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Turkey Agrees To Allow Sweden To Join NATO; Israel's Knesset Gives First Nod To Contested Supreme Court Bill; U.N. Warns Sudan May Be Nearing All Out Civil War; Historic Flooding Hammers Northeastern US; Biden Meets with Rishi Sunak in London and King Charles III at Windsor Castle; World Leaders Gather in Lithuania for NATO Summit; Leaked Documents Reveal Putin's Secret Train; Disgraced Former U.S.A. Gymnastics Doctor Stabbed in Prison; Comedian Sarah Silverman Sues Open A.I. and Meta Alleging Copyright Infringement; Meta's Threads App Surpasses 100 Million Users. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired July 11, 2023 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[01:00:28]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead here on CNN Newsroom. NATO break through, 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 push forward with new laws to limit the authority of the Supreme Court.
As she turned her teenage years of bedwetting into stand-up comedy. Now Sarah Silverman accuses open AI and Meta of stealing those words and violating copyright.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.
VAUSE: Thanks for being with us. On the eve of a crucial two day summit of 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 made official.
The meeting in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius is expected to be dominated by Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as Ukraine's long standing request to join a request opposed by the U.S. President. White House officials say Joe Biden will meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday.
President Biden though has welcomed the new set Sweden's membership has now been or been approved, which avoids the perception of division among NATO members. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made the announcement on Monday that Turkey had dropped a year-long objection to Sweden's membership. In turn, Sweden appears to be supporting turkeys bid for EU membership, according to Turkey state run news agency. And Sweden's defense minister said both Sweden and NATO will now be the stronger a similar sentiment echoed by the head of the military alliance.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Completing Sweden's accession to NATO is an 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: Live now to Lithuanian capital CNN's Melissa Bell is standing by with very latest on this. OK, so that's one problem down, I guess for Joe Biden before he gets to this NATO Summit. What else is he in store for once he arrives?
MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, at least NATO can rest assured and the Swedes particularly that there will be a 32nd member it should be fairly quick. As of now, it depends on the Turkish parliament ratifying it in the next couple of weeks. Budapest also dropping it's up threat of a veto. And then this should happen fairly quickly.
Next, the alliance can move on to what this summit was actually meant to be about that is, of course, looking at their defense and deterrence plans, updating them looking at spending commitments for individual countries, but mainly, of course, 20 miles as we are from the Belarusian border, and a year and a half into this war, the question of Ukraine and when and how and how quickly, it will be allowed to join NATO.
This is one of the issues for having galvanized NATO over the last year and a half this war in Ukraine that now actually divided. The question of what the accession plan should look like whether Ukraine should have like most hopeful members who want to join do have to compete a map, a Membership Action Plan to give specific idea of the reforms that is going to be carried out to bring it up to the standards that NATO requires for its members.
What some of those countries, in particular the Baltic states, those who are most fervent supporters of the idea of a quick and easy and simplified Ukrainian accession plan, a much stronger signal that NATO has been their nature has been able to give so far as to when and how we'll be able to join.
What they say is that this needs to be made as quick and as easy as it can be. And they're pushing hard for that to be the case. But it is now a matter of some division inside NATO how it might happen. On the other side, you have the United States and Germany with President Biden being very clear, John, when he spoke to CNN just a couple of days ago, about the fact that as long as the war was on in Ukraine, it could not be considered. The question of accession was too soon. And not a question that it was possible to look at. What you're likely to see over the next couple of days is a lot of
wrangling behind the scenes about exactly what wording can be put in that final communique about how and when NATO is able to take in Ukraine.
The fact though of President Zelenskyy visit who had said over the weekend in interviews that he wouldn't come here just for fun. He does suggest that he's been given the assurances he needed that his trip will be worthwhile and that that message of unity and have a fairly fast track for Ukraine that he hopes for may well be forthcoming. John.
[01:05:11]
VAUSE: Melissa Bell speaking of a very loud car alarm in the capitol there in Lithuania. Thank you for that. And we clearly everyone's had an early morning wake up call there as well. Thank you, Melissa.
Joining us this hour also from Vilnius as David Sanger, CNN political national security analyst, and White House National Security correspondent with New York Times. He's also the author of "The Perfect Weapon." David, it's good to see it's been well.
DAVID SAANGER, CNN POLITICAL NATIONAL SECURITY: Good morning. Great to see you, John.
VAUSE: OK, so Turkey's flip flop on opposing Sweden's NATO application. Yes, it was all sealed, it seems with a smile and a handshake. Here's Swedish Prime Minister.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ULF KRISTERSSON, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER (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 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 payoff? 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 F-16 deliveries, United States said that those and other arms weren't linked to what he did here but clearly they were. 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 buy 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 EU membership for Turkey. And certainly those arms.
VAUSE: Was like it was a pretty good day for Erdogan. Well, 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, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (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 elements 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-16 to the U.S. sending Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine, sending Abrams tanks, long range missiles, and the latest is cluster munitions being sent to Ukraine, all 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 to 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 describe.
So it's going to be a really interesting case to watch here. 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 of issues.
The bigger set of issues I suspect for President Biden is the question of, if you live 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.
[01:10:05]
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, we'll see what happens over these two days, of course, you'll be there. And we'll find out more of the hours and days ahead. David, thanks so much. We appreciate your reporting. Appreciate you being there.
SANGER: Great to be with you, John.
VAUSE: Thank you. So also, at this NATO Summit, Germany expected for announced new support packages for Ukraine, and non-lethal aid has been promised by South Korea. But mostly Ukrainians ammunition, a lot of ammunition. And one of Europe's largest arms manufacturer says it's ready to meet that demand, as the company's CEO told CNN's Fred Pleitgen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARMIN PAPPERGER, CEO, RHEINMETALL: They think it's very important that we help the Ukrainians that they are independent, they have to help themselves. 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.
So what we have to do is we have to give them technology on NATO bases. And over the next two to three months, we will open the first workshop in Ukraine, in the western part of Ukraine, and then they can maintenance their vehicles by themself.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So workshop means maintaining Western vehicles. What sort of production do you think could be possible? Tanks for instance, armored personnel carriers and alike.
PAPPERGER: The first idea is really APCs. On the APC side, as you know, we have Fox technology 100 percent under control and this six by six vehicle would be a very good vehicle for the Ukrainian army.
So at the moment, 10 models per month we deliver we are able to deliver and we deliver a lot of leopard to a force. Over the 12 months we will deliver 250 vehicles which is a lot but there is more need for ammunition because the lack of ammunition is much more important than the lack of vehicles.
PLEITGEN: The ammunition is a huge deficit right now for the Ukrainians. They talk about it a lot. Where can you help?
PAPPERGER: We help them and the capacity we have is huge. Rheinmetall has the biggest capacity for tank ammunition we produced this year 150,000 rounds. We are able to produce 240,000 rounds by far the biggest capacity worldwide. We will deliver and we deliver also now the Ukrainian forces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: For years Ukrainian troops are trained and fought in ways that the old Soviet Union, old unreliable Russian made Cold War equipment, their own equipment too was one of the biggest exporters around the world. There was plenty of it, but it wasn't particularly good. They have come a long way in recent months learning how to use the new Western weapons. CNN's Bed Wedeman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BED WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): This is practice preparing for a battle just a short drive away on Ukraine's eastern front. For an army long trained in the use of Soviet era weapons it's a time of transition to the latest arms to arrive from the West.
An American made grenade launcher, an American made 50 caliber machine gun.
WEDEMAN (on camera): This exercise is designed to bring together troops fresh from the front around Bakhmut with new recruits to show them how it's done.
WEDEMAN (voiceover): Veteran soldier Denys explains the finer points of the machine gun to recruits fresh, not all young. On the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania with the counteroffensive here moving ahead slowly, Ukraine is pressing for more help and the troops here have some ideas.
DENYS, GUNNER, 57TH BRIGADE: We need many, many weapons almost a week of.
WEDEMAN: This commander callsign Monckton puts it this way. The Russians have an immense amount of old Soviet weapons, he says. They just throw a massive metal at us. We can't overcome them this way. We need quality and precision. Nearby other recruits are rehearsing an assault, jumping out of an old Soviet era armored personnel carrier. Advancing under the watchful eye of their sergeant.
Mykola (ph) served in the Soviet Army, then drove a tractor for decades before joining the Ukrainian army a year ago. He says NATO should provide something newer than his old Soviet workhorse. It's as old as the two of us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can believe it.
WEDEMAN: Mykola (ph) has simple advice for the new troops, move fast and stay low. And for NATO just move fast. Ben Wedeman, CNN, eastern Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Ukraine says air defense systems have effectively shut down Iranian made Russian drones and an early morning air attack on the capital Kyiv. The second Russian air attack on the city this month, and search operations have ended in the Zaporizhzhia region Aa day after a Russian attack killed at least seven people. Russian missiles struck a school where many were receiving humanitarian aid on Monday. Ukrainian officials have called it a war crime.
For three months now civilians in Sudan have injured almost endless carnage and airstrike Saturday, the country's largest city killed at least 22 people and the attacks taking place against civilians in the western province of Darfur are raising accusations of crimes against humanity. It's all led the U.N. to issue a very stark warning. CNN's Stephanie Busari has our report from Lagos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA (on camera): The United Nations says Sudan is on the brink of a quote, full scale Civil War, following weekend airstrike that killed at least 22 people. Sudan's Minister of Health showed a video of the attack in the city of Omdurman and the United Nations is worried that there was no peaceful resolution in sight.
And they also concerned about escalating violence on civilians as the war enters as 12 week. Survivors have reported a wave of sexual violence and witnesses have spoken of ethically targeted killings.
The U.N. released a statement saying the lack of care for human rights law is quote, dangerous and disturbing. There has been widespread looting and the U.N. also warned of possible crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.
The warring generals have so far resisted all attempts by the U.N., E.U. and African Union to bring a lasting resolution. Egypt is this week inviting its neighbors to a summit in Cairo to try to bring an end to the war in Sudan. Millions of Sudanese have fled the violence Egypt and neighboring countries such as Chad, Ethiopia and Libya, putting pressure on some of the most fragile countries on the continent. Stephanie Busari, CNN, Lagos.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Human Rights Watch is accusing the Rapid Support Forces and their allies are committing war crimes in West Darfur, the province at the same place where Arab militias massacred hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities in the early 2000s.
Now Human Rights Watch says the RSF and the Arab militia allies, who directly sprung from those earlier armed groups are committing atrocities of their own. Researchers accused militias of executing dozens of people destroying an entire town, shooting residents and burning home shops, schools and hospitals. That attack and many others have sent tens of thousands of tribes fleeing into neighboring Chad.
One of HRW's top researchers says quote, the accounts are those who survived recent attacks in West Darfur echo the horror, devastation and despair of Darfur 20 years ago. The ICC prosecutor should investigate these heinous abuses. Still to come here. Israel's government takes a big step towards
enacting as much criticized judicial reforms. Now the country is bracing for a day of disturbance we'll explain with the report from Jerusalem in a moment.
Also heavy rains washed out this major road in New England as they started flooding as much of the northeastern United States.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMIR OHANA, SPEAKER OF THE KNESSET (through translator): Here are the results of the vote 64 in favor, 56 against. approved that the draft Basic Law the judiciary is justified. It will be accepted and will be forwarded to constitutional committee law and justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Israel's parliament approved the first reading of a bill they'll now be two more, which opponents say will ultimately undermine Israeli democracy but as a key campaign promise made by coalition partners within the right wing government.
This approval did not come without a fight. Security officers hold protesters out of the Knesset or parliament before the vote took place. Every member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is far right wing coalition voted for the measure. Every other member of parliament voted against it.
Now comes what they call a massive day of protests, a day of disruption. CNN's Hadas Gold has more now reporting in from Jerusalem.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HADAS GOLD, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (on camera): 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 those massive general strike and protests that throws Israel into place the defense minister even coming out against his own government's plan.
Now Israeli 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 this 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 actually 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 this 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 a compromise negotiations trying to take place with the really president's residents, even while this legislation was technically frozen in place. Israeli protesters were still taking to the street on a regular basis.
And on a Monday evening, they were on the floor. The Israeli parliament trying to stay 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 is really 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 add 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 overall, 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: Europe sprinkled hot summer last year is now being blamed for the deaths of close to 62,000 people. Climate scientists say the highest death toll was in Italy around 18,000 followed by Spain and then Germany. The extreme heat impacted women and the elderly. The most according to the study.
And a perfect storm of climate events is creating record heat and deadly flooding in the U.S. north east. More than seven and a half inches of rain fell at West Point in New York, just six hours on Sunday. It's been called a once in 1,000 year rainfall event. Scientists say climate change will prolong these extreme weather events.
[01:25:05]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MANN, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: We have to step back when we talk about the impact that climate change is having on these events. Sure, you know, weather is weather, it's going to happen, rainfall, flooding events are going to happen. What climate change is doing is it's supercharging them.
So when you get one of those weather systems that's producing large amounts of rainfall, you get more rainfall. Every degree Fahrenheit of warming of the atmosphere puts another several percent of moisture in the atmosphere so there is the potential for larger amounts of rainfall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Well, 9 million people have been under floodlights across the northeastern United States. CNN's Polo Sandoval has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at the people's door. Oh my god.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Historic flooding slamming southeastern New York on Sunday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Its up for my knees.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.
SANDOVAL: Orange County officials say at least one woman died after she was swept away in floodwaters in the town of Highlands.
STEVE NEUHAUS, ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK EXECUTIVE: We have a emergency situation here in southern Orange County, in particular to Highland Falls area.
SANDOVAL: A state of emergency was declared in Ontario in Orange County Sunday by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. In Orange County, Hochul and the Orange County executive said it was due to quote, life threatening flooding and power outages to more than 12,000 homes.
NEUHAUS: Throughout the county we have flooding situations and emergency calls. If you do not need to be on the road, stay off the road.
SANDOVAL: At West Point, intense rain recorded there total of more than seven and a half inches in six hours, according to preliminary data from NOAA. A CNN analysis of NOAA historical rainfall frequency data indicates this would be a one in a 1000 year rainfall event.
Also in Orange County, the City of Cornwall issued a no travel advisory to numerous flooded roadways, stranded vehicles, water rescues, mudslides, downed trees and debris. In Rockland County flooding stranded vehicles. Police say they've been assisting local fire departments and EMS helping to get stranded motorists to safety. York State Police urging people to avoid the Palisades interstate Parkway due to heavy flooding and washouts.
And it's not just New York State feeling the brunt of it. On Sunday, Vermont Governor Phil Scott declared a state of emergency Friday, heavy rain washed out a portion of Route 4 and Killington.
SANDOVAL (on camera): New York Governor Kathy Hochul says that she is confident that the state will receive the necessary funding from the federal government. She said on CNN on Monday that is our hope that it will be enough not just to help people on this long and difficult road to recovery and the rebuilding process but also to replace some of the state's damaged infrastructure. Polo Sandoval, CNN, Highland Falls, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Record rainfall has caused heavy flooding on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Official say at least four people have died, 18 have been injured, half a dozen now missing. The rain began at the start of the month and has not stopped it seems triggering landslides and caused rivers to overflow.
In Iceland, a volcano just outside the capital Reykjavik has erupted spewing streams of lava. Volcanologist say this is a minor eruption on a 200 meter long fissure, which is also releasing toxic gas. It's making some very smoky skies around the Capitol. But scientists say the volcanoes location is uninhabited and right now there's no danger, immediate danger to any populated area.
Well, as the saying goes, war is hell. But there are a few things you can make life a little easier, like a luxury armored train. When we come back, new details of how the upgrades to the Russian president likes to get around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leaked plans for the train and also show a luxurious spar on board meeting a Turkish steam bath. According to the dossier center, a fully equipped cosmetology school with a massage table and high end beauty equipment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[01:30:29]
VAUSE: Welcome back.
I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
On the eve of a summit by NATO leaders in the Lithuania's capital, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced Turkey has dropped more than a year-long opposition to Sweden's friendship. In return, Sweden appears to be supporting Turkeys' membership to the European Union, according to Turkey state run news agencies.
Meantime, a senior Russian official says Turkey is becoming an unfriendly country after a series of, quote, "provocative decisions". This comes after Ukraine's president visited Turkey and Turkey endorsed Ukraine's bid to join NATO. A future pathway for Ukraine to join the alliance will be up for discussion when NATO leaders meet later today. It will likely come up when Volodymyr Zelenskyy sits down with U.S. President Joe Biden.
Mr. Biden also is discussing Ukraine, as he kicks off his weeklong overseas trip in London.
CNN's Max Foster has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: President Biden kicking off his summer European tour with a quick stop in London aimed at bolstering the special U.S.-U.K. relationship. And it is a visit full of high- stakes diplomacy.
RISHI SUNAK, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Great to have you here. Thanks very much.
FOSTER: First it was tea in the garden at Downing Street with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The pair who have met five times in the past five months, came to show they are in lockstep on key issues such as the war in Ukraine.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our relationship is rock- solid.
FOSTER: On the agenda: strengthening economic security and the NATO alliance.
SUNAK: We head from here to NATO in Vilnius where we stand as two of the firmest allies in that alliance, and I know we will do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security. But great pleasure to have you here.
FOSTER: The meeting comes after the U.S. announced it will send controversial cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time.
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Ukraine has been requesting cluster munitions in order to defend its own sovereign territory.
FOSTER: A rare topic of disagreement between the two allies. The British prime minister addressing those concerns on Sunday.
SUNAK: The U.K. is signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster missions, and discourages their use. We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion.
FOSTER: Then it was on to Windsor Castle, marking Biden's first meeting with Charles since his coronation as king. He was greeted with all the pomp and pageantry of an arrival ceremony and an honor guard inspection.
Ahead of their meeting, the palace released details of what the monarch would be discussing, something which his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, never allowed.
The topic: climate change, an important subject for both the president and the king coming after four days of record breaking heat last week. The pair convening a discussion with high-profile private sector stakeholders along with a special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry who warned the world is in uncharted territory.
JOHN KERRY, SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FOR CLIMATE: There's a lot of capital in the world, but some of it has been sitting on the sidelines. And what we need to do now is accelerate the development of new technologies and also the deployment of existing technologies -- solar, wind, nuclear, so forth.
FOSTER: Kerry thanked Charles for holding the event and his leadership on the issue.
[01:34:45]
FOSTER: From London, President Biden traveled to Lithuania where NATO leaders will gather for a major summit amid Ukraine's offensive and last month's failed coup attempt in Russia, a series of critical meetings at a critical juncture in European and global security.
Max Foster, CNN -- Windsor Castle, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well, just days after Vladimir Putin described him as a traitor and his failed attempt at a military uprising it seems the leader of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin actually met in person with the Russian president. According to a Kremlin spokesperson, Wagner commanders were also present in a three-hour long meeting.
The Kremlin says the Wagner boss and his fighters claim to be staunch supporters of President Putin, saying they are ready to keep fighting for Russia.
Right now Prigozhin is actually meant to be in exile in Belarus but his whereabouts and his status has been in question since that open military rebellion.
Well, a remarkable inside look now into the secretive way Russia's president likes to move around his country -- on the rails and in lots of luxury.
Documents shared with CNN reveal Vladimir Putin travels on an armored train complete with a gym, spa, even a Turkish steam bath.
CNN's Matthew Chance has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A rare glimpse inside Putin's secret train, with leaked documents shown to CNN.
GLEB KARAKULOV, FORMER ENGINEER, RUSSIAN FEDERAL PROTECTIVE SERVICE (through translator): It is a special train for the president.
CHANCE: Revealing how the Kremlin leader travels amid increasingly tight security and luxury.
ABBAS GALLYAMOV, FORMER SPEECHWRITER FOR VLADIMIR PUTIN: He is surrounded by enemies, and psychologically, he wants to feel protected.
CHANCE: From outside, Train Number One as it is dubbed in Russia seems ordinary. Its heavily armored carriages, purposely disguised with regular Russian Railways paintwork and grime.
CHANCE: State media was once allowed inside recording President Putin meeting transport officials in a sumptuous boardroom.
The train's other 20 or so carriages, some updated as recently as last year, have 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, and of course, the Kremlin.
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 onboard 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.
KARAKULOV: Planes can always be detected. While there are so many trains and there's no real way to track them. So this way was just for secrecy so nobody knew his movements.
CHANCE: But discretion for the Russian president doesn't mean discomfort.
Leaked plans for the train also show a luxurious spa onboard, 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.
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 existence is higher than ever.
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 speechwriter.
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?
[01:39:53]
GALLYAMOV: He is losing the war, he is losing politics, he's losing 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. The physical defense.
CHANCE: There are signs that's an image the Kremlin knows it should shed. In recent weeks, we have seen Putin more publicly engaged than he has been for years.
But in his increasingly hostile world, the security and luxury of Train Number One, may be sanctuary indeed.
Matthew Chance, CNN -- Moscow.
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VAUSE: Still ahead on CNN, an update on the prison stabbing of Larry Nassar, sexual predator and disgraced former doctor of U.S. Gymnastics.
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VAUSE: An Iranian rapper has received a six-year prison sentence for supporting last year's nationwide anti-government protests. Toomaj Salehi has been banned from producing music and singing for two years as well. That's after his music expressed support for protests which were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini.
She was arrested by Iran's morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab correctly and died in their custody. But Salehi was spared the death according to state media, charges against him were punishable by death -- that is according to state media.
Ok.
Nassar is serving a 60-year sentence and will likely die in prison. That death almost came sooner than he expected.
CNN's Brian Todd reports on the prison attack on the disgraced former doctor for Team U.S.A. Gymnastics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Raise your right hand.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One of the most notorious convicted abusers in American history viciously attacked in prison. Larry Nassar, former team doctor for U.S.A. 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.
JOSE ROJAS, PRESIDENT, CORRECTIONS OFFICERS UNION AT COLEMAN PRISON: They could make weapons out of anything, out of metal objects they can find anywhere, and they're made into a homemade weapon, homemade knife.
TODD: 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.
[01:44:47]
TODD: 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: 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.
TODD: 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.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back comedian, actress, and author Sarah Silverman taking on A.I. And accusing major tech companies of stealing her words and violating copyright.
Also a big upset from American Christopher Eubanks who's headed to the Wimbledon after a five-set thriller.
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VAUSE: Aretha Franklin there with two minutes and 18 seconds of what would become a national soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement. One of the most recognizable hits ever. Soon a jury will decide how royalties from her music will actually be distributed among her family. A trial over her estate began on Monday between three of her four sons.
Franklin did not leave a formal will but her death in 2018. But two handwritten notes were found in her home after she died. Now her sons are trying to settle which document should be recognized and how her royalties, cash, and other possessions should be divided.
Actress and comedian Sarah Silverman is suing both Open A.I. and Meta, alleging copyright infringement. She says the company used copyrighted material from her book without her knowledge or permission. The suit claims the companies are using books to create language models.
That is important because it could give artificial intelligence the ability to generate new material without compensating authors of the original work.
Meta declined to comment to CNN, and we haven't heard back from Open A.I. Not even an actual generated A.I.
Joining me now attorney and legal affairs correspondent Areva Martin in Los Angeles. Areva, thank you for being with us.
I guess you know, part of the lawsuit, I want to read part of the actual legal case here from the lawsuit which has (INAUDIBLE) in to the court.
[01:49:53]
VAUSE: It reads in part, "A large language model is trained by copying massive amounts of text, and extracting expressive information from it. This body of text is called the training data set. A large language model's output is therefore entirely and uniquely reliant on this material in its training dataset. Thus the decisions about what textual information to includes in the training data set are deliberate and important choices."
I know that is long. I know that it's complicated, but this goes on to argue that among almost 200,000 literary it works, that were included in that so-called data set known as the pile, some of that work was copyrighted and owned by Silverman and others. And it was used without their permission.
ChatGPT appears to have done the same with close to 300,000 pieces of work from another shadow library. So is there an argument here of copyright infringement for derivative works? Because is that what we are looking at here? Not direct copyright but derivative works?
AREVA MARTIN, LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Yes, this area, as you said, John is complicated. And as we see more A.I. platforms, we are going to see more litigation, we are going to see more claims from artists and entertainers and creators, content creators like Sarah Silverman. Claiming copyright infringement. Because essentially what they are saying as you are taking my copy written work and you are using it to train chatbots.
So when we do a command to ChatGPT asking them to write us a beautiful letter, say, about Independence Day, what Sarah Silverman and the other two authors in this lawsuit are claiming is that that chatbot is pulling from copy written material in order to produce for you that letter.
Now, what the companies are saying in response is that this is the use of what they call, you know, fair use protected material. So they are saying even though this material may be copy written it is fair use, that the U.S. law permits limited use of copywritten material without having to obtain the permission of the original author of that material.
We are starting to see lots of these lawsuits, and it is not clear, John, how courts are going to rule in these cases.
Ok, so explain to me the difference between copyright infringement and copyright derivative infringement. Essentially, the copyright which is used for derivative works is also, those words are also copyrighted as well, right. Because that's sort what we are getting to here?
MARTIN: Well, the big issue is what happens once that information is used? Is that information used in what is often referred to in a transformative way? So does that, you know, bot take that information and transform your original work into a new piece of work.
Because that is what these companies are calling. They are claiming we are not using your original work and spitting back out via these apps your original work. We are actually using material which they say is protected by these fair use laws, and then creating what is generally called this transformative piece of work which they say you no longer have any rights to claim or royalties to or in any way restrict our use of this information. VAUSE: How similar is this legal case to the case which news
organizations have brought against Google, against other social media companies for essentially stealing our work and putting it up on the Internet for nothing?
MARTIN: Yes, well, like I said these kinds of lawsuits are exploding. And you are right. There has been lots of lawsuits against Google taking information that news outlets like CNN and others produce and then making that information, that content available to its, you know, millions and millions and billions of followers.
And again, courts have not provided the kind of guidance that you would expect for the A.I. companies, for these Internet companies, or for those content creators who are filing these lawsuits.
And what we are seeing, the lawyers that are representing Sarah Silverman and the other two authors, these lawyers have become, I will say the go-to lawyers in California, filing these kinds of actions.
I took a look at their websites, they tout having, you know, achieved hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from big tech companies, suing these companies for using copywritten materials.
VAUSE: We had an interesting case, it could lay out the rules for the road for the future. Somehow I don't think they're going to get there because it is so complicated. \
But Areva, it is great to have you with us to explain all this. Thank you so much. It's always good to see you.
MARTIN: Thanks, John, my pleasure.
VAUSE: Take care.
Well, the new Meta Threads app has quickly become a major threat to Twitter, which is seeing its web traffic tank. More than 100 million users have signed up for Threads just days after its launch according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
[01:54:59]
VAUSE: But he and the head of Instagram claim they don't just want Twitter defectors, they want to appeal to a wide audience of new users.
Nicholas Thompson, CEO at "The Atlantic" spoke about the challenges and the opportunities they see for both threads and Twitter. Here he is.
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NICHOLAS THOMPSON, CEO, "THE ATLANTIC": I think with the numbers it will actually be really interesting when we see how much Instagram 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, lots of people I know have gone from Twitter to Threads. But they are also going from Instagram, so it's a complicated question for Meta. To the larger question of what Twitter can do, well they 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 have been doing, but much better. They have to make themselves the place for real interesting discourse and 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 the real conversation's happening. They just need to be able to do it in a way where the site doesn't crash, where people don't feel as uncomfortable as they sometimes do now.
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VAUSE: Thanks to Nicholas Thompson there for his insight.
American tennis player Christopher Eubanks heading to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon after upsetting Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas (INAUDIBLE) on Monday. Thank God he's great. 27 year old will face world number 3 Daniel Medvedev of Russia on Wednesday.
Earlier he spoke about what has been an amazing run because he is a great guy.
CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS, TENNIS PLAYER: Dream come true. Yes, it's tough to really put into words. Everything from realizing that I have two credentials at Wimbledon for the rest of my life. To checking my phone and seeing my name as an ESPN alert. To realizing how much I disliked grass at the beginning of the grass court season, to now look at where I am.
Like there's just so many different ways I could go about it but I just think the entire experience altogether has just been a whirlwind. And it has been, you know, something that you dream about.
The thing for me, I didn't really know if that dream would actually come true, and I'm sitting here in it now. So it is pretty cool.
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VAUSE: This is going to be good for a laugh. Ok. Here is a line of the men's singles quarterfinal. World number one Carlos Alcaraz. Alcaraz, what is it, from Spain will go head to head with Holger Rune from Denmark. Novak Djokovic will take on Russia's Andrey Rublev.
In the women's singles, world number one Iga Swiatek of Poland will play Ukraine's Elina Svitolina. And Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka will be up against American Madison Keys. Yes, I have no idea about these names.
That was fun, wasn't it, everybody?
Thank you for watching. CNN news continues after a break.
I'm going to learn some tennis names. See you tomorrow.
[01:58:01]
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