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Sweltering Heat and Deadly Floods Now Experienced Almost Around the World, Owing to the Impact of Climate Change; Russia Ends Ukraine Grain Deal; NGO Accusing Tunisia of Carrying out Collective Expulsions; U.S. Climate Envoy meets Chinese Counterpart to Tackle Climate Change Negotiations; Former Twitter Africa Employees Say No Severance or Contract, They Were Ghosted; ACL Injury a Main Concern for Football Stars to Miss Their Tournaments. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired July 18, 2023 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. You are watching "CNN Newsroom" and I'm Rosemary Church.
Just ahead, record heat from Europe to China to the U.S., deadly flooding in South Korea. We are seeing the impact of climate change across the globe and experts warn this is only the beginning.
Russia officially pulls out of the Ukraine grain deal, drawing international condemnation and raising fears of a global food shortage.
And beaten and abandoned, hundreds of migrants left stranded in the searing desert by Tunisian authorities.
UNKNOWN (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is "CNN Newsroom" with Rosemary Church.
CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Well, the searing heat wave across southern Europe is expected to get worse today with temperatures in the 40 degree range across Spain, Italy and Greece. Athens closed the Acropolis. Italian authorities are warning people to drink plenty of water and stay out of direct sunlight between 11.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. And in Greece, the heat has sparked 81 wildfires across the country. The Civil Protection minister says the day ahead will be difficult as hundreds of firefighters try to extinguish the flames.
CNN's Barbie Nadeau is live this hour at the Trevi Fountain in Rome. She joins us now. Good morning to you, Barbie. So record high temperatures are severely impacting the lives of tourists and residents across Italy and of course other parts of southern Europe. How are people coping under these conditions?
BARBIE NADEAU. CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, you know, there are two ways to cope with it. Either stay inside, you stay protected, which we're seeing the Italians and people who live in these southern European places do, and you see the tourists who are out here enjoying it. You know, as you said, they're supposed to stay out of the direct sun during the hottest part of the day, but we've seen day in and day out here that these tourists are just taking advantage of the time they have in Rome. They're at these sites, Trevi Fountain here. There are far more people standing in the shade than there are in the sun here.
But, you know, as the day wears on, there's just no space and they'll have no choice but to stand in the sun. Now the city of Rome provides lots of free fresh water to drink, there are lots of fountains to dip your hands into and things like that to cool off, but the real concern is just the duration of this heat. It's going to be really hot today and there are a lot of people who are not going to take that advice who are going to stay outside and that's what the authorities are worried about. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Yeah and of course as you've been speaking to us, we've been looking at these pictures of people standing in lines, waiting in the direct sunlight exactly what authorities are telling them what not to do. So talk to us about what other tips authorities are saying to mostly tourists who are being impacted by this. As you say, they're out on the streets. The residents are a little smarter. They're staying indoors. So what are some of the things that authorities are saying these people should be doing?
NADEAU: Well, you know, they should be going to museums and churches and indoor venues during that hot part of the day, but of course that's not even easy. You know, it's good advice, but you often have to make a reservation weeks or even months ahead for some of the museums. So while it seems practical, it's not necessarily, you know, viable for a lot of people.
But there is water around. You know, you can go to almost any part of Rome and fill up a water bottle and drink water. Hydration, wear a hat, wear sunscreen. You know, we've seen some spectacular sunburns on the tourists here wandering around Rome because, of course, if you've spent a lot of money and a lot of planning on a vacation for just a few days in a city like Rome or Florence or even south in Sicily, you know, you're going to want to take advantage of it. So it's really a hard balance for them, a lot of them.
A lot of the people that we've been talking to just say, we've just got to do it. We only have two days here. And so they're doing it. But, you know, we've talked so much about the real sort of silent killer that heat can be. And when we see temperatures hit 40 or above, as we're expecting here in Rome today, you know, that is detrimental. That's when it gets very, very serious.
And like you said, the residents, Italians, people who live in southern Europe know how to deal with this. Authorities are saying, you know, they're keep doing what you're doing, stay inside Rosemary.
CHURCH: Yeah and of course we're looking at all those people behind you, it's peak tourist season, they are shoulder to shoulder, so many people out there in the sunshine. Barbie Nadeau, joining us live from Rome, many thanks. [03:05:08]
Well, we are seeing blistering temperatures in China and Japan, some of which are breaking new records. Temperatures in China's Xinjiang province reached an all-time high of 52.2 degrees Celsius. Four other stations recorded temperatures higher than 50 degrees.
And in Japan, three cities broke their all-time high records. And South Korea is still reeling from a weekend of deadly floods. The country's president is promising to overhaul the nation's approach to extreme weather.
Anna Coren reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Apocalyptic scenes in South Korea as an onslaught of torrential rain causes flooding and landslides, leaving more than 40 people dead and thousands in shelters.
In Yecheon, about 200 kilometers south of the capital Seoul, a landslide enveloped around 30 homes in mud, killing multiple people. South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol visited the area on Monday. He promised to mobilize all resources to help with the disaster, including the police and military. Yoon also met with local residents made homeless, who are now gathering in a community shelter. He pledged to build new homes for those who had lost their homes.
KIM CHUN-JA, RESIDENT (through translator): People don't have a place to live. We're gathering here because we have to eat and we have to sleep.
COREN (voice-over): The rains have pummeled central and southern regions of the country since Thursday, and another deluge is expected in the coming days. Authorities say more than 40 cultural heritage sites have been damaged, including temples listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. On Saturday, another disaster unfolded in the town of Osong, about 130
kilometers south of Seoul.
A levee broke and flooded a nearby underpass in just minutes. Seventeen vehicles were trapped, including a bus and its passengers. The search has now ended after rescuers pulled out 14 bodies. Locals criticized the decision to keep the road open despite a flood warning.
South Korea's president blamed the failure of the authorities to follow disaster response rules and he warned that they need to do a lot more to prepare for the future.
YOON SUK-YEOL, SOUTH KOREAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This kind of extreme weather event will become commonplace. We must accept climate change as happening and deal with it. The idea that extreme weather linked to climate change is an anomaly and can't be helped needs to be completely overhauled. COREN (voice-over): Yoon's words will echo with other world leaders
facing similar threats to their population, as Asia, the U.S. and Europe suffer record-breaking heat waves and severe flooding this summer.
Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.
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CHURCH: CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers takes a look at how little relief is in sight for the millions of people around the world suffering under this extreme weather.
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CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Some dreadful and deadly heat across the northern hemisphere. Obviously summertime there, but some of these temperatures here, especially for places like China, 126 degrees Fahrenheit, 52.2. It has never ever been hotter in any city in China than that right there. That's an all time country record.
So yes, it has been hot and it's still hot. Now there will be a little bit of a tropical system that will cool Beijing down with some clouds and maybe even a shower or two. But that's all part of the front that's going to move on by even in parts of Tokyo cool you down just a little bit as the Mayubayo just gets a little bit farther to the south there.
This is where the rainfall is going to be with the last typhoon Talim just to the north of Hanoi likely the heaviest rainfall there.
Here is what the radar would likely look like for this: the forecast radar watch the circulation there to the west of Hong Kong made landfall on Monday, still going to put down quite a bit of rainfall though for today, and into tomorrow as we start to see the storm kind of wind down in speed and intensity, but still bringing an awful lot of tropical moisture with it. Here is the rainfall across Tokyo, and Seoul.
This is where the area is going to cool down a bit with that cloud cover, and then we take a look at what South Korea had. Almost half a meter in many spots and more than half a meter in just a few, we certainly don't need any more rainfall there across parts of South Korea.
The heat is still on in Europe, not really going away. Northwestern Europe is absolutely has been very, very cool, but it's the Mediterranean down here. Italy, Rome, all the way into Greece. Temperatures are going to be the hottest that they'll be on Tuesday, beginning to cool back down just a little bit, but Rome 41 in the afternoon.
That's going to be a very hot day, then the hottest for the rest of the week as we cool down back into 30s. But that's still well above normal for Rome, so above normal for Athens as well, not really cooling down there much temperatures in the afternoon right around 40 degrees.
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The United States still has this heat dome over to the desert southwest and we call it a desert southwest because it doesn't rain there very much in the summertime but when it doesn't rain an awful lot like when India doesn't get the monsoon on time it can get very, very hot. And there will be showers, and there will be a southwest monsoon here in parts of the United States southwest that will cool the area down in the afternoon where it won't heat up as much.
But it will be muggy and the heat index will go way up. Let's see temperatures in Death Valley. Not very many people live there. But people want to go there to visit to feel what 50 degrees Celsius really feels like. Las Vegas, you'll be in the middle 40s even into the afternoon. There will be a couple showers around too, just starting that little bit of monsoon there across parts of the desert southwest. So yes, the heat is on, and it seems like worldwide, very few record low places, if any, across the globe right now.
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CHURCH: World leaders are blasting Vladimir Putin over Russia's decision to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative. That deal has enabled ships to safely transit the Black Sea to deliver Ukrainian grain to Turkish ports, a total of some 33 million metric tons since the agreement was reached a year ago. But Russia says the deal is unfair because it hasn't been able to export its own foods and fertilizers due to financial sanctions.
Moscow says it will consider reviving the deal if its grievances are addressed. But the fear now is that grain prices will soar, straining cash-strapped countries that depend on Ukrainian grain to feed their people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is consulting with the deal's other parties, notably Turkey and the U.N., to make the deal work without Moscow's cooperation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Everyone has a right to stability. Africa has the right to stability. Asia has the right to stability. Europe has every right to stability. And therefore we must all care about security, about protection from Russian madness. And the Black Sea Grain Initiative can and should keep operating, if without Russia, then without Russia.
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CHURCH: Russian drones and missiles have targeted the Ukrainian port city of Odessa overnight, hours after Moscow pulled out of that grain deal. A CNN team in Odessa recorded this video of a large explosion in the sky.
Ukrainian officials say their air defense forces are working, though they warn several waves of attacks are expected and missiles could still be incoming. This also comes less than a day after Ukraine admitted it damaged the Kerch bridge between Crimea and mainland Russia with naval drones. An attack Vladimir Putin is calling terrorism.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen has more.
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FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russian investigators at the scene of the blast on the Crimean Bridge that killed the couple driving this car and wounded their daughter, also causing part of the roadway to collapse.
Russian President Vladimir Putin irate, vowing revenge.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): There will be a response from Russia to the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. The Ministry of Defense is preparing relevant proposals.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): A source in Ukrainian intelligence acknowledges Kyiv was behind the attack. The Crimean bridge connects Russia to occupied Crimea. Ukraine says cutting the roadway could hamper the logistics for Moscow's war effort in Ukraine.
Analysis of the operational situation and the traditions of warfare allow us to cut off the enemy's logistics routes. The spokesman for the SBU says the Crimean bridge is currently one of the transportation corridors for military supplies for the Russian army.
It's not the first time the bridge has been hit. In October 2022, a fuel tanker exploded, severely damaging both the road and railway and causing a massive fire.
A Ukrainian official only recently explicitly indicating Kyiv's involvement. Russia now also announcing it is canceling a grain deal that had allowed for the safe transport of agricultural goods out of Ukrainian ports. The move could cause havoc on international grain markets, prices already surging.
While the Kremlin says ending the deal is not related to the bridge attack, the E.U. and U.S. blasted the move, accusing Moscow of weaponizing world hunger.
[03:15:01]
SAMANTHA POWER, USAID ADMINISTRATOR: This is a reckless decision that will have profound human consequences. And it's just another example of Russian callousness and disregard for human lives.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): The Ukrainians say they want to salvage the grain deal, but will also continue fighting hard to take all of their territory back, including Crimea, as Ukraine's president recently told our own Erin Burnett.
ZELENSKYY (through translator): We cannot imagine Ukraine without Crimea. And while Crimea is under the Russian occupation, it means only one thing. War is not over yet.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH; CNN's Clare Sebastian is tracking all these developments from London. She joins us now live. Good morning to you Clare. So what more are you learning about these strikes on Odessa? And what's the latest on Russia's response to the Kerch Bridge attack?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, I think we may never know for sure whether the strikes on Odessa and Mikhailiev (ph) on the Black Sea coast overnight were Russia's revenge for the Kerch bridge attack.
But certainly, this was a relatively large attack involving, according to the Ukrainian military, six Kalibr cruise missiles, more than two dozen drones, all of the missiles, they say, and 21 drones in Odessa, four in Mikhailiev (ph), were shot down.
But relatively large-scale attack in a region that is no stranger to these overnight aerial sorts of port facility damaged in Odessa as well. Odessa, of course, one of the largest, or the largest port in Ukraine and one of those ports that's included in that now-defunct Black Sea grain deal.
So perhaps not a coincidence President Putin had promised to seek retaliation for the Kerch Bridge attack. And this morning we're hearing from the head of President Zelenskyy's office also believes this was likely Russia's revenge, saying the world must realize that the goal of Russia is hunger and killing people. They need waves of refugees. He says this is how they want to weaken the West.
Separately, the Russian Ministry of Defense this morning is saying that it thwarted an attempted drone attack by Ukraine on the Crimean Peninsula involving 28 drones. They say all of them were averted, either shot down or thrown, of course, by electronic warfare, they say. So, significant aerial activity over that southern region overnight, Rosemary.
CHURCH: And Clare, what's the latest on the international response to Russia withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal?
SEBASTIAN: So it's caused widespread alarm. Secretary Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State, calling it unconscionable. The E.U. Commission President calling it a cynical move. It was interesting that Antonio Guterres, the U.N. Secretary General, addressed Russia's claims directly that it is not benefiting enough from this deal, that it is still facing sanctions that are stopping it from properly exporting its own food and agricultural products.
He said, look, he sent a letter to Putin in recent days outlining a proposal to sort of help ease the path and especially addressing a concern that Russia wants its agricultural bank to be reconnected to the Swift International Payments Network, who contained a proposal to try to reconnect a subsidiary of that bank. And he said that Russia's agricultural food exports are, in his words, stabilizing.
We have heard from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who said a couple of months ago that they think that this agricultural year, which just ended in June for Russia, will show record wheat exports.
So it is unclear at the moment. what it would take for Russia to rejoin this deal. The Kremlin spokesman said that it might be possible if Russia's demands were met, but we don't know as of now what that threshold is. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Yeah. We'll continue to watch this very closely of course. Clare Sebastian, joining us live from London. Many thanks.
Still to come after months of tensions, U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely meet later this year.
Plus, hundreds of migrants kicked out of Tunisia, are left desperate, starving and trapped in a dangerous no-man's land. Why, rights groups say Tunisian authorities are acting out of racism.
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[03:20:00]
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CHURCH: Israel has recognized Morocco's sovereignty over the long disputed territory of Western Sahara. The Royal Office of Morocco says it was notified of the decision in a letter from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The statement says Mr. Netanyahu is also examining the possibility of opening a consulate in the city of Dakla. Morocco wants recognition of its sovereignty over the region, but the Algerian-backed Polisario Front wants an independent state there.
In the coming hours, U.S. President Joe Biden will meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Washington. The two leaders will discuss ways to create a more peaceful and prosperous Middle East, among other things. It comes as the White House says President Biden will probably meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later this year.
U.S. officials say details of the meeting are still being worked out, but it might take place in autumn in the United States. It follows months of tension between Biden and Netanyahu in part over the Israeli Prime Minister's contentious proposal to overhaul the country's judicial system.
U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is calling on Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to take action against Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal over her comments calling Israel a quote "racist state." Although Jayapal issued an apology Sunday, her remarks have sparked a sharp backlash from many, including some top Democrats.
CNN's Manu Raju has more. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Progressive leader Pramila Jayapal trying to contain the fallout after comments labeling Israel as a racist state. At a weekend event in Chicago interrupted by pro-Palestinian activists, Jayapal said --
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): We have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state, that the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy.
RAJU (voice-over): The remark ricocheted across the political spectrum and forced Democratic leaders to issue a rare rebuke of her comment on Sunday evening. Apologizing to those she offended, Jayapal said in a statement, I attempted to defuse a tense situation during a panel where fellow members of congress were being protested. I do not believe that the idea of Israel as a nation is racist.
REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL): I spoke to her several times yesterday. I think she understands that she misspoke. Israel is not a racist state.
RAJU (voice-over): The controversy comes amid growing tension among progressives over the actions taken by the Israeli government and sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Speaking to CNN on Friday, Jayapal laid out her concerns.
JAYAPAL: The violence, settler violence that's happening in Israel and the West Bank, the annexation of settlements that have been happening over the last several years. Netanyahu's collaboration with extreme right elements of Israel and the fact that we are getting further and further away from the ability to actually legitimately talk about a two-state solution.
RAJU (voice-over): The rift comes as Israeli President Isaac Herzog prepares to address Congress on Wednesday. While Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries supports the visit, Jayapal told CNN she might not attend, as some liberals have promised to skip it.
(on-camera): Should the speaker not have invited him?
JAYAPAL: I think this is not a good time for that to happen, yes.
RAJU (voice-over): The GOP trying to drive a wedge between Democrats and support for Israel.
KEVIN MCCARTHY, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: I think if the Democrats want to believe that they do not have a conference that continues to make anti-Semitic remarks, they need to do something about it.
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RAJU (on-camera): Now I asked Speaker McCarthy about another controversy that surfaced over the weekend. This is about a video that surfaced from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talking about the COVID-19 virus, saying that COVID-19 was somehow ethnically targeted to spare Jewish people.
I asked him if it's appropriate to give RFK the chance to testify before a House subcommittee this week in light of those comments pushing that false conspiracy theory. He said he disagreed with those comments, but he made clear that he has no issue with him testifying because he says the House committee is talking about censorship. He said it would not be right to censor someone even if you don't agree with his views.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH; It's an unconscionable scenario. Men, women, and children, some badly beaten, driven to a dangerous stretch of desert in the searing heat, left to fend for themselves with no food, water, or shelter. Human Rights Watch is documenting what it calls the collective expulsion of African migrants by authorities in Tunisia.
CNN's Nada Bashir has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NADA BASHIR, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): Beaten, injured and abandoned. These are just some of what Human Rights Watch estimates to be hundreds of refugees and migrants recently expelled from Tunisia. They say they've been stranded for weeks in no man's land, here at the country's eastern border with Libya, closely watched by armed border guards.
Many are wounded. They say, at the hands of the Tunisian National Guard.
UNKNOWN (through translator): They beat all the women, even the children. I've got children myself. They wanted to hit my little boy, but I protected him. I took all the blows. Some of the women and boys have broken skulls. They beat everyone.
BASHIR (voice-over): In videos Human Rights Watch shared with CNN, migrants describe the horrors they have faced. There is no shelter from the sweltering desert sun and no food. Some have even resorted to drinking seawater to survive.
UNKNOWN (through translator): We need your help. Please, we need your help. You have to come and help us. There are babies. We have no food. We need your help.
BASHIR (voice-over): The vast majority, according to Human Rights Watch, are believed to be from West Africa. They say they were arrested in mass raids near the port city of Sfagas, then bussed more than 300 kilometers to the east, unaware of where they were being taken.
Now many of them are still trapped in the militarized buffer zone that separates Tunisia and Libya. LAUREN SEIBERT, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: I don't know what the government
expects could possibly happen other than what is happening, which is people walking for days in the desert, being pushed back and forth by both sides with nowhere to go and then some individuals reportedly dying.
BASHIR (voice-over): The crisis comes as tensions grow between Tunisian citizens and migrants. With the country's president, Kais Saeed, fanning racism and xenophobia against black Africans.
In February, Saeed made claims that migrants from sub-Saharan Africa would threaten to change the demographic makeup of Tunisia and bring violence and crime to the country.
Words which fueled anti-immigrant sentiments across the country, but also sparked backlash. Now, the president is insisting that all migrants are treated well in Tunisia.
KAIS SAEED, TUNISIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Tunisian people have provided these migrants with everything possible, with unlimited generosity.
BASHIR (voice-over): Comments made as Tunisia and the European Union finalized a deal worth more than a billion U.S. dollars, aimed at boosting trade relations and crucially curbing irregular migration across the Mediterranean.
The deal is said to commit more than $100 million towards securing Tunisia's borders, supporting search and rescue operations and bolstering the country's anti-smuggling measures. But critics accuse the E.U. of legitimizing Tunisia's hardline tactics in an effort to make it more difficult for people to reach Europe's shores from Africa.
AHLAM CHAMLALI, VISITING SCHOLAR, YALE UNIVERSITY: They have ignored the fact that Tunisia doesn't have any infrastructure in place or resources or even political will to govern migrants and asylum seekers on their territory.
BASHIR (voice-over): According to Human Rights Watch, some migrants abandoned at Tunisia's eastern border have now been relocated to in- country facilities.
Meanwhile, authorities in neighboring Libya say they have rescued dozens of migrants from the border and are providing them with urgent care. But there remains concern that further expulsions could still be ongoing, with many still believed to be stranded at the border.
[03:30:00]
And as the bodies of refugees and migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean continue to wash up on Tunisia's shores, there are also fears that others could be left to die in the desert.
Nada Bashir, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: And still to come, the world's two largest economies are trying to find a way forward on climate change as the planet sizzles. We will have a live report, back in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Forecasters say the heat wave scorching southern Europe will get even worse this week. Temperatures across Spain, Italy and Greece are soaring above the 40 degree mark. One climatologist compared the bubble of hot air over the region to a giant pizza oven.
The heat has sparked wildfires in Spain's Canary Islands and in Greece the government says more than 500 firefighters are working to contain 81 wildfires across the country.
China and the U.S. have also been struggling with scorching record heat as they discuss how to restart climate negotiations. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has been meeting today with China's foreign policy chief and said the world is looking to the US and China for leadership.
And CNN's Anna Coren is following all of this live for us in Hong Kong. She joins us now. So Anna, what has John Kerry actually achieved so far?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, I think it's fair to say that John Kerry is really taking talks to the next level, you know, telling China's top diplomat that climate cooperation between the two countries could in fact redefine the relationship between U.S. and China.
Meeting with Wang Yi at the Great Hall of the People this morning, Kerry said that talks could provide a fresh start for the world's two largest greenhouse gas emitters on other issues that have caused serious tensions such as Taiwan and trade. Take a listen to what he said earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, U.S. CLIMATE ENVOY: Our hope is now that this could be the beginning of a new definition of cooperation and a capacity to resolve the differences between us. We both know there are real differences, but we also know that from experience, if we work at it, we can find the path ahead and ways that resolve these challenges.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:34:57]
COREN: I think it's important, Rosemary, to remember that Kerry is not your average U.S. diplomat. You know, he was a presidential Democratic nominee many years ago. He was the U.S. secretary of state under Barack Obama. I mean, he is the consummate professional. And you know, Wang described him as my old friend, saying that they had worked together on plenty of other issues, including the Iran nuclear talks.
Kerry also had a message to convey from the U.S. president. He said that Joe Biden values his relationship with Xi Jinping, is very committed to stability in the U.S.-China relationship and hopes to achieve efforts together that make significant difference to the world.
Now yesterday Kerry met with his counterpart Xie Zhenhua for nearly 12 hours. Wang praised Kerry and Xie for their hard work throughout the talks. Kerry said in a tweet and let me read you some of that the climate crisis demands the world's two largest economies to work together to limit the earth's warming and take urgent action on coal and methane pollution. Now climate experts say that any move to cooperate on methane, a greenhouse gas responsible for roughly 30 percent of global warming, could provide the way forward.
So let's hope they can make some sort of agreement before COP28, which starts in Dubai, end of November, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Yeah, let's hope that happens, as you say. Anna Coran, joining us live from Hong Kong. Many thanks.
And I want to bring in Bernice Lee now, who is the research director of the International Affairs Think Tank, Chatham House, and the Hoffman Distinguished Fellow for Sustainability. Thank you so much for being with us.
So U.S. climate envoy John Kerry met with his Chinese counterpart for about four hours or so calling for urgent joint action to cut methane and coal pollution. But how likely is it that China will take any concrete action on this and the U.S. for that matter, both nations being the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitters?
BERNICE LEE, RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT CHATHAM HOUSE: Well, I mean, given the level of mistrust between the two sides, it is obviously good that they're talking about talking, talking about having diplomatic track on these issues.
At the same time, either sides could be really seeded to be taking orders from each other in terms of climate action, even though they're probably both actually doing quite a lot on all the areas that we are talking about here.
There is reportedly a methane action plan that China has been working on, even though it hasn't been made public, for example. The idea is that because of renewables as well, that China has been putting on line. They are really overachieving on the renewables target. And the next step will indeed be about how can they really concretely reduce even more coal consumption as well.
CHURCH: So with expectations apparently so low, what exactly are the goals for this visit and what is achievable this time?
LEE: I think that because the expectations are set low because of the politics, it is important that they keep talking. Having a diplomatic track would be a first step. And then again, you know, having a track, a platform doesn't necessarily mean cooperation.
It could mean coordination, information exchange, and dialogues, all of which could help the two sides build more trust so that they could indeed do more, as I think Secretary Kerry said earlier in the quote you cited, that they could do more to contribute to global climate affairs as well.
So I think that right now the best thing to do is to make sure that they keep talking and that the areas of the areas of quote-unquote "contention" are on the working level continuing so that there could be progress as well down the line.
CHURCH: And on that, why is it so critical that the U.S. and China ensure they remain engaged in dialogue on climate issues if that's perhaps all that's achieved at this juncture?
LEE: Well, I mean, the two sides are obviously two of the largest emitters. The rest of the world will take note whether or not the two sides are working together as a sign of whether or not there is indeed prospects for stronger climate action.
But also, ultimately, even though they may not, quote unquote, "cooperate," being able to move separately together is extremely important when it comes to the question about solving the climate challenge, which is also about scale and about speed as well.
So sending the right signal together is extremely important, even though they may not be doing this hand holding. So to speak.
CHURCH: And is setting more targets and commitments perhaps for China and the U.S. about all we can expect from these talks and will they ever meet those targets even if they are set?
LEE: I'm not sure that this talk will give us more targets, but I think working towards those would be extremely important down the line. And the reason for that is because I think certainly what I'm hearing as well from folks in Beijing are telling me, you know, all the academics and others we talk to, is that China kind of feels that it has overachieved on the renewables target, and it's quite unlikely they want to go back and revise it today.
But at the same time, because they're overachieving on the renewables, the hope is that, that would actually provide a very solid backdrop for all the other things that needs to happen, such as, you know, having properly concrete coal reduction target, even though at the moment it is really about reducing energy demand still and looking at the quality of the growth increasingly.
CHURCH: Bernice Lee, thank you so much for joining us. I Appreciate it.
And still to come, the use of A.I. chatbots has rocketed to popularity, but could artificial intelligence one day threaten the human race? I will speak with an expert about the risks it poses.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: In the coming hours, the United Nations Security Council will hold its first ever formal discussion on artificial intelligence. U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverley is set to lead the discussions about the dangers, challenges and opportunities of the quickly advancing technology.
A.I. experts have been raising the alarm on the potentially destructive abilities that A.I. could develop. Dan Hendrycks, the director of the Center for A.I Safety tweeted it's quote, "a situation reminiscent of atomic scientists issuing warnings about the very technologies they've created. As Robert Oppenheimer noted we knew the world would not be the same."
Joining me now is Max Tegmark, a professor doing A.I. research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the president of the Future of Life Institute. Appreciate you joining us.
MAX TEGMARK, PRESIDENT, FUTURE OF LIFE INSTITUTE: Thank you.
CHURCH; So, as we count down to the start of today's UNSC meeting on maintaining international peace and security in the midst of artificial intelligence, I do want to start by reading out your recent tweet on these upcoming discussions.
And you said this, A.I.-based nuclear command and control, what could possibly go wrong? And you do attach a small movie that's a little daunting, and I know that you'll get into that. But I did want to ask you how big a threat does artificial intelligence pose when it comes to the risk of the accidental launching of nuclear weapons now and of course in the future?
TEGMARK: It's a great threat and the threat isn't just that we might accidentally launch nuclear weapons because there's some sort of bug in our A.I. but the even more obvious threat is that we will just gradually delegate more and more power from human military commanders to machines because those nations that don't delegate to A.I. are afraid of getting out competed by those who do.
[03:45:00]
And machines can process information much, much faster, react much faster. And there's a real risk that the humans who are supposed to be in the loop just can't keep up with how fast things are happening and just get reduced to little appendages just clicking yes, yes, approve, yes, yes.
CHURCH: So what does the UNSC need to agree to do today to ensure international peace and security is protected from artificial intelligence getting out of control and perhaps even posing a global security threat to human life?
TEGMARK: Well, the first thing they should agree on is that A.I. should never be in charge of nuclear weapons. There are some things that people need to be ultimately in charge of, and not just in theory, but really in practice. For example, there was a time when a man named Stanislav Petrov in the former Soviet Union saw that their computer system said American nuclear missiles were coming in.
And if he had been in an automated system, some kind of A.I., that just responded in the appropriate way, we would probably I've had a nuclear war at that time, I think, and not be having this conversation you and I. I'm so grateful there was a human in the loop there and we have to keep it this way.
A second thing we have to do is look beyond just nuclear command and control and more generally make sure that we don't delegate too much to machines because companies that don't replace their workers by A.I. might also get out competed eventually by companies who do.
And companies with A.I., A.I. CEOs might out compete other companies without them and as A.I. keeps getting more powerful, even governments might start automating away and we end up in this future where there are all these interesting things happening, but it's not our future because it's machines. They're running everything and we humans find ourselves disempowered.
CHURCH: So you're pretty much saying that humans won't always be in control of A.I., that it is perhaps inevitable that one day A.I. will act autonomously?
TEGMARK: Until quite recently, most experts in the field thought that we were decades and decades away from machines that cut out smart humans at most jobs, at most tasks. But that's really changed. It turned out to be easier than we thought to get quite close to this.
For that reason, for example, recently a lot of A.I. researchers have caused for a pause in the most powerful A.I. system development. Who's who of A.I. researchers recently said that A.I. is just as much of a threat for driving humanity extinct as nuclear weapons or pandemics.
And this wasn't just a bunch of little known worry words. These were some of the founders of the field like Jeffrey Hinton, Ashwag Benjoo. It was the CEOs of the top companies that are building this. Sam Altman from OpenAI, for example, who gave us ChatGPT, said it might mean lights out for all of us.
So what the experts are saying, and what the politicians at the United Nations are listening to now is that, hey, you know, this is happening, not in a distant future. It's happening really soon. So let's get prepared.
CHURCH: Are you confident that they will be prepared, that they will work on this and move forward to make sure that they have all of the systems in place that could stop the end of the world scenario that you reference there?
TEGMARK: I'm not confident, but I'm glad that there has been this awakening among top policymakers where they at least acknowledge the risk is real and talk about it. And it's not hopeless.
Step one is to make A.I. policy more like biology. In biotech, nobody would tolerate that a company starts selling a brand new medicine in supermarkets before they've gone through some sort of regulatory approval to show that this medicine is safe and that the benefits that it has are real and outweigh the risks. Whereas in A.I. today, we're in this complete Wild West scenario where companies can do more or less whatever they want and the government is all playing catch up.
CHURCH: Alright, we'll see what comes of that critical meeting in the coming hours at the UNSC. Max Tegmark, thank you so much for joining us, I really appreciate it.
TEGMARK: Thank you so much.
[03:49:55]
CHURCH: In the months since billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company has been turned upside down. He's laid off thousands of workers, including those at Twitter's only Africa office. And since then, they say the company has ghosted them, refusing to pay them severance.
CNN's Larry Modowo explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These former employees in Twitter's only office in Africa feel that they're being treated differently compared to those who were laid off in Europe or North America. Twitter did not even formally begin discussing a separation agreement with them until after CNN reported on their case.
And after that, these employees feel that they were lowballed by Twitter. They were reluctantly forced into accepting this severance offer of three months' pay as well as repatriation costs for foreign workers who had moved into Ghana for their job and the legal cost of the negotiating process.
But after agreeing on all that back in May, they haven't heard back from the company. I want to read a statement from the lawyer, Carla Olympio, who's been representing them. She says, unfortunately, it appears that after having unethically implemented their terminations in violation of their own promises and Ghana's laws, dragging the negotiation process out for over half a year, now that we have come to the point of almost settlement, there has been complete silence from them for several weeks.
The attorney representing these former Twitter Africa employees says she is considering legal options for action against Twitter and other jurisdictions including Ghana. And this is not hundreds of employees. There were just 11 people who are asking for this severance from Twitter and they feel that the world's richest man surely can afford to pay them.
Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Still to come, why knee injuries are becoming a spoiler for the Women's World Cup. We'll hear from a sideline superstar. Back with that in just a moment.
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CHURCH: A powerful new ad is going viral ahead of the Women's Football World Cup. It uses visual effects to make viewers think they're watching the French national men's team, only to be proven wrong.
(VIDEO PLAYING)
The clips are cut together with dramatic music and screaming fans to give the impression of a men's highlight reel, but as you see, it's eventually revealed that no, that is the women's team. The ad from the telecom company Orange shows that despite the vast pay disparity between the men's and women's sides, the women are just as skillful.
When the World Cup kicks off on Thursday, it will be missing some of its superstars, among them Dutch striker Vivianne Miedema, who suffered an ACL injury while playing in the Champions League, and four members of her own club Arsenal are dealing with similar setbacks.
Miedema spoke with CNN's Christina McFarlane about why ACL tears are so prevalent in the women's game.
[03:54:50]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN WORLD SPORT: If you look at the stats alone, women being six times more likely to suffer an ACL from the men, I mean, the research and development, just looking into that area is just not there. That must be so frustrating as a professional player even, you know, to know that there's not the attention that's required for this.
VIVIANNE MIEDEMA, DUTCH STRIKER: Yeah, it is. I mean, it is difficult because I don't think it's ever been as bad before in the women's game. I think you see it more in men's football as well recently, probably also with an increase of the games.
But yeah, we should have started this research about 20 years ago and we would have probably been able to prevent that right now.
MACFARLANE: Do you think if we saw this rate of injury ACL in the men's game that the situation would be different that you know there would be that research and development there looking into this?
MIEDEMA: Absolutely I think from clubs itself, I think from UEFA, from associations, I think everyone would jump straight on it.
I mean imagine having four ACLs at Men's City this season there would be a massive thing about it but I do also think because women's game has grown obviously like it's more visible, people are putting more attention to it, but I hope it's not just attention, I hope it's in the end like a financial injection as well and that all of us will benefit from it. I think we need to spend into research, but for me what clubs should
be doing right now and what national teams should be doing is spend directly into your medical teams because in the end research will give us a solution in maybe five, six years time, where at least a financial change or like a change in your medical team might give us a solution right now.
MACFARLANE: Do you think that football really truly understands women's bodies and the differences that exist between women and men's football?
MIEDEMA: No, I don't think football understands athletes, so I don't think they understand men's football either. I don't think they understand how much of a physical and mental impact the game has on players.
And I think we don't understand that sometimes it's about protection of players instead of getting the money in or making it entertainment. Like in the end we're all people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: And in response to this interview, FIFA told CNN that injury prevention is a key aspect of its work and that FIFA will hold a medical workshop ahead of the women's tournament. UEFA says it's already established an expert panel on women's health that's made ACL injuries a high priority.
And thanks so much for spending part of your day with me. I'm Rosemary Church. "CNN Newsroom" continues with Christina MacFarlane, next.
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