happen.

They just need to be able to do it in a way where the site doesn't crash or people don't feel as uncomfortable as they sometimes do now.

VAUSE: Well, we did hear from the -- you know, the owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, the world's second wealthiest man. He put forward one idea for taking on Mark Zuckerberg, whose company owns Threads. He tweeted this: "I propose a literal" -- um -- "measuring contest." It starts with "D." It rhymes with "stick."

Anyway, no real details on how this would work. Would it be inches or centimeters? Who does the measuring? Is it winner take all? So far, Zuckerberg hasn't responded. But you know, is this Elon Musk unhinged? Is he having a joke,

diverting attention? Or is he just simply playing to his audience?

THOMPSON: I think that it's very hard to understand what he's doing. I think there it's -- he really doesn't like Mark Zuckerberg. That has been clear for many years.

He particularly doesn't like Mark Zuckerberg this week, now that Mark Zuckerberg has undercut him and is taking away all those people who are using Twitter.

As to what he was saying in that repulsive tweet, I think he's probably having a joke, and I also think that, for the sake of the company, he should throw away his phone. I mean, this -- one of the problems Twitter has is they need to attract advertisers. They need to make people comfortable.

Musk, he can be wonderfully funny on Twitter. He's honestly one of the smartest people in the world. But if I were the CEO of Twitter, I would try to filter some of what he says, like that tweet that you just read.

VAUSE: Yes. Sometimes you've got to read the room. Nicholas, thank you so much for being with us, sir. Really appreciate it.

THOMPSON: It's so fun to talk about this.

VAUSE: Take care.

We're back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM. But first, WORLD SPORT starts after a short break. See you back here in about 17 minutes.

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